Tom McCrae Live Review by Rob Johnson in SHeffield
Indulge me in a confession. When I was a teenager, when many of my peers were listening to terrifying gangster rap and talking to girls, me and my more sensitive friends would park up at our local lake, and listen to sad, acoustic music with our eyes closed. While these self-pity sessions weren’t limited to one artist, Chelmsford singer-songwriter Tom McCrae was one of the main components. His self-titled first album, maudlin and beautiful, tortured and prescient, was a foundational record for me. It taught me that it’s okay to have dark thoughts, normal even. When I heard McCrae was playing a ‘secret’ show (it had been advertised a little through social media) at Sheffield’s tiny Sidney and Matilda, I knew that despite having nobody to go with, despite it being absolutely freezing and despite the show being in another city, I had to attend…
Now, I like a lot of McCrae’s later output; his latest single, ‘Kick It All into the Fire’, is a banger, but nothing has resonated with me as much as his debut record. As he has a wide range of albums to choose from, and this was my first time seeing him, I wasn’t sure how many songs from that first record I’d be treated to. What happened next was almost too good to be true.
McCrae and his band take to the tiny stage in what is essentially the back room of a pub (but a fine pub nevertheless), and begin with the song that started it all – first album opener ‘You Cut Her Hair’. Having been immediately represented in the first song of the set, I am cautiously optimistic that this album, which means so much, is to be featured heavily throughout; regardless of the setlist, however, Tom and the band sound incredible.
Despite receiving most of his plaudits for his lyrics, McCrae’s voice has always been his secret weapon, and he soars in such a small space here. When the band then tear into ‘End of the World News (Dose Me Up)’, the second track from the first album, the first shoots of realisation begin to take hold in my tiny brain. Hang on… is he about to play the first album in full? My god, he is. The latter song ends with the crowd split down the middle and assigned a part of the song to sing in harmony with the band. We’ve only been here five minutes, and already we’ve had a moment.
From there, McCrae plays that incredible first album from start to finish, in order, with a full band (complete with cellist), and by God, it’s magical. The intro to ‘Bloodless’, one of the most beloved songs on the album, leads to audible gasps from the crowd, despite the fact we all know its coming, ‘Boy With the Bubblegun’, complete with an incredible rock ‘n’ roll outro, brings the house down, ‘Hidden Camera Show’, concluding with an almost unbearably powerful crescendo, serves as a reminder, if one were needed, of just how good a record McCrae’s debut album is.
Later, ‘A & B Song’, perhaps the darkest song on the album, takes on a new meaning when performed live. Indeed, many of the songs here are given a new lease of life with McCrae and his band often adding small musical flourishes not present on the record, and this, combined with the singer’s sardonic patter between songs (‘it’s not as cold as the chambers of my heart’ he laments to one wag in the crowd at one point) helps this feel like a real performance. This is more than just a guy singing a bunch of old songs, as we see when a visibly emotional McCrae has to sit down during a haunting rendition of ‘Untitled’.
A dizzyingly excellent ‘Sao Paulo Rain’ crashes around the venue next before ‘I Ain’t Scared of Lightning’, the last track from his debut album, offers a rare glimpse of hope. It’s a fitting end to an incredible performance of an incredible record. McCrae bemoans the fact that many of those songs are wrought with cynicism and despair, but pointedly thanks the crowd for making him feel less alone when he sings them. It’s a touching call to arms that clearly resonates with those in the room.
The evening ends with an incendiary run through of fan favourite ‘Karaoke Soul’ and a heartfelt rendition of ‘Silent Boulevard’ from McCrae’s third album All Maps Welcome.
I’ve been to hundreds of gigs over many years, but seldom have any of them left me with a feeling that the show I had just witnessed was just for me. And while I know that isn’t the case, just evoking that feeling at all is enough. Quite simply, an unforgettable evening.
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