A third trip to Rock City, Nottingham since Valentines Day on May 7th meant that I would be in the crowd for Yorkshire family trio The Cribs, with two support bands (Crocodiles and Martin Creed). This would prove to be a very eventful gig, from hat-wearing hissing men on stage to an air-guitar-playing and alone lad in the crowd.
First up was Wakefield born Martin Creed (who really did look like a man you would not like to approach in the street due to an uncomfortable glint in his eyes) with his band, formerly known (or maybe not known) as 'Owada'. At this point the venue had a surprisingly little amount in the crowd, and it was hard to believe there wouldn't be more people at an opening date of a Cribs tour. However, Martin Creed got started with much confusion as no one really knew who he was or why he was on stage, but it was soon made obvious why the majority of people going along had clearly decided to come later. Although most of the crowd were laughing at him, he carried on as usual and by the end of the gig it was more like laughing with him. His songs were... different to say the least and to be quite honest most did sound like he had just figured out a string of chords and was shouting (and in some cases hissing) anything that came into his head, including numbers from 1-100 in one song, an another was based entirely around the two words 'fuck off'. On stage next to Martin Creed was a woman who literally contributed nothing to the gig, except if you count banging two sticks together a few times in the set closer. Everyone was quite relieved when they went off, as it was time for Crocodiles, who couldn't possibly have been worse.
After quite a long gap, California-indie band Crocodiles came out, with lead singer Brandon Welchez carrying a bottle of white wine, looking drunk already. Standing to his right was guitarist Charles Rowell, both formally in punk band 'The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower'. They started off relatively well, but didn't quite get the crowd going like they would of expected, bar a bloke playing air-guitar amongst us, dancing with anyone that would and laughing at everything, with everyone around him laughing at him (which did improve this half an hour slightly). However, they made sure they had a brilliant time on stage, with Brandon Welchez stumbling around the stage pulling faces looking like something between a toddler's tantrum and depressed man who'd just been shot. Meanwhile a few metres away from him, a mixture of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton had taken to the stage, or so he thought. Rowell was swinging his guitar around knocking various things over such as his mic, his mic stand and his cup of beer. After this he began to drink the white wine, and play to the drummer who looked anything but impressed. By the time they were playing their last few songs the crowd were bored and restless, shouting things like 'we want cribs' and 'wakefield', and they had to wait a while for them even after Crocodiles had left the stage.
On came The Cribs after what seemed like hours, another Wakefield formed band but this time with a lot more popularity, and with a much better welcome from the crowd. By this time Rock City was full, and with the brilliant set opener 'Chi-Town' from their album 'In the Belly of the Brazen Bull', (which was out on the same day), the whole building was alive with every person screaming the words. At this point, the crowd were mental, and this was the trend from then on, with no one going home without a bruise. They played songs from all of their albums such as 'I'm a Realist', 'Cheat On Me', 'Come On, Be A No-One', 'Mirror Kissers' and 'Direction' which were incredibly big hits with the crowd. Ryan Jarman was ringing out the high riffs of their tunes and at one point did slip off a speaker he was standing on but he carried on all the same an no one minded. At one point in the gig just after halfway, Ryan Jarman asked the crowd which song they should play from the first album, which was greeted with screams and shouts of mostly 'Direction' an 'Baby Don't Sweat' which they played both in the end, and both were incredible. After this they played my favourite Cribs track, which is 'Be Safe' from their 3rd album 'Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever', which everyone tried as hard as they could to shout all the words out, which proved to be quite impossible. They played a few more after this, including 'Men's Needs', a hit also from their third album before closing with 'City of Bugs'. This last track included Ryan Jarman a metre away from me playing guitar on his knees before lowering all his strings pitch and playing with the edge of an amp. During this time brother Ross played briefly on top of other brother Gary's drums after sliding a mic stand up and down his bass, still keeping with the song perfectly. This was a fantastic end to an incredible night, which was without a doubt the best gig i've ever been to, despite the support bands. I hope to see The Cribs as many times as possible in the future!
New album 'In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull' out now!
http://www.thecribs.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha2utKmXnKo&list=UU5GKdcPf9ZDbSbJEQjOtelw&index=3&feature=plcp - Be Safe
TLH
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