Ireland gig guide: Paloma Faith, Jess Glynne and all of this week's biggest concerts
We preview all of the biggest gigs taking place across the country over the coming days
Irish music fans are spoilt for choice when it comes to gigs this week, with a slew of high-profile concerts taking place around the country over the coming days.
Here we look ahead to some of the best gig taking place in the week ahead and we have all the info you need to get your hands on tickets.
Leftfield
Festival Big Top, Galway - Friday, €54.35
Pioneering dance act Leftfield are renowned for a dub-heavy colossal sound that’s been known to cause structural damage.
READ MORE: Sabrina Carpenter announces Dublin concert - Ticket prices and presale information for 3Arena show
READ MORE: 'I couldn’t believe how enjoyable it was' - Noel Gallagher hails Kneecap's Glastonbury performance
Touring their milestone 1995 debut album Leftism, Neil Barnes, Paul Daley, and their live touring band of MCs and musicians were famously barred from playing Brixton Academy when bits of the ceiling started falling on top of punters, and Belfast’s Ulster Hall also had the same plaster mishap.
Thankfully this one’s in a tent, so it all should be OK bar the sub-bass-fuelled flapping canvas.
Leftism is one of the most revered electronic music albums of all time, and a Mercury nominee. It was tagged ‘progressive house’, a mix of house, techno, dub and hip-hop, with African chanting and percussion, ambient interludes and a very special guest in the shape of John Lydon, who helped the album’s crossover appeal.
Follow-up album Rhythm and Stealth leaned more into cavernous dub and industrial dancehall, and featured the iconic hits Afrika Shox and Phat Planet.
After a recording gap between 2002 and 2010, Barnes revived Leftfield for a Leftism nostalgia tour without Daley, but it turned out not to be a one-off.
Albums Alternative Light Source (2015) and This Is What We Do (2022) build strongly on the legacy of dub, techno, ambient and other global influences, and are still achieving transcendent live experiences.
Tickets to Leftfield's gig in Galway are available to purchase via Ticketmaster, priced at €54.35 each.
Musictown 2024
National Concert Hall, Dublin - Friday-Sunday, various prices
In the last few years the National Concert Hall has become a more inclusive and welcoming space for more adventurous, left-field music — notably performances by the likes of Detroit techno pioneer Jeff Mills, German techno artist Pantha Du Prince and the festival Haunted Dancehall, with outer limits electronics, noise and avant-garde music on the agenda.
This year’s Musictown is another winner, with a line-up of artists curated by Foggy Notions, one of Ireland’s leading underground promotion teams.
Musictown was launched in Dublin in 2015 to celebrate Ireland’s diverse and vibrant musical landscape, and this year’s festival focuses on collaboration.
The 2024 programme features pop acts, contemporary classical composers, folk bands, electronic artists, Middle Eastern explorations and a full symphony orchestra.
Highlights include Soda Blonde performing with The National Symphony Orchestra; Róis & Muireann Ní Shé; E The Artist & Crash Ensemble; Elaine Howley & Crash Ensemble, and Mohammad Syfkhan & Crash Ensemble.
See musictown.ie for the full programme details.
Dublin Modular - Distortion
The Complex, Dublin - Saturday, €15
Dublin Modular is an artist-run collective that hosts diverse music and visual arts events, with a heavy emphasis on underground noise, electronics and contemporary composition.
This weekend it’s celebrating its fifth birthday with an all-day series of DIY parties featuring a carefully curated line-up of local DJs and visual artists, from afternoon to after hours and into the night.
The event kicks off with an outdoor Daytime Yard Party from 3pm to 8pm, showcasing artists like Emmy Shigeta, Silent Jee, and a back-to-back set from Noisy Chilli and Ortega.
After 8, it moves indoors for a Late Night Visual Art and Electronics Warehouse Exhibition, featuring modern dance, visual art and installations, and DJ and live sets from Matthew Day, ACKERMAN, DJ Sahana, Tadhg K and Julia Louise KnifeFist.
The lower capacity Day Party is first come, first served, and there’s a chance you’ll have to register for the Yard Party at no extra cost.
So, basically, get there early...
Tickets to Dublin Modular - Distortion can be purchased here.
Paloma Faith
Iveagh Gardens, Dublin - Sunday, €54.85
English singer-songwriter Paloma Faith has got Ireland onside this week with a promo video dropping loads of daft pop culture cliche references that go way beyond the typical pint of Guinness pic. In the video she mentions bags of cans, the immersion, unnecessary journeys, and even Nadine Coyle’s infamous date-of-birth Popstars ‘fraud’.
Faith is in town touring an album and book with a more serious note.
The Glorification of Sadness album is about coping after a breakup and using failure as a basis for empowerment.
She’s also just published MILF — Motherhood Identity Love F*ckery, her honest account of motherhood.
Her headline show for the album is in two halves — she’s playing her new record in full as an opener, followed by a retrospective of her theatrical pop hits, with an array of costume changes.
Definitely the most OTT flamboyant show anyone’s putting on in a field this week.
Tickets to Paloma Faith's gig at Dublin's Iveagh Gardens are available to purchase via Ticketmaster, with prices starting at €54.85.
Jess Glynne
Festival Big Top, Galway - Wednesday, €65.20
Jess Glynne became a household voice, if not name, singing on Clean Bandit’s Rather Be — a song you were never more than an hour away from hearing a few years ago.
She’s also been on huge hits by Rudimental, Route 94 and Tinie Tempah, which almost overshadow her own 15-plus top 10 singles as lead and featured artist, including eight No1s.
But if she made the leap from featured artist to solo singer on the back of her disco diva voice, she’s making good use of her time in the spotlight over the last decade.
Glynne is from the Florence Welch school of singing — the louder the better, and she doesn’t do subtlety.
New album Jess is another histrionic soulful chart pop piece, but this time (cliche alert) it’s her “most personal album to date”, with more slowed down introspective songs.
She began working on the record in 2019, and it’s been informed by the death of a close friend, a bad break-up and a split from her record label, but someone with her track record was able to put together a crack team of collaborators to craft another top 10 hit, and a predictably empowering tour.
There are still a limited number of tickets available for Jess Glyne's Galway gig via Ticketmaster, priced at €65.20.
Join the Irish Mirror’s breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive breaking news and the latest headlines direct to your phone. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
