Dublin post-rock veterans The Jimmy Cake are marking a quarter century since their debut album with a full album performance at the National Concert Hall.
The band will play Brains in its entirety on Saturday November 28th 2026 as part of the NCH’s Landmarks series, a strand dedicated to significant Irish records.
It’s the first time the group have performed in almost a decade.
Brains came out in 2001 – a sprawling, horn-heavy instrumental record that helped shape what Dublin’s post-rock and experimental scenes sounded like, and a precursor to their albums – 2002’s Dublin Gone, Everybody Dead, 2008’s Spectre and Crown, 2015’s Master and 2017’s Tough Love.
Tickets go on sale Friday July 3rd at 10am from www.nch.ie, priced at €22, €30 and €37.50.
♡ Nialler9 is independent and reader-supported. Support us on Patreon →
About The Jimmy Cake
The Jimmy Cake built a reputation as one of the city’s most inventive live acts, with a lineup that at various points ran to eight or nine members across guitars, brass, and rhythm section.
The Jimmy Cake began life in Dublin in the late 1990s as das Madman, blazing briefly and chaotically, to burn out and reform at the turn of the century as a nine-piece band, blending accordion, clarinet, saxophone, glockenspiel, trumpet and DIY percussion around the core of guitars, bass and drums.
Brains was released on their own Pilatus label in 2001. In five tracks, they announced something hitherto unheard: at times raw, fearless and experimental, in other places fragile and intimate, moving restlessly between folk, post-rock grandeur and something far more elusive. It became one of the fastest-selling independent releases of that year, garnering universal praise, hailed as “mind-blowing,” “spellbinding” and “divine.” The Irish Times wrote, “despite the multitude of cooks, the broth tastes damn fine.”
Some distance has been travelled since that Whelan’s launch in the summer of 2001, but the influence of Brains can be heard on many of the boundary-pushing bands that followed in its wake.
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.
