RVA Mag

Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005

Menu

VA Shows You Must See This Week: October 16 – October 22

|

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

FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, October 19, 3 PM
Cobra Cabana’s One Year Cobranniversary, feat. Kool Keith, Weedeater @ Cobra Cabana – Free!
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a year since Cobra Cabana opened over in Carver. They’ve wasted no time making themselves an integral part of the Richmond scene, from their delicious and politically-informed menu to organizing motorcycle rallies and hosting outdoor rock n’ roll parties. They’ll be hosting another outstanding party this Saturday afternoon, and whether you’re there every week or haven’t made it in yet at all, you’re going to want to be there.

This one-year celebration is branching out from the hard-rockin’ theme of the last big show at Cobra Cabana, giving it a huge dose of hip hop talent with a headlining set from Kool Keith himself. This legend of rap has been rocking mics and dropping bizarre and fascinating rhymes for over three decades now, getting his start with Ultramagnetic MCs in the late 80s and hitting a creative peak in the late 90s with Sex Style, Dr. Octagonecologyst, and First Come First Served… all of which were released under different names. Keith’s still incredibly prolific to this day, and returned to his Dr. Octagon alter ego last year for the excellent Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation, before following that up with this year’s equally great but far more straightforward KEITH.

All of which is to say that this groundbreaking hip hop veteran hasn’t lost a single step even after three decades, and you’ll need to see the fire he can bring to Cobra Cabana this Saturday. And speaking of fire, expect North Carolina metalheads extraordinaire Weedeater to spark up some serious stoner grooves when they hit the stage. It’s been a few years since their last LP, Goliathan, entered the world, but having recently recruited Dixie’s former Buzzoven bandmate Ramzi Ateyeh to take over the drum kit, they’re revitalized and back to full power. Expect to be bowled over — in slow motion, of course. As celebrations go, this one’s gonna be hellacious.

Wednesday, October 16, 6 PM
The Number 12 Looks Like You, God Mother, Pound, .gif From God, Genosha @ The Canal Club – $16 (order tickets HERE)
What a time to be alive. I never thought I’d see the day when there’d be a revival of the kind of metallic, chaotic, sassy noisecore that I was super-stoked about in my late 20s. I guess this is growing up, huh? No complaints here — especially not when it means the return of New Jersey maniacs The Number 12 Looks Like You, who carved a swath through the mid-2000s metalcore scene with wild slabs of frenetic guitar fuckery and constant tempo changes, such as 2003’s Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses and 2008’s Here At The End Of All Things. I’m certainly glad to get more of that.

And this year brings an answer to the fervent desires of all their fans, as the band released their first LP in over a decade, Wild Gods, last month. They’re slightly less frantic on this new LP than in previous work, but their mindblowing mixture of mathcore, jazz, and screamo remains alive and well, and it’s sure to have you vacillating between spastic twitching and frantic headbangs throughout their Canal Club set this evening. They’re joined by two talented fellow touring groups, Sweden chaotic metallers God Mother and Seattle instrumental tech-grind duo Pound, along with two excellent local acts, .gif From God and Genosha, both of which you definitely need to be familiar with if heavy, chaotic craziness is your thing. This starts early, so head straight over after work — you don’t want to miss any of it.

Thursday, October 17, 8 PM
Gorrak, Gull, Faucet @ Bingo Beer Co – Free!
A show at Bingo Beer certainly brings back a lot of memories. Specifically of driving by the old bingo hall that this local craft brewing company has moved into and wondering if someone could book a punk rock show there. A lot of people tried, no one ever succeeded, but now, decades and an owner change later, music has finally come to the old bingo hall. And I for one think that’s pretty fucking cool.

It might be hard to label this show “punk rock” in any conventional, musical sense of the word, but the fact that it features three DIY bands that are very much in the open-minded “it’s how you think, not how you sound” tradition of punk, pushes it in that direction nonetheless. Gorrak is a powerful, borderline-metallic jazz duo who are celebrating the release of a new self-titled LP loaded with complex, exciting sax-drum riffage. Fans of local powerhouses like Dumb Waiter and Paint Store are definitely going to want to get on board the Gorrak train. It helps that tried-and-true solo experimentalist Gull is on this show as well — we all know what we’re getting from Gull, and we all know that it rules. I know nothing about brand new locals Faucet, but really, by now haven’t you got more than enough reasons to finally see a show at the bingo hall? I think you do.

Friday, October 18, 6:30 PM
Narrow Head, Slump @ Plan 9 Records – $5 donation
We may all associate record store appearances by bands with massive meet-and-greets at midnight the night their new album comes out, but sometimes record store shows are something completely different — a way to bring young bands with great new albums to the curious music fans of a new town. This is one of those in-stores, and as such, it’s sure to combine the informal atmosphere of a basement show with the inviting surroundings of your favorite place to lose an afternoon flipping through the used vinyl racks.

Texas group Narrow Head are the stars of this particular Plan 9 show, and they come to Richmond to bring us all the word about their latest EP, Coursing Through, released last month on Advanced Perspective Records. This two-song, 10-minute EP is a great showcase for what Narrow Head are sure to bring to Richmond this Friday night — big fuzzy waves of guitar, powerful drums, and an excellent undercurrent of minor-chord melody just below the surface. If your idea of shoegaze is more early Dino Jr than later Slowdive, these guys are sure to thrill you. They’ll be joined by Richmond hardcore-sludge maniacs Slump, who just might get a little gazey themselves at quieter moments, right before hitting you over the head with another massive banger. The whole thing should be over in about two hours, but time always flies when you’re having fun.

Saturday, October 19, 8 PM
Will Hoge, Elizabeth Cook @ The Tin Pan – $32.50 (order tickets HERE)
Saturday night at The Tin Pan will bring us a double shot of modern country stars who are far from conventional Nashville-radio pap. The double-shot starts out with Will Hoge, who has been dubbed “The Tennessee Troublemaker” by Mojo Nixon himself. Hoge got the name due to his outspoken political views, which not only got an airing on last year’s My American Dream — a rockin’ country LP sure to appeal to fans of both Jason Isbell and Gary Clark Jr. — but also showed up on t-shirts he sold on tour, featuring slogans like “Will Trade Racists For Refugees.” Will Hoge is the kind of guy country music needs more of, and here in Richmond, it’ll be great to get a big dose of what he has to offer this Saturday night.

It’ll also be great to get a visit from Elizabeth Cook, a longtime Grand Ole Opry performer who has a long-running Sirius XM show on the Outlaw Country channel and has shown her debt to classic country spitfires like Loretta Lynn with memorable singles like “Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman.” In 2016, she released her first album in six years, Exodus Of Venus, coming out the other side of a difficult period involving divorce, rehab, and mental illness with a powerful statement of strength. The album’s tough country sound makes her a good pairing with Will Hoge’s similar approach, and really, if you’re trying to hear the best country music has to offer in 2019, you can’t find a much better show to go to than this one. I know it ain’t cheap, but scrounge up the cash and get there. You’ll be glad you did.

Sunday, October 20, 9 PM
VE, Weird Tears, Minimum Balance @ Bandito’s – Free!
The free local triple threat at Bandito’s is always a Sunday night standby, and it’s that way for a reason. For one thing, Bandito’s is the Richmond live music scene’s best-kept secret — the room sounds great. For another thing, these shows never cost anything to get into. For another, there’s some amazing food available at Bandito’s, so you can (and should) always start your evening off with some tacos. And of course, the bands they book are always dope, whether they’re touring legends of punk or the best our own scene has to offer.

This night is of the latter variety, and VE, which used to stand for Various Eggs and doesn’t appear to stand for anything anymore, are at the top of the heap. It’s been a long time since they released some new original music, but their moody indie-lounge sound, which evokes both Leonard Cohen and Mark Eitzel, remains intact, and will surely cast a formidable atmosphere over the side room at Bandito’s. Weird Tears will bring their own unique, mournful power-pop approach to the evening, which is sure to be a highlight, and Minimum Balance rounds things out with some driving, spunky alt-rock sounds that are sure to delight all comers. This one is well worth your time.

Tuesday, October 22, 6 PM
Trash Boat, House & Home, Sleave, Hold Close, Nine Line, The Second After @ The Canal Club – $13 (order tickets HERE)
It’s always interesting to see what the UK does with US-originating sounds like pop-punk and hardcore. Trash Boat are the latest British export to combine both of these genres, and instead of landing anywhere in the neighborhood of Neck Deep, on one hand, or Gallows on the other, they carve out their own niche at the intersection point of melodic, emotional punk and driving hardcore power on 2018’s Crown Shyness, an excellent example of the fact that some UK bands are able to hold their own with the best exports from these shores.

Trash Boat have pivoted a bit with new single “Synthetic Sympathy,” moving in a poppier and dancier direction, but it’s always tough to tell whether such moves represent a stylistic shift or just a slight outlier. Either way, it shows that the band’s still got what made them worth our time in the first place, so you could certainly do a lot worse than journeying to the Canal Club this Tuesday night and catching them live onstage. A whole bunch of local talents, including heavy-emotion trio Sleave — who are actually about to release an LP on a UK label — and speedy easycore quartet Nine Line, are also on the bill, and you should really show up on time so you can get a good look at what’s happening in this musical world here in Richmond as well as over in the UK.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, October 18, 8 PM
Wylder, Starcoast, BigForestFire @ Charlie’s American Cafe (Norfolk) – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Formed in Virginia and currently based in DC, Wylder are an indie-folk group with a lovely sort of sound, one that on their most recent LP, this year’s Golden Age Thinking, doesn’t just adhere to the typical sound you think of when you hear the genre descriptor “indie-folk.” Which is to say, they aren’t just another group of bearded boys with wide eyes doing their best Sam Beam. There’s some real sonic variance here, from the string-sweetened indie-rock melodies of lead single “Ghosts” to the quieter, more precisely constructed acoustic ambience of album closer “Right To My Head.”

So can we expect the live incarnation of Wylder to hit the stage in full-on rock mode, loud and proud? Or will we get a quieter, more acoustically-driven evening? Well, chances are the answer will depend on the song. It seems most reasonable to expect many different moods from Wylder, a band with many degrees to their approach — though all of them are driven by their talent. The evening will also feature performances by Virginia Beach quartet Starcoast, who bring rich vocal harmonies to their brand of upbeat indie pop; as well as BigForestFire, a group whose jammed-out grooves are often fueled by trumpet. This will be a lovely night.

Sunday, October 20, 1 PM
Chugfest, feat. Studebaker Huck, Breakers, Ghost Logic, Cokenail, Love Roses, Ruckus The Bulldog, LNT, The 40 Boys, The Chuggernauts, The Vailix @ IX Art Park (Charlottesville) – $10 donation to UVA Cancer Center’s Patient Services Fund
When you hear a name like “Chugfest,” you might very well think it’s a day’s festivities centered around beer. However, in this case, the festival appears to have been put together by Charlottesville punk band The Chuggernauts, so I suppose it’s named after them. But then, they’re named after how much they love to drink beer (as demonstrated on tunes like “Drinking Problem” and “Party On”), so it’s all the same in the end. That said, this event is really about drinking and rocking out for a good cause, not just for the hell of it, and all proceeds from raffles and donations will go to UVA Cancer Center’s Patient Services Fund, which helps direct support to patients and survivors in need of medical services.

I can’t speak to what kind of drinking you can or can’t do at this event — it’s in a public park, so that really comes down to city ordinances up there in Charlottesville. What I can tell you is that you’ll get sets from nearly a dozen punk rock bands from all around the state, not just the Chuggernauts but also long-running C-ville punks The 40 Boys, Richmond’s favorite speedy-punk sons Love Roses, funk-blues-metal duo Ruckus The Bulldog, Tidewater skate rats LNT, countrified rockabilly boyos Studebaker Huck, and a whole bunch more. This should be a great afternoon of fun sounds for a good cause, and it’ll sure liven up your Sunday. So consider taking a trip up to C-ville for this one — you’ll thank me later.

—-

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: Kool Keith by Jason Persse, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Hair-Flipping, Back-Bending Rock N’ Roll Allies

|

Topics: , , , , , ,

With Shagwuf’s Sweet Freakshow, the Charlottesville surf-garage band celebrates five years of advocating for safe spaces, being vocal about intersectional issues, and rocking out.

Gutter-glam swamp-rock band Shagwuf is on a mission. The Charlottesville-based trio hopes to recreate inclusive safe spaces across the East Coast, and change the reputation of their hometown in the process. And they’re doing it all with music.

This weekend, the group will celebrate their fifth anniversary as a band with a giant outdoor party in the heart of Charlottesville, at IX Art Park. The event, which has been named “The Sweet Freakshow” after their latest single, “Sweet Freak,” will feature performers of all kinds, from the scandalous to the downright dangerous.

One such act is the daring and dangerous Stray Cats Sideshow, a husband and wife duo who, along with their team, do it all, from contortionist exhibitions to eating light bulbs.

“You see them and think, these are the craziest, gnarliest people, and then they invite you into their home and they’re so hospitable,” said Shagwuf bassist Sally Rose. “They fed us, let us take showers at their house, and the next morning we all had coffee in their backyard while throwing ninja stars and knives at targets. It was just so funny — they were these really caring, hospitable people doing this really dangerous stuff.”

Shagwuf intentionally organized this event to be held in Charlottesville, not only because that city is their stomping grounds, but because they want to take steps to erase the mark left on the town’s reputation after the 2017 Unite the Right rally.

“If you look up the hashtag for Charlottesville, it’s still deeply overwhelmed with really horrific images,” said Rose. “Now, more than any other time, is the time to be putting that work in, making sure people are safe at shows and celebrating everything we’re there for, in a really sacred environment that can’t be fucked with.”

After 5 years performing as Shagwuf, Rose, along with guitarist Pete Stallings and drummer Pablo Olivieri, has learned a lot about what it means to be in a band that’s more like family.

“There’s a very strong hunger to play music for as long as possible, and be on the road as much as we can afford to,” said Rose. “You have to have a lot of trust, and more than anything, you all have to want the same thing. With Shagwuf, we are really in it because we all love playing together, love music, and love sharing these experiences on the road together.”

They’ve also learned how important it is to be allies to their fans, not just passive entertainment. Whether they’re on tour or performing locally, Shagwuf has used their tight-knit feel and expansive experience to create a space in which their fans can feel safe and welcome. To them, ensuring their fans feel comfortable and welcome as they are is the most important part of the work they do and the music they share.

“It is a constant thing that you have to be working on to really prove yourself as an ally to any minority group,” said Rose. “Our cultures are constantly evolving and changing, and you have to be proactive and intentional.”

In these “woke” times, Shagwuf have encountered their share of bands and venues who want to be seen as enlightened, but aren’t backing up their words with actions. “Something we’ve run into a lot on the road is venues having a decal on their door saying this is a safe space, but then you go in there and there’s still misogyny or bigotry going on,” said Rose. “They’re talking the talk, and not walking the walk.”

Fighting to create those safe spaces for members of their audience who are POC, LGBTQ, women, and other minority groups has proven challenging over the years. In many cases, it’s caused schedule changes and last-minute moves to new venues, but for Shagwuf, it’s important to do whatever is necessary to make sure everyone will be comfortable at their shows.

“You have to address it while you’re promoting the show — that anything that doesn’t abide by these standards will not be tolerated, and you will be removed from the show,” said Rose. “We’ve removed entire bills the week of [the show], and had to do house shows instead, in somebody’s basement, to put on a really meaningful show.”

Sometimes creating a safe space for their music has even meant stopping a show to confront people who are behaving badly. But as far as Rose is concerned, it’s the band’s responsibility to do so.

“We’ve had altercations at shows, where somebody was uncomfortable, and you have to take that initiative and be responsible,” said Rose. “Onstage, you have to call it out.”

While the band has had to struggle to keep their shows safe, their experiences have been eye-opening, and given them a new perspective about what it means to be an ally.

“If you’re gonna claim that you’re an ally, and claim you’re creating safe space, that’s what you have to do,” said Rose. “We’ve lost some opportunities, but we’ve gained a million more because of our mission to do that as a band. Some places don’t want to book bands that are loudly queer and loudly trying to create spaces like that, but it’s been really rewarding for us as a whole.”

Shagwuf’s most recently released tune, “Sweet Freak,” rejoices in these experiences the band has shared and honors the lives of queer individuals through a compassionate, sex-positive surf-garage-punk anthem.

“The song and music video we released were trying to break down the stigmas associated with BDSM, being sex positive, being a part of the kink community, and identifying as queer. All of those things are often really a healthy and healing part of communities that are physically filled with love,” said Rose. “To me being a sweet freak is embracing that, celebrating that, and de-stigmatizing that culture in general.”

In the years to come, Shagwuf doesn’t plan on slowing down. Currently, they have a lot of music being written behind the scenes to be shared later on after they spend time in Richmond recording this summer.

“There’s stuff Pete is writing that’s almost heavy funk which is really weird,” said Rose. “The stuff I’ve written was after coming out of this really terrible relationship and awful breakup this past year that’s really heavy and raw.”

Shagwuf’s Sweet Freakshow takes place this Saturday, May 25th at 7pm, at IX Art Park, located at 522 2nd St NE in Charlottesville. “It’s gonna be a freak show filled with love where everybody’s welcome as long as they act out of love for each other,” said Rose. “I want that for this town, so we can take our city back. These people coming to the show can be a part of our city and we’ll show them that’s what we’re about.”

Tickets for Shagwuf’s Sweet Freakshow are $15 in advance, $20 at the door, and can be ordered online through Eventbrite.

Top photo: Rich Tarbell, via Shagwuf/Facebook

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Nine Pillars Fest Stands Up For Charlottesville Hip Hop

|

Topics: , , , , ,

Nine Pillars Hip Hop Cultural Fest, Charlottesville’s own homegrown hip hop festival, returns for its third year with more hip hop music, art, and culture than ever.

Returning for its third year, Charlottesville’s Nine Pillars Hip Hop Cultural Fest begins Monday, April 22 and continues throughout the week, closing with a block party on Sunday, April 28 at Champion Brewing. As with previous editions of the festival, the 2019 version will feature artists and acts from the Charlottesville and Central Virginia areas. However, for the first time this year, Nine Pillars is also featuring performers from outside the commonwealth.

“We started very local — Charlottesville — and we’re expanding a little bit more each time,” said Cullen Wade, one of the festival founders.

The Charlottesville festival grew from a rising community with limited resources. Hip hop artists in the city often had to fight for venues. And when they were able to book locations, they often faced up-charges due to the type of music they played.

“It was all sort of underground and didn’t really get the recognition or respect that I felt like it deserved,” Wade said of Charlottesville’s nascent hip hop scene. “There is, and was, a very serious stigma against what we do.”

The official Nine Pillars 2019 t-shirt references the struggle Charlottesville’s hip hop scene has faced, bearing the slogan “LEGALIZE HIP HOP” in black, bold letters.

The frustration this situation caused was what originally inspired Wade and other members of the local hip hop community to come together show Charlottesville what hip hop was about — for them.

“We wanted to essentially celebrate all the nine pillars of hip hop, while raising the profile of the local talent pool,” Wade said

Wade defines the nine pillars of hip hop — also called the nine elements — as: b-boying (breakdancing), MCing (rapping), graffiti art, DJing/scratching, beatboxing, street fashion, street language, street knowledge, and the entrepreneurial spirit.

The festival is designed to create an opportunity for the pillars to intersect within the eight scheduled events taking place across Charlottesville over the course of next week.

Bringing a scholarly take on the culture is the “Sally’s Kids Vol. 2” panel discussion on Wednesday at the University of Virginia. Moderated by UVa Professor A.D. Carson, the discussion will focus on an ongoing project: archiving the history of hip hop in Charlottesville.

The Sally’s Kids panels aim to contextualize hip-hop history as it relates to Virginia, and specifically the Charlottesville area. It is named after Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman whose children were fathered by Thomas Jefferson.

Last year’s discussion panel — the “Vol. 1” implied by the event’s title — featured two more experienced members of the Charlottesville hip hop community alongside two more youthful members in their early 20s. The discussion that ensued helped demonstrate the changes and growth of the community across generations.

This year’s Sally’s Kids panel will discuss the Black UVA experience, and what Wade calls “the complicated relationship between black Charlottesville and black UVA.” It will also cover the development of the Virginia sound — a hybrid sound pulling from multiple regions, according to Wade.

“We’re kind of halfway between old school New York … and a more southern influence,” he said. While the Virginia sound varies from region to region, all of it brings influence and style to the Charlottesville sound.

“There’s the Tidewater sound that got really big on the national level in the mid-2000s,” Wade said, citing Timbaland, Missy Elliot, and the Neptunes. “We’re also going to talk about the go-go influence creeping down from DC.”

On Thursday night, Charlottesville-based go-go band Seductive Sounds will take the stage to accompany the “Heart, Soul, Runway Fashion Show.” The Nine Pillars fashion show is taking place at the IX Art Park, a public art center built out of a warehouse in a Charlottesville industrial zone. The fashion show will be based around one of the nine pillars — street fashion. In connecting with the festival and the Charlottesville community, Wade said that attendees could expect only “local, independent, mostly black designers.”

The festival culminates in a block party at Champion Brewing Company on Sunday afternoon. This year, to expand beyond Virginia, the festival has brought in legendary Brooklyn MC Wordsworth; Cesar Comanche and Ghost Dog, both of whom hail from North Carolina; and Louisiana’s Marcel P. Black.

The block party will feature food trucks, local entrepreneurs, and live graffiti painting, as well as the induction of three veteran local artists to the city’s hip hop hall of fame.

The week-long festival will feature many other events over the course of the week, from a LGBTQ hiphop showcase and a DJ battle to a graffiti art exhibit with a networking brunch and a youth rap and dance competition.

There’s quite a bit more going on than we have space to cover, so for full details on the seven different events taking place over the course of the next week, check out the Nine Pillars facebook event page, or visit Nine Pillars on facebook.

All events are free, and Nine Pillars relies on community donations to cover costs. To donate to their fundraising campaign, click here.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond