FEATURE SHOW
Thursday, December 31, 7 PM
GWAR, Kepone, Occultist, Rocket Queen @ The National – $30 in advance/$35 day of show (order tickets HERE)
That week between Christmas and New Year’s Day just feels like a temporal wasteland, doesn’t it?
FEATURE SHOW
Thursday, December 31, 7 PM
GWAR, Kepone, Occultist, Rocket Queen @ The National – $30 in advance/$35 day of show (order tickets HERE)
That week between Christmas and New Year’s Day just feels like a temporal wasteland, doesn’t it? Even if you’re the sort of person who has to keep working during that time, it always feels weird because you’re kinda waiting for the next holiday to happen. Well, this Thursday night, the wait is over, and the payoff is gonna be enormous, because you can celebrate the turn of the year with the mighty alien overlords of RVA and the world! Yes, GWAR is throwing a New Year’s Evil party right here in our fair city, at The National–and somehow, as of the moment I’m typing this, tickets are still available! Can you believe it? I can’t!
If you’ve seen a GWAR show before, you know exactly the sort of chaos you’re in for. Adding all of the blood, guts, alien monstrosity, and sick crossover thrash sounds of a typical GWAR show to the cauldron of lunacy that is pretty much any New Year’s Eve party will surely result in an overload of madness–the exact sort you’re gonna want to be in attendance for! I’m not sure what more I can even tell you to sell the whole thing to you… it’s GWAR, it’s New Year’s Eve, what more could you need?
Well, but there is more, so if by some weird coincidence you’re still on the fence, don’t worry! You’ll be getting a smorgasbord of great music from all of the opening acts as well. Kepone, the reunited noise-rock trio fronted by Michael Bishop–once GWAR’s original Beefcake, now better known as current lead vocalist Blothar–will be dishing out a set of their rad tuneage in advance of GWAR taking the stage. Occultist, that ferocious blackened thrash band of furious geniuses, will be steamrolling everyone with an opening set as well. And the whole evening starts off with a set from amazing local Guns N’ Roses tribute act Rocket Queen, who are bound to give a more vital performance than whatever Axl and the gang can muster up for that Coachella set next year everyone’s talking about. Get ready to get fake blood all over the back seat of an Uber, because it’s time for you to spend your New Year’s Eve with GWAR!
Wednesday, December 30, 6 PM
Van Hagar, Belligerent, Seawhores, Moonlight Beach Club, Worse Curses, Endyear, Caterpillar Trap, Cold Beaches, HANA ACBD @ Strange Matter – $5 suggested donation
Oh my goodness, y’all. This bill is STACKED! And crazily enough, I’ve never heard most of these bands before right now! And yes, they’re all from Richmond, which proves that we’ve got one of the most active and vital underground music scenes in all the land right here in RVA. Find out exactly what is in store from that scene over the course of the new year by previewing 2016 with a ton of bands tonight, all for only $5!
What will you hear at this show? Well, Van Hagar are a bass-drum grind/speedcore experience of unrelenting intensity. Belligerent are strange experimental noise-punk of the most energetic sort. Seawhores (that name tho) are a twangy surf-garage instrumental act–always fun to find one of those! Moonlight Beach Club are a sweet lo-fi indie pop band that I’m stoked to hear more from. Worse Curses’ soundcloud page labels them as “space jazz” and I can’t argue with that assessment. There’s some psych in there too, though. Endyear are a loud post-rock band of the instrumental sort–fans of Shy Low and Everyone Dies In The End should dig this one. And there are a few more bands on this bill, but I’m running out of space! Seriously, what more do you need? There’s a lot of radness to see at this show–come out and see it!
Thursday, December 31, 10 PM
New Year’s Eve Rocktacular feat. Lady God, Cherry Pits, DJ Timmy Abbs @ En Su Boca – Free!
I’m not convinced that everyone reading this will be able to get tickets to that GWAR show discussed above, so if you end up needing a fun low-priced alternative, or if your outfit for the evening is just too cute to get it splattered with fake blood (I know this feel), never fear–there is another amazing rock n’ roll party happening across town in the much more intimate confines of En Su Boca! Show up early and grab some tacos on the patio… or maybe don’t eat outside, it’s gonna be chilly. But either way, get ready for some killer rockin’ jams to kick off around 11 PM.
Things will start off with a set from fun garage/power-pop dudes The Cherry Pits, who’ll get you dancing with their catchy choruses and Ramones-ish primitive pop genius. Then the big event will happen–no, not the ringing in of the New Year, the headlining set from Lady God! This garage/psych trio has been rocking the hell out of Richmond over the past year and a half or so, and they’re set to take it to the next level in 2016–starting right out the gate with this blast of killer jams to ring in your new year! Pick up the two 7 inch EPs they’ve released thus far, if you haven’t already, but make sure you see their set, because there’s really no substitute. Eat some tacos, enjoy some rad sounds, and be careful, y’all–don’t wanna get taco sauce on your cute outfit either, right?
Friday, January 1, 6 PM
An Exhibition Of Ping Pong, feat. Fat Spirit, We Never, California Death @ Gallery 5 – Free!
Soooo… I get the idea that there will be ping-pong tables set up at this show, and people will be playing live in front of us? I’m thinking this will be upstairs in the gallery, so if you want to spend this evening being a table-tennis spectator, that option will apparently be available to you–and the show’s free, so Gallery 5 is your oyster! If you ask me, though, the real important shit happening on this night will be downstairs on the stage. Fat Spirit has returned to the land of the living after the surprising departure of bassist/guitarist/vocalist Charlanne McCarthy last fall.
Fat Spirit have recruited former Gunboat/Young Adult Fiction superstar Matty Timko to play bass, which means this is now a band driven entirely by male energy–but I’m not hating! I definitely am interested to see their future with this wildman in the ranks, though, so join me in checking out the first live performance by the 2016 incarnation of this band. Also on the bill will be surf-psych locals California Death, who’ve got some rad tunes in store for ya. The mysterious We Never will also be in attendance, and this bedroom-psych project of Carter Burton will (I think) feature former New Turk Ethan Gensurowsky and former Young Adult Fictioneer Ben Harsel in the live lineup–so that should be fun as well! Hearing the sounds of ping-pong happening in the background will surely add something to the experience as well (exactly what, I’m not quite sure… but I’m into it either way).
Saturday, January 2, 5 PM
Lucy Dacus, Camp Howard, The Mad Extras, Landis Wine @ Hardywood – Free!
As usual with awesome free Saturday evening shows at Hardywood, this one has something to do with the release of some new flavor of beer or other. And as usual with anything relating to beer, XXX I DON’T CARE XXX. If you ask a nerdy non-drinker like me, the most interesting thing happening at this show is that Lucy Dacus is playing. The brand new issue of RVA Magazine is out, with Doug Nunnally’s great profile on Lucy within its pages, AND I hear that A&R representatives have been looking into what she has going on. I’m not saying those two facts are definitely related, buuuuttt…
Whatever, you don’t care about all that music-industry inside-baseball bullcrap, do you? Me neither. I care about Lucy’s music, and it rules! All we’ve really had to listen to when we’re not at one of her shows is “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore,” and as has been well established, that song is amazing. But if you go see her live, she’s gonna play something like 10 other songs as well, and they’re all just as great. There’s no other way to hear her stuff as of right now, so when you have the opportunity to get a set for free, you take it! Right? I think so. I should also mention that the rad indie-pop sounds of Camp Howard, the catchy rock n’ roll of The Mad Extras, and some solo sounds from White Laces frontman Landis Wine (which I get the idea will be pretty electronically driven) are all also on the menu for this evening, so there are a ton of reasons to be in the house for this show! Even… something about … beer? I dunno, whatever, that too.
Sunday, January 3, 9 PM
Asylum, Mueco, Mocoso, RHDP @ 25 Watt – $8
Y’all, it was so difficult to pick only one show to highlight for this Sunday night. I don’t know when the last time I saw so many good local shows happening on a school night was, and rest assured, if your choice is to head to Gallery 5, or Strange Matter, or Bandito’s instead of 25 Watt, I won’t fault you too much. But really, if you like raging punk rock awesomeness, this place down in Shockoe Bottom is where you should end up on this evening. There’s so much greatness coming to you, and not just the female-fronted, feedback-laced, down n’ dirty punk n’ roll of local heroes Asylum, either! Though their headlining set is certainly noteworthy, to say the least.
We’ve also got two rad Canadian bands showing up on this bill, both of whom are mysterious, heavy, and oh so awesome! Montreal’s Mueco serve up some aggressively noisy, almost staticky-sounding lo-fi D-beat rage on the recorded material I’ve heard, and while I can’t guarantee they’ll capture that same treble-overload sound in the live environment, I can assure you they’ll rip shit up. Meanwhile, Toronto’s Mosoco have a similar dose of screaming noise wreckage for you, though if anything these guys are a bit scarier, what with the crazy vocal effects on their demo (again, something they may or may not recreate live). It’s all capped off by a set from RHDP, a VA Beach band with a rock n’ roll/hardcore hybrid sound–almost like a Japanese Burning Spirit band or something–whose acronym I’m going to pretend stands for Red Hot Datil Peppers, even though I’m sure it doesn’t. Anyway, come to this show and get ready for some sick circle-pit action, because this is punk rock with a capital P!
Tuesday, January 5, 5 PM
Freedom, Angel Dust, Forced Order, Hard Stripes, Night Shank @ Strange Matter – $10
And if Sunday’s 25 Watt show is our opportunity to enjoy some powerful straight-up punk rock, then Tuesday’s Strange Matter show is our opportunity for some equally straight-up hardcore. Freedom is coming to town, and this band is angry, heavy, and straight edge as fuck. They called their new LP USA Hardcore–how’s that for a statement of purpose? Between their relentless two-step “beatdown” parts and the rapid-fire explosions that highlight these tunes, this band is fully prepared to roll right over you, and you’re gonna love it!
I should probably also mention that Angel Dust are also coming to town. These guys aren’t quite as angry as Freedom–there are a lot of catchy choruses and fun rock n’ roll riffs happening in these guys’ music, which means this is less likely to be a full-on beatdown of a set and more likely to be an opportunity to smile and rock out. That’s a good thing too, right? I think so! Revelation recording artists Forced Order will also be on the bill to give this event the proper dose of metallic crossover influence that all hardcore shows should include, so be prepared to headbang for these guys. With well-established RVA locals Hard Stripes and brand new crew Night Shank opening up, this will be a thrilling event full of dudes swinging fists and excited kids doing that finger-point singalong stage move we’ve all seen in Youth Of Today and Chain Of Strength live photos. Whee! Let’s get into it.
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Should I be posting about your show? Make sure I know it’s happening–email me: andrew@rvamag.com.
