Creeper at Halloween. It just sounds right, doesn't it? But ahead of a sold-out appearance at Manchester's O2 Ritz, the band's "Vampire Familiar" Darcia sets the record straight, striding out on-stage for an introduction.
"I bet you're wondering what Creeper have in store for this special Halloween show..." she starts. "Absolutely nothing. It's Creeper; it's always Halloween around here."
Sure enough, Britain's favourite goth-metal-punks do have a certain element that screams "Halloween" every time you flick on a song. Whether it's the Misfits croon of Lovers Led Astray, the gloriously overblown Meat Loaf batshittery of Further Than Forever or even spooky Britpop of Cyanide, theirs is a 24/7 spooky party that only seems to get bigger with each passing year.
The Ritz is packed to the rafters, ghouls, vampires, goths and at least one Billy The Puppet turning out for the sorta-homecoming, vocalist Will Gould having moved to the city a few years back from the band's birthplace in Southampton. Coming the night after Creeper's big Wembley gig, you might think this is more of a cooldown, but Manchester soon prove that wrong.
"You might be the loudest crowd we've ever had," Will admits as chorus after chorus gets roared back en masse. Leaning hard on last year's Vampire-opera opus Sanguivore, there's a sense of scale and assuredness to the show that leaves no mystery to how Creeper have become one of Britain's favourite cult bands, let alone bagged Metal Hammer's album of the year in 2024.
These songs were designed for mass consumption and even with a reduced production - Wembley had dancers and blasts of pyro - the set feels absolutely massive. Older tunes like Be My End and Down Below deliver punk zeal, but its Broadway-sized tunes like More Than Death and Teenage Sacrifice that own the night.
An acoustic interlude from Hannah Greenwood sees Crickets and Ghosts Over Calvary once again prove she is the band's not-so-secret weapon, stepping away from the keyboards and taking on a fronting role. But she's not the only star player; guitarists Ian Miles and Lawrie Pattison delight in showing off dual guitar harmonics and massive, grandstanding solos, while drummer Jake Fogarty enjoys a solo to complete the megadome rock experience.
By Misery, the crowd are singing along with such passion that the band just step away and let them take the last couple of choruses acapella. With the thundering Cry To Heaven closing out the set, Creeper once again cement their status as one of the most exciting bands in Britain, celebrating the end of the show by Darcia showering the crowd using Will's "severed head" prop.
Even with fan-favourite tunes like Hiding With Boys and Susanne absent from the set, Creeper have built the kind of experience that makes rock utterly magic. While they've previously wrapped up cycles with dramatic Halloween-set events - the "end of band" announcement that marked the end of Eternity, In Your Arms or the "decapitation" that marked the end of Sex, Death And The Infinite Void - there's an inkling that even if Creeper are by no means done with Sanguivore just yet. With shows booked up to August next year with Bloodstock - whatever they do next should be massive.
Creeper Setlist O2 Ritz Manchester 31/10/2024
Further Than Forever
Lovers Led Astray
Sacred Blasphemy
Be My End
The Ballad Of Spook & Mercy
Teenage Sacrifice
Down Below
Crickets
Ghosts Over Calvary
Black Heaven
Chapel Gates
Cyanide
Astral Projection
More Than Death
Annabelle
Misery
Cry To Heaven
