Dublin’s Bands Saved by the BelloBar

by Kyle A. Shafer

Just four days before the show a myriad of complications left local Dublin bands without a venue to perform despite already having sold tickets and promoted the show. But a last-minute twist in the form of the BelloBar changed everything.

“BelloBar said we have a slot, it’s 120 extra people’’ said a member of headlining band Circa. Previous plans for the show are scrapped as the bands and organizers prepare for a much larger venue in so little time. They decide to make the show free to the public, betting they can fill the room that way.

The gamble pays off, as on the 8th of October the atmospheric BelloBar along the grand canal shuts its doors on the late com- ing customers after the venue has reached capacity. The dark smoky room is lit by the stage lights and not much more as nearly 200 patrons indulge in a jam-packed line up of young exciting artists over their pints.

The stage at the back of BelloBar is surrounded on three sides by stools, chairs, and cushioned seats letting fans get close to the performers and turning the large gig into an intimate venue”, according to Sean, a member of Circa. “The people who are here, are here to watch you, your show”, he said, and his bandmate Cornell elaborated “you can feel the emotions of the people that came to see you.

Circa is a Dublin-based band that consists of Sam Urwin (bass), Matthew Nealson (guitar), Sean Fox Gordan (vocals/ guitar), Fionn

Maguire O Loughlin (drums) and their newest member Cornell (keyboard). They are

The band has existed in various forms since 2017 with bassist Sam, one of the headliners of the event and were ecstatic at the success of the event, “ we just want people to come and have a fun time and enjoy themselves and the best way to do that is to just get a variety of different musicians who are equally interested in having a good time as giving people a good time.” then where people have just left and come in, I don’t know if I would call it the same band but it is technically the same band... and then Sean in one of those phases” joins the band has a singer. Previously the band was called “Zeffer” during what Sam describes as the “dark ages” where all other members left the band on two different occasions leaving just himself and Sean.

Sean elaborated “you’re just like, when are we the problem... but we had something, we could do something with our lives that involved music”. At some point the band became known as Circa and was in need of a drummer. Fionn joined the group while still being involved with a second band called Redlist which included Matthew. “Once Redlist ended I made sure Matthew joined my other band,” Fionn said about his longtime partner. “Three bands together, like every band I’ve been in Fionn, has been,” said Mathew who planned to take a break from music after Redlist ended “But Fionn was like, get in with Circa they need a guitarist.’’ He then transferred from base to lead guitar. Finally “just two weeks” before the event, Cornell joined the group on the keyboard and “was confident enough to play this gig and sing along to all our songs, to play keys for us, it is really impressive and we are happy to have her on board,” Sean said about their newest member.

The Saturday night event is the band’s much-awaited headline debut, and to a full house audience, it exceeds expectations.

We have been rehearsing and making music for two years. We make the music with the intention of kicking off with a big gig... loads of people came to it and loads of people wanted to come to it, I feel like we rose to the moment” stated a triumphant Sam after the show. The night’s finale was the other headliner Troyokay (Troy Martin), a Dublin artist based in the Liberties. “I started making music when I was twelve, I’m nineteen now, I’ve been releasing music since January and gigging since May,” he told me the day after his seventh gig.

Troyokay revealed that he was “not expecting” the “last minute” event to reach “max capacity” but was elated at the results. He debuted two new original songs to the enthusiastic crowd, “Falling Out of Love” and “The Changes”, both of his unreleased EPs, “I always like to test out the new songs... I’ve never played in front of people”.

Troy cites his influences such as King Krule, The Front Bottoms and Modern Baseball along with Irish artists such as Whipping Boy and New Dad as inspirations for his music. And after receiving cheers from the sold-out crowd is optimistic about the Dublin music culture, “you can see people are interested in going to gigs... there is definitely an interest more than there has been in a while”.

Troyokay and Circa are both optimistic about the future of Dublin’s music culture and what is coming out of it in the next few years.

I give it another couple of years and it will be really great, it is already great now. I’m seeing all these great bands that are going to take off in the next couple of years, it is nice to see,” Troy explained, “having BIMM, having all these cool venues is really nice... everyone knows each other, everyone plays the same places, its community.”