Embarking on a short promo tour ahead of release of album number 4 – God Shaped Hole – Those Damn Crows are playing venues they grew out of years ago, but hey, that’s what makes it all so much fun.
Coming on to literally no fanfare the Bridgend 5 piece quickly establish themselves as the saviours of British rock music, Shane Greenhall is The Most Charismatic Man in Wales and immediately has the room in the palm of his hand before even singing a note, so when they open with last summers single Let’s Go Psycho the floor erupts with elation and all the pre-gig excitement is finally released as the band guide every single person in the room to a little over an hour of singalongs, clapalongs and everything a rock and roll show should be.
A quick glance around the room during Find A Way and in every corner is evidence of how the bands’ generally positive lyrical themes are what people have caught on to, but that’s not to say they don’t know how to smack you in the face with a riff or 2, as the meatiness of new track No Surrender will attest to.
Whilst everyone here clearly has Those Damn Crows song that they connect with a little deeper than the rest there’s not enough time to play them all as there is a new album to promote, so Glass Heart and Dreamin’ also get an airing, separated by Shane retrieving one of their plectrums from the floor and handing it to a lucky fan, before realising he didn’t have one for his own guitar and had to borrow it back.
It’s always good to see bands actually connecting with their audience and as well as Shane keeping the energy up and being genuinely appreciative of everyone in attendance, bassist Lloyd Wood ensures he covers every inch of the stage, rocking out to every song as if it’s his last and essentially being the Those Damn Crows version of Frank Bello of Anthrax.
As the bangers keep coming with Who Did It and Sin on Skin, it suddenly hits just how many songs the band have with “woah woah woah” sections and perhaps it’s a bad choice to end This Time I’m Ready with the audience repeating it and then go into See You Again. Sadly this was the lowest point of the set as the song is dragged out into some sort of repeated jam of the aforementioned “woah woah woah” section like the Foo Fighters will often extend their own songs unnecessarily and on this occasion it went on far too long to the point it was actually boring, but then sanctuary came in the form of Rock N Roll Ain’t Dead – an absolute belter of a song. Opting not to bother with doing an actual encore (assumingly because the stage is so small it would have been more hassle) the boys simply rip straight into that opening riff and then, you guessed it, that crowd singalong vocal of “woah woah woah”.
It seemed a lot of woah-ing in a relatively short space of time, but the throng in attendance were with them all the way and if the only negative that can be found is 1 song went on a bit long and 3 songs in a row had similar fun singalongs in them then it hasn’t been a bad night…
9.5 / 10
If you want your last chance to catch the band in such an intimate setting click here
