Plan B, Django Django, Sam Lee / LSO St Lukes

LSO St Luke’s played host to 3 rather culturally diverse acts from the pool of Mercury nominees, which was more than apparent from the crowd’s attire.

Django Django spearheaded proceedings with a set that compiled of the typical Django precise delivery and a light show that left everyone with each iris left in pieces.

The Glaswegian quartet stormed through tracks of their highly acclaimed electronica blanketed debut with the likes of the guitar driven ‘Default’, the wobbing warble of ‘Waveforms’ and finally finished with ‘WOR’.

Sam Lee is probably one of the more unknown nominees to take the stage, which was evident via the population of the crowd. If like me you’re unknown to Sam Lee, in a nutshell, he’s essentially covering the songs of the gypsy heritage (I’m sure all the legal precautions have been covered extensively).

Lee’s highly angelic approach seemed to give the room a sudden teacher-classroom ambience, whereby many would cast down a stare of great dismay, or maybe it was just bugged-out shock from the kazoo like implement Lee was engineering.

Although the performance was an intriguing mind opener, it does seem slightly unjust that a man of seemingly middle class background is fronting a folk tale that doesn’t necessarily reflect his own cultural legacy.

Plan B was welcomed by a seemingly dispersed crowd in comparison to The Django’s set, which was slightly inevitable considering the contrast of acts across the board.

Finishing strong on ‘Stay Too Long' and the albums title release, ‘ill Mannors’, it seemed no one would quite commit to any pushing or shoving antics, instead choosing to sort of gyrate in a contained aggressive manner.
Jack Wade