As both a parent and a teacher I know that I shouldn’t have favourites. But SWG3 is starting to become one of my favourite venues in Glasgow. Maybe it’s the accessibility and quality of sound. Maybe it’s the fact that the staff on the guest list had my name scored out and my es ready before I even told them who I was. Maybe it was the doorman who grabbed a speeding food delivery twat who came close to colliding with people queuing to get in and gave them a few choice words. It’s definitely not the bar prices (ouch), but nobody’s perfect.
Despite ing the wrong queue initially (the venue has several sub-venues, oops), we were in swiftly and up front well in time for openers Moth Slut. Completely unprepared, we had no idea what to expect from what turned out to be a two-piece from Manchester: one guitar, one bass, two vocals. Drum beats and synths were provided by backing track / drum machine, but that’s not a complaint because they sounded incredible. Imagine The Mission and Joy Division had two babies, and those babies had a really shitty day / life and then sang about it.
Shouty, miserable, intense, entertaining. And very well dressed, too. Moth Slut appeared on stage looking like they could be rather pretentious, and turned out to be the kind of people who make that the perfect act, but allow their genuine humble-ness to show when engaging with the audience. Talking of the audience, Creeper are known for their “Cult” who follow them, and they seem to be a good bunch. This was very much on show as the grateful opening act were very well received, even getting a traditional “Here we fucking go” chant mid-set.
Honestly, if you’re into 80s darkwave or synth pop, then you need to give this pair a listen. Like… now.
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Cold Years could not have been more different. I do like an eclectic lineup, and we went from a very gothic act to a bunch from Aberdeen who has more in common with Green Day in of sound. While not quite as pop-punk as the famous trio, Cold Years have a punk edge with a lot of bounce. They also looked professional as anything, as tight a live band as I’ve seen. Comfortable, smiling and obviously in their comfort zone for their 30 minutes or so.
Not an act to waste time they rocked through their set, getting hands up in the air, audience clapping, and overall doing that “warm up act” job to a T. I’ll it that I found that many of their songs kicked off really well, then calmed down a little which meant that they dragged a tiny bit. However, I’d definitely be up for giving them a second chance once I’d had a chance to be more familiar with their material. Plus… I just liked them. I want them to do well because they looked like they were having so much fun up there and it was infectious.
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Creeper are a band I owe a review to. A couple of years ago they opened for Alice Cooper, but due to the usual traffic / work issues we missed them. Disappointing as I’d heard nothing but good things about them, and I vowed that I’d try and see them at some other time to make up. Finally, here we are.
Singer Will Gould has chops and bass notes like Elvis, and stalks the stage like Freddie Mercury. If you’re going to base your stage persona on someone, you may as well aim high. Add to these class acts an impressive skill chucking the microphone around and you have one hell of a frontman. Gould may be front and centre, but what impressed me about Creeper was the fact that it’s very much a six person machine, with all of them in the limelight. Got two decent singers in the band? Well, why have one of them stuck at the back, the usual domain of the keyboard player?
Hannah Greenwood doesn’t just harmonise on the backing vocals, there are a couple of songs where she detaches herself from the Yamaha and Gould disappears offstage, perhaps for a nice snifter of type O. In fact, I’d say one of the best songs of the show, “Crickets”, is one of hers. Backed by nothing but an acoustic guitar, this is a very emotive number and the one of several songs which highlight that Creeper are not a one-trick hell-and-horror pony.
Another was “More Than Death” which gave me actual tingles. Gould said that it was a hard song to sing, and one that took a lot out of him. Well, it was worth it. Apparently only due to be played at their London date on this 4-show whistle-stop tour, they added it to the list for all the shows and I’m very glad that did. If there’s a song tonight that made me a fan of the band… this is it.
With a mixture of goth, emo, synth, metal and probably a dozen other things I could come up with, Creeper are a wonderfully mixed package. More ingredients than a witch’s brew. They also put on a hell of a show without burying it in theatrics – the music is very much the focus.
Consider me a new member of the Creeper Cult!
