David Kitt

With Dublin having mutated into a crass, plastic-Paddy theme park over the St. Patrick’s weekend, it came as something of a relief to finally encounter a home-grown phenomenon genuinely worth celebrating. Kittser’s devoted following duly thronged into Vicar St. on the day of our patron saint to witness a superb performance from one of Ireland’s foremost musical talents.

It says something about the degree to which Kitt has honed his live shows that he can afford to play such crowd favourites as ‘Song From Hope Street’ and ‘You Know What I Want To Know’ early in the set, whilst effortlessly retaining momentum and audience participation for the remainder of the gig.

Highlights are too plentiful for full coverage, but a brief summation would have to include: Kitt being joined by his twelve-year old brother Robbie for their customary duet; the singer himself comically anticipating the usual conversational murmurs during a solo acoustic rendition of a brand new track; and the full band tearing through a blistering rendition of ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ during the encore.

But perhaps best of all is the moment when headcase trumpeter Brian Quinn executes a spectacular stagedive, pauses to converse with a couple of admirers in the audience, before finally crowd-surfing his way back to the stage, where – in a moment of unspeakable brilliance – he managed to successfully complete his trumpet solo right on cue. Result!

The show ended with Kitt and the group segueing from a snippet of ‘Billie Jean’ into an epic psych-rock freak-out, at the climax of which the stage was a no-man’s land of malfunctioning keyboards and howling guitars, the thoroughly satiated audience a sweaty, smiling, danced-out mass. I doubt I’ll see a better gig all year.