Live Review: The Came, They Saw, They Conquered. Starcrawler live in Sydney 20.07.2022

Europe is on fire, but in Sydney it’s freezing and the rain is bucketing down. The soggy crowd slinks into the Oxford Art Factory. Starcrawler are the headline act tonight, supported by the amazing Voiid, who inject a good dose of zest into the subdued audience.

Next thing, the lights go down and Starcrawler hit the stage. Immediately the venue is crackling with electricity (and it’s not from the storm outside.) Arrow de Wilde is statuesque and beautiful and she throws herself around the stage with abandon. She’s like the punk lovechild of Iggy Pop and Nadia Comaneci – fearless, with the astounding ability to contort her body into impossible positions.

Not to be outdone, Henri Cash shreds his guitar as he twirls, warps and hurls himself around like a mini tornado. The audience ignites and the mosh responds in kind, a girl crowd surfs her way onto the stage and then joins Starcrawler, head banging her way through a song.

There is a moment of brief hilarity when it emerges that the crowd surfer has lost her favourite blue headband in the mosh pit. De Wilde and Cash momentarily stop their onslaught and try to recover the lost item, initially to no avail, but then, later it is somehow found!

The band thrash on, whilst de Wilde and Henri Cash are the focal point, Tim Franco, Seth Carolina and Bill Cash provide the steady backbeat allowing the two wild children to entrance the crowd with their outrageous behaviour.