I know nothing about music or the music industry. I do know that when a band announces a low-key gig to try out new songs live, and that gig sells out in a day, and the band upgrades to a bigger room, that’s a pretty good sign of their success. That band is Thumper. Thumper continues to blow my mind. I was lucky enough to see them again on a Tuesday night in The Workman’s Club recently. That is what I am going to talk about today. Welcome to Monday, by the way.

The good news is that Thumper are currently in the middle of working on their second album. This was confirmed during their last gig in Dublin in The Button Factory last Christmas. The other good news came when Thumper announced this show, a London headline show, and a slew of festival dates over the coming months. The reasoning is that they are working away on the aforementioned second album and wanted to “road test” new material. For those in attendance at their Button Factory gig, we were lucky enough to hear some of these new songs already, including, but not limited to, On and Off Again, Bad Mood, and Middle Management. Judging by these songs alone, we are in for a treat whenever this new album drops.

By the way, Thumper has six members—many bodies on stage. They consist of a lead singer/guitarist, two more guitarists, a bassist, and two drummers. One thing I noticed from this gig in particular is the change, for the better, in stage presence. For me, showmanship is just as important to the live performance as the songs. Many bands aren’t like that, but that keeps me invested in bands. I am not naming any names, but I have seen bands live who I don’t plan on seeing again for that reason. It may sound harsh, but this is my blog. Thumper is officially not in this category. Having banter on stage is tough when there are so many of you, but I enjoyed the camaraderie from the members when addressing the crowd on occasion. That is what I like to see. Lead singer Oisin Leahy-Furlong has a solo project called Anamoe Drive, which is a fair departure from Thumper’s sound. When I saw him live, he joked about how he left all of his crowd-work banter in Thumper and was trying to rebuild it in his solo work. Job well done, I must say.

I hope to see Thumper headlining bigger venues soon. As I said at the start of this blog, the fact that they sold out a venue simply “sharpening the saw”, so to speak, on new songs seems pretty evident that there is a hunger for this band and its loyal fanbase, this writer included. Once again, this new album cannot come soon enough. Listen to Thumper. Thank you for reading and thank you for your time.