Event: Paddy’s Weekend At The Workman’s Club

Hey there, paradoxically Dublin-based Culchies. Plans for this Paddy’s Weekend? The Workman’s Club have a right patriotic line-up for you for this Saint Patrick’s Day, right up to the bank hangover holiday dancing delightfully in its wake. Shenanigans abound from 4pm on St. Patrick’s Day, with the Somewhere indie crew churning it up in the First Floor Bar, free admission for a 9 hour marathon of daycent tunes. From 8pm The Venue will play host to trad seisiún masters The Bonny Men. Tickets are €10 on the door. Don’t wear heels, because the feet’ll be worn off yeh from the stomping. Festivities crank up again at 5pm on Sunday (that’s plenty of time for a lie-in, in fairness), with a battle between the Workman’s indie residents and Mass resident DJ Sister Lisa Marie. Music-based, mind. This ain’t no cock fight. The Folie a Deux DJs are on hand afterwards, promising … There’s more

Red Bull Launch Bedroom Jam Competition

Pictured below are band-of-the-hour The Minutes (see what we did there? ) rocking out at last night’s launch of the Red Bull Bedroom Jam at The Workman’s Club. If you think you’d look that good on stage and have the talent to back it up, then read on, this could be your big moment. Bedroom Jam is offering young Irish bands the chance to seriously kick-start their careers by performing at Irish music festivals in 2012, with the ultimate winner bagging a chance to record at the Red Bull Studio next autumn. We’re particularly interested in this competition because it relies heavily on how cool you are on the internet … or how well you can promote yourself at least… and we’re all about the internet self-promotion in Culch Towers. To enter Bedroom Jam, bands need to upload a video of themselves performing to the competition website, www.redbullbedroomjam.ie between now … There’s more

Events: FirstFortnight kicks off tomorrow with Delorentos/Tieranniesaur @ The Workman’s for €5

Our New Year’s resolution here in Culch Towers is to be more deadly. More deadly, you see, because we’re already a degree of deadly. (1% is still a percentage, friends.) First on the list is to go to more gigs in 2012… so step up FirstFortnight you are all over our radar. The 10-day festival (now in its third year, though it’s first time out as a 10-dayer) is a mental health-based arts festival full of live music, spoken word, theatre and film events. The organisers say they expect the first two weeks of January to become synonymous with mental health awareness and ending stigma and if dancing to Tieranniesaur is the way to do that, we’re all over it. Kicking off tomorrow night in The Workman’s Club (say it with us now y’all: Culch is gay for The Workman’s) the first of the Therapy Sessions is just €5 and … There’s more

Events: Christmas Fairs in Dublin Town

We’ve received a few press releases about upcoming Christmas fairs in the capital so here’s the rundown, if you like that sort of thing: Powerscourt Gallery Christmas Market is happening this Saturday 10th in The Powerscourt Centre on South William Street. From 12pm – 5pm they’ll have Irish arts and crafts such as handmade jewellery, Christmas stationary, handcrafted knitwear and handbags and plenty more. Christchurch Cathedral are holding their Christmas market in the 12th century crypt, with gourmet food stalls outside in the cathedral grounds. Trading is from 11am – 4pm and stalls include arts, crafts and jewellery from up-and-coming Irish designers. With free entry, the market runs Saturday 10th and 17th and all proceeds will be going toward the restoration of the belfry. Bella’s Christmas vintage and craft market takes place in The Workman’s Club this Saturday 10th, featuring JoJo Cupcakes, Some Like It Frock vintage ladies clothes, Natalie … There’s more

Festival Preview: Dublin Burlesque Festival

Wednesday night saw the launch of Ireland’s first burlesque festival get underway in Harry’s on the Green, which had been transformed into a sparkly, decadent speakeasy for the occasion. Bartenders decked out in trilby hats, braces and bow ties were slinging cocktails named after the Dublin burlesque scene’s brightest stars while scarlet corset clad usherettes welcomed guests at the door. On the night, we were treated to a taste of what the upcoming festival has in store, compered by Dominique DiVine and kicked off with a fan dance by the radiant Epiphany deMeanour, wriggling out of her slinky white dress to a gorgeous version of the Mad Men theme tune. The diva stylings of Kristin Kapelli followed, where she belted out When You’re Good To Mama and Big Spender with aplomb, whilst rocking the most formidable pair of false eyelashes I’ve ever seen. Cheesecake cutie Truly DiVine was up next, … There’s more

Festival Preview: 10 Days in Dublin

10 Days in Dublin, which kicks off on Thursday July 7th and runs all the way through to the following Saturday is something we very much like the look of. Covering music, theatre and comedy it’s got an excellent and awesomely cheap line up (seriously, most shows are a fiver) and you’ll definitely bump into some of team Culch at the gigs (in the unlikely event that bumping into us is a selling point for anyone). Happening across a few entirely likable venues (The Workman’s and The International for the music and comedy and a bunch of others for the theatre listings), here’s a breakdown of some of the things we recommend catching: Comedy Conor O’Toole’s Manual of Style – A new comedy show about font – The International – 6:30pm, Thursday 7th July – €5. It’s been described as ‘quirky and endearing’ by Chortle (aka The Comedy Bible). If … There’s more

Literary Death Match @ The Workman’s Club this Friday 24th June

Feeling a little devoid of intellect? Been watching too many episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians lately? Well here’s a night out to redress the balance and allow you to come across all intelligent and shit. Literary Death Match is a global series of author-readings which happens everywhere from Brooklyn to Berlin and involves local writing talent battling it out on-stage to win over audience and judging panel alike. But don’t worry, it’s not po-faced and exclusive. It’s more like X-Factor for bookworms – except thankfully without the distraction of Simon Cowell’s too-unbuttoned shirt and Chezzel’s ill-advised “outrageous” outfits. LDM comes to Dublin for the fourth time this Friday 24th June in the charmingly shabby-chic surroundings of The Workman’s Club. A fine line up of Irish writing talent will belt out their stuff, competing to take the Death Match crown. They are: poet Niamh MacAlister, BAFTA-nominated writer and director … There’s more

New Music: EleventyFour

Since Cork’s EleventyFour told us that she hoped we were enjoying the sunny day when she sent in her EP for review, we felt a bit predisposed to like her. We liked her a bit more when we saw that her promo pic is of a beaming girl on a pogo stick… We just plain loved her by the time we sat down with the headphones in to check out the tunes. A perfect mix of comedy and heart, Eleventy is a genre all her own that could probably be called ‘Happy Acoustic’ – and you don’t get much of that now do you? The Joy Imperative debut EP comes after 3 years on the music scene in which she’s gigged on Arthur’s Day (as part of it mind, sure couldn’t we all busk on Grafton Street and say we gigged on Arthur’s Day ), as part of the Hard … There’s more

Review: Spies @ The Workman’s Club

Spies are launching their single ‘Barricade’ downstairs in Whelans on April 23rd. Doors are at 8pm, it’s €8 in with a free copy of the CD, and support is from The Pacifics and Tandem Felix. Neil caught them live a few weeks back… Croupier, Squarhead and Spies played the Workmans club on Thursday the 24th of March Spies lie. Otherwise they are just people, and people are boring. This is what the recorded version of Spies is: a band in disguise. On record they are a bastard alien hybrid of The National’s atonal punctured drums with Editors’ pulsing rhythms, layered with a smooth vocal line. (If the vocals were a Cold War spy, they’d be George Clooney hitting on a picture of himself looking at a picture of himself but with a scarf, and the scarf is made of pure smooth.) It’s a fine record, simple and under-produced, but with … There’s more