Bell X1, Courtesy: Johnny Savage

This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune.

Name an Irish rock band that shares its name with an American military airplane. Need help? This is a band that has sold out some of the largest venues on the Emerald Isle. The frontman’s first name is Paul and the lead guitarist is David. 

Oh, and the band is not U2. 

There are no nicknames in Bell X1 — named after the U.S. Air Force plane that broke the sound barrier and currently Ireland’s second-best concert draw. 

“The name’s a total coincidence but no one believes us when we say that,” frontman Paul Noonan says in a telephone interview, two days prior to the start of their first U.S. tour. “We were desperate for a name and (bassist) Dominic (Phillips) had just read ‘The Right Stuff’ by Tom Wolfe. That’s a book that really vividly described this spirit of naive venture for the space race. 

“(Bell X1) seemed to resonate with where we were at the time.” 

Paul Hewson, by the way, usually goes by Bono. Dave Evans’ fans call him The Edge. Fans can decide whether to trust Noonan that Bell X1 is not U2 when the band performs its first Bay Area show at Cafe Du Nord Wednesday. 

Noonan and the gentlemen of Bell X1 are not a new band. He, Philips, guitarists-pianists David Geraghty and Brian Crosby have been at it since 1999. They have been joined on tour by drummer Tim O’Donovan since 2003. 

Their third album, “Flock,” was released in America last month to positive reviews. It was their first U.S. release but it has been a hot commodity in Ireland and the United Kingdom since 2005. 

So why is it you’ve probably never heard of them? That can perhaps be traced to 1999, when a band called Juniper was poised to become the next big thing. Juniper was composed of four childhood friends from County Kildare: Noonan — then a drummer — Phillips, Crosby and singer Damien Rice. 

They followed a path set for them by the likes of the Talking Heads, Thin Lizzy, R.E.M. and — whether they admit it or not — Radiohead, Coldplay and U2. 

They recorded two hit songs, then Rice (correctly) decided he would be successful as a solo singer-songwriter. 

“It was (hurtful), as with any relationship that you are invested in emotionally,” Noonan says. “There’s a fall-out from that. At the time it was painful, definitely.” 

Looking back at the individual solo success of Rice and Bell X1, Noonan says that the split turned out for the best. Since then, the band members have made up with Rice and even toured with him several times. 

“We’ve known each other since we were 12, 13 years old — what’s between us is beyond the music,” Noonan says. 

The band regrouped, promoted Noonan to lead singer and quickly went to work — first picking a name and going straight into the studio to record their first album. 

Starting with the release of “Neither Am I” in 2000, the band’s popularity grew exponentially. That album reached the 30th slot on the country’s music charts. “Music in Mouth” climbed to No. 15 in 2003. Two years later, “Flock” reached the top spot. 

While some of the songs on their first two albums were written in their Juniper days, and the rest were penned by Noonan and Geraghty, “Flock” signaled a shift in Bell X1’s songwriting. 

Noonan thought their songwriting had become too academic. 

“The big difference with “Flock” is that we approached it as . . . the four of us playing together as a starting point,” Noonan says. “We felt that’s where the joy would come from. (Songs) should be bolts of lightning from the gods.” 

There’s one other difference between “Flock” and the band’s first two albums, Noonan says. 

“With our last record, we tried to do joy, which we’ve never done before,” he says. “We’ve always found it very easy to do mopey, but a lot harder to do happy.” 

Bell X1 follows in the path of rich storytellers. Noonan admits he is heavily influenced by his favorite authors, such as Jack Kerouac and Irish scribe John McGahern — “to the point of plagiarism at times,” he says, laughing. 

“There definitely is a strong oral tradition in Ireland — and you do kind of absorb that by osmosis,” Noonan says. “I think a lot of Irish music is definitely influenced by that tradition.” 

The band wants to tell stories through its songs. “Rocky Took a Lover,” off “Flock,” is about a homeless man who sleeps with a woman for a night — true story, Noonan says. “Flame,” from the same album, is a bouncy barroom sing-along about being drawn to someone but feeling inadequate in that person’s presence. 

The album’s finale, “Lampposts,” is about a man who does not want to relinquish a broken relationship. “I’ve been walking you into those lampposts again/But I’d rather do that than let go of your hand,” Noonan sings. 

Although Noonan and Co. are on their first American tour and promoting their first U.S. release, “Flock” is not their first exposure to audiences here. Their songs have been used on television shows such as “The O.C.”

The band will enjoy playing for everyone else who has never heard of Bell X1 or Juniper, Noonan says. “We’ve always relished the challenge. I believe if we get the chance, we will win people over as a live band.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.