D Friday, January 15, 2010 metrolife 15 CLUBS Andy Stott & Claro Intelecto Phil Kieran !Kaboogie 4th Birthday TV Pick This Weekend The Meaning Of Life With Gay Byrne Sun, RT1, 10.30pm Gay Byrne returns with this excellent one- to-one interview series that touches on everything from the everyday to the divine. First up is Gaybos namesake, actor Gabriel Byrne, who discusses, along with his successful career in films and on TV, his ongoing struggles with depression and alcohol and the many events which have occurred through his life and shaped his beliefs. Adam Hyland THEATRE REVIEW The Bacchae 44 Inch Chest (18) Running time: 95min Mary to follow the news team as they cover bizarre stories across the US. The snag is, Mary doesnt know where to go, and the film doesnt either. It seems to be heading for a plain Jane- makeover romcom, but settles for clumsily singing the praises of People Who Are A Bit Different. A decent message if you believed for one moment that this wasnt just Sandra Bullock goofing it up with bad hair and make-up. AS The writers of 2000 sleeper hit Sexy Beast reteam with its star Ray Winstone to far less scintillating effect in this stilted, yet-another-British-gangster thriller a remarkable disappointment given its pukka cast. Winstone leads it as Colin Diamond, a laughably-named London tough chap whose broad-chested (more like big-tummied) machismo gets a fatal kicking when his beloved missus (Joanne Whalley) cheats on him. After punching wifey in the face, drowning his tears in vodka and generally bellowing around the place like Chewbacca with toothache, Colin calls in his supportive underworld mates, who kidnap loverboy and suggest Colin kill him very slowly. With more swearing than five series of The F-word, the aufentic dialogue is toe-curling, but at least the esteemed middle-aged cast, including John Hurt (channelling Steptoe), and Ian McShane (as a greasy old queen) have a ball delivering it. Each competes to out-act, or rather, over-act each other, in a manner that almost distracts from the stagey, repetitive and ill-directed drama. While Winstone entertainingly delivers his reliable impersonation of a human Toffet: hard case, gooey centre. LI-Z higher GIG Paul Potts Underground techno night Test starts the new decade in style with live performances from Andy Stott and Claro Intelecto, aka Mark Stewart (pictured below) from Manchesters brilliant Modern Love label. While both artists are associated with the dub techno sound, this only goes some way to explaining their music. Apart from his bass-heavy Warehouse Sessions series, Intelecto has released two fine albums that fuse melodic techno with experimental electronics and more recently released the sensuous deep house on Chadderton. Stott is as hard to pin down, making everything from scorched earth acid killers like Demon In The Attic to the lurching techno-dubstep of Night Jewel. Both producers are certain to put the mighty sound system in Twisted Peppers basement through its paces this weekend. Tomorrow, Pogo, Twisted Pepper, Middle Abbey Street D1, 11pm, 8 to 10. Dublins producers may get most of the international recognition, but lets not forget that Belfast techno DJ Phil Kieran has been a household name around Europe for the best part of a decade. While Kieran initially released introspective electro for labels like Decals Trama and Billy Nastys Electrix, he quickly changed tack and started to put out big room party techno for Skint and Kingsize. This was followed by a period where Kieran set up a band, Alloy Mental, which married his upfront club sound with a punky attitude. Now Kieran is working alone again, and his debut solo album, Shhhh on Cocoon, unites all of his previous tendencies. Watch him soar in 2010. Tonight, 515, TriPod, Harcourt Street D2, 11pm, 15. Four years is an aeon in electronic music, yet thats exactly how long the !Kaboogie night has survived clublands fickle whims to deliver bass music in all its diverse forms to some of Dublins more discerning and passionate crowds. This weekend is no exception. While the celebrations start early on with live performances from North Strand Kontra Band, Gramaphone Disco and Mouthpiece, the sounds go in a bass-heavy direction in the basement with UK grime act Terror Danjah, who released the Zip Files compilation last year, at the controls. Finally, drumnbass posse Tribe complete the birthday line- up, dropping high octane break beats in the Mezz. Tonight, Mud, Twisted Pepper, Middle Abbey Street D1, 11pm, 8 to 10. In Classic Stage Irelands modern-day adaptation of Euripedes last play, an androgynous Dionysus (Dylan McDonough, pictured) sports a beige ladys mac and a turquoise scarf. If the young god is very much at home tapping into his feminine side, Pentheus, King of Thebes (Steve Cash), is not. When Dionysus arrives in town trailed by The Bacchae a troop of fawning female followers and demands adulation, the women of Thebes are all aflutter, but macho Pentheus scoffs and dubs him a fraud. Ignoring the advice of blind seer Tiresias (Patrick ODonnell), foolhardy Pentheus has Dionysus imprisoned, thus unleashing the wrath of the gods Thebes is razed; the Bacchae start taking out their grievances on livestock; and the king, under Dionysuss spell, begins dabbling in a spot of cross-dressing. This is a forceful, attractive production with an impressive young cast; Cash and McDonough are strong in their respective roles while the Bacchaes floral tea dresses are nothing if not deceptive these are women who can tear a cow to shreds with their bare hands. Director Andy Hinds has a feel for the plays troubling themes and whether this a cautionary tale on the perils of flouting religious law or a satire of a society obsessed with the otherworldly is difficult to say. The conclusion, however, is curiously subdued; when Agave (Lesa Thurman) comes to the realisation that the bundle in her hands is not a hunting trophy but the head of her son, whom she decapitated, she looks about as troubled as someone whos remembered having left the oven on. Otherwise, this is a solid, involving take on a classic text. Daragh Reddin Until Jan 23, Project Arts Centre, 39 Essex Street East D2, 8.15pm, 16 to 20. Tel: (01) 881 9613/4. www.project.ie Susan Boyle wasnt the first big-lunged unknown to achieve overnight fame via Britains Got Talent. In 2007, this televisual extension of Simon Cowells ego was won by amateur opera singer Paul Potts, a mobile phone salesman who, upon making his TV debut, was immediately hailed as the UKs answer to Pavarotti (thats what you get when you pop up in peoples living rooms to belt out a note perfect Nessun Dorma). In proper reality telly fashion, he whooshed straight to the top of the charts in the UK with album One Chance (it would go on to sell an astonishing two million copies). Like Boyle, he also struck it big on YouTube. He was invited to appear on Oprah Winfrey after a video of one of his performances became an internet sensation, whilst he has found further online-enabled fame across Europe and in Japan. Indeed, whilst other reality stars may be better at keeping their faces in the gossip pages, few can match Potts commercial success. As of last summer, he was estimated to have earned a non-too-shoddy 8million. Not bad for a bloke who was flogging Nokia handsets just a few years earlier. Eamon de Paor Tonight & tomorrow, Olympia Theatre, 72 Dame Street D2, 7.30pm, 36 to 40. www. paulpottsofficial.com ONE TO WATCH Erland And The Carnival Erland And The Carnival could be set to follow in the success of Mumford & Sons, given their predilection for folk steeped in the retro-tinged atmosphere of a good old barn dance. Hailing from the Scottish island of Orkney, singer Erland Cooper has assembled his very own carnival in the form of guitarist Simon Tong and drummer David Nock. Theyve both earned their stripes in other bands Tong featured in The Verve and The Good, The Bad & The Queen while Nock has played with Paul McCartneys outfit The Fireman. The bands jaunty pluckings are underpinned by fuzzy psychedelia and darker electric flourishes, proving they have all the fun of the fair and more. But its not all revelry. Another song recounts the true story of a man who leapt to his death while the public filmed the gruesome event from below. This is well and truly folk for the modern age. Ann Lee Erland And The Carnivals self-titled debut album is released on January 25. www.myspace.com/carnival index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html