St Georges Day can mean only one thing, a battle of the Spiders at Signature Brew in London’s Haggerston, giving me a second chance to see Spyder Byte 8 years or so after the last one, opening for the mighty Black Spiders who are on tour to promote Cvrses the band’s latest album. It’s now over 27 years since I first saw Black Spiders main man Pete Spiby performing in Groop Dogdrill opening for, among other bands, The Cramps.
Black Spiders @ Signature Brew
We arrived after Spyder Byte had started and like the last time I saw them Daniel Lawrence was screaming Hey a lot at the top of his lungs, wailing guitar solos wrapped in scarves for Black Velvet Love. They Won’t Let Go of that sleaze metal sound, Whose On The Run they ask well some of us run from widdly solos. They closed by covering Motley Poo’s Kick Start My Heart and sounding far closer to the record than Motley Crue did last time I suffered them live.
After the break it was time for the 5 headed riff monster that is The Black Spiders who opened with the statement of intent of Never Enough the triple guitar attack building a wall of riffing guitars for Pete Spiby to yell here we come at us. Stabbed In The Back was full of the pain of betrayal and a monster of a riff.
The bands classic Sorry Not Sorry was a full on punching the air anthem live. Wyatt Wendell’s huge powerful drums led them into Fly In The Soup as a storm of guitars raged away. The next song felt appropriate after the band had some severe trouble the night before trying to get into the band’s hotel for the night, it was stuck behind a police road closure making Up All Night seem more relevant, even if the song is about going out and staying out partying all night long.
It was no surprise they had some fun at the start of Tom Petty’s Lips they all wanted to kiss those lips with the butchest heaviest riffs they can muster. How big are the bands Balls well judging by the riff that goes with the song they are humungous. For No Superman Pete put his guitar down for most of the song showing a slightly more sensitive side, the song built and built so the humanity they seek can be discussed in the lyrics. They had a proper dust up on Stay Down as most of the audience chanted the chorus with them, whatever you do know when enough is enough.
One thing the band were certain about was that they had The Mofo Sauce and were ready to dish it out as required, at top volume and a hell of a pace. When you know everything is done all that is left is to Go and they made clear how much the object of this song really needed to Go. They revved up their hogs to blast our minds with Hot Wheels that had flame decals and a twin turbo exhaust that breathed fire when revved up enough. Pete then introduced the rest of the Black Spiders that led into a totally furious Rat Is A Rat.
Considering they were in one of the London boroughs most plagued by knife crime, Teenage Knife Hand could easily have been about goings on in the alleys around the venue. It was full throttle guitar action before they closed the show with Kiss Tried To Kill Me, a song about goings on in Springfield and the effect they had on Pete, this was a great full on set of no nonsense hard rock.
Live review of Black Spiders @ Signature Brew, Haggerston by Simon Phillips on 24th April 2025. Photography by Louise Phillips.
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