The Guide: Mitski, Springsteen, The Last Pear and more events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end

Event of the week

Mitski

Saturday, May 4th, 3Arena, Dublin, 7pm, €54.85 (sold out), ticketmaster.ie

Mitski, increasingly adventurous and commercially aware, is the poster songwriter for those who take the slow but assured route. This sold-out headline (all-seated) show at 3Arena arrives after years of playing progressively bigger gigs in Ireland, the results of which are object lessons in organic creativity and artistic branding. The American songwriter’s latest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, from 2023, is also typical of her creative growth, seeing her spread her writing styles across forlorn country, folk, Americana and pop-rock. Fans who caught Mitski’s earlier appearances at venues such as Workman’s Club (2016), Cyprus Avenue (2017) and Vicar Street (2022) will perhaps smugly tell you they always knew she’d be a star. Special guest is the English singer Richard Dawson.

Gigs

Jane Weaver

Thursday, May 9th, Whelan’s, Dublin, 8pm, €24, whelanslive.com; Friday, May 10th, Róisín Dubh, Galway, 8pm, €25/€23, roisindubh.net

The singer-songwriter Jane Weaver, who has been part of the Manchester music scene for more than two decades, has had glimpses of commercial success without tipping into the mainstream. She may have a low profile, but her music is up there with the best of propulsive folk/pop/psych. Weaver will be focusing on her well-received recent album Love in Constant Spectacle. Also Saturday, May 11th, Dolans, Limerick, dolans.ie, and Sunday, May 12th, Ulster Sports Club, Belfast, ulstersportsclub.com.

Roamer

Thursday, May 9th, Billy Byrnes, Kilkenny, 8.30pm, €15, eventbrite.ie; Friday, May 10th, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, 8pm, €20/€18, triskelartscentre.ie

Nationwide tours by Irish jazz musicians are pretty rare. Roamer – vocalist Lauren Kinsella, saxophonist Matthew Halpin, guitarist Simon Jermyn and drummer Matthew Jacobson – take up the slack with a brief infiltration of intimate venues east, south and west. For the most part the quartet will perform material from their 2022 album, Lost Bees (“an extraordinary record ... A joyous challenge to musical orthodoxy,” according to this paper’s reviewer). Also Saturday, May 11th, the Model, Sligo, themodel.ie; and Sunday, May 12th, Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, Co Wicklow, courthousearts.ie.

Thursday, May 9th, Boucher Road, Belfast, 5pm, £120, ticketmaster.ie

Similar to his approach to those American dates, Springsteen is visiting places in Europe he hasn’t been to for years, including certain venues in Ireland

Following treatment last September for peptic ulcer disease, which forced the postponement of tour dates for the remainder of 2023, the Boss and his band of exceptional musicians returned to the live arena with US shows in March and April. Similar to his approach to those American dates, Springsteen is visiting places in Europe he hasn’t been to for years, including certain venues in Ireland. The set features up to 30 songs that will please fans of his output between 1973 and 1984, with tracks from The Rising, Wrecking Ball and Letter to You thrown in for good measure – in other words it’s a thrilling best-of show with what Springsteen has termed “themes of mortality and life”. Also Sunday, May 12th, Nowlan Park, Kilkenny; Thursday, May 16th, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork; and Sunday, May 19th, Croke Park, Dublin.

Visual art

Gerry Davis: The Dancing Grass

Until Sunday, June 9th, Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm, Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork

The Co Tipperary artist Gerry Davis, winner of the 2016 Hennessy Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland, highlights his experiments using AI-generated imagery with a solo exhibition expressing concerns of what is (or isn’t) deemed authentic. “The struggle between what’s genuine and what’s not in every facet of a studio practice has always been a point of interest for me,” says Davis, who views his work here as the conclusion of “this chapter of my practice”.

Classical

Riot Symphony

Friday, May 10th, Ulster Hall, Belfast, 7pm, £34, ulsterhall.co.uk

Blending dissident texts by the 1940s anti-Nazi student activist Sophie Scholl and sampled vocals of Russia’s anti-government group Pussy Riot, Conor Mitchell’s politically stimulating work asks how protest, art and discussion can change for the better the times we live in. The world premiere sees the Ulster Orchestra and Belfast Ensemble collaborate, with solos by the soprano Rebecca Murphy and the tenor Michael Bell, two of Northern Ireland’s rising opera stars. Video installation design is by Gavin Peden; Gabriel Beseşelea conducts.

Comedy

Irish Comics for Palestine

Monday, May 6th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 6.30pm, €30 (sold out), ticketmaster.ie

A bunch of well-known Irish comedy names line up for a show in aid of Médecins sans Frontières for the Gaza Emergency Regional Fund. A fine cause, indeed, and one complemented by a gathering that features a large dollop of the cream of Irish comedy, with laughs provided by Ardal O’Hanlon, Deirdre O’Kane, Dylan Moran, David McSavage, Emma Doran, Chris Kent and Anne Gildea. The equally funny Barry Murphy is MC.

Bureau de Change Song Contest 2024

Friday, May 10th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 6.30pm, €30, ticketmaster.ie

Anyone for a Eurovision parody party? Roll up, then, for a selection of Irish comedians that includes Michael Fry, Justine Stafford, Kevin McGahern, Alison Spittle, Sean Burke, Ali Fox, Shane Daniel Byrne and Tony Cantwell, each of whom chooses a Eurovision Song Contest country and writes a song on the spot.

Still running

The Last Pearl

Until Saturday, May 11th, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €18/€16, projectsartscentre.ie

The primary narrative focus of Blue Raincoat Theatre’s dramatic visual production (marginally based on the ideas of the late UK environmentalist and futurist James Lovelock) is the survival of a mother and daughter in the aftershock of a catastrophic storm. The cast includes Sandra O’Malley, Aisling Mannion and Áine Ní Leoghaire. Niall Henry directs.

Book it this week

Dalkey Book Festival, Dalkey, Co Dublin, June 13th-16th, dalkeybookfestival.org

Galway Film Fleadh, July 9th-14th, galwayfilmfleadh.com

Kilkenny Arts Festival, August 8th-18th, kilkennyarts.ie

Fontaines DC, 3Arena, Dublin, December 6th and 7th, ticketmaster.ie