Fans of underground folk music, primitive rock n’ roll sounds, and the kind of stuff Greil Marcus once called “the old, weird America” should dig what The Southern has in store on Thursday, June 19. This powerful double bill featuring Shakey Graves and Wild Child should get the whole place heated up enough to make the warm not-quite-summer air that’ll hit you in the face upon your exit feel like sweet relief.
Fans of underground folk music, primitive rock n’ roll sounds, and the kind of stuff Greil Marcus once called “the old, weird America” should dig what The Southern has in store on Thursday, June 19. This powerful double bill featuring Shakey Graves and Wild Child should get the whole place heated up enough to make the warm not-quite-summer air that’ll hit you in the face upon your exit feel like sweet relief. Shakey Graves hails from Austin, Texas, and this solo artist does the one-man band thing with the help of a vintage electric guitar, a kick drum made out of an old suitcase, and a tambourine that he also plays with a foot pedal. When he’s cranking out his stripped-down take on spooky, atmospheric rock n’ roll sounds, he uses both feet to keep a beat, giving him a stage presence that totally fits his name. Is his “shakey” foot-pedal dance the reason he got the name? Maybe… who can say? What we can say is that he generates a mighty rockin’ roar, especially for just one person–as you can see from his Audiotree session below:
Wild Child features quite a few more members than Shakey Graves–six, rather than just one. They’ve got a unique instrumental lineup as well, mixing all sorts of non-guitar stringed instruments (cello, banjo, ukulele) with a standard rhythm section to create the sort of baroque folk-pop sounds that you can also hear from groups like World/Inferno Friendship Society, or even Gogol Bordello on occasion. However, Wild Child has a good deal more classic indie melodic sensibility operating in their music, so that they are also reminiscent of Belle And Sebastian at times. A random mix, to be sure, but it all adds up to something delightful on songs like last year’s single and title track to their most recent album, “The Runaround”:
Both of these excellent performers will be taking over the stage at The Southern in just over two weeks’ time, and you should definitely be there!
WHAT: Shakey Graves & Wild Child Take Charlottesville By Storm!
WHERE: The Southern, 103 South 1st St, Charlottesville VA
WHEN: Thursday, June 19, 8 PM
ADMISSION: $13 in advance/$15 day of show–order tickets HERE
And you better believe your friends at RVA Magazine can help with that! We’ve got 2 tickets to give away to this show, and they can be yours if you only take the simple step of plugging your info into the Punchtab widget below! Keep an eye out for extra chances to win, and make sure you enter by Friday at 4 PM, because that’s when we’ll close the contest down and pick a winner. Good luck!
