Live Review: Creeper – When The Sun Comes – The Roundhouse, London

Camden Town has been home to the misunderstood and misfits for years now and I couldn’t think of a more suitable setting for Creeper to put on their ‘When The Sun Comes’ special event. Taking over the city with their Haunt during the day with the excitement building up to a performance at the prestigious Roundhouse, the atmosphere in the air that day was electric. Here’s what unfolded!

Enchanting the crowd first was Zetra. An eccentric metal outfit with a stage performance to match their unnerving aesthetic. Dancers draped in red ritualistic robes took to the stage as music loomed over The Roundhouse before two corpse paint-wearing artists took their places to lay down an unholy ritual in Camden Town. Gloom, doom and moody is how I’d explain this set. A mix of black metal and soothing melodies created an eerie feel that built atmosphere and suspense. Everyone in attendance ended up giving the band their full attention and I think this was a perfect start to a night of ungodly music.

Following that was the more conventional Bad Nerves. High-energy punk was what was on offer during this set and the Creeper Cult loved it. Mosh pits broke out and a lot of the crowd seemingly knew a lot of the band’s material as you could hear them echoing the words back to the band. As main support, your job is to get the room ready for the headliner and Bad Nerves did that and then some. Their intense and explosive set captivated the hearts and minds of the sold-out Roundhouse and everyone was eagerly awaiting Creeper’s arrival.

As the lights went out, Creeper took their places for their biggest headline show to date. Exploding onto the stage with ‘VCR’, the entire room was alive and bouncing. ‘Born Cold’ enticed the crowd to get their vocal cords warmed up, while ‘Suzanne’ results in chaos in the form of mosh pits and crowd surfers.

The theatrical nature of Creeper lends itself nicely to their live shows and tracks such as ‘Annabelle’, ‘Be My End’ and especially ‘Cyanide’ which benefited from this. The piano opening to ‘Hiding With Boys’ generated a beautiful sing-along moment that captured the love and admiration the fans had for the band which was matched by the energy they gave off during ‘The Honeymoon Suite’.

For all of those lovers in attendance, ‘Thorns Of Love’ followed by both ‘Napalm Girls’ and ‘Midnight’ would have been a great opportunity to show some affection while the entire crowd sang their hearts out around them. ‘Ghosts Over Calvary’ Brought the energy levels elevated massively while ‘Crickets’ had the entire room swaying along to an Emotional vocal delivery from Hannah.

What is a rock show without a drum solo? This smoothly transitioned into ‘Down Below’ which unsurprisingly gave the crowd their second wind and had the sold-out crowd moving once more. ‘Valentine’ was followed by ‘Black Mass’ before ‘Lie Awake’ was unfortunately aborted and restarted after an incident involving a crowd surfer getting injured. This show saw two live debut’s and the first one was a highly emotional one. ‘All My Friends’ got its first-ever live outing and the fans helped Will along as best they could as he gave everything he had to this performance.

Kicking off the Encore was ‘Black Moon’, yet another live debut and it went down a treat! ‘Astral Projection’ would follow before Creeper’s Emo anthem ‘Misery’ was the last song performed; however this was not the end of the action. As the band were leaving the stage Will was brutally attacked by a Vampire, before said vampire re-emerged from the shadows with the decapitated head of Will. Signalling the end of the Sex, Death and the Infinite Void era of the band.

As far as shows go, this night was one of those nights you’ll be saying “I was there” for years to come. A truly special night that lived up to all expectations and then some. Creepers are quickly raising their status in the Rock scene and with performances like this, It’s clear to see why!