The Staves Pepper Canister Church September 2013It’s almost a year since The Staves played their last show in Dublin – that too a precursor to winter. Goldenplec had the pleasure yet again in witnessing Watford’s Stavely-Taylor sisters perform, this time around in the angelic, Pepper Canister church.

Domineering church walls, damply lit with heavy red lighting provide the backdrop to opener, Gone Tomorrow. A single bass drum beat gets the crowd a little looser with Motherlode; they sit, delighted; and utterly focused.

The trio from just outside London are a delight and their math-like melodies are frightening at times. Inside Pepper Canister Church, superb paintings on the ceilings above, appear frozen in praise by the wondrous music below. There’s a feeling of purity in the air…perhaps it’s the non-presence of alcohol.

Pay Us No Mind is an unstable little number  – a drunken sort of a song, where ale by the bucket seems an appropriate accompaniment. “Can I say fuck in this church?” questions Jess, “we’ve been told to say feck.“,  the Stavely sisters tend to their beers for a deserved sip, Emily sarcastically bemuses “how unusual; for a church not to have a bar,” before they commence with the popular, and incredibly hypnotising Icarus. A fairytale-like song with sweeping harmonising vocals, it takes over every essence within the room.

Wisely And Slow is performed with all three Staves sharing one mic – a familiar sight with this particular song, and yet again they show immense vocal skill. They’re quite possibly one of the greatest vocal partnerships for many years around this part of the world. Tongue Behind My Teeth peaks the show; Camilla displays her gentle talents on the ukulele producing a graceful sound of a warm folk-pop.  “You’ve got magic in the water in Ireland” they say, to which a clued-in pundit amusingly shouts; “it’s the fluoride!”

The group begin to wind things down a little with the darkly romantic Winter Trees, the sinister Eagle Song and album title track Dead & Born & Grown – the first song ever written by the group. It’s at this point in the show where the mind can not help but wander. Song after song, the assault course of harmonies becomes, well, a bit boring. The additional musicians on drums and electric bass are unfortunately reduced to cameo roles; but it is when the fivesome has the chance to unleash, the sound in this little church becomes absurdly divine.

While the evening is one of gentle enjoyment, revealing there was feelings of boredom is no secret. The Staves master their craft in a beautiful way and it has served them well, but if they choose to become as big as many feel they deserve, it’s vital they incorporate the band throughout the entirety of their show.