Some recent gig news from the Irish live circuit.
Videos below from the artists.
Alela Diane plays Whelan’s on Wednesday September 30th – her first Irish gig in 15 years. The Californian singer-songwriter has seven albums behind her now, the latest being Who’s Keeping Time?, and her warm, unhurried folk music has earned comparisons to the timeless end of the tradition. Worth the long wait. The 2009 album To Be Still is a cherished record for me. Tickets on sale Friday April 3rd at 10am via selectivememory.ie. Presale tomorrow.
Record Store Day at Freebird is back for the first time since 2019. Four artists play in-store at Freebird Records on Saturday April 18th from 2pm-6pm: Junior Brother, Cormorant Tree Oh, Ger Eaton and Loah. Each will also have rare physical releases of their own music available in very limited quantities on the day. Free entry.
Dublin Music Book and Fanzine Festival runs across two Saturdays in Dún Laoghaire this month, organised by Hope Collective and Irish Pop Archive. The first part is at Volume Records on Saturday April 18th – an evening of conversations with John Robb (Goldblade, Membranes, author of Punk Rock Ruined My Life), Boff Whalley (Chumbawamba) and Kevin Dunn, hosted by Michael Mary Murphy. The main day-long event is at IADT Carnegie Library on Saturday April 25th (10:30am-5:30pm), with panels featuring Steve Averill (Radiators from Space), Peter Jones (Paranoid Visions), Bitzy Fitzgerald, and a full fanzine strand with Niall McGuirk (React Fanzine), Cian Hynes (Riot 77 Fanzine) and more. Tickets €25 for the April 25th event via Eventbrite.
The Great Escape has just added 100+ names to its 20th anniversary lineup for Brighton this May 13th-16th. The new wave includes Do Nothing, PVA, Sassy 009, ARXX, Girl In The Year Above (Irish/Cornish indie, recently on the Peaky Blinders soundtrack), and Bimini. Irish presence is strong across the bill: Kingfishr headline a Spotlight Show at Brighton Dome on May 14th, Annie-Dog, Madra Salach, Theatre and BUKKY all on the bill too. 450+ acts across 35+ venues. Tickets via greatescapefestival.com.
da Googie + Cara Tivey bring their debut album launch to Oh Yeah Music Centre in association with CQAF, Belfast on Friday May 8th. da Googie is the solo project of Deb Googe – the bass player in My Bloody Valentine and Thurston Moore Group – and Cara Tivey, who spent the 80s and 90s as a session keyboardist for Everything But The Girl, Billy Bragg and Blur during the Parklife era. Neither had ever released an album under their own names until The Golden Thread, and this is a very special event with immersive visuals designed by Googe. Tickets via ohyeahbelfast.com.
Tashi Dorji makes his Irish headline debut at Upstairs at Whelan’s on Wednesday June 3rd, presented by Enthusiastic Eunuch. The Bhutanese-born, Asheville-based experimental guitarist was last here supporting Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the National Stadium, and has a new record low clouds hang, this land is on fire on Drag City. His playing is rooted in alternate tunings, prepared guitar and spontaneous improvisation. Tickets €21.50 via Biletto.
Mount Eerie plays Button Factory, Dublin on Wednesday June 17th. Phil Elverum’s impeccable catalogue and extremely rare live appearances make this one to move on quickly. Tickets from €28 plus fees from foggynotions.ie.
White Denim are heading back to Ireland in August in support of their new album 13, out April 24th. Limelight 2 in Belfast on Thursday August 27th Whelan’s Dublin on Friday August 28th, and with tickets on sale now via Ticketmaster. The Austin band remain one of the most thrillingly unclassifiable live acts around: garage rock, jazz fusion, psych and soul all thrown into a blender and played at maximum intensity.
Live at Castle Mills is a new outdoor tented concert series launching in Kilkenny city this July, taking place beneath Kilkenny Castle. On Friday July 17th: Public Image Ltd with special guests Therapy? and Kerbdog – John Lydon bringing the full PiL post-punk catalogue back out after his 2024 spoken word tour changed his mind about retiring. Previously announced was Matt Berninger with special guests Lisa O’Neill and Engine Alley. Tickets from €59.50 (PiL) plus fees via castlemills.ie and Ticketmaster.
Gwenno is doing a full Irish run in July behind new album Utopia – her first record written predominantly in English, blending electronic textures with piano-led songwriting around themes of identity and self-discovery. Five dates: Dublin (Bello Bar, Wednesday July 15th), Kilkenny (Cleeres, Thursday July 16th), Cork (Savoy, Friday July 17th), Limerick (Kasbah Social Club, Saturday July 18th), Clonakilty (De Barra’s, Sunday July 19th). Tickets via singularartists.ie.
She Past Away play Button Factory on Wednesday September 23rd – their biggest Irish appearance to date. The Turkish darkwave/post-punk duo Volkan Caner and Doruk Ozturkcan’s Mizantrop is as brooding and cinematic as anything they’ve done. Tickets €30 plus fees via selectivememory.ie.
Tolü Makay headlines The Sugar Club on Thursday November 26th. The Nigerian-Irish singer’s viral cover of ‘N17’ was a breakout moment, and her 2025 EP People Still Cry in the Summer showed her at her most emotionally direct. Tickets on sale now via singularartists.ie.
The Twilight Sad released their new album It’s The Long Goodbye this Friday, ahead of their show at Button Factory on Saturday May 9th. They’re one of the great cult bands of the past two decades – Robert Smith’s favourite band apparently and the combination of a new record and a Dublin show makes this essential. Final tickets via foggynotions.ie.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
