Live! Tonight! Sold Out!

IT'S odder than odd: a mere few years ago, any Grade A band coming over to play here would be eagerly anticipated for months before and earnestly discussed for the same amount of months after notwithstanding that Ireland used to be a grand little place for big bands to do their sound checks while getting paid for it. But in the last few weeks alone we've rather glibly entertained the likes of Manic Street Preachers, Beck and Suede with Radiohead and The Prodigy coming up soon. And they say live music is dead.

If dance culture is to be thanked for anything it is for killing off that part of live music that should have been put down, years ago, in a mini punk rock sort of revolution sort of way. Anybody who has sat through any number of dreary, worthy and interminable "New Band Challenge" gigs - or, that most dreaded of words, "Showcase" events - in which four or five no hopers wilfully display a stunning lack of musicality, would, and should, concur.

That such a thing as choice, and not of the Hobson's variety, exists is due to a combination of bigger and better venues (Red Box for instance) and sometimes (but far from always) enlightened booking policies. Tomorrow night, for example, it's Chumbawamba vs. The Frank and Walters in the early evening gig stakes and if you have a chance to take a quick look at what's happening over the next few days you'll find anything and everything from dub to indie to metal to techno to drum `n' bass etc. This is indubitably a good thing, as Holmes might have said to Watson after another night out at the Temple of Sound.

Back to Chumbawamba who, as agit-prop anarcho musical subversives go, are quite a barrel of laughs. They first came to attention with the release of their Pictures Of Starving Children Sell Records album, which rather reasonably pointed out that the £80 million raised by Live Aid merely represented what the world spends on arms every two hours and 40 minutes, (I love the 40 minutes bit) and also that Live Aid "was responsible for reviving flagging careers" (Status Quo and Queen) "and giving U2 their first taste of stadium rock".

Musically, they are best described as "shoplifters in pop's supermarket" with a sound that spans any and every musical movement, however significant or insignificant, over the past 20 years. Lots of samples, lots of situationist type sloganeering (which is always a good sign in a band) and a sound that puts you in mind of Captain Beefheart jamming with KLF. Chumbawamba play The Red Box tomorrow night (doors 8 p.m.). Call me old fashioned but I say any agit prop anarcho outfit is more worthwhile than any old tribute band down in the Olympia.

At the same time, over in the Mean Fiddler, one of the great Irish bands of the decade, The Frank and Walters, will be taking to the stage. With an unerring gift for guitar driven melodies and some great early tunes in the likes of Walter's Trip Fashion Crisis, This Is Not A Song and After All they've toned down the "we're mad, we are" image of late but, if anything, have toned up the songwriting ability.

The much delayed second album, Grand Parade (which contains Indian Ocean, Colours and the new single How Can I Exist with the Tindersticks doing the string arrangements) will be" out in a matter of weeks and an excellent collection of songs it is too. If you're wondering why Grand Parade was reviewed in Q, NME etc. back last September but never got released, it was because of boring record company problems. Currently out of favour with a fickle indie press, which deems bands like Placebo more worthy than them, The Franks' time will come.

THAT nice man Tony Blair managed to I keep this story away from the headlines during his campaign, but it simply won't go away. Two years ago, 500 dockers in Liverpool were sacked (most of them for the New Labour "crime" of refusing to cross a picket line). Tonight at the Ormonde MultiMedia Centre there's a benefit concert for the dockers with three acts from Liverpool (Return Of The Native, Zeb and 3rd Ear) and three acts from Dublin (Hummingbird, Shiver and Herdles) taking to the stage. Admission is £6 and the doors open at 9 p.m. ... The best of the IMRO bands which have been touring around the country for the last few weeks will be joining forces for a one off at the Temple Bar Music Centre next Friday. With bands such as The Marbles, Cousin Bill and Pure on the bill, not to mention the Mexican Pets as special guests, there should be a lot of A&R activity: why no one has signed The Marbles yet is beyond my comprehension - they're the best new band out of this country in recent times.