Gigs of the week: May 6-12

A$AP Nast, The Button Factory, Dublin, Tuesday, €15.
Promoters Sense have been stressing that this is an over-18s show — maybe expecting a similar crowd of steamboats hip-hop kids trapped outside the Academy for Odd Future a few years ago.

New York’s A$AP Mob are the nearest we have to a current Odd Future-style fad, without the splattercore controversy, mainstream gatecrashing or TV spots with Jeremy Paxman.

The main difference is their lack of content — where OFWGKTA had an endless stream or albums, videos, mixtapes and live shows between all the members, the Mob are running on serious heavy lifting by A$AP Rocky and A$AP Ferg, who’ve got actual albums out.

A$AP Nast is the one in the crew who doesn’t go too much for the trap or cloud rap productions, with his sound rooted in the early 90s East Coast sound — even getting the seal of approval from Method Man on his debut single Trillmatic. He’s also jumping on the grime buzz as a guest on Skepta’s debut album Konnichiwa.

Expect a no-frills MC and laptop DJ slot with a few hangers-on at the sides — and get there early for Dublin’s Dah Jevu, who’ll do all the serious legwork with the crowd before the A$AP crew.

Spice Bag Social, secret location, Dublin, tomorrow (SOLD OUT)
There’s no such thing as hitting peak spice bag — the nation’s favourite junk food, drunk food and hangover food has now become the nation’s new techno and soul food.

This is a genius move by the Discotekken crew, jumping on the bagwagon for the first Spice Bag Social in a secret location, and the buzz on Facebook’s ‘Spicebag Appreciation Society’ is more potent than a glitter cannon filled with MSG.

According to the event page, “the tables will be laid out in a long, banquet style, and removed when the fine dining has come to a close”. So that’s soakage sorted, and you’ll work off all those sweet, sweet calories dancing to DJs Billy Scurry (pictured), Discotekken and the RnB Club, who’ll be fighting over who gets to play Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.

You can dance around your spice bag instead of your handbag and then at 3am you can double-drop by hitting the Chinese and finding an after-party.

ANASTACIA, Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Sunday, €41
I nearly crashed into a wall this week cycling past a poster of Anastacia beside one of Kula Shaker — surely two comeback gigs no one would’ve backed a few years ago.

Then I found out that Anastacia isn’t even making a comeback — she’s actually released 12 non-charting singles and three albums in the last decade.
Anastacia songs sound like they should only be played at hen parties, your office Christmas bash or as cheesy house remixes at a discount gym.
Still, the prosecco will be hitting the ceiling when she belts out her big-roaring 2000 hit I’m Outta Love.

Sign o’ the Times screening, Sugar Club, Dublin, tomorrow, €12.50
Since Prince’s death, everybody’s running around hoarse from singing the “honey I know I know I know” part from Purple Rain, but my personal fave Prince bit is the “aaaaaw yeah!” at the start of Sign O’ The Times, and it’ll be amped up tomorrow in the Sugar Club.

The need for the ongoing communal wake is maybe even greater for Prince than Bowie, as everybody cashed in their purple YouTube tokens after a few days. There isn’t much Prince on the video site, so this concert movie is an essential catch-up on one of his greatest works. Then again, everything he did seemed to be one of this greatest things, we’ve also ran out of superlatives in the last two weeks.

Just grab a gang of mates, call yourselves The Disciples and head to this for a few hours of bliss — another gold star for the Popcorn concert movie promoters at the Sugar Club.

Bryan Adams, 3Arena, Dublin, Tuesday, €61.45–73
I was a teenage grunger so I’ve still got the scars of Bryan Adams being No1 for what seemed like half my childhood, with the raspy ballad (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. It was a career-defining money-spinner, but it also means he’ll never be able to do a Springsteen and get claimed back by the cool kids.

Even if Adams is wilfully middle of the road, you can’t be too sniffy about his straight-up double-denim rock. Daft hits Run To You, Cuts Like a Knife and 18 til I Die are still better than 90 per cent of landfill indie, and Summer of 69 is part of everybody’s wedding air guitar DNA.

His 2015 album Get Up! was a well-received piece of radio rock, but everyone in the 3Arena will still be chanting for the classics.