Review by Melanie Brehaut for MPM
Belfast has enjoyed a spate of bright, sunny days in the past few weeks, chasing away the shadows and forcing the darkness of winter to recede into memory. But wait – just when it seems like the light has settled in, along come Southampton horror punk rockers Creeper to inflict the dark doom of death upon us all. Fuck’s sake, Creeper…
First, the audience who crowd into Limelight 2 tonight are treated to opening act The Howling. It must be said that Creeper’s support acts can be a bit hit and miss in terms of being a good match, but The Howling burst off the starting block with opening track ‘Little Promises’ and it’s immediately clear they fit in with the headliners very well indeed, in terms of both sound and aesthetic. Sounding like a cross between the absolute peak of Kerrang emo circa 2005 and Placebo at their most jagged, they blast through their seven-song set with vigour, delighting the growing crowd.
Singer Mikey Lord commands attention as he struts around the tiny stage and passionately belts out each number; squint and he could be Gerard Way, or even Billie-Joe Armstrong. Musically the band are polished and cohesive, and are clearly enjoying playing to a new audience (“congratulate yourselves for coming out to check out the support act!” Lord enthuses part-way through their set).
A rather left-field but nonetheless enthusiastically received cover of Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’, followed by ‘The Murder Capital’ and the bruising ‘Unholy’ wrap up their set (“thank you Belfast, you were splendid!”).
The role of support act is often a thankless one, but judging by the amount of smiling faces in the room and the sudden queue at the merch stand, it’s clear that The Howling have gained several new fans tonight.
Creeper’s second visit to these shores as headliners begins with the highly camp intro ‘A Shadow Stirs’ from Sanguivore II (“rock and roll music is a horny vampire”) before they throw themselves headlong into title track ‘Mistress of Death’, and the crowd simply explodes. Frontman Will Gould (or ‘von Gould’, for the Sanguivore album cycle) is just mesmerising; lithe, black-clad and snake-hipped, he holds the crowd in the palm of his hand from the first moment he bursts onstage, complete with pirate-style eyepatch.
This particular tour is a bit different for the band, as they are playing only songs from Sanguivore parts I and II, so there’s none of the older crowd favourites. It’s a challenge the band have set themselves, and it takes guts, but they’re clearly relishing it, as they play the entire set with gusto and a real sense of pride and ownership.
The best parts of the set (and indeed, the albums) are the huge, enveloping choruses, such as during ‘Blood Magick’ (which keybordist Hannah Greenwood briefly takes charge of) and Headstones. Gould, as always, is having the time of his life onstage, unable to stop himself from breaking character and grinning broadly. He demands a circle pit at one stage and is delighted when the crowd complies, nodding in approval and holding the horns aloft. The crowd, for its part, are completely immersed in the Creeper experience, unable to stop themselves from headbanging, dancing, and bellowing along to the lyrics.
The midway change of page when Greenwood again takes centre stage for the slinky ‘Razor Wire’ is rapturously received, especially by the women in the crowd. That said, there is definitely a healthy amount of men in the room, too, far more than when they were in Belfast a few years ago. Clearly, Metal Hammer’s selection of Sanguivore as their album of the year in 2023 has introduced the band to more male listeners…welcome to the dark side, men!
For the last two songs of the main body of the set, the band airs bonus track ‘Love and Pain’ for the first time in Ireland, followed by the glorious ballad ‘More Than Death’; the ‘Misery’ of this tour, so to speak. There are goosebumps, there are tears… The latter is a brilliant showcase for Gould’s range as he flings himself around the tiny stage like the dying black swan in the famous ballet. They exit stage left for a beat or two, then return to a hero’s welcome for the genuinely epic ‘Further Than Forever’, followed by set closer ‘Cry to Heaven’. In between, Gould chats to the crowd about how their first headline show in Belfast was a test to see how viable it was to play here: “we were told it’s too expensive, don’t go there. But we decided ‘fuck that’, I wanna keep coming back”. Judging by the reaction of the crowd, they want that, too.
And so the band exit the stage for the last time and the house lights come up once again, releasing the crowd from the gloom. It is done. Gazing around at the faces of the fans, it’s clear that anyone who didn’t enjoy tonight’s show is either clinically dead, or simply not at one with the night. For those of us who are: fear not. Creeper will return, bringing the darkness with them.
Photography by MPM
