Wednesday, 11 November – Sheer Mag / SISSY / Oh Boland / The Number Ones, €10, Bello Bar
A fuzzied punk repurposing of teen pop from the ’70s and ’90s, Sheer Mag riff on their comparatively polished garage-rock counterparts and subvert and distort them. Tying together their supremely catchy four-track EP is Christina Halladay’s defiant static-y vocals. On support are SISSY and garage-pop boys The Number Ones and Oh Boland. More here.
Thursday, 12 November – Professor Heard’s Magic Lantern Show, 13:30, Lexicon Library, Dun Laoghaire
In the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Laterna Magica, an image projector within which could be inserted panes of glass imprinted with images, was used to present image that could be projected and manipulated. Audiences were often given sensory-enhancing drugs, or made to enter the room barefoot walking over electrical plates. Mervin Heard, hosted by the UCD Science Expression film festival, has curated a free, modern-day phantasmagoria, using many of the gothic optical effects developed by 18th century illusionists. More details here and here.
Friday, 13 November – DIP w/ Jayda G, €12/15 22:00, Jigsaw
DIP are taking over the new BYOB space behind Mountjoy Square this Friday with Jayda G, the Vancouver DJ and producer, with recent releases on Butter Sessions and her collaborative label with DJ Fett Burger, Freakout Cult. Expect a varied mix of disco house and boogie. More info here.
Saturday, 14 November – “Writing Long & Short: Dermot Bolger, Aidan Mathews, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and Donal Ryan in conversation with Paula Shields”, €5/3, 15:30-16:45, Smock Alley Theatre
Paula Shields, senior researcher for RTE’s The Works, will be interviewing a group of writers who themselves need little introduction, making up some of Ireland’s most prestigious talent: novelist Dermot Bolger, recent author of Tanglewood (New Island); playwright, poet and author of the recently published Charlie Chaplin’s Wishbone and Other Stories (The Lilliput Press) Aidan Matthews; Nuala Ní Chonchúir, poet and author of three novels, including The Closet of Savage Mementos (New Island); novelist, playwright and winner of the 2015 Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne; and Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart, The Thing About December and the forthcoming A Slanting of the Sun: Stories (The Lilliput Press). More details here.
Sunday, 15 November – Kurt Vile & The Violators, 20:00, €25, Vicar Street
While Waxahatchee, who were to play support, have unfortunately cancelled all their European tour dates, the chance of seeing Kurt Vile perform his newest material shouldn’t be missed. His music has retained its bluegrass-inflected style, but his abilities as a storyteller have matured to reveal ever-more distinctive powers of observation and sensitivity and occasional hilarity. Events page here and tickets here.
Monday, 16 November – “Buoyed” (Michael Quane) and “Bilderstreit: A German Requiem” (John Noel Smith), 11:00-17:00, Royal Hibernian Academy
In the foyer and atrium of the RHA are currently two very different exhibitions. John Noel Smith has a visual lament for the twenty years that he spent in Berlin, a sombre, hypnotic depiction of layered waves bleeding into one another, set over two giant canvases. Downstairs in the foyer, Michael Quane’s colourful stone humans sit astride more globular beings, his own comment on the order that gravity imposes on an otherwise chaotic universe. More here.
Tuesday, 17 November – Brooklyn, 20:50, €9, Irish Film Institute
Colm Tóibín’s much-loved depiction of the Irish diaspora that settled in America has been adapted for the screen, and sees Saoirse Ronan stretching her wings as the story’s lead, Eilis. It is 1952, and Eilis has moved to Brooklyn, where she starts on a new job and a new life. News from Enniscorthy sends her home, though, and what was at first a short visit soon becomes a test of which life she ultimately must choose. It is uncertain whether the adaptation stands on its own, but Ronan has received high praise for the role. More here.