Black Spiders / Cellar Door Moon Crew – Legends, Edinburgh, Scotland, 25th November 2021

I arrive at the small entrance to Legends, and am greeted cheerily by several blokes and a couple of bouncers, who ask for the inevitable track and trace details. Formalities completed, we enter into the bar area and more smiles from several people. The actual venue is upstairs, and once inside, I find Cellar Door Moon Crew are in full flight…they are brothers…and are either identical twins, or do a fine sideline in self impersonation, with cropped hair, and big bushy beards. I’ve arrived part way through their set, but see a good 25 minutes, and from that what I witness a couple of energetic blokes playing some decent rock music.

I’ve seen several of these two man bands now and although the lack of bassist is compensated somewhat by the wonders of digital technology, I always find something lacking in this kind of set up. I think it’s the perfectly synced nature of the pseudo bass lines following the guitar part. Anyway, I know how hard it can be to find the right people, so I’m not going to belittle them for it. They finish their set with both brothers taking mics and, to the pounding of a pre-recorded beat, proceed to do a white boy rap battle, in a Beastie Boys kind of way.

I make my way to the front of the stage, and immediately have someone compliment my hair, which is always a great ego boost. As this is my first official press review, I’m displaying my photo pass on my leather, and whether it’s imagined or not, I feel a certain legitimacy to my presence – weird, but it made my job easier because of it.

Black Spiders take to the stage, and immediately rip into opener, Death Comes Creepin’ from new album, Black Spiders, quickly followed by the song which pretty much broke the band, and was later included on the debut album, Sons Of The North, namely St. Peter, which has the wonderful sing-along refrain “Lord Knows All The Trouble I’m In”, which duly has the first few rows belting it out. Pete Spiby is wearing a long fringed black shirt, and coupled with his long straight hair, bears a passing resemblance to a bearded Ozzy (more of that later). As a guitarist myself, I immediately notice that he is playing a Greco Les Paul, which are generally thought to be one of the better Les Paul clones, indeed these guitars have been used by such players as a certain Space Ace from Kiss.

Lead guitarist (Ozzy Lister) prowls around and throws out his lead lines with expert grace, whilst bassist (Adam Irwin), dances and bounces away like the best of them, whilst driving the songs along with purpose. New drummer (Wyatt Wendells), fits perfectly in this lineup, being both tight and flashy (stick twirls) at the same time. He also gains kudos points for an internally lit kit, which to my eyes is the way Rock ‘N Roll should be – i.e. a cut above the “normal”.

The set continues in barnstorming fashion with personal favourites, Stay Down and Stab In The Back, and it becomes clear that this is a proper good old fashioned sweaty club rock show. The kind of show that makes you a Rock fan in the first place, and the total antithesis of the enormo-dome soulless corporate twaddle peddled at places like the Hydro/ Wembley/NEC. I know it makes financial sense to run these big shows, but for my money, any venue larger than a couple of thousand loses the immediacy and urgency of Rock N Roll.

The first and only time I’d previously seen Black Spiders was a couple of weeks ago at Hard Rock Hell Festival in Great Yarmouth, the place was packed and heaving for their support set to The Wildhearts. It was fair to say that Black Spiders ran The Wildhearts very close to being band of the weekend, and given I’m a Wildhearts nutter, and they played one of the best sets I’ve witnessed, is some feat. Tonight’s venue is not quite as packed or heaving, but the band are professional enough to play the gig in exactly the same way, i.e. full on, sweating and thrashing about like there’s no tomorrow.

The rest of the set goes by in a blur of joy and cracking songs. The assembled crowd certainly respond with increasing enthusiasm, with more and more clapping and singing along, which ultimately culminated in a small pit (which wasn’t a great experience with my eye to my camera trying to get shots for this article). Pete takes off the guitar for a break before the finale and just rocks out with the mic- stand, before set closer, Kiss Tried To Kill Me fires up and the two brothers of Cellar Door Moon Crew make an appearance in the crowd, acting like fans and appearing to revel in the joy of the night.

A thoroughly enjoyable night, and if you get a chance to see Black Spiders, then don’t hesitate. Sadly the majority of the remaining dates on this tour had to be cancelled due to Spider catching COVID, but as the band put it on their announcement of the news “We are all as gutted as you, none more than him. We WILL ride again.” When they do you you should ride along.

Black Spiders self titled album is now available via Cargo Records & Bandcamp