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VA Shows You Must See This Week: November 20 – November 26

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, November 22 & Saturday November 23
Raw Mom Weekend, Night 1: Alfred, Trapcry, Archangel, F.R.E.E.
Night 2: Gumming, True Body, VV, Lance Bangs, Sofia Lakis
@ Gallery 5 – single night: $8 in advance/$10 at the door. Weekend pass: $15 in advance (order tickets HERE)
Hope everyone’s getting their wallets limbered up, their psyches strengthened, and their cars fit for traveling, because it’s that time again! Yes indeed, folks, the holidays are coming sooner than you think — Thanksgiving is a mere eight days away, and Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa are only a month past that. It’s coming time to see the fam, with all the happiness and terror that entails. But before the holiday season officially kicks in, let’s celebrate our river city fam with the first ever Raw Mom Weekend at Gallery 5.

My old pal Rivanna Youngpool has really outdone herself with this one, bringing two nights of incredible local talent together on the Gallery 5 stage to celebrate the ever-renewing wellspring of talent that is the Richmond music scene. Night one is the night on which we will all dance, featuring hip hop, ambient electro, and psychedelic dance grooves from several different politically-informed artists of color. Rapper Alfred will headline and bring his lysergic beats and tongue-twisting rhymes to keep your ears burning and your feet moving. Trapcry, meanwhile, brings powerful electric funk with a strong social conscience, as Archangel explores spaced-out anime-inspired breakbeats.

That’s Friday night, and on Saturday, night two brings us a whole different approach that’s sure to be equally invigorating. The noisy, quirky, brilliant, powerful punk rock of Gumming tops the bill and promises to trip you out and rip your head off all at the same time. Things will get more gothic at points with sets from True Body and VV, while Lance Bangs will bring you an always-pleasing dose of slack indie rockin’. Sofia Lakis will kick things off with some beats to ensure that there’s plenty of dancing on this night as well. What better way do we have to celebrate the last weekend before the holidays spread their ambivalent malaise across the next six weeks? I can’t think of one.

Wednesday, November 20, 9 PM
Ant The Symbol, GIANT, Johnny Ciggs, Reppa Ton, Rah Scrilla, Jarv, C Shreve @ The Richmonder – Free!
Over here at RVA Mag, we’ve been following the work of Ant The Symbol for a solid decade now, since back when he was still Just Plain Ant of the Just Plain Sounds crew. He’s been growing and maturing as a producer and musician ever since, and over the past few years, his massive collaborative albums have become event listening for the entire RVA hip hop scene whenever he releases one. THE WHAT?! is the latest in a string of Ant The Symbol releases on his post-JPS home of Gritty City Records, and it shows that as time goes on, the man just gets better at making incredible music for the city’s best to spit rhymes over.

That doesn’t mean he’s getting predictable — even his latest crew of collaborators can acknowledge that. The first thing Kels says on his THE WHAT?! track, “My Way,” is, “I love you, Ant, but this beat’s weird.” Speaking personally, that’s why I look forward to each new Ant The Symbol project — where others get predictable, he gets creative. He’s put out so many records I’ve honestly lost count, and he still hasn’t come anywhere near repeating himself. That’s why you should make a point to show up tonight at Gritty City’s longtime live home, which is called The Richmonder instead of Emilio’s now but is still the same dope spot. Ant The Symbol’s gonna join with his Gritty City crew and a whole bunch of other talented rappers from Richmond and beyond to bring you the freshest new sounds this city has to offer, in the form of his new album. Don’t be left asking, “the what?” Show up tonight so you know the answer.

Thursday, November 21, 7 PM
Wild Pink, Addy, Recluse Raccoon, Beeline @ Poor Boys – $5
If you’ve been seeing the phrase “Prsmcat Presents” on a bunch of good shows lately, you’re not the only one — this new booking project from members of Majjin Boo has brought a cornucopia of excellent live music to the city over the past couple months, and established themselves as a name to look out for. This visit from Brooklyn’s own Wild Pink is just the latest positive result of Prsmcat’s efforts around town, many of which have involved the return of rad live sounds to the backroom stage at Poor Boys, the venue formerly known as Flora and, before that, Balliceaux. I can’t imagine anyone having any complaints about that.

Wild Pink are definitely worth spending a Thursday night in the aforementioned back room. On last year’s Yolk In The Fur, it’s clear why this trio dedicated their latest album to the memory of Tom Petty — that recently-departed heartland rocker is an obvious influence for Wild Pink, one they feed through a 21st century sensibility that evokes the best work by The War On Drugs. It’s smooth, comfortable, and ever-so-slightly melancholy, in a manner sure to evoke a sad smile of recognition. Wild Pink will be joined on this weekend-preview night at Poor Boys by some excellent local indie groups as well, foremost among them Recluse Raccoon. The results are sure to charm you.

Friday, November 22, 7:30 PM
Bonsai Trees, Dropping Ugly, Linden Row @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
Damn, y’all, I love it when this happens — when I’m poking through a list of bands, all of which I’m unfamiliar with, trying to find the makings of a killer show. I always find something good — this is Richmond, after all; we do live music RIGHT. But it’s rare that I am totally blown away by a band whose name I’ve never even heard before. However, Connecticut’s Bonsai Trees are that rare band.

This talented quartet’s recently-released Learn To Grow LP came out of nowhere to blindside me with its incredible collection of melodic, emotional alt-rock tunes. The more I listen to it, the more stoked I get. At this rate, I’ll be bouncing all over the room by the time they even take the Garden Grove stage Friday night. And whether you’ve heard them before or not, I pretty much guarantee that once they start playing, you’ll be just as over the moon as I am. The fact that their show is free and also features talented RVA combos Dropping Ugly and Linden Row merely sweetens the already-delicious pot. Is that how that particular cliche works? Oh, who cares. All I care about is you going to see Bonsai Trees Friday night. Seriously, do it.

Saturday, November 23, 8 PM
David Shultz, Nick Woods, Jonathan Vassar, Trey Burnart Hall @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $8 (order tickets HERE)
By now, you’re probably used to seeing “singer-songwriter night” tagged onto certain performances that take place around this city, and you’ve come to expect certain things — talented solo performers who are for the most part just getting started with their musical careers, playing a selection of tunes you probably won’t have heard before but you just might love. This Saturday night show at Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall could accurately be termed a singer-songwriter night as well, but if it were, it’d be a particularly stacked one, featuring as it does multiple Richmond musicians who’ve built decade-plus careers here in the river city.

Take David Shultz, for example. From his days fronting alt-country combo The Skyline to more recent solo acoustic outings and now some brand new tunes created with the assistance of multiple Spacebomb-affiliated creators (perhaps a harbinger of positive things to come?), Shultz has quite the track record going for him — and he’s clearly far from done as a creative musical force. His old pal Nick Woods is similar — once the Richmond-based frontman of indie-folk group Orioles, these days he’s making country-style acoustic music down in Nashville. And of course, Jonathan Vassar’s heartfelt folk-Americana sounds have been a constant here in Richmond for over 15 years now. Trey Burnart Hall is a relative newcomer by comparison, but he’s an incredibly talented one. If it’s a showcase for some of the most talented singer-songwriters this city’s ever produced that you crave, you’re in for a major treat at Capital Ale House this Saturday night.

Sunday, November 24, 6 PM
RVA Rap Elite Season Finale, feat. Team Radio (Radio B, Michael Millions, Cole Hicks, Cane, Intalek) vs Team Petey (Nickelus F, Big Sty, Easalio, Illa Styles, Fan Ran), Bravo vs. Chance Fischer, Big Sty, BlackLiq @ The Dark Room – $10
Battle rap is a strong tradition that dates back to the very dawn of hip hop, but it’s had its ups and downs over the decades. Freestyle battles between talented rappers are definitely on the upswing here in Richmond, though, and have been for the past few years, from the work of the Southpaw Battle Coalition to the star-studded presentations by RVA Rap Elite. This particular event constitutes the 2019 Season Finale for these events, which have relocated with the closing of Champion RVA to The Hofheimer Building’s Dark Room.

RVA Rap Elite majordomo Radio B is really pulling out all the stops for this last event of 2019, too — he and his AGM partner Nickelus F have each formed five-MC teams that will battle it out in a cypher sure to have faces melting and heads exploding all over the Hof. Between Radio B’s enlistment of heavy hitters Michael Millions, Cole Hicks, and more; and Nickelus F’s recruitment of Illa Styles, Fan Ran, and other world-class talents, it’s hard to predict who could prevail in this clash of the hip hop titans. Meanwhile, Bravo and Chance Fischer will strut their own stuff in a battle that’s guaranteed to showcase some devastating rhymes from these two top-level rhyme spitters. And of course, BlackLiq and Big Sty will each bring the fire with sets of their own. If you care at all about hip hop in RVA, you have got to make it out to this one — it really doesn’t get better.

Monday, November 25, 7 PM
Jimbo Mathus @ The Canal Club – $15 (order tickets HERE)
It’s entirely possible that right now, you’re thinking what I was thinking when I first saw this listing: “Jimbo Mathus… do I know who he is?” You almost certainly do, but chances are you know him better as the co-founder and leader of the Squirrel Nut Zippers than you do as a solo performer. Everyone remembers the Zippers from their late 90s hit, “Hell,” but that quick taste of success did them a disservice, as their old-time Dixieland jazz approach got them swept into the “swing revival” dustbin with the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and old VHS copies of Swingers when the turn of the millennium rolled around.

Meanwhile, Jimbo Mathus was and remains a world-class talent with a wide-ranging creative sensibility that finds him dipping into the worlds of folk, blues, and Southern soul, as he’s proven with his 2019 solo album Incinerator — his fourth under his own name. The album sees him collaborate with former Zippers bandmate Andrew Bird, as well as Lily Hiatt and members of the Drive-By Truckers. The result isn’t that much like your memories of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, but it’s sure to be a hit with anyone who loves heartfelt American music created by truly unique characters that haven’t been homogenized by our country’s creeping suburban wasteland. That’s what you’ll get from Jimbo Mathus, and you’re going to love it.

Tuesday, November 26, 8 PM
La Dispute, Touche Amore, Empath @ The Broadberry – $25 (order tickets HERE)
One of the first articles I wrote for RVA Mag, nearly a decade ago, was about Touche Amore and Pianos Become The Teeth coming to town to perform. While La Dispute wasn’t part of that gig, they were, along with those other two bands, part of the loosely-aligned group known as The Wave. This was a cadre of half a dozen or so bands who formed an affiliation based on their mutual status as groups attempting to thread the needle between emo and hardcore at the dawn of the 2010s. Those groups have gone in a variety of musical directions since then — Pianos Become The Teeth have dropped the screaming and found a deep well of melodic emotion to draw from, Touche Amore have remained closely musically aligned to hardcore even as their exploration of deeply fraught lyrical content has cut ever closer to the bone.

As for La Dispute, 2019 has seen them sign to Epitaph Records and release their first LP in five years, Panorama. On it, vocalist Jordan Dreyer — always the most literarily inclined of The Wave’s songwriters — has gone deeper than ever into his novelistic inclinations, exploring his own emotional responses to trauma and tragedy in the lives of those he cares about over the course of the album’s 10 songs, even as the rest of the band generates dynamic compositions that move from quiet introspection to overwhelming crescendos in a matter of minutes. The result is an incredible musical journey that will have a powerful impact on all who witness it — especially in the live environment La Dispute will create at The Broadberry this Tuesday night. Let it impact you. Be there.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, November 22, 6 PM
Femme Funk, feat. Shagwuf, Ships In The Night, Harli & The House of Jupiter, Dropping Julia, Marti @ The Southern Cafe (Charlottesville) – $15 (order tickets HERE)
This Friday night in Charlottesville, The Southern Cafe will bring us the third annual celebration of C-ville’s showcase of femme musicians, Femme Funk. This year’s event is set to benefit Planned Parenthood of Charlottesville, and with the kind of peril reproductive rights and women’s health care face in Trump’s America, you’d be hard pressed to find a better cause than this one. Plus, you’ll get to hear a highly diverse set of sounds from Central Virginia performers of a feminine persuasion, and that’s always a joy.

It’s especially a joy when the evening is headlined by the unrestrained rock n’ roll passion of Shagwuf, whose blues-inflected alt-rock has been blowing minds around VA and beyond for quite a few years now. The evening will also feature as wide a variety of sounds as is possible to find in one room on one evening, from Harli & the House Of Jupiter’s powerful soul-punk fusion to Ships In The Night’s dark, ambient electronic sounds to the rootsy pop of Dropping Julia and the indie rocking of Marti. See how much femme artists have to offer the world of Virginia music and take a drive up 64 this Friday night for Femme Funk — you won’t be sorry.

Tuesday, November 26, 7:30 PM
Immortal Technique, GOOGZ @ Elevation27 (Virginia Beach) – $20-$25 (order tickets HERE)
If you’ve just been following the lists of new releases over the past eight years or so, you could be forgiven for thinking that Immortal Technique had retired from the hip hop game. We haven’t gotten any new music out of the most radical rapper in the game since his 2011 collection, The Martyr, and while he swears he’s still working on long-promised fifth album The Middle Passage, there’s no release date as yet. That’s all the more reason to head to Virginia Beach this Tuesday and see Immortal Technique murder the mic, live and in person.

While these days he’s probably better known for his radical left-wing politics due to multiple appearances on the shows of Joe Rogan and (uh) Alex Jones, Technique’s hip hop mixes those politics with some incredibly harsh lyrical content, leaving him somewhere between political rap and outright horrorcore — a dichotomy clearly visible in songs like “Point Of No Return” and “Dance With The Devil.” Regardless of whether you agree with everything Immortal Technique raps about (personally, I’ve never been a fan of his casual use of homophobic slurs), he’s an incredibly talented and provocative MC of the sort who doesn’t come around very often at all. So go see him, because there’s no telling when you’ll get the chance again.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected]

Top Photo: Gumming, by Joey Wharton, via Twitter

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

BlackLiq’s ‘Madness’: A Career Highlight For One Of Richmond’s Most Prolific Hop Hop Veterans

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BlackLiq’s new video, “Madness,” combines some of his strongest lyrics yet with an powerful animated visual sure to burn itself into your memory.

In a city full of great hip hop, BlackLiq‘s name has been at or near the top of the list throughout the past decade. He’s charted the transition the river city’s been through over that time, from “Richmond” to “RVA,” and documented his own growth during that time through intensely personal lyrics that are at times uncomfortably revealing but always highly relatable.

This is a lot of what’s given BlackLiq such longevity in a scene that sees so many rise and fall over relatively brief periods. But it’s not just his talent — it’s his continued productivity. As host of WRIR’s Hip Hop For The Rest Of Us, BlackLiq has been bringing the city’s rhymers together to fill the late-night airwaves with razor-sharp freestyles on a weekly basis for quite a few years now, and this year he’s been charting his own evolution as a freestyle rhyme-spitter by releasing one new compilation per month of freestyles he’s laid down on air. The series, called NOW, is up to Volume 10 so far, with two more left to go before we ring in 2020.

But that’s not all BlackLiq has going on musically; he’s also in the process of putting together his next studio album, The Lie. Whether this new single, “Madness,” will be on it is an open question, but based on its sheer musical quality, I would be happy to hear an answer in the affirmative.

On a strictly musical level, this track is one of the best BlackLiq’s ever given us — and might reach a new level in dark personal revelation when he tells us in the first few lines that “My mom sleeps on my couch every single night, and when I come home late, I check if she’s alive.” Pairing these lines with an ominously powerful backing track, produced by the late, great Honorable Sleaze, makes for an incredibly hard-hitting track that stays with you long past its running time.

The video for “Madness” takes things to another level entirely. Its stark black and white animation, created and animated by Derek Stewart with visual effects and editing by Ason Intrigue, pairs scenes from BlackLiq’s daily life with harrowing moments of hallucinatory terror, in which he is chased through his own mind by monsters and horrific visions of his own end. Anyone who’s struggled with depression and fears of inadequacy and failure will understand where Liq is coming from on this track. Listen to it, watch the video, and keep an eye out for The Lie, coming soon.

VA Shows You Must See This Week: September 11 – September 17

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FEATURED SHOW
Sunday, September 15, 7 PM
Swordplay, PT Burnem, Blackliq, Killroy G, D R O N E S @ Gallery 5 – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It’s always nice when a prodigal Richmond musician returns home, and that’s what’ll be happening at Gallery 5 this Sunday as Swordplay hits Richmond once again to celebrate the release of his latest album, Paperwork. The rapper who last made a mark on the Richmond scene with his 2013 LP Tap Water has been living on the West Coast for over four years now, and he returns to Richmond having received a law degree from Berkeley. Not bad, right?

While Paperwork isn’t technically Swordplay’s first release in six years — a reissue of a 2009 CD-R release (remember those?) called Malista came out on cassette (we would have said “remember those?” about cassettes in 2009) earlier this year on MilledPavement Records — it is the first real new material from Swordplay in over half a decade, and shows quite a bit of growth since Tap Water, even as it retains all the qualities that made previous Swordplay albums so great: forthright emotion, complex and irreverent wordplay, acoustic and melodic touches mixing with pounding boom-bap beats to keep you dancing.

It’s always nice to see what’s been up with someone we haven’t been in touch with for a while. On Paperwork, Swordplay makes clear that he’s still doing well. And for his release party at Gallery 5, he’ll be gathering together a whole bunch of old friends to remind us all what we’ve been missing. He’s joined by some frequent collaborators, including the illustrious and always furiously political PT Burnem and the introspective and talented producer Erik Akers, aka D R O N E S. Sets from veteran Richmond emcee Blackliq and recent up-and-comer Killroy G will round out this bill with some serious rhyme fire. Get ready.

Wednesday, September 11, 8 PM
John Cage’s Musicircus, curated by Brian Jones, Justin Alexander, Antonio Garcia; feat. Suzi Fischer, Pinson Chanselle, Scott Burton, Reggie Pace, Zach Ware, Justin McConchie, Colleen Thorburn, Tony Martucci @ WE Singleton Center For The Performing Arts – Free!
It’s the middle of the week and we could all use something different. But over at VCU’s WE Singleton Center For The Performing Arts, some music-department faculty are getting together with a bunch of notable Richmond musicians to find out just how different things can get. Tonight they’ll all be gathering to perform John Cage’s Musicircus, one of many conceptual pieces created by 20th century experimental composer John Cage, who is most famous for “4’33” (yeah, the totally silent song).

This Cage piece is not silent at all, but instead described as a situation in which any number of musicians are gathered together in the same place at the same time and instructed to play whatever they want, without regard to what anyone else is playing, for at least an hour. If you’re imagining a wall of absolute noise chaos, you’re on the right track — but the whole reason Cage came up with the idea was to get people to look beyond the wall of noise and find the interesting juxtapositions that exist within. With members of the Spacebomb house band, No BS! Brass Band, Luray, The Big Payback, Agents Of Good Roots, and many more talented local musicians involved in this particular performance, potential is high for some amazing sounds to come out of it. Listen closely.

Thursday, September 12, 8 PM
Hand Out, W I S H, Midlife Pilot @ Bandito’s – Free!
Going to free shows is never a bad idea — even if you’ve never heard the bands involved. Take this one, for example — before I checked out the event page for this free show at Bandito’s, I had no idea who Hand Out are. Now that I’m familiar with this New Orleans-based melodic punk quartet, I’m giving this show highest marks. Hand Out’s 2018 EP, Blood & Water, was already pretty great, and they took things to an even higher level of excellence on their split EP with Ghostpool, released earlier this year.

Having spent some time with Hand Out’s ringing guitars, excellent vocal harmonies, and driving tempos, I’d say that they’d be worth paying a significant sum to see live. But hey, at Bandito’s this Thursday, you get to see them for free! You’d be a fool to turn that deal down, especially with local shoegazers W I S H and catchy Richmond pop-punkers Midlife Pilot on the bill as well. Plus — like I’m always telling you with Bandito’s shows — you can use the money you would have spent on admission to buy a big delicious plate of nachos. There’s nothing not awesome about that.

Friday, September 13, 7 PM
Max Gowan, Coy Pond, BigDumbBaby @ Black Iris – $5-10 suggested donation
The experimental sounds that were a regular occurrence at Black Iris a year or so ago have mostly died away or found other places to land, but this Friday night event shows that this gallery hasn’t entirely turned away from live performance — always a nice thing to learn in a city where finding a place to catch live music can sometimes be a challenge. What’s really nice is the sounds Black Iris is bringing us this Friday, mainly from DC songwriter Max Gowan.

Gowan sometimes performs under the name Max Gowan And The, which should tell you a little bit about how he operates. Bygones, the LP he released earlier this year, is full of quietly beautiful acoustic pop tunes that sound like they were recorded in a very private ad-hoc space (a bedroom, perhaps?), but glow with perfect melodies that shine in the slightly experimental context in which they exist. This sort of music may experience an interesting transition into the live environment; indeed, this may be the sort of show that everyone will get the most out of if everyone is very very quiet. But that doesn’t mean you should skip it — quite the contrary. Gowan has a lot to offer, and the fact that you might have to listen closely only makes the eventual payoff that much more rewarding.

Saturday, September 14, 9 PM
Grebes, Nicomo, Moons @ The Dark Room – $5
I haven’t heard much about Richmond-based singer-songwriter project Grebes, and apparently I’ve been missing out. A solo creation from Jacob Ungerleider, who previously played in Natalie Prass’s backing band, Grebes is a keyboard-driven powerhouse of quietly soulful indie pop sounds. They demonstrate their facility with that style on debut LP House Creature, which was released earlier this year, and if you dig the idea of The Beatles jamming with Marvin Gaye in the wee small hours of the morning, you’re going to want to dig into this one.

You’re also going to want to come check out New York trio Nicomo, the Nico Osborne-led trio who just released their latest EP, Views, last month. Its six songs showcase Osborne’s songwriting prowess, and the group’s charming folkish sound, which also mixes in unusual instruments and field recordings to add a bit more texture — though who knows how such things will come off in the live environment. Regardless, it should be lovely. Richmond-based opener Moons will add some texture to the evening with some Hendrix-inspired psych-rock jams to get your night started right.

Sunday, September 15, 9 PM
Serial Hawk, Druglord, Scaphe @ Wonderland – $10
This show is for all you intellectual post-metallers who enjoy slow-motion headbangs but get more stoked when you’re afforded an opportunity for contemplation of sheer riff majesty. Serial Hawk, an epic quartet who mix Isis-style moments of mood with brutal slow-motion pound and outright noise like Windhand jamming with Neurosis, are sure to please your ears when they pound hairline cracks into the Shockoe Bottom sidewalks outside Wonderland this Sunday night.

On tour behind their brand new double LP, Static Apnea, Serial Hawk are bringing an intriguingly complex and less-than-predictable approach to the intersection of two genres — post-metal and doom — which in 2019 can both feel very played out in less capable hands. Serial Hawk will remind you of why you loved all this music in the first place, and they’ll do so while blowing your mind (and your eardrums). They’ll be joined in this by Minnesota ragers Scaphe, who up the tempo and the noise for their complex and scathing two-piece approach. Richmond stoner heroes Druglord will kick the evening off with a set of hazy proto-metal dirges sure to put you in the proper mood for an evening of powerful noise.

Monday, September 16, 9 PM
Triptides, Flaural @ Cary Street Cafe – $10
A name like Triptides might lead you to expect some pretty straightforward jam-band action, but this California crew who are pulling into Richmond for the very first time are much more complicated than all that. Rather than dipping into the Deadhead sound that constitutes the usual brew for everyone’s favorite hippie hangout, Cary Street Cafe, this group takes a left turn into technicolor psychedelic pop.

On latest LP Visitors, Triptides bust out a powerful sound that harks back to some of the best acid trips pressed to vinyl over the past half-century — Innerspeaker, Incense & Peppermints, Skylarking, Magical Mystery Tour, and more all shine through the sounds dished out by this excellent group of psychedelic rangers. Denver’s Flaural are also on the bill, and bring a similarly acid-soaked psychedelic pop style into play; though they may be a bit more grounded in melody, their sound constitutes the perfect pairing with Triptides’ glorious musical space travels. Catch both of them this Monday night, and take a trip into the center of your mind.

Tuesday, September 17, 7:30 PM
Rising Revolution, Finding Verona, Sun Against Artemis, Militia @ The Camel – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)
OK, this is going to be a lot of fun — especially since I didn’t think this kind of thing happened anymore. By “this kind of thing,” I mean random shows bringing together a variety of surprisingly young rock bands from the outer edges of the Richmond suburbs — which are very far out indeed in 2019. Rising Revolution headline this show, and this symphonic power metal group have an entire fictional backstory built up around their band which sounds straight out of Blade Runner, or maybe a Coheed And Cambria record.

Rising Revolution are serious about their symphonic chops, leaning into the sort of operatic vocals and baroque guitar leads that make bands like Dragonforce so entertaining. Meanwhile, Flaming Verona, who hail from out Louisa way and are one of two bands on this show whose only internet presence is an Instagram account (#generationz), are going for more of a Killswitch Engage/All That Remains metalcore-with-emphasis-on-metal thing. Sun Against Artemis have a 70s proto-metal thing going on that makes me think of Deep Purple crossed with first-LP Heart, and Militia are clearly going for some 80s thrash sounds. But what really makes all of them interesting is how young and fresh-faced they are — if most of these bands are too young to drive, I wouldn’t be surprised. How wild is that? The kids are still out there doing it. Get down with it.

Elsewhere Around the State:

Saturday, September 14, 7:30 PM
The Appleseed Cast, Muscle Worship, Long Division @ Charlie’s American Cafe – $15 (order tickets HERE)
The Appleseed Cast have been one of the longer-lived midwestern emo bands to come out of the late 90s emo scene that also produced bands like Braid, American Football, and The Jazz June. They also have managed to stay relatively consistent across a 20-year history that’s seen them endure quite a few lineup changes. At this point, singer-guitarist Christopher Crisci is the only original member that remains, but as the band has always been fueled by his creative choices, that’s not a bad thing.

This summer saw The Appleseed Cast release their eighth album and first in six years, The Fleeting Light Of Impermanence. And if you loved their atmospheric, progressive take on an emo sound that often strayed well into post-rock territory, it’s sure to make you smile just as much as previous efforts have. Crisci’s vocals retain the power to evoke both vulnerability and extreme beauty, and the soaring guitar melodies and powerful drumming only underscore the fact that The Appleseed Cast are still at the top of their game after two decades. How amazing is that going to be in the live setting? It’s certainly worth quite a bit more than the admission price you’ll pay to find out.

Monday, September 16, 5:30 PM
Soulfly, Unearth, Incite, Prison, Arrival Of Autumn @ The NorVA – $21.50 in advance/$25 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Back when Max Cavalera left Sepultura at the height of their fame to form Soulfly, it seemed like the legendarily riff-obsessed guitarist may have screwed up. Now, 20 years later, it’s clear that Cavalera’s choice just managed to create two great brutal thrash bands out of what had been only one. Which is a pretty excellent result, if you think about it. On 2018’s Ritual, the 11th Soulfly album, Cavalera and his crew of metal ragers — which currently includes his son Zyon on drums — show that they can still crank out powerful riffs with a strong Brazilian tribal influence and some serious groove power, just as they always have.

Long-running Boston metalcore rippers Unearth are also on this bill, and have quite a strong track record in their own right. Seventh album Extinction(s), released late last year, shows that Unearth have remained consistently talented at both metal shredding and serious mosh brutality. They’re sure to get the pit raging at the NorVA once they hit the stage. In addition to these two legends of metal rage, this bill also features a few talented members of the younger generation, most notably Phoenix metalcore headbangers Incite. Floridian relative newcomers Prison and Canada thrashers Arrival Of Autumn round out a bill full of serious metal. Get ready.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond