CULTURE VULTURE

WHAT NOT TO MISS THIS WEEK

Strum as you are Bon Iver

Cork’s Sounds From A Safe Harbour Festival has scored a genuine coup in bringing Bon Iver to Ireland for one of only a handful of dates the inscrutable folkie is playing on his latest tour. Stadium brooders The National, meanwhile, kick off their worldwide jaunt in Cork the following evening, with two sell-out dates to follow in Dublin’s Vicar Street on Sunday and Monday. They’re promoting the deep, dark and thrilling Sleep Well Beast album. Tonight, Cork Opera House GOING OUT?

Maythefunkbe with you Red Hot Chili Peppers

A bout of on-stage illness forced Red Hot Chili Peppers (right) to reschedule their pre-Christmas brace of Dublin dates. But now they’re back, presenting material from solid new (ish) LP, The Getaway. When playing Dalymount Park in the early 90s, the band arrived in nothing but strategically-positioned socks — a piece of showmanship they are, thankfully, unlikely to replicate here. Wednesday and Thursday, 3Arena, Dublin

The palm before the storm Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

One of the first bands to benefit/suffer the overnight hype enabled by the internet, Alec Ounsworth’s indie rag-tag have pushed past their early phase as hipster cause célèbre and quietly become one of alternative pop’s most engaging outsiders. Tonight, Whelan’s, Dublin

The radio show Cause of Death

Two long-serving coroners discuss the challenges of life at the grisly end of the Irish justice system and their insights into the ills plaguing our society. Tomorrow, 2pm, RTÉ One

The TV show The box set Bojack Horseman

STAYING IN?

The Classroom Divide

Joe Duffy steps away from the Liveline mic to front this investigation into the division between the haves and have-nots in Irish education on the 15th anniversary of the introduction of free secondary schooling. Monday, 9.35pm, RTÉ One On one level, this hit animation is a cartoon about a talking horse. But it is also a devastating exploration of depression, midlife crisis and the inner loneliness that afflicts so many outwardly confident and successful people. You’ll laugh — but you’ll probably want to cry too. Season four now available on Netflix – Ed Power