Creeper + Calva Louise + Starbenders @ O2 Forum Kentish Town, London 9th October 2026
Whilst all Creeper shows are pretty outstanding, this one promises to be especially so, as I’m reliably informed that it’s being filmed! What rabbits will the band pull out of the hat tonight? We shall have to wait and see.
First, though, we are to be rocked to the very core of our being by not one but two support acts.
Starbenders
The first of these is Starbenders, who I saw at Patterns in Brighton this summer. How will they get on playing on a bigger stage? Very well, as it happens. Their crunching rock ‘n’ roll seems to score highly amongst the Creeper faithful.
Two-thirds of tonight’s set comes from their current album The Beast Goes On. Indeed, set closer Saturday gets the biggest response. This track starts with some tender guitar picking and has a hint of Stevie Nicks about it. It’s a classic in the making!
Calva Louise
Over the years I’ve heard really good things about Calva Louise, and in pretty short order I find out why. The band are a three-piece, but not in the classic sense. Boy, do they know how to multitask!
Vocalist Jess Allanic plays guitar and very complex keyboards, often at different points in the same song. Bassist Alizon Taho also plays synth. Meanwhile, drummer Ben Parker, well, he plays drums.
Opener Tunnel Vision has a classical-sounding keyboard intro (I’m sure Jess must be classically trained – her playing is amazing!), whilst the drums initially border on techno. That doesn’t last long, though. Jess does good growled vocals (I wouldn’t argue with her when she sounds like that), whilst at other times she sounds quite angelic.
Jess’s keyboards have a mechanism that makes the keyboard slide in front of her mic stand, which is pretty cool. As you can see, I’m easily impressed! It’s difficult to say whether keyboards or guitar are Jess’s main instrument. She’s very competent on both.
There’s a flavour of prog about W.T.F and some of the other songs too, but none of them seem to exceed the four-minute mark. So we’re not in Tales from Topographic Oceans territory.
Calva Louise are a difficult band to classify, which immediately endears them to me. Take El Umbral, for example. It starts off with a Latin feel, then there’s a hint of 1960s pop, but ultimately more than a hint of metal. However, to include all of those flavours in one relatively short song, and for it to sound natural rather than forced, is really impressive.
The band’s harmonies deserve a mention too, as they really are cool, especially in Hate in Me.
Whilst Calva Louise consider themselves to be a British band, they really are international. Jess is from Venezuela, Alizon Taho is French, whilst Ben Parker is from New Zealand. They all moved over to the UK separately, having been influenced by British music, and the band formed here.
Jess makes an impassioned speech about Venezuela and the troubles the country is experiencing. They play a song called La Promesa, which is in Spanish, and I suspect it relates to those troubles.
Ben Parker provides an explosive, drum-led intro to set closer Oportunista. Calva Louise display a cornucopia of musical influences and talent. I profess myself to be mightily impressed.
Creeper
Will Creeper be able to follow such a display? In a word, yes!
Although this tour is entitled Off With Their Heads!, it is, in essence, a continuation of the previous Sanguivore tour, with the entirety of the main set coming from the two Sanguivore albums.
That’s absolutely fine. They’re great albums, and the songs translate well to the live stage. I’m sure most of the Creeper faithful here tonight will have seen the previous tour, and what’s wrong with seeing great songs played live, no matter how many times you’ve seen them before?
The answer to that question is ‘nothing’, because Creeper put 150% into tonight’s performance. To a man and a woman, they play and perform as if their very lives depend on giving the most thrilling performance they possibly can.
For the interval, the stage is concealed behind a white screen. Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell blasts out of the PA, and unsurprisingly, the crowd sing along at full pelt. Choosing this song could be considered a tad disingenuous, given that Creeper are sometimes compared to the late, great Meat.
However, the song is interrupted by a completely over-the-top stage announcer telling us that anything considered immoral or lewd will be excised from the show. Well, that’s gonna make it a bit short.
Suddenly, though, we see him in silhouette being attacked with an axe! The curtain drops to the ground, and we see the body of the slain announcer on the stage, with the axeman (or is it a woman?) leaning over him.
It’s great theatre. And all of this is before the band have played a single note!
I’m not sure whether it’s just my imagination, but Creeper seem to have been on the road for most of this year, and it shows. Their playing is tight and precise, and there’s not an ounce of fat anywhere.
The material on the Sanguivore albums lends itself to a show rather than just a mere gig. In terms of musicianship, the band have an embarrassment of riches, which they demonstrate throughout the performance.
Hannah Greenwood is a prime example. Not only is she an ace keyboard player, but she’s also a cracking co-lead vocalist, as she demonstrates as early as the second song, Lovers Led Astray. In the same song, guitarists Ian Miles and Lawrie Pattison indulge in some awesome dual lead guitar.
Throughout the albums being presented tonight, there are obvious Meat Loaf influences, together with The Rocky Horror Show and just a soupçon of Queen. They’re used to great effect, however, and at no point do they threaten to cloud the identity of Creeper. Those influences are simply condiments that add to the overall flavour.
The Ballad of Spook and Mercy, however, has more than a hint of Nick Cave. Ultimately, though, Creeper’s material is greater than the sum of its influences.
Throughout the set, there is no lack of theatricality. At the beginning of The Black House, two girls in leotards come onstage and present a telephone on a silver (well, it looks like it’s silver…) salver to Will Gould. He duly sings into it.
Before Razor Wire, the same two girls wheel on a coffin. Hannah Greenwood arises from it and proceeds to sing.
The songs carry more weight than the theatrical elements of the show, however. More Than Death is a classic, even if it perhaps hasn’t been recognised as such yet. Hannah Greenwood’s tender keyboard intro is sublime, and at one point the crowd sing along unaccompanied. That’s proper fans for you.
There is one final, cracking piece of theatre, though. The girls bring a guillotine onstage, together with a female executioner. They duly behead Will Gould.
It’s a bit harsh (and ever so slightly Alice Cooper), but that’s life, I suppose. Or more realistically, death.
How’s Will going to get out of this? Will Hannah have to sing all of the lead vocals from now on?
As it happens, Will does return, ruefully rubbing his neck. Miracles are apparently possible during a Creeper show!
The band don’t really leave the stage before the encore. For this, they delve back into their catalogue to prove that Creeper had a musical life before the Sanguivore albums.
There are selections from their two earlier albums, together with Black Mass from The Stranger EP. This is excellent, especially the 1950s-sounding middle eight.
Misery shows the way a Creeper show should end, though, with the crowd singing unaccompanied and Will Gould falling to the floor as the audience cheer and call the band’s name.
They’ve played for around two hours with no let-up in energy or commitment. This is a much-overused word, but it’s been awesome.
Amazingly, the Forum wasn’t quite sold out tonight. Downstairs was rammed, as was the front of the balcony. The rear of the balcony was empty, though.
No matter. For now, Creeper still remain a bit of a well-kept secret as far as the wider world is concerned. I wonder how long that can continue.
I can’t imagine the band not acquiring a wider mainstream audience. In fact, if it doesn’t happen, I’ll eat my hat.
I have a few of them, you know.
WORDS: MARK KELLY PHOTOS: JESSICA-ROSE LENA
More Creeper live on Punkinfocus: Welcome to the Horror Show – Ice Nine Kills transform Wembley Arena into a blood-soaked spectacle (December 2025) · Unleashing Sanguivore: Creeper’s Electrifying Night at Brighton’s Chalk (March 2024)
More Starbenders live on Punkinfocus: PALAYE ROYALE – Its fever pitch for Fever Dream at the Apollo (February 2023)
