17 December 2009 (Music Profile)

 

A New Year. A fresh start. An excuse to party your socks off until the break of dawn, whether it's watching the best live music this little island has to offer or getting down and dirty with the year's top tunes pumping out of an oversized sound system. In case you're having difficulty deciding how or where to pass the night in question, we've compiled a list of the most promising gigs and club nights happening all over the country. | Words: Jenny Mulligan

 

Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club – Vicar St, Dublin
You may not be the most ardent fan of Jerry Fish and his particular brand of suave lounge music, but when it comes to a laid back evening of entertainment, the truth is there are few better options for any new year's eve than The Mudbug Club. Known for their crowd-pleasing live performances, Jerry Fish and The Mudbug club have many friends among the Dublin music scene and though many of those will be out performing their own festive shows on the night, there'll likely be a few familiar faces on stage at Vicar St in a show which is described as a special New Year's Eve Carnival Extravaganza.

Tickets priced €29.50 are available from ticketmaster and usual outlets.

Transmission NYE Party – The Button Factory, Dublin
A regular Saturday night fixture at Temple Bar's Button Factory, Transmission is going all out this New Year, splitting the venue into four seperate spaces, The Main Room, The café bar and 2 rooms downstairs opened especially for the night that's in it. This seven hour marathon has an extensive line up featuring 36 live acts and DJs handpicked by the Transmission team themselves. Dublin punk rockers Humanzi will perform their legendary set of Joy Division and Stooges covers amongst others, while Glasgow indie/dance outffit Shit Disco return armed with a box of records. There'll also be live music from Schizofonics and The Murder Clues as well as sets from Transmssion DJs and resident DJs from clubnights such as Supafast, Antics. C.U.N.T, Trashed! and Tetric.

Tickets priced €20 are available from tickets.ie. Doors 8pm.

Mick Flannery – Cork Opera House
Cork troubadour Mick Flannery has had an incredible 2009. Since his second album 'White Lies' was nominated for last year's Choice Music Prize, he's toured the festival circuit, released a 2CD deluxe edition of the aforementioned album and is now set to finish off a full Irish tour with a special New Year's Eve performance at Cork Opera House. Flannery's band fill out his gruff bluesy piano and guitar sound with bass, drums, violin and soft female vocals, making for an engrossing live show every time. Mick will be supported on the night by Essex singer songwriter Kate Walsh, with whom he recently released the eerie Christmas single 'Ghost of Christmas Past'.

Tickets priced €31-€33 are available from corkoperahouse.ie

NYE Spectacular Studio 54 Experience – Pod, Dublin
This New Year, the former Harcourt St train station will be the venue for a Studio 54 themed party from the people behind Download Saturdays. Rockeroke, DavidDeValera, SuperSuperDisco will be providing music across three rooms, Pod, Crawdaddy and the newly renamed Chocolate Bar. Rockeroke is Karaoke with a difference, offering a unique take on the disco era while allowing audience members to get up and sing with bands on stage. Keeping with the Studio 54 theme, DJs from SuperSuperDisco, Dublin's newest electrodiscoindiepoptrash night, will count down to the new year with everything from Chic to Peaches, from Battles to the Bee Gees and from The Cure to Kool & The Gang. And finally, David DeValera will be on the decks pumping out the same house/techno milieu as his international peers with some very special guest DJs. The dress code for the evening is Wild & Abandoned, Fancy Dress, Glitter and Glamour!

Tickets are priced €17.85 from ticketmaster. Doors 10pm 'til late.

Fight Like Apes – Roisin Dubh, Galway
2009 has seen Fight Like Apes tour extensively in the UK, Ireland, Europe and the US as well as releasing their Choice Prize nominated debut album from last year 'Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion' in the UK, continental Europe, Japan and Australia. The irreverent electro punks take no prisoners in their live shows, as feisty frontwoman May Kay pushes her voice and her audience to the limit. It's no surprise then that Fight Like Apes were recently nominated in the Best Breakthrough Artist category in the UK Festival Awards, going up against Florence and The Machine, Passion Pit, Friendly Fires and Little Boots. Also playing on the night are Messiah J & The Expert, Disconnect 4 and Le Galaxie.

Fight Like Apes - Something Global from ξοgΙιαη κιdηεγ on Vimeo.

Tickets priced €20 are available from Roisindubh.net

Shine NYE Party w/Green Velvet & Japanese Popstars – Mandela Hall, Belfast
Every Christmas, Queen's University Student's Union regular clubnight Shine brings a host of top dance and electronic artists to Belfast for a selection of spectacular shows. To kick off 2010, they're bringing Chicago house producer Curtis Jones, better known as Green Velvet, and Derry electronic trio The Japanese Popstars to Mandela Hall for a special DJ Set. The three room extravaganza will see Miniminds and Twitch join these two headliners in the main room, while Chris Duckenfield will be in room two with The Jet Project for an Extended Play Party and Alan Simms & Simon McDermott will be DJing a Classics Set in Room 3, even taking requests by email at classics@shine.net

Tickets £21 NUS / Members, or else £23. Doors 9pm-3am

The Saw Doctors – Royal Theatre, Castlebar
The Tuam veterans may be seriously lacking in cool, but what they lack they make up in sheer unadulterated enthusiasm which seeps contagiously into any audience they play to. You may think 'I Useta Lover' is the naffest piece of music that us Irish have ever had the shame and misfortune to be responsible for. Try saying that in the midst of a thousand odd joyous singing voices. The Saw Doctors may be synonymous with the words "guilty pleasure", but pleasure is the operative word. Somehow they possess an overpowering, irresistible force that makes the most cynical, sceptical souls abandon all sense of self-consciousness in favour of unbridled, ridiculous, nonsensical mania. Following the massive success of their recently release "best of" compilation 'To Win Just One', the Galway group are sure to play familiar hits such as N17 and The Green and Red of Mayo at their New Year's Eve gig in Castlebar's Royal Theatre.

Tickets are priced €25 from ticketmaster and usual outlets 

NYE Mirror Ball – Trinity Rooms, Limerick
Limerick's glitziest nightclub follows is set to follow last year's sold out Salvation New Years Eve Party with another huge themed party, NYE Mirror Ball. With a limited capacity of 1000 guest there'll be live music, world class DJs and much more happening across 3 rooms and 2 huge courtyards. In the Clubhouse & Courtyard, you can hear the year's best indie and electro rock tunes, in Trinity 2, the club's resident Beat Baron Bono will be scratching together the year's hottest hip hop anthems and R&B anthems, while in the main room, Johnny Hammond will be playing the biggest dancefloor anthems of 2009. And when that clock strikes 12, far from turning into a pumpkin, there'll be balloon drops, champagne and pyrotechnics as well as a massive choreographed Michael Jackson dance routine.

Tickets priced €15 are on sale now at Trinity Rooms, Empire Music and Ticketmaster. VIP and hotel deals are also available. Visit www.trinityrooms.ie for details. 

The Amazing Few – The Village, Dublin
If you're looking for something a little further under the radar this New Year's Eve, Dublin based "psych-pop" group The Amazing Few have a treat in store for you as they get together with some friends to host a special 3D NYE party. Mixing pop, rockabilly, ska and indie to form their own unique sound, The Amazing Few can have up to 14 members for their live shows and have been known to add colour and joviality to these energetic performances with anything from face painters to piñatas to confetti and balloons. Using "3D Opti-Tron" technology with 3D glasses for everyone in the audience, The Amazing Few have ambitious plans to transform The Village into a feast of ultra-enhanced visual trickery, where they'll be supported on the night by Funzo, Gran Casino and Bot Heads.

Tickets priced €19 are available from tickets.ie

NYE '09 w/ James Zabiela, King Unique - Lush!, Portrush
Southampton DJ James Zabiela kick started 2009 for Lush! when he played at their re-opening party back in January. Known for being a technical wizard with a love of all things sci-fi, Zabiela began his career by winning a bedroom DJ competition and was soon signed to Sasha's DJ agency Excession. Now he holds residencies at Space-Ibiza and Pacha-New York and has remixed tracks for Sasha, Royksopp and Depeche Mode. Bookending the year nicely, Zabiela is set to return to the Portrush nightclub for a New Year's Eve set alongside King Unique, Col Hamilton and Stephen Porter.

Admission by ticket only. €20 from www.kellysportrush.com or ticketmaster. Doors 8pm-2.30am

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BEST OF THE REST

Gigs

New Year's Eve Party w/ Sharon Shannon, Shane MacGowan, Imelda May, Mundy – INEC, Killarney, www.inec.ie
Phantom 105.2 NYE Ball w/Delorentos, RSAG, Noise Control, Funeral Suits, Tallulah Does The Hula, Heritage Centre, Planet Parade – The Academy, Dublin, www.theacademydublin.com
The Redneck Manifesto – Whelan's, Dublin, www.whelanslive.com
Jack L – Dolan's Warehouse, Limerick, www.dolanspub.com
Tucan – Clarence Hotel, Sligo, www.clarencesligo.com

Clubs

Hed Kandi: The Glitterball 2010 NYE – Tripod, Dublin, www.tripod.ie
Together NYE Party – Kennedy's of Westland Row, Dublin
NYE Ball – Electric Avenue, Waterford
NYE Black Tie Gala Ball – Maryborough House Hotel, Cork, www.maryborough.com
Disco Nouveau L'Année – The Stables, Mullingar, www.stableslive.com/

For a full list of events happening in your county this December 31st, search our comprehensive listings at entertainment.ie/listings

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