Stag and Dagger Festival, London

May 21, 2009

The pre-festival season has well and truly begun, so what better reason than to head to sunny Shoreditch on a Thursday evening.

Everything Everything’s pretty good set is ruined by the muddied soundsystem at 93 Feet East, though beyond the fuzz lies a glorious series of intricacies atop each other, each competing with the one that came before it. The singer’s falsetto is simply too much at times, but the lyrics we hear through the the sludge include something we think sounds like “who’s a-gonna sit on your face when I’m not there”, on a track named ‘Suffragette Suffragette’. Which is, well, great. The rhythms are pretty poly (har har), and the whole ethos essentially over-indulgent; that the weirdness is so in-your-face smacks a tad of contrivance but the picky guitar/delicious harmonies combo certainly makes these Mancunians worth another listen. Particularly when they’ve a song called ‘Photoshop Handsome’. Photoshop handsome! It’s a great concept. Probably applicable to most of the crowd here tonight…

Gothy no-wave outfit An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump look to be in physical pain throughout their set across the road at Vibe, they’re putting that much into it. The three-piece continually switch roles, making for an excitingly fast-moving stagepiece. The drumming at all times is simply manic, and AEOABITAP (yes, really), to be quite fair, look like they may well just smash our face in. Their songs aren’t quite as abstract as their name (presumably in homage to the 1768 Wright painting), but it’s an absolute pleasure to watch something so real thrown in their seemingly for fun amongst the angular landfill – ‘Saints’ is a particular screamer.

Next up is The Mae Shi and they are even more the apocalyptic missionaries live than on the wonderful HLLYH. One thing though, where the heck is Jeff? Alas, there’s a white sheet to replace him, and the mother of all stage invasions. White sheet, eh? Not sure if this is their signature move, but it’s most unusual – it essentially involves said white sheet emerging from the stage and then forming some sort of second roof. Spiritual involvement? Perhaps. Not to mention (but we will) storming versions of ‘Lamb and The Lion’, ‘PWND’ and ‘Run To Your Grave’. It seems there’s no let up in the temporary three-piece’s set, the raucousness kicking in from the outset. The passion is unhinged, it’s veritably prog if a tad ludicrous. It’s genre-bashing - there’s yelps and a bit of techno, if you will. And it culminates in a fuck-off stage invasion; we’re right there and hint hint, this writer’s back is still a tad done in. Hardcore.

Due to a ridiculous amount of bands we want to see being billed at 10.20, geographical convenience leads us to current-right-now-most-hottest-brilliantest-best-live-band-in-the-world, Glasgow’s Dananananaykroyd. Let’s be fair, after The Mae Shi it’s going to take a lot to get us going again. And there’s too much posturing for us from the outset. We know that’s the point, but from what we’ve been reading we’re expecting this band to change our lives. It’s perfectly formed, really; screams to make the boys jump, naked torsos and silly puns to make the girls swoon. Live, they’re almost parodial, Calum Gunn hurling himself around the stage in such hysterical fashion it’s completely impossible to take them seriously – not that we’d imagine they’d want us too. Bah. Drama aside, the songs are pretty average after a deep breath; ‘Black Wax’ and ‘Hey Everyone’ are great fun and all that, but are they not soon going to tire of their own novelty? Or are we being bitter cynics, unnecessarily looking into the longer term? It’s like Les Savy Fav through a microscope, which is brilliant fun for an accelerated one-off but leaves us cold in everything but performance. Would this have been different if the billing was the other way round? Perhaps. And what the heck is performance? Or should we not drive ourselves to anarchy…

End.