Protomartyr – Whelans – 15/11/25 – Live Review
by Killian Laher

The second of two nights in Whelans, and the last night of the tour for Protomartyr, playing to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of their Agent Intellect album.  Unfortunately, the support band had to cancel, which meant we were straight into the headliners.  Protomartyr are a band which shouldn’t really work, four disparate individuals, and in Joe Casey, one of the most incongruous-looking frontmen in rock.  Now sporting a moustache which has him looking like Jeffrey Jones, the school principal in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, he moves awkwardly around the stage, barking out the lyrics while swigging out of a can of beer, but it works brilliantly.  Casey has real presence, and it’s hard to take your eyes off him.

The packed-out venue witnessed a thrilling run through the album, in sequence.  Greg Ahee coaxes quite a noise out of his guitar, on Cowards Starve and a powerful Why Does It Shake, it sounded like several guitars playing at once.  A euphoric Pontiac ’87 and Uncle Mother’s were two of the highlights in the first set before finishing with a triumphant Feast of Stephen.  After a brief pause, the band returned with the menacing, slow-building My Children, and after a wild version of Jumbo’s and Processed By The Boys, their set concluded with the almost languid singalong Worm In Heaven.

It was an excellent performance, and based on this, there’s plenty of life left in Protomartyr.  We’ll look forward to their next batch of shouty rock songs.