After what feels like no sleep following the good times at the 100 Club’s Blues Festival the previous night, it was time for a trip across the Pennines to catch space lords Monster Magnet on the road again after Dave’s surgery led to postponed dates last year. Sadly, Table Scraps had to pull out after the vocalist broke his leg, but this gave Welsh upstarts Those Damn Crows the opportunity to try and steal the show all for themselves before Monster Magnet could even get on stage.
Coming on stage to little fuss, Those Damn Crows seem unbothered by the quiet audience and set to rocking the whole damn room down to the foundations. The Bridgend rockers have been carving out quite the reputation for themselves over the last couple of years and on tonight’s performance, it’s easy to see why. While the crowd busies up as they progress through their set, they never give anything less than 100 per cent and while some people admit they don’t know the band, when prompted, the majority of those in the room take well to good old fashioned hard rock stylings.
They take full control of the stage, nestled at the front in front of Monster Magnet’s kit and clearly revel in their duties as they perform songs from both their older albums as well as next month’s upcoming release ‘Point Of No Return’. Shiner and David combine well on guitars, while Shane’s vocals are as strong as ever, even if he is slightly less intelligible when speaking between songs, something he makes a joke of on a couple of occasions between songs. They create a great atmosphere, complete with crowd singalongs, performing the support duties with a great set.
- Those Damn Crows kick off their own headline tour on Tuesday 4 February at Think Tank Underground in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Their dates in Glasgow, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Bristol and Southampton are completely sold out. Tickets remain for the final show at the Tufnell Park Dome on Wednesday 12.
The intro music kicks in and it’s time for Dave Wyndorf and co to get on stage and keep the party going. After Dave’s surgery last year, I was a touch tentative about his voice would sound afterwards, but he is straight into it and after a brief bit his voice warms back up to usual, while he is obviously loving the feeling of being out on the stage again. The room is packed and the atmosphere is great, everyone happy and ready to go hell for leather to enjoy themselves to the musical feast we are about to be served. The band are tight, with Dave leading as ever and the energy coming forth from the audience clearly invigorates him even more so than the rest of the band.
We start with ‘Atomic Clock’, with plenty of people shouting along to the music and getting straight into the spirit of it all, while the likes of ‘Crop Circle’ and ‘Temple Of Your Dreams’ follow shortly afterwards and seem to whip the crowd up into even more of a frenzy, somehow. While we only get 10 songs in the main set, it’s still an hour of non-stop music, when you bear in mind the length of the tracks that Monster Magnet create is more akin to the likes of space rock titans Hawkwind or some of the more prog acts, genres that they appeal to for their style of writing. Our final two songs of the main set, almost inevitably, are ‘Powertrip’ and ‘Space Lord’, with Dave taking a bit of time before each to provoke more reactions from those closest to the barriers, while the mosh pits finally start in earnest to both of these. The crowd almost drown the band out to ‘Space Lord’ with the sheer volume of their singing along and the atmosphere is tidal wave like in the way you cannot help but be swept along by it.
We get a four-song encore, with a cover of Hawkwind stalwart Robert Calvert’s ‘The Right Stuff’ the second of these, closing on yet another fan favourite in ‘Negasonic Teenage Warhead’. Their evening’s work completed, Dave and co finally take their leave of the stage, revelling in the acclaim that they rightfully get for yet another fantastic performance.
- The tour finishes at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town tonight (Friday 24 January).
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