I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 16, 2025] Starcrawler

I wanted to see Starcrawler for a few years before I finally got to.  And the buildup was more than the band could live up to.

I saw them last year open for Boris (a strange fit) when they played for an hour and I found them more or less unpleasant.  They really make me like the and hate them at the same time.

Last time I quoted someone else as saying “they strike me as rich kids cosplaying as punk rockers,” which seems fairly apt.  Also that

singer Arrow DeWilde tried to irk the crowd by referring to San Francisco repeatedly as “Frisco” after commenting, “Last night in Fresno was better than this shithole.” I have a friend who had seen them in Fresno the night before who said that Arrow said something similar onstage then.

This was one of the things that I found so irritating about them in the past, they are strangely confrontational.  It may be part of the schtick, but it’s weird–especially for an opening band.

Arrow was less confrontational than in the past, although she did yell at the audience for not bouncing their heads along to their song (weirdly, that was to the slowest song they played–we certainly bounced for the faster songs).

I enjoy guitarist Henri Cash, who eggs on the crowd, but also has a delightful smile on his face–really engaging the audience.  This is the third time that he’s gone into the audience at the end of the show.  This time, he went to the back of the room and climbed the stairs into the balcony where he continued his soloing.

The one thing I can say about them is they strike me as such an L.A. band–very flashy.  Although, to be fair, they have the chops and the good songwriting skills.

It amuses me to no end that Arrow and Henri are wild on stage, while bassist Tim Franco and rhythm guitarist Bill Cash pretty much stand still the whole time.  I’d say that Franco seems nervous , but I don’t think he is, and his bass work is great.  Seth Carolina on the drums is a very L.A. drummer–lots of arm waving.

I told my wife she would either love or hate them, but she came away feeling split.  She liked the music and found them entertaining, but she didn’t like Arrow who was far more vulgar/explicit than she has been in the past.  On two occasions she stuck her hand down her pants and then pretended (I guess) to smell herself. It was weird, and perhaps not exactly the right crowd?  But as my wife said, good for her for expressing herself. And Shirley Manson has nothing but great things to say about the band.

There are two Starcrawler songs that I really really like, “Hollywood Ending” and “No More Pennies,” but like last time they didn’t play either one.  The set was similar to the Boris set (picking a few songs from the hour set for this half hour).

I enjoyed the first two songs a lot.  I don’t really like I Love LA (not the Randy Newman song).  I really dislike Pet Semetary.  I didn’t like the Ramones version and I don’t like their version–the song is just bad.  But the last three songs were great–rocking an a lot of fun.

Last time, I felt like they were a band to endure and I didn’t really enjoy them.  But tonight I loosened up some and enjoyed them a lot more.

I’m always amused when there are bands that I mildly like who I have seen more than bands that I really like.