36 Crazyfists / Poison the Well / Gwen Stacy - Glasgow Garage - 03.11.09

Posted by Chris Crowing on 03.13.2009

Given the weather, this is more of a Rain Soaked Romance, but the Alaskan Forest Core veterans and some buddies rode into Glasgow to rock our Caledonian socks off. Did they succeed? Look inside to find out...



I missed the first half of opening act Gwen Stacy's set, as I was downstairs at the merch stall buying myself a rather swank 36CF hoodie...



...so I'll apologise if this brief review doesn't do them justice. I'll admit that their name didn't fill me with optimism (surely it's cooler to name yourself after a Marvel villain rather than one of Spidey's girlfriends?) and the lumpen riffage and almost random screams that permeated the Garage's floor didn't exactly help. The Doppler effect and the damping effect of several feet of wood and metal is rarely kind to a band. However, it's only fair to give the support a fair shout and following a trip to the bar for an ice cold plastic cup of Coca Cola (I'm on antibiotics at the moment, so the beer was off limits on this night) we took up our positions to take a look at the band.

In truth, Gwen Stacy aren't bad, although they do have a worrying tendency towards labouring over their beatdowns and their more active riffs always seem to go to up when they should go down (if you follow my meaning) and vice versa. They also ended several songs in a very sudden manner - not the sudden rush of a furious finish, but sometimes they just stopped and you were left with the feeling there should have been another chorus or some kind of definitive outro. I could belabour a certain lack of tightness, but that's probably unfair as I reckon this is a band just starting out, and all my criticisms could easily be laid to rest with a few more years learning their craft.

On the plus side, the band filled up the (admittedly small) stage well, connected well with the audience, and there is clearly some technical skill in them, so if they work on their arrangements and tightness they could yet amount to something interesting, while now they are just another emo/metalcore band in the curtain jerker slot.

One last thing about Gwen Stacy. They did make a little announcement that they were apparently advised not to. They wanted us to know that 'Jesus love us.' While that's a nice sentiment and I've every respect for other peoples religious views, this kind of thing always rubs me up the wrong way at a gig, it's simply not the time or place.

The next band up was Poison the Well, and my only reference for them was who an ex-flatmate used to talk about in appreciative terms many years ago. To be blunt, I was really impressed with them as they were tight as all hell, showed some impressive variation in what they were doing and basically rocked like motherfrackers.

Poison the Well varied from an almost standard metalcore template to sounding variously like Muse, the Deftones and even on occasion like a ska-tinged Dropkick Murphys, which led to an entertaining, never predictable and very pleasant experience.

However, the lack of 'accessible' choruses and their tendency to step out of a neat musical box leads me to think the increased success may be tough coin for them to find, and it's always a shame when you can tell such a talented band will remain underappreciated. I'd recommend them for a listen for sure.

With the appetizer and small talk out of the way, the building was abuzz for the commencement of the main event, the band we'd all been waiting for Alaska's own purveyors of Forest-Core (or so the t-shirt says), the irrepressible 36 Crazyfists.



Hitting the stage to the awesome "I'll Go Until My Heart Stops" from Rest Inside the Flames, 36CF kept the floor moving at all times, charging through a breathless set of songs from the full length of their career. Songs from last year's The Tide and It's Takers like "The All Night Lights," "We Gave It Hell" and "Absent Are The Saints" stood up well to time tested tracks from Bitterness the Star, A Snow Capped Romance and Rest Inside the Flames.

Personal highlights included the always awesome "The End of August," a furious "Kenai," a breathless "Felt Through a Telephone Line" and a heartfelt sing-along to "Destroy The Map."

It has to be said, I haven't seen such a hyperactive, appreciative crowd in a long time*, and the main floor of the Garage was a virtually perpetual pit of some ferocity - which is always nice to see, and even nicer to experience. Typing this day after, my shoulders are sore, I've a few angry looking bruises on my arms and I'd REALLY like an ice pack on my back - and you can't get the smile off my face.

* since Machine Head / Lamb of God / Chimaira at the old Carling Academy almost two years ago - damn that was a great gig.

Not only that, but Crazyfists managed the first full-on Wall of Death I've seen since the above mentioned show at the Carling and the carnage was memorably impressive!

TANGENTIAL RANT ALERT - I'll take a second out to mention something that I increasingly hate at gigs. I'm a battle scarred pit veteran, but I still can't stand 'hardcore dancers' or the guys who go into a pit looking to start fights and purposely cause harm. I'm a big fan of 'the joy of violent movement' and the scrapes, bruises, black eyes and the occasional broken bone from an untoward trip are just the risk you take when you dive into the pit. However, I was always brought up to have respect for my fellow pitters and if someone goes down, you help them up - because next time it could be you! It seems that there is an increasing trend for guys to charge around the pit in the 'hardcore' style,' flailing their elbows about and aiming spin kicks at thin air. Why? I'm happy to bust my lip open or get sore ribs in the press - I wouldn't even complain if I actually broke something 'cause the pit went down, but I take real offence to some little prick acting in such a way that he'll almost certainly end up elbowing someone right in the face or kicking them - it's just asking for nasty facial injuries or broken knees - and the guy who's likely to dish out this punishment is doing his best to keep everyone else as far away from him as possible - what a pussy! Even worse, these guys tend to stand and laugh when someone falls over near them in the pit, and that's just a serious breach of pit manners IMHO. Pit like a grown up, or get the frack out. Rant over, back to the review -

As anyone who has ever seen them can attest, 36 Crazyfists are a live act of ferocious power, and while the musicians don't cavort about the stage as much as other metalcore acts (preferring to be tight and y'know, play well), the livewire charisma of Brock Lindow more than makes up for it as he hangs over the front of the monitors, smashing the barrier between band and crowd.

As a band 36CF are consistently tight, precise and natural sounding and have a canon of songs that vary from the furiously heavy, infectiously catchy and beautifully melodious - often in the span of the same song! Lindow is a frontman of prodigious skill, managing to bellow like an angry bear and effortlessly slip into a pitch perfect, pop perfect melody and back again, seemingly without drawing breath.



And all in a rush, it was over! Crazyfists were only onstage for just over an hour (most likely because the Garage is a club venue and imposed an early curfew on the band so they could clean up for the club opening at 23.00) but in that brief time, they shot to being easily my gig of the year so far, but the best was yet to come...

Brock and the boys bounded back onto the stage, and gave some heartfelt thanks for our support (it's always nice when a band really seems to appreciate that you've paid hard earned money to see them and Crazyfists always seem very honestly thankful, as do Machine Head) and then they launched into the song that I in particular had really been waiting for, the rousing, the anthemic, the purely brilliant "Slit Wrist Theory."

Delivered with passion and verve, the song delivered a memorable sing-along and slightly subdued pit to the end of the proceedings (I think the crowd had actually beat themselves out with their earlier exertions) and then 36 Crazyfists were gone, through the curtain into the VIP bar, possibly to look for angels in the snow. My only complaint would be that I would have liked to have heard "Midnight Swim" or "The City Ignites," but you can't have everything. That said, they say they'll be back in September, and I can't wait...

The 411: You know you've been to a great gig when the lights go up and you are left dazed, a little sore and feeling utterly alive and completely shattered at the same time, and this was one of those nights. The bottom line is, if you haven't seen 36 Crazyfists before, go see them the next chance you get, and if you have seen them before, you probably already have tickets...

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]