David Kitt at Sea Church
Not everyone in the congregation was there for the same reason
David Kitt in his Hawaiian shirt with his guitar slung over his left shoulder had a bit of a battle on his hands for his first outing at Sea Church in Ballycotton. He had, as he explained, one or two songs into a set which covered a great deal of ground, a cold.
He thought it might have been you know what - an antigen test proved it wasn’t. But arguably, the bigger battle for the versatile musician was a small gang down the back of the church who were on a night out. That there were musicians and live music were incidental to their loud shite talk. ‘Twas bad form and a pain in the arse for Kitt and his support act Jennifer Lyons, and the rest of us.
Sea Church is East Cork’s answer to St Luke’s (thank god for churches!), albeit smaller, and yes, more intimate, with a far shorter trip to the toilets and much more comfortable seating.
The first best gig I was ever at in my life was upstairs in The Lobby Bar and I was definitely underage and it was to hear two legends of Irish music: Seamus Begley and Steve Cooney. There was four of us at the gig (it was my first time upstairs in The Lobby), we were three lads and I think we were all mad about the same girl, who was also with us. I think she knew that too. Anyway, Cooney and Begley were on fire, and rattled off jigs, reels, slow airs and Begley had a few songs and plenty in the way of scéalta. Cooney didn’t say a whole lot. However, we were kind of excitable, and loud at times, but fairly quickly and fairly lively we were told to shut up or we’d be out on our ear. Lobby rules.
I wished some of that Lobby etiquette was in Sea Church for Kitt’s gig. The man has been making music for over two decades, or eight albums as he told us. The Big Romance, which came early on in his career, is still the album he’s best known for. He seems comfortable with that. For the first half of his set, on the acoustic guitar, he drew from the 2001 album: Pale Blue Light, You Know What I Want To Know, What I Ask, Song From Hope St. Some of these tracks feature on 20, the album he released last year to mark 20 years of making music. Arguably that’s what many in the crowd were there for, music that made an impression on us when we were still young. And now here we are, on a night out, with the babysitters at home, as Kitt pointed out. You’d think if you’re going to make that much of an effort you’d shut up and listen to the music and the musicians.
If I was to thread a singular theme through the music that Kitt selected to play at Sea Church it would be time.
You especially hear it in songs such as Song From Hope St.
Same old lines, hope on my street
People pace, just like a broken beat
Just like a broken beat
Seven steps take me to your door
Seven steps - each one a broken beat
Each one a broken beatAnd there's one more hour in my day and that's alright
And there's one more hour in my day and that's alright
Coincidentally, Kitt was playing on the same night before the clocks went forward and Kitt only finished up with half an hour to go before midnight. The next day there would be one less hour in all our days, and that would have to be alright.
There were some newer and new songs such as the contemplative Song of Two Birds and a song which featured Wexford strawberries.
Sometime well after 10 o’clock and well over half a dozen songs in, the acoustic guitar was put down and Kitt went for his electric guitars, his beats machine and volume. Kitt’s longevity is surely also down to the fact that he experiments (I think his electronic output as New Jackson is deadly), and he can go loud and heavy and build a wall of sound. And he did at Sea Church. It was also an added bonus that it drowned out the shower down the back of the church. Learning How To Say Goodbye from his 2009 album The Nightsaver takes a whole lot of time to build and build to a crescendo on the lines “On the way back home” repeated over and over.
Along the way Kitt tells stories. About the smoking ban (remember that!?), his biggest song on Spotify (“That brings in about twenty quid a year,” he half joked). He now lives in Ballinskelligs, not a million miles from the Begley’s, having moved down west during the pandemic. It was exorbitant rent that forced him out of Dublin. Kitt had nice words to say about playing gigs in Cork city over a long career. He also had plenty nice things to say about Sea Church, and it is a cracker of a venue, although the “light show” is an after thought at best (St. Luke’s wins hands down here). And because he’s funny and magnanimous and generous he asked the crowd if they had any requests and sure enough from the back of the church it came: Christy.
I like Christy Moore’s music as much as the next man, but I did not come to hear Christy Moore cover versions. But, as I say Kitt’s obliging, and maybe it’s something about giving the punter a little bit of what they want, but Kitt obliged and tried a few verses of Ride On - as he said from the outset he didn’t know all the verses, and clearly neither did the lad who requested Christy Moore, because soon enough we were repeating the chorus, but Kitt segued beautifully into Teardrops by Womack & Womack. Kitt took his time with what is already a slow song, and he did it as much for himself as the crowd who joined in. Before he finished up he put his guitars down for a “karaoke track” as he called it and then one last full on song on his Fender and he was off the stage and out the gap.
Sea Church is a lovely venue. They could ditch the plastic glasses. I’ll be back, and I hope Kitt will be too. And I hope he’s getting on well down in Kerry and continues to experiment in a life dedicated to making music. Finally shout out for the couple up the front who couldn’t take their hands off each other. But what of it, they weren’t making any noise!
