Gurriers and Nerves were in Oxford to highlight Irish Indie Superiority on the 24th of October.

Whilst The Wedding Present were downstairs, those upstairs at Academy 2 were getting a powerful combo of up and coming Irish talent.

Nerves

We were huge fans of their Iarmhaireacht (pronounced ee-war-acht) EP released back in August and were overjoyed when we discovered they were supporting Gurriers on tour. It is not surprising after listening to their music to find they are a hugely intense stage presence. Front man Kyle Thornton is all over the place, shoulder length hair, bearded, wearing a kilt and a Bauhaus t-shirt. After a few songs the t-shirt is discarded and he is bare chested for the rest of the set. He prowls to the edge, lunges around in each direction, comes down to the barrier and eventually hops over the barrier to get out among the audience.

They play Iarmhaireacht in full and then a few more tracks after that. There are moments of quality but the overall sound is slightly murky. Whereas ‘Takes A Second’ is a breathtaking track on the EP it doesn’t quite reach the same giddy heights this evening. There is enough to sense that there is an extremely bright future for this band but there is a little bit of room for improvement as a live act.

Nerves explore the death of a relationship in their Iarmhaireacht EP

Gurriers

They kick off with recent new single ‘Erasure’ and the Academy2 explodes. This is a high energy set that never really lets up for the thirteen tracks they play. There is a strong post-punk vibe but at times there is a more of a mid-noughties indie-funk style underpinning it. This is music to bounce to, mosh to, go nuts to.

Dan Hoff is a commanding conductor of chaos. His vocal delivery is often more spoken than singing, though his default mixed style of the two is very punk and works well to the high energy music. Throughout the gig he implores more out of the crowd, gesturing with his hands for more intensity, more response.

Whilst the music is primal there is a lot going on lyrically. Their album Come and See explored the end of the world, youth disenchantment, Irish emigration, the rise of the far right and how online accounts fuel narcissism.

There are a lot of good bands out there struggling to sell out small venues. Gurriers felt barely contained by the smaller Academy2. The crowd were totally immersed, most knowing the words to all the songs. This level of devotion speaks to their immense quality and a very bright future. The closest matching experiences we have had this year were with Fat Dog and Gans, all three are bands that give absolutely everything and leave nothing back. They end with fantastic renditions of ‘Des Goblin’ and ‘Nausea.’ They spend a few seconds soaking up the crowd reaction and are then gone. No encore, but there wasn’t much left they could have played. They had nothing left to prove.