GURRIERS + THEATRE – CHALK, BRIGHTON 26.3.25
There must be something in the Dublin water you know! Over the past few decades the famed capital city of the Republic of Ireland has produced an impressive array of musical talent with an edge, and I’m not just talking about U2 (boom boom). There’s been the Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy, The Pogues, My Bloody Valentine, The Murder Capital, The Cranberries, Fontaines D.C., Thumper and Yard. There’s also Dan Hoff, Pierce Callaghan, Mark MacCormack, Ben O’Neill and latest recruit Charlie McCarthy, who collectively make up band-on-the-up Gurriers. A name apparently derived from a cake, known locally as a ‘Gur’, which consisted of the leftovers from the bakeries which were given (or sold cheaply) to the poor…the Gurriers!
Gurriers (the band) formed on the cusp of a global pandemic, and they already embody the emerging Irish genres of post-punk, noise rock and shoegaze, and it’s fair to say that we have had our eyes on Gurriers ever since we caught them playing at Alphabet in Brighton on Friday 12th May 2023 as part of ‘The Great Escape’ new music festival. This being one of the three sets they were performing for the festival.
We also managed to catch up with Gurriers at Henham Park in Suffolk as part of 2023’s ‘Latitude’ festival, which they closed the second day (Saturday 22nd July) with a terrific performance in a wood in the rain with white searchlights rotating around the skies as if looking for an enemy bomber. It was a ‘wild in the woods’ performance with a boisterous crowd and my notes at that time read “Miss them at your peril” and “They were yet another must see Dublin act!”.
A trickle of seven singles were launched from 2021 to 2024 and then on 13th September last year Gurriers dropped their debut long-player, titled ‘Come And See’ which featured eleven quality compositions. Emmet White was in the band at the time of release, but he is now at the helm of YARD, who are the only band I’ve ever seen perform live three times in a single day! Yep luv em! Enter replacement bassist Charlie McCarthy who brings his own energy to the Gurriers live sets.
A while back Gurriers announced their European and UK ‘Come And See’ tour, which sadly didn’t include a Brighton date. But then joy-of-joys, the lads announced a second leg of the tour with nine new concert dates and one of these was for Brighton and so I find myself standing at the very front of the popular Chalk venue in Pool Valley (courtesy of FORM promoters) awaiting the arrival of this exciting noisy punkish quintet.
I guess it’s fair to state that Gurriers are now on many folks’ radar, especially after they played ‘Approachable’ live on ‘Later…With Jools Holland’ – Watch the video HERE. So it’s no wonder they are out on their debut headlining tour and the Chalk venue tonight has quite a large number of inquisitive punters of various ages ready to see what the lads can offer them!
They arrive at their allotted slot of 8:45pm and reward us with 14 tunes, consisting of all of the 11 tracks from ‘Come And See’ album as well as a trio of unreleased newbies, which runs for 58 minutes until 9:43pm. Their intro tape was a tad surprising as it was ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’, a song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, and first recorded and released as a single by Gaudio’s Four Seasons bandmate Frankie Valli in 1967. You might have thought something like Wagner’s ‘Ride Of The Valkyries’ would have been a more apt selection, but hey-ho….let’s go!
Pierce kicks the band off with his drums intro and the lads are away with ‘Close Call’, with it’s dirty gritty guitar and bass interplay whilst frontman Dan delivers his vocals “Systematically fear the ones who are near; The coming stone; The stolen phone; Close call; Close call; Close call; Close cal….”. They have laid out their stall nice and early and I get the excitement I had when first watching IDLES and Fontaines D.C. around seven or eight years ago….there’s a buzz in the air!
They follow this with album opener ‘Nausea’, which reaffirms my IDLES and Fontaines D.C. thoughts above, as this could easily be culled from any of their albums. It’s fast, loud, urgent, screechy and bloody epic! Worth coming out tonight just for this! Next!……..
Dan introduces their ‘Des Goblin’ single as the next selection, which was greeted by a cheer from some of the fans. New boy Charlie kicks this off with a solo bass riff, which is then joined by the lads and it has a dirty dance beat in the mould of Killing Joke’s ‘Pssyche’. Charlie signals his presence by jumping off stage and having a wander into the packed crowd, which increased the unity and interaction between the two parties. He is then joined by Dan who takes over crowd interaction duties, whilst Charlie clambers on top of the bar.
Back on stage and the quintet next gave us ‘Dipping Out’, which Dan explains is about folk leaving Ireland. This is a bass drum led number with raunchy guitars on top, with the repeated chorus “All my friends are dipping out”. Dan then informs us that the next track is “a new one”, this being ‘Nothing Happens Twice’ and it’s another serious slice of rockin’. If this signals the way forward for the band, then the future is bright. After this, Dan then introduces another newbie, this one is ‘Erasure’. It features a guitar sound like screech to start with and if I wasn’t observing this directly, I’d have to guess what instrument is making this. Charlie then lets rip with his bass and a gorgeous rumble is achieved, followed by Dan’s vocals and some disco style drumming from Pierce. It has an abrupt end that catches many unaware.
Dan then informs us that they are going to take the “tempo right down” and the quintet set about playing ‘Prayers’, which is a slow and quieter track, which allows folk to hang on to every work of his Irish brogue. It’s here that Dan sounds not unlike Grian Chatten, especially as he delivers “And now the Pope says his prayers to those empty rows of chairs; And now the Pope says his prayers”, whilst on the record, it’s more like Bono. The tune builds and builds into the anthem that it is.
‘Interlude’ is their next choice cut from the album and this is their shortest tune, coming in at 73 seconds, and it’s sedate almost like a guitar tune up and really serves as an intro to ‘Top Of The Bill’, which it segues into. This being arguably the band’s most melodic number and benefits from a decent guitar twang riff all the way through. The tune has a mid 1970’s vibe and Dan’s vocals during this track strangely remind me of an amalgam of a trio of The Rolling Stones numbers ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, ‘Respectable’ and ‘Miss You’.
‘Sign Of The Times’ is their next selection and Dan says “Let’s get back to dancing” and Pierce kicks us off with the drums, followed by screeching guitars from Mark and Ben and then Charlie adds the rumbly bass and again he’s off into the lively crowd. At the very beginning of ‘No More Photos’, Dan signals to the crowd with his outstretched arms in a parting movement, and dutifully the crowd splits in two. There’s a rushing mosh about to take place! The urgent noisy screech laden track begins and the two halves rush at each other and there’s copious amounts of bouncing on the go, as Dan shouts out the words of this in-yer-face number.
The final unreleased song is up next, it’s called ‘Dissolve’. It’s slower than the previous track and is a tad melodic, until the IDLES style rumbles kick in. Then there’s a quiet break as Pierce taps a drumstick on the rim of his kit, which reminds me of local legends DITZ. The track then increases intensity as does the crowd. Their penultimate selection was the solid ‘Approachable’ with its guitar intro, followed by a wall of sound and screamed vocals. Dan makes his final foray into the crowd and clearly everyone is having a fab time. After this we are told that the next song is to be the last one and the album title track is played. It has a slow guitar strum start and the song nicely builds and with all the instruments on the go, you can imagine this sound filling a stadium. It’s not unlike Oasis in delivery and vibe. Probably why it was their last choice tonight and the closing number on the album. But energy-wise maybe they should have flipped these last two tunes tonight, to better effect. It’s 9:43pm and they well and truly have conquered. It’s been another terrific set from the band. Let’s hope they make a swift return.
Gurriers:
Dan Hoff – vocals
Pierce Callaghan – drums
Mark MacCormack – guitar
Ben O’Neill – guitar
Charlie McCarthy – bass
Gurriers setlist:
(Intro tape) ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ by Frankie Valli
‘Close Call’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Nausea’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Des Goblin’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Dipping Out’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Nothing Happens Twice’ (unreleased)
‘Erasure’ (unreleased)
‘Prayers’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Interlude’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Top Of The Bill’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Sign Of The Times’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘No More Photos’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Dissolve’ (unreleased)
‘Approachable’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
‘Come And See’ (from 2024 ‘Come And See’ album)
(Outro tape) ‘The Windmills Of Your Mind’ by Mel Tormé
Support this evening came from Limerick based Theatre who are an act that have thus far gone under my radar, but I guess that’s to be expected, on the account of they have yet to release anything. I hear they did record some tunes, but in the end weren’t happy with them and so they are working on their sound at the moment. Support slot on the whole tour will certainly help them. The outfit consists of Maeve O’Shea, Dara Gooney, Oscar Haplin, Sonny Foy and Shaun Storan and they take to the Chalk stage at 7:45pm and reward us with a 7 or possibly 8 track 35 minute set.
They quietly take to the stage and begin with ‘The Only Eden’ which has an intro and then becomes a slow chugger of a tune. There’s something like The Corrs and The Cranberries about them, and indeed this vibe is carried on throughout the whole performance. Vocalist Maeve informs us that this is their first time in the UK, and hopefully it won’t be their last. It’s immediately obvious that Maeve has a truly powerful voice and as we see later, vocal range as well. It’s a good start!
Song two is ‘Black Swan’ which has echoey guitars and solid drumming and then the rumbley bass kicks in followed by the vocals. It’s a powerful number and the band rocks on out. According to the setlist on the stage floor in front of me, it was to be ‘Clouds’ next, but that’s been scrubbed out and replaced by ‘Gaudete’, which is not the Steeleye Span one. It’s a speedier, more immediate tune and Maeve’s lyrics are expressively delivered along with some decent jangly guitar action. The quintet are solidly in unison here. ‘Messiah’ comes next with its brief intro, then guitar and vocals together, before the remaining trio join in. It’s a slower tune than its predecessor, but it did build in statute and sound the longer it went on for.
‘The Fall’ was next and this has a guitar intro not too dissimilar to Nirvana’s ‘Come As You Are’, and the song benefits from more powerful vocals, which are very much like The Cranberries here. There’s a solid wall of guitars, bass and drums at the start of the next tune, which then dies away to become quiet. The repeated “You are” lyrics are delivered with real gusto and then the track either changes beat or segues via a guitar solo into the next brief track. The setlist reads ‘You Are’/‘Transition’, so I guess it’s likely to be two tunes?
They sign off with ‘Willow’ and Maeve’s vocals instantly remind me of the talented Norwegian singer Aurora. It’s just Maeve and guitar at the start of this one, before Shaun lets loose on his drumkit. Maeve’s vocals then take on a wailing style and the song becomes a powerful one and it’s a great choice to end on. I reckon these would be good as part of ‘The Great Escape’ or even ‘Mutations Festival’, and so another Brighton gig will be had and I will be there!
Theatre:
Maeve O’Shea – vocals
Dara Gooney – guitar
Oscar Haplin – guitar
Sonny Foy – bass
Shaun Storan – drums
Theatre setlist:
‘The Only Eden’
‘Black Swan’
‘Gaudete’
‘Messiah’
‘The Fall’
‘You Are’/‘Transition’
‘Willow’
