New Year’s gigs
Annie Mac: Before Midnight
Sunday, December 31st, Silo, RDS, Dublin, 6pm, €60/€55, ticketmaster.ie
Many people are breathing a sigh of relief that a big-name DJ such as Annie Mac has decided that late-night clubbing isn’t always the only option for a great time on the dance floor. Welcome, then, to her Before Midnight gig, which returns to Ireland for a third outing this year. Starting around 6pm and bringing down the shutters at 12.30am, it lets you enjoy a club night without it dragging on until the very late hours of the morning. Special guests include Panti Bliss and the DJ Kelly-Anne Byrne.
Dec Pierce’s Block Rockin’ Beats
Saturday, December 30th, National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin, 6pm, €29.90, nyfdublin.com
New Year celebrations make an early start with this one. Dec Pierce’s Block Rockin’ Beats headline; other acts, including Chasing Abbey, Ryan Mack, Jen Payne, HamSandwich, RSAG, Sinead White and Chubby Cat, perform across three stages. Keeping the crowd tapping their feet before and after changeovers are the DJs Fergal D’Arcy, Shelly Gray and Emma Power. This is an over-18s event.
Moncrieff/Picture This
Sunday, December 31st, Dublin Castle, nyfdublin.com
There are two sections to the New Year’s Eve music at Dublin Castle. The first is a family-friendly, all-ages matinee show (4-6pm, €22.90) featuring the emerging Irish music acts Lea Heart and Lucy Gaffney, with Moncrieff headlining. Later in the evening (8pm, sold out, over-18s), the Kildare band Picture This headline the Countdown Concert, with second bites of the cherry from Moncrieff and Lea Heart as the support guests.
The Scratch
Sunday, December 31st, National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin, 6pm, €29.90, nyfdublin.com
One of the most popular live bands in Ireland right now are The Scratch, who know how to get a crowd pushing and shoving in all the right ways. Again, there are three stages here that accommodate the line-up, which includes those itchy headliners as well as Sharon Shannon, Gemma Dunleavy, Hermitage Green, Ispíní na hÉireann, Lemoncello, Anamoe Drive and Krea. Preventing the vibe from dissolving into the cold night air are the DJs Claire Beck, Nialler9 and Blood Donor. This is an over-18s event.
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Jerry Fish
Sunday, December 31st, Sea Church, Ballycotton, Co Cork, 9pm, €61, seachurch.ie
This most distinctive multidisciplinary venue inside a revamped Church of Ireland church is catching up with St James Church in Dingle, Co Kerry, as a culture spot. Entering the hallowed space tonight is none other than the showman supreme Jerry Fish, whose Electric Sideshow has over the years been honed to entertainment perfection via songs that include the evergreen Celebrate. It isn’t just the songs that will coax you to the floor, however, but also the way Fish delivers his slick and engaging shtick as if to the manner born.
Gilla Band
Sunday, December 31st, Dolans, Limerick, 8pm, €33, dolans.ie
Anyone looking to celebrate the end of 2023 with a figurative bang on the ear would be well advised to check this one out. The headliners are Gilla band, the Dublin quartet whose sonic rage and fury once prompted a newspaper to describe their music as having been “recorded in a meat locker under a fallout shelter”. Which means you might just need to bring earplugs. What’s that you said? The excellent special guests are Autre Monde and Clara Treacy.
Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Myles O’Reilly
Monday, January 1st, Meeting House Square, Dublin, 2-6pm, free, nyfdublin.com
A head-soothing gathering of Irish musicians is headlined by the redoubtable trad/ambient duo of Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Myles O’Reilly, who between them have years of experience in how to make sure an audience has a good time. Special guests at this family-friendly event include Dani Larkin, Niamh Bury and Sola. Also, at Dublin Castle, 1pm-5pm (free), are Code of Behaviour & The New Brass Kings, Dublin Gospel Choir and (busy man) Jerry Fish.
Visual art
Sarah Purser: Private Worlds
Until Sunday, February 25th, Hugh Lane Room, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, nationalgallery.ie
This exhibition of works by the Dún Laoghaire-born artist Sarah Purser (1848-1943) focuses, as its title implies, on her more intimate portrait paintings. Unlike her lucrative career as a regular portraitist of the British aristocracy – “I went through [them] like measles,” she once commented – Private Worlds presents paintings based around family, friends and visitors to her (now-demolished) Georgian house on Mespil Road in Dublin.
Comedy
David O’Doherty: Tiny Piano Man
From Thursday-Saturday, January 4th-6th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 8pm, €28, ticketmaster.ie
Described by some as “the dishevelled prince of €10 eBay keyboards”, and by the biographical details “uncomfortably written in the third person” on his website as a “comedian, flaneur and 1990 East Leinster under-14 triple jump bronze medallist”, David O’Doherty is one of life’s comedic disturbers. Not for him the same old routines or jokes; rather, musically led tiptoes through whatever thoughts take his fancy. As for Tiny Piano Man? Size doesn’t matter. Go see. Also at Mandela Hall, Belfast, Thursday, January 11th; Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Friday-Saturday, January 12th-13th; and then touring until March 22nd. davidodoherty.com
Still running
Jack and the Beanstalk
Until January 21st, Cork Opera House, 1pm and 7pm, €37.50/€35.50/€30/€20, corkoperahouse.ie
“Spectacle, sophistication and style” was this paper’s praise for Cork’s primary Christmas pantomime. Alongside top-notch direction (Trevor Ryan), stage illusions (Sam Lupton), dance (Aoibhinn Quirke) and choreography (Ciaran Connolly), there is a script (also by Ryan) that bungee-jumps “from pun to innuendo and hints of topicality”.
Book it this week
An Audience with Elizabeth Day, NCH, Dublin, March 13th, nch.ie
Niall Breslin’s Where Is My Mind? podcast, touring, April 5th-27th, niallbreslin.com
Liam Gallagher, Thomond Park, Limerick, July 14th, ticketmaster.ie
Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve, Vicar Street, Dublin, September 27th-October 1st, ticketmaster.ie
