LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: Crawlers – O2 Academy, Liverpool – 04/12/2024

It goes without saying that 2024 has been an eventful year for Crawlers. From a boots-on-the-ground perspective, you might even think very little of a statement like that. Of course it’s been eventful—they’re a band swimming in buzz who released their debut album, which has only catapulted them further. But you also can’t ignore the numerous blows and bouts of turbulence to get here. Dropping off US tours with Destroy Boys and Jane’s Addiction; the gales that put paid to their Leeds Festival set; almost dying on the was to 2000trees. Whatever higher powers have been overseeing Crawlers’ journey to this point have been adamant to not give them an easy ride. At the end of the day, though, they are here. In The Mess We Seem To Make, they’ve got a very successful, very solid album under their belts, presented to a hometown crowd on an end-of-year tour to make every exhausting step Crawlers have had to take seem worth it.

Joining them is…well, it’s hard to say, seeing as both Softcult and Slowly Slowly have been bandied around in equal measure from different sources, almost up to the minute of the actual show. It winds up being the latter in the end (hence the bold-type), who might’ve flown under the radar since their late-2010s work, but still have a decent bit about them. For one, they a lot poppier now, with their previous emo and pop-punk guises transmogrified into all-purpose emo-pop. With that comes the feel of a band a lot less green than your average opener, plainly refined over time. Down to Ben Stewart’s chipper (sometimes cheeseball) demeanour and his impressively energetic showing, there are road miles racked up beneath Slowly Slowly that haven’t chipped away at a good, clean sound. A perfect example is Nothing On, held firm in its glittery alt-pop while still finding time to throw in a spiralling outro that—especially from drummer Patrick Murphy—has its technique really nailed down. The competence shines through greatly, in borderline surprising magnitude.

They even get a bit of positive acknowledgment, too, but that’s handily tossed aside by the time Crawlers arrive. There’s a certain prickle in the air indicative of just how devotion factors in, mirrored in a between-song playlist boasting the likes of My Chemical Romance, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX. If you’re not getting a bead on Crawlers’ demographic from that—a nebulous melange of 2000s emo and couldn’t-be-more-contemporary TikTok savvy—you’ll certainly catch the stars they’re shooting to be amongst. Frontwoman Holly Minto feels as though she’s trying to will that into existence all on her own, the always-on focus on Crawlers’ operation with her triple-threat of glam attire, exaggerated gesticulating and sonorous belt. Among a combined younger generation and a hometown crowd, she might be the most tangible thing to a rockstar imaginable.

You can scoff if you want, and decry Crawlers as just another indie band awarded high-speed traction by birthright, but that just doesn’t seem right. Like, objectively. You’d be able to tell if this were shoddy or makeshift in any undignified way, but it isn’t. If anything, Crawlers are already fully-formed, boasting a sound with this full-bodied weight that’s such a refreshing quality for indie-rock. Among that, the statuesque presences of guitarist Amy Woodall and bassist Liv May lend to the strength, as the stoic extremes for Minto to ricochet between. With the way they present themselves, there’s a clear wave of importance running through Crawlers that they take every opportunity to lap up. The punk thrum of I Don’t Want It or Minto’s journey into the crowd to get amongst the jumpy hook of Would You Come To My Funeral are just its added effects, if anything.

Of course, a nice dollop of hometown glory doesn’t hurt, either. There’s definitely a feel of homecoming in the air, not just from the grin plastered on Minto’s face for how clearly thrilled she is to be headlining a venue she used to walk past everyday. No, it’s something bigger than that, and more special. When the pace eases back for Golden Bridge—primarily anchored in piano and the whiskiness coaxed out of Minto’s voice—there’s a stillness representative of gratitude and candour. Crawlers are by no means the first band to have this in their arsenal, but they utilise it as well as anyone else. Doubling down later by bringing a fan onstage to play guitar on Messiah, they’re the kind of big beats that’ll wind an audience over with impressive ease.

Not to denigrate the efforts of the music itself, mind, because that’s certainly of most importance. As of now, Crawlers catalogue is resoundingly stacked, perhaps not with insta-recognisable anthems just yet, but there’s still plenty. Most pleasingly, they’re continuing to erode any ‘TikTok band’ accusations with systematic swiftness. In no way does this band feel beholden to an algorithm, not when they’ve already got a diverse little pool of styles that they’re happy to dip into. Kiss Me is the stomp-along indie rager; Better If I Just Pretend is held aloft by riff-rock gusto; new song Afraid To Die even toys around with some post-punk. It’s all wrapped in a coating that’s decidedly Crawlers, which already feels like a hallmark of a band with real sure-footedness in their aspirations. Make no mistake—Crawlers will be huge, more so than they already seem to be. Right now, they just seem to have everything going for them, and it’s paying off in such a noteworthy way. Even to the point where Come Over (Again) has to be the designated closer as their most commercial song, Crawlers stand as so, so much more than that.

Words by Luke Nuttall

Photos by Sarah Grace (Instagram)