The Workman’s Club: the university of indie music for Dublin bands
If walls could talk, independent venues would be the master conversationalists. Future stars, budding journalists, and devoted fans have walked the beer-stained halls of some of music’s most beloved independent venues, breathing the necessary life into music’s DIY scene.
They are tangible touchstones in an otherwise ethereal industry, where besides the clutching of a vinyl record, there’s nothing physical to worship. The peeling bricks of an old independent venue are perhaps all we have left and the first place we head to in pursuit of etching our names into cultural moments that will hopefully be deemed a zeitgeist moment in musical history.
Perhaps one such moment would be the ringing out of Fontaines DC’s ‘Liberty Belle’ in the years that preceded their 2019 debut album Dogrel. Lurking in the shadows of such a gig would have been The Murder Capital frontman James McGovern, who graduated from the same school of post-punk as the now globally famous Irish five-piece.
“Workman’s is where it all started for us,” he told Far Out in a recent cover story interview. “Hanging out with all our mates, and we were all just kind of in these bands who were just trying to get something going, you know. We were just cutting our teeth and met like some of the most important people in our lives there, really,” he added.
Nestled on the banks of the River Liffey, it modestly exists around the corner from The Temple Bar. While tourists jostle their way to the famous pub, sipping on overpriced Guinness and feigning interest in Irish culture, the bands who carve its DNA play closely in the shadows where they push boundaries of post-punk-poetry and give a voice to the otherwise disillusioned.
Together, bands like Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital formed an alumni of revolutionary poets who bring working-class humility to the otherwise high-brow approach to music.
“It’s still an amazing place to go and sort of escape, I think, and they still play unreal music there”, McGovern said. “The first time I met Carlos from Fontaines was there, Trev was away, and he got Carlos to bring us down a crate of beers to our show and give us our like €100 paycheck or whatever it was, which we were buzzing about by the way.”
The ‘Trev’ McGovern referred to is Trevor Dietz, owner of Workman’s and now manager of Fontaines DC. A bastion of burgeoning bands, uniquely aware that it’s the simple gestures that nourish the enthusiasm of a young act, battered and bruised by the ruthlessness of pursuing an emerging music career.
“I’ve never had to put a DJ or a band on that I thought was shit,” Dietz told the MIX Course wrap night panel, reminding budding music managers that artistic authenticity is more important than lucrative potential.
He continued: “And, of course, it’s led to my involvement with Fontaines DC. It’ll probably have to die down a bit before the madness of what’s happening really sinks in. Incidentally, bands looking for a gig should just Facebook me. If I like your stuff, we’ll start you off with a Bank Holiday Sunday at the Workman’s. That’s kind of how Just Mustard and The Murder Capital came through.”
Despite Fontaines DC’s jetsetting stardom, Dietz still remains the owner of Workman’s, and the artistic sentiment remains the same. Bands load in and out throughout the week, buoyed by the prospect of playing to a healthy and open-minded Irish crowd, who have no qualms with taking on any genre led by lyrically dense vocals. But perhaps more importantly, they step on stage to play their first chord, safe with the knowledge that if Trevor Dietz doesn’t think they’re shit, no one else likely will.
