Evil Scarecrow Live in Glasgow

Date: 26 January 2017
Venue:  The Cathouse, Glasgow
Support: Dog Tired, Splintered Halo

‘Bring forth the antigravity device’ is not a cry you’d generally expect to hear during a metal gig. But then, Evil Scarecrow aren’t your usual kind of metal band. Glasgow’s Cathouse has hosted a huge variety of legendary artists in it’s time, but I’m fairly confident that it has never seen a band quite like Evil Scarecrow before. They describe themselves as being a parody metal band. Or to be absolutely precise, the finest parody metal band from Nottingham to have written a song about a robot… probably.

They’ve shot to prominence in the last couple of years thanks to some fantastic live performances at festivals such as Bloodstock and Download. One of decibelROGUE’s regular readers who saw them perform at Download described Evil Scarecrow as being ‘the best hangover cure ever’. And given the quantity of booze this fella can shift, that’s some hangover cure! So when Dr. Rabid Hell and his motley crew headed to Glasgow on the latest leg of their biggest ever headline tour, we made sure that we were down the front to catch the band in action.

Humour then, is at the heart of what Evil Scarecrow does. But with every band that plays it for laughs there’s always a worry that the joke starts to wear pretty thin, pretty damned quickly. Yet here we were, about to listen to a band whose set contained songs about robot-crustacean hybrids and space dementia. Oh, and had some heavy metal ballroom dancing thrown in for good measure. Cause for concern then?

Nope. Not even maybe!

From the moment the band bounced onto stage and thundered into The Architect of Hate, they were absolutely, positively, awesome. Make no mistake – although fun and downright silliness were always around the next corner, Evil Scarecrow are first and foremost one hell of a metal band. Power, intensity, aggression, it’s all here. This is perhaps the main reason that they can build their songs around themes that would’ve made great subjects for 50’s/60’s Hollywood B-movies, without falling into total novelty band territory. And no, the joke certainly doesn’t wear thin. At all.

Audience participation was a key element of the show.  Whether it was robot dancing to Robototron, or jumping, hitting and dodging to End Level Boss, or pairing up with the person next to you to do some ballroom dancing during Dance of the Cyclops, there was always some way you could join in and be part of the action – and everyone did. The sense of fun was totally infectious.

Here comes a bit that I wish I could show you, but I was out of the photopit after the first three songs and my camera was put to it’s bed. The band’s props were bloomin’ marvellous! Spaceships, robots (obviously!) and a flying sheep all played their part in making the gig a brilliant visual spectacle. There was a very homemade feel to them all which was totally in keeping with the B-movie vibe of the songs. And some of the more dedicated Evil Scarecrow fans having raided their cardboard, tinfoil and sticky-back-plastic supplies, turned out in homemade robot costumes of their own, which went down pretty well with Dr. Hell!

This was one of those gigs where picking out one highlight is not just difficult, it’s damned near impossible. What I will say though, is that as great as the first ten songs of the set were, everything seemed to build towards the final two songs of the night: Hurricanado and lastly, the brilliant Crabulon. Like most of the other songs in their set they’re based on a wonderfully daft sic-fi premise, but are great metal songs with brilliant hooks and biblical riffs. However, Hurricanado and Crabulon also have an anthemic quality that sets them apart from the earlier songs, and finished off the evening in proper stadium-rockin’ style.

Evil Scarecrow are quite simply the most original, imaginative, downright silly band of any genre we’ve come across in ages. Yes, they play it for laughs but they never lose sight of the fact that they are there to ROCK. And they do that brilliantly. Check out their forthcoming tour dates and scuttle along to experience Evil Scarecrow for yourself. Crabulatingly awesome!

Setlist

The Architect of Hate
Frankingstein’s Mirror
Book of Doom
Galacticus
Dance of the Cyclops
Robototron
Morbid Witch
Space Dimentia
Blacken the Everything
End Level Boss
Hurricanado
Crabulon

Evil Scarecrow Gallery