It's a cold Tuesday night in capital and the Barfly is already heaving with punters, journalists and the usual plethora of London liggers by the time openers Wounds saunter onstage. Even in times of penny pinching recession a packed out venue isn't usually something so newsworthy, but you see stuck-up London darlings don't usually get to gigs this early – as a rule they typically show up about half past nine and stand by the bar with arms impassively folded. So this freak occurrence can only be attributed to the hype surrounding this wiry young Dublin five-piece. And by heck they more than live up to it, with their discordant blend of Youve's dance punk beats and The Icarus Line's debauched punk rock getting even the most too cool for school scenesters moving along. As the dirty post-punk bass lines of an excellent 'Choke' proves, if Wounds hailed from Shoreditch instead of from over the Irish sea, the likes of Vice would already be heralding them as the second coming and they'd be headlining venues of this size by now. Nonetheless, their upcoming debut EP Dead Dead Fucking Dead will ensure they'll be doing that soon enough. Su-fucking-perb.

Now you've got to feel sorry for Sharks following such a incendiary display as that, and as they sheepishly enter the fray, you get the distinct feeling that they know that they're on a hiding to nothing. That said, for a band who spent the end of last year on the road with Gallows, you would expect a little more onstage confidence to be oozing out of the quartet, but a broken bass head halfway through their set certainly doesn't help matters. Another young band who've been tipped for big things recently, there's plenty of nods throughout to Brit legends like The Specials and The Clash and as recent single 'Common Grounds' shows – a healthy douse of Gaslight Anthem-esque retro punk for good measure – but in truth Sharks fail to truly ignite this evening.

So two disparate bands who are both tipped for the top in 2010, but one coming up a clear-cut victor this evening. Watch this space.

Rating: 3/5 by Dan Jones

Further links

Sharks on Myspace

Online home of the retro punks

Wounds on Myspace

MySpace page of the excellent Dublin-based punks