Arriving 30 minutes late by stage diving into a sold out crowd is one way to open a show. You would think from the cacophony in Ding Dong Lounge that these men were hometown heroes, not a British cult indie band playing on only their third tour of Australia.
This was the 10th anniversary tour for The Cribs, a band once hailed by NME as “your favourite band’s favourite band”, and having just picked up the ‘Spirit of Independence’ award from the Q Awards and the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Music’ award from the NME Awards, the Jarman brothers were obviously intent on leaving their mark on Melbourne.
This is somewhat of a lap of honour for the boys who never had a number 1 single, never topped a Glastonbury bill or took a headline away from a Gallagher brother; perennial underdogs in a scene filled with larger personalities and larger anthems. But that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to shred a 300 person capacity crowd to shreds.
Opening with Chi-Town, Ryan’s masculine swagger took full focus as he sneered into the microphone. He is a talented guitarist and his sound is more bruising American indie than the lighter, more feminine Britpop. This is more Pavement than The Wombats and with a healthy splatter of punk thrown in; The Cribs become a formidable live beast.
Following the opener with the Alex Kapranos produced single, I’m A Realist, the first four rows begun moshing, with a heavily weighted British ex-pat crowd screaming every lyric with gusto. We Share The Same Skies and Come On, Be A No-One, the latter from their latest album In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull were politely well received, but it was their older material that the crowd was there to see.
What was obvious was the professionalism of the performance, a band that plays the O2 arena in Newcastle does not usually play rock and roll clubs in Australia, a rare intimacy with the band that would be impossible in their native England. Ryan and Gary revelled in the unique atmosphere, with Ryan taking his guitar into the crowd and soloing on his back whilst crowd-surfing during Cheat On Me.
Highlight of the set was their collaboration with Lee Ranaldo, founding member of Sonic Youth who gave his spoken-word manifesto via a video-screen during Be Safe; a throbbing punk song that erupts with both Gary and Ryan Jarman screaming over Lee at the climax.
The band immediately followed this with their most accessible, poppy, reach for the charts single of their career, Hey Scenesters! A song that is both ironically mocking the hipster music scene of London and glorifying it. Men’s Needs and City Of Bugs close the set, with frenetic energy and the most sincere of goodbyes from a band that seemed to genuinely enjoy playing a show at Melbourne’s answer to The Cavern Club.
BY CHRISTOPHER LEWIS
Loved: Screaming British Ex-Pats.
Hated: No Girls Like Mystery.
Drank: Peroni on tap. Love Ding Dong.
