Friday
Interlude Festival
RHA Gallery, Dublin, Friday-Sunday (Doors: Fri. 7pm Sat. 5pm Sun. 2pm), Weekend tickets sold out, day tickets €29
interludefestival.com
Taking place in the august and contemporary rooms of the RHA, with three stages, a block party, food garden, cinema, record shop, and craft beer and cocktail bar, the pick of the festival's three nights is probably Friday, with performances from Lisa Hannigan, Wyvern Lingo, Sample Answer, Exmagician, Ye Vagabonds, September Girls, Slow Riot, August Wells, and We Cut Corners.
Saturday and Sunday features DJ sets from Tonie Walsh, DJ Karen, Arveene, The Disconauts, Sally Cinnamon, and Kelly-Anne Byrne, along with live sets from Crazy P Soundsystem and Grandmaster Flash. Leave your wellies at home for this one.
Sea Sessions
Bundoran, Co Donegal 1pm €124.90/€99.90/€47.50
ticketmaster.ie
Seeing that it's based in one of Ireland's most beloved seaside resorts, the summer festival really kicks off with Sea Sessions. Fingers crossed that the weather will be with the fans, and that the music acts deliver the festival goods. No pressure, then, Tinie Tempah, HamsandwicH, Ash (who replace Primal Scream's injury-related withdrawal), Gavin James, King Kong Company, Pleasure Beach, and loads, loads more.
Jesse Smith
St Stephen's Green, Dublin 8pm €15
tunesinthechurch.com
This Baltimore-born, Irish resident fiddler has been a real seeker of his own path, his fiddle tracing deep crevices through his tune choices with impressive subtlety and finesse. Tonight Smith headlines in one of a slew of concerts running throughout the summer in Dublin and Galway in two fine churches (Galway's St Nicholas' Church twinning with Dublin's Unitarian Church). Lovingly curated by Cormac Begley.
Treelan
Seamus Ennis Centre, The Naul, Dublin 8pm €12/€10
tseac.ie
This trio of percussionist Éamonn Cagney, free-spirited guitarist Niwel Tsumbu and Altan's piano accordionist, Martin Tourish, continue their short tour. Old tunes find fresh impetus amid Treelan's fresh compositions. World music in three robust dimensions.
Glitch
Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda. Ends Jun 24 8pm €15/€12
droichead.com
Everybody's shouting at each other, but nobody's listening. Debate dwindles into shouting matches. Your side is impeccably sound, the other side is frankly demonic. How much longer can we exist in this hateful echo chamber? Drogheda's redoubtable company Calipo have returned with a new show, written by long-time collaborator and radio producer Martin Maguire, one that looks at our fragmented society through the prism of broadcast media. Having dominated the airwaves for 15 years, The Mike Adams Show, an evening talk show, is under pressure to adapt to the superficiality and noise of the times. But when its 50-year-old host comes into contact with a disaffected woman named Jesse, whose jaundiced view of society make her ripe for on-air combat, their fractious conversation finally quells into an exchange that they goes beyond mere soundbytes. Darren Thornton directs Maguire and Grainne Rafferty as they trace some reason within the cacophony.
Saturday
Mother Pride Block Party
Tivoli Theatre Grounds, Dublin 5pm €20
twitter.com/MotherDublin
The annual Pride celebrations continue to grow and grow, and this year's Mother Pride Block Party truly is the mother of all bashes to date. Thousands are expected on Francis Street for this gathering, featuring Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, Little Boots, Today FM's Kelly-Ann Byrne, Miss Panti Bliss and the Mother crew. There will also be live sets from Wyvern Lingo and Faune, as well as the usual festival add-ons like food, drink and shenanigans.
Overhead, The Albatross
Cyprus Avenue, Cork 9pm €12.50
cyprusavenue.ie
With their recent debut album (Learning to Growl), this Irish group served notice: if there's a better psych-rock record this year, it had best be prepared to fight it out to the bitter, blissed- out end. "Staggering sonic declarations," The Ticket observed last month in its Album of the Week slot. Too true.
It's a Pride Thing
Pygmalion, Dublin 8pm €30/€25/€20/€15
The season has well and truly kicked off on Ibiza - Pacha is the island's oldest club, and its world tour reaches Dublin tonight with 2vilas, aka Ibiza native Hector Avila and Mallorca dude Carlos Vila, who have been part of the Pacha story since 2008. Support from Colin Perkins, DJ Deece, Niall Redmond, Cesar and more.
Loughcrew Festival
Loughcrew House, Oldcastle, Co Meath 8pm €59
loughcrew.com
The final day of this three-day festival features an evening of "love, lust and intrigue". Norah King is the main draw, performing as part of Nick Heath's Opera a la Carte, featuring a selection of favourites. Go on, give yourself a touch of class of a Saturday night, for a change. LM
Hay Festival
Kells, Co Meath Also Fri, Sun €4-10
hayfestival.com
Hay Festival decamps to Kells again for one of its booky outliers. Among the highlights today are: Liz Nugent, whose second novel is about to hit the shelves; Rhianna Pratchett, one of the best writers in the gaming industry (and daughter of Terry); and Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia and Intimacy.
The Constant Wife
Gate Theatre. Ends Aug 13 7.30pm (Sat mat 2.30pm) Mon & Mat €20-€27, Tues-Thurs €34 Fri-Sat €37.50
gate-theatre.ie
The modern wife is a prostitute who doesn't deliver the goods; nothing more than a mere parasite. So says Constance Middleton, the straight-talking and defiantly unsentimental spouse in this relic from Sommerset Maugham. Played here as a lifeless and sexless bright costume drama about honesty and hypocrisy, the Gate's production actually seems nostalgic for the era – especially its theatrical style. Acting is conducted mainly from the neck up and everyone is subordinate to their lovely costumes, although Tara Egan Langley as Constance, Caoimhe O'Malley as her treacherous twit friend and Simon O'Gorman as her bewildered husband hint constantly that they could do so much more.
Sunday
Sigur Ros
Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin 6.30pm €49.50
mcd.ie
By the mighty hammer of Thor, we love Sigur Ros, yet advance reports of this eye-popping show – specifically from Spain's Primavera a few weeks ago – suggest that sonically the Icelandic group remain stuck in a post-rock groove of their own making. Special guest is James Vincent McMorrow, a man who – in a similar way to Sigur Ros – certainly knows how to twist melodies skywards, albeit with much more soul and warmth.
Julien & John
Stag's Head (upstairs), Dame Lane, Dublin 9pm, €8
julienandjohn.com
Guitarists Julien Colarossi & John Keogh (above) have just released their debut album, an engaging set of contemporary standards arranged for two acoustic guitars. The pair's repertoire is pretty diverse, from Jeff Buckley and Sting, to Coldplay and Keane, to Stevie Wonder and Chaka Khan, but whatever the source material, it's all artfully arranged in a back and forth of chords and melody by two guitarists who know what they're doing.
David Guetta
Titanic Slipways Belfast 6pm £38
belsonic.com
The David Guetta industry continues to buzz away. This summer, though, he's largely Europe-based with most of his focus on his F*** Me I'm Famous night in Ibiza. Support on his Belfast visit from Robin Schulz and Jonas Blue.
