Never mind the year of the Water Rabbit. There can be no doubt that 2023 is the year of the Crow. Well, five Crows, exactly. Shane, Ronnie, Ian, David, and Lloyd – the five component parts of Bridgend’s finest, Those Damn Crows.
Those Damn Crows – The Cruel Knives
O2 Academy Bristol – 9 October 2023
Words and Photography: Paul Hutchings
Much has been written about the band since their explosive start to 2023 with their number three album, Inhale / Exhale. It’s 100% positive, for this is a band whose trajectory is skyrocketing for good reason. 
Tonight, they roll into the closest show to home. The O2 Academy Bristol. It’s virtually a home game. There are Welsh fans everywhere, and it’s impossible to move without hearing an accent from the South Wales area.
This is the Takedown tour, the second UK trawl that the band have done, and they arrive fresh from gigs on UK soil in Bournemouth and Oxford, and four shows in Germany and a night in the Netherlands before that. As Shane Greenhall tells me in our interview before the show, it takes around four shows to get to the A game. Tonight, we get the A game alright, but with a big + on top. The band are on fire. 
Inside the venue, there’s no room to swing the proverbial cat. It may not be as rammed as it was recently for Trivium, but it’s only a few carcasses short. There are people straining for a view in every nook of the venue.
The front rows have been in place since doors opened at 7 pm, some two hours earlier. Fans with their Crows t-shirts, flags, and hats. The Crow Family. And it is indeed a family. There are several young children dotted around the venue, on the barrier, in amongst the main crowd on the floor, and up on the balconies. The Crow Family caters for all ages, and it’s a genuinely fine atmosphere. 
Lights out, and the band’s intro kicks in. Drummer Ronnie Huxtable is first out. He punches the air as he takes his place at the back of the impressive set.
There are walkways everywhere. Big enough to accommodate the beaming smile of Huxtable, bassist Lloyd Wood, and the occasional grin from guitarist David Winchurch. We get a rare smirk from the band’s other guitarist, Ian ‘Shiner’ Thomas; he has an image to protect, after all.
The biggest cheer is reserved for Greenhall, the Livewire frontman, who is harder to pin down than a chicken on a scooter. “We are … THOSE DAMN CROWS”, he sings, and the place goes wild. 
This is a partisan crowd, but the Crows work as hard tonight as they did back in those early days at Pwllheli Holiday Camp when I first saw them in front of 50 or so punters. They don’t have any other gears. It’s flat-out or nothing. The setlist works well. Who Did It? remains the necessary fist-pumper of an opener. Greenhall is a blur and a nightmare to photograph.
He’s up, down, leaping around, pointing to faces in the audience. You’re all invited to one big party, and when he talks between songs, it’s impossible not to feel like he’s addressing you personally.
Man On Fire, Send The Reaper, and Takedown ensure the temperature only increases. The songs pass in a blur, and it’s fast but totally enjoyable. There are singalongs, laughter from the onstage banter, and just a fabulously good time. 
The bulk of the set is understandably drawn from Inhale / Exhale, eight in all, with each of the ‘newer’ songs gloriously bombastic in their live glory. Two clever pauses to take a breather are included. First up, the drum/bass interplay between Huxtable and Wood. It’s the weakest point of the set, mildly entertaining, but it’s hitting the hard-edged Rock that Those Damn Crows do best.
The second opportunity to catch one’s breath arrives with Blink Of An Eye. Greenhall sits behind the piano and demonstrates that he’s not only got a fantastic voice but is a bit of a musician as well. The crowd are in full voice, and it’s time to get a bit misty-eyed before the middle section sees the band hit the accelerator. 
“We can’t do a show without playing this,” Greenhall says after checking who is popping their crow cherry tonight. There aren’t many who are here for the first time. It’s time for Rock N Roll Ain’t Dead, another huge anthem. “Count us in,” Greenhall asks. The crowd are a little subdued and gets told about it. “That was shit”, Greenhale laughs before we go again, and the band open up.
Midway through the song, the inevitable walkabout takes place, Greenhall finding himself in the middle of the upper balcony. “It’s great up here,” he tells his bandmates. “How do we sound?” asked Wood. “Shit!” is the jokingly delivered answer. 
These days, the Crows have enough in the locker to pull out some big emotive guns to finish. This Time I’m Ready hits in the feels before the Crows call it a night with the pandemic-inspired See You Again.
It’s been a ride of epic proportions. And as the crowd file out into the cool but temperate Bristol air, most are already thinking about their next time. This venue is a stepping stone to bigger and better things. For they can only go one way. And that’s up.
The Cruel Knives
I was scathing in my review of The Cruel Knives at Steelhouse Festival in July. I was unimpressed by their lack of movement on such a stage, but I did say that I would like to view them in a smaller set-up. Tonight, they smashed it with a confident set that they tore through in the allotted 40 minutes.
Their set was a mix of hard-paced rockers and some lovely slower bluesy-style anthems, which had the crowd on board from the start.
In Sid Glover, the band possess a high-quality six-stringer who plays every note with a passion that isn’t always noted. He’s got a laid-back style, but unlike last time, he’s found his feet and was able to exploit the sections at the front which the band occupied. 
Alongside him, Tom Harris brings a top-level performance with an assured frontman delivery, which he grows into as the band’s set develops.
It’s tracks from the band’s Side Two album that take most of the list, with Black Eye Friday and Crawl impressive. Harris has also managed to improve on his banter, and at one point, asks the crowd if they were in Bristol or Cardiff. 
The South Wales City gets the roar, and Harris promises to make it across the bridge soon. He’ll probably end up playing to 40 people in a club rather than the 1,500 souls here tonight. But hey, it’s the way it should be in many respects. 
The Cruel Knives are earning their corn, and with more quality shows like this, especially with the explosive finale that they serve up, which almost results in the epic smashing of gear, they should be pulling in many more when they head out next.
