Going Out: The best of what’s on this weekend

Pick of the week

Bob Dylan 1961-1964
Gallery of Photography
Temple Bar, Dublin
galleryofphotography.ie

In the early 1960s, photographer Ted Russell embarked on the sort of photography project that used to fill the gorgeous pages of the likes of Life magazine.

Russell wanted to chronicle the trials and tribulations of an upcoming folk singer, and heard about a young firebrand setting the Village scene alight by the name of Bob Dylan.

At this stage Dylan was just 20 and an unknown, and from 1961 to 1964 Russell built up a collection of images that catalogue Dylan’s rise and rise. There are shots backstage at various NYC folk clubs, images with writer and social activist James Baldwin, pictures in his apartment with girlfriend Suze Rotolo, and fresh looking images of Dylan out roaming the canyons of Manhattan.

From now until February 21st, these images make up a gem of an exhibition at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin’s Temple Bar, and the fine art publisher Rizzoli has produced a lush hardback book, featuring a foreword (forepoem would be more accurate) from Donovan, as well as essays by Ted Russell and Chris Murray, founder of Govinda Gallery, which represents some of the world’s best music photographers.

Fans will no doubt be delighted with the insight into Dylan’s early days, when worlds of possibility were opening up for the young singer. For others, it’s an absorbing look at one of the pivotal moments in NYC’s history.

Friday 22nd

Slam
Hangar, Dublin
10.30pm €15/€12
slam-DJs.com
You could write a book about the exploits of Slam's Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle and still not have enough room to cover the full story. Be it their Soma and Paragraph labels (the former introduced the world to Daft Punk and Slam anthems like Positive Education) or their ongoing dedication to great nights out, the Scottish techno stalwarts have been at the top of this game for years and show no signs of slowing down. Support from Sam Greenwood, Eoin Donovan and Luke Xander.

Sides 25th Anniversary
Button Factory Dublin
11pm €15
It's 30 years since John Murphy and Ken Kelly set up the Side DC space off Dame Street. One of the most fabled and fondly remembered venues in the city, Sides was where Dublin's homegrown club culture developed and flourished. Tonight, it's the turn of Sides' old boys Liam Dollard, Billy Scurry, Pat Hyland, Martin McCann and Tonie Walsh to play some tunes to recall those halcyon days.

Shiba San
Opium Rooms, Dublin
11pm €15/€12/€10
facebook.com/shiba.san
Shiba San has his feet in two camps. The French DJ's hip-hop suss coupled with his affinity with the deep house camp means he's equally at home slinging tracks for the influential Dirtybird as he is rubbing shoulders with others on new- school house imprint Cuff.

Listen at Bello Bar
Bello Bar, Portobello, Dublin
7pm €15 (€10 via website)
listen.ie
Composer Dylan Rynhart's well-rounded music salon continues its subterranean quest for the new with a typically eclectic line-up, including a fresh take on vocal pop from Ardú, musical settings of Ukrainian poetry from Olesya Zdorovetska, acoustic folk from April Cleary, and new compositions from Rynhart's own revamped Fuzzy Logic Ensemble.

Lumo
Bar Tengu, Yamamori Sushi, Great Strand Street, Dublin
€10
facebook.com/lumoclub/
Is this the littlest hobo of the Dublin club world? It certainly seems so. Since setting up shop in Tengu, Lumo has sold out its monthly slots with regularity, thanks to its straightforward formula of lots of dancing with a huge variety of music. This week's edition will have a certain Bowie flavour, with advance tickets sold out and 30 available on the door. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Saturday 23rd

Ireland at Venice - Adventure: Capital - 
Sean Lynch's work representing Ireland at the Venice Biennale, plus other projects.Just Left of Copernicus (A Prologue): large-scale sculptural installation by Niamh McCann. 
Limerick City Art Gallery, Pery Sq, Limerick Until March 24
gallery.limerick.ie
Between strange tales of sculptures that never found their way to their intended locations – a roundabout in Cork, an airport mix-up - and the flow of capital, Sean Lynch weaves a tangled tale, drawing as much on the traditional story-teller's gift for distraction and deferral as a wealth of factual research. His film is backed up by a fine sculptural installation.

Aran Islands
Viking Theatre, Clontarf
€12; Also Cork Sun-Wed
vikingtheatredublin.com
What brought JM Synge back from the bohemian life in Paris? One answer is WB Yeats, who found Synge in France, aimless but full of promise, and suggested the 25-year-old writer visit the Aran Islands. Lonely, shy and beginning to suffer from Hodgkin's Disease, Synge didn't have much to lose. After his first surgery he spent the summer exploring the Aran Islands, and, over five more years, collected a trove of stories and folktales that would directly inform his drama.

His 1907 book The Aran Islands, which is drawn from his journals, is a record of both a place and a time and the writer’s own transformation. Lambasted for polluting the morals of rural Ireland, and misrepresenting its speech as “Synge song” in his dramas, Synge defended the extravagant telling of his art. But in Joe O’Byrne’s adaptation of the source text , performed by Brendan Conroy and now on tour, you can discover the less sensationalised seeds of his drama.

Sunday 24th

Liam Ó Maonlaí, Kevin Burke & Tim Edey
Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co Kildare
8.30pm €15/€12  Also Fri, Cork; Mon, Galway; Tuesday, Kerry
musicnetwork.ie
This is an inspired gathering of three fine musicians, thanks to Music Network. Having set off at a galloping pace in The Sugar Club on their opening night, the trio are steadily re(de)fining their repertoire on the fly, and with Burke taking up the mantle as TG4 Traditional Musician of the Year for 2016, there's yet another reason not to miss this concert.

Villagers
Everyman Palace Theatre Cork
7.30pm €25  Also Tues, Belfast; Thurs, Dublin
everymancork.com
For the second year in a row, Conor O'Brien and friends have released a new album, and while the latest, Where have you been all my Life?, may retread familiar ground (with a couple of rare enough songs, notwithstanding), there is always the pleasure – simple but effective – of just listening to O'Brien's voice.