Newsflash: Radio Rubber Room’s biweekly shows at Emilio’s Downtown continue to be awesome and packed with rock-hungry party animals, while Thursday mornings at work continue to prove a living hell that is well worth dealing with.
Newsflash: Radio Rubber Room’s biweekly shows at Emilio’s Downtown continue to be awesome and packed with rock-hungry party animals, while Thursday mornings at work continue to prove a living hell that is well worth dealing with. Last Wednesday we heard Russell Lacy crooning solo, Industry Standard, and A Woman is a Woman. It was bewildering and encouraging to discover that the last two projects had only played a small handful of shows: bewildering because of the caliber of music I was hearing, encouraging because it means that there are constantly great bands forming under our noses.
Photo by Melissa Brugh
I heard Russell Lacy for the first time at Tobacco Co. several years ago. It was snowing really hard and most of the bands hadn’t shown up. So in lieu of the full Grease Trigger set, Russell did a solo act at the end of the night. He’s been one of my favorite RVA songwriters ever since. His writing is ultra-refined, which I suppose is usually the case with solo acts, but he gives great attention to his warm, rounded-out tone. He croons, but just barely – a full Orbison croon might be unnatural. He avoids sounding overwrought and stays within the realm of his natural voice.
Industry Standard has some early Sabbath attributes I was coincidentally discussing with my roommate earlier that day, with everything centered around “the guitar riff.” I routinely end up describing some band as “guitar heavy,” and at some point, people probably started asking what the hell that means, exactly. Well, with a band like Black Sabbath, or Industry Standard, it’s pretty clear. The progressions follow and revolve around an ever-present guitar melody, in this case provided by Matt Hansen, whose guitar riffs I’d become pretty familiar with when ROMA was playing a lot (ROMA has an album coming out this year, by the way). Riff Fixation aside, Industry Standard helps me feel good about the bands that are blossoming these days; I often get paranoid that there aren’t going to be any more rock and roll bands in the near future. But I think I can put that fear to rest now. The third band, A Woman is a Woman, helped reinforce that notion.
A Woman is a Woman. These dudes looked so happy to be rocking out at what I soon learned was their second show ever. Unpredictable chord changes made this band awesome for me. It all just sounded uncannily novel, atop the lead singer’s twangy, high-register voice. That, and the way they pieced their set together were my favorite parts. With purpose, they opened their set with the last song on The Beatles’ Revolver, “Tomorrow Never Knows.” It’s a decidedly strange and badass song, and it set the tone for the rest of the night.
The Radio Rubber Room shows keep getting better and better, and when one week was a beautiful shitshow, the next you just cannot compare. A fair voice on the air (oops, poetry) tells of the radio show coming back to us, if only in podcast form for now. Also, they’re running a contest for a new theme song–that means you. This Wednesday, at Emilio’s Downtown, we get Imaginary Sons (OneWayRichmond show pick), Dumb Waiter, Night Idea, and Grave Hooker. It starts at 10 PM–check their site for the details, or go here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1435777369996690/
