Sunday 11 February 2018

LIVE REVIEW: The Menzingers @ Whelans 28th of January + Catayena + PUP - By Pascal Derrien



Nearly 5 years since The Menzingers had played in Dublin. The gig was sold out last week and Wav added 10 tickets on the day. I was told they were dearly chased by unlucky fans who had been caught up late.

Catayena did an OK job. The girls are good musicians and their story telling is efficient but the trio needs to add a bit more humph on stage to fully entertain us.

PUP is a different league altogether. The Canadians are a stage beast, a punk machine. Its energetic, sleek and fun to watch. The crowd responded with enthusiasm and at some point I wondered if they were going to steal the show that night. Brilliant buzz and awesome musicianship.

And the stars of evening came on stage at about 10.15. First date of their UK /Europe tour Dublin welcomed the band from Scranton with open arms. It did not take long for the sing along squad to kick off alongside some candid and good humoured stage diving.

Having two singers with Tom and Greg is a feature the guys are utilizing well on stage and its more than pleasant to see them swapping the lead vocals. Most of the group classics were played, we had anything from the Obituaries and its interactive dynamic with the crowd to their latest hit After The Party. The guys seem to genuinely have fun and the crowd was very keen to give some back.

Super show and great ambiance and if you think it was their first gig in a while I can only anticipate a thunderstorm by the time they reach the end of this tour. No thrills and down to earth their lyrics resonate with a large scope of people. I noticed a fair representation from the US in the crowd but I also spoke to some Brazilians, polish and other music fans from Spain

I don’t know how you translate The Menzingers in Spanish but we may need to find a new word in English to describe the unique atmosphere you can only witness at a Mezingers show 😊

Go on the guys from Philly, you said you would not wait that long to come back, I hope that’s a promise 😊

Written by Pascal Derrien