Richmond is feeling like a garage this week. It’s young and clean tuff but not mean. Lean in to it, let loose, get hip, don’t be obtuse. Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? I am your guy at Griffin@rvamag.com.
The Camel | Tuesday, October 1st 2024
Mexican Slum Rats, Winona Forever, Israel’s Arcade
Over the last few years, California has maintained youthful guitars full of sweet optimism. Mexican Slum Rats is what you dance to with your first girlfriend on the top of a parking garage last summer. They hold your hand from summer to fall like an American Smiths, dancing in jangly guitars and mesmerizing lyrics. Every bit of the instrumentation and vocals is open, honest, and sincere like a conversation with an older brother once you have both come to appreciate one another.
Maybe you are not over your ex, and they are not over you. You both lock eyes across the grocery store – that is Winona Forever. They have the tiniest bit of jazz to ‘em which gives them a very romantic and nostalgic flavor to traditional indie rock. Israel’s Arcade feels like it should be in the Lady Bird soundtrack. They remind me of Archer Oh, bringing early 2000’s indie rock to the 1950’s then all the way to the present, and after that whole journey you have something special.
The Camel | Friday, September 27th – 28th 2024
SWAG FEST
This is a real exciting one. Nothing less than a showcase, Swag Fest is some of the best talent we have in this city, jammed with college rockers, rowdy hell raisers, and righteous ragged bandits. Put on by Sockhead Records, founded by the legendary Destructo Disk, this is the young talent of RVA.
Richmond Music Hall | Sunday, September 29th 2024
Red Pears, Ultra Q, The High Curbs
These latin inspired garage rockers really call back to another time, with a gentle guitar driven sound that drifts you in and out of a past you do not know if you were a part of. It comes from a garage but it’s the type of garage you and your friends fall back to when you need to gather yourself. Their sound is chalk full of that carefree feeling you get when it is just you and your buddies against the world.
If you dig local bands like Downhaul and Back Up Kid I think you will like Ultra Q. Their genesis may be that 2010’s indie rock sound but they hit the gas from that point to modernize it. All the charms of that gentle yet direct guitar with 2020’s drums. With their 2017 hit Want, The High Curbs have been churning out catchy indie licks along the lines of some of the older Skeggs tracks and Together PANGEA. They are able to balance the intimacy of a private demo demonstration and a main stage rocker in a way that makes you feel like you are right there with the band.
Cobra Cabana | Saturday, September 28th 2024
Tim Cappello
Tim Cappello has quite the history, working with Peter Gabriel and Tina Turner to name a few. That is not what we are going to focus on. The man is an absolute wildcard. I do caution anyone that watches a live video of his, you may get pregnant. He performs in a wild variety of clothes, with many of his 80’s performances rocking only a leather g-string along with his saxophone. There are some shows that are worth it just on pure shock and confusion; and saxophone. I am rarely sold on any sort of solo, but he absolutely knows his way around some brass.
NEW TUNES
No One Gets Back To Me by The Mitras
The Mitras are such a gem live, and they captured it with No One Gets Back To Me. It hits hard right at the end of your nose and then takes off like a Royal Enfield across the barren stretches of Broad St.
IMPORTS
You Know It’s Dark When Atheists Start to Pray by Jesse Malin, Gogol BordelloA collaboration between two work horses of the rock world , this is a worldly take on the bleak situation the world finds itself. These are two people that I very much trust to help the world in a dark spot, with Malin recovering like a champ from a multitude of health issues, and Eugene Hütz’s unbeatable optimism and charisma.
