Gigs round-up: July 24-30

Folkfest Killarney, INEC, tonight-Sunday
If you’ve no love for banjos and mandolins, the best advice is to stay out of Killarney this weekend.
With a tagline of “folk, from dusk til dawn”, the first ever Folkfest is taking over the INEC and Gleneagle Hotel complex for three days, with local
talent mixing with acts from further afield.
The biggest draw is probably English sisters The Unthanks, whose dark acoustic tales draw on left-field progressive folk legends like Pentangle and Fairport Convention.
Sharon Shannon, Luka Bloom, Moving Hearts, Kila and Moxie are a few other big draws.

UB40, Mitchell Park, Tyrone, tonight
UB40’s casual fans have probably been kept out of the loop of all the squabbling in the ranks over the last few years.
Original frontman Ali Campbell and vocalist/trumpeter Micky Virtue left UB40 in 2008, and they were followed by rapper and toaster Astro last year.
Tonight’s gig isn’t Ali’s ‘UB40 Reunited’ trio, and Campbell has been slagging off this crew as bit-part players touring as UB40, who try to “replace us with in their attempt to trade off the reflected glory of the success of the original line-up”.
There’s bound to be a certain section of the crowd feeling hoodwinked when new member Duncan Campbell turns up instead of Ali — and what’s Red Red Wine without Astro’s “make ya feel so fine” rap?
Still, they’ve enough hits like Rat In Mi Kitchen and (I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You will get the crowd going, even if there’s an air of karaoke about the whole thing.

Kool Keith, Sugar Club, Dublin, tomorrow
Kool Keith is one of hip-hop’s true outliers — with 20-odd years of surreal rhymes, absurdist futurism and a string of alter-egos including Dr Octagon, The Black Elvis, Dr Ultra and Dr Dooom.
With a shady live reputation that would put his near-namesake MF Doom to shame, he hasn’t been going AWOL for a while, so we can be confident enough that he’ll turn up to turn on his many faces. From deep cuts by his original crew Ultramagnetic MCs, to Doc Oc classics like Blue Flowers and Earth People, expect a night of revelling in the abstract.

Truss, Twisted Pepper, Dublin, tomorrow
UK producer Truss is a master of twisted and distorted noise-techno, with his label boss Perc’s roughness rubbing off after their many double act live shows. From his acid-soaked releases as MPIA3, and evil space disco in rave duo Blacknecks, to skuffed-up metallic head-melters like Clawdd Du from his latest Kymin Lea EP, Truss isn’t one for subtlety, and the Twisted Pepper basement is the proper place for him.