REVIEW: Stag & Dagger 2011

The fourth edition of Shoreditch’s annual multi-venue Stag & Dagger festival once again brought together a cast of taste-making curators including labels, blogs and websites, whose collective expertise made for a carnival of cutting-edge musical talent. I Like Music joined the party.

The Computers, The Underbelly
When Exeter hardcore punks The Computers file onto the small stage of The Underbelly in matching all-white uniforms and tear into the balls-out, ninety-second screamathon that is Where Do I Fit In, the small crowd of onlookers, many of whom are just settling down to their evening meal or sharing a quiet drink, stop what they are doing and pay attention. They don’t really have a choice. Sixty seconds later, before even this short song is over, the power cuts out. Back in business moments later, frontman Al Kershaw has left the stage and is climbing over tables and sofas in the dark recesses of the venue as he plays guitar and screams. Then the power cuts out again.

And so the set continues, Kershaw never staying in one place for too long, now on the bar, now atop a table, periodically cursing the loss of sound. He finds time to propose to a girl in a Black Flag t-shirt, promising her that “once I wipe the snot from my face I think you’ll find me quite charming.” When eventually the sound engineer establishes that the problem is the band’s excessive volume, the remainder of the set continues without issue. Ten minutes later, having played their debut album almost in its entirety (it’s only 24 minutes long), the band disappear as quickly as they emerged, leaving the audience stunned, deafened, but grinning from ear-to-ear.

Mazes, Village Underground
London’s Mazes look and sound like they came to tonight’s venue straight from the early nineties. Complete with plaid shirts and American accents, they play sweet-melodied indie-rock songs about being lazy that channel Iggy & The Stooges through Pixies and Pavement. Lead singer Jack Cooper even cracks out the kind of shaky-head dance that Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo used to sport in his younger days. There isn’t a huge amount of movement from the band at first, and even less chat, making them seem a bit distant, perhaps even bored. A few songs in they thaw out, thanking the crowd for their applause while acknowledging that, due to the echoing nature of the venue, what they’re hearing on stage may not be factually representative of what we’re directing towards them. It’s a funny moment, and one that breaks the ice. From here on in the performance is more energetic and the atmosphere more fun.

Toro Y Moi, XOYO
XOYO is absolutely packed for the man who last year had the dubious honour of spearheading the chillwave movement; Toro Y Moi. Joined tonight by a live band comprised of a guitarist, bassist and drummer, Chaz Bundick plays a keyboard and various looping/sampling gizmos, his hands constantly dancing over the array of machines that sit in front of him. Having just released his second album, Underneath The Pine, which was recorded on live instruments as opposed to his laptop-created debut Causers Of This, his set is something of a hybrid; some songs were created for this set-up, and some need to be adapted to it. Nonetheless, he and his band do a good job of making all the songs sound of a piece, and while some of the nuance and lo-fi charm of his earlier work is lost, the funky bass-lines and sunny melodies are more than enough to captivate the large audience.

Young British Artists, Old Blue Last
Manchester’s YBAs spend much of their time on stage contorting their bodies or throwing themselves around with an awkward passion. Creating an interesting range of musical textures, the four-piece (guitar, keyboard, bass, drums) conjure up walls of sound that hint at a love of My Bloody Valentine while providing strong melodic undercurrents that give the noise a definite shape. It’s hard to discern for sure given the venue’s relatively small sound-system, but it feels like there’s an epic scope - perhaps similar to British Sea Power - trying to make itself felt, and the band’s body-language certainly suggests the same as each new climax throws them into paroxysms. They certainly do enough to tempt us back for a second bite of the cherry next time they’re in town, but we don’t walk away whistling any of their tunes.

Eagulls, CAMP
Noisy Leeds-based band Eagulls are clearly pumped-up for tonight’s gig. With amps turned to full volume and energy at an almost unnatural high they cavort their way through a set that is defined as much by the rock and roll attitude with which it is played as by the curious blend of hardcore punk and indie that make it up. Lead singer George Mitchell is clearly having the time of his life. Clutching a tambourine, he yelps his words with his face turned to the sky in ecstasy, knocking half-finished beers over like skittles as he wanders around the stage and into the small crowd. There aren’t many people watching, but the boys don’t care, and their enthusiasm is sufficiently infectious to spread through all who are in attendance. The climactic ending to their set sums their performance up; shambolic enough to be exciting and unpredictable, but not so much so that the whole thing falls apart.