FRIDAY
Exmagician
McHugh's Basement, Belfast 8pm £7.50. Also Sun, Cork; Mon, Galway; Tues, Dublin; Wed, Limerick
Belfast band Cashier No 9 hit some level of paydirt several years ago with their superb debut album, To the Death of Fun, but it's all change here – a new name, a different direction, a new very fine album (Scan the Blue) and the unit's inaugural nationwide tour. Tonight's gig in their hometown is the official album launch, but expect similar heights of celebration to be attained at the other gigs.
Cruinniú na bhFliúit
Ionad Cultúrtha and An Muileann, Ballyvourney. All weekend. Adm free flutemeet.org
Despite a severe shortage in funding, this local flute festival now enters its 10th year with a vibrant line up of events throughout the weekend, all of them free. Hammy Hamilton, Cónal Ó Gráda and friends steer a course through the finest tunes, with an instrument renowned for its sinuous fluidity. Workshops and concerts allow flute lovers to hear and see the instrument in close up and in full flight.
Marcel Dettmann
District 8, Dublin 11pm €20/€18/€15 marceldettmannrecords.de
Marcel Dettmann needs no introduction to techno fans as his residency at Berlin's Berghain has ensured the German DJ always draws a crowd wherever he goes. As a producer, he's also highly regarded with releases on Berghain's in-house label Ostgut Ton and his own MDR. Showcasing the latter is the reason for this Dublin trip with rising label star, Canadian producer Ryan James Ford, also on the bill.
Jamie Jones
Wright Venue Dublin 11pm #25 thewrightvenue.ie
Thanks to a long line of projects and collaborations, Jamie Jones has had a serious influence on the shape of big room house music in recent times. He is the co-founder of Hot Creations, the label which has put out releases by a rake of interesting producers, while's he's also a member of Hot Natured, the London-based collective whose Different Sides of the Sun album was full of tracks which blended house and pop to mesmerising effect. Support from Dublin DJs Kaily (Deeptown, Beatdown) and Dan Stritch (RTÉ Pulse).
Gregory Porter
Olympia Dublin 8pm €38 Also Sat ticketmaster.ie
American footballer turned jazz superstar Gregory Porter has it all – a velvet smooth voice, a talent for writing songs that convey authentic emotion, a charming, 'gentle giant' manner, and improbable head gear that has (improbably) become his trademark. Trailing Grammys behind him, and with a new album coming in May, the cat in the hat's two nights at the Olympia are the hottest tickets in town.
New Middle East
Peacock Theatre. Mar 30 - Apr 2 8pm €13-€25 abbeytheatre.ie
At the end of Easter Week, a time of reflection and commemoration in Ireland, the Abbey opens its Peacock stage to a nation not yet risen. Mutaz Abu Saleh's play from the Golan Heights, the Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, finds a masked soldier standing beside an open pit, where he is burying a woman alive. Who they are, and what has brought them here, is the subject of the award-winning play, directed by Bashar Murkus in a co-production between Golan's Oyoun Theatre and Israel's Khashabi Theatre. It may be glib to seek parallels between Ireland then and Golan now, but during the centenary, it offers an opportunity to involve struggles further afield into our thinking.
SATURDAY
Imagining Home: This is Ireland
NCH Dublin 8pm nch.ie (sold out)
Glen Hansard and a rake of special guests celebrate Ireland in 2016 through words and song. Those performing include Marketa Irglova, Lisa O'Neill, Roddy Doyle, Ye Vagabonds, Stephen James Smith, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Judith Mok, and Maya Youseff. No wonder this one sold out in jig time.
Gui Boratto
Opium Rooms Dublin 11pm €25/€22/€20/€18 guiboratto.com.br
Like so many of his peers, Sao Paulo's Gui Boratto has his fingers in many pies, from labels to remixes to international tours. There has been string of releases for labels such as Plastic City, Circle, Megamusic Kompakt, Audiomatique and his own DOC, with much praise for the colourful, lush, infectious club tracks on albums such as Chromosphobia (2007) and Abaporu (2014). Expect a packed room for this one.
SUNDAY
Willis Earl Beal
Sugar Club, Dublin, 8pm thesugarclub.com
Few men come more wrapped in enigma than Willis Earl Beal. The soulful Chicago songwriter came to prominence, after years of promoting his own, strange shows with hand-drawn flyers and CDs left in public spaces.
In a match made in hell for a musician who has always done things on his terms, there was a compelling X Factor audition (he made it but dropped out early in the show). Five albums in three years have followed sinc. The voice is astonishing, but pinning down any details is impossible - Beal himself says he is an unreal entity, and most of his experience have been "illusory". His Other Voices set in 2013 was a bewildering, raw-as-rope stormer of sorrowful Chicago blues. At times it flew, at others it ran aground. Later that evening, Beal was across the road in a bar, sitting at a piano, trying to teach the locals a song or two. The charm was there, but the mystery ran a little gentler. There are so few artists left in the world who are determined to plough their own furrow. Expect a night to remember.
Imagining Home: Out Of The Tradition
National Concert Hall 8pm nch.ie (sold out)
The culmination of a busy week of concerts celebrating our multiple concepts of "home" in all its ragged glory. Tonight sees Martin Hayes (right) - a man capable of calling many places home, depending on where he lays his fiddle – will be joined by the newly-minted supergroup, Usher's Island (Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, Michael McGoldrick and John Doyle) alongside Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, poet Louis de Paor and actor, Olwen Fouéré. A visionary gathering by anyone's standards.
The Sessions - a live re-staging of The Beatles at Abbey Road Studios
SSE Arena Belfast 6.30pm £46.50/£41.50/£35.50 ssearenabelfast.com Also Mon, Dublin
With the recent death of producer George Martin, there is bound to be even more interest than usual in this inventive restaging of the famous Abbey Road sessions. Not just a concert, claim the people behind it, but more an audio-visual reimagining of music history. We'll see.
