When: 29th October 2016
Where: Various locations, Hackney, London.
Saturday nights in Hackney are rarely under-served with things to do, but tonight the borough has truly outdone itself. Mirrors festival is running across six venues, featuring dozens of both up and coming and well established acts. With my schedule full I start out at Oslo, to catch Pity Me indie-punks Martha. A large audience has gathered to see them, but at the back of the room it’s difficult to hear much over the guitars. The band look shell-shocked to be here, and their occasionally shaky trade-off vocals give an anxious impression. Despite this their singles ‘Precarious (Supermarket Song)’ and ‘Ice Cream and Sunscreen’ come across well, justifying the enthusiasm around their record Blisters in the Pit of My Heart. Afterwards I head over to St John at Hackney, where it becomes apparent that Bill Ryder-Jones faces no such confidence issues. He does, however, have a distinct advantage over Martha as a seasoned live performer thanks to his stint as guitarist for noughties indie heavyweights The Coral. He’s clearly at ease in front of a large audience, chatting with the crowd about how many more “bad jokes” he can fit in before the end of his set. Jokes aside, his performance is laid-back and tender with set closer ‘Satellites’ proving a particular highlight.
One of the selling points of Mirrors this year was the introduction of more festival stages at Hackney Picturehouse, Paper Dress Vintage, Hackney Empire, and Moth Club. But with most set times overlapping I find myself yo-yoing between the two main stages at St John at Hackney and Oslo. A few other inner city multi-venue festivals have overcome similar set-clash issues by scheduling a short gap between acts, which might improve future Mirrors dates. On the one hand not catching all of the acts you intend to see comes part and parcel with the festival experience. But on the other, Mirrors sells itself on being carefully curated, and as a punter it’s a shame to feel that you’re not quite getting the full picture by having to choose between missing the end of one act or the beginning of the next. This is the choice I face between Bill Ryder-Jones and Cherry Glazerr, and as a result I arrive at the latter’s performance a few songs in. Cherry Glazerr’s vocals are swallowed in the mix during the first few songs that I catch, but by the middle of the set things balance out and ‘Told You I’d Be With the Guys’ comes out in a strong, clear burst of alt-rock. From their set it’s clear Cherry Glazerr will take no prisoners, as they dedicate songs to the awfulness of periods and roll their eyes in the face of anyone boring and pathetic enough to be affronted.
A swathe of people at the back of the room leave during the first few songs of Canadian punks Fucked Up’s set, but it’s their loss. Fucked Up present far and away the most engaging show of the evening. Frontman Damien Abraham charges about the stage tangled up in the microphone lead, holding out the mic for fans to scream lyrics into. Between songs he dashes about the stage picking up water bottles, then looks anxiously out into the crowd. “Where’s the woman in the werewolf suit?” he asks, “She’s got to be dying of thirst.” Drink break over, the band dive back into their throat-scraping set to raised fists and whiplash-fast headbanging.
Things take on a slightly more serene hue during Bat For Lashes headline slot. Natasha Khan’s theatrical performance and bold vocal are a perfect fit for St John’s as she performs from her latest album The Bride. Last year Mirrors festival was praised for its careful balance of acts from a range of genres, and that success has carried over to this year’s event. On paper, screaming punk-rock followed by Bat For Lashes’ dramatic multi-instrumentalism sounds like it should be jarring, but here the contrast is welcomed and underscores the unique strong points of each. Mirrors seems set to become a mainstay of the London festival circuit, and if things carry on as they are it may well turn out to be a highlight of future seasons.
Photo courtesy of the Mirrors Facebook Page
