Django Django have been pretty busy lately. The release of their 2nd album in 2015 “Born Under Saturn” saw them touring throughout the year; drummer David Maclean and Synth player Tommy Grace did a whole score for a Royal Shakespeare play and they also wrote a song for one of the hottest independent movies of 2015 “Slow West” (which was also directed by Maclean’s brother). The band clearly has plenty of creative juices, so we headed down to see what makes them tick live.
Stealing Sheep [rating: 3] did the honours as the support act. The Liverpool based female trio band really stood out and captured everyone’s attention in the crowd. Each one of them was wearing bright neon coloured tights, glittered faces and are stood up playing at the front of the stage. I’d definitely give them 12/10 for uniqueness in visuals and show. It’s very easy to get caught up in the typical band format, but Stealing Sheep intrigued everyone with their unique style and smooth sounds. There’s quite a strong resemblance with other girls bands such as Haim and Hinds but they definitely hold their own ground with their musical ability too. They have very playful melodies, intricate riffs and harmonies which will mesmerise and hypnotise you instantly. The vocal arrangements are extremely well done and create a very distinctive atmosphere. We could even see Django Django’s lead singer backstage dancing and enjoying the music. A band definitely worth watching live.
Best songs: Shut Eye / Sequence.
Django Django’s [rating: 4.5] set up consisting of guitar, bass, synth, drums and several weird and unrecognisable instruments were all ready to go. The band comes onstage with front-man Vincent Neff singing his signature echo filled “woo’s” down the mic (if you don’t know what I mean just look at any live video of them) and go straight into “Hail Bop” , “Storm” and “Shake and Tremble”… an incredible start which already gets the crowd dancing and singing along. “Shake and Tremble” is probably one of the new best additions to the set from the new album and was already a highlight from the gig.
The amount of jams and long instrumental sections that are slotted between songs is also something that makes the bands set so special. At times, songs like “Skies Over Cairo” or “Silver Rays” made the it felt like it was turning more into a rave rather than a gig. Every member of the band moves around the stage playing as many as 3 different instruments for 1 single song and it really does make it quite a spectacle to watch. At one point the drummer was playing a mic’d up cardboard box while the bassist played a vibraslap.
The band seemed really happy and grateful to be there as Vincent thanks the crowd for dancing. Seeing a band enjoy themselves on stage is always critical to get a good gig, and this aspect definitely fed into the crowd. As the set came to an end with “Life’s a Beach” and “WOR”, he got the whole crowd to sit on the floor and jump up during the drop. Although the crowd was surprisingly middle-aged there were still a few crowd surfers and everyone went along with it. The set was strong, the atmosphere was great and the band proved themselves to be just as musically talented on record as on stage.
