26th October 2017
There is a disappointing tendency in Doncaster for people to get a little sniffy about events that people have worked really hard to organise. Comments like ‘are they still going?’ are wilfully negative and help to contribute to the reputation of Doncaster as a cultural wasteland. If these people actually attended any of the numerous venues that make up Doncaster’s live music scene, they would realise they are being grossly unfair.
Let’s get something straight first of all. Crazy Town are a million selling artist who have had a number of top 40 hits in both the UK and in their home country of America. It is a massive coup for the Woolpack to bag such a well known band and everyone involved should be proud of all their good work.
After an interesting but slightly repetitive set from Tokyo metal band Loka, Crazy Town took to the stage with little fanfare and started playing. It took the band a couple of songs to sort the sound out but by the time they belted out ‘Toxic’ they sounded in good voice.
Band leader Shifty Shellshock has been through a lot since the bands worldwide smash ‘Butterfly’ topped the US charts. Bereavement and addiction have taken their toll on the rapper and he is no longer the fresh faced front man who dominated MTV for a while there in the 00’s. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t still have the fight as he spends the full gig jumping around the stage and interacting with the crowd. He clearly still loves the music and he has assembled a talented band with bassist Hasma Angeleno particularly impressing.
As much as the crowd were enthusiastic throughout, realistically most people were waiting for ‘Butterfly’. I’ve always been of the mind that your best song should be embraced rather than shunned. A band should be proud to have written a song that has resonated with so many, rather than being ashamed that magic didn’t strike twice. The opening bars of the Red Hot Chili Peppers sampling track raised a huge cheer from the rowdy crowd and Shifty put in his best vocal performance of the evening.
The LA band still had a couple of aces up their sleeve however, the single ‘Drowning’ still sounds great. After leaving the stage, chants of ‘Crazy Town’ bring Shifty and co back on stage for a seemingly impromptu run through of ‘Butterfly’ follow up ‘Revolving Door’. It is nice to see a band and audience in symbiosis and everyone goes away from the gig happy.
I would be really easy to sit and write a hilarious take down of a much derided band playing in a tiny venue and to be honest, I kind of considered doing that, just for the hell of it. But it would also be wildly mean spirited and unnecessary. Crazy Town are clearly still around because of the music, no matter how under appreciated it is and mock somebody for that is just cruel.
Crazy Town might be a disgusting caterpillar to some but in Donny they emerge as a beautiful butterfly…
This article was written for Doncopolitan magazine:
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