Creeper. Live at the Institute Birmingham review (4/1217)

The name of this tour 'The theatre of fear' left me wondering a lot about from my first time seeing Creeper. Would it be a circus style show with fire breathers, dancers and magic tricks (like the time I saw Bentley Rhythm Ace?) or something entirely different? Throughout all the supports (the only one I caught was Can't Swim- who were pretty decent) was a banner proclaiming the show to be a world fair from 50 years ago. 'The Theatre of Fear' began ominously with (spoiler alert) people walking around the pitch black stage shining torches, as the intro spoken on the PA became more and more distorted. The eponymous purple suited James Scythe was there to warn us all that not all was what it seemed, and that we should beware of the ghoulish figure haunting the fair, before the ghoul itself was revealed with its eyes shining bright white spotlights over the audience. The plot of all this was quite irrelevant of course as bells and whistles or not Creeper can still put on an amazing show. Maybe this wasn't the circus I imagined, but full credit is due to Creeper for putting the effort into making their shows that bit more special. I will remember this show in particular for the frenzied mosh-pits during 'Room 309' and the almost constant wave of crowd surfers that I had to lift over my head and the few accidental kicks I took to the head while doing it. Despite all the chaos Creeper fans are a loving bunch who are all happy to pick each other off the floor and saying sorry for kicking others in the head.
While Creeper are all great musicians Will Gould stands out as being a fantastic front-man. His voice sounding even better live and looking like the kind of Goth that all Goth's aspire to being. Keyboardist Hannah Greenwood had her own time to shine as her and Creepers guitarist led another sing-along of 'crickets' the fact that this acoustic ballad was a highlight of the show and not a low only further highlights the strength of Creeper's song-writing. The same was true for 'I choose to live' and after the inevitable encore 'Misery' as the whole audience belted out every word. '

There's a lot of fucked up things happening in this world' said Will towards the end. I think he was telling us to all be good to each other, yet I think he also highlights why bands like Creeper are needed. So we can have an hour or so of blissful escapism surrounded by like-minded souls.

9.2/10