Source: Kennerdeigh Scott
Camden’s Electric Ballroom. It’s very rare that a band manages to play here on their first album alone, even rarer that they manage to sell it out when doing so. Creeper have managed both feats, and whether it’s because their debut album Eternity, In Your Arms is brilliant, or based on the strength of the touring bill they have put together, the queue to get in before doors even opened was down the street and round the corner way past Camden Market.
Up first were recent Spinefarm signings Puppy. It’s a particularly good sign for a band if quite a few people turn up to watch them, even though they’re on 15 minutes after the doors open on a Thursday evening. There is every chance that many of said people were only getting in early to get a good spot to watch the rest of the evening, but Puppy’s stellar performance is bound to have resonated with some people who otherwise would have missed a band just on the cusp of doing something really great. Puppy’s massive, hulking riffs and infectious choruses almost sounded too big to be contained by The Electric Ballroom, and the fact that they were clearing having the best of times evoked such an air of happiness that even their harshest critic would be hard pressed not to crack a smile.
Source: Kennerdeigh Scott
Unfortunately Energy, coming over all the way from Boston, Massachusetts weren’t quite up to the same level. Their lively, punky hardcore was a welcome addition to the bill and pushed people to up the energy after Puppy’s more laid-back set, but it was the awkward pauses and silences and forced stage banter between songs that completely killed whatever excitement Energy managed to garner whilst playing. They were at least good, but on such a stellar bill “good” just wasn’t good enough.
Source: Kennerdeigh Scott
When it was announced that Milk Teeth would be main support to Creeper on this tour the general consensus was: “Yep, that’s exactly what we all wanted, thank you!” Unsurprisingly due to their main support status they had both the biggest crowd and the biggest crowd engagement so far, but it was far from undeserved. There’s something so effortlessly cool about Milk Teeth that it’s really hard not to want to be in the band – in fact Becky Blomfield is such a great musician, outstanding performer, and all-around Top Human that we really hope there were young women in the audience who felt inspired by her (and Creeper keys/vocalist Hannah Greenwood) and form their own punk rock band. Milk Teeth are a band destined for unquestionably great things based purely on the fact that they’re really really fucking good.
Sometimes you manage to catch a band just as they are about to go absolutely supernova-massive. Creeper already managed to get their debut album in the top-20, and sold out The Electric Ballroom on the back of it, and the number of people wearing Callous Heart-emblazoned merch was beyond counting.
Source: Kennerdeigh Scott
As soon as the lights dimmed and the crowd was illuminated by Creeper’s LED crosses you could tangibly feel the energy in the room skyrocket. From the very moment they came on Creeper had the crowd in the palm of their hand, and delivered a performance worthy of so much more than The Electric Ballroom on a Thursday evening. Songs like ‘Suzanne‘ and ‘Down Below‘ simply cannot be contained in any venue, and Creeper managed to not just give the crowd the songs, but delivered them absolutely impeccably. The entire band’s vocals were on point, not least Will Gould and Hannah Greenwood, the latter of whom dropped a sublime performance of ‘Crickets‘. Will is a superb frontman: energetic, theatrical, humble and above all a truly great singer.
You could barely even hear the band when it came to the singalongs to ‘Misery‘ and ‘I Choose To Live‘, and Creeper taking the time before the latter to stress the importance of mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention, as Becky from Milk Teeth did in the set before, is not just a nice thing to do, it may have been vital for some of those in the audience to hear.
Source: Kennerdeigh Scott
A lot of hyperbole is being thrown out about Creeper at the moment, but based on that one show, it is entirely justified. Anyone who doubts the quality of the album should definitely catch Creeper live, which shouldn’t be difficult – Creeper have sold out The Electric Ballroom on their first album, and it feels like they are definitely nowhere near finished with us.
The Creeper Cult is here to stay.
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