Colm O'Callaghan finds their farewell show
one of the most cathartic and disheartening
events he's ever seen or heard
We dont normally associate either dignity
or grace with pop music, and rightly
so.
Because pop has always been a cold
cynics
play-yard, both on-stage and off, where
the
bland usually steer the blind through
mutual
cheating games that end either with
frustrated
tears or with token, pithy pay-offs.
That said, Dublin band A House never really
ran with the pack anyway, always preferring
their own counsels and their own instincts,
rightly or wrongly, and always staying
truest
to themselves. That they chose to bow
out
while they were at least in control
of their
standards and not, as with most bands,
over
drinking sessions or through newspaper
press-releases,
sums them up in one and arguably says
more
than any number of bland obituaries.
Billing any show as a final farewell is always
playing too close to the sun, an immovable
closing point and a full-stop set into
stone.
But then A House were always well ahead
of
the also-rans and with a brashy ignorance
and an enduring gang mentality, always
seemed
to get it right. And theyll be
missed,
thats for sure.
Whats also certain, however, is that
this country will hardly see their
approach
again in a hurry, such is the extent
of pop
musics changed landscaper around
out
way. Because A House were always able
to
steer their own boat with far more
control
and clarity than most, managed as astutely
and as intuitively as any act this
country
has seen, and powered always where
it mattered
by the bands own prolific level
of
application and delivery. A head-start,
as
it were, that owed only to the band
and to
its immediate coterie, where little
else
ever mattered.
There was a truly over-blown tan year period
in the initial wake of U2s first
great
arrival when all Irish album releases
were
characterised by over-long and over-familiar
thank0you credits on their inside sleeves.
In hindsight, arguably, either is a
sign
of the times or a sign of an over-heavy
dependence,
But ultimately no more than a series
of sentimental
stains on far too much domestic pop
music
history. Dublins Something Happens
must, for instance, genuinely wonder
where
most of those name-checked on the inside
of the well-good Stuck Together With
Gods
Glue got to when it mattered the most,
when
both the money and the free-booze ran
dry.
Ironically, and probably typically, A House
chose to thank only themselves on their first
album. Because as a band that at one point
used to have circular posters this
despite that fact that it was something of
a nuisance for the band themselves to actually
cut them cleanly about the edges and
for a band that headlined in Dublin and in
London as often as any and that still only
ever did two encores ever, A House always
knew how far they could push and how far
they could actually subvert what it was they
were about. Their only real debts were to
themselves because when push got to shove
it was always going to be four like-minds
only against the whole world. So that while
their statements were blatant, they rarely
shouted from rooftops and seldom reached
for the skies. And no one ever messed with
A House.
Which made their farewell show last weekend
one of the most cathartic and genuinely
disconcerting
live events that this column has seen
or
heard in 15 years. No caro meos, no
undue
fusses and no forced sentiment, A House
came
over like theyve always come
over,
always four and often six-square, cocksure
and strutted up like they knew,
just
knew, how damned good they were and
how damned
good it was what they were leaving
behind
them.
Granted A House never sold as many records
as they should have, which is where
pop history
will ultimately judge them. But the
fact
is that, with one genuine, real-deal
top
forty single and with five truly defining
albums for three different record labels,
they leave behind the body of work
they always
claimed that they would, one way or
the other.
But the most compelling reality is that,
in over ten years, they never unduly
either
copped out or bowed to the vagaries
of pops
sensibility, checking out in a blaze
of gold
and silver like they always knew that
they
would. Twenty great pop songs and one
quick
three-way encore and they were gone.
But the most unsettling thing of all,
of course, is that like perhaps most
of the
crowd that filled last weekends
final
throw, wed never actually seen
a band
break up and fold it all away so publicly
and so defiantly before. And while
their
last great finale marks the end of
their
own gorgeous stretch at pops
crease,
their passing also arguably draws the
safety
curtain on the first and last great
pop movement
this country has either seen or heard
that genuinely awesome guitar burst
that
started at Dame Streets Underground
over ten years ago and that trundled
through
more wonderful moments and great records
than it ever probably wants to imagine.
Many of them played out, naturally, by A
House who, like no other band this
country
has seen excepting, arguably, U2, never
so
divided their own peers so savagely
and yet
motivated their own support so clinically.
A House, you see, knew, thats
all.
No undue social appearances, no hanging
about
and no concessions.
Towards the end of their very last snow,
David Couse, knowing that for him,
at least,
an entirely new real world is just
around
the corner, turned to thank his bands
only manager ever, his bands
bleach-cropped
record company punk-boy boss and, perhaps
most tellingly, A Houses long-time
roadie, technician and all around top-man,
Liam Crinnion.
Because when A House wake up next month and
when there are no rehearsals and no
interviews
and no television and radio appearances
and
no production deadlines theyll
know
that, ultimately, nothing much has
really
changed.
Granted their band may not exist, at least
in name, anymore, but when their rehearsal
space has been stripped back, and when
their
guitars have been moved outwards and
onwards,
A House will know that, as always,
theyve
still got themselves and no more apologies.
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