WORDS AND IMAGES BY WARREN MILLAR
Liverpool based four-piece “CRAWLERS” played a hometown gig at Liverpool’s Arts club Friday night. This was the second gig of their completely sold out 9 date U.K. tour. All Music’s Warren Millar was there to check out what all the hype about this band is.
This tour comes hot off the heels of their debut release single with “Polydor Records” “I can’t Drive” having signed with the label in January. With numerous plays on BBC Radio 1 and their hit single “Come over (Again)” being a former Radio 1 tune of the week, this is a band that are going places. They have clocked up over 21 million streams on Spotify. They also currently have over 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
We decided to let the train take the strain tonight to get to our venue one of many top Liverpool venues “The Arts Club”. A short five minute walk from Liverpool’s Lime Street station, up the popular and iconic Bold Street and then across to Seel Street with it’s many popular music venues, eateries and clubs.
Walking up Seel Street towards “The Arts Club” shortly before 7pm (doors) it’s amazing to see the queue outside tonight’s venue, It’s massive going all the way round the corner and beyond, this will be a rammed out show without a doubt! Inside there are already quite a few inside and it’s noticeable and lovely to see so many Pride Flags.
First up in support we have “Abi Rose Kelly” and her band. By the time Abi comes on stage the place is packed which is nice to see. Abi has quite a big local following and it’s plain to see many of them have turned up to catch her band tonight. I have been lucky to see and photograph Abi a few times now and every time she just blows me away. Any band that can make you want to see them again and again are doing it right and this certainly is true of “Abi Rose Kelly” Despite a slight trouser failure (not saying anything else) during her next to last song “Motion Sickness” Abi and her band set the scene in epic style. Brilliant !
Set List
Kill The Waitress
James’ Corsa
Ben’s Song
Polaroid’s and Violence
Good For Me
Melancholy Killer
Motion Sickness
Friends
Next up are “Gen And The Degenerates” another band I have seen and photographed a few times and who also have a massive fan base. These guys have just announced that they will be supporting “Skunk Anansie” on their forthcoming 13 date U.K. tour and this is so well deserved. They are a hard working powerful full on, “in ya face” tour de force of musical talent. Tonight they were Epic with a capital “E”. Gen delivers their songs with a powerful voice which fills the whole room and it’s a good job her voice is powerful as the crowd were so up for this band and pretty loud themselves! Raw unadulterated rock/punk at it’s very best. Powerful is all I can say. Bloody brilliantly powerful !
Set List
Underwear
Adore Me
Famous
Girl God Gun
Wild Thing
Crying War
The time had come for “CRAWLERS” to take to the stage, The band come on stage minus lead singer Holly and start the intro to “Magazine” Then Holly comes running into the pit standing on the pit barrier singing to the now ecstatic fans (so this is why we were told to leave the two end barrier seats fee) The crowd were quickly whipped into a frenzy and loving every second of “CRAWLERS”. Holly was now bouncing around all the stage using the most of her space. In-between songs she conversed with her fans in a friendly and funny way, its no wonder they love her, she has a great connection with them you can’t fail to notice this. I remember photographing “CRAWLERS” a few years back now at a small festival and wow how they have grown as a band ! Its no surprise that they are now one of the hottest bands around. You get your monies worth with these guys, every song is powerfully delivered with musical skills well beyond there years. It’s like a well oiled music machine with enough rawness to make it real and so enjoyable. Stand out songs for us “Monroe”, “Hush” and their latest release “I can’t Drive”
Well what a night, looking back I really do think what made this a really great night was the choice of bands to support “CRAWLERS” “Abi Rose Kelly” and “Gen And The Degenerates” with two fantastic support sets really did set the scene and was nice to see so many punters there to catch them.
“CRAWLERS” now set off on their U.K. tour and I for one want to wish them all the best, I know they will smash it and pick up many more fans on the way.
Set List
Magazine
Monroe
Statues
Feminist Radical
Hush
So Tired
Fuck Me
Come Over
Encore
I Can’t Drive
Placebo
FOLLOW CRAWLERS
FOLLOW ABI ROSE KELLY
FOLLOW GEN AND THE DEGENERATES
Warren is a live music and festival photographer based in Cheshire and covers gigs/festivals mostly in the North West of England. He has been photographing live music for over 10 years and has covered major artists and festivals
