Neck Deep, Seaway, and Creeper
The Showbox // Seattle, WA // February 24th, 2018
Photos and review by Rachael Dowd
Creeper
After a rigorous year of touring around North America on Vans Warped Tour and with bands like Waterparks and Silverstein, British band Creeper found themselves back in Seattle this past weekend.
As one of the most buzzed about bands to come up in the scene these past few years, it’s hard to fully understand the potential Creeper has until you see them live. Although an opener on this tour with Neck Deep, Creeper put on a performance worthy of a headlining spot that had fans flocking to their merch table afterwards to purchase CDs and shirts.
Opening up the night with “Black Rain,” the first track off of their latest album, Eternity, In Your Arms, that was released this past March, the cinematic style and energy this track has is quintessential Creeper – it’s unique, wickedly entertaining, and far surpasses the songwriting abilities of most acts in the scene right now.
Vocalist Will Gould has mentioned in the past that it doesn’t matter how many people are in the crowd, they are still going to perform as if it’s Creeper’s last show ever, and this set proved that. In seven songs, Creeper managed to captivate everyone in the crowd, whether they had heard of them or not, with hard hitting tracks like “Hiding With Boys” and “Poison Pens.”
Amongst the animated performances between Gould and guitarist Ian Miles that almost made those watching dizzy from the amount of passion and energy they put into each moment, keyboardist Hannah Greenwood’s hauntingly beautiful vocals helped to bring each of the songs together, particularly during the bridge of “Hiding With Boys.” Every second of their set was fast paced, beautifully executed, and, above all, showed why Creeper’s been one of the most talked about bands over the past year.
While Creeper is already making huge waves overseas, having just wrapped their own headlining UK tour that had them playing London’s historic Shepherd’s Bush Empire and booking a slot on the main stage of this summer’s Reading and Leeds Festival, it’s about damn time Creeper has started getting some recognition stateside.
As long as Creeper keeps putting on sets like they showed in Seattle this past weekend and booking tours with established acts such as Neck Deep, come this time next year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Creeper headlining North American tours of their own. Whether you’ve been a fan since The Callous Heart EP or are just now discovering them, it’s hard to deny that Creeper has something special that simply cannot be ignored any longer.
Seaway
Seattle and Seaway are far from strangers. In fact, it seems as though each time they come touring through, the crowds are larger and even louder than the tour before. With a new album, Vacation, that was released this past September, Seaway’s set was compiled of new hits and fan favorites the crowd was dying to hear once more.
Clad in a Hawaiian style shirt and sunglasses, vocalist Ryan Locke fit the part and sound of their new album as they played tracks from Vacation including “Lula on the Beach,” “Car Seat Magazine,” and their new single “London.” With a wall of crowd surfers seeming to float over the barricade during the majority of their set, Seaway’s energy-filled performance proved as to why they continue to have success in the industry. As a band that is constantly touring around the world, this particular set having been one of at least three they have played in Seattle this past year alone, Seaway seems to be gaining new fans wherever they go.
Playing songs off of 2015’s Colourblind including “Stubborn Love,” “Slam,” and “Best Mistake,” a moment in the set that left the crowd singing as loud as Locke at some points, it can easily be said that whether Seaway is back in Seattle next week or six months from now, they will always be greeted by familiar faces and new fans each and every time.
Neck Deep
As one of the most known bands in the pop punk scene today, it was no surprise that Neck Deep brought another unforgettable performance for all of their fans in Seattle. With a fresh new sound and new material to perform off of The Peace and The Panic, Neck Deep came out swinging the moment they took to the stage.
“Happy Judgement Day,” one of the first singles off of The Peace and The Panic, was the opening track to their set that was quickly accompanied by stage pyro and a wall of crowd surfers.
The band played a hefty seventeen songs that spanned their entire career, throwing it back with old tracks off of 2012’s Rain In July EP like “What Did You Expect?” and “Head To The Ground” from 2013’s A History of Bad Decisions.
“Gold Steps” was a moment in the set where all of the pent-up energy in the venue seemed to explode, both in the crowd and onstage. As one of their most popular songs to date, security was overwhelmed by soaring crowd surfers that flew over the barricade while members of the band, particularly vocalist Ben Barlow and guitarist Matt West, seemed to be in a competition with who could exert the most amount of energy in less than four minutes.
Along with “Gold Steps,” their set featured a number of songs off of 2015’s Life’s Not Out To Get You including “Kali Ma,” where they brought on stage Sho, the vocalist of the Japanese band Alternative Medicine, to sing the end of the track, “Lime St.,” “Rock Bottom,” “Citizens of the Earth,” and “December.”
With vocalist Ben Barlow on stage alone with his guitar, “Head To The Ground” offered a particularly memorable moment in the set. Talking about how he wrote this song alone in the bedroom with no intention of anyone ever hearing it, the crowd took the lead for the majority of the song, Barlow stepping back and allowing their voices to ring through the entire venue. The moment, though brief, as the song is less than three minutes, was a simple reminder of just how far Neck Deep has come since they first formed and the loyal fans they have earned all over the world.
It doesn’t matter where in the world Neck Deep may be playing, “A Part of Me” is a song that always seems to get fans the most excited. As the opening guitar notes rang through the speakers, fans were on each other’s shoulders with lighters and phone lights in the air as their voices carried so loud, it was hard to hear Barlow at some points. With Creeper’s Hannah Greenwood accompanying the band to sing the part originally recorded by Laura Whiteside, this particular song has stood the test of the time throughout the band’s career and still seems to one fans cannot get enough of.
Closing out the night with an encore of “Can’t Kick Up The Roots” and “Where Do We Go When We Go,” there was not a single dull moment throughout the entire performance. Neck Deep gained popularity and earned a loyal fanbase at the start of their career because of their wildly energetic and entertaining performances that sent ripples throughout the industry.
While their music may have changed since Ben first began writing songs in his bedroom, Neck Deep is still capable of putting on one of the best pop punk shows the scene has seen, and will see, for a very long time.
