II. Arts & Culture

Rock Band - Virtual Battle of the Bands
22nd July, 9.30pm, £5 (info)
Exactly what this game was created for - teams compete in a virtual battle of the bands to win some stupidly awesome prices - including Xbox 360 systems and copies of the (gaspingly overpriced) game. Apparently the tournament is also to include the original Guitar Hero games and a few from the Singstar series - expect to see me belting out something on Easy Mode at least once over the course of the evening.

One Man Star Wars
28th July, 8pm, £12 (info)
Canadian actor Charles Ross takes to the Waterfront Studio to solitarily act out the initial (read: only) Star Wars films - single-handedly playing all the characters, singing all the music, fighting all the battles - and condensing the entire trilogy into a single sitting. Pleasantly rescheduled out of the way of last weeks’ TwoStep - can’t wait!

Urban Market
26th July, All Day, Free (info)
The Urban Market extends the usual Saturday morning St. George’s Market to local artists, designers, musicians, photographers, puppeteers, jewellery makers, record labels as the “alternative” side of Belfast take hold for the day. Always worth a look!

Transcend Exhibition
26th July, 4pm, Free (info)
The exhibition - taking place in the Waterfront Foyer right after the Urban Market - places some of the finest work from internationally renowned graphic artists on display in the form of screenprints, paintings, skate decks, customized vinyl toys and video projections.

Transcend Live-Drawing
26th July, 6pm, Free (info)
Leading in from the exhibition opening, many of the artists on display who have travelled over for the launch will take to every surface in sight with sharpies, stencils and spray-paint - covering walls and windows with a blend of graphic brilliance. The amount of wall space we’ve managed to commission is nothing short of staggering - come watch these guys fill it!

SweetTalk
26th July, 8.30pm, £7 (info)
The evening then concludes with SweetTalk - a series of presentations from some leading national creative talents - including Gavin Strange, BrenB, Chris Judge, M&E (Matthew and Emelie) and Aidan Kelly. Expect overflowing amazement and inspiration.

Typically when I write guides to upcoming festivals (apparently becoming quite the tradition), I try to skim through the stuff I’m not terribly interested in as to keep the information interesting and relevant. Drafting such an entry on the Trans Festival has been nye impossible due to the sheer amount of events that I want to recommend. Bear with me, we might be here a while …

I. Music

Fighting with Wire, Skruff & General Fiasco
16th July, 8pm, £3 (info)
Three of the most energetic, high-octane bands in Belfast that you haven’t a hope in seeing for £3 in a years time. You shouldn’t require any more convincing than that, frankly.

Pushborders, AJ Suzuki, Heliopause
17th July, 9.30pm, £5 (info)
TwoStep mixes it up somewhat with the downtrodden Heliopause, electro-poptastic AJ Suzuki and forceful indie stylings of Pushborders (ex- Red Sirus). Having supported Okkervil River and Elbow already, Pushborders are well on their way up.

Push Borders - The Garden State

Barrys Electric Workshop & Skibunny
18th July, 5pm, Free (info)
Listed this as I don’t think I’ve ever seen Barrys Electric Workshop live outside of his performance at Oh Yeah Computer last year, and it’s a freebie so why not?! I wonder how glitchy electronica and a heavy DJ set from Skibunny will go down at 5pm in the evening …

Money Back Guarantee
20th July, 8pm, £5 (info)
So you pay £5 in, enjoy the show, then get your £5 back and split it (or don’t) between the acts - including Cutaways and Paul Curry - depending on how much you enjoyed them. I missed this last year, it’ll be interesting to see if a direct financial incentive affects preformance.

Panama Kings & Robyn G. Sheils
25th July, 5pm, Free (info)
Good friends of Mucho Danke, Panama Kings are fast becoming one of my favorite local bands - the freebie NIMIC showcases give you a great reason to take my word for it and check ‘em out. Support also comes from Robyn G. Sheils.

Indie Takeaway
3rd August, 8pm, £4 (info)
Similar to Money Back Guarantee in its rethinking value for money when it comes to live shows, you’ll receive a “menu” listing all songs to be preformed on the night, enjoy the show, then request a custom-burnt CD of your favorite tracks. La Faro, Escape Act, John Shelly & The Creatures and The Good Fight all feature.

Nevermind Revisited
7th August, 8pm, £10 (info)
Following on from OK Computer, Nashville and Astral Nights, the Oh Yeah Building is now curating the next in its series of “Revisited” nights - Nirvana’s Nevermind. While I don’t like Nirvana - and especially Nevermind - these nights are always worth a look for the local musicians making the album tracks their own.

Things have gotten very text-heavy around here recently, so here are a few snaps from todays wanderings to brighten the place up a bit.

(more…)

The Trans Festival finally officially launched this week - more excitingly with some of the first festival events I’ve had the pleasure to organize. Theres a TwoStep in there (easy enough) but theres also the live drawing, SweetTalk and ‘Add to Set’ - the Flickr exhibition I’m involved in. I’ll be writing about them all with more explicit detail as July approaches, but you’ll forgive some basic plugging in the interim.

TwoStep Presents Push Borders w/ AJ Suzuki + Heliopause
Thursday 17th July
The Limelight, 9.30pm, £5
http://www.transbelfast.com/trans08/gigs.php?i=59

Transcend (exhibition + live drawing)
Saturday 26th July
Waterfront Foyer, 4pm, Free
http://www.transbelfast.com/trans08/gigs.php?i=95

SweetTalk
Saturday 26th July
Waterfront Foyer, 8.30pm, £7
http://www.transbelfast.com/trans08/gigs.php?i=96

Add to Set
Thursday 17th July
Waterfront Hall Gallery, 7pm, Free
http://www.transbelfast.com/trans08/gigs.php?i=94

Details appear to be sketchy at best right down, but word of a new festival from the people behind Shine & The Stiff Kitten - Belsonic - have started appearing both online and in local newspapers. Held over (at least) four days at Custom House Square, The Flaming Lips have been confirmed as headliners for Monday 11th August - with local indie-popsters Oppenheimer also chipping in as support. Expect more of the lineup to emerge in the coming week as the site goes live to deal with tickets for the ‘Lips this coming Monday (12th).

Not discounting The Flaming Lips - who put on one of the most amazing live performances I’ve ever witnessed - this has the potential to be exciting yet. Expect regular updates!

Update: The Zutons now confirmed to headline the 15th.