Last Wednesday at the Mean Fiddler, the weekly Supersonic indie club played host to Finglas band Bawl, who, despite having released a decent debut album, still haven't caused a sufficient stir to pull the Dublin punters in their droves.
A modest but attentive crowd moved forward from the bar area to hear tracks from the band's debut album, Year Zero, but stopped halfway to the moshpit.
"You can come a bit closer," singer Mark Cullen told them, "I won't bite, not unless I'm asked!"
The blond leader of Bawl possesses the keen lyrical sense of a young Morrissey, but he delivers his lines with the punk-pop sneer of an even younger Pete Shelley, and when the band cranks into such songs as Fake It, Sticky Rock and Glen Campbell Nights, Bawl could easily be taken for the squalling progeny of The Buzzcocks.
However, the band leans a little heavily on the melodic side, and Darren Cullen's guitar jangles often lack the edge needed to push the audience over the brink and into the moshpit.
Beyond Safe Ways, Mistake and Older & Older are fine songs, but they rely too much on Mark's literate lyrics for their power, and Bawl are crying out for some blockbuster tunes to go along with the bookish wordplay.
