The Grand Social

Wednesday 27th June - Deap Vally

What’s that smell? FUNK, derived from the Latin “fumigare,” meaning, “to smoke.” The smoking ladies of Deap Vally don’t need boots to walk all over you. The barefoot duo’s mixture of brazen and sweet allows them to zigzag from songs of poignant social commentary and resolute declaration to vulnerable bare-all ballads and songs of universal empowerment. Not purely blues-rock- – sandwich them between funk and punk, because it’s just as much about attitude and intent as guitar-and- drums.

Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards met in a crochet class in 2011 (no lie), and have since then melted faces and blown minds all over the world, touring with Queens of the Stoneage, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, DIIV, Band of Skulls, the Vaccines, Marilyn Manson, Muse, Peaches, Babes in Toyland, and Mumford and Sons, appearing on Jools Holland, and playing festivals from Glastonbury to Austin Psych Fest to Splendor in the
Grass all over the world on the wings of their 2013 debut album SISTRIONIX.

Deap Vally’s high fidelity recording approach reproduces the soul of their live performance, capturing the rawenergy and sex appeal that oozes from the stage. Little instrumentation, BIG SOUND. That is the magic of Deap Vally.
They handle their instruments like machine guns, but snuggle kittens behind the scenes. These enigmatic women are wolves in sheep’s clothing by day, and sheep in wolves’ clothing by night (and if the thought of them as sheep makes you want to wear them as a sweater near to your heart, look out for their hand-crocheted merch).

Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: €17

Thursday 28th June - Michael Hurley

The American singer/guitarist/artist Michael Hurley , known by friends as the Snock, Hi-Fi Snock, and Elwood Snock, has resided at the outer realms of the folk music scene for over 40 years. Hurley’s debut album, “First Songs”, was recorded for Folkways Records in 1965 on the same reel-to-reel machine that taped Lead Belly’s Last Sessions. From the the beatniks in the NYC Village where he started in the early 60s, to the hippies in Vermont, to the Americana fans, indie rockers and freak folkers from the last two decades, and those who have covered and championed his songs — from Cat Power to Calexico — Hurley’s music never fails to find fresh new ears. Pressed for a description, Hurley has called it “jazz-hyped blues and country and western music”. He has also recorded for Devandra Banhart’s label Gnomonsong, and more recently for Mississippi Records. Guests on the night will be Dublin old-timey outfit The Oxo Boys.
Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: €16 Buy Tickets Now!

Friday 29th June - Mack Fleetwood

Ireland’s premier tribute to the Supergroup Fleetwood Mac, bring you on a magical musical journey from the Peter Green blues era to the multi-platinum selling Anglo/American band that still tour today. Originally the “Best White Blues Band” to come out of the 60s, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac had several memorable hits and influenced scores of others great bands that were to follow them, and/or cover their songs, such as Led Zeppelin and Santana. When Peter Green left the band, Mick Fleetwood & John McVie kept the show on the road, being joined first by Christine Perfect (later McVie) and then Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

These three talented and prolific songwriters brought a distinctive style and unique fusion of rock, pop and country to the band. The turmoil of the bands private lives was played out in their music. Nicks & Buckingham soon gained iconic status in fronting the new line-up.

Fleetwood Mac enjoyed a rebirth, producing many classic hits including the outstanding Rumours album. They went on to even greater worldwide success than the original line-up.

MACK FLEETWOOD deliver a spellbinding show. Their love of the material and musical prowess shines through in each song.

They will bewitch you with authentic renditions all your favourite Fleetwood Mac hits.

Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11.30pm Admission: €15 Buy Tickets Now!

Wednesday 4th July - Applaud Events Presents: Independent Artists

Are you ready for the crème de la crème of the Dublin music scene? Join us for the official launch of Dublin’s newest live music night at the The Grand Social at 7:30pm on Wednesday, July 4th. We will be celebrating Independence Day by listening to Dublin’s best pioneering musicians. Would you like to grab a Late Snack of music? Be surprised by the appearance of a man, yes a man, named Housewife? Check out if lofi is better than wifi with hip-hop duo Caleb & Walshy? Or bask in the lyrics of Evans Junior as he continues on his journey to discovery?
Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: €15 Buy Tickets Now!

Saturday 7th July - Trespass Presents: Oli Furness

A natural ear for the deep and groovy, for the exciting and innovative, an inclination towards daring production and a desire to push boundaries, Oli Furness comes fully formed with a strong agenda to release and play the freshest soundscapes from the front-line of electronic music. It’s difficult for any artist to maintain a varied and extremely open minded approach to music production and DJing, but that’s where Furness’s strength lies. We are also excited to showcase our local talent with support coming from Isaac Bui & Anthony Dunne who each bring their own style which is guaranteed to get the party started.
Venue: The Loft Doors: 11pm - 2.30am Admission: €10

Sunday 8th July - Italian Fusion Festival

The Italian Fusion Festival returns this summer! Save the date and prepare for one of the most exciting event of the Summer 2018! A Beautiful & Italian Event of Music, Food, Arts, Visual Art, Dance & Design in Dublin. Radio Dublino, the only Irish Radio programme in Italian since 2013, will bring you a line up of the most talented Irish-Italian bands for an evening of alternative fusion sounds, Italian food and visual art!

Spoil yourself to the notes of jazz, blues, trad, folk and rock music, enjoy artisan food and traditional Italian and Irish dances and musical instruments during the festival that celebrates the encounter between the Irish and Italian music and culture.

To complement the event a short video competition and Italian artisan food will be available to delight the palate of music enthusiasts in an informal setting.

Last but not least, a number of Vespas, the iconic Italian scooter, will be on display in front of The Grand Social, for the joy of all of the connoisseurs.

LINEUP
The Loft
4:00 PM Pointbreak (Surf Rock)
5:00 PM Water’s Edge (Folk Rock)
6:00 PM Headtrip Acoustic Project (Acoustic Metal)
7:00 PM Francesco Turrisi Trio (Jazz)
8:00 PM Order of the Mess (Alternative Rock)
9:00 PM The Stoles (Rock)

The Ballroom
3:30 PM Workshop Irish Trad Dance with Alan McGreek
4:30 PM Workshop The secret of Italian gestures with Elena Cristofanon
5:30 PM Workshop Uilleann Pipe with Donnacha Dwyer
6:30 PM Workshop Pizzica Traditional Dance from the South of Italy with Eliana Valentina
7:30 PM Andrea Facco (Italian folk music)
8:30 PM Sean Whelan (Irish folk music)

Venue: The Loft Doors: Admission: €10 Buy Tickets Now!

Thursday 12th July - Krapos Brass Band

Krapos Brass Band is originaly from Lyon (France). Created 20 years ago, they are part of the solid backbone of the french underground brass band world. As every summer they are touring in an european country and this year is Ireland. And they are coming in solid formation with not less than 20 musicians on stage. Their music is a blend of electro rock music covers rearranged after passing through their brass food mill. A very well kept secret recipe. Come over to sweat and party with them at this special Grand Social Club session.
Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: Free

Friday 13th July - The Adventures of Andy Kershaw

“The finest British broadcaster bar none.” – Stephen Fry

Old Grey Whistle Test presenter, BBC Radio 1 DJ (and Billy Bragg’s roadie) Andy Kershaw presents an intimate two hour audio-visual presentation about his life, career, adventures and experiences so far, in radio and television, live music, travels to extreme countries and foreign correspondence. Born in Rochdale in 1959, Andy Kershaw’s musical tastes were opened up early with an obsession with Bob Dylan. This obsession led him down a path of falling in love with Blues, Roots, and Gospel. After becoming Secretary of Entertainments for Leeds student union and hosting a who’s who of student concerts featuring such names as The Clash and Elvis Costello, Andy soon failed his degree.

Andy soon took a gig as driver and roadie to Billy Bragg and while chaperoning Billy to BBC’s ‘Whistle Test’ Andy was spotted by a producer who saw in him a potential new presenter. This started Andy on his long and distinguished career as a journalist and presenter.

Andy hosted a radio show for Radio 1 for 15 years where he became known for his eclectic musical tastes. The show was known for not having any boundaries or genres on what was played and then moved to Radio 3 which he considers his new spiritual home.

Having thrice been to North Korea and becoming the first person to make a documentary inside the secretive state, Andy Kershaw loves travel and adventure and was in Rwanda during the horrors of 1994 and reported for the BBC during the eruption of Montserrat which destroyed the capital of the island and has rendering over half of the island uninhabitable.

Andy is now coming to The Grand Social for a talk and Q&A to recount his adventures and a life less ordinary.

Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: €20 Buy Tickets Now!

Saturday 14th July - Andy Kershaw’s African, Caribbean, & Latin Dance Night

“The finest British broadcaster bar none.” – Stephen Fry

Andy is now coming to The Grand Social for a talk and Q&A to recount his adventures and a life less ordinary.

Venue: The Loft Doors: 11pm - 3am Admission: €10 Buy Tickets Now!

Wednesday 18th July - Traditional Arts Collective Presents: Céilí

Ceili - Learn Irish Dancing! Let the MC take you by the hand and lead you through some lively Irish Ceili dances. With live music and sean-nos dancing displays from Traditional Arts Collective. No experience is necessary so come along, let your hair down and dance the night away! Traditional Arts Collective is made up of some of Ireland’s most talented traditional musicians and dancers. T.A.C have performed at concerts, weddings and festivals in Ireland and abroad including Body and Soul and the International World Music festival Suklegos in Lithuania. Individuals: €8 Groups: €7 per person.
Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: €8

Friday 20th July - DQF: FXY & The Stasi

Cracking double bill featuring 2 of Irelands most charismatic frontwomen. FXY (featuring Eimear Fox) play dynamic funk while The Stasi pedal whiskey stained Rock N Roll with the inimitable Caoimhe Connolly on lead vocals and guitar.

FORGET Daft Punk. FORGET Enya. The STASI are the new soundtrack to your existential crisis. Think big guitars, whiskey stained vocals and smart songs that linger in the mind like last night’s indiscretions. If you like your ROCK theatrical with an extra dollop of ROLL then this is the gig for you. WARNING: Not suitable for automatonophobics.

FXY are comprised of five lifelong friends from Kildare who have been playing music together for the past 8 years. Originally members of Fox.E and the Good Hands, FXY have honed their craft, skill and sound to develop their music to a new and exciting place. Their progressive rock funk sound is highly skilled and fiercely contagious. All members have extensive performance experience and in their former capacity they toured Ireland and the UK and played many festivals. The band recently released their debut album Sleepyhead in The Grand Social to great acclaim.

Venue: The Loft Doors: 8.30pm - 11.30pm Admission: FREE

Friday 20th July - DQF: Attention Bébé

Jazzy Jeff good times with the brilliant 10 piece who’s hot stepping, side slapping, parcel passing, groin grinding, roof raising fun is what you want, what you really, really want. Would I lie to you Bébé? Attention Bebe came about after glorious sessions in the depths of the Portobello Massive. Created through a combined effort (or lack there of) of Vanessa Parody, Skee Bop Ba Doop and The Hairy French Man. We’ve grown since. There’s a lot of love. It’s very nice. Long live the dream, vivre la Bebe. We’ve risen from squalid, if beautiful, jams in the depths of the Bébé HQ in Portobello, to showstopping gigs at Electric Picnic and beyond.
Venue: The Loft Doors: 11.30pm - 2am Admission: FREE

Saturday 21st July - DQF: Birds Of Olympus, My Sweet Beloved, & Meat Clown

Birds Of Olympus - The heady psychedelic Birds of Olympus from Wicklow have just released their debut EP in April 2018. Should you happen upon these Birds live, take heed – their mismatch of analog synthesizers, home-made amps and reverberated sounds of the cosmos are known to lock bystanders into a mesmeric trance. The band’s first release ‘Vine of the Soul’ released last year was selected as an official promotional track for SXSW and has picked up airplay on radio stations across the US, UK and Ireland, including KRCX, BBC and RTE.

My Sweet Beloved

My Sweet Beloved is the brainchild of Danielle Harrison (Skindive, Ruby Taillights) who joined forces with Derek Byrne (Autumn Owls) and Anton Hegarty (Future Kings of Spain, Tin Charm) to create a blend of sultry blues-rock and dark experimental pop. The band’s mysterious and uncompromising, David Lynch-esque nature attracted attention from their first inception in 2016 and they made their debut on the Other Voices stage at Electric Picnic. Since then My Sweet Beloved have have been in the studio working on their highly anticipated first album due for release soon.

Meat Clown

With a name originating from a life-long obsession of Billy Roll (yes, you remember Billy Roll), Meat Clown mix up an unsettling and unhinged concoction of music with more music in the hopes of making you feel comfortably uneasy and help you distract yourself from your own self, yeah? Their set-list is loud, frenetic and unsure of itself in a conceptual bid to reflect the state of political affairs currently facing th- Ok. So maybe it’s not actually conceptual but it must have some sort of deeper mea- Ok. There’s no deeper meaning at all… But it’s definitely loud, frenetic and unsure of itself.

Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: FREE

Sunday 22nd July - DQF: The Skatuesques, Ophelia, & Elly D

The Skatuesques - The Skatuesques are an all Female 5 piece Ska Band, currently covering some of your favourite classic ska tunes and their own mind blowing originals. A busy year so far has seen the band play The Olympia Theatre, The Dublin Ska Festival and supporting The Beat recently in The Button Factory. This band is made to make you dance so loosen up and do the Rocksteady!

Ophelia

Ophelia (McCabe) began hitting the stage as a HipHop MC in 2002 Dublin, Ireland. Jamming and Freestyle rap with her brothers developed into finished songs which she eventually laid over beats produced by Exile Eye, DJ Moschops and G Frequency for many years to come. Dennis Cassidy and Ophelia struck up in 2006 at party and Ophelia & Redsquare was born as Mixtapes From The Underground formed simultaneously. Ophelia thread the boards as often as possible and hustled many a great show while booking, rehearsing, leading, managing and promoting her musical works – supporting Acts such as Pete Rock, Ice Cube, De La Soul, Pharaohe Monch, Tony Allen, Ultramagnetic MC’s, Robert Glasper, Saul Williams & Maverick Sabre. Ophelia thrives in a live collaborative context.

ELLYD

After many years on the Irish music scene, ELLYD released her debut solo EP ‘Rise’ reaching number 8 in the iTunes charts. Following the success of her first release, ELLYD has played some of Ireland’s biggest festivals and top venues including Electric Picnic, The Secret Village Festival, Battle of the Lake Festival, The Button Factory, Whelans and The Workmans Club. Elly – whose voice has been compared to the sultry haunting vocals of Gemma Hayes & Skye Edwards – has just released her follow up EP ‘Lighthouse’ to rave reviews with all three tracks already being played on national radio. The alternative pop artist will be hitting the festival circuit this summer and is set to embark on a UK tour in October. ELLYD released her new EP ‘Lighthouse’ in January 2018 accompanied by an Irish Tour. 2018 is promising to be a fantastic year for Ms ELLYD.

Venue: The Loft Doors: 7pm - 11pm Admission: FREE

Tuesday 24th July - Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert

“The album title has a dual meaning – sex and death.” These are common themes from Aidan Moffat; since his early days with Arab Strap, he has explored these subjects with a grace and grit that plunges deep into the human soul. But this is no re-hash of the past, rather a further leap forward for Moffat, now teaming up with fellow Scot, singer and guitarist extraordinaire, RM Hubbert, for this new project.

“It can be read as romantic surrender, but of course it’s also a phrase you’ll find on a
tombstone,” Moffat elaborates. Equally multidimensional is the music contained
within, weaving beautiful, spidery guitar work, haunting piano lines, lush strings,
delicate percussion, fizzing 808 beats, synth pop, samba, and moments of jazz,
while Moffat’s rich voice carries the narrative in rich grumbles, hushed whispers, and
revealing spoken word.
The album begins with first single Cockcrow and a chance encounter of two old

flames as they enjoy hen and stag parties in Blackpool – the album follows their
story as it moves forwards (and backwards) with wit and wisdom, exploring themes
of love, family, fortune telling, deceit, death, Schrodinger’s cat, the multiverse … and
marshmallows. The narrative was influenced, Moffat says, by “an article I read about
mothers who abandon their families, and how that still remains a pretty taboo subject
in our times. When marriages break down, it’s almost always the man who leaves.”
Siobhan Wilson, whose vocals you can also hear on Cockcrow, along with former
Arab Strap drummer David Jeans, will be joining Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert.

Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: €18.50 Buy Tickets Now!

Thursday 26th July - The Deans

If Jack Kerouac and George Orwell incubated a test tube baby in muddy water And on its first birthday was adopted by Joe Strummer, Who raised it on a steady diet of rock & roll and Dylan, Then in its adolescent years went to live with uncle Thom and aunt Muse in their fallout shelter in the California desert, Who Clockwork Oranges’ the poor child by brainwashing it with hypnotic and progressive rock music, Until the age of 16 when it ran away from home and hit the road to do some hypnotizing of its own, Then that baby might just be called The Deans.
Venue: The Loft Doors: 8pm - 11pm Admission: €10