Acts on the night include the mighty Donal Lunny, Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, Sunken Foal, Melodica Deathship, Tieranniesaur,  You Kiss By The Book, Maeve Higgins, NiamhMcCormackSings, Katie Kim, Kevin Barry, Kate Ellis

with DJ sets by;

James Byrne (Any Other City)
Niall McCormack (Hi-Tone)
Joss Moorkens (The Dudley Corporation)
Peter Toomey

and more very special guests to be confirmed!

at the Co-op, Newmarket Square, Dublin 8 on Saturday 10th December, 2011.
Admission 15euros with all proceeds going to Simon Community

Facebook Event page>

None of these are in any particular order, and given that i could only pick 5 under each category I’m sure the list would change all the time- particularly around music, but instead of choosing the “most important” or “best” albums I tried to choose albums based on what I’ve listened to most over the decade.  Disclaimer: yes, I do work for The Model, but I also love the programme and am clearly there a lot, so I feel allowed.

Top 5 gigs of the decade*

• Electric Picnic 2005- ALL of IT but especially Arcade Fire and Goldfrapp
• Patti Smith, Model Sligo, 2006
• Feist, Tripod, 2008
• Presets, Village, Dublin, 2007
• Anthony & the Johnsons, mainstage, Electric Picnic 2006

Most listened to / Top 5 Albums of the Decade*

• Radiohead – In Rainbows
• Presets - Beams
• Burial – Untrue
• Arcade Fire - Funeral
• Iron and Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog

* This is ludicrous and far too difficult.

Top 5 Theatre

• Bedbound, Enda Walsh, 2000
• Terminus, Mark O’Rowe, Project, 2008
• Titus Andronicus, Project, 2005 (dir. Selina Cartmell)
• Festen, Gate for Dublin Theatre Festival 2006 (dir: Selena Cartmel)
• Genesi: from the Museum of Sleep, Romeo Castellucci for Dublin Theatre Festival, 2000

Top 5 Live Comedy gigs

• Reggie Watts, Edinburgh Festival 2006 and Sydney Festival 2008
• Dylan Moran, Kilkenny Comedy Festival, 2005
• Jason Byrne, Kilkenny Comedy Festival, 2005
• Colin Murphy, Sligo, 2004
• Stewart Lee, Edinburgh, 2008

Top 5 Art Exhibitions

• Thomas Demand’s L’esprit D’escalier @ IMMA, Dublin
• Monet’s lillies (Les Nymphéas) @ L’Orangerie in Paris
• Gerard Byrne, Model, Sligo
• Warhol & The Factory, Model, Sligo
• Rosalie Gascoigne, NGV, Melbourne, Australia

Amazing weekend was had in Kilkenny at the Cat Laughs Festival this year which I have been meaning to blog about for weeks but the volume of work ever since has put paid to that notion.  However, a round up is needed for posterity and for a great critical round up with some ace writing head to Peter Crawleys review in the Irish Times – sounds like we were very much at the same festival -even though I got to about a third of the gigs he did, but then he is on the freebie press ticket.

I’ve been going to Kilkenny for 5 years now- from when I started programming comedy for the model- and usually run around to as many shows as my pocket can handle and my head can take. For the fits few years it was about genning up on the best irish comics and the newbies coming up so I could gen up for the comedy club, then it became about international acts as I knew what the irish ones were all about, and this year was a gloriously calmer affair as I wasn’t technically programming at all and could do it at a holiday pace.

Kilkenny has always been a girls weekend for me – all that laughing and drinking and great food and nice hotel rooms seems seems a good fit- and this year was no different as three of us bunked in one fab room and made a great weekend of it – here are the highlights 

1. Weather.  OMG it was outstanding. In my memory it always is for Cat Laughs of course but this one was like being in another country. A weekend like this a year will definitely see me right.
2. Foodage. As always Kilkenny does not disappoint on the culinary front. Outstanding meal and service at Zuni, and more of the same with the great late night supper menu that Fleva do for the festival.  The people that run that place could not do better, chatty, great service, happy to accommodate late eating and menu re-arranging. Go there. Oh and new kid on the block- Grapevine. Excellent tapas, great wine, brilliant owner.
3. Gigs. Of course the gigs are the real reason for going. This year we just took in two and a movie so hard to pick highlights but Kathleen Madigan was great and the Hans Teeuwen gig was an experience like no other.  Peter describes it far better than I but the great thing about it is the tension moment when you realise a) this is his act, it’s on purpose and it’s not getting any “better” and b) well over half the audience are hating it and not getting it and stressed and will either walk out, heckle or stew in their seat hating every minute but not having the balls to leave, or maybe hoping it will somehow get better.  The tension of that moment, which gets replayed around the room every few minutes as people decide which camp they fall into, is a deliciously stressful and funny thing.  In fairness- it is more performance art that comedy, and if you had paid your 30euro expecting to roll in the aisles you have every right to be angry, but if you want a whole chunk of post-modern comedy then there you have. I”m still not sure if I love it or hate it but I do know I’m going to check him out again in Edinburgh to find out.
4. A Film with Me In It. Me being Mark Doherty and not Stranded of course. This was a brilliant way to spend a few hungover hours on saturday afternoon in the Parade Tower. Delightful slice of black comedy (if black humour can be delightful?) that made me laugh out loud and contemplate my moral compass and Dylan Moran’s brilliance.
5. Kilkenny RiverCourt Hotel. A revelation (we usually stay at the Ormond). Great rooms, comfy beds, nice staff, great breakfast (crap carvery meals the rest of the time but) and acres of outdoor drinking and lounging space with a spiffy view of the castle. Oh- and 2e parking for guests all weekend. sweet.

Downsides? the 3.5 hour cross country drive back to Sligo through every little town known to man (there is a townplace called Swan in this country) and having to go back on the Sunday and miss the football match with stellar commentary by Karl Spain.

Magic weekend. Why more people don’t make it a regular calendar date I’ll never know.

Kilkenny Sunset

Two quick Sligo things…Two great and different gigs coming up this weekend- both in the same pub.  Upstairs in McGarrigles is the destination for James Yorkston and Chequerboard on Friday 27^th March and then for the monthly comedy gig on Saturday 28^th- this time with Robbie Bonham and Simon O’Keeffe.

The Comedy is hosted by John Colleary and is only €10 on the door so it’s well worth a look.  Great uplift to the weekend.  Check out the myspace for more info.

James Yorkston with Daisy. pic by Sean Dooley

James Yorkston is set to be an altogether more beautiful affair. A brilliant brilliant musician I first came across him through the Month of Sundays project with Donal Dineen and his albums have become much played on my music listening machines.  His music is intelligent and poetic and beautiful with clever and often witty lyrics.  Woozy with Cider (video below) is one of my all time favourite songs and a perfect accompaniment to Sunday afternoons.  Yorkston is a proper musicians musician and well worth catching live.  He doesn’t come to Ireland that often, let alone to Sligo, so I would give this a huge Stranded Must See stamp (I must get one of those) made all the more so by the presence of Chequerboard as support. Chequerboard’s Penny Black is a properly incredible album (was robbed not be in the choice shortlists for 2008) and to see John Lambert weave the sounds and textures live with his guitar and looping machines brings it all to another dimension. 

So if you are in Sligo and want a lovely night of properly great live music head to McGarrigles on Friday 27^th. I’ve no idea what time or how much but I’d guess from 9pm is safe enough. Bring your listening ears.

The Model’s Craic in the Box gigs have been on the move since the Model closed for the redevelopment and they finally settled upstairs at McGarrigles in Sligo in December. I missed the December gig but after a January hibernation (them, not me) I caught the February one last night.  I say caught- i mean i worked the door to help out but I was side stage throughout. 

Master MC (MC squared if you will) John Colleary has taken over the reigns and is programming his favourite comedy folk for the Sligo gigs. He picked a great headliner last night…his old TJ and TJ conspirator Bernard O’Shea.  Last time I saw Bernard it was in a pokey, hot little prefab in Edinburgh (this is entirely normal for Edinburgh Fringe gigs) hitting 5 star gold with his first edinburgh solo show.  In sligo last night he stayed on for well over an hour and had us all spellbound with his slightly crazy thoughts and his reflective pants.  where can you find reflective pants? Get along to a Bernard gig and find out.