Snapped Ankles, but Furious Dancing Anyway
DAN MCCARTHY
What do you get when you cross Jack in the Green with synthesisers, a drum kit and a group of mates keen to upset the apple cart? Snapped Ankles packed out The Piper’s gig space on Friday 28 November with a characteristically off-the-wall performance – bringing their distinct post-punk, instrumental dance music to a crowd of responsive revellers.
Having come up through one of east London’s warehouse communities in the early 2010s, the group have made a name for themselves with their live act, where they dress in gillie suits, strap percussive synths to logs and dazzle the crowd with their Orbital-esque headgear. The Piper gig was no different, with the band showcasing their recent, critically-acclaimed album Hard Times Furious Dancing.
On a sold-out night The Piper becomes a frenetic sweatbox, the perfect kind of atmosphere for this group of screaming hedges. On entrance, they pushed through the crowd in their feral-men-of-the-forest get-up, immediately dissolving any sort of physical or metaphorical barriers in the room. What followed was a solid hour of a rave-like vibe; their fusion of electronic styles and Mark E. Smith-esque, anti-melodic sloganeering.
One thing to know about the group is that they’re outwardly political. Yes, you can take the monstrous outfits at face value, as a silly aesthetic that gives punters permission to let loose. But their music is political at its core. “The corporations sail the global seas…lead us to impending calamity, while they encourage us to eat, eat, eat, unhealthy”, shouts the anonymous frontman during a rendition of Personal Responsibilities.
At several points during the night, he’d wade into the packed standing area with his synth and thrash about, twirling various crowd members as he went. At points it crossed into the territory of pagan ritual – some bizarre dystopian future where dancing like fools is the only means of protest. At one particularly memorable moment, he had the lighting engineer illuminate the room with a warm yellow and orange light and had the crowd imagine they were on a beach in Fuerteventura, imitating the sound of waves and cawing like seagulls.
Whether a playful escape or a conscious decision to shake off your frustrations, a Snapped Ankles gig is a raucous, hedonistic antidote to our modern malaise.
Snapped Ankles played at The Piper, Norman Road, on Friday 28 November 2025
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