Stag & Dagger, Various Venues, Glasgow 22 May 2010
Title: Live: Stag & Dagger, Various Venues, Glasgow 22 May 2010
Author: Lucy
Date: 25, May, 2010
It’s the hottest day of the year so far, it would have been perfect for an outdoor festival, but instead it’s an assault course of seven venues spread across town. Kick off is early at The Captain's Rest with Scottish/ American folk rockers Sparrow & The Workshop who have a nice line in sheet metal percussion.
The next band of note are North Atlantic Oscillation, playing at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy’s. This band have been heartily recommended to me and their album, Grappling Hooks had its moments, but today the suitcase strewn stage doesn’t seem big enough nor do the band seem particularly up for playing at 6.45pm. Cell Count stands out with the refrain ‘It’s amazing what they can do’ but they need to cut loose more. This psych is too polite, it’s like The Flaming Lips if they lost their sense of humour, the proggy guitars and laptop noises get a bit submerged and we leave disappointed.
Jesca Hoop is playing at the furthest flung venue – Stereo – and consequently there are only about 30 people in the crowd. It’s a shame; as for my money she’s one of the most interesting artists here. Augmented by a 3-piece band but keeping the deceptively simple textures of tracks from her album Hunting My Dress, her voice is still to the fore. Joking about looking like Laura Ingles in her floral summer dress and playing a not entirely serious new song that has the air of a ho-down, the concrete Stereo cellar is suddenly lacking bales of straw and a whole lot more gingham. Even a couple of rather surreal heckles doesn’t put her off her stride. I can’t wait to see her play a full length set again.
Back up the hill to The Vic Bar at the Art School for Django Django, who come across like a budget Beta Band with a fondness for sound effects and loud shirts. Like Franz Ferdinand playing Errors, the singer has got the sideways headshake down to a tee. They’re not wacky despite their use of percussive coconut shells and the highlight of the set is closer WOR with most of the band joining in on drums.
By now I’m hot, I’ve walked miles, I’ve lost most of my friends, I’ve missed several bands on my list due to clashes and I’ve eaten an over priced and rather disappointing burger. With more cider and worse toilets this would be just like a proper festival experience.
A last minute change of plan sees us back in Sleazy’s to witness Glasgow outfit Divorce, a fierce, mostly female, hardcore punk five piece. “You’ve got nothing to teach me,” yells the front woman Sinead over bowel shaking bass. After a couple of songs it feels like being in a fight and you wouldn’t want to be in a fight with this woman, she’d gouge. Halfway through they throw in an unexpected bass-heavy cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain, but they’re soon back to the shouting. “You’ve got an attitude/ I’ll take that out of you,” she chastises. I’m not sure how you get this 1977-style angry these days – Call Centre Rage doesn’t quite cut it.
Back up to the main room at the Art School where we catch the final song from Titus Andronicus. I would like to see more of them. The lead singer has a rather spectacular beard and the girl violin player seems to be miming some very over the top electric guitar – throwing shapes like Janice from the Muppets Electric Mayhem. Despite this they maintain an air of earnest Americana twang but of course they could well prove me wrong.
Next up on the same stage are Sleigh Bells, who have been one of the hypes of the day. I don’t think much of the Ting Tings new Industrial direction. Their boy-girl distorted guitar and shouty vocals thing gets old very quickly. Its The Kills does Curve with a more attention hungry singer playing up to the cameras. (It’s like they're were poorly lit on purpose so she would get some flash bulbs).
We bail out and go downstairs where Wax Fang are finishing. It’s getting to be that time of night when everything starts to sound like pub rock. Esben & The Witch are the next band on the hit list but despite a lot of stage paraphernalia, they go to a dark place and stay there. There are not enough drugs to make this forest ritual sound make sense and the sound mix is awful so we soon retreat back upstairs to catch some of Synth Eastwood’s cut up visuals.
It’s all getting a bit hazy now, it’s been a long time since I’ve been in the Art School Union and I’d forgotten they had a cheap bar…
Glasgow’s Schnapps stagger on at about 11pm. They play standard Glasgow indie-garage fair, but their singer, who looks familiar from somewhere, is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and is very drunk. He makes a heroic effort to stay vertical and somehow manages to sing relatively convincingly. “We turned up at 2 o’clock and we’re on at 11pm, you understand?” The audience, by now fairly tired and emotional themselves are forgiving, it’s been a long, sticky day and everybody just wants to dance.
Finally, Johnny ‘Pictish Trail’ Lynch and Adem Ilhan’s new electro project, Silver Columns take the stage behind their fairy-light rigged table of switches and wires. They seem at ease with their inner Bronski Beat and it makes for a great finish to a long and varied day.
Once again, many many thanks to Michael Gallacher for his awesome photos.
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