Irish punk rockers SPRINTS are no strangers to causing havoc at their own gigs. With a 24h notice for a surprise album launch party in London’s Irish pub Mascara Bar and a lucky Instagram draw (that I was accidentally in, so talk about luck indeed), the 100-odd of us squeezed in around a stage that should not physically hold a rock quartet with a full drum set, let alone instrument changes and three guitars at once.
But of course it all added up to the feeling that this was more “family party in the living room at 2am gone to chaos” than a calculated event, as Karla Chubb made her way through the crowd, perched on their tech guy’s shoulders. Bursting straight into pieces off the new album, like Descartes and Need (already out on all streaming platforms), the impression on a first listen is that this is a much more pointed album. The enemy is clearer, the feelings stronger. Where their debut album pronounced the distinctive sound of the band, their second one adds in elements of surf rock, spoken word intensity and more experimentation with synths and pedal effects.
It’s also a whole lot angrier.
“Who else here is mad at the world right now? It’s not our beautiful trans community, it’s not our queer community, it’s not the migrants or the refugees or the asylum seekers, it’s not the Palestinians it’s the billionaires, the people in power“. Just as their set at Wide Awake 2025 was every inch the political statement the festival as a whole wanted to make, this small packed-tight gig felt true to the feeling that “this is your community“. It’s hard not to feel it when you’re laughing and spinning into each other, holding each other up quite literally.
To mosh in the confines of the backroom of a pub means committing to tripping, falling, losing track of where the stage is (even when the stage is 6ft away from you). Crowdsurfers held on to the ceiling. A low circle pit saw a few beers flying. Sam broke his bass somehow (“that’s his second bass in two days, ladies and gentleman”). I almost lost a ring in someone’s hair (or they almost lost hair to my ring) and I learned a new smell: clean shirts on well showered bodies suddenly and profusely dunked in sweat to crowd-stirring favourites like Heavy and Up and Comer.
The show ends with an emotional heart wrenching door-bashing-in-a-hurricane unhinged version of Little Fix. We carry Karla, still screaming in tune and draped in Palestine’s flag, from stage to doorway over everybody’s heads.
We’re all in this together. It’s only through community that we’ll survive.
All That is Over is out Friday, 26th of September 2025. You can pre-order it at https://www.sprintsmusic.com