The Guide: The Murder Capital, Cian Ducrot, Forest Fest and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
Live at the Iveagh Gardens 2025
Saturday, July 19th, The Murder Capital, 6.30pm, €39.90; Sunday, July 20th, Leon Bridges, 6.30pm, €49.20 (sold out),
ticketmaster.ie
The sequence of outdoor shows at the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin – surely Ireland's prettiest city-centre outdoor venue – comes to a close this weekend with two disparate music acts. The Dublin postpunk band
The Murder Capital
(Saturday, July 19th) are fast approaching mainstream attention with three critically acclaimed albums –
When I Have Fears
, from 2019,
Gigi's Recovery
, from 2023, and Blindness, from this year – and live shows that thrum with intensity. The US singer-songwriter Leon Bridges (Sunday, July 20th) is a cooler and calmer presence, with a silky rhythm and blues/soul sound not too far removed from the likes of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke.
Gigs
Cian Ducrot
Saturday and Sunday, July 19th and 20th, Live at the Marquee, Cork, 8pm, €67.40, ticketmaster.ie
Cian Ducrot. Photograph: Freddie Sinstead
From studying classical flute at the Royal Academy of Music in London, busking, and playing pub gigs in his native Cork to travelling to Los Angeles, where he cowrote SZA's Grammy-winning song Saturn, Cian Ducrot has certainly put in the hours. Such commitment has paid off, not only winning support slots with Ed Sheeran and Teddy Swims but also reaching number one in Ireland and Britain in 2023 with his debut major-label album,
Victory
. A follow-up, Little Dreaming, is scheduled for release on Friday, August 1st, so alongside familiar multimillion-streaming tracks such as I'll Be Waiting, Part of Me and All for You, fans will hear new songs. Couldn't get a ticket for these shows? Ducrot is due to play his largest headline show so far at 3Arena in Dublin on Saturday, December 20th.
The Doobie Brothers
Monday, July 21st, 3Arena, Dublin, 6.30pm, €146.25/€111.25, ticketmaster.ie
After The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers are probably the best-known legacy US band on this side of the Atlantic. After forming in 1970, they surged in popularity five years later, when they were joined by the soul singer (and regular Steely Dan band member) Michael McDonald, who appears on many of their classic hits (including the soft-rock perennial What a Fool Believes). Regrouping in 1987, the current band features the original founding members Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons; McDonald returned to the fold full time in 2019, just in time for their 50th-anniversary tour (delayed by Covid-19). Adult-oriented rock? Yacht rock? Whatever way you roll, take it easy.
Wasp
Tuesday, July 22nd, National Stadium, Dublin, 7pm, €43.50; Wednesday, July 23rd, Telegraph Building, Belfast, 7pm, £42.45, ticketmaster.ie
Songs titled Wild Child, On Your Knees, Chainsaw Charlie, Scream Until You Like It and Animal (F**k Like a Beast), a band name standing for We Are Sexual Perverts, and shock-rock stage theatrics influenced by Kiss and Alice Cooper. A hint more than 40 years after the release of their self-titled debut album, the US heavy metal act might be anachronistic to some, but Wasp's admirers remain steadfast. Expect the band's mainstay Blackie Lawless to deliver a show that is, according to the heavy-metal site sonicperspectives.com, 'the aural equivalent of a primal scream'.
Festival
Forest Fest
Friday-Sunday, July 25th-27th, Emo Village, Co Laois, 1pm, €150/€125/€85,
forestfest.ie
Franz Ferdinand. Photograph: Paul Owens
A few years ago Forest Fest emerged as a something-for-everyone music festival, albeit with an emphasis on names familiar to many music fans who came of age in the 1990s. It has enhanced that offering year by year, adding stages to accommodate equally familiar names with lower profiles but plenty of loyal fans. Main-stage acts include Manic Street Preachers, Franz Ferdinand, Travis, Kula Shaker, Dandy Warhols, The Stranglers and Nick Lowe. Village-stage acts include The Farm, Alabama 3 and Reef. The Forest Fleadh stage includes performances by Sharon Shannon, Stockton's Wing, Mary Coughlan and Freddie White.
Film
Australian Dreams
Until Tuesday, July 29th, IFI, Dublin, various times and prices,
ifi.ie
The resurgence of film-making down under in the 1970s led to the Australian new wave, which introduced directors such as Peter Weir, Ken Hannam, George Miller, Gillian Armstrong, Philip Noyce and Jane Campion, and actors such as Sam Neill, Judy Davis and Bryan Brown. The Irish Film Institute's Australian Dreams strand continues with a mix of critically acclaimed features (Breaker Morant, Mad Max 2, The Year My Voice Broke), influential indigenous work (My Survival as an Aboriginal, Bedevil, Radiance), cult (Bad Boy Bubby) and curios (BMX Bandits, featuring one of Nicole Kidman's first film roles).
Comedy
Paddy Power Comedy Festival
Thursday-Sunday, July 24th-27th, Iveagh Gardens, Dublin, various times and prices,
ppcomedyfestival.com
Fern Brady
Irish names you'll know include Tommy Tiernan, Jason Byrne, Deirdre O'Kane, Alison Spittle, Barry Murphy, Kyla Cobbler, Peter McGann, Justine Stafford, Tony Cantwell, Killian Sundermann and Emma Doran. Lesser-spotted comedians include Scotland's Fern Brady and Daniel Sloss, the Irish-Italian Vittorio Angelone (who, says Monocle, 'is at the coalface of comedy that pushes boundaries') and the American Rosebud Baker.
Still running
Riot
Until Sunday, July 20th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7.30pm, €41, ticketmaster.ie
Riot ensemble. Photograph: Ian Douglas
A dazzling illustration of the links between insurgent artists and their equally committed audience, Thisispopbaby's award-winning cabaret/circus/spoken-word show returns by popular demand. Panti Bliss, Emmet Kirwan, Lords of Strut, aerialist Omar Cortez Gonzales, and surprise special guests snap, crackle and pop one more time.
Book it this week
Common Threads, Burren, Co Clare, October 10th-13th,
commonthreads.events
Galway Comedy Festival, October 21st-27th,
galwaycomedyfestival.ie
Púca Festival, Athboy/Trim, Co Meath, October 30th-November 2nd,
pucafestival.com
Oxn and Richard Dawson, NCH, Dublin, November 20th,
nch.ie
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