The Stagger Rats, Norscot Angling Club, Lerwick, Shetland
One look at Edinburgh’s The Stagger Rats and there’s already a misnomer at play.
One look at Edinburgh’s The Stagger Rats and there’s already a misnomer at play. The Stagger Rats? More like The Swagger Rats. This five-piece are suited and pointy-booted (except for the organ player sporting a cosy red onesie) and their retro-tinged sound is similarly doused in stylish clamour.
The venue for tonight’s show lays meekly on the edge of a salty The North Sea, and by day is an angling club. Nearby stands tall massive landing sites for fishing boats, one of Shetland’s main exports, but thankfully tonight there ain’t no pungent fish aroma lingering in our nostrils – more like the yeasty musk of beer, vodka and anticipant punters waiting to grubby up their dancing shoes.
Engaging cuts like ‘Comprehension Suspension’ show this band acknowledging their strengths, with fluid vocals swapping as freely as amorous Romeo and Juliets exchange saliva on a Saturday night whilst the sleazy organs nod back to bygone days. It is the festive time, so naturally this crowd are pretty squiffy, so by the time these chaps from Scotland’s capital wind up their set eyes are blurred and bopping feet are sore, but ears have been treated with some stellar, self-proclaimed ‘gypsy death funk’. A darn more pleasant belated Christmas present than those socks you got on Boxing Day.
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