Gig Review: Great Silence and The Crash Mats at Peggy McCools Warrington - Saturday 26 April 2025

Words: Richie Yates, Photos: Adrian Wharton/Richie Yates

Peggy McCools is rearing its head lately on the Northwest scene, we’re starting to see an increasing number of gigs emanating from there. It’s a rather pleasant small venue, lots of distractions with the walls covered in random art and a really friendly vibe.

The Crash Mats seem to have been around for as long as I can remember, their stoner ska utterances appearing as friendly and a bit shambolic hide quite well the fact that they are a genuinely tight band and when not hitting up comedic moments (TV theme tunes) have some great songs that groove along relentlessly. Their conga line moment is pure fun though ,they do still manage to get a full venue prancing around in a snake of happy people. Altogether a fun band and one that somehow manages to appear all over the show whilst actually being sharp.

Great Silence start up with ramblings from the band, they all have something to say and its funny and enjoyable banter, especially with 50% of them being on home ground. When they start to play though its a full on punked up charge with elements of everything from Stiff Little Fingers, Motorhead or Leatherface in there. Its mainly full throttle stuff, they do control the dynamics though with dropouts and slower moments whilst they are recharging their batteries. Its sometimes hard to catch who’s singing too, each band member can step in suddenly and take a line then they are all harmonising together and then another takes over, a pretty wonderful musical assault.