Dublin punk band Thumper played their largest show yet in a sold out Whelan’s main room. Everything about this show was chaos in the best way possible!
Support band Really Good Time were exactly that a really good time. I was very impressed with this punk four-some who were super tight and professional from start to finish. Their sound was totally unique but somehow familiar. The band were able to go from delicate intricate guitar parts to full on Screaming in the drop of a hat! They were a perfect warm up for the chaos that was to come.
As the 6 members of Thumper took the stage you could immediately tell it was going to be a great show from the reaction of the crowd. 3 guitars, a bass and 2 drummers is the perfect recipe for a tremendous punk show. Thumper started the show as they meant to go on with great energy.
The crowd immediately started moving and head banging straight away. The band reciprocated this energy jumping right into the crowd during the first song. ‘25’ was a highlight in the set with the upbeat, high-energy getting the crowd moving from the start. The bands great playing was also evident straight away with the impact of having 2 drummers on stage being felt right in the chest of the crowd.
As the evening progressed more and more chaos unfolded with several mosh pits forming in the crowd. About halfway through the set lead singer Oisín told the crowd to stop messing around and get up on someone’s shoulders. From this moment on there was constantly someone crowd surfing with the band also doing their fair share of crowd surfing.
Towards the end of the was just pure chaos with the band pausing during the song ‘(You’re bringing me) down’ to get the crowd to form a wall of death. Oisín then proceeded to count the crowd down before they ran into each other as confetti canons went off up on stage. The bands mic stands were knocked down by members of the crowd crashing into them.
After a brief encore the band returned to play 3 songs including ‘Ad Nauseum’ which was definitely a crowd favourite and kept the crowd moving right until the very end of the show with people constantly jumping off the stage into the crowd. At the end of the show Thumper thanked the crowd for coming to their largest headline show yet, before jumping into the crowd for their post show picture.
Thumper are definitely an act to see live if you get a chance. Their energy was so high throughout the show and they gave the crowd ample opportunity to head bang and crowd surf to their hearts content, which they did to the fullest! I look forward to catching Thumper again soon for hopefully an even bigger show.
