Mesner/The Nude/Duke/ 13 Kennel Dogs

Mesner/The Nude/Duke/ 13 Kennel Dogs (Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin)

I’VE SEEN the future and it’s a lot like the past. The Temple Bar music centre provided an evening of unintentional retro – unfortunately, for most of the time, chic was noticeable only by its absence.

Starting off were 13 Kennel Dogs who are, to be blunt, everything that was bad about the eighties. They manage to be both pompous and dour. Boasting two keyboard players, a drum machine, a percussionist, and a fiddle player but tragically not a single tune I’d like to get aquainted with, and nowhere near enough irony, it was as if the world stopped in some US stadium in 1986.

Next up were Duke. While suffering from a classic case of the Nirvanas, they rose above the Australian Kurt Cobain show antics to perform a fine set of cheerily depressing grunge anthems. With a bigger and drunker crowd, Duke could be a lot of fun.

Mesner were last to strut their stuff and it was all totally passable. A happy indie guitar band for happy indie guitar band people. Pleasant songs, pleasant band, just nothing new at all.

But before Mesner finished me off, the midlight of the evening came from The Nude who managed to look backwards with a smile. Overtones of the Faces and Ocean Colour Scene, were all done with a bit of panache. Catchy enough songs meant that they were the only band who seemed to play too short a set – though why every single song had to end quite so abruptly is beyond me.

Nonetheless, it was ironic that the only band who were honest enough to admit looking back were the only ones offering anything new. So overall, one step forwards two steps back.

• Simon Basketter