Live Review : Monster Truck + Those Damn Crows @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on October 5th 2022

“Manchester are you ready?” scream Those Damn Crows as they hit the stage. “Yes we are!” scream back the crowd! They are open with their now standard ‘Who Did It?’ and the crowd are there with them from note one. They are engaged, involved and of course the band make full use of the little pose boxes at the front of the stage. It’s hard to describe how great the crowd reaction is here tonight, especially when singer Shane does his party piece and runs upstairs to stand precariously on a small wooden shelf at the edge of the balcony.

Live Review : The Wildhearts + Those Damn Crows + The Middlenight Men @ Academy 2, Manchester on September 8th 2021

Tonight, is all about the redemptive and restorative power of rock n’ roll. You see, initially the signs aren’t good. This is the first major rock tour to hit the highways and byways of this fair country since we exited lockdown. The trepidation and uncertainty of the “mature” crowd is evident, for many this is the first post pause experience of an indoor crowd and there is an uneasy feeling in the room. The hall is never more than half full, with many of The Wildhearts faithful deciding that they are not quite ready to go back into battle. In fact, to start with, the crowd is so sparse that there are more members of openers The Middlenight Men on stage than there are people watching them which to be honest is a crying shame as they are as about good time rock n’roll as you can get.

Live Review : Those Damn Crows + Empyre + These Wicked Rivers @ The Tivoli on July 30th 2021, A Welsh Government Pilot Gig

16 months! 16 months since the Tivoli closed its doors and was then not able to open them again until this show. It feels like forever. But hey ho, here we are, and after imposing seated limits on the Tiv that would have meant they couldn’t break even, the Welsh Government have allowed tonight’s show to go ahead unrestricted as a pilot. This means that everyone who came had to show proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within the last 24 hours, and also bring photo ID. Masks had to be worn whilst queuing outside the venue but once we were in it was business as usual.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby4 August 2021The TivoliLive Review, Those Damn Crows, Empyre, These Wicked Rivers, The Tivoli, 2021Comment

Live Review : Download Pilot @ Donington Park on June 18-20th 2021

Ok lets cut to the chase, last weekend’s Download Pilot (or Diddy Download as every bugger and their aunt are calling it) was probably the most pleasant experience I have had in the eighteen years I have been making an annual pilgrimage to Donington Park. Let’s put all the emotion aside of this being the first one back and concentrate on what worked, which frankly was its size.

Live Review : The Massive Weekend @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on October 19th 2019

Local band Apriori open the show today, and do a damn fine job of it too. They have changed a lot since I last saw them. Previous vocalist Mouse is now the drummer, his brother Tony still plays the guitar but also handles lead vocals, and new boy Mark covers pretty much all other bases on an impressive bank of keyboards. I’ve seen bands play with a drum machine before but I think this is the first time I’ve seen bass played on a keyboard, with feet!

Live Review : The Massive Weekend @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on October 18th 2019

It’s been a helluva week. I started out by getting caught up in civil insurrection in Spain, got home intact thankfully only to come down with some variety of D&V bug that completely knocked me out for a few days. So it was a fragile Jo that trundled up the M6 to Blackpool on the Friday afternoon to attend the Massive Weekend. Massive because both nights feature local Lancashire lads Massive Wagons as headliners, ably supported by a plethora of some of the best up and coming bands on the circuit.

Live Review : Those Damn Crows + Wasted Fate + 8ft2 @ The Tivoli, Buckley on September 20th 2019

8ft2 are like a fish out of water at the Tiv tonight. I miss the very start of their set due to the M56 being slower than a slow thing, and arrive just in time to catch them finishing off a version of Taylor Swift’s ‘Never Ever’. OK, I wasn’t expecting that. Turns out that their own material is a sort of summery jangly indie pop fused with some lightweight bursts of rock.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby25 September 2019The TivoliThose Damn Crows, Wasted Fate, 8ft2, The Tivoli, Buckley, 2019, Live Review, Jo CrosbyComment

Live Review : Primordial Presents.... Those Damn Crows + Ravenface + As Sirens Fall + Sertraline @ Rebellion, Manchester on June 29th 2019

Music, gigging and writing about the first two for ROCKFLESH are my escapes from work. However tonight was a bizarre experience that saw my two worlds inexplicably collide. You see this is no gig, this is a celebration of the dynamic community of like minded individuals that has been created by the fledgling Primordial radio. As part of the celebration, and also evidence that us, metalheads wear our hearts on our sleeveless battle vest, this is also a charity fundraiser on behalf of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation and Manchester Mind, the latter of whom I work for. All of which leads to the bizarre experience of being able to head to a work event in my Slayer shorts.

Live Review : Stone Broken + Those Damn Crows + Hollowstar @ the Arts Club, Liverpool on February 20th 2019

A quick glance at the ‘Fans also like’ on Spotify for any of tonight’s three bands tells you how coherent a line-up this is. Yes, you guessed it, they all feature in each other’s lists. Other bands that they supposedly share common ground with are, according to the algorithm-loving app, Mason Hill, Massive Wagons and Wayward Sons. But to be honest these three bands have very different sounds and potential paths, even if they all have classic rock at their core.