Thumper / d_abdu – The Last Dance live gallery and review from Button Factory, Dublin 25.10.2026

The setlist taped to the stage had a title printed across the top: The Last Dance. Eleven years after THUMPER started, the band walked out to a sold-out Button Factory as “My Way” and then “Every Living Breathing Moment” played over the speakers. Before a note was played, the room felt like a reunion, a tight-knit community of friends catching up in every corner. It had the feel of coming home for Christmas and finding everyone back in the local pub. Everyone there was ready for the final journey.

d_abdu opened with a set drawn almost entirely from his debut album we’re still down here, looking up. Better known as the bassist in bricknasty, he wears his influences openly. His quiet, lo-fi folk, more close up music with a more gentle tone before the noise to come. Despite a broken string and a quick restring mid set, he won over most of the room, with everyone paying attention by the time he finished.

THUMPER gave the room everything it could have wanted from a last show, opening with “The Loser,” still their biggest song. The 16 song set spanned their whole run, from 2018 single “AFL” and 2020 single “Topher Grace” to “25” from debut Delusions of Grandeur, alongside Sleeping With The Light On’s “Bad Mood,” “The Drip,” “The Rip” and “On and Off Again.” “The Engine,” absent from every set this year, finally got its moment before “Middle Management” closed the main set. For “There Will Be Blood,” the encore’s opener, former members joined the band on stage. They then headed into “Ad Nauseum”, ahead of “(You’re Bringing Me) Down” and “Fear Of Art,” the last song THUMPER will ever play.   During the night, front man Oisín told the room one last time how it all started. Sweeney’s was the only venue that would book them, and the people running it later put them on at Knockanstockan, kick-starting everything that followed. When it came to thanking everyone who had been part of THUMPER since the beginning, he could barely get the out words. After “Fear Of Art,” they went into the crowd for one last crowd surf, fans easily would have carried them into the night.

d_abdu photos & set-list:

Set-list:
Madeline
Rob
Flower Song
Money
Clementine
The Game
Peter
Happy Ending

Thumper photos & set-list:

Set-list:
The Loser
AFL
Bad Mood
The Drip
25
The Rip
On and Off Again
Topher Grace
You Didn’t Hear This From Me
Overbite
The Engine
Middle Management
________________________
There Will Be Blood
Ad Nauseum
(You’re Bringing Me) Down
Fear Of Art

Photos & words – Cian O’Donnell @cianod6