The Dirty Nil tore the roof off of Babylon Nightclub Friday night.

Crass, loud, and untamed is not just what you hear when you get your first taste of The Dirty Nil’s music, but it’s how you’ll come out of one of their shows. The Rock Source is happy to bring you a review you can bookmark as a memory of a night anyone in attendance surely will not forget.

Coming to us on their 2019 Idiot Victory tour, here’s your review and photos from Ottawa.

Incessant Touring Schedule

In today’s musical landscape, touring incessantly is the reality of becoming and staying successful for most bands and The Dirty Nil have made their name cutting their teeth doing just that, hitting every possible town in any country that’ll have them and doing their best to play so hard that they get themselves thrown out.

350 shows in three years may not seem that crazy to you until you sit back and realize, hey, these guys are human, too! They do need at least a bit of sleep, they do need to write new material, somehow they also need to find time see their families once in a while and actually get into the studio to record those distorted, unruly tracks that fans catapult themselves on stage to get a taste of. It’s a wonder that they have the energy to do anything at all after hitting the stage that hard almost every night for years at a time.

Idiot Victory Tour

Nearing the end of their Idiot Victory tour, the Nil boys stopped off in Ottawa and even though the show was in a set of back to back sold-out shows and directly followed a night of Rock ‘N’ Roll chaos in the bigger offshoot of their hometown – they still drenched Babylon Nightclub in sweat and made sure that the bouncers were on their toes from start to finish. The crowd was in full force before the band even hit the stage, screaming and chanting for them to come out for a good fifteen minutes before they did, so when they did – it was absolute anarchy in the most beautiful way.


Fans dogpiling onto the stage, bouncers not able to contain the crowd’s excitement, no room for photographers, equipment being pushed around ceaselessly, many bands would be irked by this, but that’s what the Nil is all about and that’s exactly what they come for – to have the roof torn off of the place and to fuck shit up. While their music can’t necessarily be classified as punk rock, their energy and the energy at their live shows are nothing short of a punk rock resurgence, getting the crowd going as if The Clash was on stage in the late ‘70s. Let’s break some equipment, get the cops called while we film our videos, and beat the piss out of each other in the most cathartic way, covered in each other’s sweat.


The Dirty Nil, “is it filthy, or is it nothing?” bassist Ross Miller said in an interview with Shore Media and well, it’s definitely filthy, but it’s definitely not nothing, Ross!

Big thanks to The Dirty Nil and their team, Dine Alone Records, and Live Nation for having us out at this show. Kudos as well, to Babylon Nightclub, for putting this on and the staff for staying alive until the end!