The Cribs at Manning Bar, Sydney

THE CRIBS
BRIDEZILLA
Manning Bar, 19/02/10

Considering Bridezilla have been winning fans around the city over the past four years, it's somewhat surprising that this was their debut performance at Manning Bar. Less surprising was that their atmosphere-drenched show was enthralling. Most notable was frontwoman Holiday Carmen-Sparks' increasingly impressive vocal range. Balancing out their intense sound with plenty of smiles throughout, the Sydney quintet are clearly enjoying themselves at the moment, and well they might, as they remain one of the most captivating acts in Australia today.

The Cribs' dynamic has always been appealing; three brothers across drums, bass and guitar, with duelling lead vocals. So adding another guitarist would seem crazy, except when he happens to be a certain Johnny Marr. Regardless, it was going to be interesting to see whether it would be the same visceral, raucous Cribs experience.

Bursting into We Were Aborted, guitarist Ryan Jarman stooped over his mic, stomped his feet and spat lyrics as loud as he could in his strong Wakefield accent as veins popped out of his neck. With that, it was instantly clear that, while the addition of a member of indie royalty added to their depth of sound, it took nothing away from the Jarman brothers' insane live energy. The crowd, who had waited four years to see them, went nuts as Hey Scenesters and Cheat On Me provoked early singalongs. Indeed, there were few songs that weren't singalongs, as this set featured more infectious choruses than your average pop act could come up with in a lifetime, all delivered with shouty punk rock sensibilities. Every “whoa-oh” was hollered back at the band with increasing gusto, and, as Ryan questioned where all the crowd-surfers were, waves of bodies began to flow towards the stage.

The epic Be Safe offered an alternative to the punchy songs that surrounded it, featuring a video of Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo's spoken word prose as the band belted out another massive chorus, “I know a place we can go where you'll fall in love so hard that you'll wish you were dead.”

Ending with Men's Needs, City of Bugs and a spot of stage-diving, the quartet left the sweat-drenched crowd breathless. Even four albums in, The Cribs' raw energy and vivacity hasn't abated, and to combine that with tunes to die for is to be in the presence of one of the most thrilling live bands around.