Pick of the week, and what’s on this weekend: Bram Stoker, Rufus Wainwright, Guinness Jazz Festival

PICK OF THE WEEK: BRAM STOKER FESTIVAL 

[ bramstokerfestival.com ]

The Glam Stoker, sorry Bram Stoker Festival is a celebration of all things bloodlust and manages to build a few whopper parties in among its more family-friendly programming.

The “four days of living stories” kicks off on Friday, when Marsh’s Library is hosting the Scary Hairy trail for kids in the same place that Bram Stoker used to do his reading in.

Throughout the weekend, keep an eye around the city for vampires on bicycle-back. They will be delivering limited edition prints of the Penny Dreadzine, a modern take on the Victorian- era magazines. A number or writers and illustrators have come together to make the editions with Damn Fine Print, including Annie Atkins, Steve McCarthy and Chris Judge.

In

I Got The Seanchaí, I Got The Secret

, Vickey Curtis and Una Mullally bully lots of people into telling their most cringe-tastic stories, using spoken word, poetry and, one assumes, the medium of modern dance. Among those unloading their shockers are slam-poetry champ Clara Rose Thornton, rapper Temper- Mental MissElayenous, Pettycash’s Niamh Beirne, comedian Joanne McNally, writer Louise Bruton and many more.

St Patrick’s Cathedral is hosting the strange brew of Soundings, when hosts Dylan Haskins and Lisa Hannigan are joined by Amy Huberman, Theo Dorgan, David Rawle and Heathers. Each will share three stories or songs: we’ve heard Huberman has a great set of lungs on her.

Perhaps the best gig of the weekend is New Blood, when some of the nastiest creatures in Irish culture take over Project Arts for a night. Live music comes from Evvol (above), Sega Bodega, Embrz, Diamond Dagger and Somerville, with DJ sets from Alice, Junior Spesh, Sally Cinnamon and Greg Spring. The dress code is “If Rihanna and FKA Twigs had a strip club in the Matrix”. Get your leather chaps, chaps. For those who want more child-friendly scares, the Macnas parade is also coming to Dublin.

Laurence Mackin 

FRIDAY

BAROQUE POP

[ sligolive.ie ]

American-Canadian singer, songwriter and composer of operas (no less) he may be, but Rufus Wainwright is also a natural born entertainer. Arriving in Ireland exclusively for this gig (as part of Sligo Live Festival), he has strong Irish connections as well as a terrific back catalogue. So expect much shamrock-shaped love and many fine baroque pop songs.

JAZZFEST
Cork Guinness Jazz Festival
Various venues, Cork Until Sun guinnessjazzfestival.com
In among the crusty old punks, the electro-pop crooners and the not-so-young-anymore rockers, some decent, er, jazz can actually be found in Cork this weekend: check out bassist Marcus Miller, Urban Jazz and the New Irish Jazz Orchestra at the Everyman. For the rest of the time, stick with the Triskel's enlightened programme, always an oasis of quality music in the desert of straw boaters, kipper ties and bands with witty names.

FILM FESTIVAL
Clones Film Festival
Clones, Co. Monaghan.clonesfilmfestival.com
Now in its 14th year, Clones once again throws open the doors of the old Post Office and the Courthouse into venues for the weekend, screening such gems as Marshland, Force Majeure, Montage of Heck and more. Continues till Sunday.

ART
Belfast Open Studios
Also Sat Various venues belfastopenstudios.com Fri-Sat Free
Belfast galleries are opening their doors, to show the work of more than 200 artists in 15 spaces, and for a sneak-peek at how their work gets made. Check out the online map for a walking tour of where art is now in the North.

FESTIVAL
Interlude
RHA, Dublin, Also Sat, Sun Free/€10/€25 interludefestival.eventbrite.ie
You'll find few more elegant spaces for a festival than the RHA gallery, and here the live rooms are complemented by more clubby spaces, a cabaret cinema, cocktail club and bar, vinyl room and restaurant. The weekend features live sets from Lasertom, Wounded Healer, RSAG, Slow Place Like Home, Carriages, Little xs for eyes and Paddy Hanna. Plenty of DJ sets fill out the weekend's roster, including Billy Scurry, Ashley Beedle, The Disconauts and more.

SATURDAY

DREAM POP
Beach House
Mandela Hall, Belfast 8pm £20.50 mandelahall.com Also Sun, Dublin
You'd be forgiven for thinking that Baltimore's finest dream-pop/psych-pop duo's recent Depression Cherry album) was the same old same old. Okay, it was, to a certain degree. But the past few days has seen the release of a completely unexpected new album, Thank Your Lucky Stars (see Shuffle, p13). And you thought that Beach House weren't into surprises? Looks like the dream pop bubble suddenly got bigger.

WEEKENDER
On the River
Shannon Rowing Club, Limerick 3pm €25 Also Sun shannonrowingclub.com
This fine space on the city's Sarsfield Bridge has witnessed many sights since the club was founded in 1866 by Sir Peter Tait, so a bank holiday weekender featuring two stages of excellent Irish DJs fits right in. The evergreen Fish Go Deep, who were responsible for many quality weekenders in the past, are the headliners, and there are berths on the bill for Lerosa, John Daly, Shane Linehan, Fatty Fatty, 60miles and such hometown spinners as Aoife Nic Canna and Peter Curtin.

TECHNO
Pan-Pot
District 8, Dublin 11pm €20/€18/€15 pan-pot.net
It's been a busy couple of months for Tassilo Ippenberger and Thomas Benedix, what with the release of a new album The Other and another top summer on the DJ circuit. Over the past decade, since they first met as students in the studios at Berlin's SAE, the duo's work as Pan-Pot has led to releases for Mobilee and Einmaleins and a growing audience who appreciate their finessed techno sound. Check out their 2007 debut album (Pan-O-Rama) for some timeless sketches of their electronic music vision. Support from Ian O'Donovan.

TRANCE
Edition 1.0
Mason's, Derry 9.30pm £10/£8 twitter.com/bennicky
Ben Nicky is the big draw tonight as the UK trance producer brings his Headf**k tour to town. Nicky's crowd- pleasing reputation comes on the back of such well-regarded tunes as Driven, Special Moment, Tears, Jet Stream and The One, as well as remixes for Calvin Harris, Arctic Moon, First State and others. Support from rising Belfast trance dude Artisan, who will visit Derry inbetween DJ gigs in Bali and Switzerland.

JAZZ
Pop-Up Jazz
Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Lane, Galway All Day €25 facebook.com/galwayjazz
After several years in abeyance, the Galway Jazz Festival has been brought back to groovy life by saxophonist Matthew Berrill and piano man Ciaran Ryan. Their enterprising Pop-Up Jazz club runs for just one day with a masterclass from guitarist Mike Nielsen, Kind of Blue cheese tasting (ouch), a panel discussion on the future of jazz. Oh, and some music: leading saxophonist Michael Buckley with piano trio The CEO Experiment at lunchtime; and, as the evening headliner, brilliant Welsh pianist Gwilym Simcock. 

SUNDAY

[ lismorecastlearts.ie ]

Augustus Pugin put some of the Gothic into the remodeling of Lismore Castle. Sean Lynch nods to his contribution in a show exploring how environments are shaped by chance and design, friction and conflict. Skellig Michael of

Star Wars

fame, a proposed fake megalithic stone circle in Dublin, books made of rubbish scavenged on the streets – all feature in works by Fiona Marron, Sam Keogh, Michele Horrigan, film director Werner Herzog, stonemason Philip Quinn and more.

Electronic
Gary Numan
Cork Opera House 8pm €30 corkoperahouse.ie
Now looking towards his 60th birthday, Gary Numan is more at the top of his game than ever. From his early mainstream success with Tubeway Army (the still very odd Are 'Friends' Electric?) to influencing the likes of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails (and in 2002 helping The Sugababes get to No 1 with Freak Like Me), Numan remains a steadfast practitioner of electronic music – loud, hard, serrated.

CLUB
Sense
Button Factory, Dublin 11pm €15/ €13 junglejunglejungle.com
If you like the sound of Jungle's debut album from last year, you may well like what Josh Lloyd- Watson, Tom McFarland and sundry friends have to offer as DJs. Judging by the album's superfried funk, disco, soul and feel-good pop grooves, we could be in for quite a blast as they visit Dublin for a Sunday night dance-off. Support from Kelly-Anne Byrne (Today FM's The Beat Goes On) and Andy Clarke.

CLUB
Pgy Sundays
Pygmalion, Dublin 9.30pm €10/€5 beatsinspace.net
A welcome return to Dublin for Beats in Space, the weekly radio show. There are many reasons why so many tune into Tim Sweeney's broadcast on New York's WNYU, be it the calibre of guests he attracts (Steinski, James Murphy, Todd Terje, Joy Orbison, hundreds more) or his ability to join the dots between vintage and new sounds. Support from Decent Perks.

TECHNO-JAZZ
GoGo Penguin
Triskel, Cork 8pm €20/€18 musicnetwork.ie Also Tues, Dublin; Wed, Letterkenny; Thurs, Castlebar
Manchester piano trio GoGo Penguin are part of a new jazz generation who have grown up in the era of sequenced electronic grooves. Rather than fight them, this acoustic trio (recently seen on Later . . . with Jools Holland) embrace the urban sounds of influences Aphex Twin and Massive Attack, and fuse them with the improvisational approach of a traditional piano trio.

[ macnas.com ]

Macnas celebrate Samhain in fine shtyle in the wesht with its parade celebrating transformation, life, death and rebirth. Among those stalking the streets are Danu, a 15ft high shadow lighter mistress of old stories, magic and medicine, her wolf, and Danu’s Stilters, older and younger versions of the main attraction. The parade will also feature the Macnas Brass Ensemble and Youth Ballet West.