Based on what you know of frontman and driving force Shane Greenhall, you get the sense that everything he’s done over the past decade has been leading to this moment. When he sings the lyric in “No Surrender” — “if you want to achieve, you gotta believe” — it feels like a mission statement rather than just a line. Because believe he clearly does. Everyone involved does.
And with good reason. Those Damn Crows have a number one album, a rabid following, and a live show that now feels every inch the arena spectacle they’ve been building toward. Greenhall says at one point, “I’m gonna keep saying it because I’m very proud as fuck,” and he’s right to be. This is a band in full flight.
They open with “Dancing With the Enemy”, one of the high points from “God Shaped Hole”, before rolling straight into the equally explosive “Man on Fire.” It’s a clear statement — this is a set that looks forward, not back. There’s very little from the first two albums, with the focus on their more recent material.
“Dreaming” adds a little texture, a power ballad that shows a band willing to stretch, and the twin solos of David Winchurch add real class. Before playing it, Greenhall talks about “The Night Train,” a song that came to him in a vivid dream — and perhaps that’s fitting, because he’s been living another dream ever since.
When they do dip into their early days with “Who Did It,” he conducts the crowd like a preacher with his congregation. He’s a born frontman — part rock star, part ringleader, all heart. Then comes “Still,” which he plays solo, calling it the hardest song he’s ever written, before returning for “Fake” and sitting at the piano for the absolutely massive “Blink of an Eye.” A stadium filler if ever there was
Incredibly, things only lift from there. “Go Get It” feels like another anthem of self-belief — a song that could have been written as a letter to themselves — and “Sin on Skin” sees Greenhall head up to the balcony, joking about the stairs but never losing a note. “This Time I’m Ready” follows, and when he laughs, “I’m not ready at all,” you sense he might have underestimated how many stairs there were.
As ever they don’t bother with an encore — to their eternal credit — but instead close the night with “See You Again.” It’s their “Livin’ On a Prayer” moment if you will, the sort of song that unites a room and leaves every arm in the air. When the crowd roars back “We are Those Damn Crows!” one last time, you realise something important: this isn’t a band on the way up anymore. This is a band already there.
Five lads from Bridgend took on the world — and tonight in Birmingham, it looked like they’d won. This was an arena show in all but name. And if you’re betting on whether they’ll headline one soon? Don’t bet against them.
