WITH Christmas now done and dusted bar all that left-over turkey and the Quality Streets no-one wants, it’s time to focus on the days and weeks ahead as 2025 approaches.
For music fans, this means thinking about which upcoming live shows are worth braving bad weather and unreliable/non-existent public transport to attend.
While the New Year used to be a bit of a desert in terms of gigs, thankfully that’s begun to change recently.
With that in mind, here’s a few choice live events coming up through January that Noise Annoys would like to put on your radar...
While the New Year used to be a bit of a desert in terms of gigs, thankfully that’s begun to change
Xmas Aftermath II
Tonight/tomorrow night, The Limelight 2, Belfast
HAVE yourself a heavy little post-Christmas blow-out at the Limelight this weekend with The Distortion Project’s two day feast of metal, punk, thrash, stoner and heavy rock turns.
Headlined by up and coming local noiseniks Enola Gay (who recently opened for Therapy? at the Ulster Hall) tonight and OG Belfast punks The Defects tomorrow evening, there’s something on offer for everyone who enjoys the sound of electric guitars played at a deafening volume.
An ideal purge for your senses in the wake of weeks of relentless Christmas tunes.
Tickets via wegottickets.com.
The Mary Wallopers
December 29, SSE Arena, Belfast
DUNDALK’S second finest musical export (after the mighty Jinx Lennon, naturally) The Mary Wallopers have a hell of a show for you as they bring their trad-informed ‘Irish rock and roll’ ruckus north to Belfast.
The climax of the band’s recent 7 Drunken Nights tour around Ireland, the Wallopers' biggest Belfast show to date find them in good company with a pair of superb, not to be missed, value-adding opening acts in the form of Limerick maverick Post Punk Podge and Belfast’s own Problem Patterns.
My advice is to just make this show an early New Year’s Eve celebration and then sleep it off until 2025 is underway - everything after will be anticlimactic.
Tickets via ticketmaster.ie.
Freedom 35s
January 4, The 4th Wall at Market Place Theatre, Armagh
IF GROOVING, organ-grinding instrumental psych-funk/soul is more your bag, we’ve got that covered too - or, more accurately, The Freedom 35s do: catch them in action at the Market Place Theatre Bar in Armagh next Saturday night.
After taking in just a few of their wah-wah-crazed, Hammond-scorched and Lalo Schifrin-esque numbers, you’ll start to feel like it’s 1975, not 2025, and that you’re starring in your very own episode of Starsky & Hutch.
Best of all, the word on the street is that entry’s free - you dig?
The Adventures
January 4, The Empire, Belfast
I’M PRETTY sure I recall writing about these Belfast-bred alt-popsters calling it a day with a ‘final show’ a few years ago, but it seems Terry Sharpe and co have refused to let a good thing die.
The band’s annual Empire shows have become a regular reunion for fans and band alike, as they come together as one to celebrate past glories like Send My Heart, Feel The Raindrops, Your Greatest Shade of Blue and their 1988 top 20-bothering anthem Broken Land.
Tickets via thebelfastempire.com
The Jesus Lizard
January 14, The Limelight, Belfast
AN IDEAL birthday present for yours truly from the folks of taste and distinction at Strange Victory Promotions, this upcoming Limelight show will be the Belfast debut for David Yow and co, who released their first new record for an impressive 26 years back in September.
Rack delivered us 36 minutes of all-new yet instantly identifiable Lizard, scratching that nagging itch for heavy, jagged, alt rock pummel with maniacal vocals like only this seminal bunch of veterans can.
Expect crowd-surfing madness galore, and not just from stage-diving devotee Yow.
Tickets via ticketmaster.ie.
808 State
January 17, Mandela Hall, QUBSU
MANCHESTER techno/acid pioneers 808 State return to Belfast courtesy of the Out To Lunch Festival.
OG member Graham Massey has joined forces with a live drummer to delve into the 808 State back catalogue.
We can’t be sure exactly which songs they’ll be doing, but so long as they include the absolute stormer that is Cubik - recently sampled to fine effect by Kneecap and Bob Vylan - I’ll be happy.
Tickets via cqaf.com.
Pillow Queens
January 26, The Empire, Belfast
GENRE-blurring Dublin alt pop/rock combo Pillow Queens have had a great 2024 with the release of their excellent, highly acclaimed album, Name Your Sorrow, which was stacked front to back with cathartic, catchy/crunchy sing-along belters.
OK, so it was a slight downer when the original Belfast date on their Irish tour, December 6 at the Mandela Hall, had to be rescheduled - yet the rescheduled date is at the smaller but even better Belfast Empire were they put on a stellar show two years ago.
Tickets via gigantic.com.
Lloyd Cole
January 27, Olympia Theatre, Dublin
AULD Mr Rattlesnakes is back at the Olympia for a night of top alternative pop tunes like only he can craft.
Expect tunes from his recent, unexpectedly synthy album On Pain, plus favourites from a songwriting catalogue that stretches back over 40 years to his days with jangle-pop maestros The Commotions.
Tickets via 3olympia.ie.
Brant Bjork Trio
January 30, The Limelight 2, Belfast
DESERT rock pioneer Brant Bjork returns to Belfast for an evening of fuzzy delights with his titular trio which also features long time collaborator and fellow desert rock veteran Mario ‘Fatso Jetson’ Lalli on bass and his pal Mike Amster on drums.
The former Kyuss and Fu Manchu man released his latest record Once Upon A Time In The Desert earlier this year, which finds him exploring a mellow, bluesy and groovy sound that, in the main, is more Foghat than Fu Manchu in its intensity.
Head-nodding tunes abound - but, of course, there’s still the odd more muscular moment to savour as well, and the Trio can drop a gear whenever required by digging into some of Bjork’s earlier, heavier, Sabbath-informed solo stuff as well.
Just don’t be shouting for Kyuss numbers - that would be a bummer.
Tickets via ticketmaster.ie
GIG RADAR: COMING UP IN FEBRUARY
- Skinner - February 5, Voodoo, Belfast
- The Messthetics + James Brandon Lewis - February 8, The Black Box, Belfast
- Brian Jonestown Massacre - February 11, Ulster Hall, Belfast
- The Undertones - February 14, Millennium Forum, Derry
- The Ocelots - February 15, The Duncairn, Belfast
- Biig Piig - February 19, The Limelight 2, Belfast
- Personal Trainer - February 19, Ulster Sports Club, Belfast
- Honeyglaze - February 20, Ulster Sports Club, Belfast
- Kerbdog - February 21, Roisin Dubh, Galway
- Damian Dempsey - February 28, The Empire, Belfast
