Review: Those Damn Crows, Support James Bruner

The Drill, Lincoln (May 19^th, 2025)

Reviewer / Photographer – Dan Mann

This was only my second visit to The Drill in Lincoln, and once again the venue really impressed me. Decent lighting & sound, good layout etc. I was certainly not alone, apart from my fellow togs, there place was packed, as Crows frontman Shane Greenhall said “on a Wednesday too!”

The support was a gentleman by the name of James Bruner with his band. I’ll be honest and say from the off that I’d not heard of him before, but a quick Google before he took to the stage revealled that he was visiting from Nashville, and he was a blues rock singer/songwriter.

Now I’m certainly partial to that particular genre, so I was certainly interested in seeing him perform.

Now, if you’re going to open for Those Damn Crows, you’d better have a bit of energy! And energy James & Co delivered. An enjoyable set, and I’d like to see him play a longer set in the future, certainly someone to keep an eye on.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Set List:

Switchblade

Endless

Eye in the Sky

Wait for You

Alibi

Red Light

Hotshot

Better Says

And so to the the headline act.

For those of you who’ve not experienced Those Damn Crows live, the levels of energy emitted by frontman Shane Greenhall, which in turn is returned in spades by the crowd, is immense. This is what being a great frontman is all about. 

It’s not as though the band had to work hard to get the crowd on side, the crowd were avid fans, singing along to every song, singing the chorus’ back to the band in full voice. Mind you, it’s not like the band took the day off performance wise, I’ve never seen them do so, they’re always hell bent in delivering the goods! 

We certainly weren’t short changed setlist wise neither, with fourteen songs in the set, and those fourteen songs just flew by. 

The evening’s performance once again highlighted just why the boys from Wales are one of the best UK rock bands around, and they’re rise in stature certainly has their live performances to thank!

Roll on the next time they hit the road…

(click on photos to enlarge)

Setlist:

1. Let’s Go Psycho!
2. Man on Fire
3. Find a Way
4. Kingdom of Dust
5. Blink of an Eye
6. No Surrender
7. Glass Heart
8. Dreaming
9. Who Did It
10. Sin on Skin
11. Go Get It
12. This Time I’m Ready
13. See You Again
14. Rock ‘n’ Roll Ain’t Dead!

© All photographs are copyright of Dan Mann/RPR Photography. They may not be altered or used without express permission.