Crywank Live at the Actress and Bishop review (11/12/16)

The first time I saw Crywank it was at the Wagon and Horses in Digbeth. The supports were Craterface and Luke Rainsford. In a bit of a coincidence, once again all three acts were set to play a small festival at the same location. This festival was cancelled and moved to the Actress and Bishop for only £5 and then put on as free entry. The first act  I saw was James Lees who wears his admiration for Luke Rainsford  on his sleeve, or rather his shirt. His acoustic songs are very much in the same vein, heartfelt and moving.  As were the songs played by Craterface in his unmistakeable growl. Luke Rainsford was accompanied by a drummer, tapping out beats on a wooden box, much like Crywank later on.  While his new album has been announced for next year the songs were all favourites from his début album I'm nothing like my dad turned out to be. As usual he bought along a fan-base of pretty girls, all  ready to to cry at his sad acoustic songs. Yet despite the sad songs and the news that Luke's pop-punk band Layover have called it a day, The show was a nice way to cap off what has been an eventful year for Luke

Crywank were easy to spot, with James now sporting a meter tall red hat on top of his footlong  black hair and black trench coat. The pub wasn't packed but there were some definite Crywank fans in the audience. While 'Dan the Snail' now has a full drumkit and Crywank's last album used electric guitars, this show was business as usual for the lo-fi acoustic duo. Despite the sadness of songs the show was a lot of fun. With airing of fan favourites 'coolest kid in the world' and 'song about paper clips' (at my request). Older favourites, 'Memento Mori' and 'Song for a guilty Sadist' are more vibrant and noisy than on the bands records and far better for it. I can only hope that Crywank put out a live album at some point.


Crywanks'  album 'Don't piss on me I'm already dead' was my 2nd best album on 2016. Luke Rainsford's début album was also on the list at 35.

Links:
https://lukerainsford.bandcamp.com/
https://crywank.bandcamp.com/