“These are my four best mates on stage."
As the smoke began to rise within this intimate crucible, the crowd’s level of undivided anticipation gradually grew for the rising Dublin-based post-punk band, The Murder Capital.
Not only selling out their London headline show but also the entirety of their U.K. tour, this act have recently garnered an unprecedented wave of appraisal from punk fans (as well as The Guardian) over their debut LP, When I Have Fears. In a world where post-punk seems to have ridden waves of popularity courtesy of such cataclysmic contemporaries as Idles and Fontaines D.C., The Murder Capital ultimately couldn’t quite capitalise on this nation’s beckoning hysteria this evening.
With Happy Couple concluding their impressive supporting role in tonight’s well-attended proceedings, the wheels of modern post-punk and art-rock were set in motion - only to be filled by playbacks of another Irish band, Burnt Out, in the lead-up to the crowning jewel act. This unorthodox lead-in to The Murder Capital’s set ultimately felt elongated and flat, lingering on the crowd’s anticipation for 5 minutes too long. Yet when The Murder Capital at last arrived on stage, slower-tempoed track such as ‘Slowdance I’ and ‘On Twisted Ground’ stumbled over their prolonged feedback and overblown ambiance.
"They now lapsed around you and me, they kept us all together"
Luckily for us, the mid-section’s tempo comparatively picked up with an excavation of their LP’s leading singles, ‘For Everything’, ‘Green & Blue’, and ‘Don’t Cling To Life’. Exuding much further conviction from lead singer James McGovern’s vocals, these tracks felt further aligned with more enticing approaches of the burgeoning post-punk scene in the U.K. Drawing on apparent influences of Joy Division and Gang of Four, McGovern's raspily desperate vocals added to the repeated expression of “don’t cling to life”, yet these tracks still lacked a certain je ne sais quoi to invite us further into the band’s emotional turbulence.
Striking a fine balance between poetic pertinence and playful phrasing, McGovern and his on-stage brethren arrived at the concluding duo of tracks for tonight, ‘More is Less’ and ‘Feeling Fades’. From the former’s burgeoning force-of-nature style, to the latter’s chanting of “la, la, la’s”, McGovern conducted a sea of atmospheric, larger-than-life distortions at the band’s culmination. Admirably furthering the mid-set’s trajectory of harsh punk-inspired tropes, this band of brothers thankfully ended on a higher note than initially anticipated - ensuing a more indelible level of raucous chaos for the crowd.
Yet if anything was proven tonight, it was this country’s love affair with current post-punkisms was alive and kicking - shown through The Murder Capital’s highly-anticipated sold-out show at The Dome. But what their contemporaries offer more than this particular band is that level of unpredictability, harsh lyricism, and sense of foreboding encased in their repertoire - something which I’m sure this single-album act can endeavour to discover in the future. For now, I’ll have to settle with The Murder Capital’s bond of undeniable fraternity, rapturous post-punk, and ambient art-rock - perhaps a satisfactory recipe for a more promising future?
6/10
The Murder Capital's debut LP, When I Have Fears, is out now and can be found here.
All photos are courtesy of Jamie MacMillan whose work can be found here.
Tickets for their UK tour next year can be found here.
Comments