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VA Shows You Must See This Week: November 7 – November 13

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, November 10, 8 PM
GWAR, Municipal Waste, Miss May I, Toxic Holocaust, HAUNT @ The National – $22 in advance/$25 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Folks, it’s time once again that we check in on Richmond’s reigning masters of bloodthirsty metal from outer space. Everyone’s favorite homicidal aliens, GWAR, will return to the National’s stage once again this Saturday night, and it’s sure to be an absolute gorefest, so you know what that means — wear your white t-shirts and get ready to be hit by the cannons of goo that are certain to be unleashed. You know the ones; the ones that throw so much blood and guts all over the place that the National has to drape their balconies in bedsheets just to protect the fancy woodwork. If you think you can be anywhere in the same room as GWAR and stay safe from the splatter, you’re sadly mistaken, but that’s OK — getting covered in slimy stuff of uncertain origin is part of what makes GWAR shows so much fun!

Last year, GWAR released their first new album since the death of founder Dave Brockie. The Blood Of Gods sees the crossover sound GWAR have cultivated over the past several albums giving way to a more over-the-top rock n’ roll sound that sees new vocalist (and originator of the Beefcake the Mighty character) Michael Bishop howling and yowling, Ted Nugent-style. There’s still plenty of thrashing going on with GWAR these days, don’t get me wrong; but the fact that the album ends with a cover of AC/DC’s “If You Want Blood (You Got It)” should tell you something about what you can expect, musically speaking, from GWAR these days.

That said, we all know that the gore-saturated show is the main attraction when seeing GWAR live. But there’s plenty of ass-kicking no-show all-go metal on this bill as well. The main attraction for all of you hoping to spend a few hours focusing on banging your head is the one and only Municipal Waste, who’d been largely dormant for most of this decade but returned to action last year with a beefed-up lineup featuring former Cannabis Corpse axe-slinger Nikropolis on rhythm guitars and their first LP in five years, Slime And Punishment. If you haven’t caught up with the Waste since all that went down, rest assured that they’re gonna fuck you up just like they always have. They’ll do it with the able assistance of their best thrashcore pals, Toxic Holocaust, as well as metalcore mainstays Miss May I and up-and-coming Maiden-esque power-metallers HAUNT. It’s a headbanging bonanza, and it’ll be topped off with a serious bloodbath. Should make for a wonderful weekend.

Wednesday, November 7, 7 PM
Slothrust, Mannequin Pussy, Doll Baby @ The Camel – $12 in advance/$14 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Look out, all you rock n’ rollers — the 90s are still back, perhaps more back than ever, and one great aspect of that is the continued ascendance of powerful songwriters with rough, distorted guitars that hit you hard even as their lyrics and vocal melodies make you feel some strong emotions. Slothrust is one of those groups, and singer-guitarist Leah Wellman is showing the world exactly what she has to offer on their brand new LP, The Pact, released a couple months ago on Dangerbird Records. There’s a darkness to songs like “Planetarium” and “Fever Doggs” that if anything harks back to a pre-90s, pre-Nirvana sensibility. These songs should strike familiar chords for fans of the Meat Puppets, or Green River, and do a great job of demonstrating that Slothrust has more to offer than an unabashed reiteration of what bands like Babes In Toyland and L7 did before (though don’t get me wrong, there’s a good bit of that in there too).

Slothrust are joined on this bill by Mannequin Pussy, a Philadelphia punk band who’ve been making a strong impact in Richmond for years now, and have also been growing beyond their noisy punk roots, into a sound that encompasses a variety of genres and combines rage, passion, and melody in an inspiring manner. Their 2016 album, Romantic, moves from roaring blasts of punk fury into moments of breathtaking melody, complete with shoegaze-style guitar swells. One thing that’s present on all of their songs is a strong emotional foundation that singer-guitarist Marisa Dabice communicates with everything from a breathy croon to a frustrated scream. No matter where each moment lands on the spectrum of her vocal range, though, all of them are honest, real, and gripping in their intensity. This isn’t one you’re going to want to miss. Local support by Doll Baby, who have a great deal in common with both touring bands, completes a powerful trifecta. You know what to do.

Thursday, November 8, 9 PM
Roosevelt Collier, Bennett Wales & The Relief, The Bush League @ The Camel – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
If you love to hear people wail on the electric guitar, this is the show for you. Roosevelt Collier is a pedal steel guitarist with roots in the same “sacred steel” tradition that brought Robert Randolph and his family band into the world, but Collier combines that gospel-soul sound with a Hendrix-ian approach that finds him in high demand with heavyweights like the Tedeschi-Trucks Band and the Allman Brothers. He’s a core member of Snarky Puppy bassist Michael League’s “World Music All-Star Band,” Bokanté, and he’s finally stepped out on his own this year as the frontman for his own group, which he’ll be bringing to the Camel.

Collier and his backing band are on tour in support of his debut solo album, Exit 16, on which he worked again with Snarky Puppy bassist Michael League. The album displays a hell of a range, moving from uptempo workouts to slow, seductive grooves, all with a very heavy bottom end. Collier’s playing is always the star of the show, and the man gets some outstanding noise out of his pedal-steel axe. While instrumental music can sometimes feel a bit bare-bones, you’ll never miss the vocals when Roosevelt Collier is laying waste to his slide guitar. He joins with VA Beach funk-rockers Bennett Wales and the Relief and RVA’s own blues-wailing machine, The Bush League, to tear the roof off the Camel this Thursday, and you should really be there to see — and hear — it all go down.

Friday, November 9, 7 PM
Pale Waves, Miya Folick, The Candescents @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
These days when you hear the sort of reverbed guitars and ambient synth sounds that have been a marker of the goth-postpunk sound in vogue at the moment for several years now, you expect to know what you’re getting. Dark moods, downcast eyes, sad lyrics full of desolate imagery that connect strongly with your personal alienation as you sit alone in your room in the dark. But haven’t we all had our fill of that sort of approach to the mid-80s postpunk sound? After a few years, all those 80s goth kids turned into bouncy New Wavers that would rather dance to New Order than cry to the Cure anyway — isn’t it time we found an antidote for our own post-millennial kohl-eyeliner blues?

That’s what Pale Waves is here to offer. The Manchester band may trace their aesthetic back to Siouxsie and the Banshees, but their sound is building on the uplifting synth melodies of recent UK postpunk successes CHVRCHES and adding some of the same glittering guitars and melodic bass lines that the original goth bands excelled at. Recently released LP My Mind Makes Noises hits all the right notes for the kids who still want to wear all black but are discovering the thrill of new love and the promise of sunny days. God knows everything is depressing enough these days… don’t we need our music to lift the veil at least a little bit? If you’re ready to dance with a smile on your face rather than tears in your eyes, come to The Broadberry this Friday night and bounce to the music of Pale Waves. It can’t rain all the time.

Saturday, November 10, 7 PM
Eat Your HRT Out: A Trans Health Clinic Benefit, feat. Toxic Moxie, Madison Turner, Wargo, Dad, Jafar Flowers @ Strange Matter – $15-20 suggested donation
I know, I know, I just wrote about Toxic Moxie like two weeks ago. But what was the rule we established the last time I wrote about them? I do believe it was “you will go see Toxic Moxie whenever they play a show.” We just had an election, but this one wasn’t on the ballot, so it is still very much in force. You want punk rage and disco euphoria? You want serious political views leavened with some good-time party energy? Toxic Moxie have got it all.

And what’s more, they’re bringing it to you this time in support of a very good cause. Planned Parenthood’s Trans Health Clinic is one of the only steady providers of transgender-specific health services in Richmond, and considering that trans people are much more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than the general population, their patients are more likely to face economic strain in finding ways to pay for their medical care. What your donation at the door of this show — which, in addition to the disco party punk of Toxic Moxie, will also feature an always-rockin’ full band set from Madison Turner, some electronic dance sounds from Jafar Flowers, and a good bit more — will go toward is helping ensure that prices for Planned Parenthood’s much-needed medical support for the trans community remain as affordable as possible. Plus you’ll have a great time in the bargain, and who doesn’t need more of those?

Sunday, November 11, 8 PM
Video Shoppe, BUTT, Fat Spirit @ Flora – $?
It’s always fascinating to see how people find ways to do a band despite lacking some seemingly crucial core members. Providence duo Video Shoppe easily found a way around this particular dilemma. No drummer? No problem — just bring in a primitive electronic beat machine, trigger it with foot pedals, and stack TVs and VCRs around you to when you play to make up for the fact that there’s nobody flailing away behind a kit and giving the audience some sudden moves to latch onto.

But that sort of creative problem-solving only goes so far if you don’t have some really cool songs to bring to the world when you play, and Video Shoppe’s latest EP, Nostalgia Trap(s), finds them filling that need in excellent fashion as well. Their pounding drum machine makes for an interesting contrast with their delicate postpunk guitar sound, just as their singer’s moody baritone offers an emotional feel completely different from that presented by their chiming melodies. The result has both power and ethereality, and will glow brightly in the dark room at the back of Flora this Sunday night. Their pairing with local ramshackle garage-rockers BUTT and the glorious grunge fury of Fat Spirit will round out the evening into a blast of rock n’ roll fun you’ll be willing to pay whatever the heck they’re actually charging at the door to get into.

Monday, November 12, 8 PM
Super Unison, NØ Man, Sensual World, Ugly Muscle @ Strange Matter – $10 (order tickets HERE)
This is one I’ve been looking forward to. Super Unison recently released their second LP, Stella, and it took their already powerful post-hardcore sound to a whole new level. You may know this group from the fact that singer-bassist Meghan O’Neil previously fronted ripping fastcore band Punch, but from their inception, Super Unison have had a great deal more to offer than O’Neil’s previous group, as they both retain the hardcore velocity of Punch and integrate the sort of driving, noisy energy of bands like Drive Like Jehu (who inspired the group’s name) and Rodan.

Stella finds Super Unison expanding beyond the sound of their 2016 debut LP by incorporating more dynamic shifts within single songs; they’ve also increased the melodic quotient of their guitar riffs, even as O’Neil’s vocals have become harsher and more emotionally-driven. Some might say these guys have been listening to some of the screamo stuff coming out of their home state of California — Vril, say, or Loma Prieta — and I think there’s definitely evidence to support that conclusion. Whether you’re a fan of passionate screamo, hardcore fury, or noisy rock chaos, though, you’re sure to get a lot out of Super Unison’s unrelenting attack. Put yourself in the way of it — you’ll never regret it.

Tuesday, November 13, 6:30 PM
Classical Revolution RVA presents Trey Pollard, Matthew E. White @ The HofGarden – $7 in advance/$10 at the door (order tickets HERE)
This is about as far as you can get from post-hardcore rage, but like they say, variety is the spice of life. It’s also how we keep things interesting here in Richmond, which a lot of people (including me) will tell you is one of the best music cities in the entire country. This Tuesday night sees some tremendously interesting things happening at The HofGarden, as Spacebomb Records head honchos Trey Pollard and Matthew E. White join together with local chamber music collective Classical Revolution RVA in order to present the live premiere of compositions from Pollard’s new album, Antiphone, coming later this month from Spacebomb.

Trey Pollard isn’t the sort of musician we’re used to interacting with here in the indie rock world. He’s a true composer, one who has done orchestral compositions and arrangements for everyone from Spacebomb compatriots Matthew E. White and Natalie Prass to Scottish indie-folk group The Waterboys and This American Life-affiliated podcast S-Town. Now he’s releasing the first album of his own compositions, which was recorded by a 16 piece ensemble earlier this year with Pollard conducting. For the performance at The Hof, a string quintet featuring members of Classical Revolution RVA will play compositions from Antiphone live for the first time. They’ll also accompany Matthew E. White for portions of a solo piano-and-vocal set that he’ll treat us all to, before we dive fully into the bold new works Pollard is bringing into the world. This is an evening for people who love all forms of music, and are most excited to see something unlike anything else out there. If you’re a true music fan, you’re not going to want to miss it.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Thursday, November 8, 7 PM
Fishbone, Jackmove @ Shaka’s – $27 in advance/$32 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Remember how we were talking earlier about the 90s being back? It doesn’t just show through in the return of sounds and styles that were popular back then; it also shows up in all the bands that are getting back together and returning to the road after decades away. Strictly speaking, this doesn’t describe Fishbone — they’ve been together the whole time, with founding vocalist Angelo Moore and bassist John Norwood Fisher sticking around through thick and thin. However, this year has seen the group return to their classic lineup for the first time since the late 90s. Or, well, that’s not entirely true — no one familiar with the whole saga will be surprised to hear that Kendall Jones isn’t back. But other than Jones, the lineup responsible for classic late-80s/early-90s LPs Truth And Soul, The Reality Of My Surroundings, and the unforgettably titled Give A Monkey A Brain and He’ll Swear He’s The Center Of The Universe is back once again and hitting the road to remind us why we loved Fishbone back in the day.

Of course, some of you are going to wonder what the heck I’m talking about. I hear you muttering: “Who is Fishbone, and why does it even matter?” Here’s the deal: back when “funk-punk” was a real, up-and-coming hybrid genre with underground energy and vitality, Fishbone were at the center of it. Never mind Red Hot Chili Peppers (who knew enough to shout Fishbone out constantly on their early albums); tracks like “Party At Ground Zero,” “Bonin’ In The Boneyard,” “Swim,” and “Everyday Sunshine” showed a talented group absorbing everything from ska and soul to hardcore and metal, then spitting it all back out in a wave of talented originality like nothing else out there, then or now. The members of Fishbone are quite a bit older now, but the songs they created in their heyday are still great, and their talent (and singer Angelo Moore’s boundless energy) are undiminished. This show will be both the perfect introduction for the young ‘uns among you and an outstanding opportunity for those of us who know exactly what Fishbone is all about to see the classic lineup in full nutt-megalomaniac form. Hell yeah.

Saturday, November 10, 7 PM
Good Riddance, Bigwig, Ann Beretta, Counterpunch @ Peabody’s – $20 in advance/$22 day of show (order tickets HERE)
And speaking of excellent bands from prior eras returning to demonstrate that they’ve still got it going on… here’s an excellent example of not one but THREE melodic punk bands of the 90s doing exactly that. California’s Good Riddance are at the top of this bill, nicknamed the “Fall Brawl 2018,” and they’ve got the kind of gritty hardcore feel underlying their more melodic moments to back that name up. Of the 90s Fat Wreck bands that cemented the skatepunk genre as the go-to sound for a generation of rebellious high school freshmen, Good Riddance were always the toughest, the dirtiest, the most hardcore. Returning to action a few years ago after almost a decade away, 2015’s Peace In Our Time showed that Good Riddance still had the goods.

New Jersey’s Bigwig haven’t made a new album in over a decade, but they’ve stayed on the road, cranking out their brand of metallically-melodic skatepunk for years now, and they’re still bringing the fire as well. More momentous news for longtime fans of RVA punk has been the return over the past couple of years of Ann Beretta, who were mainstays here in Richmond back in the late 90s but have been out of action since shortly after the dawning of the new millennium. They came back to us this year with Old Scars, New Blood, a new album of old hits rerecorded for the modern era, and the word is that they’re working on another entirely new collection that’ll hit town in the near future. This weekend, though, old-school RVA heads and melodic punk skate rats alike are gonna want to gas up the coupe and head down to Peabody’s, because this show is going to be full of excellent sounds from the past three decades of punk rock awesomeness.

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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

VA Shows You Must See This Week: October 24 – October 30

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Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FEATURED SHOW
Sunday, October 28, 7:30 PM
Titus Andronicus, Ted Leo @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $20 (Order tickets HERE)
It’s Halloweek, and the main thing everyone knows to expect this week is tribute shows. All sorts of different musicians from all kinds of different local bands regroup in new and fun configurations (or maybe even in the same configuration as their usual band) to learn a bunch of covers by some particular band or other, and play a Halloween show with the logic that they’re “in costume” as this other band. There’s no denying that it’s fun, but it’s become such an expected part of Halloween that these days, it’s everywhere. The custom has even spread to other holidays, like Christmas and Valentine’s Day. And to be honest with you, this year I don’t feel like writing about any of it.

Now, you might think I’m just getting old (true), or that I’m just a grumpy bitch who hates fun (also true), but I prefer to frame the decision to skip the covers shows this year as a push to remind you all that there’s still plenty of other awesome music happening in Richmond this week, and while you could spend the entire week hopping from one tribute show to another, you’ll miss out on a lot of great bands who are doing their actual music in town this week. Call me a stick in the mud all you want, but I don’t feel like feeding into that.

Instead, I’m gonna tell you that you should go see Titus Andronicus this week. Titus Andronicus has been around for quite a while now, and honestly, you’ve had plenty of chances to catch them in town before. But if you’ve been following the career of Patrick Stickles and his ragtag band of punk rockers for a while, you know that it’s always worth catching them again. For one thing, the band is different pretty much every time you see them — not only in personnel but in sound. For another thing, they’ve got a powerful live attack that turns their overwhelming Springsteen-ish soul-revue take on punk rock into a powerful locomotive of urgency.

It may be a little less like that this time, though — brand new LP A Productive Cough is, in many ways, their mellowest effort yet. Featuring seven songs, they lean heavily on their tendency to write rambling epics full of rock n’ roll melodrama — the loudest and heaviest thing on it is a first-person rewrite of Dylan classic “Like A Rolling Stone,” and the most obviously punk-ish tune (“Crass Tattoo”) is a morosely beautiful piano ballad. Will they still bust out the historical-reference-laden ragers live? I’d certainly expect them to, but you’ll ultimately have to find out for yourself. One thing’s for sure, this show — which features an incredible bonus opening set by the legendary Ted Leo, performing solo this time out — will offer way more surprises than any night full of tribute bands.

Wednesday, October 24, 7 PM
Iron Chic, Somerset Thrower, Doll Baby, Talk Me Off @ The Camel – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Iron Chic have dealt with their share of pain. Two years ago, the group lost guitarist Rob McAllister, who died unexpectedly at only 36. They’ve soldiered on since then, continuing to write the emotionally-driven melodic punk tunes that have always been their stock in trade, now with a new wistfulness and undercurrent of sorrow that runs through 2017 album You Can’t Stay Here, the first written after McAllister’s death. Songs like “Let’s. Get. Dangerous.” and “A Headache With Pictures” show that the band has retained its wry sense of humor and facility with anthemic hooks, as well as retaining a tough edge that explains why Iron Chic seem to be the favorite pop-punk band of hardcore kids.

Speaking of hardcore, Iron Chic’s Long Island tourmates in Somerset Thrower have a much more direct connection to that scene, dishing out melodic post-hardcore in a manner that harks back to the early 90s days of Quicksand and Texas Is the Reason with aplomb on their new LP, Godspeed. Fans of Iron Chic will dig the way Somerset Thrower mixes strong melodies into their Hum-ish guitar crunch, while the hardcore kids among the audience should get a kick of how surprisingly hard this band’s crescendos hit. With Doll Baby providing a bit of a high-lonesome emo sound to the proceedings and Talk Me Off kicking things off in snotty punk fashion, this show is sure to satisfy all comers — even if it does leave you in a bit of a pensive mood.

Thursday, October 25, 6 PM
Carach Angren, Mors Principium Est, Wolfheart, Awaken Cthulhu, Gutted Christ, Deathkids @ The Canal Club – $18 in advance/$22 day of show (order tickets HERE)
OK look — you want some Halloween entertainment? Look no further than the Canal Club this Thursday night. What Dutch black metallers Carach Angren lack in holiday spirit, they more than make up for by being scary as hell. You’ll find this band widely billed as “symphonic black metal,” but if that leads you to expect some Nightwish-style opera-goth bombast, you best think again. These guys know what black metal is about; that being blast beats, tremolo-picked guitar riffs, and hoarse guttural screams. They also know when to let their keyboards take the fore to create some serious atmosphere, but they don’t overdo it — where this kind of music is concerned, they are far more second-LP Emperor than fourth-LP Cradle Of Filth.

So yes, if you want some serious Halloween headbangs, you need look no further. Carach Angren’s 2017 LP, Dance And Laugh Amongst The Rotten, is a slab of ferocity perfectly titled for the Trump era.  And they’re not the only metal ass-kickers coming to the Canal Club Thursday night, either. They’re joined by fellow Europeans Mors Principium Est (“Death is the beginning” in Latin), who bring us some Finnish melodic death metal in the vein of their countrymen Children Of Bodom, perhaps with a bit more of a thrashy edge. Wolfheart are also from Finland, making this show a veritable embarrassment of riches where European metal is concerned; these guys are closer to what Carach Angren do, and if anything go a bit heavier on the black metal end of things. Blast beats ahoy! Local support includes the Tidewater band Awaken Cthulhu, who are seeking to resurrect the Great Old Ones through ripping thrash terror. That’s a mission I can wholeheartedly support. Come, armageddon, come.

Friday, October 26, 9 PM
The Camel’s Friday Festival of Frights, feat. Toxic Moxie, Piranha Rama, Nightcreature, Pagan Reagan @ The Camel – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I said I was skipping the tribute shows this year, but I can cover Halloween shows full of original music, right? Why am I asking you? I make the damn rules around here! And I’m establishing this rule right now: you will go see Toxic Moxie whenever they play a show. This band does a better job finding the sweet spot between punk rock rampage and disco euphoria than pretty much any other band you’ll find anywhere. And while we still haven’t heard that wealth of new material they’ve been stockpiling in recorded form, it’s easy to catch ahold of their musical whirlwind anytime they take the stage.

They recently acquired a new drummer, and the switch-up didn’t slow them down for a second. Find out for yourself this Friday night at The Camel — it’s sure to be a night of nonstop fun, even when Toxic Moxie aren’t onstage. Nightcreature, a new band who’ve already made a big splash in the time they’ve been playing around Richmond, are bringing us a release party for their debut EP, which confirms what everyone who’s seen them live already knows — these maniacs have rock n’ roll oozing from their pores, and they’re gonna smear it all over you! Piranha Rama’s musical melange will bring the zombie beach party vibe to West Broad St, while DC’s Pagan Reagan drive down to deliver us a set chock-full of surf-garage awesomeness. Plus, there’ll be a costume contest, complete with prizes! Make sure you wear a costume that’s easy to dance in, because you’re gonna be dancing once Toxic Moxie comes on. We guarantee it.

Saturday, October 27, 8 PM
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards @ The National – $29.50 in advance (order tickets HERE)
A key sign of my encroaching middle age: I think country music’s pretty tight these days, y’all. I’m still picky about what I like, and all that modern stuff coming out of Nashville is the most fake plastic bro-truck bullshit I’ve ever heard, but some really great musicians have operated in that particular genre milieu over the past few decades, and when they come to town, I feel obligated to let y’all know that I’d probably rather be seeing them than whatever grimy metal show is happening in some dark rock club across town. OK, that isn’t always true, but when Mary Chapin Carpenter comes to town, it definitely is.

Mary Chapin Carpenter had quite the run back in the 90s. From Cajun party jams (“Down At The Twist And Shout”) and heartfelt slices of life (“He Thinks He’ll Keep Her”) to playful romps (“Shut Up And Kiss Me”) and yearning declarations of desire (“Passionate Kisses”), Carpenter gave us a succession of top-10 country hits that showed both a significant musical range and a strong songwriting ability that made her a reliable source of excellent tunes. She’s getting less attention these days, but she’s still at it, making the same excellent music as she ever has. Her thirteenth album, Sometimes Just The Sky, came out earlier this year, and acts as incontrovertible proof that, even three decades later, Mary Chapin Carpenter has the goods. Go to The National this Saturday night and experience the work of an incredibly talented singer-songwriter who’ll remind you that country music can be awesome.

Sunday, October 28, 8 PM
She Wants Revenge, Shadow Age @ The Broadberry – $30 (order tickets HERE)
Halloween may be the scary holiday, it may be the costume holiday, but it’s also definitely the goth holiday, and this is one that’s sure to bring all the goths out of the woodwork, the black hair dye dripping from the tips of their hairsprayed mops… or something like that. She Wants Revenge has been out of the limelight for years, having taken a hiatus after their 2011 third LP, Valleyheart. However, they’ve been slowly ramping back up into full-time action for the past couple of years, and their current tour sees them jumping fully back into the fray with their moody, foreboding take on post-Joy Division gothic postpunk sounds.

The fact that they’re hitting Richmond just in time for Halloween is eminently appropriate, and their pairing with local postpunk trio Shadow Age is equally apropos. Shadow Age just released an excellent self-titled full-length that ramps things up to the next level for the group, injecting their bleak, cold sound with a welcome dose of frenetic energy. Tunes like “Montrose” and “Reign” fulfill the promise of their earlier EPs, and bring us a band at the top of its game. Sadly, they recently posted on facebook that they’d be taking an indefinite hiatus of their own after this show, so this may be the last chance you get to see them perform this material live. If you miss it, you’re sure to regret it. Don’t do that to yourself.

Monday, October 29, 7 PM
Nosferatu feat. live score @ Strange Matter – Free!
I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression. The fact is, I love horror. I love horror stories, I love horror novels, and I love horror movies. That’s why I can’t possibly prevent myself from recommending this film event taking place at Strange Matter on Monday night. They’ll be showing the classic 1922 silent film Nosferatu, complete with a live score. This film, directed by legendary German filmmaker FW Murnau, is one of the crucial establishing works of horror film, following up on the example of 1920 German expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and setting the tone for all vampire films to come after.

Murnau’s haunting direction and German stage actor Max Schreck’s unforgettable portrayal of Count Orlok make this suspenseful classic essential viewing, and its status as a silent film opens up a perfect opportunity for some local musicians to enhance the film’s atmosphere with a soundtrack of their own. Members of R-Complex, Prisoner, Asylum, Sinister Haze, Cough, and others will all join together to create a soundscape likely to pull a great deal from these musicians’ backgrounds in metal, noise, punk, and experimental music. It will definitely not be the sort of thing you’ve come to expect from an organ-soundtracked showing of Phantom Of The Opera, but if anything, that makes it better. Head to Strange Matter Monday night and see Nosferatu like you’ve never seen it before.

Tuesday, October 30, 9 PM
Dead Bars, Love Roses, Yeehaw Junction @ Wonderland – $5
Seattle’s Dead Bars are coming to town to liven up the bars in Shockoe Bottom. Well, one bar in particular — Wonderland, the punkest dive bar in the Bottom, which is sure to rise to the Devil’s Night occasion with this show, which constitutes what they’re doing for a Halloween party down there. They may very well go all-out with the decor — we all know Wonderland owner Chad Painter is a big White Zombie fan, after all, and therefore you can assume he takes Halloween seriously. But don’t feel any big sense of obligation — as long as you come to party, you’re sure to have found the right place.

Dead Bars are pretty excellent musically, and though they don’t have any real Halloween-like attributes — most of their stuff is solidly in line with the musical tradition of their label, No Idea; which is to say, anthemic pop-punk with witty lyrics about struggling through life with one foot in the gutter — they’re sure to rock the place like no other. And that’s what we all really want. Locals Love Roses will do a very similar sort of thing, but at twice the speed and with twice the velocity. Meanwhile, relative newcomers Yeehaw Junction are bringing some programmed beats and synth whooshes to a place that’s probably not used to this sort of thing. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes over. Regardless, though, this is going to be an excellent night of punk rock jams, whether you care about the holiday or are just looking for something to do on a Tuesday night. Get into it.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Wednesday, October 24, 5 PM
Bloodletting, feat. Arsis, Internal Bleeding, Pyrexia, AngelMaker, Within Destruction, Crucial Rip @ Shaka’s – $20 in advance/$22 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Now hear this! This show is happening today, it’s happening over an hour from here, and it starts early. You know what that means — if you don’t have your tickets now, you better order ’em immediately and go running out of work full-tilt at 5 PM if you wanna catch the maximum amount of headbanging carnage at Shaka’s tonight. Of course, the main thing you’re gonna want to see is the performance by headliners and hometown favorite sons Arsis, who hail from the Hampton Roads area and are just about to release their sixth LP, Visitant, next week. You’ll get a killer live preview of the record at Shaka’s, complete with sick death-metal riffs, hyperspeed thrash beats, and James Malone’s unmistakable throat-shredding vocals. And who knows? They may even have copies for sale. Regardless, this is sure to be a rager of a set.

And that’s far from the only dose of awesomeness you can expect from this stop of the Bloodletting North American tour. Internal Bleeding, who hail from Long Island, were one of the pivotal groups in establishing the slower, heavier, more breakdown-focused version of death metal that became a New York trademark and helped create the death metal subgenre known as slam. They’re still at it today, having released their sixth album, Corrupting Influence, earlier this month. And they’re still crushing heads with maximum power, which should be brutal music to the ears of anyone who loves death fucking metal. Fellow NY death-metal headcrushers Pyrexia are also on this tour, and while they’re not quite as legendary as Internal Bleeding, they’re maybe a half-step down. This is going to be a hell of a show, y’all, and the fact that AngelMaker, Within Destruction, and VA locals Crucial Rip are also on the bill only sweetens the pot. You know what to do.

Friday, October 26, 6 PM
Piece Of Mind, Typecaste, Atonement, Knife Spitter, Compulse, Patheos @ 37th And Zen – $10 (order tickets HERE)
If you’re looking for some super-tough hardcore, Norfolk is often the place to be. This weekend is no exception — Oklahoma’s Piece Of Mind, who’ve been making their mark in a big way over the past year or so, are rolling through with some harsh, metallic hardcore full of powerful breakdowns and aggressive rage. They recently joined up with Safe Inside Records to release Trilogy, a compilation that pulls together three EPs (hence the name) and sets the stage for a new record soon to come from the band. The new material they’ve previewed thus far shows the same sort of heavy-as-fuck hardcore power that they’ve been dishing out all along; fans of Hatebreed and Buried Alive are sure to appreciate this one.

Piece Of Mind are joined on this bill by equally powerful hardcore crew Typecaste, who hail from Boston and feature a harsher vocal attack and some harder-hitting breakdowns but are very much on the same page overall as Piece Of Mind. If you’re expecting to get anywhere near the stage during their set without being in the middle of a massive mosh pit, I have some news for you: it ain’t gonna happen. This triple threat of touring hardcore heaviness is rounded out by Connecticut rippers Atonement, who are all about the Slayer-style riffs in pursuit of the ultimate powerful breakdown. It works, too — these guys will make your head explode. This show, which also features three killer bands from around the region, including the outstandingly named Knife Spitter, is acting as a benefit for Braeden Branch of VA Beach deathcore band Deathsinger, who recently suffered a collapsed lung and had to be hospitalized. Help a fellow rager cover some medical expenses; kick in the cash at the door, and come to 37th and Zen ready to mosh hard.

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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

Doll Baby, Gladie, Hurry, Clayton England @ The Lilly Pad

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THURSDAY JUNE 7TH
A beautiful Thursday night on the water with friends and the sunset…

Doll Baby
https://dollbabyrva.bandcamp.com
Big city buds rocking beautifully towards the James River

Gladie
https://gladie.bandcamp.com/
Augusta from Cayetana/Liz’s sister and Matt from Three Man Cannon’s brand new band on a lil tour from Philly

Hurry
https://hurry.bandcamp.com
They’re bringing along this sweetly catchy band to win over the locals

Clayton England
All around good guy, Lilly Pad bartender and the Thursday night guy to go to when you want to hear some sad songs

FREE!
MUSIC STARTS AT 6 AND ENDS AT 9! REALLY!
$10 BUCKETS OF TECATE!
Car pool, don’t drive drunk at all, it’s a bit far but absolutely worth it if you need a nice night and a brain reset!

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: June 6 – June 12

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FEATURED SHOW
Thursday, June 7, 5:30 PM
Doll Baby, Gladie, Hurry, Clayton England @ The Lilly Pad Cafe – Free!
Let’s start from first principles: music is the literal best thing in the world, y’all. Nothing else can be relied upon the way music can be. And music is best when you’re seeing people make it right in front of you; that subjective statement is a fundamental building block of this entire column. But having said all that, it’s understandable if after a while the same clubs and sounds week after week leave a person wanting… something different. Something more.

Whenever I find something that fits that description, I immediately focus on it. Because let’s face it, I get restless too. If you, like me, are ready for a break in your normal routine, I’ve got a real treat for you this week. The Lilly Pad Cafe, which is located on the banks of the James River out by Osborne’s Landing, has been booking free shows on Thursday nights. And this week, they’re presenting a lineup that makes it the perfect night to take a short trip out of the city and watch the sun set while you watch bands play on a boat dock.

I’ve written a whole bunch and now we’ll have to rush through the actual bands, but the fact that the bill is topped by the jangle-punk pop angst of Doll Baby gives us all reason to be there right from the jump. They’re playing with a couple of Philly-based touring projects; Gladie is a duo featuring members of Cayetana and Three Man Cannon and making some excellent heartfelt melodic punk sounds on new EP Everyone Is Talking About You. Hurry is normally a band, but they’re touring as a solo act, and their pastoral indie-punk sounds should adapt well to the stripped-down format. These bands are both excellent pairings for local faves Doll Baby, and with Lilly Pad mainstay Clayton England kicking things off with some sad acoustic tunes, this will be an evening full of feels. Plus, for those of you who care about these kinds of things, you can apparently get buckets of Tecate for $10. Me, I’d rather just enjoy the view.

Wednesday, June 6, 7:30 PM
Japanese Breakfast, Eternal Summers @ The Broadberry – $15 (order tickets HERE)
The modern shoegaze revival continues on full-steam ahead and we all benefit from it once again, as a couple of the higher-quality bands to explore this sound in recent years now find themselves coming to the Broadberry on the same night, for the same show. Japanese Breakfast is the solo-ish project of Michelle Zauner, also of Little Big League and Post Post, and her 2017 sophomore LP, Soft Sounds From Another Planet, uses synth washes and programmed beats alongside retro-psych touches straight out of Swinging London — the harpsichord sounds on “Boyish” are a particularly charming surprise.

Now, how all this will translate live is always a question, but the songs themselves glow with such a warm spirit that the results are sure to be excellent regardless. And even more assuredly excellent is the set we’ll get from VA faves Eternal Summers, who have returned to action after a few years off with their brand-new fifth LP, Every Day It Feels Like I’m Dying. There’s been no diminishment in the melodic prowess or the sharp guitar attack this band brings to the table, and fans who’ve been wondering how the group could possibly follow up 2015’s excellent Gold And Stone (and may have started to worry that they wouldn’t) will be overjoyed at the payoff the new album represents. All that’s left is to see them bring it to life onstage — you won’t want to miss that. You know what to do.

Thursday, June 7, 8 PM
A Place Both Wonderful And Strange, True Body, Little Black Rain Clouds, Gothic Lizard @ Strange Matter – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Things are getting pretty wild in the world of electronic music these days. And by “wild,” I mean, people are actually starting to bring visible influence from 80s 4AD Records releases into the modern world. For those of you too young to remember the glory days of Dead Can Dance and Clan Of Xymox — OK, yes, I know, that’s most of you — let me assure you that this is a very positive development. Hearing Brooklyn’s A Place Both Wonderful And Strange pull off spooky ambient textures and moody vocals alongside dance beats that get your feet moving and making all of it work together in the most excellent, unified way is the kind of blast from the past that I’d love to get more of.

They’ll be conjuring up the Batcave right inside Strange Matter this Friday night, and they’ll have some formidable local help in doing so as well. True Body may have evolved out of the weirder corners of the hardcore world, but their most recent single, “Over It,” finds them going full-on moody goth, evoking the glittering moroseness of early-80s Cure and Sisters Of Mercy material with the sort of postpunk backbeat that’ll keep the Interpol fans happy. Long-running local spooksters Little Black Rain Clouds and ambient goth newcomers Gothic Lizard will round out this lineup with all the black light and black clothing you could possibly ask for.

Friday, June 8, 8 PM
Peach Kelli Pop, Piranha Rama, Big Baby @ Strange Matter – $10 (order tickets HERE)
It’s hard not to love stripped-down rock n’ roll with a killer melodic sense and plenty of delightful energy, so of course recommending that you all go see Peach Kelli Pop this Saturday night is a true no-brainer. Allie Hanlon’s been doing this project for damn near a decade now, and has retained a top-quality sound throughout, as can easily be heard on Peach Kelli Pop’s brand new LP (the first not to be named with a Roman numeral), Gentle Leader. On it, the band bounces back and forth from uptempo tunes that straddle the line between garage-pop and old-school melodic punk, and prettier acoustic tunes that focus on Hanlon’s gorgeous voice and plentiful hooky choruses.

Peach Kelli Pop have a ton to offer the discriminating fan of outstanding music, but they’ve been lucky to come together with a couple of equally powerful RVA locals who offer much the same brand of can’t-miss rock n’ roll talent. Piranha Rama sees a bunch of local vets coming together to crank out some organ-fueled psychedelic garage raunch stomp, and their new single lives up to every bit of potential the early hype offered up. Meanwhile, Big Baby — who charmed the entire city and beyond with last year’s gorgeously downcast Sour Patch EP — know how to combine forlorn melody and jangly bounce for the best possible results. If you haven’t discovered the excellence of their indie-pop tuneage yet, this is the perfect time to find out what you’ve been missing.

Saturday, June 9, 8 PM
Celeste, Infernal Coil, Ostraca, Lunger @ Strange Matter – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
There are a lot of right-wing idiots out there who’ll tell you that France is a country full of wimps, and I gotta tell ya, I wish I could drag every single one of those fools down to Strange Matter this Saturday night so they can find out how wrong they are when Celeste hit the stage. This powerful French band may not be as well known as Deathspell Omega, but their brick-solid mixture of roaring metallic hardcore, blasting black metal, and passionate emotional rage is if anything more likely to knock you on your ass than their more popular countrymen. 2017’s Infidèle​(​s) is a jet-black slab of pure fury, and when Celeste dish those songs out onstage, you’re going to feel it.

Celeste are joined on this trip through our local environs by chaos merchants Infernal Coil, whose unique and challenging sound may have some roots in the band’s origins in Idaho. What the heck is in Idaho? If Infernal Coil’s 2017 EP Bodies Set In Ashen Death is to give us any indication, it’s apparently a bleak, apocalyptic wasteland of noise and smoke… but I was in Twin Falls last year, and it was nothing like that, so who knows. Either way, Infernal Coil’s incredibly dark mix of death metal low-end, noisecore fury, and grindcore insanity is going to mess all of us up. In a good way, of course. Local metallic hardcore veterans Ostraca and dark grinding newcomers Lunger round out this bill with some unmissable sounds from right here in the river city, so don’t dawdle.

Sunday, June 10, 7 PM
Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, McKinley Dixon & Friends, Alfred & Yung Pockets @ Gallery 5 – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I’ve been enjoying the growth over the last few years of a more alternatively-minded hip hop scene here in RVA; it’s a gratifying thing to see the DIY principles that have fueled the punk rock underground for years being embodied by people from completely different scenes, especially hip hop (which, as much as I love it, can sometimes focus overmuch on mainstream goals of money and fame for my taste). Here in Richmond, the chief example we have of this newer approach to hip hop is of course McKinley Dixon, an MC with absolute top-quality lyrical skills who recruits top of the line musicians to back him up and goes on DIY tours in a van just like all the punk bands do. He and his Friends will be giving us a killer set on this bill, and of course everyone in RVA should already know to be there for it.

On this show, Dixon is playing with Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, a DIY musician from Chicago who integrates his wide-ranging musical background into an excellent hip hop sound on his breakout 2017 LP, Drool. Like McKinley Dixon, Ogbonnaya knows all about getting in the van and going on tour, and he’ll hit Gallery 5 in the company of his Nnamdi Ensemble Quartet, which will provide dynamic backing for his playful, complicated lyrical flow. And of course, Alfred. & Yung Pockets, an MC-producer duo who’ve drawn a lot of attention since last year’s excellent So Sensitive release, will open things up with a set of slightly off-kilter beats and rhymes that show a ton of soul. This one’s gonna be outstanding throughout.

Monday, June 11, 8 PM
Immortal Bird, Glacial Tomb, Occultist, Hoboknife @ Strange Matter – $10 (order tickets HERE)
There can be little that is a better bet for the end of a long Monday back at stupid ol’ work than heading down to Strange Matter and getting your soul cleansed by some high-volume, high-quality metal. Immortal Bird is coming to us this Monday to deliver exactly what the doctor ordered where that’s concerned, and while the group’s been quiet on the recording front since 2015’s Empress/Abscess, that’s no reason to expect anything other than a thorough head-crushing in the live environment.

Since their last album, Immortal Bird’s core lineup has expanded to a four-piece, giving frontwoman Rae Amitay more room to rage instead of being trapped behind a drum kit, and that can only bode well for the ass-kicking we’ll all get from this brutal, chaotic Chicago quartet. Immortal Bird is joined on this tour by Denver low-end marauders Glacial Tomb, whose deft merging of thrashy crust, sludgy metal, and hardcore punk is tough as nails and ready to knock you out. Local support from thrash-metal vets Occultist and death n’ roll maniacs Hoboknife renders this an evening of absolutely unfuckwithable metal power. Start practicing your headbangs now.

Tuesday, June 12, 6 PM
The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Pianos Become The Teeth, Teenage Wrist, Captive @ The Broadberry – $17 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
About half a decade ago, when I was going through a pretty rough emotional spot, I discovered TWIABP and immediately fell in love with their complicated, heartfelt, and beautiful sound, which combined emo, post-rock, metal, and pop into a style entirely their own. The music they were making back then was incredibly important to me, but their rapid musical evolution and personal upheavals over the next couple of years almost left me behind. However, with the release of their third LP, Always Foreign, I discovered that despite all the lineup changes and instrumental reconfigurations, there was still a truly talented band lurking underneath it all. It’s going to be partiuclarly nice to welcome a reconstituted TWIABP to RVA once again, where they can remind us all just how great they continue to be.

Pianos Become The Teeth have been through a similar trajectory, although it was a musical change that caused my personal concerns about losing track of them. When singer Kyle Durfey switched to an entirely-melodic vocal approach for their 2014 third LP, Keep You, I was afraid that the urgency and emotional intensity of Pianos’ passionate post-hardcore sound would depart along with it. However, Keep You surprised me by being one of that year’s favorites, and with the release earlier this year of incredibly powerful follow-up Wait For Love, it can no longer be denied that Pianos Become The Teeth is every bit as strong and memorable a band even without the screams. And thank god for that. This show will give longtime fans a perfect opportunity to commune once again with these two excellent bands at the top of their respective games, and skipping out would be an awful idea. Alt-rockers Teenage Wrist and local up-and-comers Captive are on the bill too, but for this one at least, it’s really all about the headliners.

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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

Sinai Vessel / Doll Baby / Padfoot / Crime Spray at Little Saint

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late ass FREE gig!!

deciding to retire from booking after this one, come celebrate

sinai vessel (tiny engines, nc/tn sweet southern boys with too much talent)- https://sinaivessel.bandcamp.com/
doll baby (rva legends here to hold it down)-https://dollbabyrva.bandcamp.com/
padfoot (rva/vb you’d be a fool to not know)-https://padfoot.bandcamp.com/
crime spray (first show, what you got for us mikey & brigetta)

FREE! bring merch money!
this is a restaurant, not a house
(if you know you’re not supposed to be here…)

RVA Mag Premiere: Opin’s ‘How Can I’

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Richmond’s Opin is on track to drop their next EP Drifters later this month, and the four-piece has given us a little taste of what to expect with the funky/groovy track,”How Can I,” accompanied by some extra trippy visuals. Formed last year by ex-White Laces members Tori Hovater (vocals, keys) and Landis Wine (vocals, guitar) after they announced the end of their longtime shoegazey turned indie rock group, Opin has since recruited Night Idea’s Ethan Johnstone (drums) and Navi’s Jon Hawkins for their project, put out a self-titled LP on Egghunt Records, and plan to hit the road in the next few weeks.

The video, between its electronic groovy rhythms and spliced images of a giant swirling moth, bikers and more, makes me feel like I am dropped into an old-school video game. The vocals are upbeat yet hazy and transport me into another world as I sit here typing away at work. A world which is carefree and I’m dancing among other carefree souls in a dimly-lit room with nothing but pops of bright colors shining through here and there to light us up as we dance the night away. We can thank director Chris Foster-Baril for his seriously weird and hypnotic work on this video.

“He’s a really excellent graphic designer and does a lot of visual experiments with his artwork,” Wine said. “He’s gotten into more video art and we wanted something interesting to go with that track and he hunkered down and did a lot of rendering and came up with something really cool for us.”

Drifters, Opin’s second release, is slated to drop on Fri., April 20, via Harding Street Assembly Lab, a Lynchburg-based studio who Wine worked with on past projects when he was in White Laces.

“They suggested doing a limited-edition, clear one-sided 12-inch, which I’m a big fan of old dance remix 12 inches and that sort of thing so I jumped at the chance,” Wine said.

The band recorded the six-track (two bonus tracks) EP this past summer in Philadelphia with Jeff Zeigler, who they worked with their on their debut record, and who Wine and Hovater worked with on several of White Laces’ albums.

“Jeff’s a great dude and we had a few songs that were outside of stuff that was on the record that came out last year that we were playing live,” he said. “We basically went in with what we had and did most of it live in the room.”

Wine said the band wrote most of it while Johnstone was gone on tour with Night Idea, and wrapped up finishing touches on the EP in August after having it mastered by Heba Kadry.

To add to the unique sound for “How Can I”, Opin recruited the lead singer of Doll Baby Julie Storey for her lovely backup vocals.

“I’ve known Julie for a really long time since I was at VCU, and she was doing acoustic stuff primarily and it was really cool to get her to hop on a track,” Wine said.

The band plans to hit the road later this month for an East Coast tour with Doll Baby {dates below}, a band that Wine said is one of his favorites and really vibes well with the band.

“I love their songs, I love seeing them live, they’re good people and a great band,” he said.

Judging from the other tracks RVA Mag had the pleasure to have a sneak peek into, fans are in for one hell of a treat this spring when Drifters drops. Get your dancin’ shoes ready. You can pre-order Drifters here, and until then, make sure to catch Opin tomorrow, Apri 4, at Sound of Music Studios with Shormey, Chesapeake’s Shormey, Atlanta/Philly’s Pamela_ and her sons, and fellow Richmond band, WaBeya. Doors: 8 PM and Music at 9 PM. $5 cover.

Tour Dates with Doll Baby: 
4.26 – Dew Drop (Washington, DC)
4.27 – Ortlieb’s (Philadelphia, PA)
4.28 – Golden Pony (Harrisonburg, VA)
4.29 – Odditorium (Asheville, VA)

Photo By: Joey Wharton Photography 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond