There’s all matter of phantasmagoria afoot this evening in Cardiff. Ghouls, goblins and vampires stalk the streets surrounding Tramshed as Creeper’s Off With Their Heads tour kicks off this evening in town. Main support for the Southampton band comes from post-hardcore rockers Calva Louise, whose frontperson Jess Allanic is genuinely impressive – switching effortlessly between singing and screaming, as well as guitar and keys.
A white curtain is pulled up across the stage during the changeover, as a presumably fictitious radio DJ spins classic rock bangers – before being interrupted by Creeper’s ‘vampire familiar’ Darcia, warning us of the presence of a shadowy, muscular woman, armed and dangerous… which sounds suspiciously like the band’s Mistress Of Death. Not many shows begin with a brutal axe murder, but this is Creeper, and as the Mistress herself hacks down an overzealous censor onstage, the curtain falls and Black Magick (It’s A Ritual) roars into life.
As expected, and as in their smaller Cardiff show in April, the main set is reserved for songs from Creeper’s two Sanguivore albums – but it’s the production that really matters tonight. The band are leather-clad vampires, there’s a throne covered in skulls, keyboardist and sometime singer Hannah Greenwood reappears on stage in a coffin before her powerful Razor Wire, the Mistress attempts to kill the band in a pantomime ritual, and singer Will Gould appears to drink blood from a wine glass after Black House. Blimey.
Piano ballad More Than Death makes for a beautiful moment before the main set finishes with Cry To Heaven, which absolutely goes off live. As the rest of the band file off, the Mistress reappears – along with a guillotine, used to execute Gould whose decapitated head is paraded around the stage.
The encore is drawn exclusively from 2017 debut album Eternity, In Your Arms: Black Rain, Suzanne and a very special Misery. “It is such a privilege to be back in Cardiff,” Gould tells us, during a brief pause; “you have always given us some of our favourite moments and tonight you have not disappointed!” A genuinely bonkers show; I loved every minute.
Creeper + Calva Louise, Tramshed, Cardiff, Thurs 8 Oct
words JOSHUA WILLIAMS photos NADINE BALLANTYNE
