I headed to The Grand Social in Dublin last night for a night of Punk with London band Wonk Unit and two Irish bands, Strangers with Guns and Bar Tape. Unfortunately I didn’t get into venue till half way through the opening act Bar Tape, due to a door time change which lucky enough I noticed on one of the venues socials.
What I did catch was a good old fashion Punk band and the guys gave it their all even with the sparse crowd due to the aforementioned door change. Playing a set of nine songs, with Cory Hotline (guitar) Juvenile Delinquent (bass) Colin Sick (drums) all sharing vocal duties and other band member Barry Tape sticking to his guitar duties.
Set List
David
Take Head
St Peter
Chewing Tobacco
One Way East
Guts and Skin
Triple Colin Klub
Medicine
Subscription Glasses
https://bartape.bandcamp.com/
Next up it was Strangers with Guns, more airing on the side of Grunge. The guys played an 8 song set to a slightly more fuller room, but there was still plenty of room for their new bassist to use it as his on playground as he spent more time off the stage and in with the folks that had manage to get in in time to see them, strutting around the room dress in his tights and corset at one point getting an audience member to pour drink into his mouth and at one point nearing the end someone shouted get them off and off cam the tights. Thankfully he was wearing boxers underneath.
Set List (I have omitted parts of song titles due to there nature and not to offend)
Now Wait For Last Year
Fluoride In The Water
—–
Somebody Needs A Hug
Dial It Back
—- The American Dream
Art Council ——
Lies Of Omission
https://strangerswithguns.bandcamp.com/
We now get to the main act of the night and it’s London Punks, Wonk Unit. By now the room has filled and from the minute the guys get going there’s a mosh pit formed at the front. At one point Alex asking the thrashers to calm it down a bit as he is seeing people falling on there bums and he does wait to see anyone hurt and he would like the majority of the audience to be able to move nearer the front.
There is a setlist (see featured photo) but like all good Punk shows that went out the window ages ago and Alex picks what he likes to play and than after awhile starts asking the crowd what they want to hear and obliges every time a song is shouted out. At one point Alex took a brief break from vocals to let Xray-vez (as Alex say’s he is now going to start calling her) take over and take centre stage to sing a song she wrote.
All in all a great night of abusive fast trashing punk as punk is meant to be and at times touched with a slight tinge of Reggae.
https://wonk-unit.bandcamp.com/
