By DJ Astrocreep
A local gig as respite from repeated trips over to Manchester sees me catch Evil Scarecrow live for the first time in a number of years. With a support session from local stalwarts Novacrow, it’s a two band bill of acts I’ve seen on a number of occasions before, giving plenty of opportunity to contrast and compare performances.
Novacrow take to the stage to little fanfare… to start with, anyway, before a theme tune rings out and lets them get into the swing of things. It’s pleasing to see that they have come on further still from previous performances, with their down to earth and tongue in cheek humour being very natural and spontaneous, showing a comfortability on a bigger stage than I’d previously seen them. Even when denigrating themselves or their music, front woman Kitty is still as smooth as ever on the microphone, whilst Freddy and co behind her provide more than ample support.
The set is tight, even if Freddy’s lips are a little looser than Kitty sometimes prefers between songs, but the naturally positive atmosphere between the members is clearly there and shines through their music. A good opening set, with plenty joining the band in their leg day squats in the final track!
Evil Scarecrow are still something else. Whether it’s any of their very obviously comedy infused songs, or one of the semi serious ones, the band are tighter than ever, though Dr Hell’s propensity for corpsing makes him a little less ashen faced than usual, even allowing for his normal levels. The stage props are back in force, whether that’s giant chopsticks, a crack hen or a large space robot, looking as decidedly Evil Scarecrow as any of them ever have.
Even when ad-libbing ‘Pull A Sickie’, ‘DVD’, or bringing “astronaut” Dave Mustaine out on stage, to a very short rendition of ‘Symphony of Destruction’, they are absolutely on their shit. Still as non-serious in their approach to anything as ever, they are as full of it as ever, with main vocalist Dr Hell still corpsing every few seconds as even he can’t believe what he comes out with at times. This goes for the shoutouts for various Jamie’s around the country, be they AA staff, round buyers in pubs or just members of the audience, as much as anyone else.
The set is a little changed from other nights, as the likes of ‘Space Dementia’ finds its way into the set. ‘Robototron’ as second song gets the crowd participation going early into the set, as the crowd, almost as one, follow the band in synchronicity with the mystical robot dancing.
The whole atmosphere is just absolutely spot on, everyone up for anything, despite it being a school night. Even new track ‘Release The Krakhen’ goes down as well, before main set closer, ‘Hurricanado’. We get a dual song encore of ‘The Ballad Of Brother Pain’ and Scarecrow’s very own ‘Paranoid’, ‘Crabulon’, sending people home very happy.
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