The Mary Wallopers, with support from Sam Shackleton

The Mary Wallopers play Liverpool Olympia on Thursday 22 October, with support from Sam Shackleton. The Dundalk folk group are out on the road with their new album, Paddywhackery, which follows 2023's Irish Rock'n'Roll.

If you're not familiar with them, they're a folk band from Dundalk in Ireland who spend their time travelling the length and breadth of the country singing and collecting songs. That's the core of what they do — taking old material and running it through their own filter. Paddywhackery is the latest result of that, and the band describes it as capturing their signature grand wildness, unparalleled tightness and raw power: a chaotic, high-energy blend of fierce storytelling and unfiltered Irish punk attitude. It's a good way of putting it, because it tells you exactly where the folk tradition meets the punk side of things.

That punk edge is a big part of the appeal. Their raw energy has been described as the Clancy Brothers meeting John Lydon, which gives you a fair idea of the ground they cover — the Clancy Brothers for the traditional Irish folk, and John Lydon for the snarling, high-energy punk. It's that combination of storytelling and noise that they're known for, and Paddywhackery is the record they're touring around this time.

Sam Shackleton opens the night, and the main set starts at 19:00 at Liverpool Olympia. It's a Thursday night, so it's a mid-week one rather than a weekend gig.