Developed by Liverpool’s Static Gallery, the Terminal Convention festival has been designed as an extensive series of artistic, musical, visual and discursive events taking place in Cork around the St. Patrick’s Day festivities.
Having been opened by the legendary Bill Drummond, the festival takes its name from the old decommissioned airport terminal in Cork where – for ten days – a series of artworks have been installed for the public to peruse. While the exhibition itself is fascinating, strolling around the building (which closed in 2006 to make way for the new hi-tech Cork airport complex) feels eerie and slightly disorienting.
The festival’s musical events are taking place in the heart of Cork city itself. Having kicked off with an electro-themed first night headlined by the hotly-tipped Shackleton at Cyprus Avenue, the proceedings then move the few streets to the atmospheric Crane Lane Theatre. The site of a former gentleman’s club from the late Victorian era, it’s a fantastic venue with a broad, genre-straddling diary of shows and it’s looked after by some of the friendliest and most efficient staff W&H have come across in many a moon.
Featuring The Sand Band, The Loud, The Gorgeous Colours, Owls, Windings and David Hope & The Henchmen, the first of the two Terminal Convention gigs at Crane Lane turns out to be a splendid night curated by W&H and Liverpool's excellent Bido Lito! magazine. For the closing night, though, we’re being treated to five emerging independent acts from the Richter Collective and Osaka labels respectively.
Up first are Dublin-based post-hardcore trio JOGGING. They released a sprightly debut LP (‘Minutes’) through the Richter Collective last summer which was recorded in County Wicklow but mastered in Washington DC. That seems apt in the circumstances as there’s a distinct straight-edge/ Discord Records slant to their aggressive sound which brings the likes of Fugazi and Rites of Spring to mind. They’re by no means one-dimensional though. Songs like ‘Heartwood’ – with its’ tumbling drums and weirdo Math-Rock intrigue – could almost be a hardcore Captain Beefheart, while the pneumatic basslines and vicious drumming are masterful throughout. Consider us converted.
The first of the Osaka stable’s two contenders, PATRICK KELLEHER comes with the frisson of a buzz gaining ground around his heels. His debut album ‘You Look Cold’ has been picking up acres of smart press and – on record – the best of his dark and early ‘80s-inclined electro-pop (‘Contact Sports’ especially) seems well-placed in the current aesthetic climate. Live, though, he struggles to convince. Flanked by two members of his band (His Dead Cold Hands) stabbing at synths front of stage, a masked drummer doing a Kraftwerk-style electronic drumming turn and a bassist with a Paul McCartney-style violin bass, the sound I hear is an awkward stylistic melange which falls between too many stools to be effective. I’m taking a rain check on this one for now.
Like Patrick Kelleher, Dublin duo THREAD PULLS also make like they’ve been teleported in from the cusp of the ‘80s, though their flirtation with the minimalist sounds of bands like Rough Trade Records-era Cabaret Voltaire and NYC No Wave stars Liquid Liquid is rather more successfully realised. Built around clipped bass lines, James Chance-style trumpet blasts, spinning Roto Tom beats and snatches of disembodied vocals, their best songs (the dub-by, spacey ‘How to Talk’, the sinewy grooves of ‘Sink & Swim’) often seem little more than fleeting ghosts of ideas, yet there’s still something about their dark, mutant funk which lingers and draws you in time and again. More please.
Like Jogging, ENEMIES are another band of talented Richter Collective contenders, operating outta Kilcoole in beautiful County Wicklow. Theirs is the scene that has already brought us the likes of Heathers and Adebisi Shank and this promising all-instrumental quartet are equally versatile operators. Tuneful and thoughtful, but with plenty of backbone, theirs is a beguiling post-Rock collage with occasional Prog-gy tendencies while their tracks are appended with ace titles like ‘Backaches & Cardigans’ and ‘Fierce Pit Bosses’. Who needs vocals when you have an imagination that rich?
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Enticing though Enemies are, however, they’re no match for stars in the ascendency AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR. These unfeasibly young Belfast-based firebrands have been hauling their stunning, vocal-free hardcore assault all over Ireland, the UK and beyond for over five years now and have built up a nigh-on unassailable rep for themselves along the way.
On this showing, it’s more than justified. For the best part of 90 minutes, they are relentless and utterly astonishing, but to tag them merely a ‘post-hardcore’ band sells them way short. Taking in everything from potent Celtic jigs through crunching, Black Sabbath-style riff logic through to Sigur Ros-style ambience and full-on Mogwai intensity (often within the space of one intense five minute burst), they move immense sonic shapes that leave many of their verse-chorus-verse colleagues standing.
Highlights are many and brutal. Previous single ‘Straight through the Sun’ teases and tantalises, while new tracks like ‘Beautiful Universe Master Champion’ and the new single ‘Search: Party: Animal’ are by some way their most colossal statements of intent yet, with the guitars perpetually bouncing off Johnny Adger’s demolition ball bass and Chris Wee’s truly staggering percussive assault from behind the kit. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a venue bursting to capacity when confronted by a band without a singer, but with their new album ‘Gangs’ all set to go in May, it could well be the last time we get to see this incredible quartet in a relatively intimate space.
ASIWYFA, then, supply the perfect euphoric full stop to what has been a fantastically diverse and vibrant weekend at Terminal Convention. Congratulations to all concerned for making this happen for both Cork and Liverpool. Makes you wonder what could have happened if the City of Culture people could have opened their collective mind a little more while they had the chance.
Terminal Convention website
Static Gallery website
Bido Lito! magazine online
Crane Lane Theatre online
Cyprus Avenue online
The Richter Collective label online
Osaka Records website
Download Jogging's album 'Miniuts' from Bandcamp
Patrick Kelleher on MySpace
Thread Pulls website
Enemies on MySpace
And so I Watch You From Afar on MySpace
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