FEATURE SHOW:
Thursday, January 9, 5 PM
Ska Goes Solo Tour featuring Chris DeMakes (Less Than Jake), Ryan Eldred (Catch 22), and Jay Tea (Arrogant Sons Of Bitches); with Pat The Bunny (Ramshackle Glory), One Man Romance, Pedals On Our Pirate Ships, Jake Mayday @ The Camel – $12 (order advance tickets HERE)
Ska fans past and present, the time has come for you all to dig out your checkered clothes and brush up on your skankin’ moves, for the Ska Goes Solo Tour is headed to RVA!
FEATURE SHOW:
Thursday, January 9, 5 PM
Ska Goes Solo Tour featuring Chris DeMakes (Less Than Jake), Ryan Eldred (Catch 22), and Jay Tea (Arrogant Sons Of Bitches); with Pat The Bunny (Ramshackle Glory), One Man Romance, Pedals On Our Pirate Ships, Jake Mayday @ The Camel – $12 (order advance tickets HERE)
Ska fans past and present, the time has come for you all to dig out your checkered clothes and brush up on your skankin’ moves, for the Ska Goes Solo Tour is headed to RVA! OK, in all seriousness, this show will probably not be but so skank-friendly–after all, the frontmen for legendary ska-punk bands Less Than Jake, Catch 22, and Arrogant Sons Of Bitches will all be performing solo acoustic sets at The Camel this Thursday night. However, you can almost guarantee a few songs from these dudes’ much-beloved bands will get broken out. We expect that a majority of the sets you’ll hear this night will be devoted to lovelorn acoustic punk love songs, though, and since all the ska-punk kids from the early 2000s grew up to be fans of gruff-voiced pop-punk bands anyway, that’ll probably be just what the doctor ordered. If you loved what they were doing back then, chances are you grew up to love what they’re doing now, so make sure you’re in attendance at The Camel this Thursday!
And show up on time, for the Ska Goes Solo Tour is not the only great thing promoter extraordinaire Alex Wilhelm of Stay Sweet Records has in store for you! Also on the bill are once (and future?) Ramshackle Glory frontman Pat “The Bunny” and his pals/backing musicians in One Man Romance. These members of Tuscon, Arizona’s Savage Wasteland Music Collective will be bringing their own acoustic punk rock sounds to the stage at The Camel, which dovetails nicely with the whole Ska Goes Solo thing–as do the RVA natives who’ll be opening the show! If you love heartfelt homegrown pop-punk with that heartfelt/beer-soaked acoustic edge, then we’re sure you’re already a huge fan of Pedals On Our Pirate Ships, and up-and-coming young troubadour Jake Mayday will also bring a smile to your face with his solo acoustic jams.
This show is gonna be a bonanza of non-amplified punk rock passion, and will probably include a few upstrokes to boot! So make sure you’re there, and remember–this is a porkpie-hat safe space, so don’t be afraid to rock your ska duds one more time before you don’t fit into ’em anymore.
Wednesday, January 8, 8 PM
My Darling Fury, Floodwall, Andrew Grossman & The Man + The Machine @ Gallery 5 – $5
If you like excellent indie-pop music that both makes an instant impact and leaves a strong impression, then you’re blowing it if you don’t show up at Gallery 5 tonight. My Darling Fury hasn’t been around for all that long, but they’ve left fans and critics in Richmond and beyond raving about their incredible sound. Earning praise for their debut album, Licking Wounds, from PopMatters and CMJ, among others, and scoring a tour with virtuoso psychedelic/electronic musician Kishi Bashi, My Darling Fury have set the stage for 2014 to be their year. And it all starts right here in RVA at Gallery 5 tonight! Come find out what the breathless comparisons to Andrew Bird and Rufus Wainwright are all about.
And while you’re at it, give a listen to the ambient indie soundscapes of Floodwall. Mingling their shoegazey rock tunes with quiet, humming breaks, these experimentalists integrate keyboards, violin bows, and layer upon layer of effects into their sound, showcasing the influence of cerebral alt-rock composers like Thom Yorke and Jonsi Birgisson. Opening up the evening will be DC singer-songwriter Andrew Grossman presenting The Man + The Machine, which is the title of his latest album and presumably also the name of his backing band–unless I’m misunderstanding, which is a distinct possibility. His hybrid of acoustic guitar and melodic vocals with programmed electronics is reminiscent of Grandaddy and other similar indie-electronic hybrids–but what will it sound like live? Show up to Gallery 5 tonight and find out!
Friday, January 10, 8 PM
Typhoon Haiyan Relief Concert, featuring Against Grace, Dead Fame, Mayfair, Cosby @ Strange Matter – $10
This Friday night, Strange Matter will be rocking for a good cause. Joining together with VCU’s School Of World Studies, brothers Chip and Chris Cosby have helped put together an evening of great local sounds to benefit the survivors of the Typhoon Haiyan, which wreaked destruction upon several regions of Southeast Asia last November. The proceeds for this show will be donated to the American Red Cross’s relief efforts in the region.
Regardless of the seriousness of the occasion, though, you can expect a great evening of rock sounds for your donation towards the relief efforts. The brothers Cosby have put together a great lineup for this evening, with the polished, danceable pop sounds of Petersburg’s Against Grace and the mysterious, atmospheric new wave of RVA’s own Dead Fame topping the marquee. While Against Grace will bring back fond memories of the earliest (and best?) tunes by The Killers (back before they discovered Springsteen), Dead Fame will successfully evoke the darkly hynotic feel of The Cure or Echo And The Bunnymen at their mid-80s best. Also on the bill are Mayfair, featuring the always-impressive vocal talents of former Race The Sun frontman Daniel Long, whose current group heads away from pop-punk and towards a more Jimmy Eat World-ish emo-pop vibe. And starting the whole thing off is Cosby, the brother act whose brand new debut full-length, In Flight, has the glittering moonlight-drive alt-pop sound of M83 or the Drive soundtrack–with a bit of rock n’ roll grit thrown in, of course.
It’s a feel-good Friday night at Strange Matter–not only will you feel good about lending support for a great cause, you’ll feel good about seeing some great bands! You really can’t lose.
Saturday, January 11, 5 PM
Asshole Parade, Drugs Of Faith, No Statik, Suppression @ Strange Matter – $7
You don’t see hardcore matinees all that often in RVA these days, but when they come along, they tend to be total face-melters. Boy is that ever true of this Saturday afternoon show, which features a lineup full of legendary veterans of extreme music. Florida fastcore heroes Asshole Parade have been cranking out speedy, angry tunes on at least an intermittent basis since the mid-90s. They made their name with the early EPs collected on 1999’s Student Ghetto Violence discography CD, and further blew everybody away when they returned in 2005 with a slightly retooled lineup and a couple of new records. Since then they’ve been going strong, most recently dropping a split EP with Japanese grind fanatics Slight Slappers, and they’ll surely decimate Strange Matter with their headlining set at this show, even said set does start at the relatively civilized hour of 8 PM.
Also on the bill are No Statik, a Cali-based crew who dish out the kind of raging hardcore that it’s impossible to sit still for. These scene veterans, who’ve previously played in such heavy hitters as Look Back And Laugh, What Happens Next, Destroy, and The End Of The Century Party, amongst many others, will get the pit going the second they hit the stage. For a bit of a change of pace, the legendary “grindfather,” Richard Johnson, will be bringing his latest project, Drugs Of Faith, to the Strange Matter stage. These guys aren’t quite the blastbeat mavens that the other bands on this bill can be, but they’ll still rip your head off with their awesome metal power. And of course, RVA’s favorite experimental duo, Suppression, will be rounding out the bill with a mix of their complex, postpunk-influenced modern tunes and the raging power-violence of their 90s salad days. What more can we possibly tell you? If you love hardcore, you need to be at this show.
Sunday, January 12, 7 PM
From Fragile Seeds, Owel, Floodwall, Lightjars @ The Camel – Free
There’s been a huge resurgence over the past year or so in the emo scene. Not the stuff kids who were going to Warped Tour in 2005 thought of as emo, either–the kind of stuff that got that (always a bit weird and uncomfortable, but what the hell, let’s roll with it) genre tag in the mid-to-late-90s, when bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Cap’n Jazz, and Indian Summer were creating the sounds that defined the term. The mid-2000s pop-punk-with-fauxhawks version of emo was pretty cool too, but the 90s version of the sound has always been closer to my heart. Now it’s back, and I for one am stoked.
The group carrying the torch for 90s-style emo in the RVA scene right now is From Fragile Seeds, an underrated quartet who released an excellent debut album last year called There Are No Maps Left. These guys are big on echoing guitar arpeggios and pensive vocal harmonies, indicating a clear post-rock influence that does nothing to water down their passionate emotional crescendos. More people need to be checking out this band–and this free show Sunday night at The Camel is your perfect opportunity to do so.
Plus, you need to be there anyway, because New Jersey’s own up-and-coming “emo revival” stars Owel are also playing this show, and missing them definitely constitutes blowing it in a major way. Owel, a band my old buddy Brad Nelson got me into, also dropped a stunning debut album this past summer. They incorporate keyboards into their sound, giving them a bit more of a pop flavor that at times almost reminds me of the Postal Service, but they know when to crank up the guitars, and their mastery of big choruses full of vocal harmonies is second to none. Seeing these kids recreate their studio magic in a live environment will absolutely be worth it, and considering this is a free show, you really have no excuse in the world. Local groups Floodwall (whom I’ve told you about once already this week) and Lightjars (whose post-rock/alt-pop sounds will fit right in on this bill) open things up.
Monday, January 13, 5 PM
Math The Band, Navi, The Mothball Fleet, Folk The System @ The Camel – $6
Math The Band is a pretty fascinating group. Their use of fast programmed beats and electronic textures makes clear that they’re part of the video game-loving “Milennial” generation, but unlike 8-bit/chiptune bands such as Anamanaguchi, Math The Band incorporate elements of fast, poppy punk and even ska. The result is somewhat reminiscent of the upbeat nerdery of Bomb The Music Industry, only… glitchier? More electro? It’s cool, even if it’s hard to define. They just successfully crowdfunded their second album, Stupid And Weird, which should be out next month, so we imagine you’ll be getting a sneak preview of their new material at this show.
The local support on this show is equally wide-ranging and unusual, covering the span between Navi’s aggressive two-piece instrumental mathcore to The Mothball Fleet’s accordion-driven polka punk. Plus, Folk The System will dish out some catnip for acoustic punk fans to open up the show. With the wide variety of bands on this bill, you certainly won’t get bored.
Tuesday, January 14, 10 PM
Occultist, Iron Reagan, Burn/Ward, Agnostic Cunt @ Bandito’s Burrito Lounge – Free!
This show is going to be outstanding. Not only does it unite two of the best angry metallic grindcore bands in the city with a couple of promising young musical acts, it does so in the room that is apparently the best-kept secret in the RVA live music community. People who haven’t been to see a show at Bandito’s never believe me when I assure them that the performance room at this particular Tex-Mex restaurant has the best sound in the city, but I promise it’s the truth! And their soundproofing is excellent, so heavy bands like these can turn up without fear. All that, AND the show is free? You better believe I’m going!
Occultist’s album Death Sigils has made positive impressions on critics everywhere from Brazil to right here in RVA, and for good reason. Their brand of blazing thrash is unrelenting and unstoppable, and with vocalist Kerry Zylstra up front screaming furiously and looking like she’ll rip your head off if you get too close, their stage presence is every bit as imposing as their new record sounds. Iron Reagan have a bit more of a fun-loving approach, with their notoriously hilarious lead singer, Tony Foresta, giving songs names like “Eat Shit And Live,” “Midlothian Murder Mile,” and “Holy Water Makes Me Wet.” But this isn’t just Municipal Waste part two–Foresta’s taking an angrier approach to this band, and with backing instrumentation provided by veteran ragers from other legendary RVA metal/hardcore crews like Darkest Hour, Cannabis Corpse, and Hellbear, you can be sure Iron Reagan will make a strong impression in their own right.
Burn/Ward is a new four-piece grind crew whose upcoming 7-song demo is apparently less than 6 minutes long, if that gives you any idea. With ex-members of Street Pizza and Tri State Killing Spree in the band, you know this speed-demon crew is prepared to shred. And of course, don’t forget about openers Agnostic Cunt, who take their rather shocking name from the fact that they do female-fronted power-violence versions of Agnostic Front songs–or so I’ve been told. It’ll certainly be worth showing up on time and checking this craziness out. And really, you should probably arrive an hour early so you can order a plate of nachos (also best in the city) and chow down before the show starts. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.
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Should I be posting about your show? Make sure I know it’s happening–email me: andrew@rvamag.com.
