Review: Bouts in Plugd Records, Cork
The numbers pile into Plugd for Terriers first appearance in the still relatively new Triskel complex. Still struggling to nail my arrival times, I regretfully miss the majority of the Fat Actress/Slugbait splinter project’s short set but I do catch closer ‘Get Over Here’, which comes across as just as impressive as it sounds on their shiny new bandcamp page.
Headliners Bouts – making their Cork bow and currently touring their delightfully poppy double A-side Get Sick/Turn Away – enthusiastically launch into a Summery, Weezer-splashed sound that is rightfully winning them plaudits up and down the country with ‘Get Sick’ crackling as nice and crunchy live as it is on record. Singer/guitarist Barry Bracken cheekily announces how “lovely it is to see so many people in such a tight place” yet the record store setting is a more than suitable replacement for the originally booked venue, An Realt Dearg, which of course sadly closed its doors not so long ago. In fact, Plugd passes its venue-for-rock-gigs exam with flying colours having only hosted more lo-fi performances previously. The Dublin quartet blaze through a flaming forty minute set, comprised of material from last year’s EP (including the sharp-as-shit ‘Barbs’ with its monstrous droning bass), splendidly signing off with the super ‘Turn Away’, a hit-in-the-making that Rivers Cuomo himself would be proud of.
– Double A-side Get Sick/Turn Away by Bouts is available to purchase via official bandcamp site here
– Bouts support Honningbarna in Whelan’s on Tuesday, 10th April
