Smashed glass, abandoned chips, cheese and donner meat cartons and punters so inebriated both eyes don’t seem to be working in tandem is the usual order of business for the bottom half of Sauchiehall Street.

Yet every year on the first of the May bank holidays and usually after an Old Firm match… Sauchiehall Street is a hive of activity when bands from every corner of the world descend for the annual Stag & Dagger festival.

The line-up is varied ever year, with a robust roster of acts Stag & Dagger promises to tickle the taste buds of even the loftiest of music connoisseur. The one thing you can absolutely bank on is your probably going to stumble across your new favourite band to obsess over for the year ahead.

Squatting in some of our cities most beloved dive bars and basement venues, you’ll find yourself rubbing shoulders with bands who have played the festival not only that day but in years gone by too as it often attracts a return crowd.

The most troublesome thing about the muti-venue festival is planning your day so you can drop in and out of each venue to catch everyone you want to see… an impossible task unless you have a Tardis in your pocket.

We tried our best at The Golden Bough to make it along to see everyone we possibly could. I think we managed to catch a decent quantity of fresh meat, but so we don’t have you reading a mini dissertation here is a quick run through of what we seen and liked.

We started things of well and truly with a bang. Youth Sector graced the stage of Nice N’ Sleazy early in the afternoon and considering they were the first band of the day we absolutely loved their frenetic, energiser bunny set. 

Think uber stylised Franz Ferdinand meets David Byrne. We loved their matching wide stitch suits and 70’s mustard disco collar shirts. Special shout out goes to Nick Smith on synth, his dancing behind the synth gets everyone moving. For it being early on the basement is mobbed and everyone is wriggling along. Stand out track ‘Number One Best Seller’.

Nottingham newcomers Divorce, play perfect fuzz rock melodies with a twee pop overture. The Attic bar is busy – even although no alcohol is being served until 6pm. There’s some very cute banter back and forth between diminutive Tiger Choen-Towell (vocals, bass), which instantly disarms the audience.

This is a band who are clearly at ease not only with each other but with the music that they play. The tracks that have a spoken word element to them remind us of Hobo Johnson and other tracks lean more into Indigo Girls but with slabs of pop synths. We loved a new track they played (a video for which has just been recorded in Epsom) but we failed to catch the name, so our second favourite was ‘Services’.

Jeffrey Lewis & the Voltage are our first Trans-Atlantic artist of the festival. Hailing from NYC Jeffrey Lewis and his rag-tag companions have set up camp – quite literally, in new venue and church hall St. Andrews West. Jeffrey and various members of the band stick around after the show to watch every artist that plays after them and to talk away nonchalantly to fans old and new who come to purchase the multitude of band merch and curios that have been hand crafted by the man himself.

We came home with an incredibly beautiful hand drawn ‘Fuff’ comic and had to pull ourselves away from spending the last of our beer money on his hand dyed stitch on patches. Jeffrey has been making music in various guises on and off for the best part of 20 years. His obvious wit is inscribed in his often anti-hero lyrics and his music is somewhat genre defying. There are elements of post-punk, psychedelia and folk infused with his garage rockabilly guitar riffs.

The show is interlaced with hand illustrated Power Point slide show presentations, one detailing the true story of Sitting Bear a Native American hero who stood up to the injustices of colonisation and another which proffered a brief history of punk in New York through the 60’s and 70’s.

The latter was highly comical and involved the whole band singing short snippets of iconic tracks such as; The Count 5’s “Psychotic Reaction” and The Velvet Underground, “I’m Waiting for The Man”. We particularly enjoyed violist Mallory Fueur’s harmonica playing on this track.

‘The Singing Tree’ was a particularly beautiful song, particularly worth checking out of you, like us, are a die-hard fan of Daniel Johnson and Sonic Youth.

We then hot tailed it back down the street to Broadcast, to catch London based quartet, Talk Show and oh boy do they slap HARD. Think Keith Flint, meets The Rapture who then happen to get into a tussle with IDLES while Iggy Pop watches on somewhere in the vicinity with a bemused grin on his face.

The music is everything we generally love; impassioned, anarchic, off-kilter, sardonic and multifaceted instrumentation that makes you want to move. We love pint sized hero Harrison Swann’s cheeky grin when delivering lyrics that are part guttural snarl part Mancunian Maxi-Jazz. But it’s the spectacle of his impassioned semi-demonic dancing that really enlivens the show.

Of course, all of this would mean absolutely nothing if the music itself didn’t hold up. Thrashing out incredible, high tempo drum riffs is Chloe MacGregor who plays outstandingly well with a constant grin on her face and bassist George Sullivan and guitarist Tom Holmes, barely seem to stop for breath.

Not for the feint of heart Talk Show are producing loud, post-punk darkwave danceable classics. They look like they’ve wandered out of an illegal rave and right into our hearts.

I wasn’t surprised to hear later that night, when the inevitable discussion was tabled about who our favourite act of the day had been, that their latest EP has been produced by Joe Goddard and Al Doyle of Hot Chip fame, further fanning the flames of our latest obsession. We reached out to the band for our favourite track ID but it’s so embryonic it doesn’t have a working title at the moment – all we know is that it’s a beast of a tune, so we will give a special doff of the cap to, ‘Leather’.

We literally managed to catch five minutes or so of Skinny Pelembe at G2 – think TV on the Radio meets Anthony and the Johnsons and Sad Boys Club (Wheezer meets Wheatus) in The Attic unfortunately not enough to do the set justice.

Alice Glass was the only artist we had seen in The Garage. This was our first time hearing her play live any of her solo music since her departure from the much coveted (for us anyway) Crystal Castles. Serving e-girl goth but with dark techno, glitchy beats Alice Glass’s new material isn’t too far removed from her former fame and glory but there is definably something missing.

She still has the tenacity and captivating stage presence she was famous for. Bounding from one end of the stage to the other, grinning wildly and high kicking her way through a very loud set with notabele tracks being “Legend” and “Forgiveness”. Ultimately it was material from the Crystal Castles back catalogue which was received with much aplomb.

Lebanon Hanover brings with them not only one of the largest crowds of the evening but a beautifully orchestrated set full of morbid romanticism. Larissa Iceglass and William Maybelline are an iconic duo who strike an imposing image on stage with their own brand of sultry darkwave, nostalgic 80’s inspired goth rock.

For fans of Bauhaus and Joy Division, Lebanon Hanover are not to be missed. Admittedly it took the bands first few songs to play through before they seemed warmed up and at ease with the crowd, but by the time ‘Gallowdance’ was played the room was dancing about quite spectacularly.

In fact, frontman Maybelline’s dancing was reminiscent of Future Islands, Sam T Herring we believe he could give him a good run for his money. We loved “Du Scrollest” with its Devo inspired synth and ‘Totally Tot” with its manic energy. We will be sure to catch Lebanon Hanover should the roll into town again.

Black Lips brought the St. Andrew’s stage to a close with their own whiskey soaked, knee-slapping barn dance cavalcade. Chaotic, high tempo rockabilly with a good old dollop of swing thrown in for good measure Black Lips have the church hall toe tapping and jiving throughout the set. We’ve never been to an American 50’s style prom dance – but something tells me this is about as close as we will ever get.

The music contrasts between garage rock reminiscent of The Growlers and madcap, raucous glistening punk. The lyrics are sang loud and clear with a snarl and unrivalled vibrancy. It’s hard to tear your eyes away from the spectacle of the performance – but we can’t help but look on at the crowed dancing away with wild abandon. The kind of performance that demands every single member of the audience are having a good time.

We loved, ‘O, Katrina!’ which reminds us of The Count 5 and couldn’t help but sing along to ‘Bad Kids’

We now make it on to the part of the evening that comprises of bands solely from Glasgow. We manage to catch, Her Picture at Nice N’ Sleazy. The band have recently rebranded themselves from Fauna, but it appears to be most of the original line up gracing the stage this evening. Judging from the packed-out basement it appears that the band have also caught the attention of the Stag crowd.

Anny Tahaney on lead vocals is a force to be reconned with, her cute pop pixie demeanour belies little of her true 90’s grunge prowess. Her husky vocal range touches on PJ Harvey meets Catatonia, while Cat Reid on bass gives the music the undertones of Elastica.

We loved the whole set but stand out tracks included “My Way” the opening of which reminds us of New Order’s track ‘Crystal” and heavier “The Nature of it” the band are due to play the St. Lukes All Dayer on June 3^rd be sure to check them out.

Penultimate act of the evening (for us) was the saccharine sweet angel that is Kleo. Armed with a drum machine and large synth Kleo gives a rapid performance with all the magnetism of someone destined for a bigger stage that that at Broadcast.

Flexing plenty of android muscle with some empowering back bends, there is plenty of choreographed dancing in between hair flicks and high kicks. Skirting between dance and electronica the music is a non-stop party.

We love ‘TWDN’ with its super catchy chorus and trap loops, we couldn’t help but dance away to, ‘INM’ which has a heavier industrial sound that perfectly encapsulates Kleo’s sweet pop overtones. We can see these tracks going down well on any dancefloor.

Every year the promotors at Stag & Dagger do something devilishly clever – they seem to reserve the most lauded band, the band that seems to be on the tip of everyone’s lips and gives them the latest set time possible – thusly ensuring the crowed remain drinking till the wee small hours of the morning.

Last year it was Wife Guys of Reddit, this year its Lloyds House. Ambling on stage around 1:30am, the band traipse on stage sporting fishnet tights and silk dresses that granny would be proud to wear, there’s more than a touch of rouge going on too.

There’s a fun introduction by way of a good morning chant that reminds us of childhood trips to Butlins. We love the exhibition, and we are very much here for it. The band will burrow their way into your hearts hard and fast.

With impish, gleeful glances between one another Lloyds House put on a shimmering set that shows just how tight they have become. Mastering the tools of their trade they playfully skirt between nostalgic low-fi pop of “That’s When I Sold Myself” to the grungier “Grouch” with chord progressions that remind us a little of Silversun Pickups.

There is a tonne of new tracks scattered throughout the set which seems to lean the band into more 80’s synth territory that makes us excited to see what they do next. Ultimately, it’s their latest single and our current object to daydream about, ‘Heather’ that gets the most jubilant response instigating a mini mosh pit and quite rightly so. It’s a beautiful, twinkling synth driven stomp. With the satirical high-pitched singing offsetting the chunky bass we adore how much of a chantable singalong the chorus is.

And with that, moshing away merrily to the beautiful pop mutation that is Lloyds House we bring this year’s festival to an end.

Make moves and mosey on over to your streaming service and indulge us in giving all the artists mentioned a wee whirl. We are confident, like us you will adore each one.

Photos: Angela Canavan

Words: Angela Canavan