Scene + Heard: What's going on around the country

MUSIC NEWS: Is this the reunion we’ve all been waiting for? Er, maybe. It was announced this week that Abba are set to reunite for the first time since their well-documented, acrimonious split. 

Kind of. It’s for a “new digital entertainment project” involving virtual reality and artificial intelligence, all in collaboration with music manager Simon Fuller. You might recall ‘Tupac’ returning as a hologram at Coachella a couple of years back. Look’s like the people involved in the Abba event are, ahem, looking to take a chance all over again.

Sad news that radio station TXFM, formerly known as Phantom, has finally come to an end. It’s had plenty of highs and more than its fair share of lows down the years as it initially made the jump from pirate to fully fledged radio station.

pic.twitter.com/9NuHrqcBmD

— TXFM (@TXFMDublin) October 26, 2016

But with great power (well, it was only available in and around Dublin, to be fair) comes great — commercial — responsibility, and for every great song you won’t hear on Communicorp sibling Today FM, there were Kings of Leon and the Killers by the bucketload. So while you raise your glass to the likes of Cathal Funge, Claire Beck et al, the question follows, what of ‘alternative’ radio in Ireland?

Gavin Reilly of Today FM tweeted on Wednesday, as TXFM geared up for its swansong: “Irony of ironies - today is #JNLR day (isn’t every day JNLR day?) and @TXFMDublin grew its audience by over 50% in the third quarter of 2016.” While the idea prevails that streaming and podcasts have replaced the radio for a lot of people, that’s a big audience suddenly not being served.

By the way, Pulp’s ‘The Day After the Revolution’ was the last song spun by TXFM.

GIG WISE: Those on the lookout for something a little more left of field than The Jazz should head to the TDC in Triskel Christchurch this evening.

With new album Black Peak to showcase, George Xylouris and Jim White (Dirty Three) aka Xylouris White (geddit?) are set to captivate. Dublin singer Katie Kim, who has just released her enigmatic new album Salt, is on support. Doors 8pm, tickets €15.

Over at Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, US multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick is in conversation at 6.30pm today and plays a show there at 8pm tomorrow night. Tickets €15.

At Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick tomorrow, one of the hottest Irish acts of the year, All Tvvins, who play a sold-out Olympia tonight, will put on a show that is sure to leave the crowd sweaty and begging for more massive indie floorfillers.

Further afield, both in time and distance, Tegan and Sara (February 19) and Booker T (May 2) have announced shows at Vicar Street.

FILM WISE: With the psychedelic Doctor Strange giving Benedict Cumberbatch fans value for money, the rest of us can look forward to getting spooked good and proper this weekend.

Tomorrow at the Kino in Cork is Spook Screen — “a malacious melting pot of spooky cinema and horror-themed hijinx” — while at the Triskel on Monday are lashings of Scream and Rob Zombie’s 31.

VISUAL ART: The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin has just unveiled its ‘Freud Project’, which features a selection of 30 of the Lucian Freud’s paintings, and 20 works on paper, mostly from 1970 on. You’ve got a bit of time to get it the exhibition though — it’s on until October 2017.

ALL AND SUNDRY: The Comedy Improvised Murder Mystery, starring a couple of faces you’ll spot from TV, continues at Cork Arts Theatre today and tomorrow (8pm).

Finally, keep an eye on @somethingstirs on Twitter for details of Down Below The Reservoir, which claims to be the first Irish fiction podcast, adapted from the works of horror maven Graham Tugwell (Everything Is Always Wrong). It involves some great young Irish writers like Deirdre Sullivan and Sarah Griffin.