Now entering it’s sixth year, Stag and Dagger has grown considerably to become one of the more popular events on Glasgow’s music calendar.
This year is no different, boasting an excellent line-up over six stages throughout the day.
United Fruit hit Nice ‘n’ Sleazy’s at half past eight to a reasonably sized crowd, showcasing some new material of their forthcoming full-length follow up to Fault Lines along with some older, classic fan favourites.
They go on competing with one of the biggest names on the bill, Phosphorescent, who play biggest venue, the ABC, to one of the largest crowds gathered for the night but play a messy, intoxicated set which generally lets the audience down.
There are flashes of brilliance, but they largely can’t keep it together for full songs, messing sections up, and generally being quite disappointing.
No matter though as Glasgow favourites We Were Promised Jetpacks follow up to rectify the situation.
It is no wonder that the band are thought of so affectionately in their home-town, as they have been consistently entertaining it with their snappy, tongue-in-cheek songs and generally bring those in attendance into a great mood.
Divorce probably couldn’t be further away from that feeling, but that’s not to say they aren’t equally as impressive, having just completed a successful European tour, the noise terrorising four-piece are in frightening form, ripping through their set with reckless abandon.
The only real criticism is that the vocals don’t seem loud enough to make an impression on their otherwise pretty terrifying set, but this doesn’t take too much away from the music itself.
Next door, a packed crowd at Broadcast are breathlessly awaiting the arrival of Mac DeMarco another of the bigger names on tonight’s line-up, and it’s not difficult to see why as Mac and his band are terrific in such an intimate setting.
Though they are far too quiet at first, meaning the whole back half in the room descend into chatter, the band really hit their stride a few songs in with amped up versions of ‘Ode to Viceroy’, ‘My Kind of Woman’ and finally ‘Together’ which sees some widespread sing-alongs and break outs of dancing and even a surprise stage dive from the man himself.
Finishing the night at CCA, How to Dress Well aka Tom Krell, brings things to a calmer close with his soulful, R&B indebted electronica.
His falsetto rings through the collected crowd, and though some songs don’t work as well as others, it is a largely impressive set from the much-hyped Krell.
And so, that is Stag and Dagger for another year, it’s always impossible to get to see everyone you want (shout out to Randolph’s Leap at The Art School) but it remains a relevant and exciting mini-festival all the same.
Words: Adam Turner-Heffer
Photos: Stewart Fullerton
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