Stag & Dagger 2013: Glasgow, 18 May
Though its sights were initially set on a healthy mix of hotly tipped buzz bands and home-grown underdogs, Glasgow's annual Stag & Dagger festival has tipped the scales in favour of the latter in recent years, giving the smaller bands a platform from which to rise.
Broadcast is a relatively new venue, and Blindfolds are a relatively new band. The quartet take to the cramped basement's stage, militant and leather-clad, their music similarly bratty and confrontational. A discordant brand of post-punk merges with bluesy rock as vocalist John O'Neill howls his way through the chain gang stomp of Young Blood. Some technical issues force them to end the set early, but they leave a lasting impression nonetheless. French Wives have quite the following by this point; avid fans mouth the words to choice cuts from last year's Dream of the Inbetween. Their heart-on-sleeve approach to sugary, melodic indie pop avoids the pitfalls of overcalculated twee and is delivered with honesty and passion. By the time U.S. dream pop band Widowspeak arrive onstage, Broadcast reaches sweatbox status. It might be the heat, but their country-tinged melodies are soothing and alluring, if a little too mid-tempo and meandering. Molly Hamilton's vocals are the most pleasant aspect of their sound; her voice glides confidently above prominent bass-pulses and subtly psychedelic guitars.
Kilmarnock's Fatherson open proceedings the O2 ABC with energetic, emotive indie rock soundscapes. The addition of a cellist this evening adds a lush, orchestral element to their sound, helping the soaring, anthemic qualities to rise higher and become more wide-reaching and all-encompassing than before. Phosphorescent – A.K.A. Matthew Houck – is the most charismatic player of the night; often ditching his guitar to pace around the stage, he's passionate and purposefully imperfect in the vocals department. The highlight of the set is Song for Zula from this year's Muchaho, an emotive number with a prominent synth-line and a moving chord progression. The more chaotic, gospel-influenced songs are under-appreciated by the crowd, but they deserve as much praise. Grand, gospel-fuelled folk rock.
Noise tyrants Divorce have such a disregard for conventional melody that they stick out like a sore thumb on the festival's line-up. As they finish setting up their equipment to begin their set over at Sleazys, only a few punters turn out to witness the madness. Their hissing and screeching has never been so welcome in amongst the poppier acts. Wet Bandit, with its weird cowbell drum patterns, is the closest they've gotten to catchy, whereas Stabby (Stabby) Stab's repetitive, ugly riffing collides with some slower, doom-indebted moments. Depraved, but delicious all-round.
Over at the CCA, Tom Krell's moody, ambient form of bedroom R&B under his How to Dress Well moniker translates incredibly well to a live setting. A minimalist set-up consists of a couple of laptops, a violin manned by an additional member and Krell's pained falsetto, which is far more impressive-sounding than on record. The room stays dead silent out of respect during a performance of Suicide Dream 1, an intensely personal song about a departed friend. The heartbreak keeps piling up in the subsequent performances, but these reverb-soaked late night tales close out another year in the best possible way.