Stag and Dagger Festival – Leeds, 22/05/09

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Following the success of its inaugural run in 2008, Shoreditch’s Stag and Dagger festival (sponsored by Vice Magazine, of course) has this year gone Lollapalooza on the UK’s ass, and taken its grab bag of trendy talent across the country. Its first stop outside of London was in Leeds, which is soon to be home to a new Vice-run venue, Nation of Shopkeepers. Word had spread far about the mini-festival, but a number of aspects don’t quite sit right; more often than not, the five venues playing host to some thirty bands were queue-free zones, with ticket sales apparently lower than anticipated. Indeed, even the one venue which remained full for the duration, TJ’s, fell victim to “time constraints”, leaving the late-arriving Abe Vigoda with a paltry fifteen minutes to play, followed by an inexplicable 45 minute gap before a brilliantly intense set from Crystal Antlers.

Whether this is because, especially for the American bands, it was less a special occasion than Just Another Stop On Tour, is unclear; however, a lot of the bands who drew lacklustre crowds – from the stoned psychedelia of Girls to the droned miserabilia of The Twilight Sad – could have comfortably filled their respective venues in their own right, were it not for who they clashed with. Similarly, many of the bands playing London neglected to make the trek northwards, a drag for those (like myself) who were excited for the potential presence of acts like Evan Dando or Wavves, who pulled out altogether.

Still, that’s not to say that the bands themselves didn’t deliver. The Manhattan Love Suicides, who opened proceedings at the Library, played a storming set; seeming somewhat worse for wear following their previous night’s support slot with best friends The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, their fuzzbomb indiepop still kicked off the night perfectly. Following The MLS, Girls stormed through their set of blissed-out slack rock in style; mixing up garage punk and foggy Velvets-style pop, the long-haired bunch rarely put a foot wrong, and once they rolled out their two signature tunes – the effervescent “Lust for Life” and gauzy forthcoming single “Hellhole Ratrace” – it seemed most of the crowd was converted.

Meanwhile The Brudenell Social Club, one of the city’s best venues, was hijacked by the Scottish indie mafia; folktronica hero King Creosote and offshoot bands Pictish Trail and Player Piano made up the first third of the night’s bill, while TLOBF favourites The Twilight Sad previewed their eagerly-awaited new album Forget the Night Ahead to an almost reverential response. That said, for all concerned, Stag and Dagger was pretty much stolen by Dananananaykroyd; taking to the stage twenty minutes early, presumably to avoid the same unfortunate fate as Abe Vigoda, they still managed to draw venue’s biggest crowd of the night so far. The band’s relentless set comprised the majority of debut album Hey Everyone! pretty much in sequence , and their irrepressible enthusiasm finally rubbed off onto the crowd, who screamed every “YEAH!” back at the band. True to usual form, the band ran riot onstage, straddling speaker stacks and playing guitars on audience members’ heads, as singer Calum Gunn quipped “I want to fuck your tits,” and probably meaning it. Meanwhile, during the breakdown in “Some Dresses” – arguably the best song of the whole night – the band dropped their gear to challenge the crowd to an impromptu dance-off.

By the time of the glorious noise climax of “Song One Puzzle”, which closed out the set, even the judgemental door staff couldn’t help but break form and raise a smile at one of the country’s best live bands. For a sweet, brief moment, all the night’s organisational hiccups and fuck-ups were forgotten, and the paying punters of Leeds remembered what they were there for. Whether or not the festival continues in its multi-city guise remains to be seen – and if it does, there’s certainly some tweaking to be done; however, if it continues to showcase sets as good as some of those witnessed tonight, Stag and Dagger may just have a future outside of London after all.