Review: The Horrors with openers Casper Bangs and Crocodiles live @ The Black Cat

First, off, pure excellence, the greatest live show I've ever been to, and my first at the Black Cat. The concert was certainly not big enough to take place at the 9:30 Club. And as a result, the Black Cat proved the perfect setting for the event. The Horrors, The Crocodiles and Casper Bangs, two great and one slightly mediocre but respectable bands all in one room with psychaedelic results!

So lets go in chronological order now shall we?


First off, Casper Bangs, now Bangs are a local DC based band who play what I'll describe as the offspring Belinda Butcher and Rivers Cuomo (don't know who I'm talking about? Belinda was the guitarist for My Bloody Valentine, Rivers is the lead vocalit for Weezer). Infact, I met the lead singer for the band after his set. I was right at the front of the stage and he just walked of the stage into the crowd. I asked him who his influences were and he said that they were Noise rock bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain and Pop-rock bands like The Beach Boys. He's a nice guy with a weird fashion sense (he really stood out from the crowd and other bands, he wore a red v-neck sweater, grey pants, a white button down shirt and a black bow tie). I gave him my email address and he said he'd be happy to send some songs. Infact he passed a list around for people to write their addresses. He also reeks of alchohol.



And now, the second opening act. The awesome, and quite original band Crocodiles. Now I had heard the Crocodiles' music before, well after I found they were opening for the Horrors which I heard a while back. But I never knew that they were so awesome on stage! They take from The New Thing, Garage punk and Alternative Dance music. I'm gonna call it No Dance lol. They're frontman, who's name I don't know sadly, is wild, and over the top playful. The girl next to me said she saw them before and that the frontman looks a lot like Bob Dylan and tends to dance a lot on stage. He is exactly like that! The first few songs, he was doing all sorts of stuff on stage, bouncing on the floor, it was pure awesomeness! Midway through the set he went to guitar and actually had to concentrate lol. The energy goes out as the set goes on. But nonetheless, pure excellence in the field of performance art.
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Ah, everything goes dark in the Black Cat, everyone waits impatiently, we all want the Horrors, well... we are Horrors! The background music plays, it goes off, onstage comes the great Tomethy Furse, followed by every other Horror, except one Faris Badwan.

"Hey Rhys!" I scream, mispronouncing his name by accident to say Rise.

"Its Rhys [Rhees]" he tells me

Ah, Mirrors Image starts playing, and up bursts the amazing and energetic Horrors vocalist Faris Badwan, he's full of both uncontrollable energy, and deep concentration. As the band play Three Decades, he falls into the crowd, no-one can hold him, he falls to the floor we all help him up, I touch his shoulder (fanboy moment!) He's helped back onstage by a roadie. He's tangled in his microphone wire. He goes through the set, at times wandering the stage, at other times, playing with the pipes above his head. He spits onto his setlist, saliva covering the tape of it (I took the setlist home with me! And covered my right hand fingers in Faris' saliva, pissing of my dad at the same time) Then after an amazing performance of Sea Within a Sea, they storm of the stage. But come back with the demand of the crowd. As an encore, they play a brand new song I've never heard before, it sounds like a mix of Kraftwerk and The Cramps, and both Rhys and Tom are playing keyboards... Oh wait! Its a cover of Ghost Rider by Suicide! Pure awesomness! Next, they go back to the days of Strange House, playing Gloves (Hacking desperatly in a sea of appendages!), with Faris swinging of the pipes above him. And they play one more song, Count in Fives, where the crowd shout out HEY! At the percise timing. They then leave the stage, the crowd satisfied. A good night and into a new day, a movement in the process.

Photos, vids and other shit:

THE HORRORS SETLIST:

MIRRORS IMAGE
THREE DECADES
PRIMARY COLORS
DO YOU REMEMBER
NEW ICE AGE
SCARLET FIELDS
I ONLY THINK OF YOU
I CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF
WHO CAN SAY
SEA WITHIN A SEA

ENCORE:

GHOST RIDER (SUICIDE COVER)
GLOVES
COUNT IN FIVES