When a band gets a feel for themselves through their live shows and channels that into the music, you want your speakers to practically burst when you listen to them. By a few seconds into opener ‘No Weaknesses’, The Dirty Nil are catchy, ferocious and all kinds of great.
’Fugue State’ is 45 seconds of pure anarchy, ‘Friends in the Sky’ harnesses a Green Day-esque knack for crowd-pleasing sensibilities in large venues, where ‘Bruto Bloody Bruto’ pulls Ramones-y undertones and a more classic vibe. Towards the end they toy around a little more with ‘Helium Dreamer’ and ‘Bury Me At The Rodeo’ is their rocky serenade to life on the road in the USA.
Rock’n’roll is supposed to be fun and feral, the kind of music you can lose yourself in, sweat away while pressed up against strangers and lose your voice yelling to. The Dirty Nil have real moments of grabbing you by the collar through the speakers and demanding your attention. Some songs will make you want to yell, others will have a hook so catchy it hurts, but really you’ll get to the end and just feel like you’ve spent the last little while of your life listening to some great music, and your living room might have been destroyed in the process if you weren’t too careful. Heather McDaid
