49th & Main Tickets

Bands that have come out of Dublin’s raging scene in recent times are often rallying against the trappings of their backgrounds, or are unmistakably influenced by Ireland’s distinct heritage. Where genre-hopping dance-pop duo 49th & Main differ from the peers of their city, is almost in every way. The animated pair spontaneously cherry-pick inspiration from all sorts of sounds and places, as long as the pair’s creative collaborations result in high energy, euphoric floor-fillers. 

The origins of 49th & Main begins in Kilkenny, where singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Paddy King would befriend budding producer Ben O’Sullivan at the school they both attended. King, aspiring to be the next Ed Sheeran or Ben Howard and having been obsessed over music since the age of eleven, enlisted his new pal O’Sullivan to record and produce a handful of songs he’d written, despite the latter having no previous experience of working with such material, if any music production experience at all. 

The project didn’t pick up much steam, and it wasn’t until the pair were both at college, studying in Dublin and Galway respectively, that they decided to collaborate on music together. An impromptu trip to Canada didn’t halt proceedings - instead the duo returned inspired with what would eventually become their debut self-released EP, 2020’s Neon Palm Trees, nearing completion.

As lockdown derailed the momentum of most artists, it was outside of music where Ben O’Sullivan’s life was put on hold as he was diagnosed with a rare disease just months before: aplastic anemia. Being chronically fatigued and immunocompromised, he had no choice other than to isolate himself from friends and family. But whilst the world continued to move, it spurred the dance-pop-duo-in-the-making on to release their music. “If I hadn’t gotten sick, we probably would have waited, wouldn’t have put those songs out when we did and who knows where we would be,” O’Sullivan revealed in a recent interview.

It didn’t take 49th & Main long to strike algorithmic gold with their infectious releases like the lo-fi, doo-wop flecked ‘Catching Eyes’, which has since racked up over 30 million plays on Spotify alone. Indie-house number ‘Don’t You Like It?’ was similarly a success, despite the pair not having yet even stepped on stage together yet. Champing at the bit to get out and greet fans in up-close-and-personal venues after O’Sullivan’s 18 months in isolation, the duo’s first live show at Dublin’s legendary venue Whelans sold out six months in advance. NinjaTune imprint Counter Records took notice, and signed them by the end of 2021. 

Their first release on the label, 2022 EP Must Be Nice, further exemplified the duo’s versatility and penchant for creating fun floor-fillers that pull from various eras of dance music. Understandable comparisons to Jamie xx and Fred again.. ensued, likely down to the summery pop, piano-house stylings of ‘Never Gonna Stop’ and ‘Up To Something’. 

Led by lead single ‘Icy’, 49th & Main’s debut album B.O.A.T.S. followed in 2023. The supporting UK tour – their biggest to date – later that year saw the duo take their eclectic and energetic live experience to the likes of Bristol, Cardiff, London, Leeds, Nottingham, and Manchester. Fully recognising their impulses in the studio, they succinctly summed up their 2023 album B.O.A.T.S. in a press release, if not their entire method of working to date, stating: “The record itself is classic 49th & Main, genres all over the place but designed to soundtrack the best times of your life.”