Free at Noon Flashback: Starcrawler hit hard at World Cafe Live

Starcrawler | photo by Emily DeHart for WXPN

LA hard rock band Starcrawler visited World Cafe for today’s Free at Noon and delivered a punchy set of new and old material. The young outfit, which includes frontwoman Arrow de Wilde, guitarist Henri Cash, bassist Tim Franco and drummer Austin Smith, formed in 2015 and released their self-titled debut on Rough Trade Records in 2018. Earlier this year, they released the singles “She Gets Around” and “Pet Sematary” (a Ramones cover), both of which they performed today.

The Free at Noon set found Starcrawler at their most theatrical — after three band members had already entered and set up their instruments, de Wilde stumbled onto the stage in a daze, wearing a tattered white dress covered in smudges and bloodstains. Throughout the set, she remained distant and never revealed much of her mysterious character’s persona to the audience; she never spoke, and a few times she collapsed onto the floor, lifeless. Although de Wilde and Cash have never been afraid to scream, some of their songs were predominantly melodic and sounded more akin to heavy alt rock than hardcore — including “Hollywood Ending” and a brand new song whose title the band did not reveal.

Starcrawler will be on tour throughout the US and Europe this summer, and they play Union Transfer tomorrow night.