Small Rooms, part 1: the cellar at Doyle's
Forty people, a ceiling you can touch and the best sound in Port Calder, if you stand in the right place.
The cellar at Doyle's holds forty people, legally. On a good night it holds more, and on a very good night you cannot see the band at all, only hear them through a wall of backs.
You go down eleven steps from the bar. The ceiling is low enough to touch, and people do, which is why it is painted black. The stage is a rug.
The sound
The sound in the cellar is famous among people who know about sound. It is a stone room under a stone bar, and it does something to a guitar that nobody has managed to explain. Stand by the pillar on the left and it is the best sound in Port Calder. Stand by the stairs and it is a dishwasher.
Who plays here
Almost everyone, at the start. The owner, Fintan Doyle, keeps the posters in a drawer behind the bar, and the drawer is a short history of every band the city later claimed. He will show you if you ask, and if it is a quiet night, and if you have bought a drink.
How to get in
Doors at eight. Tickets at the door, cash only, from Fintan's daughter on the stairs. If she says it is full, it is full.
