Starcrawler

Great Scott, Allston

February 13, 2018

Starcrawler

I may have overheard a small group of dispensational premillennials and millennials arguing about the exact timing and length of the tribulation. Is this rapture? Is Starcrawler the second coming of rock n’ roll? There’s always controversy about second comings. Was it the loudest sound ever? Were the beams of light blue or silver? Was the big guy an original or just a talented alien poser? Have we seen this before? Were your friends floating in the ether among the resurrected?

Starcrawler is amped, proud, and let’s shock the crowd. Stooges roots, grungy split ends and a crazy horse flying a red mane. The whole crew has a mean age of about twenty. Lead singer Arrow de Wilde is an eye-lock, six foot two inches of gangly, almost anorexic limbs, magenta hair and protruding elbows, hips, and knees.

She looks like a sandstone arch in a Utah canyon when she back bends her hands over, out and down to the floor. She growls and howls. She lunges and lurches. She flops, and she flaps. She preens, and she poses. And then there are the sequined codpiece, fake blood and zombie eyes. The Russian judge gives her a 7.9.

The hirsute Austin Smith on drums, and the must be emailing in his Calc homework Tim Franco on bass, are the watchful, steady kids who say, ‘Man, I don’t think we should steal that car…’ and get overruled. When you can scrape your eyes off the antics buzzing around them, they are laying solid track under tunes like "Love’s Gone Again"; "Train" and the hint of Suzi Quatro, "Ants".

Henri Cash is the fireman on de Wilde’s crazy train. He rips out pointed, trebly guitar lines from both Tele and Les Paul. He’s all smiles and out to have a good time. He’s a kid who probably pinches himself every morning to see if its a dream. His sonic fingerprints are everywhere.

You see them on the ringing sustain on the locked-in, first half of "Chicken Women" and again on its double-time, freakout ending. They’re all over the grunged up "Let Her Be". You see them when Cash and de Wilde get their Johnny Thunders / Patti Paladino vocal trade-off going on "Pussy Tower".

Second comings of R n’ R are frequently tailor-made for age bracket demographics. Everyone is young once. A venial sin at most. Starcrawler lay down a raucous dress rehearsal for this week's rapture. Carpe diem.