Liam True
Opening the nights’ proceedings are Atlanta based glam rock four-piece Starbenders. Coming on stage to ‘O Fortuna’ and a packed-out room, they burst into ‘Blood Moon’ as drummer Qi Wei pounds her kit in succession with guitars, with vocalist/guitarist Kimi Shelter’s hair sprayed filled hair headbanging. Musically the band sound great. Kriss Tokaji’s guitar sounds thicker than tar, and Aaron Lecesne’s bass thunders through the speakers, making the band sound heavier than they sound on record. Visually they’re quite stagnant. Wei & Tokaji are the only band members seemingly enjoying what little room they have available on stage, as Shelter & Lecesne are almost statues stuck in place.
Shelter’s clean vocals soar on ‘Tokyo’, where she shifts from almost a whisper to higher registers in a whim. That being said, her vocals reach a switch where she pulls out a fry scream akin to the croaky being from The Grudge but with a throat infection. These come into play on almost every song, and often her voice breaks as she’s doing this, eliciting a few odd glances from the crowd. If she kept her vocal range as it was when they performed their first few songs, they would have a much better reaction to the crowd. They do have some fans down the front who are enjoying the band, but across the sea of faces there’s little fanfare to be heard.
Following Starbenders is the multinational trio Calva Louise. Last appearing in Cardiff at 2026’s Noizzefest, they look incredibly happy to be back in the Welsh capital as they burst into ‘Tunnel Vision’. Vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Jess Allanic stands on one side of the stage, whilst bassist Alizon Taho stands on the opposite side as drummer Ben Parker sits in the middle with the band’s monolithic logo lit up in neon lights.
Don’t let the innocent look of Allanic fool you; however, she may be all smiles and giggles between songs, thanking the crowd for watching them and even talking about the recent earthquake that struck her home country of Venezuela earlier this year, but her voice is monstrous. From the clean angelic vocals to her guttural growls, she is an absolute powerhouse. Debuting their new song, which was released that same day, ‘La Promesa’, it still incurs a circle pit as the band are electric. As quickly as they appeared their ten-song set went by dizzyingly quick, and they thank the crowd and left, as they’ve carved out some new fans out of the Creeper audience.
‘The following show will be rated U, for universal; that means there will be no blood, no gore and no sacred blasphemy! ‘ Shouts the man behind the white curtain, introducing some ground rules for tonight’s show, just before being approached by a shadowy hooded figure wielding an axe, which is used to swiftly dispose of the voice in question. As the curtain drops, the hooded figure is front and centre, walks off, and the pale-faced sextet launches into ‘Blood Magick (It’s A Ritual)’. As soon as the crowd hears Hannah Greenwood‘s voice as the lights come up in unison, the entire venue shouts the title back. Vocalist William Von Ghould, between his vocals is punching the air and spinning as if he’s fighting off a swarm of bats.
As it’s the opening night of the Off With Their Heads tour, the band are understandably filled with adrenaline, moving around the stage and having banter with one another. Von Ghould takes his role much more seriously, as whenever he’s not bellowing his baritone voice, he’s either punching more of said imaginary bats or taking a back seat and looking out to the crowd through his hair, although later in the set he’s seen holding onto guitarists Lawrie Pattison & Ian Miles with a huge smile on his face at the ravenous crowd. Before ‘Headstones’, he demands a wall of death, and the band see their first few crowd surfers during the closing chorus.
Although the band did a smaller tour earlier this year in support of Sanguivore II: Mistress Of Death, where they played songs exclusively from that album and the album before it, it’s almost the same, with a few songs they played on that tour being dropped. We are treated to songs from their debut album Eternity, In Your Arms, but they don’t come until the encore.
As much as anyone could gripe about the setlist for tonight, the band put on a spectacle. Von Ghould takes a phone call from Darcia, the Vampire Familiar, where she warns him and the audience of a mysterious hooded woman who is looking to kill/maim the band. And wouldn’t you know? She then makes an appearance, taking a swing at bassists Sean Scott & Von Ghould, but they both duck out of the way thanks to their reflexes. Before ‘Razor Wire’ is played, Greenwood is brought out on stage in a casket before her lullaby begins, which is breathtaking as the venue sings along with her and almost louder on times.
Von Ghould is then captured by said hooded figure, who is then promptly decapitated on stage before emerging for ‘Daydreaming In The Dark’, clicking his neck back into place. As the encore comes, ‘Black Rain’ & ‘Suzanne’ are played back-to-back creating a frenzy within the crowd, enticing more crowd surfers to put the security to work. And as the final song of the night, ‘Misery’ comes, there’s a moment where, toward the song, the band take a small pause, but the crowd, hungry to please their horny Dracula’s, carry on singing as loud as possible. Visibly taken aback, Von Ghould sets his microphone down on the stand and drinks it all in. Thanking the Welsh crowd for making many memories for them, and this being the most heartwarming for his cold heart. As they finish the song, they bow and take their leave.
Given this is quite a small venue compared to the rest of the tour, and they pulled off a shock rock horror show, imagine what they could accomplish on a bigger scale. The bigger venues are only a small leap away for the band after tonight’s festivities.
