Daytrippers

Seven things to do this week

TODAY The Dublin Gospel Choir has performed with everyone from Paddy Casey to James Brown and is breathing new life into church services everywhere. Catch the soul-singers tonight in the Civic Theatre at The Square in Tallaght. Tickets €19/€15. Doors 8pm. www.civictheatre.ie

TOMORROW Songs of Praise is the latest club night that aims to shake you out of your post-Saturday-night slump and into the three-night weekend. Join the congregation for a spot of musical salvation in The Village on Wexford Street from 8pm until late. Admission free. Amen to that.

MONDAY European Quartet Week celebrates the continent's most intimate and most intensive art form with international string quartets including the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet performing 20 concerts at Cork's University College. The opening concert tonight comes from the renowned Tokyo Quartet with Hugh Tinney. Tickets €29. Doors 8pm. www.westcorkmusic.ie

TUESDAY There are heats taking place all over the country for the karaoke world championships which will take place in Finland in late July. Tonight at the Orchard bar in Swords, Co Dublin, expect plenty of dodgy versions of Angels, along with some real sing-along gems. Doors 9pm. Contact 01-8907520 or see www.karaoke.ie.

WEDNESDAY ALAF stands for A Lesbian Arts Festival and this one comprises art, theatre, comedy, drag, film and more. The festival is taking place at venues all over Dublin for the next 10 days, kicking off with a visual-art exhibition in the Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8, tonight. www.alafireland.com

THURSDAY The 2005 Poetry Now Festival opens at the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin tonight, with poet, novelist and broadcaster Simon Armitage re-imagining Ted Hughes. Over the three nights of the festival, events will include readings by American Pulitzer Prize winner CK Williams, Canadian Margaret Atwood and major European poets. Irish poets taking part include John Montague and Máire Mhac an tSaoi. Doors 8.30. Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, 01-2312929.

FRIDAY Tom Baxter is a singer-songwriter from Suffolk, who, since his Irish debut in Dublin's Sugar Club in 2004 has been heaped with David Gray-style adoration over here. He sounds uncannily like the late Jeff Buckley, and music folk say it's only a matter of time before Baxter outgrows the Olympia. Tickets €22.50 from Ticketmaster.