Dame Maggie Smith and Kathleen Turner
Thursday, April 8th, 6.30pm, £20, fane.co.uk
On the face of it, this seems an odd couple to be teaming up for a livestreamed interview. Maggie Smith is the renowned British actor who has starred in such classics as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Room with a View, Downton Abbey and the Harry Potter series. Kathleen Turner is the renowned American actor who has starred in Body Heat, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses and Friends.
It was theatre that sparked their friendship: the pair met in 2000 while starring in adjacent West End productions, Smith in The Lady in the Van and Turner in The Graduate. The two have never performed together, but they’ll be joining forces onscreen, from opposite sides of the Atlantic, for the first time in this livestreamed event hosted by Gyles Brandreth. Expect lots of great stories from two very storied careers.
Ben Howard: Global Transmission from Goonhilly Earth Station
Thursday, April 8th, 8pm, €14.50, universe.com
The English singer-songwriter Ben Howard has built up his huge following through that timeless technological wonder word of mouth, and now his fanbase spans beyond his native Devon and Cornwall to take in the entire globe. To celebrate the release of his new album, Collections from the Whiteout, Howard and his band have decamped to Goonhilly Earth Station, on Cornwall's Lizard Peninsula, for this one-off global livestream, their first gig since January 2019, when they ended a successful world tour with four sold-out nights at Brixton Academy. Watch this exclusive performance and be reassured that Ed Sheeran is not the only Brit boy with an acoustic guitar on the block.
Brockhampton Live from the Chapel
Saturday, April 10th, 7pm, €15.08, momenthouse.com
They're the most exciting pop group around, a 13-strong collective of rappers, singers, producers and visual artists, and this gig comes live from the renowned Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California. Brockhampton burst on to the scene in 2017 with their innovative Saturation trilogy, three albums recorded independently over six months. Since then they've topped the Billboard charts. The Los Angeles-based rappers will be performing their eagerly awaited new album, Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine, with help from a few guests, and no doubt delivering some of their big tunes, such as Sugar and their latest single, Buzzcut. As Brockhampton get bigger, will they hold on to their faithful cult following? The smart money is on the whole world joining the cult of Brockhampton.
Declan O'Rourke with Special Guests
Wednesday, April 14th, 8pm, €15.05 and €21.95, momenthouse.com
The Irish singer-songwriter’s music is filled with drama and consequence, so it’s no surprise that he’s celebrating the release of his new album, Arrivals, with a gig livestreamed from Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. The new album, which was recorded in Surrey, England, and produced by one of O’Rourke’s heroes, Paul Weller, finds O’Rourke as raw and emotional as ever. The title track riffs off themes of emigration and reconnection, and gained added poignancy for O’Rourke after the pandemic hit. This global livestream in association with the Irish Arts Center in New York will feature tracks from the album, along with some old favourites by O’Rourke, whose songs have been covered by such artists as Christy Moore, Camille O’Sullivan, Eddi Reader and Josh Groban. Stick around after the gig to get some behind-the-scenes footage and a chat with O’Rourke and his guests.
Cathy Davey Live at the Pepper Canister Church
Thursday, April 15th, 8pm, free, musictown.ie
It’s a rare enough chance we get to see the wonderful Cathy Davey live. You can blame the animal kingdom for that: the singer has been kept very busy with her My Lovely Horse Rescue, which she runs from her farm in Co Kildare. But here’s a chance to catch the magic of Davey in this opening show for the MusicTown 2021 festival, which has gone virtual this year (April 15th-25th). This will be Davey’s first live show since 2019, presented by Selective Memory, and she’s joined by Derren Dempsey on guitar and Steve Kernan on drums. We’ll look forward to hearing tracks from such acclaimed albums as Tales from Silversleeve and The Nameless and her most recent album, New Forest, along with tracks she’s written for a new animated film due for release in May. And after the gig? It’s back to the farm, where she’s recently started up her My Lovely Pig Rescue, which is sure to hog her time for quite a while to come.
Crash Ensemble present Reactions
Thursday, April 15th, to Friday, April 23rd, musictown.ie
When a pandemic threatens to pull people apart, the only response is to strengthen the bonds that keep people together. For the musical collective Crash Ensemble, that meant finding new ways to work and perform together, and they came up with the idea of commissioning a variety of composers to write new works for duos within the wider group. Among the composers they approached were David Fennessy, Deirdre Gribbin, Rachel Lavelle and Bébhinn McDonnell; each was asked to compose a musical response to their experience of the pandemic, from either a personal or political perspective, focusing on how they felt and how they saw the future panning out. Each five-minute work was written for two instruments, and the pieces were rehearsed and recorded over the past year. Crash Ensemble's resident film-maker, Laura Sheeran, has created a film to accompany each piece, featuring footage from the recording sessions along with text and imagery from each of the composers; the resulting masterworks can be seen and heard over an eight-day period as part of DublinTown 2021.
David Kitt and Kevin Barry present… Cornaleena
Friday, April 16th, 9pm, free, musictown.ie
You need a whole city to contain the combined creative energies of the musician David Kitt and the writer Kevin Barry, but here the two artists come together for a virtual meeting in the fictional town of Cornaleena, somewhere in the west of Ireland, where everyone is "a bit rattled" and "the air is heavy with a long-gone lonesome blues". If this place is anything like Barry's fictional City of Bohane, then it promises to be pretty out-there. This evolving modular project is part of MusicTown 2021, and features a cast of collaborators to bring Cornaleena to life, including the film-makers Frank Sweeney and Cóilín O'Connell and the musicians Jennifer Walshe, Katie Kim, Jonny Dillon, Sinéad Lynch and the folk legend Seán Garvey.
Beoga Live from the Limelight in Belfast
Saturday, April 17th, €14.08-€56.04, momenthouse.com
It was only three years ago when the trad combo Beoga were on the Glastonbury stage with Ed Sheeran, and supporting him on his stadium tour of Ireland. The world has changed since then, and the band have had little opportunity to showcase their magical musical chemistry in a live setting. But the show must go on, and the Grammy-nominated group will be playing a livestreamed show from the Limelight in Belfast on Saturday April 17th, to coincide with the release of their new five-track EP, Breathe. The EP once again demonstrates the band's ability to bend trad music into interesting, intriguing shapes, with each track reflecting the times we are living in from a very personal perspective. This hometown gig will feature tracks from the EP, along with tunes from their now-extensive back catalogue. Fans have the option to hang out with the band after the gig and get some free stuff along with lots of craic.
