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VA Shows You Must See This Week: December 4 – December 10

Marilyn Drew Necci | December 4, 2019

Topics: A Will Away, Astral Void, Bandito's, Bent Knee, Black Flake, Black Liver, Boogaloo's, Buck Gooter, Capital Ale House Music Hall, Charlie's American Cafe, Dad, Death Angel, Deathtrap, Dorthia Cottrell, Downhaul, Elvzig, Every King & Commoner, Exmortus, Fuzzy Cactus, gallery 5, Garden Grove Brewing, Good Cretins, Gull, Hell Fire, High Voltage, Infinite Xmas, Insignificant Other, Jenna Kole, Kadavar, Karen Estrella, Krampusnacht, Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery, Madison Turner, Mister Earthbound, Nonfiction, Punks For Presents, Rock You Like A Candy Cane, Ruby The Hatchet, Scott "Wino" Weinrich, shows you must see, Sinn, Sled Boys, Sled Dynamite, Small Talks, Smashing Presents, Snow Control, Spiral Fracture, Sunsleeper, Thank You Scientist, The Canal Club, The Embalmers, The Emma Garell Band, The Golden Pony, The Nine 22's, The Tea Club, Those Weird Neighbors, Tiara, Viktoria Ashley, Woman Crush Wednesdays

FEATURED SHOWS
Friday, December 6, 8 PM
Punks For Presents Night 1, feat. Elvzig, Smashing Presents, High Voltage, Rock You Like A Candy Cane @ Bandito’s — Donations requested
Saturday, December 7, 8 PM
Punks For Presents Night 2 Pt 1, feat. Good Cretins, Black Flake, Sled Boys @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10 requested donation
Saturday, December 7, 8 PM
Punks For Presents Night 2 Pt. 2, feat. Snow Control, Sled Dynamite @ Boogaloos – Donations requested

Last week, we discussed the fact that Thanksgiving is the holiday for jam bands. This week we have to tackle the fact that, as holidays go, Thanksgiving is an exception — the rule for live music around holidays is that there will be punk and metal bands doing tribute sets. It used to be just a Halloween thing, but it’s spread to a variety of other holidays, and through the generous work of Punks For Presents, the punk-and-metal-tribute holiday show has been a fixture of Richmond for around a decade now.

Punks For Presents ensures that our celebrations of this, the most materialistic of holidays, do not overlook the less fortunate. At all of these shows, the group will be collecting donations of toys and cash to be given to the Children’s Hospital of Richmond, so we can be sure that the sick and disadvantaged kids of the area have a good Christmas too. It’s a great cause, and you can be a part of that effort by spending your weekend rocking out at three tribute shows taking place at three different clubs on two nights, which is a pretty good exchange when you think about it.

Start off on Friday over at Bandito’s, where members of Hewolf are presenting a Christmas-themed take on the works of the almighty Danzig, accompanied by equally holiday-themed tributes to Smashing Pumpkins, AC/DC, and the Scorpions, all brought to you by some of the most beloved and talented musicians Richmond has to offer. Then spend your Saturday on Brookland Park Boulevard, where across-the-street neighbors Fuzzy Cactus and Boogaloos will present two shows in one, with bands staggering set times so you can troop across the street to catch the next band as soon as the last one is done! Long-running Ramones tribute act Good Cretins top the bill over at Fuzzy Cactus, with tributes to Black Flag and Dead Boys sharing the stage there as tributes to Bad Religion and Kid Dynamite rock the house across the way at Boogaloos! The block is rocking for a great cause — make sure you’re there to enjoy and support it.

Wednesday, December 4, 6 PM
Woman Crush Wednesdays December showcase, feat. Jenna Kole, Tiara, The Emma Garell Band, Viktoria Ashley @ Lickinghole Creek Shockoe Bottom – Free!

The problem of male dominance at shows, and the need to counteract it by booking shows focusing on female artists, has long been a relevant topic in the worlds of punk and hardcore. However, we’re clearly seeing real progress in the music world as a whole, because the desire to make space for female musicians has spread locally to encompass the indie-folk/singer-songwriter scene as well. That’s what the monthly Woman Crush Wednesday showcases coming to the stage at Lickinghole Creek’s Shockoe Bottom location are all about, and as a woman who loves all genres of music, I couldn’t be happier to see it happening.

This month’s showcase takes place tonight, and the bill is headed up by Jenna Kole, bringing her quietly intriguing folk-rock sounds from the countryside into the heart of the city. She’ll be joined by the female half of local indie-soul duo Tiara & Andrew, presenting a solo set full of smooth, intriguing vibes. The Emma Garell Band will show off their catchy, energetic tuneage and get the room moving, and Viktoria Ashley will open things up with a solo set to get everyone in the mood. It should be a lovely evening of sounds brought to you by women who are too often relegated to the background while men strut their stuff. And if that’s not crushworthy, I don’t know what is.

Thursday, December 5, 6 PM
Death Angel, Exmortus, Hell Fire, Spiral Fracture, SiNN, Deathtrap @ The Canal Club – $18 (order tickets HERE)

It’s been over 35 years since five Filipino-American cousins, all of whom were then teenagers, came together to form one of the earliest and most important bands of the original thrash wave. Death Angel may not be quite as well-known today as the much-vaunted Big Four, but their first three albums made a huge impact on the west coast thrash-metal movement of the 80s, combining galloping speed and guitar pyrotechnics with youthful energy and a wry lyrical approach that shows through in classic tunes like “Bored.”

Three decades later, and Death Angel aren’t as young as they once were (though for a band with a 35-year career, their average age being right about 50 is still noteworthy). But they’re still going strong, dishing out the speed-thrash riffage with intensity and vigor on their ninth album, Humanicide, released earlier this year. Rest assured, Death Angel will rock you right out of your socks at The Canal Club this Thursday night, mixing excellent new jams with time-tested classics in order to create a perfect recipe for maximum headbangs. You’re not going to want to miss it.

Friday, December 6, 7 PM
RVA Krampusnacht “Yuletide Monsters,” feat. Infinite Xmas, Those Weird Neighbors, The Nine 22’s, The Embalmers @ Gallery 5 – Free!

Ah, Krampusnacht. This celebration of Santa Claus’s devilish counterpart, complete with horns and hooves, has become a strong tradition of Richmond’s holiday season, and Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without it. The traditional Carytown Krampus walk will take place this Saturday night, but you’ll be able to get in the mood the night before by spending First Friday at Gallery 5 for their annual “Yuletide Monsters” throwdown.

Music is just part of what you’ll find when you head down to Jackson Ward this Friday night, but there are some noteworthy sounds on offer at Gallery 5 this fine evening, headed up by Infinite Xmas, a project featuring an ambient take on traditional holiday tunes from Lobo Marino’s Laney Sullivan. This will certainly be a new twist on the often-overplayed music of this holiday season. Local performing arts mainstays Mark Slomski and Madame Onca will also bring you a set by their vaudevillian musical duo, Those Weird Neighbors, which should be a true holiday treat, and we’ll hear garage-punk and surf-psych sounds from The Nine 22’s and The Embalmers, respectively. Plus there’s way more artistic and performing action happening, including a wild n’ crazy variety show hosted by Ego Von Hubris, a photo booth run by the Red Vein Army, a dance party featuring ANIMAL’s fearless leader, DJ Dirt Thurston, and of course a fantastic group art exhibition with contributions from over 20 noteworthy local creators. Missing this one may actually endanger your immortal soul. Don’t take that risk.

Saturday, December 7, 6 PM
Thank You Scientist, Bent Knee, The Tea Club @ The Canal Club – $18 (order tickets HERE)

Prog-rock is a much-mocked genre of music, but the main thing people have always mocked about it is its overwhelming solemnity, which tends to come off as humorless pretentiousness. By contrast, prog-rock as a strictly musical genre can be quite enjoyable, especially when a band approaches it with sense of humor at the forefront. That’s the sort of approach Thank You Scientist has always taken — as the above photo of the group in matching bathrobes should make clear. Which is why, regardless of your opinion of bloated prog-rock monstrosities like Yes’s Tales Of Topographic Oceans, you should still make some time for Thank You Scientist in your life.

Their new LP, Terraformer, mixes complex jazz-fusion aspects, driven by the band’s saxophone, trumpet, and electric violin players, with a virtuosic approach to melodic rock riffs that call to mind groups like Circa Survive or Coheed And Cambria. It’s catchy, it’s dynamic, and it’s a whole lot of fun. So whether you want to engage in an in-depth study of complex chord structures or just dance around with a goofy grin on your face, Thank You Scientist will have you covered when they hit the Canal Club stage this Saturday night. Be there.

Sunday, December 8, 7 PM
Kadavar, Ruby The Hatchet, Mister Earthbound, Astral Void @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $15 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)

Thanksgiving’s over, but for Kadavar, the pilgrim hats are a year-round thing. This German band, who’ve been cranking out witchy, psychedelic proto-metal for nigh on a decade now, take an occult-driven approach to groove-laden doom metal. When you think “occult metal,” it’s easy to assume you’re getting Slayer’s Show No Mercy or that first Hellraiser movie, but on their new LP, For The Dead Travel Fast, Kadavar are much closer to Black Widow’s Sacrifice and the original Wickerman. The spookiness of the European countryside is not to be denied, y’all.

Kadavar come to town in the company of Ruby The Hatchet, who hail from a closer proximity (specifically the city of Philadelphia), but still have a strongly witchy doom vibe. These guys strike a really good balance between 70s and 80s pop-culture occult metal on their latest LP, Planetary Space Child, which sounds like an early Blue Oyster Cult record blasting from the tape deck of a Trans Am headed to Camp Crystal Lake, if you know what I mean. With Mister Earthbound and Astral Void rounding out this particular bill, this one will be a real treat for all you denim-vested rock n’ rollers with quartz pendants around your necks. Get with it.

Monday, December 9, 6 PM
A Will Away, Small Talks, Sunsleeper, Black Liver @ The Canal Club – $13 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)

You don’t necessarily need something all that challenging to brighten up your Monday night. After all, we’ve all got a long work week ahead of us, and no one’s really got their Christmas shopping done, no matter what they tell you. So here’s an easy way to bring some lovely sounds into your Monday night — head down to the Canal Club and enjoy a set from Connecticut’s A Will Away.

The quartet describe their sound as “80s pop-rock on acid,” and that might be fair, but just as fair would be to say that their latest EP, the just-released Soup, is a fun slice of catchy tuneage that stands directly on that thin line between power-pop and pop-punk. Which side of the line it leans towards depends on the song, but all of them are a blast to listen to, and this group’s sure to provide a charming end to a day that might need a bit more charm by the time it’s over. South Carolinians Small Talks are slightly more emotionally focused, but still have that killer pop sensibility that will bring a smile to your face even when they’re singing about forlorn topics. Between the two, these bands can brighten up the rainiest and coldest of Mondays. And this Monday might be one of them. Plan to spend it at this show.

Tuesday, December 10, 6 PM
Insignificant Other, dad, Madison Turner @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!

It’s always nice to have a reason to head to Garden Grove — and when you’re a sober girl like me, the brews are never enough. But they’ve subtly carved out a niche for themselves in the local music scene by becoming an extremely reliable source for poppy punky musical fun, and that’s something we can never have too much of around here. This time around, it’s a Close By Air production featuring Florida/Alabama queer pop-punk trio Insignificant Other, and you can certainly expect to get some smiles out of this Tuesday night bill.

I’m So Glad I Feel This Way About You! is the name of Insignificant Other’s newest LP, and it’s a ton of fun, from the both witty and extremely real lyrics about the difficulties of interpersonal relationships to the bouncy, scrappy sound, complete with handclaps, of the super-catchy tunes. Expect a good bit more of that sort of thing when Insignificant Other takes the Garden Grove stage. You can also expect some powerful grunge-punk angst from Richmonders dad, and some speedy acoustic punk tunes full of heart and honesty from Madison Turner. Everything about this one’s gonna be great.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Wednesday, December 4, 7 PM
Downhaul, Nonfiction, Every King & Commoner, Karen Estrella @ Charlie’s American Cafe (Norfolk) – $5

Down in Norfolk, there’s a non-local show featuring a local band on tour that I want to bring to your attention, and I assure you, it’s worth it. Whether you’ve caught up with Downhaul around Richmond, where they’ve spent the past couple years working hard to prove their talent, or you’re still wondering exactly what’s up with this band whose name shows up on a lot of local flyers, anytime is a good time to see what Downhaul is up to. They’ve just released a four-song cassette entitled Tornado Season, and it’s a great demonstration of their Smoking Popes-meets-Hop Along take on melodic, emotional alt-rock. Would calling it “post-pop-punk” make sense to anyone? I have no idea, but it seems appropriate nonetheless.

This current tour for Downhaul pairs them up with Philly’s Nonfiction, a group who are slightly more straightforward in their alt-rock approach, but are sure to appeal to anyone who enjoys sounds in the general emo/indie/pop-punk realm, at least if their latest EP, Same Pain, is any indication. Norfolk locals Every King & Commoner and Karen Estrella round out this bill, making it well worth your time whether you’re a curious Tidewater head seeing what’s up with these regional delights or a Richmonder who knows that a Downhaul set is worth your time even if it involves a 90-minute drive. You’ve got the gas money, right? So use it.

Thursday, December 5, 7 PM
Scott “Wino” Weinrich, Dorthia Cottrell, Buck Gooter, Gull @ The Golden Pony (Harrisonburg) – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)

Sometimes doom metal powerhouses are just as intense without all the volume. This double-headlining bill featuring two legendary frontpeople of the doom world — Scott “Wino” Weinrich of The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, and more; and Dorthia Cottrell of the almighty Windhand — is here to act as proof positive of that fact. Both of these performers have had some artistic success with solo ventures in recent years. While it’s been several years since Wino released a new acoustic venture, 2010’s Adrift is a powerful testament to the strength his music can have even without amplification.

Dorthia Cottrell had a solo release of her own a few years ago, and that self-titled LP on Forcefield demonstrated that the memorable vocals that made Windhand a standout are still attention-grabbing and hypnotic even if they’re laid over an ambient acoustic soundscape rather than a succession of towering riffs. So if you’ve ever had any doubt that heaviness can be achieved without an excess of volume, head for Harrisonburg and this Thursday night and learn what you’ve been missing from two masters of the craft.

—-

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 by Drew Sim Photography, via Facebook

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Cursing With A Mouthful Of Waffles: Buck Gooter’s Glorious Noise

Benjamin West | June 3, 2019

Topics: Billy Brett, Buck Gooter, Finer Thorns, gallery 5, Harrisonburg, Peace Siren, Terry Turtle, touring life

For Harrisonburg duo Buck Gooter, traveling the world playing music is what being alive is all about.

In a partially unbuttoned, jet-black dress shirt and bomber-style leather jacket, coughing echoes of the rockabilly underbelly of Memphis, Billy Brett jumps off the Gallery 5 stage and into the crowd. Everybody in the crowd, sloshing around Narragansetts and pint glasses of Albino Monkey, takes a bit of a step back.

It’s only been a handful of seconds since a driving, industrial, electronic beat has swept the stage, and Brett’s partner, Terry Turtle, wearing chainmail and the mask of what might be a long dead skeleton king, has just lurched forward into his own complementary riff. But a hole forms below the stage, maybe a result of Brett’s abrupt fourth-wall break, or maybe because the writhing, swaying, head-bobbing fans know whats coming — that the sonic scene will burst out over the dusty floor in the form of flying pieces of metal, kicked and thrown off the stage by Brett like bubonic plague carcasses over a medieval castle’s besieged walls.

It might be a large crowd for a Sunday night. Older punk rockers in faux leather and brass studs — straight-laced types in polos and above-the-knee light-wash khakis; arty students, forearms stippled in stick-n-pokes — but it’s by no means packed. Brett throws back his head and explodes into his raspy vocals, the vacant eyes of Turtle’s mask gaze forward as his large hands pluck seamlessly and aggressively at the guitar hanging almost to his knees, and it’s clear that the duo would be playing no differently at the Fillmore, the Grand Ole Opry, a tobacco-hazed basement, or somebody’s backyard. Under Gallery 5’s gaudy, gargoyle stage and the oppressive, blood-red lighting, Brett and Turtle are giving it everything they have. It’s infectious. It’s intoxicating.

Together, along with Turtle’s aesthetically and sonically modded out acoustic guitar, Brett’s soundboard and theremin, and their 2004 Toyota Sienna, Brett and Turtle are Buck Gooter — a sort of noise-rock, industrial metal act out of Harrisonburg. I approached Turtle before they went on, in the almost deafening silence you get immediately after the first band of the night plays, when you aren’t sufficiently drunk and feel caught like a deer in the soundstage headlights. I asked if the legends were true, if Buck Gooter is what you get when you try to say “fuck you” with your mouth full of Belgian waffles (others have said it was soup and crackers)? The look I received could have signaled ironic humor, or maybe just good old salad day memories — he cracked a smile and confirmed. And I believe him.

That afternoon, I had encountered Buck Gooter in the gray spring sun out in front of the venue. Gallery 5 has a way of jutting out into the crosshatched Jackson Ward intersection, like an island in a sea of asphalt. The duo were locked out and couldn’t load their gear inside, so Brett pulled their minivan, slouching on its axles under the weight, up onto the curb for us to lean up against and chat.

“It was an excuse for two country boys to go somewhere, was to be in this band,” Brett said. “Because I had heard about that, I was like: ‘oh yeah, bands tour and stuff, even little, tiny, shitty bands. Let’s do that!’”

Brett is built medium-skinny, with short buzzed brown hair. He’s 33, three decades younger than Turtle, who’s 67.

Photo by Zoo Williams

“Most people don’t think I’m that age,” Turtle said, looking up from his seat on the ground, leaning up, legs crossed against the old firehouse wall. He does look like a turtle, I guess, if you use your imagination. He has big eyes, a beard, and a shock of white hair. You can tell he’s normally a quiet person, but when he gets excited, he almost talks over himself, tripping excitedly in multiple directions at the same time. “I’m into kung fu. I’m into all this shit now, I work out, I do a hundred Hindu squats every morning, yoga,” he said. “I’m into all that stuff.”

Formed in 2005, after 19-year-old Brett stumbled onto some of Turtle’s art on a restaurant wall and decided to seek him out — as a friend, as a bandmate, as an escape hatch from the overpowering grasp of the Shenandoah Valley, –Buck Gooter has been undeniably prolific, releasing 18 LPs in the past 14 years.

“They say 18, yeah. I guess that’s it,” Brett said. “It’s on the internet somewhere.”  

A good chunk of Buck Gooter’s first albums were one-n-dones, small-batch cassette releases shot out into the world and then gone forever. Brett remembers stitching their first record together on his computer, but swore that approach off after hearing the result.

“I’ll never do that again,” Brett said, noting that he’d rather have somebody who knows what they’re doing record and mix them — whether that be in a professional studio or somebody’s basement.

According to Brett and Turtle, a handful of their albums were recorded by Don Zientara, legendary DC DIY label Dischord Records’ unofficial house producer, in his Arlington studio. Zientara is known for recording early Bad Brains and every Fugazi release.

Today you can find about seven of their records scattered over the various major streaming platforms. And you can buy hard copies, vinyl or cassette, from their Bandcamp. Although their focus has been succinctly hardwired on touring, and getting out, the albums are consistently enjoyable and fresh.

I asked Turtle how many shows they’d played over their years on the road. Hurtling through the wheatfields of Iowa, the tulips and dugout coffeehouses of Amsterdam. The wrought iron and greystone peaks of New York City. I expected a wildeyed guess. An, “I dunno. 500? 600? 1,000?” But I was surprised to find that Brett keeps an almost religious record of their tours on his phone. To date the show count is 697, to be exact.

Photo by Paul Somers

Country roooooads

Turtle doesn’t have a driver’s license. It’s not that he can’t, or that he doesn’t know how, or that he grew up in the backlots of some towering city with halfway decent public transportation — nothing like that.

“I’m like an animal — I don’t feel comfortable in a car,” Turtle said.

Rolling down the highway was a fear he had to overcome when Buck Gooter began heavily touring — which was, of course, almost immediately.

“Oh, I’ve had motorcycles,” he said, lifting up the leg of his shorts to show a pale, white scar running up his thigh. “I had a hit and run accident in a place called Bridgewater. And then I moved to Harrisonburg, I just decided I was going to walk.”

Turtle walks a lot, and it’s one of the reasons he believes he’s still alive. After he moved to Harrisonburg, people respected his decision, but would constantly ask, “Why don’t you get a bicycle?”

“Why don’t you walk!?” he’d shoot back at them.

This leaves Brett to do just about all of the driving. In the early days, when Turtle had a bit of an intrusive drug and alcohol habit, highway bystanders — that is, kids peeking through dotted sunshades or white-bearded truckers looking down from their hulking semi truck perch — might have seen Turtle bobbing aggressively to the music and the sounds of the open road. Or maybe he had his head cocked back, passed out cold. It was usually one of these two extremes.

But these days, Turtle has delved into the adventure of sobriety — stone sober, as they say. He spends more time now looking; talking when he feels like it, but also just looking. West Virginia. Kansas. Oklahoma. Northern Canada. LA. Mossy cobblestone. Shark-infested waters. And all the way home to Harrisonburg. I imagine him poking around for vegan food in the neon haze of a backroad corner store, or feeling the air go still and eerie in the blinding midnight of an overlit truckstop.

Many of these moments, these days, are mundane. Dragging. Calm. Brett, an avid reader, might be grabbing a few pages of his current book — or maybe not. Maybe the band is powering through to their next basement gig. Maybe it’s been so many days without a proper bed, a proper wash, that Turtle begins to feel like he’s sinking into his clothes. But eventually, it always ends. They make it back to their sleepy town.

Photo by Paul Somers

But it’s not always mundane. Both Turtle and Brett vividly remember one muggy afternoon coming out of Tijuana, rolling up to the heavy machinery of a border checkpoint, where something like 20 lanes of traffic funnel into each other and sentries pace around with loaded assault rifles. The band found themselves accidentally heading into the center lane, a paid-for service.

“There’s a big sign that says $500 fine if you go here without the right credentials,” Brett said.

“It wasn’t in English,” Turtle half-muttered.

As quickly as they could without causing an accident, they slammed the brakes and Brett hopped out to face the oncoming traffic, congested and inching towards him.

“An officer came and was screaming at us, and then she started whistling and getting cars to stop,” Brett said.

Eventually — their car turned around and headed in approximately the right direction — the band was sent to talk to another federale, who informed them that they would indeed need to cough up $500.

“And I was like: ‘dude, we do not have any money.’ And he’s like, ‘well you have to pay something, man, do you have $200? do you have’ — ‘dude, no! I don’t have any money!’” Brett said, somewhere north of exasperated while recounting the story.

Turtle told me that he did, in fact, have $300 in his pocket, but he kept mum and eventually somebody from another band they were touring with ran up yelling “20 bucks!” The cop asked them to kindly slip it under his paper because “it’s for me, ya know?” And the boys were home free.

“I didn’t worry,” Brett said. “I would have worried more if it was in the middle of, like, a vacant stretch of road.”

“Guy who looks like Tom Brady can do what he wants,” Turtle said.

I laughed — Brett really does look like the football star.

“Doesn’t he?!” Turtle said, following up, laughing too. “I love Tom Brady.”

These shenanigans came as a cap to an odd one-show tour down in Mexico. First, the band was confronted by the intense poverty of Tijuana, where many extremes collide — “You’re sitting in traffic in Mexico and there’s just people everywhere with these poles with these toys all over them, trying to sell them to the cars, and weaving in and out of traffic there’s legless people on skateboards, scooting between,” Brett said. Later, they turned up at “The Mustache Bar” for their show with another band. All the Americans in the room from the Buck Gooter caravan drank copious amounts of beer, and when it was all said and done, the proprietor simply tossed open the register and gave all their beer money back to them. Turtle ultimately wrote their most recent album, Finer Thorns, largely about what they saw south of the border.

“It’s just something totally different for these gringos — a couple country boys, never been there,” Brett said.  

Fourteen years, something like a million miles, and untold gallons of cheap beer stageside, piling up. Buck Gooter said the deserts of Joshua Tree National Park feel like the red slopes of Mars. They remembered crunching gravel up into the holler-pocked hills of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where in the mid-60s, two young couples were the first to report seeing the glowing red eyes and 10-foot heaving wings of Mothman, a beast who would allegedly destroy the Silver Bridge in 1967, killing 46 people.

“It feels weird there,” Brett said, speaking about a giant seawall partially surrounding the downtown strip, shielding Point Pleasant from the river.

“If you go on that side and you walk down the wall, it’s the history of the city in mural form,” he said. “It’s a really dark place. Point Pleasant, West Virginia, I think, was the frontier at one point, and they had to displace — or conquer — the natives to get them out of there, to take over the land.”

Brett compared the grim quiet scene to Derry, Maine in Stephen King’s It, and said absolutely nobody but them was down by the river, on that little trail to take it all in.

One of their favorite places is Serpent Mound, an ancient American-Indian burial ground in rural Ohio, and the longest drive Brett remembers making was 11 hours, when he left an Ohio University at midnight to drive home to Harrisonburg.

Their first out-of-town show was quite literally in a shack in the middle of the woods in that empty expanse of rural wasteland below the “V” made by I-81 and I-64.

“We played a shed in the middle of the woods to three people,” Brett said.

The most memorable moment of that day would have been their host’s extreme irritable bowel syndrome, according both guys, if it hadn’t been for one of the people who showed up to hear them play, filmed them, and told them about a Philadelphia band called Northern Liberties.

“We met those guys shortly after meeting this guy, and they’re still some of our deepest friends in music,” Brett said.

“That guy at that show created that connection,” he said. “It’s just a commercial for ‘every show has something to offer.’ You might get down and out about a gig being shitty, but there’s always some silver lining to it.”

Photo by Zoo Williams

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men

The calloused palms, tanned skin elbow to wrist — it’s hard not to think of the blunt realism of the dust-swept Steinbeck aesthetic when in the presence of Brett and Turtle. They’re often as different from each other, and yet so intertwined, as a modern-day George and Lennie. It’s the decades between them, and their personalities. While Brett takes the lead in most social situations, Turtle seems much more comfortable a step or two outside the center of attention. Turtle writes, mostly, and Brett interprets — lashing and pulling and squirming and kicking, all while Turtle stays squared off against the audience, feet set, hardly moving. Just playing.

I asked Turtle if he had to be coaxed from his quiet home to the open road. Brett chimed in immediately that it was the only way it would have happened. Turtle had been painting and writing and playing guitar all his life when Brett sought him out, but from their first discussions of the band, 19-year-old Brett made it clear that they were hitting the road. That was the only discernible goal. No exceptions.

“Well the band started, and I was like, ‘I’m touring,’” Brett said. “I don’t want to be in a band if we’re not going to tour. I don’t want to be the local band.”

“He said if we form a band, we’re not doing it to dick around. He had plans,” Turtle said. “I’d never met anybody like that.”

But Turtle isn’t simply Brett’s ticket out of the Shenandoah valley. Turtle is good at what he does, and it’s obvious that Brett deeply respects him. He repeated over that Buck Gooter is ultimately Turtle’s band.

“He was unlike anybody I’ve ever been friends with,” Brett said, “and remains one of my longest friends … we established a kind of relationship that’s pretty special.”

“He’s a dedicated guy. He’s interested in music and writing — creation — which is something some people just aren’t interested in.”

I asked both men what they would be doing if they hadn’t found music, but my eyes were leveled at Turtle.

“I’d be dead if I hadn’t met Billy,” Terry said without hesitation, he almost cut me off before the words left my mouth.

Brett followed soon after.

“I’d probably just find music to…play,” Brett said, chewing on his words.

“You’re saying if you didn’t play music you’d have found music to play?” I asked with a grin.

“Maybe!” Brett shot back in a jokey tone. “I don’t know, I don’t know!”

Gallery 5’s stage is like something out of a Heavy Metal magazine, if Heavy Metal skewed hellish and gothic. The stage is wrapped in vintage wood scavenged from grand, decaying buildings. A gargoyle sits hunched directly above the performers, surrounded by orange rendered wooden flames. Buck Gooter felt perfect for the environment. Sound flooded the room and Brett began writhing around, strangling himself with chains and pulling the skin on his face back, comically grotesque. Looking around, many people couldn’t help but smile, not with mocking grins but admiration at the pure, raw, beautiful, burst of energy.

The set went quick, maybe a half-hour and some change. The lights cut on, almost jaggedly abrupt. There was no “one more” warning or call for an encore, it was just happening, and then it wasn’t. Just before the applause and the lights and the ambient chatter of a room full of sloppy patrons, Turtle ended the set by pulling close to the microphone, speaking with his southern accent and a piercing, blunt sincerity.

“We’re Buck Gooter, thank you for listening to us.”

Top Photo by Paul Somers

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: October 17 – October 23

Marilyn Drew Necci | October 17, 2018

Topics: Adult Mom, Ancient Torture Techniques, BB and the Blips, Benderheads, Bonjinski, Buck Gooter, Capital Ale House Music Hall, Chamomile and Whiskey, Charley Crockett, Charlie's American Cafe, CloZee, Cupid McCoy, Deathbirds Surf Club, Derek Ted, Escape-ism, Flora, Frameworks, Full Of Hell, Gull, Haybaby, JFA, Left Cross, My Noodle & Bar, Nervous Dater, Night Business, Outer Heaven, Riffhouse Pub, Ruin By Design, shows you must see, Sinister Purpose, strange matter, The Broadberry, The Camel, The Canal Club, Thee Oh Sees, Ugly Muscle, Vulcanite, Warrington, Weakened Friends, Yamantaka//Sonic Titan

FEATURED SHOW
Sunday, October 21, 7 PM
OH SEES, Escape-ism @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Oh goodness. Where to begin with OH SEES? They’ve been Thee Oh Sees. They’ve been OCS. They’ve been Orange County Sound and Orinoka Crash Suite. For their past two albums, they’ve been OH SEES (in all caps). But whatever anyone is calling them these days, this fearless band of psychedelic musical explorers has been rocking out for over two decades now, during which they’ve produced 21 different albums featuring a wide range of sounds and styles.

Right now, they’re coming to Richmond on tour to support their latest album, Smote Reverser, released a couple months ago. On it, band founder, mainstay, and only constant member John Dwyer is backed by the dual-drumming quartet that’s been his musical ensemble for the group’s last five albums (all of which came out in the past 26 months). While his three backing musicians focus on rhythm, Dwyer’s all over the map, contributing not only his usual acid-drenched vocalizations but guitar, keyboards, Mellotron, Wurlitzer, and various effects that all amp up the lysergia and take your head on a one-way trip to the Crab Nebula.

It’s weird, it’s awesome, it’s unforgettable, and in the live environment, it’s something else to see. Dwyer and co. don’t make it to town very often — this is their first trip through Richmond in half a dozen years — and when they do, they make it count. Unfortunately, so do local music fans; this show sold out as we were putting this column together. You’re welcome to hit up the facebook event page and see if anyone’s got an extra they want to sell you (though we have to warn you, you’re not the first in line). But if nothing else, take this as a lesson to ya — when there’s a possibility of seeing OH SEES, you better not wait until I’m telling you about it. Set up a google alert, because believe me, you’re gonna want to get your tickets ASAP.

Wednesday, October 17, 9 PM
Night Business, Bonjinski, Vulcanite @ Flora – Donations requested
You may not make it into the OH SEES show this week, but you’ll certainly be able to check out some brand new local rock n’ roll tonight at Flora, and that’s a pretty good consolation prize, right? All three of these bands are Richmond-based, all of them have just started to make a name for themselves, and all of them are solid rockers with some great tuneage to bless your ears. Night Business may be the first name on the flyer, but they’re also the newest of these groups, with only one track on their Bandcamp account.

However, a quick look at the names of the band members should catch your interest if you’ve been a longtime follower of RVA music. Members of Eliza Battle, Extant Deth, and Five Flew Over (remember them?) are rocking out in this project, and it sounds like just what you’d expect from those bands — uptempo punk with equal tinges of hardcore rage and power-pop melody. It’s great, is what I’m trying to say. And so is Bonjinski, which brings us some of those killer 90s-are-back riffs a la Dinosaur Jr, or for a more modern example, Ovlov. Vulcanite round this out with some Entombed-style biker-core rockouts, with an undeniable 90s influence of their own that shows up in the occasional Nirvana cover. These may not be household names just yet, but this is an unbeatable trio, and you can’t beat the price for this night of music at Flora either. Scoop the change out of your car’s cupholder, drop it in the bucket, and get ready to rock.

Thursday, October 18, 9 PM
CloZee, Frameworks @ The Canal Club – $17 (order tickets HERE)
OK, listen — I know most of you don’t usually get down with EDM. And I hear you — I don’t usually either. But writing off the entirety of any genre of music is always a bad look, so when I get a hot tip from a friend about an EDM artist coming to town that’s not just the usual twirling glowsticks and bass drops, I look into it. And sometimes, I hit paydirt. This is definitely true of French artist CloZee, who comes to the Canal Club Thursday night in support of her debut full-length, Evasion. CloZee isn’t just another electronic artist who gets onstage, punches a button, and bounces around behind a bank of computers while a pre-programmed file plays through the speakers. She’s not just a producer but a talented guitarist, and often plays guitar as part of her performances.

She also pulls from a wide variety of musical influences to create her sound, which integrates musical styles she’s encountered in her travels around the world with a fundamental grounding in melodic electro-dance rhythms. This isn’t music that gets you shaking your booty to eardrum-imploding bass drops — CloZee takes you on a spiritual journey, using her multi-layered soundscapes to evoke far-flung landscapes and inspire your imagination. You can dance to it, but you’ll get just as much out of the show if you just listen to what she’s playing and let your mind go where it will. Don’t worry, hardcore EDM fans, there’ll still be a complex, enthralling light show and plenty of pounding beats — but if that’s all you get out of the evening, you’re missing the best of what CloZee has to offer. Don’t do that.

Friday, October 19, 8 PM
JFA (Photo by James Sakert), Ruin By Design, Sinister Purpose, Deathbirds Surf Club @ Strange Matter – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Sometimes you’ve just got to take it back to the old school, and who better to do that with than JFA? An acronym for Jodie Foster’s Army (which was originally a reference to John Hinckley Jr’s attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan, allegedly because he wanted to impress Jodie Foster), this Arizona punk band began when a bunch of teenage skate rats wanted to play fast and get under people’s skin. They’ve been doing so for nearly 40 years now, starting with the classic 1981 EP Blatant Localism and their 1983 debut full-length, Valley Of The Yakes. JFA’s connections to the early skateboard culture of Southern California fueled their snotty teenage iconoclasm and love for out-of-control speed, but the group always had unique elements to their sound, drawing from the same surf-guitar style that influenced fellow early West Coast punkers Agent Orange, as well as a low-key weirdness that was all their own.

Their most recent album, Speed Of Sound, has a slightly tougher approach than they showed in the early days, but the nihilistic speed and circle-pit anthems are just as present as ever. No matter what era of their catalog they dip into for their performance at Strange Matter, they’re sure to keep you slamming. As a bonus, they’re joined on this bill by Ruin By Design, the latest driving melodic punk project from former Avail and Lickity Split vocalist Brien Stewart. Their new album, From Ashes To Empowerment, is fast, energetic, and catchy as hell — you’re really gonna wanna see these guys bust it out live. A pair of RVA bands — rockin’ hardcore wildmen Sinister Purpose and retro-surf sweethearts Deathbird Surf Club — will kick things off right and proper.

Saturday, October 20, 9:30 PM
BB and the Blips, Benderheads, Ugly Muscle @ My Noodle & Bar – $8
Here’s some exciting news — the return of UK punk phenom Bryony Beynon to our lovely river city is only days away. You might remember Beynon from her time in the incredible London band Good Throb, a vitriolic burst of musical frustration that took aim squarely at the many frustrations that plague a young woman without much money in our modern misogynistic, class-obsessed society. Their 2014 LP Fuck Off was one of the best albums of the past decade, but the band fell apart soon after its release, and Beynon departed the UK for Australia.

Now she’s back with her new Australian band, BB and the Blips (she’s the BB, if you didn’t guess), and they just released their debut LP, Shame Job, on Thrilling Living Records. Beynon’s energetic vocals are both confrontational and slightly melodic as she delivers odes to feminist heroes (“Materialist Girl”) and sarcastic takes on empty self-help slogans (“The Ballad Of Personal Growth”). Behind her, the Blips bash out some catchy punk tunes that hark back to the catchy rage of foundational punk bands like X-Ray Spex and The Avengers. Like Good Throb, it’s a frenetic dose of witty, angry snark; what’s not to love? Richmond punks Benderheads and Ugly Muscle get this basement-bar show rolling with aplomb, but BB and the Blips are the reason for the season. Don’t miss this one.

Sunday, October 21, 7 PM
Weakened Friends, Nervous Dater, Haybaby @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $10 (order tickets HERE)
I’m not even gonna front — I’m a sucker for stuff like this. Weakened Friends, who hail from Maine of all places, are a kickass trio pulling from the excellent alt-rock sound of classic 90s bands like Veruca Salt and Nada Surf, as well as more modern excellence like Speedy Ortiz and Swearin’, to create some incredibly catchy distorted-guitar anthems. Debut LP Common Blah will hit the world only two days before Weakened Friends hits Richmond, and you’re gonna want to bring whatever cash you can scrounge up to get yourself a copy.

Frontwoman Sonia Sturino puts a ton of energy and emotion into her music, and it bleeds through her frantic vocal performances on advance singles “Peel” and “Blue Again.” I honestly have no idea how she’ll survive a full set of all-out rocking like this, let alone a full tour, but it’s certainly going to make Weakened Friends’ live show worth watching closely. Tourmates Nervous Dater, who hail from the more conventional hometown of NYC, have a bit more melody and less emotional rage in their sound, but the two bands are definitely simpatico, and are sure to pair exquisitely. Local mainstays Haybaby will get things started, and if you haven’t caught on to them yet, you’re going to want to show up on time. If you have caught on to them, you already know that shit.

Monday, October 22, 7 PM
Charley Crockett, Chamomile and Whiskey @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
If you look at Charley Crockett’s name and find yourself singing the theme song to that old Davy Crockett TV show… well, for one thing, you’re at least as old as I am. But for another, you’re onto something — this Texas singer-songwriter really does trace his lineage back to the legendary frontiersman who lost his life at the Alamo. But Charley Crockett is a thoroughly modern young man; growing up on hip hop, he eventually found his way to the streets of New Orleans, where he got into music by busking on the streets. He’s gone through a lot of struggles to get to where he is now — from criminal charges to spending long stretches with no fixed address — but it’s all worked out in the end.

Crockett released his new album — the first of all original material — Lonesome As A Shadow earlier this year, via Nashville conglomerate Thirty Tigers, and it’s got a whole lot of Southern styles wrapped up into it, from old-school country and blues to the Cajun and Tejano sounds he grew up around. Crockett’s music is the real thing, 180 degrees from the million faceless singers with brand-new cowboy hats and overdone fake accents you’ll find on country radio these days. And if you know what true country is all about, you’re sure to appreciate hearing it. Crockett is joined on this bill by Charlottesville’s own youthful progenitors of bluegrass, Chamomile and Whiskey. This show will be the perfect way to chase away a bad case of the Mondays.

Tuesday, October 23, 8 PM
Adult Mom, Derek Ted, Cupid McCoy, Warrington @ The Camel – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Adult Mom’s really come a long way since this project was just Stephanie Knope singing by themselves with a guitar, and I for one am really glad to see it. The group’s 2017 album, Soft Spots, didn’t just bring another top-notch collection of emotionally-driven melodic indie-pop tunes into the world via excellent label Tiny Engines; it also gave a voice to the lovelorn, angst-ridden longings of a new generation of young people with tons of feels who just don’t see themselves represented in the inescapably binary and heteronormative world of mainstream pop music.

Adult Mom makes music for boys, girls, and especially those who don’t fit into either category, who struggle to find their place in the world, to find someone who will see them and love them for who they are and not just whatever restrictive category they can be awkwardly shoved into. On songs like “Full Screen” and “Drive Me Home,” Adult Mom encapsulate all of the beautiful difficulties of our complicated identites, and it’s glorious. No matter what sort of expression feels most natural to you, you’re sure to feel like you fit in at The Camel this Tuesday night. And you’ll hear some excellent music while you’re there — always a good thing.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Friday, October 19, 9 PM
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, Gull, Buck Gooter @ Charlie’s American Cafe – $10 in advance/$13 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Seeing Yamantaka//Sonic Titan is an awe-inspiring experience. They last made it to Virginia several years ago, touring for their album UZU, and anyone who caught their set at Gallery 5 on that tour knows how outstandingly overwhelming they are as a live act. A lot has happened with the group since that time, though, and this year saw the long-awaited release of their third album, Dirt, which brought it all home with a musical statement that takes Yamantaka//Sonic Titan to a new level of intensity.

On Dirt, the group showcases their incredible range, moving from delicate, atmospheric melodies to pounding metallic explosions of heaviness in back-to-back moments. There’s a triumphant air to some of the album’s most epic moments, and if you find yourself recalling Queen’s heaviest moments, or Iron Maiden’s most dramatic, it’s not without reason. But fans of Bjork and Diamanda Galas might find quite a bit that strikes a chord here too. Yamantaka//Sonic Titan contains multitudes. And their dramatic performances, striking song construction, and incredible musical crescendos are worth the trip down to Norfolk — and then some.

Sunday, October 21, 8 PM
Full Of Hell, Left Cross, Outer Heaven, Ancient Torture Techniques @ Riffhouse Pub – $10 in advance/$12 at the door
Maryland grind maniacs Full Of Hell have never been content with the traditional understanding of what it means to play grindcore. Establishing their bona fides with a couple of excellent super-heavy, hyperfast albums back at the beginning of the decade, they began to move in a more experimental direction, collaborating with legendary Japanese extreme noise pioneer Merzbow and Southern sludge-metal explorers The Body. 2017 saw the release of their latest solo album, Trumpeting Ecstasy, and it showed that Full Of Hell’s brutal, uncompromising vision remained fully intact, with all the throat-destroying screams, metallic riffage, and blast beats you could ever want.

Full Of Hell will carry that legacy forward into some serious eardrum destruction when they take the stage at Riffhouse this Sunday night. But you’d be ill-served to consider this nothing more than a Full Of Hell show. Richmond’s own Left Cross, who find a way to merge the darkest, filthiest edges of the hardcore scene with the primitive origins of US death metal, will also be on hand to rip your face off with a rusty crowbar (we mean that in the best way possible). You’ll also get a set from Pennsylvania death metallers Outer Heaven, whose just-released Realms Of Eternal Decay casts a gloomy, foreboding atmosphere over some outstandingly guttural vocals and shred-tastic metal riffage. Reincarnated Tidewater power-violence nutcases Ancient Torture Technique will start this one off, but if you think they’re just another opening act, they’ll be quick to disabuse you of that notion. Show up on time and ready to headbang — it’s your duty as a true metal warrior.

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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] [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: June 18 – June 24

Marilyn Drew Necci | July 18, 2018

Topics: Andres, BC Music 1st, Been Official, Ben FM, Bible Of The Devil, Big No, Bob Oxblood, Buck Gooter, Capital Ale House Music Hall, Desert Altar, DJ Die Hard, Dorthia Cottrell, Dylan Carlson, emilio's, Eric Benson, Fallout, Fan Ran, Fat Spirit, Johnny Ciggs, Long Arms, Machines Of Living Death, Magnus Lush, Minor Poet, Night Verses, Pain Generator, PC Worship, Piranha Rama, PT, Pulses, Rah Scrilla, Reppa Ton, shows you must see, Starr Nyce, strange matter, Strawberry Girls, The Camel, The Sun In The Sea, Twisted Tower Dire, Zac Clark

FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, July 21, 10 PM
PT, Fan Ran, BC Music 1st, Reppa Ton, Rah Scrilla, Johnny Ciggs, Starr Nyce, Ben FM, Been Official @ Emilio’s – Free!
Richmond hip hop is an endless well of delights. There are so many different corners of the scene that merit keeping up with, and it can be tough to give equal attention to it all. But if you really want to be aware of what’s happening in Richmond hip hop, you can’t sleep on Gritty City Records. They’ve been cranking out quality hip hop for close to a decade now, and over the course of their lengthy, prolific run, they’ve expanded their roster to feature quite a few local talents who got their start separately from the label. Talk about supporting the scene.

The latest RVA stalwart to fall into Gritty City’s orbit is PT, a veteran rapper who is not to be confused with PT Burnem, a completely different veteran RVA rapper. PT and Fan Ran have a new album coming out on Gritty City called Airtight (or Ear-tite… or both?) and the first single, “Ain’t Made My Way,” finds PT spitting some raw, real-as-fuck lyrics over local production superstar Fan Ran’s smooth-as-silk yet vaguely ominous beats. It wouldn’t be a bad bet to expect this same level of high-quality hardcore hip hop from the entire album, and you can get a lengthier preview — and a chance to purchase a copy of Airtight for yourself — by swinging by Emilio’s this Saturday night. It doesn’t even cost anything to get in; what have you got to lose?

You’ll get a lot more for your zero-dollar investment as well. Triple-threat rhymer/director BC Music 1st will step out from behind the camera to grab the mic and lay down a set, which one assumes will draw significant material from his latest album, Prayers Are Appreciated. You can pick up a copy of that one at the show too — and you’d be well advised to do so. The rest of the bill brings together Gritty City mainstays like Johnny Ciggs and Ben FM with RVA leading lights like Rah Scrilla and Reppa Ton. Even Atlanta’s Starr Nyce, who got his start in RVA, will deliver a set. If you want to find out what’s going on in 2018 RVA hip hop, Gritty City is your one-stop shop — and this free Saturday night show is the perfect opportunity for you to get on board.

Wednesday, July 18, 7 PM
Strawberry Girls, Night Verses, Andrés, pulses., The Sun In The Sea @ Strange Matter – $13 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Instrumental prog-metal. It’s a thing. There’s this whole scene out there for this kind of music that a lot of us probably forget about, ignore, or flat-out never knew existed. And I know there are probably a lot of you who think it’s nerdy, who roll your eyes and dismiss the whole idea of such a genre without ever giving it a proper listen. But I urge you to reconsider, as groups like Strawberry Girls and Night Verses might just twist your whole head around if you give them a chance. Admittedly, Strawberry Girls are one of those groups with a female name and an entirely male membership, and I’m sick to death of that whole trope. But musically, this group has quite a bit to offer, from their chunky, complex, yet always engaging instrumentals to their occasional vocal tunes featuring a variety of smooth-voiced guests.

One of those guests is Andrés, a smooth-voiced soul singer with some Miguel vibes on his solo work. He recently collaborated with Strawberry Girls on a track called “Party Nights,” which manages to keep the tech-prog vibe going at the same time as it sounds sorta like Chromeo. (I know, right?) Andrés is on this tour too, and in addition to a set of guitar-driven R&B jams of his own, I’d be amazed if he didn’t join Strawberry Girls for at least a few minutes of their set. Night Verses, the LA band who’ll occupy the slot between Strawberry Girls and Andrés’s sets, are strictly instro and get a little heavier and more electronic with their sounds, but they’ve got a lot in common with Strawberry Girls and are sure to get you rockin’ out even as you admire their intricate fretwork.

Thursday, July 19, 8 PM
PC Worship, Buck Gooter, Magnus Lush, Fat Spirit @ Strange Matter – $10 (order tickets HERE)
If you’re anything like me, the second you see a band name like “PC Worship,” you think “this is gonna be some weird electronic stuff.” It’s a fair expectation, to be sure — but in this case, nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, this Brooklyn band gets down n’ dirty, wading around in the same sort of muck that classic NYC sludge-scummers like Pussy Galore and Surgery. They bring in some artsy inclinations as well — folk-associated instruments like violins show up right in the middle of slacker jams that will have you thinking of early Pavement and obscure “only 90s kids will remember” groups like Red Red Meat.

Mainly, PC Worship seem to be a band that has found a way to dig deep enough in the muck to find psychedelic transcendence. And whether you’re the type to love sloppy blues-damaged shambling or astral-traveling space music, you’re sure to find something that will appeal to you in PC Worship’s decidedly non-electronic approach. Things will get even weirder when honestly undescribable VA stalwarts Buck Gooter take the stage for their set, while openers Magnus Lush and Fat Spirit each contribute their own spin on emotionally-driven alt-rock, with Magnus Lush taking things in a more ethereal direction as Fat Spirit dig their toes into the grunge vibe. This is gonna be a fun one.

Friday, July 20, 9:30 PM
Piranha Rama, Minor Poet, Big No @ Strange Matter – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
This is going to be a big night. Piranha Rama has been bouncing around the RVA scene for a while now, but they’ve kept a low profile in the world of recording, mainly choosing to prove themselves on stages around town. They didn’t release their first EP, Beach Body, until a few months ago. But clearly, they were just waiting until the right time, because now, only a couple of months after that first release, they’re following it up with a self-titled full-length that will be available for the first time at this musical extravaganza. Which is to say: if you had plans for Friday night, you better reschedule.

Piranha Rama is a band bringing together members from a variety of local rock n’ roll combos, including Lady God, The Milkstains, and Warren Hixson, and while their first EP was a pretty solid continuation of the sound those groups led us to expect, they’ve got a lot more than that up their sleeves. Their new LP features contributions from local musical superstars like Kenneka Cook and Reggie Pace, and incorporates a variety of unexpected sounds, from spaghetti-western-soundtrack twang to Latin syncopations and lounge-style synth. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll hear plenty of rock n’ roll at this show — but that’s far from the only thing Piranha Rama have to offer. Investigate further if you haven’t already. And if you have, show up for a renewed dose. You need this band in your life.

Saturday, July 21, 7 PM
Dylan Carlson, Dorthia Cottrell, Eric Benson @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Even after setting trends and blazing trails in the world of music for over a quarter-century, Dylan Carlson is remains relevant and interesting. His time with Earth saw him basically create the sludge-beyond-sludge sound that Sunn 0))) has immortalized, before moving on to a sort of ambient folk approach that retained the droning doom vibes of their earlier material while incorporating lush melody and an almost inviting sound. For the last five years or so, Carlson has been working mainly on his own, creating evocative soundscapes with nothing more than his lone electric guitar. It’s this sort of playing that he showcases on his first full solo album, Conquistador, released earlier this year.

Carlson describes Conquistador as “an imaginary Western” (word to Leslie West), and its five tracks, which total just over half an hour (there were single Earth songs this long!) evoke the exact sort of mood and atmosphere that you’d expect from such a thing. While Sergio Leone is a definite influence here, there’s a subtle melodic undercurrent that will remind fans of later Earth material, even as the most droning moments will evoke Earth’s early days of massive heavyosity. Carlson is well-paired on this show with a solo performance by Dorthia Cottrell, whose work separate from doom-metal heroes Windhand has a menacing, windswept vibe of its own, one that could definitely be termed “dark folk.” Meanwhile, Lugweight leader Eric Benson brings us a solo set that may or may not be full of his own take on droning guitar noise — that’s what the last Lugweight stuff I heard had to offer, but it’s been a while now.

Sunday, July 22, 8 PM
Machines Of Living Death, Pain Generator @ Fallout – $5
OK, before we go any further, let’s get one thing out of the way — this is not the band Machines Of Loving Grace. I’ll give you massive 90s-kid Crow-soundtrack-rocking industrial-metal props if that was what you thought, but Machines Of Living Death are an entirely different proposition. Their take on industrial metal is fast, furious, war-hungry, and downright brutal. If anything, this band is death metal — their 2016 album The DOS Of War shows their facility with thrash riffs, guttural vocals, and speedy drums.

But they make it more interesting, not to mention harder-hitting, by incorporating programmed beats, harsh samples, and the sort of technological bleakness that once characterized the best work of Ministry. Imagine “Thieves” or “Stigmata” if they were written by Napalm Death, and you’re on the right track. Whether you’re down with the dour, pounding power of classic industrial or the headbanging thrash rage of death metal, you’ll find something to love in Machines of Living Death. Get into it.

Monday, July 23, 8 PM
Bible Of The Devil, Twisted Tower Dire, Desert Altar, DJ Die-Hard @ Strange Matter – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
The days of muscle cars doing burnouts in parking lots while Judas Priest blasts on the stereo are gone. LONG gone, in fact — I can remember the days when Heavy Metal Parking Lot was a day to day reality at a certain pool hall in my hometown, but I was a little kid at the time, and I’m old! Thankfully, there are bands out there keeping that rip-roaring metal sound alive into a darker modern era when most metal bands are persistently pessimistic. Don’t get me wrong, those bands have a million very good reasons to go all-dark all the time, and scream in dimly lit rooms about how fucked we all are, but sometimes you just want to hear a guitar-slinging band crank out some mega-fun riffs to put a smile on your face and let you forget about [insert insulting nickname for our president here] and all the other garbage that’s an inextricable part of our world in the 21st century.

I’m talking, of course, about Bible Of The Devil, the Chicago crew with a two-decade history of triumphant heavy metal power. This band splits the difference between early Van Halen, early Iron Maiden, and prime New Wave Of British Heavy Metal awesomeness like Angel Witch and Tygers of Pan Tang — and they do it with a joie de vivre sure to light up your Monday night and get your week off to a great start. They’re accompanied on this trip to RVA by North Carolina’s Twisted Tower Dire, who are a bit more straight-up early 80s power-metal, but still share Bible Of The Devil’s devil-may-care joy at showering us all with triumphant metal delights. Desert Altar, a local retro-doom quintet who’ve recently brought an excellent Kyuss-style riff monster of a self-titled debut album into the world, offer local support, and round out this bill full of pure headbanging glory.

Tuesday, July 24, 7:30
Zac Clark, Bob Oxblood, Long Arms @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Gotta be honest with y’all here — I don’t know who Andrew McMahon and the Wilderness are. The fact that Zac Clark is a member of that group is being touted as his foremost qualification for your attention, and it just makes me feel tremendously out of the loop. However, I’ve never been the sort of girl to worry more about the hype than the music, and a single listen to Clark’s 2015 solo LP, I Am A Guest, was enough to convince me that it doesn’t matter what other bands this dude is in. Clark’s songwriting is imbued with equal dashes of 70s singer-songwriter-style melodic introspection (think Jackson Browne and James Taylor — who are both great, in case you weren’t sure) and alt-country pensiveness (here I’m referring to guys like Patterson Hood and Jason Isbell — who, yes, were both in the Drive-By Truckers).

The point here is that you shouldn’t be going to see Zac Clark because of whoever he normally plays with — you should be going to see him because he’s a really good musician and will share some excellent songs with you. The same can be said of Bob Oxblood; he’s played in Jack’s Mannequin and done guest vocals on at least one Kid Is Qual tune, but his solo work — which combines some delicate finger-picked guitar with an intriguingly syncopated backbeat, at least on new EP Domino — is the reason for the season. Openers Long Arms brought us a killer LP last year that might just be the best thing James Menefee’s been responsible for yet (and he was also in Fun Size and River City High, so that’s saying something!) This will be a night of excellent songwriters singing excellent songs. You really shouldn’t miss it.

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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] [and yeah, in case you’re wondering, more awesomeness from my cracked and bleeding fingertips is available at GayRVA — come say hey.]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

RVA Shows You Must See This Week 10/7-10/13

Marilyn Drew Necci | October 8, 2015

Topics: 25 Watt, Abbie Morin, Annabelle Chairlegs, Atta Girl, Bermuda Triangles, Buck Gooter, Cannibal Corpse, Cattle Decapitation, Child Bite, Colectivo Caliban, Empty Hands, gallery 5, Garrett Jamieson, Hardywood, KEN Mode, Lady God, Left Cross, Lower, Lucy Dacus, Makthaverskan, Mostly Crying, Neurology, Night Magic, Ostraca, Pop. 1280, Prayer Group, Shadow Age, shows you must see, Soreption, Spirit Caravan, strange matter, Teen Death, The Broadberry, Torch Runner, Treatment, Valkyrie, Yaya

FEATURE SHOW
Saturday, October 10, 6 PM
Richmond Zine Fest Afterparty, feat. Mostly Crying, Atta Girl, Colectivo Caliban, Yaya @ Gallery 5 – Free!

OK, yes, I partly picked this event as my featured show of the week in order to shine some light on Richmond Zine Fest.
[Read more…] about RVA Shows You Must See This Week 10/7-10/13

RVA Shows You Must See This Week 1/21-1/27

Marilyn Drew Necci | January 21, 2015

Topics: 8t88, Arpetrio, Bandito's, Barge, basmati, Big No, Buck Gooter, Cherry Pits, Downfall Of Gaia, en su boca, Expert Alterations, Fight Cloud, Friend Or Foe, gallery 5, HeadlessMantis, High Priest, Houdan The Mystic, Left Cross, Manzara, Mensroom, Monsignor, Night Birds, Ostraca, Parentheses, Post Pink, Shrunk, Slapshot, strange matter, Suneater, The Camel, Various Eggs, Wildhoney

FEATURE SHOW
Friday, January 23, 5:30 PM
Slapshot, Night Birds, Barge, Friend Or Foe @ Strange Matter – $15 (order tickets here: http://slapshotbarge.eventbrite.com/)

Well damn, this right here is about as old-school as it gets.
[Read more…] about RVA Shows You Must See This Week 1/21-1/27

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