Five years on and Joe’s musical appetite as voracious as ever

Jenny McGovern

New York’s got CBGBs, for LA it has to be The Roxy, in London they’ve the 100 Club, and in Tokyo’s it’s the Budokan. For Cavan Town, well, we’ve got Chapter One’s Café Sessions. Okay, so you won’t ever find Talking Heads, Blondie, The Doors, or Bob Dylan play the Cavan Town venue, and admittedly you could lose Chapter One in these illustrious celeb haunts, but over the last five years it has established an almost cult following and has attracted some celebs of its own - The Strypes, Chris Difford (Squeeze) Duncan Maitland (Picturehouse), Lisa O’Neill and Keith Allen.

But even without the big names, for many who make the regular pilgrimage every other Thursday evening, street lights dancing in puddles, muffled soundchecks of 'wahn two-wah wahn-TtTt-two-twooh’ pulsing down the street, the prospect of catching a mystery threepiece over from Dundalk, or the unexpected return of a fluffy favourite up the nation’s bellybutton - the sense of expectation percolating in their veins may very well be just the same as those entering the CBGBs.

If you’re there before the short-order support slot fingerpicks their way through a drearily earnest confessional, you’ll stand an outside chance of grabbing a precious seat; then there’s every chance you’ll be shoulder to shoulder with the drummer’s uncle tucking into a quesadilla, or maybe the bassist’s girlfriend, who’s just motored the van sixty miles north to play a town in which they’ve never before cranked up an amp. This is as real as it gets. Live, in your face, music. At times earbusting, other times morose, frequently heart-stopping and occasionally magical; almost every night’s memorable.

Spark
Café Sessions owes its origins to a one-off precursor. 'Literary Week’ back in 2009 saw pals Joe Keenan and Niall Walsh - now manager of The Strypes - recruit some local artists, including Michael O’Brien, Shane O’Connor, Ray Fitzsimons to collaborate on a performance piece. What transpired was a thirty minute show where readings were performed to a live soundtrack. At the time it was a new concept for the people of Cavan Town - such events were few and far between. A spark was ignited in the Cavan arts world that first night, and it encouraged Joe and Niall, under the banner of Blue Valentines, to pursue the Café Sessions idea. Five years later, it burns ever brighter.

“I remember our first official night of Café Sessions,” says Joe, in easy-going manner. “We had a performance from The Poetry Chicks, Conor Kelly and a band called The Ivory Cutlery it went down really well. Myself and Niall were really excited by the prospect of showcasing more local talent and it didn’t take us long to hit a very rich vein of Irish talent. In the early days we had performances from Lisa O’Neill, Ciarán O’Neill and The Strypes. We then moved to Raglans, The Hot Sprockets and Harry Bird - it was music that was not necessarily being heard in Cavan.”

The social network of the day was Myspace, which Joe credits as a fantastic resource in finding bands with the right sound for the café. “We went through the friends of bands that had played in Chapter One and we found lots of bands that we really liked, and it just grew from there,” he said.
For the first couple of years Joe operated behind the scenes as Niall took on the frontman role, introducing the bands. With The Strypes’ success skyrocketing, Niall’s band commitments have propelled Joe to the fore, a role he loves: “When the demands of The Strypes took over for Niall, Cathal (Sheridan) and Linda (McGrath) stepped in to give me a hand and they’ve just been fantastic. One of my favourite parts of the night is when everything has been cleaned up and put away and we can have a chat about the night, we’re all usually on the same wavelength - singing the praises of the band and the audience.”

There seems to be no slowing down for the Café Sessions. Joe rates 2013 as “just fantastic”.

“This year it’s been very busy every night and we’ve had a really good mix of new music, we’ve only had two bands that have been here before. There is so much talent out there, it’s just a matter of finding bands which fit in with the vibe of Café Sessions. A lot of acts are just not right for the venue. We have a great rock 'n’ roll audience who like it loud and dirty, swinging from the rafters and dancing in the streets,” he laughs.
Joe believes that the café’s success boils down to band and crowd interaction.
“All of the bands that come down to play here are really taken with the crowd, people listen to them and they get a fantastic reaction. A lot of these bands would be playing in pubs and clubs with very little interaction so it’s a welcome change.

“Also the girls who work in Chapter One are just wonderful, they never complain about the mess, or if it goes on too long - they love it as much as the crowd. It all just adds up to great atmosphere, which is so important.”
Choosing a highlight from the past five years is impossible for Joe: “The problem with picking a highlight is that I think every show is the best that we’ve had, there’s been so many amazing moments.
“Seeing the rise of The Strypes first hand was very special, Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies constantly send everyone home with a goofy smile on their face, The Hot Sprockets always have everyone up dancing - there’s really too many to mention.”

Hopes
Asked of his hopes for the next five years Joe replies: “Niall and I always said that if it ever got boring we’d throw in the towel, five years ago we didn’t think we’d be still going. It’s important to always up the ante and continue to bring interesting bands and performers to Cavan, I’d like to think that people trust us to bring good quality acts to the café, and we hope to keep it up for a long time yet.”

This week Café Sessions celebrate their birthday in style, with balloons, cake and most importantly music. The Lost Brothers bring along their folk rock musings today June 5 at 8pm support comes from Cavan’s own musical minstrels Daragh Slacke and Peter Sheridan, collectively known as Brouhaha