SATURDAY: Alt-J, Limerick Jazz Festival, GANGS and more

ALT.ROCK
Alt-J
3Arena Dublin 8pm €31.50 3Arena.ie
Unassuming and unaffected they may be, but this Leeds band continue to impress with their just released second album, This is all Yours, which is resolutely odd but often just gorgeous. Here's a question, though: is the 3Arena too big for the band's subtleties? We predict a 'theatre-style' setting, let's put it that way. Tony Clayton-Lea

JAZZ
Limerick Jazz Festival
Various venues, limerickjazzfestival.com
Festivals many times bigger and better resourced would be lucky to have a bill as starry and varied as Limerick's. The excellent Dublin City Jazz Orchestra led by Pete Churchill and Nigel Mooney's storming septet with guest saxophonist Julian Siegel get things swinging tonight. Superstar sax man David Sanborn's trio with Hammond organ master Joey DeFrancesco are Saturday's headliners, with a late-night set from an all-star band led by artist-in-residence Siegel and Richie Buckley.  Cormac Larkin

ROCK
GANGS
Academy Dublin 2pm/7pm 8/5 theacademydublin.com
We like bands who dress sharp and who are sussed enough to cater for the younger fan. Dublin band, GANGS perform two gigs here – 2pm for the, er, kids, and 7pm for the slightly older kids. Officially, the band launch their just released debut EP, Back To School (which is produced by Blades member, Brian Foley). Unofficially? Could also be the launch of a very promising career. Tony Clayton-Lea

TECHNO
Truss
Twisted Pepper, Dublin. 10.30pm, #13/#10, soundcloud.com/truss
Tom Russell's take on the hard stuff has won many converts over the years. Besides storming venues like this (his previous visit for a Subject night was a bit of a frenzy), Russell's tough techno has also won him an appreciative audience via releases as Truss and MPIA3 for such well-regarded imprints as Donor's Miniscule label, Perc Trax, Synewave and R&S. Support from longstanding Dublin tech DJ and producer Sunil Sharpe and Subject's Eavan. Jim Carroll

TRADITIONAL
Alan Kelly Gang
Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts, Belfast 7.30pm £15 theduncairn.com Also Sun, Derry; Mon, Mayo; Tues, Roscommon; Wed, Monaghan; Thurs, Cork
Kelly has rehabilitated the piano accordion, dragging it kicking and screaming into some of the most spine-tingling sessions and concerts, more recently in the company of Eddi Reader. The band's latest CD, The Last Bell, chronicles a collective still in thrall of the live performance over all else. And Kelly's bone-china musicianship is at the heart of it all. Siobhan Long

HOUSE
Kant
Button Factory, Dublin. 11pm, €15/€10
Danish DJ Joachim Schaarup kicks off a monthly residency tonight at the new weekly bash from the Sense & Bedlam crews in the Button Factory. Kant means "edge" in Danish and you can see that the Copenhagen-based DJ and producer lives up to his name with his take on new-school house via various mixes and releases for Suara and Berlin's Katermukke label. Support from MTA and OFF dude Josh Butler, RTE Pulse's Dan Stritch and Bedlam DJs. Jim Carroll

JAZZ
Bottlenote Music Festival
13 Nth Gt. George's St., Dublin 1, Fri & Sat, 7.30pm & 9.30 pm each night, €12/€10, bottlenotemusic.ie
The Bottlenote Collective - standard bearers for experimental music in Dublin since 2006 – once again fill the rooms of an atmospheric Georgian ruin with fresh and adventurous sounds. US visitors, fiddler Dan Trueman and beat-boxer Eric Biondo combine with a cast of talented natives, including Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Roy Carroll, Djackulate, Justin Carroll, Shane Latimer and Seán Mac Erlaine. Leave your preconceptions at the front door and you'll be grand. Cormac Larkin