Cursive, Kevin Devine - The Limelight, Belfast
Cursive, Kevin Devine
The Limelight, Belfast
Wednesday the 6th June 2012
It’s been a long time since Nebraska’s finest, Cursive played in Belfast. Six long years to be precise, and that was a festival slot. Kevin Devine’s not been here since 2008 either; “not since the big wheel was here”. But the wheels kept on spinning (or in this case, being dismantled) until finally the pair joined up again to bring their indie-rock back to an appropriately intimate setting.
Kevin Devine takes to the stage first, alone with his trusty guitar, nothing but a blue spotlight to set the scene. As soon as he sings the first few notes of “You’ll Only End Up Joining Them”, you can hear a pin-drop. Everyone’s silently transfixed as the rasping rocker strums and croons through a set of achingly heart-felt, indie-folk.
The biggest cheer comes for the intro of “Time To Burn”. Kevin tells us he’s had too much burrito pre-gig and you can almost see the food sweats kicking in as he strains his vocals through the final few songs – but it works. Kevin Devine has this innate charm - he doesn’t quite demand you sit up and pay attention in the way Frank Turner for example would, but Kevin will tug on your heartstrings, drag you in and tangle you up in them. Lovely.
Cursive shake things up with their avant-garde approach to indie-rock; complicated guitar hooks, jazz injections, emotive lyrics hush-hushed then shouty-shouted. They don’t follow anyone’s rule-book, opening with “This House Alive”, “Big Bang” and “Gentleman Caller”, without stopping for breath or applause. It’s a relentless start which they follow up with some surprising older favourites such as “The Martyr” and “Sink To The Beat”.
Proving they don’t follow anyone’s rule-book, they tear up their own by playing “The Recluse” at half the speed of the album version. Tim Kasher’s a curious front-man, swaying and jerking, slinking to the floor and rising again. He points to the crowd while singing the most angst-ridden lyrics as if he’s poking us right in our souls. The quieter, emotional lines are whispered from behind his hand, like he’s letting us in on his secrets. At times, Kasher seems possessed, at others simply trollied; either way, utterly captivating.
They close the set with “Eulogy For No Name”, feedback looping as they exit the stage. It doesn’t look like they’d planned an encore but the crowd manages to convince them back to play another couple including an extended improv version of “Art Is Hard”. Art might be hard but Cursive make it look easy.
Michael Wilson
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