Blending the sludgy, doom-laden riffs of Black Sabbath with the urgent pop-punk of the Runaways, the young LA band Starcrawler are a group whose entire DNA seems linked to the 1970s. The white tasselled flares of lead singer, Arrow de Wilde, match the aesthetic of the group’s back-to-basics rock’n’roll.
Recent single I Love LA is a riff-heavy, pop-drenched three minutes that recalls the tone of Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers but replaces the drugs and chaos with a simple, youthful ode to the sun-drenched city. Guitarist Henri Cash plays intensely loud, his instrument at the forefront throughout, driven by a heavy, fuzzy kick as he bounces around the stage. Windmills, high kicks and star jumps further add to the 70s theatrics.
Tracks such as Train, Love’s Gone Again and Let Her Be possess a real fizz, and the group hurtle through them with such a pace and fury it’s as though they’ll self-destruct if they don’t reach the end of them in record time. While there are moments of exhilaration, their take on the sugary end of Sabbath, heavy on the nostalgia of a bygone era, occasionally veers a little too close to pastiche. As on Pussy Tower, a song about oral sex that is accompanied by a visual simulation of the act by Wilde just in case the lyrics – “Head, I want it every day / Oh head, it never fails to pay” – weren’t clear enough. Wilde then pours fake blood over herself and switches on a wild-eyed stare as the group hammer out their final moments.
Before the squealing guitars ring out and the group leave the stage after 37 minutes, Wilde jumps on the bar, kicking any beer that’s in her way into the air, before clambering on to the shoulders of an audience member. It’s an ending that feels emblematic of an evening that, though fun, feels more like a homage to rock’s supposed heyday, rather than something born out of the wild spontaneity of its spirit.
• At Thekla, Bristol, 20 January. Box office: 0117-929 3301.
