Review
Review
Sprints at O2 Kentish Town Forum, 13/11/24
The Dublin punks provide a night of cathartic noise at their biggest headline show to date
There must be something in the water on the other side of the Irish Sea. Recent years has seen some of the best new guitar music come from the Emerald Isle. Dublin, in particular, seems to be fertile ground. The last few years have seen Gilla Band, The Murder Capital, and of course, Fontaines D.C., rise from the city’s grassroots venues into some of the most exciting guitar bands in the world. Sprints are another who can, and should, be added to the list. And now, with debut album Letter To Self in tow, they are no longer playing to a couple hundred people, instead drawing a couple thousand to the Forum on a cold Wednesday night to either reaffirm their faith or see what all the fuss was about.
Support came from north of the border, as Belfast noise-makers Chalk provided forty-five minutes of their take on post-punk-meets-techno. It was as loud and as harsh as it was invigorating. Although clearly drawing from their own Irish inspirations, (hello, Just Mustard), it made for an exciting change to the usual guitar-band format, with their singular guitar left on the floor for much of the set.
Sprints, however, definitely are a guitar band. Opener ‘To The Bone’ provided something of a slow start but from then on in it was loud and fast. The inevitable moshpit was immediate and didn’t relent – this was a crowd that was up for it. All 2000 of them. It was something that Sprints, and in particular lead singer Karla Chubb, relished as they took in the scale of their biggest gig to date. ‘Adore Adore Adore’ and ‘Heavy’ really got the crowd going, and at times it was hard to tell who was louder – Sprints or their audience. It wasn’t all blistering pace and fuzzed out guitars, though. A new, unreleased song suggested a new sonic direction; one that was both expansive and more considered, whilst retaining those Sprints hallmarks. But with the band’s request to have no phones for this one (mostly) honoured by the crowd, you’ll have to wait to find out. Bassist Sam McCann displays the band’s sense of humour when he tells us they don’t want feedback or compliments, “we’re very sensitive souls”.
New was followed by old(er), with ‘Up And Comer’ providing a highlight, and the peak of the constant moshing. ‘The Cheek’ was played, as part of a promise made at their last London headline show. It was followed up with ‘How Does The Story Go’, which managed to temporarily replace the moshpit, getting the crowd bouncing instead. The privilege of a job and night like this is not lost on Sprints, “it’s a privilege to have a platform and we feel we have a moral duty to use that platform” Chubb tells us. By now she is draped in a Pride flag, and uses that platform to demonstrate the band’s support for Palestine as well as calling out transphobia and the rise of the far-right. ‘Literary Mind’ follows and immediately feels intensely cathartic and joyful. We were even treated to confetti canons.
Chubb then reflects on the journey Sprints have been on: “we really never thought we’d make it this far”. She thanks the audience for being the best crowd of the year before launching into their final track, ‘Little Fix’. The confetti canons return for a second outing, and with Chubb out crowd surfing in the audience, it feels more like a celebration for the band than anything else. But then again, the same could be said of the entire night. Not bad for up-and-comers.
