Dancing girls add spice!

The bands hardcore members first appeared live back in 2002, playing a Minsk Club party at the old Khuc Hao club on the far side of West Lake.

That debut saw them drag five songs kicking and screaming from their instruments in an ill-received yet unabashed frenzy of sound.

The band really began to take shape later that year, after the first drummer got the axe when he failed to show up at a gig.

 A new drummer was promptly enlisted, and a series of jams were had at the RnR, a downtown bar that has practice space open to (pretty much) anyone who wants it, no matter how much the dead head owner may hate what they play.

As with most expat bands in Hanoi, Kurva were dogged by the departure of members, and left scratching their heads when looking for replacements.

While the addition of Ilya on lead guitar solidified the band for the band comp late last year, the sound has also improved remarkably by installing Italian bassist Marco, and switching former bassist Kristen from the four strings to behind the kit.

Bands find their prime when the members find their groove. Sometimes this happens by firing people, sometimes just simply by shuffling members. Sometimes everybody should just pack up their gear, go home and spend the rest of their lives watching TV.

Tarred with a bad rep from earlier shows that (to be brutally honest) were piss poor, Kurva had just struck upon the right line up at a time when living in Vietnam was no longer striking the right chords with its members.

New bassist Marco is first up for departure, followed later by Kristen, and but Ilya and Alexei plan to head back to Vladivostok. This leaves front man Igor with a ridiculous number of spaces to fill.

The end of the band is all about circumstance, and there with no choice but to accept it, they lashed out their final show.

“It’s a shame we didn’t get another couple of months with [Marco], but I’m leaving really soon too, so there’s no point in getting a new bass player.” said Kristen of the Kurva split.

“If your dog gets run over by a car, then your parents get another one, it’s just not the same. You have to wait. There’s a certain healing period, and we don’t want to be on the rebound. I don’t know if there’s any future plan, but it would only be Igor.”

If there’s one thing Kurva didn’t do, it was screw around. Their shows were streamlined, beginning about the time they told you, and with minimal time wasting between songs. Their final show was like clockwork, although it did run a little short. Several of the old crowd pleasers were overlooked, possibly due to new members not knowing them, or more likely just to offer song after song with raw power punch, to go out with a roar rather than a farty blown bass amp.

“We wanted to go out in a blaze of glory,” Kristen admitted. “We really should’ve destroyed something, but the kids [at the Silver Spider] are so nice, we wouldn’t want to upset them.”

The best part of seeing any band play their last show, is that they no longer care what you think of them. Done are the days of trying to impress crowds, allowing the band pure self-indulgence, and with this freedom usually comes the best show they ever put on.

Knowing they were making their last stand, Kurva played whole-heartedly, without reservation or self-criticism. It’s an infectious vibe when it’s piggy backed over intense industrial metal. 

Documenting such an auspicious, if ill-fated event were a veritable team of cameramen. Kurva put on an energetic stage appearance – the inspirational dancing girls are also a great feature – and captured the whole event on video.

While their after match functions have been known to turn into liquor soaked frenzies, the band simply retired to a friends place to watch the video of the show.

Not only did it serve as a reminder of the band at its height, but was also a good opportunity to checkout stage performances. The sound from the camera sucked of course, and the band have sadly not made any recordings back it.

Marco, somewhat the lynch pin.

When asked if there was any older footage to make a comparison against, Kristen admitted there were bootlegs floating around of old shows at Rock Today, Phuc Tan, and some dating right back to a gig at the Children’s Palace two years ago when local punk covers band The Offensive were just starting out.

“All that stuff is so irrelevant now. I can’t stand to watch it so I got rid of it. There’s one shot of us incredibly drunk, playing in the canteen of the foreign students dorm in Bach Khoa. It got a little ugly. Amplifier kicking and carry on.”

TGL snuck in a phone interview with Kristen as she packed her house up in preparation of her homeward flight.

“I thought she would be bummed that its over, but I’ve got so many other things on my mind, like leaving Vietnam after almost six years. I’m looking forward to going back to Indie Rock Day in Coney Island though.”

The Good Life