Live Review

From bar-tops to breakdowns: Gurriers go off at Oslo, London

The temperatures have dropped, pumpkin spice is creeping back onto coffee shop menus, and red leaves are strewn all over the place – autumn is well and truly here. But don’t stress, there’s still time for a final summer celebration on Hackney’s streets, brought to life by SON Estrella Galicia in their biggest and boldest chapter yet: Soundhood. Full to the brim with Dork favourites, Irish punk sensation Gurriers take top spot on a talent-packed line-up across three iconic East London venues.

Words:Ciaran Picker

Photos:Alex Amorós

While post-punk pioneers Folly Group headline Bethnal Green’s Sebright Arms and Liverpool guitar-rock icons Courting take over Paper Dress Vintage, Amhurst Road’s Oslo prepares to be eviscerated by a sweaty, sold-out Gurriers crowd. To the backdrop of a Katy J Pearson DJ set – replete with an eclectic mix of The Style Council, Kylie Minogue, and Stealers Wheel – South Wales noise-rockers Morn take to the stage. Playing to a crowd that seems to expand with each song, they bring a fiery, frenetic energy that manifests itself as a dark, driving wall of ominous post-punk. Crashing drums, throbbing bass, and screeching guitar lines – it’s an exciting start from a very exciting new band.

Whatever they put in the water over in the Emerald Isle is creating a generation of Irish bands that simply cannot be ignored, and tonight’s headliners fall firmly into that category. A little under a year ago, Gurriers were playing a few hundred yards up the road to a bouncing Moth Club. Now, they’re preparing to play two sold-out nights at Dublin’s Button Factory, before heading across the pond for their first-ever headline US tour – all of this off the back of stunning 2024 debut, ‘Come and See’, by the way. Right now, though, there’s the small matter of melting the faces off Oslo’s baying audience.

By the time singer Dan Hoff has got to the first "it’s a problem that they all have" in opener ‘Nausea’, the pit has opened up, and the masses are screaming the words back to the Irish quintet. Cycling through each searing banger from their acclaimed first record, the band keep the energy and excitement at fever pitch, as ‘Close Call’ bleeds into melodic yet malevolent single ‘Des Goblin’. It’s not long before Hoff and bass player Charlie McCarthy are in the bit, dripping in sweat and demanding even more from their flock of loyal moshers. McCarthy ends up on the bar halfway down the room before the band fly into ‘Dipping Out’, a track they dedicate to ‘all our mates from Ireland who moved to London’; by the sound of the cheer that erupts, most of them are in the room.

Their ’Come and See’ classics are interspersed with new FIFA 26-ordained single ‘Erasure’, a track that matches Hoff’s shirt in calling for long overdue ‘Saoirse Don Phailistín’ (‘Freedom for Palestine’), and a blinding new track that we’re calling ‘Nothing Happens Twice’. Although the crowd might calm slightly for ‘Top of the Bill’, there’s still plenty of time for the pit to open even wider as the lads tear through ‘Approachable’ and ‘No More Photos’, sending people flying in a frantic yet joyous frenzy of bodies.

By the time they’ve reached the end of euphoric closer ‘Come and See’, it’s clear to see why Gurriers are on the path to glory. Performance levels off the scale with the anthems to match, it’s another victory for the Irish punk scene and for SON Estrella Galicia’s Hackney residence.

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From bar-tops to breakdowns: Gurriers go off at Oslo, London

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