Singular Artists proudly presents
SHAME
plus support
BLEECH
Opium Live • Wed 12 November 2025 • 7:30pm
“Cutthroat is a joyride. It’s for the inexperienced driver. The one who wants to go fast for no reason other than it’s fun. It’s driven by hunger. Hunger for something better. For something you’ve been told you don’t deserve. It’s primal. It’s raw. It’s unapologetic. It’s the person who turns up to the party uninvited. ’Cause when you’ve been pushed down, there’s nowhere to go but up. When you ain’t got nothing, you ain’t got nothing to lose.” – shame Cutthroat is shame at their blistering best. “It’s about the cowards, the cunts, the hypocrites,” says vocalist Charlie Steen.
“Our live shows aren’t performance art – they’re direct, confrontational and raw. That’s always been the root of us. We live in crazy times. But it’s not about ‘Poor me.’ It’s about ‘Fuck you’.” Crucial to this incendiary new outlook was producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen). From their initial meeting, Congleton’s no-bullshit approach became a guiding force to streamline the band’s ideas. Stamped throughout with shame’s trademark sense of humour, the album takes on the big issues of today and gleefully toys with them.
“This time, anything could go if it sounded good and you got it right,” he says. Cutthroat’s first single and title track takes this idea and runs with it into, quite possibly, the best song shame have ever laid to tape. It’s a ball of barely-contained attitude packed into three minutes of indie dancefloor hedonism. It also masterfully introduces the lyrical outlook of the record: one where cocksure arrogance and deep insecurity are two sides of the same coin. “I was reading a lot of Oscar Wilde plays where everything was about paradox,” Steen explains. “In ‘Cutthroat’, it’s that whole idea from Lady Windermere’s Fan, ‘Life’s far too important to be taken seriously’.” ‘Spartak’ rolls in on an Americana-flecked country lilt (“I was basically trying to write a Wilco song,” Coyle-Smith chuckles).
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TICKETS
€26.50 available online from Whelanslive.com
Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.