It’s Halloween Bank Holiday weekend in County Kerry, but traditionally the Monday night is something of an anti-climax, with the weekend revellers drifting off back to Cork and Dublin and a sense of everything winding down usually ready to take over after the trick and treating has worn off. You could have fooled the population of Kenmare, though, because there’s a real buzz in the air and the feeling that something is happening here, but the rest of the world don’t know what it is. Yet.
Musically, things are moving fast around here. Tonight, there’s a benefit gig for the KYDS charity: a laudable organisation raising money for guide dogs for the blind and PF McCarthy’s is – as usual – the place to be in town. The venue is packed long before the hugely-promising BITTER SEEDS take the stage in the far corner and your reviewer is already craning his neck to make out the band as they launch into a rapturously-received set, mostly comprised of tunes which (to this writer’s knowledge) haven’t even made it to official demo stage yet.
Your reviewer’s line of vision is seriously impaired most of the time, and all he can make out is the attractive girl bassist/ vocalist (who sports a natty, ‘Clockwork Orange’-style outfit) and an occasional sighting of singer/ guitarist Martin Hedges’ head over the sea of bodies. The drummer and multi-instrumentalist who complete the group’s personnel are invisible from here, but their presence is certainly felt, with steady rockabilly-style shuffles and decisive touches of everything from banjo to mandolin and second guitar cutting through desk guru Morgan McCarthy’s crisp front-of-house sound with clarity to spare.
Many of the tunes are unfamiliar to this hack of yet, but the easy tempos, neat boy/ girl call and response vocal workouts and memorable choruses from tunes such as ‘Addicted’ and ‘Bitter Seeds’ stick in the mind’s deepest recesses for yonks afterwards. The only minor criticism I would have is that a few of the arrangements could be pruned back slightly as most of the songs clock in at least the four and a half minute mark as they stand, but the ingredients are very much there and when a didgeridoo comes out to dominate the set-closing jam and transform the front row into a blur of flailing limbs, then the excitement is palpable. It’s not often that the band who are technically bottom of the bill get repeated requests for encores, but that’s the case tonight and it only goes to show how much talent is lurking in these here hills.
Surely the local heroes-in-waiting, though, are B-MOVIE MONSTER, and tonight they make it quite clear that there will be fireworks in store on a wider scale before much longer. They tear into a charged and supremely confident set and before long are dispensing goodies like the La’s-meets-Glam rock killer ‘This Girl’ and the surf-y, Pixies-style instrumental ‘Scaramanga’ with an almost obscene nonchalance.
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Brilliant start, but unlike most bands with set lists that sag in the middle, B-MM continue to turn up the heat with viciously impressive versions of EP highlights like ‘Play’ and a muscular, RTE-baiting ‘I Saw It’, which features some stinging lead guitar work from Ruary McCaldin. You’d think they’d peak after the surefire hit single ‘Red’, but with new tunes like the stylish, hooky ‘The Paranoid Chair’ already being introduced into the set, the mood of feverish creativity and steely determination this band display is only too tangible, and when they launch into the double-whammy that is the taut ‘Wrecked’ and maximum heaviosity of ‘I’d Like To Push You Down The Stairs’ to emphatically round off, then you are left in no doubt that impending greatness is beckoning. A vintage performance from a band displaying the hallmarks of star quality and then some
STONE THE CROWS, meanwhile, have been maintaining their ‘local hero’ status for many a long year in Kenmare, and have steadily nurtured pockets of serious cult fandom throughout Ireland. These days, they are a fluid outfit based around charismatic vocalist Danny Gaglan, with a kind of ‘reserves squad’ of musicians who can be picked depending on gigging circumstances and availability.
This shouldn’t be construed as a situation meaning anything less than 110% commitment by those concerned, however, as tonight Gaglan’s five strong musical unit attack the songs with heart and conviction. It’s a crowd-pleasing, cover-heavy set with the emphasis on the likes of standards such as Neil Young’s evergreen ‘Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)’, thus ensuring a perfect way to round off what has been an ecstatically fine evening and a showcase featuring the kind of talent that’s far too hot to remain ‘local’ for any length of time. Your reviewer and photographer head out into the night suitably galvanised and pondering the thought of Liverpool ’62 being rivalled by Kenmare ’07. On this evidence, it might just become a reality.
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