Suicidal Tendencies

A meaty man is Mike ‘Cyco Miko’ Muir, but agile nonetheless. Seconds into the opener ‘You Can’t Bring Me Down’ he’s criss-crossing the stage like a bantam on crystal and, following his lead, the packed house wastes no time in unleashing a mosh. The Creators of Skate Punk don’t come to Dublin every other Friday, and these punters are going to get their pogo’s worth.

This is the umpteenth incarnation of Suicidal Tendencies: after 20 years and 12 studio albums, singer Muir is the only founder-member left. But he has always known how to pick stalwart session men, and the current roster (Mike Clark, Dean Pleasants and the Brunner brothers) do snare-belting, string-rending justice to the band’s hefty back catalogue.

We’re onto ‘War Inside My Head’ now, from 1987’s Join The Army. ST are sort of playing the set in reverse chronological order, which suggests that they suspect what most of the audience knows: none of their subsequent material really improved on the dark, seminal debut Suicidal Tendencies (1983). Sure enough their breakthrough track from that album, ‘Institutionalized,’ is soon uncorked.

Mid-set, claiming that it worked a treat the last time ST were in Ireland, Muir invites a fan on stage to sing a “traditional Gaelic song” of his choice. Cue collective anticipatory toe-curling by all but the most loyal acolytes. It’s ‘Oró Sé do Bheatha Abhaile,’ drunkenly and tunelessly rendered. Naff in excelsis.

By the end, no-one can fault the band’s musical performance; it’s just no longer clear what they’re fighting for, or indeed against.