Starcrawler: The Problem with L.A. Punk

When I arrived at the Rialto theater on Chicago's Southside for Boris’s highly anticipated “Amplifier Worship Service” tour,  I expected to come away ready to write a raving review of the punk trio’s performance. But while I was blown away by their set, the opening band, Starcrawler, left me with a deeper takeaway.

Starcrawler represents everything wrong with L.A. punk. 

By the end of Starcrawler's first song, it was clear that the tour was not going as expected. The band seemed tired and frustrated. Frontwoman Arrow De Wilde certainly looks the part of a lead singer, but her performance failed to impress the crowd. Opening for Boris would be a challenge for any band, but it looked from the band’s attitude that they had been playing to uninterested crowds for weeks. De Wilde tried to get the crowd engaged but it seemed like the audience had too little familiarity with their songs. My friends and I found ourselves questioning the choice of having them open for Boris and it appears that they were wondering the same thing. 

To be clear the problem with Starcrawler is not in their musicianship. I found the members all very competent and well-rehearsed. Their songs are pretty catchy and reasonably complex. Rather, I think the failure of Starcrawler lies in their sterile punk image. It is blatantly obvious that they are an L.A. Band. They were all dressed in 70s-inspired outfits, real urban cowboy-like.  From what I saw the band lacked any real chemistry. Starcrawler seems like a band put together by a record label to back the Joey Ramone-esque Arrow De Wilde who is the highlight of the band. 

For some reason, they had a few slow country tunes with some steel guitar parts. Now, I love steel guitar, but really? It seems like a pretty clear attempt to reach a more commercial audience. Country Music is trending right now and they are trying to ride that wave. Country and punk can be an awesome combination; think Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon’s “Prairie House Fire,” but this half-baked attempt at infusing punk and country comes off as forced. Speaking of forced, the bassist looked bored out of his mind. On the other end of the spectrum was the guitarist, who seemed desperate to win over the audience with guitar-playing flair. 

Overall I was unimpressed by Starcrawler, but as an opening act, they played their role just fine. It seems like the punk culture in L.A. is all about making it big and not about taking risks and trying to reinvent the genre. I understand that at some point, you need to put food on the table. Still, when I see a band desperately trying to get an audience to enjoy uninteresting music, I start to question if playing it safe is possible in punk. One thing is for sure though, playing it safe sure isn’t any fun.