PICK OF THE WEEK
ECM SERIES
Triskel Arts Centre, Fri-Sun triskelartscentre.ie
This weekend, Triskel in Cork – which has long played home to many ECM artists – is celebrating the label's work with three nights of concerts. Amores Pasados kick things off Friday , with Anna Maria Friman, John Potter, Ariel Abramovich and Jacob Heringman collaborating on work commissioned from John Paul Jones, Sting and Tony Banks of Genesis. On Saturday, trumpeter Arve Henriksen shares a double bill with Food, made up of Thomas Strønen on drums and live-electronics and Iain Ballamy on tenor and soprano saxophones. On Sunday night, the brilliant June Tabor, who plays with English folk act Quercus. Film screenings and Banter discussions with Irish Times music critic Jim Carroll round out a weekend of celebrating the sublime.
TRAD
Drogheda Traditional Music Weekend
Droichead Arts Centre, all weekend droichead.com
Quite possibly the highlight of this weekend is tonight's shimmering programme featuring The Albeiz Trio with Laoise Kelly on harp, Cormac Breatnach on whistles and the superb Tola Custy on fiddle. The vocal/guitar duo of Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker round off what promises to be a special night.
CLUB
Maya Jane Coles
District 8, Dublin 11pm €20 mayajanecoles.com
The London DJ and producer's rise to prominence has been a rapid one, helped by a strong track record when it comes to producing compelling electronic music. Tracks such as What They Say and Don't Tell have contributed to her prolific streak, which also seen her work on the She Is Danger collaboration with singer Lena Cullen and release the brilliant I/Am/Me album of slo-mo, down-tempo, broody bass earlier this year as Nocturnal Sunshine. Support from Shane Linehan and Emaleigh Kelly.
TRAD
Paudie O'Connor, Aoife Ní Chaoimh and Paul de Grae
Ionad Cultúrtha, Ballyvourney 8.30pm €15/€10 ionadculturtha.ie
Sliabh Luachra's infamous polkas and slides are the perfect lure to the dance floor for anyone tiring of the indolence that can be born of winter. Paudie O'Connor and Aoife Ní Chaoimh are a husband-and-wife duo whose marriage of accordion and fiddle is a pitch-perfect doffing of their hat to the tradition. Guitarist de Grae is equally fluent in the local tongue, so the trio promise to bring some muscular beauty to the belly of Cúl Aodha.
FILM FESTIVAL
Subtitle
Kilkenny Various venues subtitlefest.com
It's the closing weekend for this festival celebrating European subtitled films. On Sunday night, Pauline McLynn will present the festival's Angela Awards to cap a week of screenings, talks and industry wheelings and dealings. Black polo necks are optional.
SATURDAY
TRAD
Dónal Lunny and Andy Irvine
INEC Acoustic Club, Killarney 8pm €22.90/€20 inec.ie
A special chance to catch Lunny and Irvine in an intimate, acoustic setting. Expect remarkable bouzouki and mandolin workouts along with a rich song store, many from Irvine's own pen.
LIVE
Vitalic
Hangar, Andrew's Lane, Dublin 11pm €15 vitalic.org
Pascal Arbez takes his own sweet time. Just three albums have come from the Frenchman whose OK Cowboy debut of thrilling electro disco appeared in 2005, but the Dijon native's stock remains high. He played a rare DJ set in Dublin about 12 months ago and he's back tonight for his first live show in the city in yonks, so it will be interesting to gauge what's turning on the Vitalic sound system these days.
NINTH BIRTHDAY
Twitch
Queen's Students' Union, Belfast 10pm €10 twitchbelfast.com
Twitch mark another year of fine techno and house with an all-star cast of spinners. Dutchman Martyn tops the bill, a producer whose adventurous approach to electronic music can be viewed by the span of his three albums to date. Between his Great Lengths debut and last year's The Air Between Words, he's covered a lot of ground, as well as collaborating with Four Tet and Inga Copeland. Support from Twitch regulars Matt Burns, Slack Society and Phil Lucas.
TENTH BIRTHDAY
Big Dish Go
Opium Rooms, Dublin 11pm €15 facebook.com/bigdishgo
A DJ who has caused much bouncing on Dublin dancefloors down through the years, Ivan Smagghe joins Big Dish Go for tonight's bash. The Parisian DJ and producer initially made his mark as Black Strobe acid warrior and Kill the DJ rep. These days, he collaborates with Tim Paris to produce slinky, wobbly disco-noir killers such as It's A Fine Line; runs the Les Disques de la Mort label; and hosts the Channeling show on NTS. Support from Conor Feeney in the main room with Mr Modern Magic and Mark Alton and Sol O'Carroll in the Garden.
POETRY
Dante's Inferno
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 11am-5pm Free
A collaborative project celebrating the 750th anniversary of the birth of Dante will today see the entire 34 Cantos of Inferno read at the National Gallery in Dublin. Kicking things off is President Michael D Higgins at 11.15am, with the reading expected to last up to six hours. Further events in Cork and Trinity will see readings of Purgatorio and Paradiso, and complete the journey from hell to heaven.
SUNDAY
ARENA ROCK
Simple Minds
3Arena, Dublin 8pm €50 3Arena.ie Trends come and fads go, but stadium rock seems destined to hang around forever. With a background in 1970s punk rock, Glasgow's Simple Minds quickly traded UK/US spikiness for a more svelte Euro-pop sensibility. The decades since have seen their profile oscillate, but they're obviously in a bit of a purple patch these days. Special guests are fellow punk survivors The Stranglers.
SHOWCASE
Saucy Sundays Fifth Birthday Swansong
Grand Social, Dublin 6pm €3 thegrandsocial.ie
The venue's longest running club celebrates its fifth birthday and also bows out in style. The final gig of this much-admired emerging music talent outing features Hot Sprockets, Gavin Glass & the Holy Shakers, Buffalo Sunn, My Tribe Your Tribe, and more. Thank you and goodnight! TCL
ART
Everything Must Go: Art and the Market
Lewis Glucksman Gallery, UCC, Cork, Until Mar 6 glucksman.org
This show features Irish and international artists exploring "ideas of value and economics in their work",' considering the ways in which value becomes attached regardless of an artist's initial intentions, via such factors as context and display, provenance and ownership, rarity and reputation.
