Signs of Life Halloween Spooktacular 2025

About this event

Live music and DJs from early to late w/ spiritual jazz, neo-soul, disco, cabaret-slash-chaotic art-rock, and more – indoors & outdoors!

LIVE:
Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow
A Cosmic Tribute to Sun Ra with Pizza Jazz
Oceanna

DJ:
Pablo Santos
Hewan Mulugeta
Telephones DJs

LIVE + DJ:
Dub Aquatic present:
Dub Aquatic’s Fish World – Dex 'n' EFX set – side bar at The Sugar Club
(dub / electronic / jazz / soca + more)
Brought to you by some of the Cooks But We're Chefs lads.

OTHER DETAILS:
Live caricature / portraiture drawing with Keith Kavanagh aka Kav aka Johnny Cigarettex. Keith is an Irish cartoonist, illustrator and animator who, due to a selection box won in an art competition in junior infants, believes he was made to create. His most recent film Smooth Mouth, completed as part of the Offline Residency, won Best 2D Short Film Award at the Dublin Animation Film Festival 2021. His list of clients include Adult Swim, Trinity College Dublin and Netflix, as well as music videos for artists such as Elvis Presley, Eartha Kitt and Billie Eilish (seriously, this is not a joke, check his website). His work has been presented at numerous festivals and exhibitions, at home and abroad, and he has been compared to a young Rory Calhoun.

ARTIST INFO:
Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow is a five-piece band and theatrical spectacle blending surreal cabaret with chaotic art rock. With songs about bog witches, ear fairies and inside-out cats, their live shows erupt into a fever dream of bizarre costumed creatures and warped storytelling. Their debut album Teatime Terrors was released on Cleopatra Records in 2021, with a second due in late 2025. After years haunting Europe’s fringe and punk scenes, they became festival favourites in their native Ireland. In 2025, Monsieur Pompier took things further with the opening of his Museum of Curiosities in Dublin, a permanent home for the wonderfully strange.

Oceanna is a five-piece instrumental group based in Dublin. Blending rich cultural influences from Brazil and Ireland, they merge jazz, hip-hop, neo-soul, nu-jazz, and… the ocean, with heavy inspo from the likes of Kokoroko, Alfa Mist, and Yussef Dayes. Since their formation in 2023, Oceanna have performed at festivals such as All Together Now, Body & Soul, Prima Volta in Limerick and in Dublin venues such as The Sugar Club, Whelans and The Complex. They have collaborated with local legends Qbanaa and JyellowL, and are currently preparing their first Irish tour to promote their debut EP, dropping October 2025.

Sun Ra was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano / synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Sun Ra led The Arkestra, an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up. This Halloween at The Sugar Club, expect to travel to another dimension with this all-star cast of local jazzers performing A Cosmic Tribute To Sun Ra! On stage you'll find Steve Welsh on saxophone and synthesizer, Darragh Kelly on keyboards, Sean Maynard Smith on bass, Brendan Doherty on drums and Phil Christie on keys.