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

Event of the week

Kendrick Lamar

Sunday, November 13th/Monday, 14th, 3Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; €131; ticketmaster.ie

Following the summer release of Lamar’s fifth album, Mr Morale & the Big Steppers, his fourth US number one, and his headline appearance at Glastonbury, the (almost) titular tour finally arrives in Ireland. As a performer and a rapper, Lamar is out on his own and while the new album has divided opinion (from “a reminder that an artist like Kendrick Lamar is once in a generation” – The Line of Best Fit, to “probably Lamar’s least tonally consistent work ... rangy and structurally erratic” – The New York Times) there’s little doubt that these two shows (Sunday’s is sold out) will be the name hip-hop highlights of the year. Special guests are US rappers Baby Keem and Tanna Leone.

Gigs

Sigur Rós

Thursday, November 17th, 3Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; €49.50; ticketmaster.ie

For their first Irish gig in years, Iceland’s Sigur Rós will be showcasing new material from their forthcoming album – their studio follow-up to 2013′s Kveikur. That’s the good news. Even better news is that the band will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their third album, (), on which vocalist Jónsi sings entirely in (the wordless lyrics of) Hopelandic. What to expect? Shape-shifting, sky-scraping slabs of post-rock instrumentals, are what. Not exactly Roll Out the Barrel, then, but there isn’t a band like them (although too many want to be).

Autumn Air

Thursday, November 17th-20th, Walsh’s Bar, Mitchelstown, Co Cork; 7pm; €29.90/€24.90; autumnair.live/ticketmaster.ie

Winter Air, surely? Regardless of the seasonal moniker, the second outing of this good idea (which brings mostly name Irish bands to a small provincial town to play eyeball-to-eyeball gigs) is a sensible way to end the festival year. Acts featured include The Scratch (Thursday, November 17th), Friday, November 18th (Paul Noonan, Lorraine Nash, Sean Joyce), Saturday, November 19th (Jerry Fish, Bronagh Gallagher, R.S.A.G.), and Sunday, November 20th (in quite a remarkable coup, Norwegian pop star Sigrid, who will be headlining Dublin’s 3Arena on November 24th).

Rod Stewart

Friday, November 18th/Saturday, November 19th, 3Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; €141; ticketmaster.ie

It’s a very long way from being a gravedigger to a knight of the realm and the seller of over 250 million records worldwide. Yes, he may have gone off the boil for even the most tolerant of long-time admirers with his five volumes of the Great American Songbook, but there remains in the collective heart of the fan base a place for Rodders. The football-kicking, gleam-in-the-eye pop/rock star turns an improbable 78 in January, and so, yes, we are contractually obliged to say it: you wear it well, Sir Roderick Stewart.

Jig of Life – The Kate Bush Project

IMRAM, Irish Language Literary Festival, Friday, November 18th, Smock Alley, Dublin; 7.45pm; €15; smockalley.com; imram.ie

It is canny enough of IMRAM (Irish Language Literary Festival) to have part of their focus directed towards a unique songwriter (Kate Bush) and to have a singer (Caitríona O’Leary) that can more than confidently complement Bush’s pioneering fusion of numerous dramatic/theatrical styles. O’Leary will perform a selection of well-known Bush songs (including Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, and this year’s unavoidable Running Up That Hill) translated into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock. Appropriate textured musical backing will be provided by Adrian Hart (fiddle), Éamonn Galldubh (flute, whistles, uilleann pipes), Matt Jacobson (drums), David Redmond (double bass) and Nick Roth (keyboard). Accompanying the music will be on-screen projections of the lyrics, with images created by visual communications consultant Margaret Lonergan.

Awards

NI Music Prize

Wednesday, November 16th, Ulster Hall, Belfast; 7pm; £22; nimusicprize.com

In the 26 counties we have the Choice Music Prize, but its representation of music from our friends in the North has always been inadequate, hence the founding in 2013 of the NI Music Prize. This year’s event will feature performances from some of the shortlisted artists (including SOAK, Rory Nelis, Cherym, and Robocobra Quartet), while the annual Oh Yeah Legend Award goes to Barry Devlin, singer with Horslips (who will convene on the night for several of the band’s best-known songs, so prepare to singalong to Dearg Doom). Coincidentally, the event takes place during the Sound of Belfast Festival, which runs until Sunday, November 20th.

Film

French Film Festival

Wednesday, November 16th-Sunday, November 27th, Irish Film Institute, Dublin; various times/prices; ifi.ie

This is the IFI’s leading festival, and rightly so as it returns to its natural position of placing actual bums on actual seats. Alongside tributes to director Jean-Luc Godard (including 1962′s Vivre sa vie, and 1963′s Contempt, which is introduced by this paper’s Chief Film Correspondent, Donald Clarke) and actor Jean-Louis Trintignant (a screening of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s 1994 Three Colours: Red), the festival also screens a bumper crop of current French films. Highlights include Stéphane Brizé's Another World, Axelle Ropert’s Petite Solange, Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo, and Emmanuel Mouret’s Diary of a Fleeting Affair.

Exhibition

Fiona Kerbey

Until Saturday, November 19th; Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Co Louth; droichead.com

Co Meath artist and arts facilitator Fiona Kerbey, who studied ceramics at Limerick School of Art & Design, presents her debut professional exhibition (curated by Aoife Ruane, director of Drogheda’s Highlanes Gallery). Through a delicate display of new work that focuses on objects presented as votaries, a sense of the deeply spiritual is steeped in the translucent blend of flax paper porcelain and bone china casting slips, from which Kerbey remodels commonplace utilitarian instruments.

Still running

MÁM

Teac Damsa’s touring production of a fusion of dance and traditional music (created by Michael Deegan Dolan, and featuring concertina player, Cormac Begley) continues at Mullahoran Community Centre, Co Cavan (Saturday, November 12th-13th); Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick (Wednesday, November 16th-17th); Sports Complex, Boyle, Co Roscommon (Saturday, November 19th-20th); Black Box, Galway (Wednesday, November 23rd-24th).

Book it this week

Clannad, 3Arena, Dublin, February 18th; ticketmaster.ie

Pulp, St Anne’s Park, Dublin, June 9th; ticketmaster.ie

George Ezra, Musgrave Park, Cork, June 11th; ticketmaster.ie

Shania Twain, 3Arena, Dublin, September 19th; ticketmaster.ie