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VA Shows You Must See This Week: October 30 – November 5

Marilyn Drew Necci | October 30, 2019

Topics: 3:33, Addy, Alexa Rose, All Your Sisters, Benderheads, Buzzherd, Caroline Says, Cary Street Cafe, Ceremony (VA), Chicho's Backstage, Comrades, Crippled Fox, Deau Eyes, Eaves, Echo Beds, Empty, Flamin' Groovies, Fujiwara, Fuzzy Cactus, gallery 5, Greet Death, Haybaby, Hovvdy, Kevin Krauter, Loud Night, My Epic, New Boss, Nosebleeds, Rad Taco, Russian Circles, shows you must see, Smallhands, The Broadberry, The Camel, The Canal Club, The Girls, The Gladstones, The Needles, The Nerve Scheme, The Southern Cafe, Trey Burnart Hall, True Body, Unmaker, Windhand, Wolves At The Gate, Wonderland

FEATURED SHOW
Thursday, October 31, 7 PM
Halloween at G5, feat. Nosebleed, Benderheads, Unmaker, Haybaby, Chicki Parm, Niche Brand, hosted by Michael Smith @ Gallery 5 – $8 in advance/$10 at the door (order tickets HERE)

Bonfires burning bright, pumpkin faces in the night… it’s Halloween once again, and in classic Richmond fashion, we’ll be doing it up right, regardless of what day of the week October 31 arrives on. The classic Richmond tradition of Halloween covers show got thrown off this year when the venue Return Of The Living Dead Bands was booked into closed down, but never fear — there’s still plenty of fun, costumery, and punk rock madness to go around on this All Hallow’s Eve!

The cynosure of the music-related celebration in RVA this Halloween night is at Gallery 5, where my old pal Rivanna and Raw Mom Presents are doing it up in proper fashion, with more than just music for your entertainment. There’ll also be drag performances featuring Chicki Parm and Niche Brand, a costume contest with prizes, and host Michael Smith keeping the action going throughout the night. So come dressed up, and have some fun!

But make sure you catch the music, because this night is full of local groups with a lot to offer! At the top of the bill is furious Richmond hardcore group Nosebleed, who are going to be releasing a new EP on venerable HC label Triple B Records later this year. They’re sure to blow you away, and metallic postpunk rockers Unmaker, punk rippers Benderheads, and indie rock balladeers Haybaby will do much the same. Liven up your Halloween this year at Gallery 5, and get a full helping of devilish fun before the sun rises and the saints come out.

Wednesday, October 30, 7 PM
Russian Circles, Windhand @ The Broadberry – $18 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)

Sometimes genres tagged with a “post-” prefix can get a little limiting. For Russian Circles, who’ve debatably been standard-bearers for the “post-metal” subgenre for over a decade now, their brand of complex, slowly evolving riff epics could certainly have resulted in them painting themselves into a corner, especially on their seventh album. Thankfully, new LP Blood Year shows that this Chicago trio is far from running out of ideas.

They’re also smart enough not to let the ideas they do have run away with them, avoiding long metallic symphonies in favor of concisely expressed musical ideas that generally conclude well short of the ten-minute mark. If anything, there’s more Breadwinner and early Don Caballero in the mix on Blood Year than reliable post-metal touchstones like Isis and Pelican. Which is a wonderful thing. Tonight at the Broadberry, Russian Circles will be joined by Windhand, a band that has learned to make epic lengths work for them in the related but decidedly separate field of apocalyptic doom metal. It all adds up to filling three hours of your Wednesday night with several days’ worth of riffs, and what could be a better bargain than that?

Thursday, October 31, 7 PM
Citrus City Halloween Bash, feat. Hovvdy, Kevin Krauter, Caroline Says, Addy @ The Camel – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)

In the world of music, Halloween is often closely identified with punk rockers and spooky metal bands, but who says the indie kids don’t like to have fun too? Citrus City Records is proving that Richmond’s indie scene can embrace the Allhallows fun times as well as anyone with this shindig over at The Camel. Granted, things will be a bit more low-key over by the post office — as far as we know, no costume contests are planned (though we’re sure no one will mind if you show up in your trick-or-treating outfit). However, you will get an evening full of great indie sounds from local and touring artists, and there ain’t a damn thing wrong with that.

Hovvdy are at the top of this bill, and while I know this Austin, Texas duo wants me to look at that name and think “howdy,” I’m no good with these double-V-instead-of-single-W names, so I just think of them as “hov-dee.” However you feel like pronouncing their name, these guys exemplify their self-identified genre tag of “pillowcore” on just-released third LP Heavy Lifter, a collection that pairs bedroom indie sounds with hints of Americana and is the perfect soundtrack for a relaxing, low-key Halloween. Some other out-of-town indie pals are also on the bill — mellow indie-folk project Caroline Says also hails from Austin, while lo-fi singer-songwriter Kevin Krauter comes from Indiana. Local indie crew Addy will kick the evening off, and bring you a fine way to spend Halloween if you’re not feeling the whole stress of getting a costume together. (Believe me, I’ve been there.)

Friday, November 1, 6 PM
Wolves At The Gate, My Epic, Comrades, Empty, Eaves @ The Canal Club – $14 in advance/$16 day of show (order tickets HERE)

I have no idea what was in the water 20 or so years ago around certain religious institutions in the American midwest, but somehow or another, a certain subgenre evolved that seemed inextricable from Christianity. It was a mixture of hardcore, metal, and emo, and while it could go in more chaotic (The Chariot) or more melodramatic (mewithoutYou) directions, the general result was both heavy and driving while also being dramatic and emotional. And even for nonbelievers like myself, it was all but impossible to deny that a lot of it was really, really good.

Ohio’s Wolves At The Gate are solidly in that tradition, having evolved over their past decade of existence from the melodic metalcore of their early EPs to the epic, emotional metallic post-hardcore of their recently released fourth LP, Eclipse. Bringing in a decidedly epic atmosphere over the course of more recent work, they’ve attained a bit of a prog edge without losing their heaviness or the power of their dramatic musical crescendos. They’re sure to pair well with nomadic former Richmonders Comrades, who will join them on this Canal Club bill. Fredericksburg-based My Epic, who add a bit of grunge to their melodic alt-rock — entirely for the better — will also be part of this one, as well South Carolina’s Empty and Richmond’s own Eaves. Regardless of which faith you do or do not claim, rocking out at this one is a great way to spend your Friday night.

Saturday, November 2, 9 PM
All Your Sisters, Echo Beds, True Body @ Wonderland – $10

If you’re a longtime music nerd like I am, there’s a pretty clear picture that forms in your mind when someone starts talking about gothic industrial — and let’s be real, it’s a picture of Andrew Eldritch from Sisters Of Mercy on the cover of Floodland. That late-80s Sisters Of Mercy sound has made a fundamental imprint of 30 years of goth-industrial groups since that LP’s release in 1987 — that’s a fact. But it is still possible for bands to bring a new and more interesting approach to the genre without just walking in the Sisters’ footsteps, and Los Angeles project All Your Sisters is proving it.

Their latest LP, Trust Ruins, provides a blueprint for a way forward that should be just as interesting to dirty punks and angry metalheads as it is for traditional rivethead types. On it, All Your Sisters pair pounding drum machine beats that are straight off a late-80s Nitzer Ebb single with noisy, blown-out guitars that call to mind first-LP Jesus And Mary Chain. Plus, of course, that gloomy goth croon that we all know and love, which is a bit more Trent Reznor than Andrew Eldritch in the way this crew wields it. The result is equally enjoyable, though, and will certainly make for a great soundtrack to the stomping of polished black 20-hole Docs, even as it gives the less goth among us a sound we haven’t heard a million times before. Also on the bill, Denver’s Echo Beds will take things in an even harsher direction, while Virginia’s own True Body will cast a spell of delicious postpunk gloom over the entire affair. Hit the black eyeliner aisle and head to Shockoe Bottom for this one.

Sunday, November 3, 8 PM
Alexa Rose, Trey Burnart Hall, Deau Eyes @ Fuzzy Cactus – $8

The Sunday night at the end of the weekend after Halloween is a definite mood, y’all. Between a jam-packed Halloweek and a post-Hallows weekend that some people will just roll into a second straight weekend of celebrations, it can be hard to find your peace at the end of it all and get emotionally (and physically) prepared to get back to work on Monday. If that’s an issue you can relate to, I urge you to finish your weekend with this chill-as-hell Sunday night show at Fuzzy Cactus.

Alexa Rose is coming to town, and while this folk/Americana troubadour is currently based in Asheville, she originally hails from Clifton Forge, right here in Virginia. If you arrived in Richmond after a childhood spent in the vast rural west of Virginia (and a lot of us did), you’ll probably relate to Rose’s songs. With their tales of down-to-earth living and the day-to-day struggles we’re all contending with, they’ll sneak up on your with their resonant beauty. So why not meet ’em head on and let them bring you an easy smile of recognition? The warm glow Alexa Rose will offer you at Fuzzy Cactus this Sunday night is exactly the thing you’ll need to get you through the beginning of another ordinary work week. Let it shine on you.

Monday, November 4, 9 PM
Crippled Fox, Buzzherd, Loud Night, 3:33 @ Cary Street Cafe – $10

This rager will start your week off right with some awesome thrash punk sounds coming all the way from Hungary. Crippled Fox have been tearing it up in Central Europe for a solid decade now, and their hyperspeed rage evokes both the classic mid-80s era of crossover thrash — DRI, Heresy, Larm, all that stuff — but also the turn-of-the-millennium bandana thrash revival of legends like What Happens Next?, Life’s Halt, and Crucial Unit.

Basically, if your favorite Municipal Waste era is the early DIY EPs before they got a good recording budget, Crippled Fox is the band for you. Recent EP 10 Years Of Thrashing jams 5 songs onto one side of a 7 inch EP, and other than one midtempo singalong banger, they all flash by in 30 to 60 seconds. What’s not to love? These guys are sure to get a circle pit full of bandanas and backwards baseball caps going as soon as they hit the Cary Street Cafe stage, and it’d be a shame if you weren’t part of it. Pennsylvania death-grinders Buzzherd are also going to be part of this ripping thrash evening, and Richmond metallic punkers Loud Night and 3:33 will kick this one off right. Don’t get caught napping.

Tuesday, November 5, 9 PM
Greet Death, Ceremony (East Coast), Smallhands @ Wonderland – $10

This is a treat — with their new album, New Hell, on the horizon (it’ll be out within days of this show), Michigan’s Greet Death are coming to Richmond to grace us all with a set of gorgeous grunge-damaged indie rock. Their name may come from an old Explosions In The Sky song, but this trio are much closer soundwise to sadly-departed Philadelphians Creepoid, or maybe even 80s heartland noise-rockers like Antietam or Eleventh Dream Day. Greet Death definitely mix pastoral psychedelia, hazy slowcore, and sunbaked desert doom into their sound as well, creating a complicated, original music that has a ton of reference points but is mainly just its own thing.

And listen — it’s a pretty great thing. Expect Greet Death to prove this to you in loud and proud fashion on Tuesday night down at Wonderland, and you can also expect yourself to have a thoroughly great time while they do so. They’ll be joined by Fredericksburg’s Ceremony, aka Ceremony East Coast, aka not the formerly-hardcore band from California but a noisy, drum-machine-backed duo who’ve been around for about 15 years and are currently enjoying somewhat of a career renaissance. They’ve just released their sixth album, Candy, and it continues their legacy of ear-damaging noise-guitar roar that’s sure to please fans of first LP Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine circa “You Made Me Realise.” If you haven’t picked up on this group yet, this is the perfect time to get on board. Fellow Fredericksburgians Smallhands are coming down as well, to lay out some guitar noise of their own. It’s gonna be grand.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Thursday, October 31, 6 PM
Flamin’ Groovies, New Boss, The Gladstones @ The Southern Cafe (Charlottesville) – $18 (order tickets HERE)

I know the name Flamin’ Groovies doesn’t quite ring out today the same way it did two or three decades ago, but if you young whippersnappers don’t yet know about this pioneering garage rock/power-pop combo from California, you need a crash course in their truly unequalled excellence — and you’ll get it at Charlottesville’s Southern Cafe on Halloween night. Cyril Jordan has been leading the band since 1965, and in that time, they’ve innovated in the fields of psychedelic garage, proto-punk, and power-pop. They’ve got an overstuffed catalog full of timeless classics, and they’ll be bringing them all to the Southern, so you’ll want to be there to rapturously receive them!

These days, Cyril Jordan is the only original member left in the group, but though longtime co-leader Chris Wilson retired last year, Jordan has a rock-solid backing group to this day, and the four-piece will bring us highlights of their classic garage rock and power-pop eras, emphasizing both the classic 1971 rock n’ roll LP Teenage Head and the more Beatles/Byrds-influenced sound of 1976’s immortal Shake Some Action. It’s gonna be a killer show full of amazing tunes, and if you don’t already have Halloween plans, skip the costume in favor of some Beatle boots and a Nehru jacket, and head over to The Southern for some truly classic rock n’ roll sounds from the Flamin’ Groovies. You won’t regret it.

Saturday, November 2, 9 PM
The Needles, The Girls, The Nerve Scheme, Fujiwara, Rad Taco @ Chicho’s Backstage (Norfolk) – Free!

This free Saturday night show down in Norfolk is gonna keep the rock n’ roll sounds flowing and get everyone dancing and having a great time. This bill is topped by a double-shot of raw and wild garage punk straight out of Wilmington NC. The Needles have been around for damn near 20 years now, and there sound is a throwback to a trashy era of punk rock that was really just rock n’ roll played with a rude, snotty, don’t-give-a-fuck appeal that just can’t be denied. If you loved The Candy Snatchers and The Dead Boys, these guys will bring them back to life in your heart and put a big smile on your face with their rollicking tunes.

Fellow Wilmingtonians The Girls might take the prize for most un-Google-able band name of all time, but once some helpful person directed me to their Bandcamp, I found that their high-energy jams were worth the search. As you might have guessed given band-naming trends over the past 15 years or so, they’re not actually girls at all, but these three rock n’ roll boys all have a somewhat androgynous appeal, and wore dresses on the cover of their latest single, “Our Generation,” so if they’re willing to be that committed to the bit, I ain’t mad at them. Dishing out punky rockin’ tunes that land somewhere between The Donnas and The Ramones, they bring some pretty great sounds to the table as well. Outer Banks punk rockers Fujiwara bring a third NC punk rock combo with a slightly more melodic approach to this bill, and Tidewater hometowners Nerve Scheme and Rad Taco make for a deliciously overstuffed bill of all the rockin’ punk awesomeness you can eat. Belly up to the bar.

—-

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: July 10 – July 16

Marilyn Drew Necci | July 10, 2019

Topics: And Out Come The Wools, Belle And Sebastian, cement shoes, Champion RVA, Christmas In July, Digger, Ex Hex, Franks & Deans, Fun Size, gallery 5, Garden Grove Brewing, Glitterally Can't Even, Grem Smiley, Hanging From The Trio, Hardywood, Hotspit, Invaluable, Jocko, josh small, Kate Bollinger, Kevin Krauter, Kevin Seconds, Left Cross, Little Hustle, Liza & The Heart-Takers, missangelbird, Old Gods Defied, Operation Icy, Phantom Limb, Punks For Presents, Sammy Kay, Santa Flag, shows you must see, Single Use Plastic, Snowed Out, Soccer Mommy, Sprint Pavilion, Superstition, Taphouse Grill, The Broadberry, Tomb Mold, Under Attack, VE, Watchdogs, Wonderland

FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, July 13, 5 PM
Punks For Presents: Christmas In July, feat. Operation Icy, …And Out Come The Wools, Snowed Out, Hanging From The Trio, Santa Flag @ Hardywood – Free!

Christmas. As the old song goes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Such a sentiment is certainly up for debate, but one thing’s for sure — if there’s anything you really love about Christmas, you’re as far away from it now as you could possibly get. Thankfully, the folks at Punks For Presents understand that a year is an awfully long time to wait — so once again this year, they’re bringing us a Christmas In July celebration to tide us over until the temperatures drop and the snow (doesn’t) fall once again.

Punks For Presents have been doing their thing for years now, and it’s always awesome. Not just because of the music, either — they’ve been hooking up the Children’s Hospital of Richmond with cash and toy donations for years now, which is a cause always worth supporting. But the music itself is definitely amazing. Here’s how it works — local musicians form tribute bands to classic punk, hardcore, and metal bands and come up with a killer set of that band’s material. Then they rewrite the lyrics to take on a Christmas-related theme, and away we go!

This time around at Hardywood, this free gig presents five excellent holiday takes on classic bands of the 90s. Operation Icy and …And Out Come The Wools pay tribute to Tim Armstrong’s punk/ska legacy. Snowed Out, a No Doubt tribute band with a very clever name, stretch a point a little, but it’s all in pursuit of some fun, so I can’t get too mad at it. Santa Flag finds the Alex Jonestown Massacre boys putting together a set intended to evoke Anti-Flag’s early-2000s peak, while Hanging From The Trio mash up MxPx, Blink 182, and Alkaline Trio into one great set of 90s pop-punk jammers. The show is free, and the weather is great, so celebrate Christmas In July with Punks For Presents and bring the most wonderful time of the year a little bit closer.

Wednesday, July 10, 7 PM
Soccer Mommy, Kevin Krauter, Kate Bollinger @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)

Hard not to get stoked about this one. Soccer Mommy were pretty much my favorite new artist of 2018, blowing me away with their debut LP, Clean, and definitely giving me the feels with their raw, cutting lyrics on songs like “Your Dog” and “Last Girl.” Granted, there are a lot of sad indie girls with guitars out there writing songs about their angst; who you are probably has a big effect on your overall tolerance for that kind of music. But if you’re going to make room in your heart for even one of these artists, Soccer Mommy should be the one.

It’s not even just about the lyrics (though if any of my readers are the sort of early 20s indie-boy heartbreakers that seem pretty easy to find in most music scenes, you probably need to hear these songs ASAP), it’s about the fact that Soccer Mommy singer-guitarist Sophie Allison’s ear for a hook is flawless, and her ability to write a memorable chorus you’ll be walking around singing to yourself all day is pretty much unmatched. If you’ve never spent an entire afternoon with “I don’t want to be your fucking dog that you drag around” running through your head, you need to get familiar with the excellent songcraft of Soccer Mommy. Tonight’s the perfect time to do so.

Thursday, July 11, 7 PM
Little Hustle, HotSpit, Missangelbird, Liza & The Heart-Takers @ Gallery 5 – $7

Get your weekend started a day early this Thursday night, and break out of the work-week doldrums with a bunch of rad bands at Gallery 5. Little Hustle are coming down from New York to rock us all, and their killer sound, as demonstrated on brand new album Notepasser, finds them indulging in Asobi Seksu-style delicate shoegaze moments at times, then blasting off into hard-charging Sleater-Kinney style choruses that will have you dancing around the room before you even realize what’s going on. As rad as they sound on record, they’re sure to be a tremendous experience live.

Plus, you also get the tour kickoff show for two excellent local indie groups, HotSpit and Missangelbird. Missangelbird was born out of the solo songwriting adventures of Erica Lashley, who has since recruited a rhythm section and begun dishing out quietly hard-hitting versions of her precisely-constructed indie tunes. She’s also a member of HotSpit, a louder, more ensemble-style indie quartet with some anthems of their own to regale the entire East Coast with over the next couple weeks. But first, they’ll be rocking Gallery 5 on the way out of town, and you really shouldn’t miss this chance to catch ’em before they go.

Friday, July 12, 8 PM
Franks & Deans, Glitterally Can’t Even @ Wonderland – $10

This one’s gonna be kind of nutty — but in a good way, I promise! Here’s the deal with Franks & Deans: in the tradition of Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, they focus on punk rock versions of classic tunes. Franks & Deans dips further into the past than Me First, though, bypassing the 70s AM Gold era for a deep dive into the tunes and styles of the Rat Pack. That’s right, this band does punk rock versions of songs by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and their legendary associates — and sometimes they mash them up with actual classic punk tunes. For example, Bobby Darin’s “Splish Splash” to the tune of Rancid’s “Roots, Radicals,” or Sinatra’s “Luck Be A Lady” sung overtop “Ghost Town” by The Specials.

See? I told you it’d be nutty. But I think we’d all be lying if we said our interest wasn’t at least a little piqued. The fact that this four-piece punk group tours with their very own dancer, Miss Nicole Muse, only furthers the Vegas-decadence vibe. You’re sure to cut loose once these guys start rocking Wonderland this Friday night, and you’ll be put into the perfect mood for such hijinks and tomfoolery by an opening set from local Kesha tribute act Glitterally Can’t Even, who do classics like “Tik Tok” and “Animal” in a ska-punk style. It’s Friday night, y’all — let’s head down to Shockoe Bottom and get weird.

Saturday, July 13, 9 PM
Jocko, WatchDogs, Cement Shoes, Old Gods Defied @ Champion RVA – Free!

Here’s a really interesting hardcore group that doesn’t just sound like everyone else on the scene these days: Jocko, from Omaha Nebraska. The tagline on this band is “mixing hardcore with hip hop,” but the experienced HC fans among us may then expect them to sound like Cold World. However, instead of going for the Biohazard-ish intersection of metallic breakdowns and banging beats, Jocko goes a different route, mixing a more old-school, less metallic USHC sensibility that draws from both coasts with a braggodocious vocal approach that switches back and forth from angry shouts to rhythmic rhymes.

On Jocko’s debut LP, Expressions, this midwestern group pulls from all sorts of different regional hardcore traditions — New York’s Madball, Boston’s Negative Approach, Central Cali’s Trash Talk, and LA’s Rage Against The Machine are all obvious influences on this group. But what really makes their music hit so hard is their strong, energetic attack, which is sure to get the pit stirred up at Champion RVA this Saturday night. They’re accompanied on this gig by a triple-threat of local groups; WatchDogs’ chugging low-end brutality, Cement Shoes’ speedy energetic punk, and Old Gods Defied’s aggressive mosh-metal thrill will get you hyped from the moment you walk in the door.

Sunday, July 14, 6 PM
Phantom Limb, VE, Grem Smiley @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!

When you hear a band described as “postpunk,” there’s probably a certain image that comes into your head — one that involves laser lights piercing the gloom of a dark hazy club as a band dressed in all black does its level best to sound like Joy Division. Phantom Limb can easily be called postpunk, but they are definitely not that kind of band. Instead, on their 2017 LP Townies, they tap into a wild rock n’ roll energy that lands somewhere between the spooky garage punk of bands like Ex-Cult and the synth-punk madness of Lost Sounds, all while keeping an atmosphere of intriguing mystery floating around.

When Phantom Limb hit the stage at Garden Grove Brewing this Sunday night, they’re gonna cap your weekend off with a bang — one that’ll thrill you whether you’re wearing thick black eyeliner or not. You will also get to enjoy the unique stylings of VE, who at least at one time were named Various Eggs and may still be. Their music is strange, and not too much like anything else you’re going to hear anywhere, but “postpunk” would also be a fair categorization of it. And “very good” would be too. The show will begin with some rad rock n’ roll from local newcomers Grem Smiley. This one’s gonna be fun.

Monday, July 15, 7 PM
Kevin Seconds, Josh Small, Sammy Kay @ Gallery 5 – $15 (order tickets HERE)

You’ve really gotta love this. Hardcore pioneer Kevin Seconds, who began his legendary, long-running group 7 Seconds at the very dawn of the 80s and went on to influence multiple generations of punks with his patented blend of unflinching socio-political commentary, hardcore energy, and unforgettable melodic hooks, has been performing solo acoustic shows off and on since the late 80s. These days, with 7 Seconds having finally ended in 2018 after nearly 40 years, catching him solo is certainly your best bet — and with his solo tunes, most recently brought into the world on his 2016 album Band-Aid On A Bullet Wound, carrying every bit the high quality 7 Seconds’ music always had, it’s a guarantee of a fun musical evening.

What might be the most fun about this particular gig is that Kevin Seconds is wearing his reason for this particular East Coast tour on his sleeve. As the poster says: he’s come for Avail. Kev will hit the Gallery 5 stage four days before Avail begins its run of reunion gigs over at The National, and it’s delightful to see an absolute pioneer of punk rock still so excited about music 40 years into his career that he’d book an entire tour around that opportunity. It’s to all our benefit, too, as it offers us all a chance to see Kevin Seconds play Richmond for the first time in quite a while. Come out and see what sort of tunes he has to offer — we can guarantee you’ll enjoy them.

Tuesday, July 16, 7 PM
Tomb Mold, Superstition, Left Cross, Under Attack @
Gallery 5 – $12 (order tickets HERE)
Look, sometimes we’ve just gotta get down with some serious brutality. When you’re as stoked about metal as I am, it’s hard to get through even one week without it. But even if total headbanging action isn’t your preferred version of musical enjoyment, even you have got to recognize that sometimes you’ve just gotta thrash. Tomb Mold is coming through town this Tuesday night, and they’ll be offering you the perfect opportunity for such a thing. Brutal riffage in a classic old-school death metal style to bring smiles to the faces of all the Autopsy, Obituary, and Incantation fans out there — that’s what they’ve got to offer. You should really take them up on it.

They’ll be joined in their trek through RVA by Superstition, a Santa Fe, NM ensemble with a similarly old-school approach to death metal madness. If you dug those old Earache cassettes your uncle used to blast in his car, these groups are really gonna make you happy. They’re joined on this bill by RVA’s own dirty thrashin’ death-metallic hardcore powerhouse, Left Cross, as well as brand new Richmond hardcore supergroup Under Attack, which features members of Limp Wrist, Suppression, Municipal Waste, and Red 40 (not the one from Tennessee a long time ago, the one from Richmond an even longer time ago — yeah, I remember). This whole show is definitely gonna be worth your time, so mark your calendars.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Thursday, July 11, 6 PM
Belle And Sebastian, Ex Hex @ Sprint Pavilion – $36-$50 (order tickets HERE)
It’s hard to believe that indie darlings Belle And Sebastian have become popular enough to play the 3500-seat Sprint Pavilion in Charlottesville. But if anything, it shows the buying power of grown-ups who were indie kids in their college days. So this one is for everybody who booked a sitter months in advance so they can enjoy a lovely evening with their partner smiling to classic tunes like “Dylan In The Movies” and “Piazza, New York Catcher.” But that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t go too, and enjoy the many wonderful highlights of Stuart Murdoch and co.’s consistent career of outstanding tunes.

Belle And Sebastian have decidedly not become just a 90s nostalgia act, either. They’re preparing to release their 11th album, a soundtrack for English film Days Of The Bagnold Summer (the directorial debut of Inbetweeners star Simon Bird), later this year. First single “Sister Buddha” shows that this seven-person Scottish ensemble have still got what it takes to create indie-pop classics every bit the equal of the ones they were dishing out with regularity over 20 years ago. This certainly bodes well for an evening of excellent music. Plus, you’ll get an opening set from Ex Hex, the dynamic Mary Timony-led rock n’ roll trio whose recently released It’s Real makes clear that their awesome, swaggering debut, Rips, was no fluke. Even if you can only afford the cheap seats, this one’s essential.

Saturday, July 13, 8 PM
Digger, Fun Size, Invaluable, Single-Use Plastic @ Taphouse Grill – $13 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
OK so here’s another 90s throwback for all the music fans among us, though this one will certainly be more intimate, taking place at Norfolk’s Taphouse Grill. It finds two 90s pop-punk legends coming together once again. Digger are the first ones we must discuss — this Pennsylvania band cranked out some outstanding albums on Hopeless Records in the late 90s and early 2000s, the best being the prescient Promise Of An Uncertain Future. Today, when we’re all living in that very uncertain future, Digger have returned to action and hit the road once again, regaling all us 90s kids who miss the innocent days of our teenage angst, when getting a ride to the show at Twisters on Friday night was our biggest concern.

Fun Size is the other pop-punk legend on this bill, and chances are they were also on the bill of that show we were all trying to get a ride to 25 years ago. Having released a couple of outstanding albums back then, these guys returned to action at the dawn of this decade with a long awaited third LP, Since We Last Spoke. That album proved that they were still every bit the world-class talents they’d always been, and seven years later, they’re still proving it. Seeing these guys on a bill with Digger is sure to take you back to your teenage days, even if you don’t quite fit into those tiny t-shirts you used to wear back then. That’s OK — I’m sure the bands would be glad to sell you new ones after the gig. Get there and rock out like there’s still a Clinton in the White House.


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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

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