With Body&Soul operating a strict over-20s policy down at Ballinlough Castle, and Billy Joel catering to a more mature audience at Aviva Stadium, Summer in the City steps up to give the yoof of Ireland something to do this weekend.
With the Athy group Picture This headlining on Saturday, June 23rd, and the EDM-lite duo The Chainsmokers headlining on Sunday, June 24th, it's clear who these two shows are aimed at: Junior and Leaving Cert students, on the weekend they finally taste freedom. The Killers take charge on Tuesday, June 26th, which will be a night out for anyone who was cramming for the French oral the year Hot Fuss was released or pines for the days of the Soundings poetry anthology.
As a nice alternative to camping in a field for a weekend and losing your mates in a never-ending woods, all three of the Summer in the City gigs are at the RDS, in Dublin, and their roll-calls of support acts should fill up the days nicely (although it’s still on you to keep tabs on where your friends are).
Clean Bandit
Among the bands supporting Picture This (who won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize for song of the year in 2017 with Take My Hand), are Clean Bandit, the English group responsible for the chart-topping tracks Rockabye and Symphony. With the September Song singer JP Cooper and the Donegal band Little Hours also in the line-up, day one will see many men with many guitars (and some violins) taking a very mild approach to rocking out.
While most of Sunday's acts will not stand the test of time, Rita Ora might finally become a fully fledged pop star this year
Tuck into your Mars bar and glug a Lucozade before you check out the line-up for Sunday, because it's hectic: Matoma, John Gibbons, Alex & Echoes, Chasing Abbey and Rita Ora are the warm-ups for the vapid stylings of The Chainsmokers. While most of these acts will not stand the test of time, Ora might finally become a fully fledged pop star this year. Even though there's no release date so far for her troublesome debut album, her latest singles, Anywhere and Girls, show promise, so it's nice to see she hasn't given up hope just yet.
Franz Ferdinand
The Killers' debut single, Mr Brightside, turns 15 this September, and even though the American band took a more serious, Rattle and Hum-style turn on last year's album Wonderful Wonderful, they have enough flamboyance to put on a dazzling show.
They'll be joined on Tuesday by Franz Ferdinand. The Scottish indie band, who are promoting their new album, Always Ascending, still have the bounce that first landed them in our lives in 2003, perhaps thanks to their collaboration with Sparks on the perfectly obscure FFS album.
There’s little coherence in the line-ups of these gigs, but they’re ticking the boxes for very different groups, from teeny-boppers to indie scenesters of days gone by.
Tickets for Picture This and The Chainsmokers cost €49.90-€54.90; tickets for The Killers cost €69.50-€79.50; ticketmaster.ie
