Arrow De Wilde is an absolute terror on a microphone. At the age of just 23, she’s already perfected her act. It’s like she was born for this, like a natural who never had to practice or study anything at all, drawing on influences that seem to range from Iggy Pop to Donita Sparks to 80s glam metal to whatever you might have picked up watching Silent Hill stoned. When Starcrawler’s guitars start up like Wolfmother-meets-Wall-Of-Sound, De Wilde becomes frenetic, strutting, screaming, writhing, and wreaking utter havoc across whatever space she has to use, her blonde mane a winding maelstrom atop her almost six-foot frame.
It’s hard to look away from the mayhem even for a moment, at a Starcrawler show. At Underground Arts last week, the LA-based crew played some two dozen songs, drawing evenly from their three studio records – from as recently as this Fall’s She Said and stretching back to their 2018 self-titled debut – and peppering in a couple covers including a Ramones’ tune and Roger Alan Wade’s “If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough.”
Still on tour behind the new record, they’ll swing through Texas, Oklahoma, and a few dates in the midwest before landing back in their Hollywood home for a New Year’s Eve show in LA.
Review and Photography by: Joshua Pelta Heller