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The Crocketts : London LA2, 13th September 2000

REVIEW

Thursday 14th September 2000

Having seen the Crox for the first time at Reading Festival, we were well up for seeing them again. Reading had, according to the band, been their best gig ever but, at the closing stages of their UK tour, LA2 was bound to be in for some fireworks.

After playing the very suitable "They've come to take me away - ha ha!" as an introduction, there was the signature roll of military drums and the Crox blasted straight into 'Lucifer' from their latest album 'The Great Brain Robbery', a good old skool punky number reminiscent of The Clash. The crowd, most of whom were in nappies when this sort of stuff was around first time, went beserk. Indeed, throughout the entire set, a good two thirds of the floor was solid moshing.

"The next song is about fucking dead people" said Davey and after the intro (surely borrowed from the Beach Boys), 'Mrs Playing Dead' ripped up the floor. This track makes me laugh because it reminds me of the joke that ends with the punchline 'Dead? I thought she was American!' - you can fill in the rest yourselves.

A new track, 'All Conquering', sounded (after only one hearing) more developed than some of the Crox earlier stuff - a good omen for material to follow. Butterfly reckoned that it sounded a bit like the Flaming Lips. '1939 Returning' was followed by 'Tennessee' with its magnificent thrashy intro.

On Something had Davey crowd surfing, resplendent in his pearl choker. This was repeated two songs later to 'Will You Still Care' ('I don't @&£*ing think so!') except this time they gave him enough slack in the mike cable to reach the sound engineers in their cage at the back of the crowd. Seconds later Davey was on top of the cage and, not content with having already scared the shit out of the guys below, started jumping up and down on it! At Reading he had to have a bit of his guitar removed from his head, and now this, Maybe somebody should take him away for his own good! The crowd were not so fearless and left a big gap for his eight foot drop to the ground, then proceeded to swarm around him. He managed to crawl back on stage with most of his clothes intact, despite some major grappling with the throng of female fans.

The encore consisted of 'Opposite Ends', sounding very much like the Violent Femmes, a cover of 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' sang by their jesus-like guitarist and a strong finish with 'Strong Guy'.

Whilst the Crox's recorded material is not going to be everyone's pint of lager, live they are something else. Sort of like the Clash or Stiff Little Fingers meets Bentley Rhythm Ace. Lots of different styles, a lot of raw energy and lots for the fans to talk about. They effortlessly change gears in the middle of songs, soft melodic verses crashing into high energy punky choruses. 'Ibiza my goddam @&£*ing sausage!' shouted Davey at one point and really that sums them up, they're something completely different for people who are fed up with endless bloody garage at the moment. Judging by the crowd, the Crox have a really strong fan base that should keep their live gigs humming for some time. Davey is an idol for the boys and a sexgod for the girls. Not yet a top ten band for their recordings but definitely right up there for a live set. Let's hope we see them again next summer.

review by Pete Smith