Summertime, and the living is easy: especially if you’re in one of the most picturesque parts of Ireland in the middle of a glorious early summer heatwave.
Not that you’re liable to go far wrong in Kenmare anyway. Situated on a beautiful bay and acting as the southern gateway to the famous Ring Of Kerry, the town itself has a lovely, convivial atmosphere and some of the best bars and restaurants in the area. It’s a little more discerning than its’ exalted near neighbour Killarney but it’s still very much on the visitors’ map and its’ still quite normal to hear a variety of American accents as you saunter down the street.
So while it’s true Kenmare’s on the map in the tourist sense, it’s been operating under the radar on the rock and pop front. Until now, that is. Because in recent times, W&H have been picking up persistent rumours of a healthy little scene in the area. Several CDS have arrived to support these claims, not least from promising semi-acoustic pop quirksters The Bitter Seeds and a powerful heavy rock outfit named Calix who we’ll surely be hearing more from in the near future.
Concrete evidence of the area’s ‘happening’ status, though, came via a particularly tasty 5-track CD EP by B-MOVIE MONSTER entitled “Soma City.” Self-released, but very much fully-formed and fabulous, these songs are enough to have discerning rock and pop ears twitching very quickly indeed and in themselves are all the reason W&H need to find themselves in P.F McCarthy’s roomy and congenial bar in the centre of town to find out whether this talented young quartet can cut the proverbial Colman’s in a live setting.
The answer to this question is a resounding ‘YES’ from the word go, as B-Movie take to the stage (well, floor, actually) and proceed to lean impressively into a searing version of the EP’S lead track “Wrecked”: as sweet a tangle of guitars and fresh indie-rock suss as you’re likely to hear from a relatively unknown new band this year. It’s clear they are on top form from the off and when a crowd start singing the first line from a song back at an unsigned group (as they do when singer/ songwriter Nathan Bartlett sings “welcome to my way of thinking” on “Soma City”) then you realise very quickly that you are in the presence of a band going places sooner rather than later.
B-Movie themselves are an excellent unit. In frontman Nathan they have a figure exuding quiet, friendly charisma as well as a songwriter of depth and skill; rhythm section Daniel Day (bass) and drummer Patrice Roelandt are tight and continually inventive throughout and lead guitarist Ruary McCaldin is quite a find, with his playing veering from Johnny Marr jangle to Pixies-style whiplash to Sonic Youth scree seemingly at will. And it bloody well works every time.
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Crucially, though, the total is far greater than the sum of the parts and B-Movie have edge and confidence to spare whether dealing in punchy, chorus-led affairs such as “I Saw It”, doling out the odd looming, Black Sabbath riff (like on the drum-heavy blitzkrieg of the immortally-titled “I’d Like To Push You Down The Stairs”) or crunching into full-tilt piledrivers like the McCaldin-penned “Play.” Even better is the fact they have (consciously or not) absorbed much of the best of the past 30 years or so. It comes out in lots of great moments like the Television-style flash of Ruary’s quicksilver guitar solo on “I Saw It” or the jangly, dream-on ballad quality of “Message To The Moon” which sounds uncannily like it could have fallen off the edge of Big Star’s still-fabulous “#1 Record”. Oh, and they also have a classic radio hit tucked away for a rainy day in the magnificently infectious “Red.”
So with all bases duly covered, they bask in a well-deserved encore and depart happy in the knowledge they go home with tenfold approval from a rapidly swelling local following. Bearing in mind the quality they have displayed this evening, it’s hard to believe we’ve been watching an unsigned band and when Nathan later informs me that have a further half hour’s worth of material, this reviewer’s mind starts to boggle. It’s been quite an intoxicating first date, but when Nathan enquires “I hope you love me too” at the end of “Message To The Moon” he can rest assured that the attraction for his band’s potent, intelligent rock will be both unwavering and longstanding.
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