Commonwealth Sound Exchange is a celebration of experimental music taking place this weekend. This new festival honors the long tradition of Richmond’s noise community. It’s artist-founded and led, and pulls in national and regional acts similar to Europe’s Unsound...
Editor's Note: Looking to get coverage for your music? We have a submission form. Take a minute to tell us about your project so we can better plan our editorial coverage. You can find the form HERE. Guitars are in this week, but there is a bit of brass for all those jazz heads. These are some shows that I have been looking forward to and a lot...
Artschool, led by RVA Mag contributor Griffin Smalley, released their debut album Nuclear Sons this week, with a release show set for Friday at The Camel. It’s a record shaped as much by trial and error as it is by intention. “I asked my friend Erin Dakota, who had already lived here, and we were friends growing up, if she wanted to learn bass. I...
Over the past six months, three people foundational to WRIR 97.3 FM, Richmond’s volunteer-run station built outside the expectations of corporate radio, rooted in a love of music, giving locals a voice, and creating space where there wasn’t any, have died. All from cancer. It’s hard to put into words, but for those of us who’ve been here a while,...
When was the first time you saw a Black woman fronting a rock, punk, or any type of alternative band? For the vast majority of people, that concept in itself is an anomaly - but for the true punk-heads, names like Skin, Poly Styrene, Stephanie Phillips, Tamar-kali, or maybe Fefe Dobson may come to mind. However, for many Gen-Z aged punk fans,...
Editor's Note: Looking to get coverage for your music? We have a submission form. Take a minute to tell us about your project so we can better plan our editorial coverage. You can find the form HERE. Whole lot of personal favorites on the bracket today. Some far off world travelers, some local killers, whole lot of good stuff. Always good to...
Every year around this time, Richmond slips a little. It starts small and you catch it out of the corner of your eye. Someone in armor pumping gas. A Jedi standing at the crosswalk on Broad, waiting for the light like everyone else. A guy in full wizard robes standing in line at 7-Eleven like this is all perfectly normal behavior. What used to...
Richmond’s riverfront concert season is set to return next month, with more than a dozen shows already announced for the 2026 lineup at Allianz Amphitheater with more to come. The venue, which opened in 2025, is entering its second full season with a schedule that runs from mid-April through late September and spans rock, country, pop,...
Editor's Note: Looking to get coverage for your music? We have a submission form. Take a minute to tell us about your project so we can better plan our editorial coverage. You can find the form HERE. A whole bunch of benefit shows this week. That is what Richmond does best, make killer tunes and help each other out. Got a show coming up? New...
St. Patrick’s Day weekend is arriving in Richmond the way it usually does. Loud, crowded, and full of people who suddenly discover a deep personal connection to Ireland sometime around their second beer. Downtown is preparing for one of its busiest party weekends of the spring. Between pub block parties, bar crawls, rooftop DJs, and the return of...
