Evil Scarecrow – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham – 11th January 2014

Local band Twilights Embrace were first up.  They got the night off to a good start and as their set went on the crowd grew steadily as more people arrived so they got a good crowd and went down well.  Nice twin guitar metal sounds combined with a mix of clean vocals and growls.  It was my first time hearing these guys and I certainly enjoyed what I heard, and with an album due out later this year this band is certainly worth a listen.

Setlist:

This life
The dry land
The second day
By darkness undone
The path

Obsessive Compulsive were up next with their more punk influenced sound.  I’ve seen the band play live several times and they’re always good.  It’s a loud angry sound that has metal, grunge and punk as influences but all blended perfectly together.  It’s a louder and more aggressive sound than Twilight’s embrace, and is different again to Evil Scarecrow, so there’s plenty of variety tonight, but equally there’s enough in common between the bands that they fit together on one bill very well.  Most of the songs tonight came from from the bands latest album (Secculo Seculorum), and sounded great – while I love the album, the songs do sound best blasted out live at ear-splitting volume.

Finally it was time for Evil Scarecrow.  I’ve seen the band quite a few times and they never disappoint, so was looking forward to tonight.  They certainly didn’t disappoint, and in fact massively exceeded my expectations as they stepped up the lunacy to new levels.  Things started off with Kraven Mordeth dragging on stage a pantomime horse that the others climbed on, and that was just the start of the madness.  During the course of the night we had a great performance from the band as well as some of the staple elements of an Evil Scarecrow show – party poppers for the audience to fire off (no expense spared on pyro for an Evil Scarecrow gig), the band performed the song “Crabulon” while Crabulon scuttled left and right on stage with them, and of course they were joined by a real star – the awesome Slagbot who came on to show everyone how the Robototron dance should be done, and of course there was plenty of audience participation which ranged from making crab claws during “Crabulon”, doing the robot dance in “Robotatron”,  sobbing during “Blacken the everything” or doing a waltz during one of the other songs.  The band also had a guest join them – Unterschlafen who did a joint 4 note guitar solo with Dr Hell.

As always Kraven was headbanging away, Monty Blitzfist was proving why he’s called the bounciest drummer in the world (I’m sure he must have a spring loaded drum stool to bounce that high), Princess Luxury provided keyboards as well as doing some scuttling during crabulon, Dr Hell was singing and playing guitar and generally getting the crowd going, and the inimitable Dimitri Pain was on guitar, high fives and indulged in a spot of crowd surfing.

Evil Scarecrow are a band you can’t go and see without ending up with a big smile on your face – they are one of the most fun band around – with Lawnmower Deth being the only other band that comes close for levels of lunacy and fun.  It’s important to note that Evil Scarecrow may be a parody band but that doesn’t mean it’s all about the fun and image and not the music – the music is great too, and with a new album expected later this year there’s plenty for fans to look forward to.

Tonight was only the second gig since the band decided to stop ending the gigs with their cover of Europe’s “The final countdown”. With most bands who drop a crowd favourite there would be calls for them to play it and fans would leave disappointed (I’ve seen that happen when Hawkwind decided not to play “Silver machine” as just one example), but tonight there’s none of that – fans were more than happy with the songs that the band played.

A fantastic night that was finished off with beer and DJ sets from Evil Scarecrow at the Tap and Tumbler for the After-crow party.