Live Review :: Touts :: Studio 2, Liverpool - Oct 5 2017

Live 

Touts

Studio 2, Liverpool 

October 5 2017

Words/Pictures: Jane Davies

Derry punk wonder kids Touts paid a return visit to Liverpool after making a huge impact at its Sound City earlier this year. And they certainly did not disappoint this time either.

A salvo of pounding tunes ricocheted round the room, whipping up a decently sized mid week audience, bursting ear drums in the process. It is impossible not to get moving when riotous anthems such as ‘Saturday Scum Bags’ and ’Go Fuck Yourself’ are unleashed at full throttle. You have to admire this group for their inventive, vitriolic and anarchic song titles.

You also have to admire the fact that one of the trio is not legally old enough to drink yet are capable of knocking out such well crafted, classic sounding punk music that has been inspired by The Clash, The Undertones, Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, and even The Dubliners.

Everything about Touts is fast paced and frenetic, even bassist Luke McLaughlin, who kept a running dialogue with the audience, is hard to keep up with. Luckily for him there was a contingent of Derry natives in the audience who were able to catch his observations on the evening and interact with him. Biggest laugh of the night went to vocalist/guitarist Matthew Crossan who delighted in telling the audience that Luke was from a town in County Donegal called Muff. This opened up speculation as to whether there was a diving club in the said town.

‘Sold Out’ certainly had a feel of The Clash's ‘I Fought The Law’ about it. New single ‘Bomb Scare’ was thrashed out, a real Molotov cocktail of a song that drove furiously along until it exploded into a crescendo of a shouting frenzy. Not all Touts' songs automatically fit into the punk genre as soon as a chord is struck, this point proven by the gentle vocal introduction into ‘Mickey’ which had the feel of a traditional Irish folk song before quickly reverting back to full on anarchic hell raising state. ‘Political People’, one of their songs from their first EP, was played and summed up the ethos of the band in that they are inspired about the world around them and more often than not, the injustices within it.

The set ended with ‘Gloria’, a roof raiser of a song and which finished with the lads departing stage left with their guitars still switched on and furiously reverberating back some spectacular feedback before their manager jumped on stage to save what little was left of our hearing for the evening.

Touts are in the vanguard of the punk resurgence that is currently exploding onto the music scene. Keep an ear out for them - preferably one containing an ear plug.