SWX, BristolHailed as one of the most intense live acts around, the
Dublin post-punk band rarely falter in front of their growing fan army
Something is happening to boys in bands up and down the country and across the
Irish Sea. They are singing about things that matter, such as mental health and gentrification. They are disillusioned, but dressed smartly, in faded shirts and starched slacks. They are white, usually, and serious, very serious, often performing with an intensity that suggests they’ve watched Control a fair few times. They’re also cutting across the generations, resonating with people who want heavy
music that means something.
You can’t call this a scene or a sound, although the indie press, what’s left of it, has tried to, gleefully rubbing its corduroys at the sight of men with guitars coming over the hill. But the general consensus is that Idles have blown the door open for raging, post-punkish alternative music, and now Fontaines DC, Black Midi and other intense younglings have trudged through in their charity-shop suits and fugs of feedback, waiting to be nominated for the Mercury.