DIY And Merc Live Take Over The Social With The Heartbreaks & Dexters

Tucked away from the hoards of shoppers that seem to haunt Oxford Circus at all hours of the day, you turn a few corners, skip one or two streets and land yourself right in front of The Social, which just happens to be our home for the evening.

Setting up camp pre-match, we tuck ourselves away in the corner of the already busy room for openers Dexters. Playing before such a tense match was always going to be a bit of a job, but it seems as though these boys could’ve kept the crowd’s attention in their sleep. Even when they had to abandon their usual full band live set plans and exchange them for a more stripped-back acoustic approach - blame the bassist who managed to hurt his arm pre-show - their songs fill the room and start things off very nicely indeed.

Next up was, well, the Euro match in question. Now, after a questionable first half, let’s just agree that the less said about the game the better. But hey, England scored a goal, we won and we’re off to the quarter finals. That’s all that matters, remember?

It’s then, at around quarter to ten that the fun really begins. With a victory notch on our belt, The Heartbreaks begin their set and it takes mere moments for the crowd to begin the dancing. With the majority of our audience already singing the words back to them, the four-piece - fronted by the charming, leopard print-clad frontman Matthew Whitehouse - blast through a set of tracks from their debut album ‘Funtimes’, and truly get us in the indie-rock mood. Tracks like ‘Winter Gardens’ and ‘Hand On Heart’ are true highlights and, as the set winds down, we can’t help but think we should do this more often.

So, same again on the 3rd July, then?

For more information about DIY Presents… events - and to enter to win tickets for future Merc Live shows - visit diymag.com/events.