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LIVE REVIEW
DOUBLE DAGGER AT CARGO, LONDON
Double Dagger
Cargo, Shoreditch
London
18/05/10

Photography by Owen Richards

It takes Nolan Strals half a song to leap from the stage and shout in a face or two, which is something close to a lifetime in Double Dagger’s world. Buttered into a Friendship T-shirt (DD’s recent touring partners) he spit-speaks into dead eyes of yet another London crowd afraid of having a good time. Maybe wanking the microphone and simulating anal sex with it will loosen this crowd, thinks the baldy singer towards the climax of the super fast ‘Pillow Talk’, but no – if anything the mention of sex has made us more awkwardly British and stoic.

So still is tonight’s audience that the happy cheers after each post-hardcore rant to Fugazi-esque, fuzzed bass and drums seem wholly surprising, even if all the applause is completely justified. “This is the sound! Of no one! Giving a SHIT!” yells Strals to end ‘Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing’, probably expecting his efforts to be aptly met with silence. Still bodies at London shows are sadly a given (especially in east London at 9pm on a Tuesday) but I hoped that Double Dagger would be the gnarly, aggressively clever band to change all that. That they’re not only highlights how stubborn we really are, because this trio are a hell of a ferocious party band.

By Sam Little

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Originally published in issue 18 (vol 3) of Loud And Quiet. June 2010


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