Our round-up of the hottest New Year’s gigs
Our pick of the hottest New Year’s parties – and with so many great gigs in the pipeline, next year looks set to be another corker!
Before you welcome in 2018 tonight, in whatever way you see fit, let me wish you all the very best for the year ahead. If you are going to the capital for the 3Countdown Concert on Custom House Quay, wrap up warm and remember it is an over-18s event. Kodaline, with Hudson Taylor and Keywest on support duties, should see the year in, in fine style.
You can also catch the excellent And So I Watch You From Afar in Róisín Dubh, Galway. Nathan Carter is in the INEC Killarney, while Kíla see in the New Year in Dolans of Limerick. Hermitage Green will count in 2018 at the Royal Theatre Castlebar.
And it’s a welcome back to live action for The Delorentos who straddle 2017 and 2018 in Whelans in Dublin.
Festivals in January? Yup
The organisers of the 2017 Dublin Bowie Festival were so pleased with the support they received that it’s a case of Wham bam, thank you ma’ams and ma’ans. The festival is back and takes place from January 410. Gigs, films, public interviews, exhibitions, Bowie pub quizzes and all manner of other events will mark two years of David Bowie’s passing. See dublinbowiefestival.ie for details.
The Tradfest takes place in venues all over the capital from January 24-28. Although ostensibly a folk festival, the promoters take an elastic view of that term.
I remember enjoying The Undertones play as part of Tradfest three years ago.
This year, Big Country are the curveball but their late original leader Stuart Adamson let folk filter into their sound much more than I imagine the O’Neill brothers ever did with Derry’s finest.
Apart from the Scots rockers other notable names include Brian Kennedy, Judy Collins and John Spillane. See tradfest.ie for a more detailed programme.
Music is also an intrinsic part of the First Fortnight mental health arts festival, which runs in the first fortnight of the year around the country. Through the arts, it aims to challenge stigmas and misconceptions associated with mental health and mental illness.
On the music front, Choice Music Prize winner Adrian Crowley is in The Hawk’s Well, Sligo, on January 12, with The Nocturnes as guests.
There is a great line-up for The Big Gig that takes place on January 13 in Dublin’s very fine new venue Tramline.
Rusangano Family, Ailbhe Reddy, Le Boom and A Smyth are on the bill. Take a peek at firstfortnight.ie for details of more events.
Although it’s not a festival, the megabash to celebrate Shane MacGowan’s birthday will feel like a fiesta.
It takes place on January 15 in the National Concert Hall. Nick Cave, Glen Hansard, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols, actor Johnny Depp and many others convene to mark the great man’s birthday.
Although he passed the milestone almost a week ago on Christmas Day, the gig should be amazing. The aftershow will be legendary.