1. Coldplay, Croke Park, Aug 29 – Sept 2
It was a tough decision, but our top gig of the year is Coldplay. The Music of the Spheres World Tour came to Ireland in August and September and fans were utterly wowed by the four nights in Croke Park.
Videos on social media showed an explosion of colour and music and contributed to an extreme sense of FOMO for those sitting at home. It was one that turned casual fans into dedicated converts.
Coldplay pictured performing at Croke Park Dublin. Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos.
Our reviewer Nicole Glennon described the night as “an explosion of light on our wrists, a blast of confetti, and a synchronised jump from the pit” and added there wasn’t a single low point during the gig.
With Chris Martin and co busking on Grafton Street as well as a surprise Aslan appearance during one night in Croker, Coldplay easily cemented their spot in the hearts of Irish fans.
Internationally, 2024 was surely the year of the Eras Tour. A tour-slash-best of anthology of Taylor Swift’s entire discography is no mean feat and the US superstar knocked it out of the park for her three nights in the Aviva Stadium in June.
If Coldplay filled their stadium gigs with colour, Swift didn’t need to: her devoted fans did that for her, with costumes to rival Coldplay’s best displays.
For over three hours each night Swift brought us through each of her albums as different eras and as well as the music, fans were kept busy hoping for a glimpse of Swift’s beau, American football star Travis Kelce, who crossed the Atlantic to see her perform.
The Eras Tour will likely be seen as a template for other well-established artists with a similarly extensive back catalogue as it offered something for fans both long-term and new.
AC/DC at Croke Park.
Aussie rockers AC/DC dominated their night in Croke Park in August where review Pat Carty said “nobody could ever match, or get within an ass’s roar of, what was going on”.
By his report, AC/DC delivered everything the crowd could ask for and more.
Carty said their setlist would have made their absent fans weep, it was so good.
‘Thunderstruck’, ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, and more classic hits had the crowd hopping and Carty said the cacophony of sound “could make a rocker out of the Pope”.
No doubt, another FOMO-inducing night for the rest of the country.
Bruce Springsteen in concert at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork. Picture: Eddie O’Hare.
Is there anything quite like the welcome Bruce Springsteen gets in Ireland?
The only rival he has for our affections is Garth Brooks, it seems, as everyone and their dad flocked to see The Boss last May as he blessed venues across the county with his presence and that of the inimitable E Street Band.
“If there’s a man who knows how to satisfy an Irish audience, it’s Bruce Springsteen,” Greg Murphy wrote from Nowlan Park. In Kilkenny he kicked off with an emotional tribute to the late Shane MacGowan, singing ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’.
“Only in Cork,” he chuckled as he brought Christmas to Páirc Uí Chaoimh seven months early with the crowd singing along to ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’.
Springsteen’s three-hour-plus gigs there and in Belfast and Dublin filled the country with a special New Jersey kind of joy.
Nick Cave at the 3Arena.
Despite stirring some debate with his outspoken support for Israel earlier this year, a sharp-suited Nick Cave impressed over two nights at Arena, Dublin, with a captivating and soulful stint at the venue with his four-person backing choir.
Cave has experienced unimaginable family tragedy, losing two of his sons seven years apart, the most recent being in 2022.
Reviewer Pat Carty said Cave seemed “hymnal, haunted by ghosts but redeemed by love” on stage.
It was a performance filled with passion and feeling and with an encore of ‘Into My Arms’ it’s hard to imagine anyone went home that night without a tear in their eye.
Chappell Roan at the Olympia in Dublin.
Want to get tickets to see Chappell Roan in Dublin? Good luck, babe.
Roan exploded onto the pop scene during the year with hits like ‘Hot To Go’, ‘Pink Pony Club’ and the aforementioned ‘Good Luck Babe’ and, while not an emerging star by any means, her sudden fame took many by surprise.
When her newly-minted fans saw she was playing at The Academy in Dublin, the scramble for tickets (priced from just €23) pushed her gig up to the slightly bigger Olympia.
However, demand for access to the long-sold-out gig seemed so high it was assumed she might be upgraded to the 3Arena but it was not to be.
That’s how one of the world’s fastest-growing popstars played to just 1,240 people on a Tuesday night in September in a gig so intimate it is unlikely to happen again while her star rises.
Reviewer Imasha Costa – one of the lucky few to have got a ticket – noted: “It really did feel like we were witnessing the emergence of a superstar.”
Kneecap fly the Palestinian flag at Electric Picnic 2024.
The Belfast group seem to have dominated the music scene in the last 12 months, with a hit film under their belt that’s even made the Academy Award longlists.
David Kent saw the Belfast rap trio in a marquee at Electric Picnic during the summer and said it’s clear they are the future of Irish music: “Being in the crowd as thousands of people belted out ‘C.E.A.R.T.A’ and ‘Get Your Brits Out’ like they had been taught it in school was quite an experience,” he wrote.
Will we see them on a bigger stage next year?
The Wolfe Tones of Brian Warfield, Tommy Byrne and Noel Nagle in concert at Musgrave Park, Cork on Saturday. Picture: Eddie O’Hare
Speaking of bigger stages… In 2023 The Wolfe Tones were the surprise hit of Electric Picnic and this year they were featured on the main stage, coinciding with their ongoing retirement tour.
Brian Warfield, Noel Nagle and Tommy Byrne delighted the crowd and earned extra cheers when they brought Olympic double-gold medallist Kellie Harrington out on stage.
The trio also toured extensively this year for their farewell tour, which now extends into 2025 and has a new end venue of Thomond Park in Limerick.
In June I was at their final Cork gig – a full circle moment as they were also the first gig I ever attended fadó fadó – and Musgrave Park’s ticketholders were there for a retirement party like no other.
The group are calling it a day next year after over six decades together and it is hard to imagine we will see their like again.
Lyra in concert at Live At The Marquee. Picture: Eddie O’Hare.
If you have been reading this list and thinking ‘it needs more Cork’ then you’re in luck. Cork singer-songwriter Lyra found herself headlining Live at the Marquee this summer and it was an electric night.
Having missed her Cork Opera House gig thanks to a dose of the flu last February I was thrilled to see the Bandon star during the Leeside summer festival and she delivered a night to remember.
Not only can she sing, but Lyra clearly has the gift of the gab and her stories from the stage are as engaging as her music – plus hearing her unfiltered Cork accent is so refreshing.
Her ‘Weird Club’ of fans is only growing in numbers and it will be interesting to see what Lyra gets up to in 2025.
Fontaines DC at 3Arena, Dublin in December 2024.
It’s been quite a year for Dublin group Fontaines DC: their fourth album, Romance, was released in August this year and has scooped up awards including The Album Award at the Rolling Stone UK Awards.
Reviewer Eoghan O’Sullivan was at one of their two recent 3Arena gigs and had nothing but praise for the five-piece band, likening them to Oasis at the height of their fame in the mid-1990s.
“‘Roman Holiday’ even kicks off with a guitar line Noel Gallagher would be jealous of,” he wrote.
O’Sullivan noted Fontaines’ annual Christmas homecoming first started in 2019 with two gigs in Vicar Street — a venue with a 1,500-personal capacity — and this year played to “about 28,000 people” at the 3Arena.
As O’Sullivan said: “Who knows where it’ll take Fontaines DC by the time December 2026 rolls around…”
Nicole Glennon
With all the Taylor Swift-themed coverage and events hitting Dublin weeks before the star herself, I am sure some fans worried that the the gigs themselves wouldn’t, couldn’t, live up to the hype.
Thankfully, this wasn’t the case – at least not for me. As a long-time Swiftie (16 years and counting), The Eras Tour: Dublin was everything I wanted and more.
For 3.5+ hours on Friday (via a grainy live stream), Saturday (up in the rafters) and Sunday (in the pit), I watched the world’s biggest popstar, and the girl that first had me fall in love with the art of songwriting, perform at the peak of her career. Gig of the year? More like gig of my life.
Des O’Driscoll
Despite the cancellation of Kamasi Washington, the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival provided several of my gig highlights this year.
I enjoyed all three of the shows I saw in the Opera House but the standout was probably the Buena Vista All Stars.
I’d half-expected something a bit more cabaret-ish, but ended up being blown away by the quality of the 11-piece ensemble. When played as well as this, those Cuban classics really are timeless tunes. The lively crowd – who included plenty Latino ex-pats – lapped it up.
And an honourable mention to the Alice Coltrane tribute at Triskel from Alina Bzhezhinska, Brian Jackson, and co. I never got to see the legendary harpist herself play, but the opening 15 minutes of that tribute was sheer spiritual-jazz perfection.
Joe Dermody
Catching three very different Christy Moore gigs made 2024 very special for me.
Three very different nights. His Marquee show in June was powerful. In October, I was at a special preview for Christy’s new album, A Terrible Beauty, at Fuel, a new venue in Dublin; at an intimate, upbeat event also attended by his family, Christy answered writer Leagues O’Toole’s questions, along with a selection of the new songs.
The album topped the Irish charts. A few weeks later, I went to one of his 12 nights in Vicar Street. Three very different nights, setlists, atmospheres. All epic, all etched into memory.
To top it all, Christy also gave me an interview for the Irish Examiner ahead of the album launch. Santa, your work here is done. Crowded House in Musgrave Park was also a great show.