Reviews
DAVE COUSE AND THE IMPOSSIBLE
IRISH INDEPENDENT
Eamon Sweeny
If there was a picture In the dictionary to illustrate perserverance, then DAVE COUSE would certainly be a candidate. After leading the sorely underrated alternative pop band A HOUSE between 1985 and 1997, Couse is still writing and releasing records and playing gigs, wisely refusing to keep his arsenal of acerbic pop songs a secret.
The fruits of these labours can be heard on the recent singles BATMAN & ROBIN and BEAUTY IS, from THE WORLD SHOULD KNOW album.They're big and beautiful tunes that immediately hit home on first hearing, but unfortunately have yet to secure some richly deserved success for COUSE and the IMPOSSIBLE. While the crowd is quite small for a Saturday, it must be reiterated that everybody here seems intimtely familiar with DAVE's oeuvre, singing along with everyword from late eighties classics to brand new song with gusto.
DAVE takes us back in time with A HOUSE's calling card anthem CALL ME BLUE, and the breezy bittersweet pop of TAKE IT EASY ON ME. SMALL TALK is a corrosive rant about chat up lines that has aged very well and is also included as a b side on BEAUTY IS. COUSE is an amusing raconteur and entertainer, peppering his between song banter with self depreciating jokes and even wisecracks about the size of the crowd.
A dramatic early highlight is a stirring rendition of John Cale's I KEEP A CLOSE WATCH that sees COUSE command centre stage, wooing us with a charming delivery. Its a night of pleasant surprises, as SHIVERS UP MY SPINE from the second A HOUSE album I WANT TOO MUCH receives a rare live airing. Seldom has the phrase "send 'em home smiling" been so apt, as the crowd flies off happily into the night, visibly enthused by COUSE and his IMPOSSIBLE cohorts.
Eamon Sweeny.
