FRIDAY
Little Green Cars
Whelan's, Dublin 8pm €23 whelanslive.com
The difference three years can make: Irish band Little Green Cars have been put through the wringer (ask your grandmother) since their 2013 debut album, Absolute Zero, but tonight's album launch (for just-released Ephemera) will surely place the outfit on less emotionally fraught ground. Cracking album, cracking band, cracking venue. Gig of the week?
Let's Swing
Pigalle, Cork 9pm Adm free facebook.com/barpigallecork
The HardCork Outernacional collective consists of Italian, French and Croatian DJs (Al-Jive Mestizo, Arbraz and Ofcasheep, respectively), who aim to put on various nights around their new home in the southern capital. Tonight it's Al-Jive Mestizo's turn to take the spotlight, spinning a blend of electo-swing, gypsy beats, Balkan beats and various other global-electro soundclashes on Barrack Street.
Colm Mac Con Iomaire
St John's Priory, Kilkenny 7.30pm €17.50 kilkennytrad fest.com
Colm Mac Con Iomaire, the Frames fiddle player riding high on the back of his second (and Choice-shortlisted) album And Now the Weather, headlines Kilkenny's Tradfest. He will also participate in a Culture Vultures panel discussion in Kilkenny Castle tomorrow, chaired by Tony Clayton Lea, of this parish.
Notify
The White Horse, Ballincollig, Co Cork 8pm €15 021-4871388 Also Sat, Kerry
What do you get when you cross a concertina with serious jazz-inflected electronica and the subtlest of drums'n'bass? Notify, that's what. Pádraig Rynne's brainchild continues to gather momentum with their latest album (InConcept) and this brief tour.
SATURDAY
Songs of the Damned: The Pogues Project
The Grand Social, Dublin 8pm €10 thegrandsocial.ie
Remember The Pogues, that motley collection of musicians in their heyday – raucous, poetic, punk rock and traditional. In this ambitious show (presented by Imram), the band's wild, wilful music is transcribed into Irish by poets Liam Ó Muirthile and Gabriel Rosenstock. The songs are played by award-winning poet/singer Marcus Mac Conghail and other musicians, while designer Margaret Lonergan visually treats the evocative lyrics by Shane MacGowan.
Mmoths
District 8 Dublin 10pm €18/€15
It has taken Jack Colleran a while to get his debut album together but Luneworks shows that it was well worth the wait. Since Colleran first appeared , making beats when he should have been studying for his Leaving Cert, his sound has been worthy of attention. Luneworks is a beauty, a record of evocative electronic music full of resonance, emotion and depth. It shows that early potential has truly blossomed. Expect to hear a lot more from Colleran in 2016 and beyond.
Koma
Project, Waterford 11pm €10
The name at the top of the bill is Diego Krause, the Berlin producer with raw funk and soul in the groove . Releases for his Beste Modus and Unuson Wax labels show that Krause's brand of raw, textured house is something to savour, while his performances at hometown clubs such as Watergate have attracted the tastemakers at Boiler Room and Mixmag Lab. Supporting Krause on his Irish debut will be Colm Mullally and Dean Mac Manus.
Concrete
Abbey Inn, Tralee, Co Kerry 10pm Adm free
The Concrete crew have thrown parties in various Tralee establishments for a while now. Tonight they return to the Abbey Inn with Dave Quirke. Part of the Tipperary Sweet Tooth collective, Quirke has played at Bedlam, Bastardo Electrico and other events over the past while. He is joined by Andrew Lyne and Sean Cummins.
Sense
Button Factory, Dublin 11pm €15/€12.50 facebook.com/secondcityUK
Secondcity is Chicago-born and London-based producer Rowan Harrington who has been responsible for superb housework over the past while. The Toni Braxton-sampling hooky I Wanna Feel (2014) introduced Secondcity to the sharp end of the pop charts. Since then he has toured a lot worldwide, recorded a couple of new EPs and remixed tracks for Carl Cox, Mendo and others. Support tonight from RTÉ Pulse DJ Dan Stritch.
Iarla Ó Lionáird and Steve Cooney
Set Theatre, Kilkenny 8pm €15 kilkennytradfest.com
The voice of Cúl Aodha singer and Inistioge resident Iarla Ó Lionáird gets better and better with each passing year. Hot on the heels of The Gloaming's triumphant five-night residency in the National Concert Hall, Ó Lionáird sidles off for this altogether-different undertaking, in the company of the sublime Cooney on guitar and didgeridoo. Quite likely to be a rascally night of music and stories.
A Shy-Going Boy
Triskel Christchurch, Cork 8pm €15/€12 triskelartscentre.ie
Ireland's most distinguished jazz composer, bassist Ronan Guilfoyle, premieres a new piece, written in memory of his grandfather Joe, a veteran of the 1916 rising and a member of Michael Collins's notorious Squad during the War of Independence. The talented sextet Guilfoyle has assembled to perform A Shy-Going Boy includes Joe's great-grandson, guitarist Chris, one of the fastest rising musicians on the Irish scene, Japanese pianist Izumi Kimura, UK trumpeter Nick Smart, saxophonist Sam Comerford and drummer Matthew Jacobsen.
SUNDAY
Ryan Keberle & Catharsis
Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, 9pm, adm free, cranelanetheatre.ie
Thirty-four-year-old New Yorker Ryan Keberle is one of the hottest names in jazz trombone with an impressive resume that runs from Wynton Marsalis and Maria Schneider to Beyonce and Justin Timberlake. His own group, Catharsis, is a powerful 'chordless' quintet of similarly sought-after musicians, including rising Chilean vocalist Camila Meza. Worth any ticket price, if there was one – as a free event, it's unmissable.
High Treason: Roger Casement; Our Kind; No More Fun and Games
Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Parnell Sq North, Dublin hughlane.ie
Featuring John Lavery's monumental painting of Casement. Also, Alan Phelan's short film Our Kind which imagines a future for Casement if he had not been executed. And in No More Fun and Games: Jesse Jones, who was recently chosen to represent Ireland at next year's Venice Biennale, transforms the gallery into a cinematic experience addressing feminism in Ireland's art, history and life.
