If there was any doubt about how to kick off Dublin’s 2026 Wider Than Pictures summer series, Amyl and the Sniffers arrived with the only answer that really mattered, turn it up, tear it apart and leave 4,000 people grinning, sweating and shouting for more.
The opening night of the hugely successful Singular Artists series began with a soldout crowd filling the grounds of the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, for the first of two Dublin headline shows from Australia’s punk rock wrecking crew. The atmosphere was charged long before the headliners appeared, with three very different acts delivering sets that steadily cranked up the temperature.
Opening the night was Tallaght’s own Spider, the alternative pop rock singer songwriter and producer, performing with her band. Her set provided an engaging introduction to the evening, blending melodic songwriting with a punchier live edge and immediately establishing a sense of occasion. It was a confident start from an artist clearly comfortable commanding a large outdoor stage.
Next came New York’s Mannequin Pussy who dedicated their set to Dolly Parton and whose ferocious mix of punk, indie rock and emotional intensity proved an ideal bridge between Spider and the main event. Their set was packed with urgency and attitude, shifting effortlessly between vulnerability and sheer volume. By the time they left the stage, Collins Barracks was more than ready for what was coming.
Then came Amyl and the Sniffers.
From the moment Amyl burst onto the stage, the venue erupted. Their live reputation is formidable, but witnessing it unfold in front of a soldout Dublin crowd is something else entirely. The band attacked their songs with the kind of reckless precision that makes punk feel genuinely dangerous again, while Amyl’s unmistakable presence turned the stage into her own personal playground.
The crowd responded in kind, transforming the historic museum grounds into a heaving mass of raised fists, shouted lyrics and bodies moving in every possible direction. There was no distance between band and audience, the two became one gloriously chaotic force.
With three fantastic sets and a headline performance that detonated across Collins Barracks, Wider Than Pictures could hardly have asked for a stronger opening night. And with Amyl and the Sniffers returning for night two, Dublin has already been given a very clear message, the summer series has arrived with its volume firmly in the red.
Spider photos:
Mannequin Pussy photos:
Amyl and the Sniffers photos & set-list:
Set-list:
Control
Do It Do It
Cup of Destiny
Capital
Security
Doing in Me Head
Guided by Angels
Balaclava Lover Boogie
Facts
Big Dreams
Westgate
Me and The Girls
Shake Ya
Chewing Gum
Tiny Bikini
U Should Not Be Doing That
Jerkin’
Hertz
Some Mutts (Can’t Be Muzzled)
_________________________
Got You
GFY
Photos & words – Ian Mc Donnell @mcgigmusic