Creeper // The O2 Institute2, Birmingham, 2017 – Katie Evans
As the sun sets to reveal a warm golden glow, filling the cold atmosphere with an anticipatory feeling that parallels your emotions in some sort of strange pathetic fallacy, you’re ready for the excitement that will hit you as you enter the venue.
When the smoke begins to rise from the ground to the ceiling and the audience stomps to the point the floor feels like it might actually crumble, it is like being caught in the intensity of a Roman amphitheatre. With the crowds’ emotions heightened and the room filled to bursting, time feels as though it has stopped for a moment. This is until the gentle voiceover of ‘Black Rain’ kicks in, allowing the crowd to release their pent up thoughts and feelings into an ultimate crescendo, where bodies surge in a wave that radiates both positivity and community, while crushing everyone at the same time.
The excitement-fueled collective within the four walls of the O2 work towards the most beautiful moment of the show: pianist Hannah sings the melancholic ‘Crickets’ to the suddenly silenced room of slowed down heartbeats and awestruck mouths. Something which will forever remain in my memory.