Review of David Kitt playing The Big Romance at Vicar Street on December 9th 2011
Review: Conor Skinnader
Photos: Kieran Frost
It has been ten years since David Kitt released The Big Romance, possibly one of Irish music’s most under rated albums and one which if released now, at a time when new music is so easily accessed and spread, may have received much wider acclaim. However, for those packed into Vicar St. it’s a chance to revisit old memories and for anyone unfamiliar with his music, to discover one of Ireland’s hidden talents.
Kitt enters the stage complemented by his full band and begins with Song from Hope St, the first track off the album and proceeds to play the Big Romance chronologically. The feeling of nostalgia in the air is surpassed by reaction to the opener and it’s immediately clear that despite not having played live together for some time, their performance is going to be pretty tight. After the first 3 tracks, they are joined on stage by Katie Kim, who sings What I Ask along with Kitt and then joins in sporadically for other numbers.
After finishing The Big Romance to rapturous applause, everyone leaves the stage, with Kitt returning a few minutes later on his own for some acoustic time with the crowd, the highlight of which, is his cover of Dancing in the Moonlight. He then calls for the band to come out and join him again and tells the crowd it’s his birthday, before they start taking the gig in a much rockier direction.
Tracks off his other albums such as ‘Say no More’ and ‘Up to You’ from Not Fade Away sounded fantastic and led to a lot of dancing in the crowd. However the reaction to newer material from Nightsaver was a bit less enthusiastic. With that album having sold less than a thousand copies, it’s not as well known and this may be why it doesn’t really grasp the crowd’s attention.
However that was only a minor part of what was an epic two hour long performance. From the floating melodies of the Big Romance, to the all encompassing frenzy of noise at the end, as the band literally threw everything into the last track, no one could walk away unhappy.
Kitt did exclaim at one point that he was rather surprised to see so many people there, but he may have under-estimated just how much of a chord his album struck when it was released and how it led to such a loyal fan base in subsequent years. On the strength of this performance, it’s pretty clear that David Kitt can continue to have an impact on the Irish music scene, whichever project he chooses to concentrate on.
