• Máirtín O’Connor, Cathal Hayden, Garry O’Briain & ConTempo Quartet @ The Ulster Museum

    September 6, 2017 - By 

    The metaphoric symbolism of traditional musicians performing inside a museum wasn’t lost on button accordionist Máirtín O’Connor, fiddler Cathal Hayden and bouzouki player Garry O’Briain. “Someone will put a friggin’ glass case over us – fossils of folk,” quips O’Connor, the former De Danana and Boys of the Lough alumnus, to much laughter. “We’ll sit here for the rest of our days.” In such an unlikely event, the Ulster Museum would be exhibiting the wrong musicians, for despite deep roots in Irish folk music, O’Connor, Hayden and O’Briain have, over the course of forty plus years, embraced all manner of…

  • Dr Kathryn White: ‘Teaching’ Beckett @ Samuel Beckett Happy Days Festival

    September 6, 2017 - By 

    Can we teach Samuel Beckett, or is the process more about simply exposing people to The Nobel Prize-winning author and letting his words work their magic on the individual in highly personal ways? This is the main theme of the introductory talk in the Town Hall at the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival by Dr. Kathryn White, Lecturer in English in the School of Arts and Humanities at Ulster University. Yes, Beckett is back in Enniskillen after a gap year in 2016, during which the festival successfully upped sticks to Paris. Sagely rebranded as part of the brand spanking…

  • Premiere: The Shaker Hymn – Dead Trees

    September 6, 2017 - By 

    Look far and wide but you’ll struggle to find a more consistent Irish act that Cork quartet The Shaker Hymn. Following a busy few months of extensive touring, as well as featuring on the soundtrack to breakout Irish film Handsome Devil, the band also found time to record their forthcoming third studio album. The lead single from that (which doubles up as the follow-up to last year’s stellar Do You Think You’re Clever) ‘Dead Trees’ is a wonderfully-crafted three-minute burst of slick, psych-tinged rock, conjuring the likes of Ty Segall, Supergrass, early The Coral and more. Recorded straight to tape by producer Brendan Fennessy,…

  • Susanne Sundfør – Music for People in Trouble

    September 6, 2017 - By 

    Not to be that guy, but *ahem* as Confucius once said: Real knowledge is to learn the extent of one’s ignorance. Now, without trying to send readers running for the hills with a review rife with personal enlightenment and pretentious philosophical opening statements, it’d be hard to deny that Susanne Sundfør’s latest album, Music for People in Trouble initially appealed as a sitting duck for my worrisome self and an overhanging £5.20 library fine for a book I never once picked up. This review was drafted to open with a breezy, whimsical quip about Sundfør’s medicinal and spirit-cleansing qualities and the…

  • American Football @ Button Factory, Dublin

    September 7, 2017 - By 

    It’s unlikely that you’re ever going to find a crowd as earnest as the gentle gang of 20-something year olds that bundle into The Button Factory for emo heroes, American Football. It’s been a long time coming but the Illinois band are finally making their Irish debut 20 years after their humble beginnings and emotions are running high among the expectant audience. The first thing to notice about American Football is that, despite how few shows they’ve actually played over the last two decades, you’d be hard pushed to find a band more technically accurate. Each song sounds identical to…

  • Exhibition: Static @ Pallas Projects + Studios

    September 6, 2017 - By 

    Tonight from 6pm to 8pm sees the preview of Rebecca Dunne’s Static in Pallas Projects + Studios. Dunne is an artist who focuses on sound art, with her exhibitions frequently taking on immersive and interactive roles with their audiences. In Static we are advised that Dunne will present “a feature length picture available in surround sound”, which promises to continue and extend this narrative within her work. The exhibition is due to continue Pallas’ recent pop-up show template and close this Saturday after a three day run – helping to firmly establish the immediacy and visceral nature of the works. Full…

  • Exhibition: VERA @ Temple Bar Gallery + Studios

    September 12, 2017 - By 

    This week recent NCAD graduate Julia Dubsky is having a preview of works in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Dubsky has had a studio in the building since April of this year as part of Temple Bar Gallery + Studio’s Graduate Residency Programme. A multitude of influences exists in the artist’s work, and recent months have seen her complete “a term at the Royal Drawing School in London; three months studio practice in Berlin; [and] a short artist residency in Tehran;” The preview is titled Vera and is open daily to viewers until this Saturday 16th September from 2pm to 6pm. Enterance to Studio 16…

  • Perfume Genius To Play Dublin in December

    September 5, 2017 - By 

    Having released one of the very best albums of 2017 in No Shape back in May, it’s been announced Seattle-based musician Mike Hadreas AKA Perfume Genius will play Dublin’s Tivoli Theatre on Saturday, December 2. Hadreas last performed in the city at Longitude last year and The Sugar Club back in 2011. Tickets for the Tivoli show – which are priced €23.50 + fees – go on sale on Friday, September 8 at 9am. Stream No Shape in full below.

  • Win tickets to Beatroot Root Music Week

    September 5, 2017 - By 

    Leading promoters of jazz, roots and experimental music, Moving On Music will present the third annual installment of Beatroot Roots Music Week in Belfast across September 6-9. Hands down one of the most affordable and mind-expandingly well-curated series in the calendar, this year’s outing will see appearances from Daoirí Farrell, Joshua Burnside, Hejira, Cacao, Cup O’Joe, Hive Choice, Stephen James Smith and Sue Rynhart. Taking place at Crescent Arts Centre and Black Box over four days, here’s the full details: WED 6 SEPT – SUE RYNHART + CACAO (double bill) CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE, 8PM, £10 (£8 conc.) THU 7 SEPT – DAOIRÍ FARRELL support from CUP O’JOE CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE, 8PM,…