Those Damn Crows

The Dome, Tufnell Park London - 12th Feb 2020

Live review by; Myk

 

First up are Welsh 3-piece Florence Black, with a fair number of the audience here to specifically see them as well as Those Damn Crows. At the heavier end of the NWOCR spectrum they are full of energy and have some great tunes, but perhaps lack a bit of subtlety that you expect from the current crop of rising stars. Then again if everyone sounded the same it would be boring and the audience clearly enjoyed the show. I look forward to my next encounter with them when I expect them to be higher up the billing. 

 

Hollowstar are already well established NWOCR rising stars and on this performance you can see why. They have the tunes, they have the stagecraft and they ooze confidence. Also according to the ladies I was with they have some serious eye candy in the form of guitarist Phil Haines.

This is a band on top of their game and going places, their debut album is a killer and the songs gain so much more in the live arena. Their own headline tour can’t be far away based on this.

 

Those Damn Crows; Where to start with these national album chart bothering lads from Wales.

They kick off with Who Did It from the new album and having just seen the support bands bring their A games what could the lauded quintet offer up to a nigh on sold out Dome.

 

The ticket tout roaming the queue giving some insight into how hot an act they currently are, but after the postponement of the gig in Southampton due to Shanes’ voice needing a rest there was a bit of trepidation how he would cope.  But there were no issues with voice and Those Damn Crows didn’t bother with their A game they just smashed the ball straight out of the park.

Every song was a masterpiece, the band so in tune with each other, Long Time Dead, Behind These Walls, Fear of The Broken, Set In Stone, Be You, Someone Someday all delivered perfectly to an appreciative audience. 

 

With Ronnie and Lloyd supplying the solid rhythm leaving Dave and Shiner to overlay the riffs, eschewing superfluous solos instead allowing the quality of songs do the talking. They slowed it down for the piano led Never Win and Blink Of An Eye both of which were sublime and showcased the writing talent.

 

The pace was upped again as they went through new numbers Kingdom Of Dust, Send The Reaper, Sin On Skin and Go Get It.

 

In total nine tracks from the brilliant new album Point Of No Return were featured and seven from their equally impressive debut Murder And The Motive as they finished up with the trio of Don’t Give A Damn, Breakaway and the sing along crowd pleaser Rock ‘n’ Roll Ain’t Dead.

 

Well it certainly isn’t and on this evidence it hopefully won’t be too long before they are filling stadiums. 

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