Dublin grunge punk band Sprints made the journey back to the capital for their biggest headline shows to date after a long stint of touring the UK and Ireland over the last year and what a return it was! Previously playing smaller Dublin venues such as Upstairs at Whelan’s and the Grand Social, Sprints return to a sold-out Whelan’s main room was a glorious grunge punk afair.
Support band Last Apollo were an absolutely fantastic support band attracting a large crowd from early on I’m their set. Their bass driven sound is a treat for the years and the crowd clearly enjoyed it from start to finish. They played a majority of their current released music including tracks such as ‘Reservoir’ and one of my favourites on the night ‘Bob Ross’ which has a bass line that would get anyone dancing! ‘Apologies’ could be the next James Bond theme song with fantastic lyrics which were delivered with such power and emotion.
Sprints took the stage I’m darkness to a track of Drone sounds before descending straight into the chaos of their second EP Manifesto playing the title track first. Immediately you could see from their performance that they are a well toured band playing with great professionalism. The band consisting of Karla Chubb (vocals, guitar), Sam McCann (bass, vocals), Colm O’Reilly (guitar) and Jack Callan (drums) then went immediately into another track off their Manifesto EP ‘Drones’, whose fantastic heavy bass line and fantastic drumming from Jack got the crowd moving l, while Karla’s great lyrics had them singing back.
Karla then took a moment to acknowledge the crowd before playing ‘Modern Job’, and ‘Delia Smith’s, two no cares given punk songs which give a great commentary on the current state of the country just as great punk should. At this point Sam introduced the next song ‘Heavy’ which in his words ‘isnt on Spotify ‘ and to which ‘Karla’ added ‘he just means it’s unreleased, we’d be nothing without Spotify’.
‘I’m in a band’ is one of my favourite Sprints songs and it was fantastic live, with Karla’s and Sam’s vocals complementing each other greatly. This song was also somewhat of a turning point for the crowd who definitely upped their level for this song, moshing to the highest level. After this song Karla then asked the crowd ‘are there an homosexuals in the crowd’ to which they replied with great applause before she dedicated’ The Cheek’ to everyone on the crowd. Their first single is still a crowd favourite with the crowd continuing to mosh throughout the song with Karla herself joining the crowd for a majority of the song. The then played another unreleased track ‘Up and Comer’.
Karla then explained that the band would not be doing an encore so the crowd might as well give it all they have left for the last 3 songs they had left and that they certainly did. Next up was ‘Hiw does the story go?’, another interesting commentary on the current state of affairs in Ireland. Karla then introduced their latest single ‘Literary Mind’ as their ‘big gay song’ for all the people who responded earlier, to which the crowd screamed and jumped for the entire song, screaming back the lyrics. Towards the end of the show Karla explained how they have been touring the UK and the rest of the country for so long but there is nothing like a Dublin show in terms of the crowd. The night finished with one final mosh pit for ‘Little Fix’ with both the crowd and the band giving every once of energy they had left.
Sprints showed their class in their biggest homecoming show yet and displayed their fantastic punk talents. I’m sure this is the past time we will see Sprints in such an intimate venue as Sprints are bound for greatness as one of Dublin’s greatest punk bands. Be sure to check them out when you can!
