The moon peeped through the Pyramid Centre skylight, the Spinnaker Tower held vigil over calm seas and The Cribs rocked out the harbour. It was the final night of their whistle stop tour for their 6th album For All My Sisters and go gently into that goodnight they did not. The Wytches, a heavy psychedelic rock band from Brighton, supported The Cribs on the night. The shaggy haired four-piece alternated between melancholy shoe gazing and screamy head banging, the latter enough to induce some sore throats and whiplash.
The Jarmans were at ease from the start, nonchalantly walking on stage whilst getting pelted with beer and exploding with ‘I’m A Realist’. The Wakefield trio kicked off eight minutes late, it seems a decade-and-some-change of a no-fuck attitude doesn’t value punctuality. The venue wasn’t operating at capacity but that only served to separate the wheat from the chaff, all in attendance were the diligent sort to sing every word, dance and mosh till the last. How very exhausting.
Gary Jarman told the crowd it was the last night of the tour, and where better to end it than Portsmouth. Southampton maybe? Anyway, whilst he and his brothers were soaked in purple neon they gave a boisterous rendition of ‘Different Angle’ a standout tune from their new record. That was breathlessly followed by ‘Come On, Be A No-one’ from 2012s In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull. For this one, Ryan Jarman enlisted the help of the audience into which he threw his mic, giving a few revellers their live debut. They weren’t half bad! The pompey party was then treated to another …Sisters track in ‘Burning For No-one’, a pop infused punk ditty and the records’ first single.
‘Another Number’ has been a mainstay on their stacked playlist for thirteen years and this night would be no different, ‘oooo’s rung around a boucning pyramid. The bass-y intro for 2007s ‘Be Safe’ shook the joint with hands firmly placed in the air clapping; the cynicism of the lyrics was belied by the multitude in house arm in arm screaming along. The Cribs twins were lively loquacious and loose throughout and made the night of one Matthew Wilkinson when they picked up his drivers licence and serenaded him with some askew Beatles ‘Baby I can drive your car/ love your girlfriend’.
The rowdy crowd was sent into rapture with the scuzzy ‘Mirror Kissers’ and didn’t let up; The Cribs swiftly riffed into ‘Men’s Needs’ to continue the vivacious frenzy. They brought the house down with Ross Jarman spending as much time mounted on his drums as he did smashing it with a stick. Gary Jarman followed suit atop the amps, the brothers were figuratively and literally on quite the high.
‘Pink Snow’ was the swansong for the night and for the nationwide tour. The venue was bathed in a pink glow whilst a softly spoken Ryan Jarman and some spectral reverb got the song off to its slow burn. But time and again the 7-minute epic was ramped up to anarchic crescendo. The brothers left the sound as feedback reverberated around the adulation.
