After announcing roughly a year ago that Johnny Marr would no longer be part of THE CRIBS line up, fans have been waiting in rapt anticipation to see what they would do next.
Recently, Ryan Jarman admitted that the introduction of Marr provided the band with a get out of jail free card regarding how to deal with their cross-over acceptance. A fiercely independent trio who prided themselves on playing anywhere as long as they were guaranteed fuel money and a crate of beer, The Cribs found themselves with real commercial success (the video for Men’s Needs has a staggering seven million hits on Youtube).
The introduction of Johnny Marr into the garage punk of The Cribs allowed the Jarman brothers to sidestep the potentially polemic question of where to go next. Despite the quality of their Ignore The Ignorant album, the union of Marr’s jangle and The Cribs’ brutal melodies now sounds so perfectly realised that it’s impossible to see if this incarnation could have really moved forward.
On this final date of an intimate tour showcasing their soon to be released fifth album, The Cribs proved that without Marr they haven’t merely regressed into their former lo-fi punk aesthetic: they have reclaimed their original essence with an intensity that feels positively dangerous.
The professionalism of Marr on stage allowed Ryan Jarman to become the true focal point of The Cribs live. This transformation has not ended. Sauntering on stage with a leather jacket, a Mod pin button, torn jeans, Beetlejuice tights and a home made Brian Jones haircut, Ryan Jarman looks like the DNA of the past fifty years of rock and roll condensed into one man. He is an absolutely mesmerising proposition.
He spends the gig screaming lyrics with such passion it feels like he could spit blood onto the back walls at any moment. He goose steps along to his own riffs in a mantra like trance, sends microphones crashing to the floor and sings the remainder of the songs on his knees belting the lyrics into the toppled stage equipment. When he plays the solo to Men’s Needs, a vibrating chainsaw of nervous anxiety, he does so pulling mockingly lazy theatrical poses that undermine the very idea of a guitar hero. The statement is perfectly clear: everything before this is completely wrong.
The new songs played tonight could be considered a step backward in their return to the brute force of power chords and hooks but this would be a disservice to the violent strength of this altered approach. The Cribs have eaten up Johnny Marr and spat him out. Everything The Cribs stood for feels like it has become solidified and amplified by the experience of making a record with a true music icon. It has given them confidence to believe in everything they do, and do it fucking harder.
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New opener Chi-Town already sounds timeless; its circular nursery rhyme melody is pumped dangerously full with disgust that the only way to end the chorus is by Ryan Jarman emitting a larynx shredding “wooo-aaah”. Pop and punk perfectly combined.
Older songs are played like anthems, the crowd enraptured: singing in the arms of each other as much as back at the band on stage. At one point Ryan Jarman throws a malfunctioning guitar pedal away. “We’re a punk band” is his only explanation and one that no one here can deny. Whether this is a dig at Marr is left to the audiences’ interpretation. The Cribs back catalogue is reclaimed and everything feels part of the natural trajectory that leads to this new point in their story. Electronic trickery is a bagatelle against sweat and bloody fingers.
Earlier in the gig Ryan Jarman coyly asked if the crowd present “still needed The Cribs, still believed in The Cribs”. In the final song, after nearly an hour and a half of incessant stage diving someone does the unthinkable in the sterile corporate world of 21st century rock and roll; they evade the security guards and make it onto the stage. As the now traditional set closer of City Of Bugs burns to a close like a snake eating its own tail, amongst the destruction a sweat stained fan has his arms around Ryan Jarman. Both are smiling from ear to ear. Their work is done. We still need The Cribs. We still believe in The Cribs.
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