So Much More Than Smoke and Mirrors! Gothic Punk Vampires Creeper Hypnotise the Crowd with a Mind-Blowing set of Horror Punk Rock Anthems at Chalk, Brighton!!

So Much More Than Smoke and Mirrors! Gothic Punk Vampires Creeper Hypnotise the Crowd with a Mind-Blowing set of Horror Punk Rock Anthems at Chalk, Brighton!!

Creeper are undoubtedly one of the most exciting bands on the UK music scene right now and when they took to the stage at the iconic Chalk on a rainy night in Brighton, they delivered a performance that can only be described as spectacular!! Fronted by the edgy Dracula-esque Will Gould, with Ian Miles on lead guitar, Lawrie Pattison on guitar, Sean Scott on Bass, Hannah Greenwood on keyboard and vocals and Jake Fogarty on Drums, Creeper are one of those bands that demand attention and tonight would be no exception!! For their audience of devoted fans, many of them wearing the same face paint as their idols, they are escapism, they are freedom, they are everything!

As the sounds of the iconic Rocky Horror Show track, ‘Time Warp’, rang out through the auditorium the atmosphere was electric and as Creeper burst onto the stage and exploded into ‘Cry To Heaven’, it was like the packed audience had been detonated as they morphed into a coven of rockin’ screaming goths and vampires!! When the the crowd becomes a mass of crowd surfers from the third song in, you know it’s going to be one hell of a gig!

Following the release of their critically acclaimed 2023 album ‘Sanguivore’, Creeper have gained the media attention that they so rightly deserve. They are band who have truly perfected their craft, they are effortlessly cool in matching biker jackets, their faces adorned with fake blood, but even if you took the theatrics and gothic drama out of the equation, Creeper would still be an exceptionally great band because as tonight proved, they are masters at delivering those big rock anthems! The kind of songs that make you smile, make you cry and make you sing along at the top of your lungs and sing we did!!! One of the best tracks of the night, was the incredible ‘Cyanide’! A song all about poisonous love, that had the audience singing along from the very first note!

Creeper are a force of nature from the dark side, that took their audience on an eclectic and beautiful journey on a ghost train full of dramatic twists and turns, exquisitely crafted songs with clever and sometimes naughty lyrics and choruses catchy as hell, these are the kind of songs that I defy you not to sing all the way home! ‘Cry to Heaven’ was a theatrical masterpiece that the late great ‘Meatloaf’ would have been proud of, a huge rock anthem of biblical proportions!

With support from Bristol based rockers ‘Naut’ who were shrouded under the cover darkness, making it impossible to see very much at all! In place of a drummer they had a drum machine which made them sound pretty flat, they seemed an unusual opener for a band of Creepers caliber. The second support of the night was from ‘Zetra’. A slightly mysterious London based synth-metal two piece. Again, they were shrouded in darkness, perhaps to add to the mystery, which was a shame as they looked just like they had stepped out of the movie Blade Runner! Their music was dark and heavy, it was just a shame that the audience could barely see them!

Gould absolutely killed the high notes and strutted around the stage like he owned the place, which of course he did! Working the crowd like a punk goth Freddie Mercury, whipping them into an emotional frenzy of euphoria! But despite Gould being an incredible frontman, what makes Creeper a cut above the rest is that as a band they take it to a whole new level!! Bouncing off each other, you don’t get tighter than this!! But the defining moment of this show was the final track of the night, the absolutely stunning ‘Misery’! Gould showed so much emotion whilst performing the track, pausing as the besotted audience sang the song back at him, his face etched with emotion, it was a really beautiful moment that could melt the coldest heart!

When Creeper left the stage, the applause was deafening and it wasn’t hard to see why! This is a band who just seem to go from strength to strength! I’ve no doubt that their journey into goth punk rock super stardom will continue and it’s going to be one hell of a rockin’ ride!

 

Words and Photos by Louise Phillips

creepercult.com

Setlist:

Cry To Heaven
Poison Pens
Lovers Led Astray
Hiding With Boys
Cyanide
Napalm Girls
The Ballad of Spook & Mercy
Teenage Sacrifice
Ghosts Over Calvary
Crickets
Down Below
Chapel Gates
The Honeymoon Suite
Annabelle
I Choose to Live

Encore:

Further Than Forever
Misery