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Johnny Marr has been quite content the last few years
leaving The Smiths legacy in the past and releasing his creative juices with a
variety of projects. Most recently he has joined the trio of Jarman
brothers and is now an official member of The Cribs. With success under
their belt in their native U.K., The Cribs have brought their post-punk power
pop Stateside, to Wonder Ballroom in Portland, Oregon on Friday, January 29th.
 Evidently there must've been a few Smiths fans in the
crowd, as the annoying Verizon text message TV screen flashed, "Morrisey, we
love you!" (if they love him so much, you'd think they'd at least spell his
name correctly! - QRO live review)
prior to the start of the show. Not to be outdone, there were still others
in the crowd who could be heard saying, "the guitarist used to be in Modest
Mouse" (QRO album review).
Lead singer Ryan Jarman thanked the crowd for coming and
stated, "I thought it might be empty." Seeing as how half of the band
(bassist Gary as well as Johnny) now call Portland home, he should've known
that would be highly unlikely. Although the Wonder Ballroom balcony was
closed for this show, the band did fill 3/4 of the main floor.
Nearly half of the 105-minute set was devoted to The Cribs
latest  album, Ignore the Ignorant (QRO
review). The remainder of the set focused predominately on
their sophomore and junior albums, The New Fellas and Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever (QRO review). Ryan Jarman's
vocals sounded slightly bratty yet charmingly  English at the same time.
The band was clearly comfortable playing together and delivered a solid
performance. They genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves, and not a single
sibling rivalry antic occurred.
The band's intensity increased as the night wore on and the
crowd became fully engulfed in the band's performance half way through the
show. The energy remained throughout the evening's final note. An
encore wasn't even necessary. If The Cribs stick with what's working for
them, they're sure to win over some new fans at their upcoming Coachella
Festival appearance in April (QRO Festival Guide).
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