Event of the week
Arlo Parks
Tuesday, September 5th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; €29.95; ticketmaster.ie
Five years ago Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho (that’s Arlo Parks to you) made her entry into the music business by uploading demo songs to BBC Music Introducing. Within months she had signed to a record label and released her debut single, Cola. Since then there has been no stopping her upwards trajectory, with her 2021 debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, winning that year’s Mercury Prize. This year’s My Soft Machine (influenced in parts by the Irish bands My Bloody Valentine and Fontaines DC) continues Parks’s confident, creative flow.
Gigs
Feist
Wednesday, September 6th, National Stadium, Dublin; 7pm; €54.65; Thursday, September 7th, Opera House, Cork, 8pm; €46; ticketmaster.ie
The last time Leslie Feist performed in Dublin was as support to Arcade Fire, in September 2022 (to the week), but following allegations of sexual misconduct against the band’s lead singer, Win Butler, she withdrew from the tour. Feist returns with a new album (this year’s Multitudes, which was shortlisted for Canada’s 2023 Polaris Music Prize, the winner of which will be announced on September 19th) and, we are sure, a sense that this time she will have a much calmer experience. (Feist’s Cork show is part of the Sounds From a Safe Harbour festival.)
Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve
Thursday, September 7th, National Concert Hall, Dublin; 7pm; €85/€70; nch.ie
It isn’t the first time that Elvis Costello and his long-standing musical associate and friend Steve Nieve have performed two-hander shows (a limited edition five-CD live set was released in 1996 in the United States only), but they’re rare enough, nonetheless. While we’re open to correction, we think this is the first time they have teamed up for a Dublin gig, so Costello aficionados can expect pared-down versions of familiar songs that cross the decades, as well as the probability of rearranged older songs and new material. Anyone for indoor fireworks?
Wilco
Friday, September 8th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; €56.15; Saturday, September 9th, Opera House, Cork, 8pm; €51 (sold out); ticketmaster.ie
Experimental rock or alternative country? Art rock or indie rock? It’s all to play for with Chicago’s Wilco, who bring to Ireland not only their most recent album, last year’s Cruel Country, but also their forthcoming studio album, Cousin (released at the end of this month, and produced by the Welsh musician Cate Le Bon). Fronted by Jeff Tweedy, the band often defy expectations, a creative stance that has caused them to be dubbed the American Radiohead. (Wilco’s Cork show is part of the Sounds From a Safe Harbour festival.)
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Festival
Sounds From a Safe Harbour
From Thursday, September 7th, until Sunday, September 10th; Cork city, various venues/times/prices; soundsfromasafeharbour.com
This one is special, and while it’s mostly music-based, it smartly crosses over into other cultural territories, such as literature, dance, theatre and (where would we be without it) conversation. Curated by the festival’s director, Mary Hickson, The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner, playwright Enda Walsh and actor Cillian Murphy, the line-up is too packed for us to mention more than a smattering: Crash Ensemble, Feist, Cormac Begley, Kate Ellis, Max Porter, Wilco, Liminal, The Staves, Ólafur Arnalds, Dermot Kennedy and Bonny Light Horseman with RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Musical
Dirty Dancing
From Tuesday, September 5th, until Saturday, September 16th, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin; 7.30pm; €60/€55/€45/€35; ticketmaster.ie
“Nobody puts baby in the corner…” Count us in for this dance-musical hybrid (based on the 1987 film of the same name) that was first adapted for the stage almost 20 years ago, in Australia. Since then the show has enjoyed continued sell-out success across the world, with its most recent West End revival concluding at London’s Dominion Theatre four months ago. The show travels to Millennium Forum, Derry, from Tuesday, September 19th, until Saturday, September 23rd.
Legacy
Seán Corcoran Series
From Friday, September 8th, until Sunday, September 10th, Drogheda, Co Louth, various venues/times/prices; seancorcoranseries.com
The life and creative times of the Co Louth native Seán Corcoran (1946-2021) is remembered across three days in various venues in and around his birthplace, Drogheda. Throughout his life as a singer, musician, documentarymaker, festival organiser, field-recording collector and musicologist, his persona and art influenced the lives of many people, hence the notable guest list for the weekend’s celebrations: Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny, Lankum’s Radie Peat, singers Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, sean-nós dancer Róisín Ní Mhainín, cellist Neil Martin, actor Stephen Rea and writer John Banville.
Film
National Cinema Day
Most Irish cinemas, Saturday, September 2nd; cinemaday.ie
What’s this? A mere €4 for all seats for all films in all participating cinemas? Supported by Screen Ireland, National Cinema Day (which is today, September 2nd, so look sharp) will see 99 per cent of cinemas in the Republic of Ireland (along with Northern Ireland and Britain) offering a broad range of new and recent releases (including The Equalizer 3, Barbie, Meg 2, Blue Beetle, Oppenheimer and Passages) and some films not yet officially released. One of the latter is Ballywalter, featuring Seána Kerslake and your forthcoming host of The Late Late Show, Patrick Kielty (which is released in cinemas on Friday, September 22nd). The event’s website has a full list of participating cinemas. Anything else? Oh, yeah – popcorn. Lots of popcorn.
Still running
Music in Monkstown 2023
Until Sunday, September 10th, Monkstown Parish Church, Co Dublin; various times/prices; musicinmonkstown.ie
Highlights at this year’s Music in Monkstown festival – cofounded by John Finucane, former principal clarinettist of the National Symphony Orchestra – include the acclaimed violin and piano duo Maria and Nathalia Milstein, the Piatti String Quartet, and the premiere of a new commission for clarinet and piano by Shaun Davey.
Book it this week
Arctic Monkeys, 3Arena, Dublin; October 15th/17th/19th; ticketmaster.ie
Aoife Nessa Frances, The Complex, Dublin; October 14th; singularartists.ie
Talk of the Devils podcast, Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin, October 17th; singularartists.ie
Moving Hearts, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; December 10th; ticketmaster.ie
