Bundoran’s Ocean Fest is aiming to put the Donegal town on Ireland’s musical map, though there is a lot more to the event than just rocking out.
Surfing is, naturally, the other main attraction, with free surf lessons for beginners at the Donegal Adventure Centre and the Bundoran Surf Co. Indeed, on the Surf Coach which brought me to the town, many seemed to be more interested in catching the perfect wave than catching some hot live bands (also on offer: skating, climbing, exhibitions of art and photography, among other activities).
Of course, for the rabid Irish pop fan, there were a number of worthwhile, non-surf, reasons to make the trip (principally, sets from Delorentos and The Immediate). Niamh Hamill and her brother Collie MacPhaidin are immersed in both sides of the event – she is a chief organiser of the musical happenings for the weekend and manager of the Donegal Adventure Centre. Collie also works in the Adventure Centre, and is a keen local music enthusiast.
Upon my arrival on Friday night, he talked engagingly about the town’s music scene, although he admitted there is a tendency for local bands to neglect original material, instead opting to play classic rock cover versions to please the tourists.
This festival, however, encourage local groups to become more adventurous, and make an impact in their own right.
Friday night’s main attraction was Delorentos at The Chasin’ Bull; they are a Dublin-based quartet who have been making waves on the Irish music scene, and it’s easy to see why they have sparked such enthusiasm.
Their music moves and twists fluidly, full of pleasing right angles and cute idiosyncrasies. Danceable, yet with a constant undercurrent of bleary melancholy, the group grew in confidence as the night progressed, and the audience went with them.
“We don’t want to want to be a band that plays in a comfort zone,” explains Kieran McGuinness (guitar/vocals), when asked what it’s like to play Bundoran for the first time. “There’s an Irish circuit that the bigger bands play: Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway. We try to play everywhere. We all come from small towns, and no big bands ever played in those places.”
No festival is complete without some outdoor music, so Saturday afternoon kicked off with a Teen Surf Idol Music Contest – an open air Battle of the Bands, judged by yours truly. There were uniformly excellent sets from all six acts (Reject Dolls, Erazr, Foundation, Happless, Feedback and Sk/d), but Happless’ marriage of toilet roll-throwing antics and catchy, shoutalong bubblegum punk (not to mention a lead singer playing a bass the size of himself) made them stand out, marginally, from the competition. Sk/d, probably the tightest band on show, got the nod as a worthy second choice.
Saturday night’s main attractions were the sets by Aine O’Doherty and The Immediate at The Chasin’ Bull. The previous evening Collie MacPhaidin had tipped O’Doherty as the local act I should watch out for. She was as good as promised, delivering a strong selection of originals and covers – though it was her voice that was the show’s most striking element: brassy, powerful, and with an incredible range. She offered some insight into the locals’ tendency to avoid original material.
“Playing here is more stressful than playing abroad, especially with the original stuff,” she explained. “People have heard me singing covers for years, so when you do your original stuff, you’re scared because the lyrics are so personal. One of my songs, ‘Pass The Bottle’ is about growing up in a small town – you’re out Friday, and by the time you get to mass on Sunday, everybody knows what you’ve been at, and you know what everyone else has been at too.”
The Immediate represented a high watermark for the weekend, delivering a breathless set full of caustic noise and sweet melody. Their strength lies in a curious mesh of personalities; David Hedderman, wild-haired, and with a sense of good-natured derangement; Barra Heavey, more subdued, and dryly funny; Conor O’Brien eccentric, nerdy and gentlemanly; Peter Toomey, pensive and quietly intense. When all the pieces fit together, it’s something special – the cracked delirium of ‘Let This Light Fill Your Eyes’ being tonight’s best example.
“In a lot of places, the crowd are very studied, and they’re very conscious of who’s watching who,” Barra Heavey elaborated after the gig. “Tonight, there were just a lot of good heads giving it socks. You wouldn’t really get that in Dublin. There seemed to be a weird mix of people – you couldn’t really pick out one dominant type of person.”
This mini-festival was just the beginning of a series of Surf/Rock weekends taking place in Bundoran: Director and Suddyn treated the town to storming sets at the Chasin’ Bull a fortnight later, and there is a whole host of fresh talent due to play the venue in the near future: Ann Scott, Cowboy X, Chadsko and The Blizzards to name just a few. Soon, the town’s music scene could be riding the crest of a wave.