The Burning Crows

11.04.2015

The Burning Crows brought their Behind The Veil Of The Damned Tour to the capital to rock alongside new best friends Falling Red. With their new album ‘Murder At The Gin House’ due for release, they killed it at the Barfly with a storming set.

There was already a good crowd there when Meansteed took to the stage to kick off the evening in true rock and roll style. With singer Matty sporting a not so rock and roll Hawaiian shirt it was straight into the riffs and with hair flying from just the band, ‘Booger Sugar Boogie’ with its thumping beat had a number of the crowd boogying along to it. ‘Engage The Rage’ brought with it their signature moves of guitarist Alison being hoisted on the shoulders of Matty and being not so delicately dumped on the bar, all whilst playing her guitar before snaking her way across the crowd to re-join the stage. There were a few interesting looks as Matty described a song as “having sex with someone you shouldn’t have, down the alley ways of Camden” which you hoped perhaps wasn’t based on personal experience, but ‘Bad Boy For Love’ was full of their high-octane sound. ‘Idiot Without A Cause’, new song ‘Speed Queen’ and their latest single ‘Two Good Fists And A Death Wish’ were full of crunchy guitars with powerful vocals and Meansteed had been an excellent start to the evening.

Falling Red took to the stage with only half of them wearing their trademark jackets but as the venue was warming up quickly it was probably a wise move. The band kicked off with killer sounding riffs and their anthemic songs, with rich gravelly vocals from singer Rozey reverberating around the venue and the heaviness of the rhythm was deliciously loud. ‘No Sanctury’ was a riff-drenched guitar fest before exploding into ‘We Escaped A Cult’ and the crowd were pumping fists into the air throughout. It may have been the second time RARC had heard the Billy Idol cover ‘Rebel Yell’ within a few weeks, but the Falling Red version brought with it a metal influence to it, with powerful guitars and singer Rozey seemed even more snarling than Billy Idol ever was. The energetic ‘Come On Down’ with its impressive guitar solo went down well with the crowd as they sang along with the chorus and ‘We Are Reckless’ and ‘Empire Of The Damned’ sounded immense live. Stopping for a quick photo opportunity with the crowd, and with the drummer being fed the odd sweet, ‘Disposable’ picked up the pace before a little game was played during ‘If You Ain’t Down With The Rock’, as they got the crowd to finish the other words after the title and no doubt the people in the bar downstairs must have wondered what was going on, but by that point the crowd were having such a good time that they just didn’t care, rounding off what had been an excellent set.

Singer Whippz from The Burning Crows is quite possibly the smiliest person in rock, which happens to be infectious as you found yourself smiling back all the way through the time they were on stage. With a new album in the pipeline which pledgers will get this month, it was a mixture of songs, some old, some new but all sounding brilliant from the outset. ‘Behind The Veil’ kicked off a powerful sound with those addictive guitar riffs before new song ‘Alright’ continued the songs at a blistering pace. ‘Slow Up Get Down’ with its great sounding harmonies saw Whippz share the microphone with bassist Will before he rushed across the show guitarist Lance some bromance with a cheeky kiss, in true playful style that you come to expect from the band on stage, as they clearly loved playing to the crowd, who were lapping up every song from them. ‘Goodbye (To The Sunshine)’ was another new song, which had a southern style to it that built up in volume as the song progressed and had an immense chorus , and with Whippz singing an impressively long note at one point, the crowd certainly showed their appreciation of such a great set with plenty of cheers and even the odd pint.

‘Shine’ which is their new single sounded epic live as as Whippz worked the audience with his charm. Trying out some of his cockney on the crowd, which consisted of “cor blimey” mostly in a totally un-stereotypical way, had Lance rolling his eyes at his attempt but the crowd took it all in good humour, before playing more songs from the much anticipated album including ‘She’s The Summertime’. ‘Here I Am’ with its soaring guitars had that stadium quality about it, that also had a fair amount of “yo’s” shouted back from by the crowd. It wouldn’t be one of their sets if they didn’t drop another snippet of a song into it and so it was the Queen song ‘Somebody To Love’ chorus that ended their set. With the crowd joining in and Whippz still showing off with another very impressively long note, that is what makes this band hugely entertaining to watch as they like to bring a lot of fun to the evening. The Burning Crows certainly spread a lot of happiness amongst the crowd at the Barfly with a brilliant set, and their new album is definitely going to be one of the hottest records of the year.