SINGER-SONGWRITER
Courtney Barnett
Whelan's, Dublin 8pm €10 (sold out)
whelanslive.com
Australian singer-songwriter Barnett is the indie name to drop right now (she proved a real OMG hit at the recent SXSW). She makes her Irish debut tonight hot on the heels of the release of her critically lauded album, Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit. Gig of the week?
ART
The Beholder's Share
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham, Dublin Until Apr 26
imma.ie
Students at IADT’s Art and Research Collaboration MA programme sifted through IMMA’s collection to come up with unrealised, “unexisting” projects. They got some big names in the frame, such as Joseph Beuys, Christo and Sol LeWitt. If that isn’t enough, they also canvassed fourth-year visual arts BA colleagues for some “unrealisable proposals”. The BAs duly obliged.
CLUB
Pogo
Twisted Pepper, Dublin 10.30pm €12/€10
bodytonicmusic.com
Many of The Ticket's more seasoned readers will fondly associate Mark Archer with his days as a member of hardcore legends Altern8, pop-dance group Bizarre Inc, and techno royalty Nexus 21. Archer is still very much in the DJing business and a semi-regular visitor to these parts. He's joined on the bill by longtime Japanese drum'n'bass producer Makoto, making his debut Irish appearance. The Human Elements' rep has released tracks in the past for Hospital, Bingo Beats, Creative Source and, of course, LTJ Bukem's Good Looking label.
WORLD/JAZZ
Mandem Express CD Launch
Sugar Club, Dublin 8.30pm €16.50 (incl CD)/€12.50
thesugarclub.com
Mandem Express, a group drawn from Dublin’s ever-more diverse emigré community (with a few intrepid locals thrown in), purvey their own heady blend of traditional and contemporary west-African sounds. It takes skill and musicianship, but this is not music about showing off – it’s about doing the same thing over and over again until your whole body is resonating to the music. Let yourself go.
OLD DOGS, NEW TRICKS
Kerbdog
Cyprus Avenue, Cork, 8pm
17.50 Also Sun, Kilkenny
[ cyprusavenue.ieOpens in new window ]
Dan Hegarty's recently released anthology Buried Treasure is a collection of short essays by Hegarty and many others on overlooked and forgotten albums (any similarity to a certain Ticket music column is entirely coincidental). One contributor to the book, Brian Cash of Halves, picked Kilkenny metallers Kerbdog's 1997 swansong On The Turn. Cash reckons even 20 years on, it hasn't weakend one bit, from the "immediacy of the opener Sally, to the droning finale of Sorry for the Record". Those who missed them the first time round – including maybe Cash himself; just months after releasing the record the band called it a day – get a chance to experience the Kerbdog live treatment this week, with two dates in the diary. This is one reformation that was well worth happening.
