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Photography: Julia Healy.
For seven years, KVX have grown up, as a band, at the heart of the Cork music scene since emerging on RTE’s JAM! all that time ago, fresh-faced young musicians revelling in the experience of doing what they loved and getting advice from guys like Graham Hopkins and Steve Wall along the way. They were a fixture at the Quad, a staple of many gig-goers’ early experiences by their presence on the all-ages scene in these parts, and in recent times, a very promising indie-pop outfit, whose development wowed those who’d been missing out all along with the marvellous Dinner E.P. So the recent announcement that KVX were to be no more and were heading to the Pav for their farewell was a shock to a scene well-used to losing out at the moment. But in the style of true greats, KVX saved the best, the very best, for last.
Agitate the Gravel (9/10) can barely keep out of the D’s sight these days. Not that we’re complaining at all, you see, their ubiquity a sure sign of their hard graft and dedication. They’re gonna be massive someday, we’ve been saying it all along, and we’ll say it again. They have the tunes, like new single Wilderness Years, B-side Don’t Know, as well as total pop bijous like Venn and Wait. They have the presence, the charisma – each of them having a very different onstage persona, yet working together in perfect time, so very, very, tight. They’re the total package to join the very few truly great power-pop bands this country has produced, and if anyone doubts that their shoegazey pogo-invocation isn’t on course to join the likes of The Undertones and Ash in that oeuvre, go see them. Just do it.
Overhead, the Albatross (9/10), are another great prospect, travelling down from Dublin to be here tonight and do they ever make it count, a much-needed injection of life into the tired carcass of post-rock. They are absolutely stunning, commanding the subtleties, twists and turns of their music like old masters, tunes from their Lads With Sticks E.P. meshing flawlessly with new tunes from their upcoming double-A side. Bantering like champs, they engage the jovial Cork audience thoroughly, and of course raise a cheer when they praise the Pav as the best venue they’ve ever played in. This, of course, is secondary to their performance: awe-inspiringly tight, mystifying and keeping the new souls unfamiliar with their work in the audience utterly transfixed. This is how it’s done.
Hope is Noise (9/10) have, by this writer’s experience, never given us a bad show, and a bullish Peace and Quiet sets the tone for an overly energetic set, peppered with new tunes and, in a genuine show of respect to tonight’s headliners, invite KVX’s Eimear and Leah up for guest vocals on long-time favourite Dancing With Johnny Five. And of course you can never go wrong with tunes like Bruce Banner and No Stretchmarks, but new tracks from this upcoming EP of theirs are the real highlight, heavy and dark, invested with a real edge (doubtless owing to time spent recording and producing with Noel Lynch), Official Party Line an immediate standout. Yes, they are veterans and yes, they are very much a Cork institution, but it’s performances like this where the D reckons they could, and should take the world on.
A personal story from your writer. Years and years ago, your writer was in the process of beginning to run all-ages gigs with another music fan from his hometown (and the people in his ear). Two headliners immediately came to mind: KVX, and a hardcore band called Is Risen. Being stubborn and really high on the potential Is Risen had, your scribe refused to listen to the arguments for KVX, that we had to have metal/hardcore headlining in the venue we were starting in (well, we did). Like an idiot, I wrote them off. Then, at the behest of a few good friends, I saw them live. Four years later, in the front of the Pav’s upstairs venue, your writer is proud to say he’s never been happier to be wrong about a band.
This is a very special moment, as a video reel plays some of the highlight’s of KVX’s tenure, including gig footage, JAM! segments and photos of the band. It is poignant, and as the band’s longtime fans, friends and family pile up from the front, all the way up to the venue’s upper levels, the appreciation is tangible, the applause when they come out for the final time is deafening. “Seven years of doing something and then not doing it anymore…” ruminates bassist Eimear O’Donovan, cutting a diminutive figure onstage, yet dwarfed only by the significance of the occasion.
KVX could always be depended on to deliver a great gig, and thus they have. If there’s emotion there, the early going is surely all about busting out the tunes one more time for old time’s sake, the earlier-promised tears replaced with steadfast performance. This is what has made the band so great from the beginning, a band, with good tunes, doing what they do, no nonsense. Dan Breen of Hope is Noise is called up to reciprocate the earlier-shown respect, guest-vocalising. Performed for the last time, arguably their best song, Graphs, inspires a big old singalong, while an encore of their first ever song, Pelican, and Lions sees them off in grand fashion, to deafening applause and chants that fill the room. Yes, there are tears, but, as the band embrace then exit stage right, also the overall sense that a deserving band got the recognition, respect and send-off befitting it. The kind of night that reminds you how much music brings us all together.
Tags: Agitate the Gravel, Cork, Cork Rock City, hope is noise, KVX, Overhead The Albatross, The Pavilion
