The Guide: The events to see, the shows to book, and the ones to catch before they end

EVENT OF THE WEEK

Jersey Boys

Wednesday, November 2nd-12th, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin; 7.30pm; €21; bordgaisenergytheatre.ie

The true-life story of 1960s pop star Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons is a textbook lesson in how working class kids (in this instance, from the streets of Newark, New Jersey) can band together and conjure up a slew of classic pop songs. The musical returns to Ireland garlanded with Broadway and West End achievements; indeed, this run (as with the UK section of the touring show) is staged by the original Broadway creative team, and if songs such as Big Girls Don’t Cry, Rag Doll, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, and Sherry don’t have your toes tapping, then a visit to your local GP might be in order.

Gigs

Robbie Williams

Saturday, October 29th/Sunday, October 30th/Tuesday, November 1st; 3Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; €91; ticketmaster.ie

Robbie Williams is a trooper, that’s for sure. Across three nights at Ireland’s largest indoor venue, you can guarantee that one smasheroo single after another will be delivered word for word and chord for chord as he plugs his new compilation album, XXV, which celebrates his 25th year as a solo artist (albeit with orchestrally rearranged versions of his best-known hits). You know the songs, too: Angels, Better Man, Lazy Days, Rock DJ, Feel, She’s the One, Candy, Supreme, Millennium, and his signature song, Let me Entertain You. Let there be singalongs and sweat, etc.

Amyl and the Sniffers

Tuesday, November 1st, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; €25; ticketmaster.ie

This Melbourne punk rock band have come a long way from scraping a living in their home city’s pub music scene and releasing their music on Bandcamp. Fronted by Amy Taylor, the band’s fusion of The Stooges, The Damned, Minor Threat, and Sleaford Mods places them firmly in the what’s-your-problem-pal category (“one of the hardest rocking people on the face of the planet”), says Australia’s Happy Mag about Taylor).

Despite their rise through the ranks over the past six years, the band remain unaffected, with Taylor especially forthright about her views of women operating in a mostly male-dominated industry.

Brianna Parkins: I’m leaving Ireland. I don’t have the energy for life here

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CMAT in Dublin: A night of real emotion in one of the best gigs of the year

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Grá Pizza takeaway review: Stunning sourdough pizza served from a converted horsebox

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An Irishwoman in New York: I’m flattered, but why do Americans love the Irish so much?

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Mark Geary & Friends

Wednesday, November 2nd, Little Whelan’s, Dublin; 8pm; €20; whelanslive.com

Lockdown spells during the height of the pandemic meant many things to many people, but for Dublin-Kildare singer-songwriter Mark Geary they provided time to look out his windows at various landscapes, and think. Geary’s forthcoming sixth album will be imbued with such meanderings which, across gigs on four Wednesdays in November, will be expressed in a solo capacity, a full band, and with (as the show title states) songwriter pals. The idea behind the weekly residency, he says, is to “spend a dreary November evening” in the company of “music, stories, songs and friendship”. Sounds good, right?

Maggie Rogers

Wednesday, November 2nd, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; €34/€28; ticketmaster.ie

You might say it’s a homecoming gig for the American-born singer and songwriter whose four grandparents are Irish and whose mother’s maiden name is Dunphy (and who completed her senior English thesis on James Joyce’s Ulysses). Irish qualifications notwithstanding, six months after she completed her Harvard University-based master’s thesis, says Rogers, on “the spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture”, she brings her Feral Joy tour to us. Focusing on her most recent album, Surrender, expect smarts and pop/dance tunes in equal measure.

In Conversation

Dún Laoghaire Vinyl Festival

Friday, November 4th, Lexicon Library Studio, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin; 7pm; €22.50/€20; vinylfestival.ie/Eventbrite.ie

We all like a good natter with musicians, and as a tease for the 2023 iteration of the Dún Laoghaire Vinyl Festival – taking place in the County Dublin town next summer – this one-off event features two. The first is Pugwash and Duckworth Lewis Method songwriter Thomas Walsh (who will be interviewed by Hot Press writer, Pat Carty) and the second is The Charlatans’ mainstay, Tim Burgess (who will be interviewed by Roisin Dwyer). Probing questions, insightful answers, wine sipping and vinyl spinning. Seriously, what’s not to like?

Comedy

Kevin Bridges

Thursday, November 3rd/Friday, November 4th/Saturday, November 5th/Sunday, November 6th; 3Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; €45; ticketmaster.ie

A commercially successful comic? You could say that. From being voted Best Newcomer at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe to selling, a year later, more than 350,000 copies of his debut DVD (The Story So Far… Live in Glasgow), Clydebank’s Kevin Bridges has, apparently, never set a foot wrong. A natural observational comedian – with buckets of casual swearing thrown in – Bridges’ working-class Scottish shtick is being one of your funny mates dressed in a smart suit telling jokes on a stage. Fellow funny Scot Billy Connolly loves the guy and with good reason.

Podcast

Andy Zaltzman: The Bugle Live

Thursday, November 3rd, Sugar Club, Dublin; 7pm; €25; ticketmaster.ie

UK comedian and satirist Andy Zaltzman brings The Bugle podcast (founded in 2007 by Zaltzman and John Oliver) to Dublin so that he can, in his own words, deliver a “trademark cocktail of satirical insight and flagrant hogwash” on the week’s most significant (and “frankly idiotic”) news stories.

For current news junkies with a sharply honed sense of humour, The Bugle is required listening (and with about one million downloads a month, it is indeed listened to). One can only hope (and also presume) that Zaltzman tailors a portion of the show to the local audience. That’d be fun.

Still Running

Whistle in the Dark

Abbey Theatre, Dublin, until Saturday, November 5th; 7pm; €30/€25/18; abbeytheatre.ie

In 1961, Tom Murphy’s robust play of tribal violence was rejected by the Abbey, but here we are, back at the venue, in a production (rigorously directed by Jason Byrne), whose final act, noted this paper’s theatre critic, “continues to be shocking”.

Book It This Week

Quiet Lights, Cork city, November 24th-27th; quietlights.net

Gift Grub Live 2023, nationwide, February 24th-April 21st; ticketmaster.ie

Country to Country, 3Arena, Dublin, March 10th-12th; ticketmaster.ie

Sam Fender, Malahide Castle, Dublin, June 25th; ticketmaster.ie