Stag And Dagger 2009: Wild Beasts, London Cargo

The first of the three Stag and Dagger Festivals, for one night only, took over East London on the 21st. At Cargo, along with headline acts Evan Dando and Cold War Kids, Kendal’s Wild Beasts grace the stage to fill the on looking punters with blissful, tribal drum pop.

It’s always hard watching a band when most of their set is full of new material. It’s hard for a few reasons, one: you can’t dance along properly (without making yourself look like a fool when you dance to a pause in the song) and two: the singer in you can’t shout out the lyrics back to the stage. Now some bands would still be filling most of their set with old material from a debut or the singles/b-sides they’ve been playing before and since the things were released. But Wild Beasts show the forward thinking band they are, playing mostly new material from their anticipated follow up to the critically acclaimed ‘Limbo, Panto’.

Constant instrument changes between lead vocalist Hayden Thorpe and bass guitarist Tom Fleming seems to be the new formula for the follow up tracks on ‘Two Dancers’ (released on Domino 3rd August). New single ‘Hooting And Howling’ echoes around Cargo getting everyone dancing and nodding their heads, but it’s fan favourite and last years lead single off the first album ‘Devils Crayon’ that brings a roaring cheer from the viewing public. The thumping, tribal drum beats that feature on the album and we all fell in love with continue to back up the beautiful reverbed sound coming from lead guitarist Little. With the crowd taking in everything that is playing in front of them with open arms, the band look as though they have enjoyed the show. Hayden dancing his head pushing, body jiving jig and Little playing his guitar like the was trying to touch the floor with his instrument.

As interesting live as they are on record, and with new songs sounding better than that of ‘Limbo, Panto’, Wild Beasts just keep getting that much better. Role on August.