Gig Review: Dónal and The Bucks @ Moon1, Wellington – 20/03/2025

Review by Nicholas Clark // 25 March 2025

At a newly renovated and spruced up Moon Bar, Dónal and the Bucks performed and curated a night of hard rock and indie to coincide with the release of their new single, Your One. The crowd filled the bar from early in the night and although the throng of people were loud, the clientele was polite and a smiley bunch of keen punters – which is fair to say the usual fans of Dónal and the Bucks. With a newly installed fluorescent sign on stage and an unusually clean stage, the headliners brought the crowd to their feet to enjoy the Buck’s unique blend of upbeat and high energy rock and roll.

Starting out with call and response tune to crowd favourite Gimme More, and another single to be released later this year, Losing Weight, the band had Moon bar pumping. The band kept the energy up with other punky infused rock such as When I Was and Oven. Between songs Dónal Gunning interacted well with the crowd, joking with them while asking them to keep up with the band. They played two totally new songs, Way I Feel and Breathing, which went down well and I am sure I’ll be hearing again. The band reached a critical point with Insane, a fast tune dedicated to the high life.

Although I’ve seen Dónal Gunning as a solo performer, I’ve never seen him play acoustically at a show with his Bucks before, so it was a surprise when the band left the stage for a brew and Dónal continued with an acoustic guitar to play North Island and a cover of Richard Thompson’s iconic 90’s ode to falling in love, busking and fruit picking, Bee’s Wing.

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The Bucks returned to play a stonking version of their upcoming single, Your One, recorded and mixed by Peter Jamieson. Although the song was recorded in August last year and the band have been itching to properly release it. A music video filmed by Thomas McGinty is also in the works and due to be released in late March. The song is a fantastic example of what makes Dónal and the Bucks songs work – there’s great and catchy melodies over the top of fast riffs that breakdown into a massive anthemic chorus. Dónal introduced the song with the usual promotional spiel, adding “this next song is our new single, out now, as of yesterday actually. It’s modern rock song dedicated to the Irish vernacular”. For context, ‘your man’ in Ireland usually translates to ‘your mate’, while ‘your one’ refers to a female friend of someone you are talking to.

Finally, the band played a killer version of Foxy Lady that would have made Hendrix proud to end the night, the crowd was thanked by equally sweaty musicians and everyone escaped into the cool night air.

Opening bands UltraViolet played indie pop rock complete with a Led Zeppelin cover (Days and Confused), and a Pink Floyd tune (Breathe). Bleach performed a slightly more modern set combining shoegaze with grunge to great effect. Apart from one argument regarding not being able to see the band due to a photographer taking valuable real estate in front of the stage, the crowd was friendly and accommodating throughout the night with much back slapping and purchasing of rounds occurring over the night. I’m sure an equally successful gig will occur for the upcoming single for Losing Weight later this year as the band moves from strength to strength.

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