Tiny, sweat-from-the-ceiling rooms like this is where the real fun lies.
The rise of Irish punk and post-punk has been extraordinarily well documented over the last six or seven years, with artists from both the North and South pushing the island to the vanguard of alternative and new wave punk. One such group is Dublin’s Gurriers, who burst onto the scene with their moody, gothic and atmospheric post-punk debut, Come And See.
They bound onto the stage to the Frankie Valli classic, ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’, with frontman Dan Hoff encouraging the sing-along. YES’ basement is filled to the rafters, the low ceiling is in touching distance and the stage is only elevated a foot or so above the floor. When it comes to visceral, in-your-face live music, there are few places in the North West better than this spot. Gurriers prove to be a perfect band for such a space: clattering the ears of everyone in the tiny room with Come And See‘s opener, ‘Nausea’, among other tunes from the new record.
The five-piece are crammed onto the small stage, with barely room to manoeuvre a fretboard. A pit opens up in front of the band as they tear through ‘Close Call’, ‘Des Goblin’ and ‘Boy’. The beauty of YES’ low stage is that frontman and vocalist Dan Hoff is pretty much at eye level with punters as he bellows his lyrics. The ferocious intensity of Gurriers’ moody goth-punk is kicked up a notch by the intimacy of the show: the pit swirls with old and young and the crowd are split down the middle for ‘wall of death’ style pit action on more than one occasion. Gurriers know exactly how to command a crowd, with bassist Charlie McCarthy striding off the stage and slicing the pit open using his bass guitar like a conductor’s baton.
This intensity barely wavers throughout, as Hoff’s guttural vocals accompany swirling, fuzzy guitars and thunderous percussion. There is a real sense that gigs like these, in rooms like these, are part of an intensely vibrant post-punk movement. The scene has exploded, with (primarily Irish) post-punk bands taking the alternative scene by storm, to the point where the genre label is almost cliche, but the grassroots of the scene in tiny, sweat-from-the-ceiling rooms like this is where the real fun lies.
Between their stellar debut album and such intensely brilliant live shows, Gurriers are laying a the foundations for a significant tenure; with the band’s talent translating well; both in the studio and live. Gurriers even give us a taste of something new, and the cataclysmic, dystopia of ‘Dissolve’ is a highly promising sign of things to come.
Featured image: Joshua Mulholland
