With songs like Too Drunk to Fuck and Orgasm Addict, olden days punk was emotionally unsophisticated music directed at an audience for whom generally a snog at a bus stop and a can of beer was the height of ambition and reflection in that department.

M(h)aol are one of the new wave of Irish bands like those cheeky Belfast chaps, Lankum and the Mary Wallopers which are keeping alive the long tradition of being politically confrontational while producing great music. Theirs is a post-punk sensibility that owes something to The Slits, Raincoats and Gang of Four, though as best I remember none of them had a seven minute song renouncing gender essentialism while blaming the patriarchy for their partner’s squeamishness about having sex during one of their periods. And I doubt that such things ever crossed the mind of Padraig Pearse when he wrote verses for Óró Sé do Bheatha Bhaile which they effectively reinterpret almost as a dirge.

The band launched their new album Something Soft in the George Tavern which I will insist is in Stepney. The single, I Miss My Dog, is a good introduction to what you can expect. It is one of three songs in the live set dealing with a theme probably last visited by Elvis Presley with Old Shep and will speak to anyone who has dealt with the pain of losing a pet, though in a rather more jagged, less schmaltzy way. It also indicates that the album title is deliberately misleading. This is angry, confrontational music with conflict, fear and trauma at its heart.

The source of the anger is easy to identify. The opening track describes the fear of a woman walking alone down a dark street and the defences she feels obliged to deploy. For my money, it was the highlight of the evening but it is disconcerting to get carried along by the intensity of the fear Constance Keane brings to her performance.

It’s fair to say that there were a couple of rough edges in the live set partly due to three musicians sharing one dodgy tuner and there was some anxiety that the drum kit, which took a hell of a battering, might not survive the night. However, if there is a more uplifting musical experience than a band playing a new album fast, loud and passionately in a pub I have yet to find it and all the minor glitches just add to the beauty of the experience.

Catch them if you like your music fast, loud, jarring but in a show interspersed with a fair bit of humour despite the dark themes.https://youtu.be/M58cPEtc5c0?si=cE9olKSq1BMI2yR0