Crawlers Live in Nottingham Review
Crawlers are a band that you may have never heard of before, or you’ve heard their name around, or you may have discovered their track Come Over (Again) through TikTok, but they’re a band that have been together for four years now and have been releasing music since March 2019. When speaking to some fans outside queuing for tonight’s proceedings, they told me that Crawlers are a band for “mentally unstable gay people”, a statement which I loved. These same people started queuing at 12pm while others wanted to camp overnight to see them and would have done so if DHP (the management in charge of Rescue Rooms, where Crawlers were playing tonight) hadn’t turned them away. For a band so early in their musical career to have such a dedicated fan base, that’s something no one can ignore. With big rumours circulating that they could be 2023’s hottest new artist, this is a band that really intrigues me.
Tonight, they perform at Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, skipping over some of the city’s smaller venues, and I don’t know what I’m expecting. The material that I’ve heard thus far is pretty good, with their new mixtape Loud Without Noise being one of the best mini-albums I’ve listened to in the last couple of years or so (it’s out now, go buy and stream it!), but I worry that they may fall into the trap that other artists do, especially newer ones – that they don’t execute their songs live as well as they do on mastered recordings. But we’ll see if they fall down the rabbit hole or not…
Before I begin my review, I have to give a special mention to Crawlers’ remarkable support act. I originally requested three shows to review tonight, with Crawlers being one, Lime Garden being another and Ezra Collective being a third, but I was sold to work on this show because of Uninvited, a Glasgowian indie-rock band who have produced maybe the best track of the year in the form of Behind The Black Door (in which I was the only person in the crowd that was singing along to it!). I’ve been trying to see them everywhere, looking at going to Live At Leeds, London, everywhere, all of which unfortunately fell through, but I finally saw them tonight and I was NOT disappointed. The band played with such passion, with great chemistry and had some even better instrumentation, you could tell they loved what they were doing, and they created that indescribable atmosphere during their set in which the whole crowd was in sync with each other, dancing, jumping, that incredible adrenaline you get from gigs that only a handful of artists can give you, and if a band has that unteachable trait, you know they’re on for good things, but Uninvited have something very special, and I promise you, they’re going to be massive.
Moving onto Crawlers, I took no notes during that show, no mental notes, no real videos, nothing, because I just couldn’t as I was in such awe of what I was witnessing. My eyes and attention were firmly on the band, and it didn’t feel like I was working at all, because they had me from the get-go, and that was the first time any band have ever made me forget that I have to write a review at the end of the set, and when I remembered that I had to, I couldn’t wait to start writing, so that’s saying something. There are multiple reasons behind that statement, and the first of which was the band chemistry was sublime from start to finish. They all played with such dedication, love and everything else. They feel as though all four members were meant to start a band together, and even though I didn’t know every song they performed, I was still invested in their phenomenal performance.
I was also a massive fan of the setlist, which included songs from their self-titled EP, their new mixtape Loud Without Noise and other crowd favourites. The tracks they performed showed off Crawlers’ phenomenal range, instrumentation and singer Holly Minto’s vocals really well, it was the perfect curation. This brings me on to the real highlight of the show…
Holly Minto is an amazing vocalist, but she also has the best stage presence I have seen of any artist other than Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine (whom I deem to be one of the greats). From the opening track, Too Soon, Minto came on with such energy and passion that it was hard not to watch Minto’s every move. Facial expressions throughout the show were excellent too, you could tell she meant every word of what she sang, to the point you could tell that she definitely went to a top drama school, and performing expertise was heavily utilised during the show. That energy carried on until the insanely impressive finale of I Don’t Want It and never died down. Minto had the crowd at the palm of her hand, with speeches about their monkey mascot (at least I think it’s a monkey – I’m sorry if I got that wrong!) to passionate speeches about arts education, they really are one of the greats, and if they’re only just getting started, who knows how good Minto will be in ten years? Thinking about it is incomprehensible, I can’t even imagine how amazing they are going to be.
Overall, Crawlers have not just proved that they’re one of the most intriguing bands of the 2020’s thus-far, they’ve proved that they’re one of the most exciting prodigies in the worldwide music scene and that they’re here to stay. Their performance was one of the best I’ve seen this year, they were perfect in so many ways, from the band chemistry to the stage presence, resulting in me forgetting that I was working. This is one of those moments that felt like history was being made right in front of me. I know that in ten years’ time, 500 people will be saying “I saw Crawlers at Rescue Rooms before they made it…”, and because in the next ten years, that band will headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival – I bet you right now. This is the beginning of something extraordinary, so strap in and be ready for the explosion that’s about to happen, because Crawlers are about to take over the world…
Ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I’d give it so many more if I could!)
You can find remaining dates and tickets here
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