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RVA Shows You Must See This Week: December 29 – January 4

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, December 31, 8 PM
Party Liberation Foundation presents PLF Decemberween 2022, featuring:
Main Stage: Mikemetic, Ebisu Sound, Crenshaw, Reinhold, Elliott Ness, Joanna O; Eclectic Stage: Esosonic, Jaguardini, Rozez, Kitana, Psynatra, Wrath, Third Order; Pyro Stage: Snarz, CottonKandy, Nexus, Akasha, Neuron Husky, Illexandra, DoppelGanger @ Diversity Richmond – $77 (order tickets HERE)
It’s another weird end-of-year week here in the city’s live music scene, and I’d like to say it’ll be the last one before we get back to full steam ahead, but I would be crazy to think that’ll happen. The influx of positive COVID tests across the country as Omicron heats up is only going to get worse in the wake of everybody traveling to see family for the holidays, and even over the past few weeks, we were seeing big tours get cancelled before they managed to make it to RVA. So yeah… things are in flux. And they will continue to be. Consider this an apology in advance, and let it be the last we say about it. Except: Get vaxxed if you haven’t, and get boosted if you aren’t yet.

A lot of this stuff is rendered thankfully irrelevant by the undisputed titan of this week’s live events: the Party Liberation Foundation’s annual Decemberween celebration at Diversity Richmond. Since the PLF are all about some pyrotechnic acrobatics, a great deal of this event takes place outdoors even during non-pandemic times. Luckily, temperatures are supposed to be in the 60s for New Years Eve this year, so all the wild outdoor antics will have a relatively hospitable environment in which to exist. And listen — I know tickets for this extravaganza are pricey. But you need to understand that they are so very worth it. PLF sets it off like no other, and this is going to be a wild sensory delight of the sort you only rarely get in a standard dance party atmosphere.

Speaking of the dance party: there will be three different stages rocking during this party, with a variety of luminaries from both around the country and right here in RVA rocking the tables and getting the party started. Of course Mikemetic is a big name here in Richmond — his Afro Beta events are always essential. And other luminaries like Turnstyle alumna Joanna O, crime-fighting mixmaster Elliott Ness, and our very own Reinhold (who has no idea I’m writing about his show) will be joining Mikemetic on the main stage. But you’ll also be able to catch a wide variety of musical talent over at the Eclectic Stage, and an amazing soundtrack for some equally amazing fire-play over at the Pyro Stage. And this whole thing goes on til 4 in the morning! Whether you’re a fan of fire-spinning, a big believer in the “Every Day Is Halloween” aesthetic, or just someone who loves to get their freak on and wants to ring in the New Year in extremely memorable fashion, PLF’s Decemberween 2022 is the event for you. Make it happen, cap’n.

Wednesday, December 29, 8 PM
Night Teacher, Twin Films @ The Camel – $7 in advance, $10 day of show (Order tickets HERE)
It’s always an intriguing night for music when you’re out at The Camel, and tonight is no exception. In fact, it’s exceptionally appropriate, as you will be learning the musical secrets of the night from Night Teacher, a duo based in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, a couple hours up I-64 from here. The main members of this group are poet Lilly Bechtel and producer/multi-instrumentalist Matt Wyatt, and they come together to create moody, soulful blues-rock tunes with a distinctly experimental approach that gives the whole thing a delightful element of surprise.

Night Teacher demonstrated their approach as a studio duo on last year’s self-titled debut, but this live event at The Camel will show a different side of the group. Joined by Charlottesville music luminaries including upright bassist Dhara Goradia, guitarist Eli Cook, violinist Cathy Monnes (who the more alert among you will recognize as C-ville musical tornado Sally Rose‘s mom), and vocalist/actress Adelind Horan, they’ll be performing in a sextet configuration that’s sure to allow more freedom in which the Night Teacher can recreate the mystical, multi-layered tunes they created for their debut. Energetic indie-psych Richmonders Twin Films will kick the evening off in proper fashion, so hey: get there.

Thursday, December 30, 8 PM
Ten Pound Snail, Fight Cloud, No Moniker, Sigmund Fraud @ The Camel – $7 in advance, $10 day of show (Order tickets HERE)
A few weeks ago, in one of my first show columns since getting back on the good foot, we saw the name Ten Pound Snail on a bill for the first time. Then last week, we discussed the fact that they somehow became a headlining local act during the year and a half I was away from the live music scene — an era during the vast majority of which, there were no shows at all! Now we see their name topping yet another bill that feels unmissable to me, a Camel showcase of some of the best talents in Richmond indie music circa 2021. So look, if you haven’t dug into the work this moody, intriguing trio are doing yet, you can’t say it’s because you haven’t had the opportunity. Avail yourself of it already.

But look, I can’t hide the fact that the band on this bill I’m most stoked about is Fight Cloud. Back in that mid-10s renaissance of melodic, mathy indie rock, these guys created some of my favorite tunes to come out of that era. I still remember how much “Pipe Dream,” from their 2016 LP We’ll Be Alright, blew my mind the first time I heard it. Their grasp of emotionally-centered musical mood, complex song structure, and pure pop majesty is pretty much unparalleled, and I was heartbroken when they broke up five years ago. I’d only had a little time to rejoice in their return to the music world with February 2020 release Thoughts Aligned before the pandemic put paid to any hope of seeing them live anytime soon. Thankfully, it didn’t stop them from writing new material, as they’ve released three new singles in the past year, all of which claim to be from a forthcoming new album. If you’re like me and can’t fucking wait for that to drop, go see them Thursday night at the Camel; chances are they’ll have some great new tuneage to lay on us all. And of course, I’ve now used up all my space babbling about Fight Cloud, but no one watching the Richmond indie world since it returned to action from the pandemic-induced worldwide hiatus can fail to have noticed how much great work No Moniker and Sigmund Fraud have been up to. Can they? I mean… I sure haven’t. So yeah, enlighten yourself and spend the last full night of 2021 with four of Richmond indie’s pre-eminent trailblazers at The Camel.

Friday, December 31, 7 PM
The Mighty Good Times, Cassidy Snider & The Wranglers @ The Camel – $20 in advance, $25 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you’re a person who doesn’t want to spend eight-plus hours of your New Years Eve-into-New Years Day dancing to electronic music while people spin fire and do wild acrobatics. I can see it; that kind of thing isn’t necessarily for everyone — especially since not everyone can swing a $77 admission charge. And if it’s not for you, you might be thinking, “What’s another place I can go and spend my New Years Eve hearing good music?” Luckily for you, I have the answer, and it’ll only cost you a far more economical 20 bucks to take part: it’s the Camel’s New Years Eve throwdown, featuring a performance from The Mighty Good Times.

Now, The Mighty Good Times might not be all that familiar a name to you — two years ago, they played their very first show opening for Jackass Flats for New Years Eve 2020. And only a few months later, live music shut down for over a year. Thankfully, they had plenty of time while all that was going on to put together a rocking set of tunes that incorporate Allman Bros-style classic Southern rock, along with alternative country, folk, and blues. The result is sure to make for an entertaining way to rock in the New Year. Along for the ride will be local country-blues singer Cassidy Snider and her Wranglers, who released their first studio recording last month in the form of Losing Lovers, a swinging six-song EP that totally captures their live magic. You can get a raw dose of that magic — no records necessary — if you show up on time to this shindig, so make sure you go ahead and do that.

Saturday, January 1, 8 PM
Sugar Bear & EU @ Trio Restaurant & Lounge – $25
It’s a new year, and a new you, right? So what better way to kick off the year 2022 than with a New Years Day trip to the Southside to partake in the joys of hitting up a club that’s a little off the beaten path — at least for this show column and its readership. Trio Restaurant & Lounge, down near Southside Plaza on Hull Street Rd, has a track record of bringing legendary DC musicians to town, many of whom (including the Junk Yard Band and DJ Kool, of “Let Me Clear My Throat” fame) are associated with DC’s very own homegrown musical movement: go-go. I am sometimes dismayed at how little Richmonders only two hours south down 95 from its birthplace know about go-go, but here’s a crash course for any of you who remain unenlightened: It’s a style that grew out of funk in the 70s and heavily incorporated hip hop elements in the 80s and 90s. It’s driven by a heavy, percussive beat, and call and response between performers and crowd is essential to the music, especially when its played live.

One of the few go-go singles that ever broke through to mainstream popularity was a song called “Da Butt,” which was featured on the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s School Daze and hit the Top 40 back in 1988. That song was by EU, also known as Experience Unlimited, one of the titans of the Washington DC go-go scene of the 80s. EU is still around, still fronted by longtime singer/bassist Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliott, and they’re coming to Richmond on New Years Day to get 2022 started right over at Trio Restaurant & Lounge. If you’ve never experienced a live go-go event, you owe it to yourself to go check this one out. The flyers say “strictly for the grown folks 30+” and “dress to impress,” and while I doubt they’ll keep you out if you’re only 29, I think you probably better be at least 21 for this one. And they’re not selling advance tickets, either, so like the flyer says — get there early. You don’t want to be standing around outside while everybody else is inside “doin’ da butt all night long.” Do you? No, I thought not.

Monday, January 3, 7 PM
Kings Of The Wild Things, Lowlife Tea Party, Solace Sovay, Vomit Rocket @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
And now for something completely different, while still being from the DMV area. After you’ve taken Sunday the 2nd to sleep off the ragers of the NYE weekend, come on down to the Camel on a Monday night to enjoy the youthful, energetic sounds of Towson, MD’s own Kings Of The Wild Things, a pop-punk quartet who’ve got no problem keeping that whole post-Warped Tour thing alive into a new decade. If you’ve been known to dig bands like The Wonder Years and Knuckle Puck (I, for one, certainly have), you’re sure to find something to appreciate in this group’s EP, Golden State Of Mind, featuring a lead single with the chorus: “Smile, you son of a bitch.” Yup, this is going to be fun.

The openers will be too. Young Richmond trio Lowlife Tea Party aren’t quite as uptempo as Kings Of The Wild Things, but their 90s rock aesthetic, which harks back to bands like Eve 6 at times, and is closer to Hum or The Toadies at others, is sure to connect. Solace Sovay have been purveying their vaguely shoegaze-damaged version of alt-rock around Richmond for a long time now, and they’ve been really good at it the whole time, so if you still haven’t caught them yet, it’s time to fix that one. As for the evening’s opening act, well, I can’t figure out who they actually are. There was a band called Vomit Rocket running around the outskirts of Roanoke about a decade ago, but I don’t think it’s them. There was another band called Rocket Vomit that opened a show at the Camel a few months ago, and it might be them with a slightly revised name, but if so, I can’t find anything online to confirm that. So yeah, in addition to three bands that are sure-fire winners, this evening features one band that is a total mystery. If nothing else, you’ve gotta admit, it’s tantalizing.

Tuesday, January 4, 7 PM
Restraining Order, Spy, Worn, Loud Night @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Here you go, you maniacs — an evening of fast, unrestrained, old-school hardcore is hitting the Camel this Tuesday to make sure your 2022 is full of as much hectic craziness as possible, as quickly as possible. Restraining Order tops this bill, and this New England band is sure to make any of you who miss the days when Richmond was a hotbed of fast, wild, punky hardcore bands (like Government Warning, Parasytic, and Wasted Time, to name a few) very, very excited. They followed up their hard-hitting, blink-and-you-miss-it 2019 LP This World Is Too Much earlier this year with a ripping split EP with Warfare and a lathe-cut single-sided EP featuring their cover of “We Got The Beat” by the Go-Go’s. I know, right? Who saw that one coming?

Anyway, Restraining Order is going to get the whole place raging in what I sure hope turns out to be an old-school circle pit when they come to The Camel. And they’ll be joined by some equally powerful out-of-town ensembles, including Spy, who hail from Northern California and whose recent Habitual Offender EP shows off a devastating proclivity for harsh, gruff hardcore that hits like a ton of bricks. Then there’s Pennsylvania’s Worn, who have a more thrash-infused approach that will click with anyone who loves local dark hardcore psychos Enforced or the sadly departed Power Trip, and should also push buttons for the fans of Portland legends Tragedy or Richmond’s own Prisoner. Loud Night is the only local act on this bill, but they fit right in, bringing an uptempo energy and metallic drive to a fiery sound that splits the difference between The Accused and Motorhead. Come to this one ready to go off in the pit, because these excellent bands demand no less.

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

Top photo by Dave Parrish Photography


Obsessed By Speed: Weekend Playlist by LOUD NIGHT

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Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you a truly fantabulous playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This time around, we bring you a raging ripper from Loud Night, a Richmond band bringing together members of Battlemaster and Ramming Speed to make some ferocious, heavy noise. They just released their debut LP, Mindnumbing Pleasure, a few weeks ago through Richmond’s own Vinyl Conflict, and the first press is already sold out, so clearly, a lot of you have already gotten the word on this rip-roaring group.

A second pressing of Mindnumbing Pleasure is in the works, so if you haven’t scored your copy yet, you won’t have long to wait. But in the meantime, get down with a selection of excellent tunes curated for RVA Mag by Loud Night. They’re bringing us a treasure trove of thrashing metal, hardcore punk, D-beat crust, rock n’ roll anthems, and more. With cold temperatures and rain rolling in over the weekend, this will be the perfect mix to soundtrack the harshness of the outside world.

Get grim, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Mindnumbing Pleasure with Richmond’s Loud Night

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After years of firing up the local metal scene with Ramming Speed and Battlemaster, the members of Loud Night have a new LP for Richmond — and its first press sold out in a week. 

Before relocating to Richmond from Boston in 2013, Ramming Speed’s Jonah Livingston, Ben Powell, and Kallen Bliss were longtime friends with Richmond’s Andy Horn, and always made sure to play with one of his bands in Richmond when they were on the road. 

The Boston area has been known for its punk and hardcore scenes since the early 1980s. The scene has produced influential bands such as SSD, Have Heart, and Converge, but for Livingston and his bandmates in Ramming Speed, Boston changed as the 2000s went into the 2010s and large corporations like LiveNation took over the music scene. 

“Every year it got worse and worse,” Livingston said. “Everything about the city was getting super shiny and corporatized, and the cops were shutting down everything cool about punk and the underground. It culminated with the cops showing up to our house with a photo of me because we were throwing house shows.” 

PHOTO: Via Loud Night on Facebook by Melissa Suarez Photography

This was when Livingston, Powell, and Bliss decided it was time for a change. 

“The heat was on, so [Livingston] got on the horn and called me up to say, ‘Hey, things are getting pretty hot up here,’” Horn said. “I said, ‘Come on down here, lay low for a while. We can secretly gain our strength back and combine forces.’” 

The three then packed up and moved from Allston, a neighborhood in Boston situated between Boston College and Harvard’s campuses, to the Texas Beach area of Richmond. For Livingston, who grew up in the city in Boston, it was his first time having a grassy backyard. After visiting Richmond so many times on tour, Livingston’s expectations were high, and he wasn’t disappointed. 

“Everywhere you turn, it’s like the guy at the gas station is in a metal band, the guy at the pizza place runs a record label,” Livingston said. “Everyone is part of an awesome scene; it was exactly what we were looking for.” 

Horn lived in the same neighborhood that Livingston, Powell, and Bliss moved to, and when the members of Ramming Speed decided to call it quits, the four began playing together as Loud Night. 

PHOTO: Via Loud Night on Facebook by Melissa Suarez Photography

“There’s nothing random about it. It was all fate, if you ask me,” Horn said. “We’ve been really good friends for a long time, and it was only a matter of time before we joined forces to create something new.” 

Horn, who does vocals in Battlemaster and previously sang for Organ Donor and Cannabis Corpse, learned to play bass and sing at the same time for the band. The name “Loud Night” came from All Crusties Spending Loud Night, a collection of videos of Japanese hardcore punk shows from the 1990s and 2000s. That name was inspired by pioneering Japanese hardcore band Confuse, and their EP Spending Loud Night. In Richmond’s Loud Night, the band members wanted to capture the raw energy of Japanese hardcore, and combine it with classic metal sounds like Judas Priest. 

The title of their new LP, Mindnumbing Pleasure, comes from one of the tracks on the album called “Skinflick.” The song is about the amount of violence shown on TV news. 

“All sorts of things get censored these days, but there’s no shortage of grisly war footage and pointless combat,” Horn said. “Civilians, men, women, and children just ripped apart… It sucks, and it’s on TV every day. You can easily become desensitized to that stuff.” 

All of the material for Mindnumbing Pleasure was written and tracked prior to the end of 2019, but on May 31 of this year — the same day Mayor Stoney announced there would be a curfew in Richmond in response to protests over George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis — the band released a single titled “Curfew.” The revenue the release earned on Bandcamp went to the Richmond Community Bail Fund. 

The band teamed up with Bobby Egger of Vinyl Conflict, a record store in Oregon Hill, and Blue Sprocket Pressing in Harrisonburg for the physical release of Mindnumbing Pleasure. The first pressing came as a yellow and black record. Since its release in late September, the first pressing has already sold out. According to Horn, Blue Sprocket described the color of their next pressing as “milky-white natural.” 

Loud Night hasn’t been able to book a tour to support the release of Mindnumbing Pleasure because of COVID-19, but when the pandemic is over, they’re planning to hit the road. As soon as shows can take place safely in Richmond, Horn believes the scene will be as loud and as wild as ever. 

“It’s like a massive bonfire. Even if the fire looks like it’s out from far away, the coals are always rippingly hot,” Horn said. “And there’s really no putting a fire like we have in Richmond out.” 

To learn more about Loud Night and stream their new record, visit the band on Bandcamp, Facebook, and Instagram. 

VA Shows You Must See This Week: February 12 – February 18

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FEATURED SHOW
Sunday, February 16, 7 PM
Talk Me Off, Doll Baby, Pedals, Xed Out @ Gallery 5 – $8 (order tickets HERE)
Where music is concerned, Richmond always has a lot going on, and in recent years, that activity has spread across a more widespread spectrum of genres than ever. That’s to be applauded. At the same time, this city would lose something if our longtime status as a hotbed of punk rock ever were to dry up. Therefore the fact that there’s no sign of that happening anytime soon is certainly a great sign for Richmond’s musical health as we head into the roaring(-with-frustration) 20s.

The latest standard bearer for Richmond punk rock is Talk Me Off, a local trio with a knack for expressing the archetypal punk emotions of alienation and frustration through quick, peppy songs with driving beats and scraping guitars paired with an always-strong sense of melody that keeps the whole thing from being just another atonal blurt. Talk Me Off are on the cusp of releasing their debut LP, Cursed, on longtime Richmond punk label Say-10, and whether you love that classic punk sound to the very core of your being or are just looking for a good musical outlet for your frustrations at being alive in Trump’s America in 2020, Talk Me Off are in great position to provide you with your fix.

They’ll be releasing Cursed into the world at Gallery 5 this Sunday night, and you can expect its release to be accompanied by a fiery set of catchy uptempo tunes to get you bouncing. And in addition to Talk Me Off’s celebratory headlining set, you’ll also get some great sounds from an additional trio of Richmond punk bands. These include the twangy, emotional sounds of Doll Baby, the long-running folk-punk talents of Pedals (On Our Pirate Ships… I’m still not sure if the name has officially been shortened or not), and newcomers Xed Out, who feature former members of Smoke Or Fire and The Bled, so you know they’ve got a lot to offer. Be there for this one and appreciate the latest evolution of a storied Richmond tradition.

Wednesday, February 12, 7:30 PM
The Wood Brothers, Kat Wright @ The National – $23 in advance/$26 at door (order tickets HERE)
Where folk music is concerned, things can sometimes get a little predictable. However, the Wood Brothers manage to avoid this issue by bringing quirky influences and a wide-ranging background to bear on the songs they create. Singer-guitarist Oliver Wood consistently comes up with interesting lyrics that avoid cliche, while bassist Chris Wood brings a funky jazz approach into the group, derived from his longtime membership of legendary trio Medeski, Martin & Wood.

The Wood Brothers just released their eighth album, Kingdom In My Mind, a few weeks ago, and as fans have come to expect, it moves across a variety of different genres to dip into everything from folk and jazz to blues and soul. That broad musical sensibility is sure to result in a live performance that takes listeners to a variety of musical places, all of which the Wood Brothers will inhabit with sure-footed talent, and all of which are guaranteed to please you and make your Wednesday night a brighter, happier affair than it otherwise might be. And here in the midst of a listless Virginia winter, who doesn’t need that?

Thursday, February 13, 7 PM
Plastic Nancy, Deli Kings, Toward Space, Majjin Boo @ Poor Boys – $5
It feels like we just got into 2020, so it’s heartening to see what an active year the Richmond music scene is already having. Plastic Nancy and Prsmcat Presents are both good examples; the Majjin Boo/Spooky Cool-affiliated booking company has really ramped up the amount of good music coming out of Poor Boys and given that venue a shot in the arm that will help ensure that it’s a worthy successor to Flora and Balliceaux before it.

And at this Thursday’s latest locally-focused Prsmcat show, Richmond psych ensemble Plastic Nancy are celebrating the release of their latest album, which should certainly lend a candy-colored dayglo atmosphere to the early months of 2020 here in the river city. On Last Of The Electric Flowers, the boys of Plastic Nancy embrace an acid-drenched atmosphere that manages to avoid outright retro nods in favor of a 21st century sensibility that nonetheless captures the greatness of all those spaced-out bands of the late 60s that we know and love. Revel in the all-encompassing mood they create, and enjoy three other immensely talented RVA bands while you’re at it, at Poor Boys this Thursday night. You won’t be sorry.

Friday, February 14, 8 PM
Lightmare, ZunZun, Prabir Trio, Past Palms @ Gallery 5 – $5-7 (order tickets HERE)
I may be married now, but for a long time, Valentine’s Day was a big bummer of a holiday for me, so I know there are probably a lot of people out there just hoping Friday comes and goes as quickly and painlessly as possible. And Gallery 5/Raw Mom Presents’ Rivanna Youngpool knows this too, which is why she’s reviving her tradition of throwing big fun shows on Valentine’s Day for this Friday night shindig. If you were at either of the ridiculous Valentine’s Day shows that took place at Sour Haus back in the day, you know how amazing this evening has the potential to be — especially at Gallery 5, a place that’s much more able to handle the crowd this is likely to draw than the kitchen of our old place in Church Hill ever was.

It’s not just eating candy hearts and spending the evening with friends that’ll get us through this one emotionally unscathed, though — it’s really great music. And Raw Mom Presents has a killer lineup awaiting us this Friday night, topped by DC’s uncategorizable DIY powerhouse, Lightmare. Expect something somewhere between soul, punk, synth-pop, disco, and garage rock from this six-piece combo with creative energy to spare. I have no idea who ZunZun are (googling only turned up a husband-and-wife flute duo from California who I can’t imagine are on this bill), but it’ll certainly be interesting to find out, and we’ll get a set from the Prabir Trio, the latest vehicle to bring us the ever-reliable pop songcraft of Mr. Prabir Mehta. All that plus newcomer Past Palms — plus, I’d be willing to bet there will be sour hearts. I’m calling it now: Gallery 5 is where you need to be for V-Day this year.

Saturday, February 15, 8 PM
Nosebleed, Ugly Muscle, Sweeties, Phantómódel @ Boogaloo’s – Donations requested
Here’s a show that’s an awesome confluence of three things that are already awesome on their own: political action, tattoos, and hardcore punk. This punk-as-fuck gig at Brookland Park’s Boogaloo’s is coordinated with International Tattoo Flash Day, an initiative created by tattoo artists in Santiago, Chile and Atlanta, GA to get as many people as possible tattooed in support of Chilean political prisoners in the wake of a massive government crackdown against citizen protests that began last October. All money raised at the door of this gig will go toward the families of Chilean prisoners, so whether or not you’re into getting a tattoo yourself, you’ll be able to support the cause.

You’ll also be able to hear some excellent sounds from several local hardcore/punk groups, starting with Nosebleed, who’ve recently released a fierce, incendiary EP called Outside Looking In on hardcore powerhouse Triple B Records. Expect this set to be galvanizing in the extreme, and you can expect similar from Ugly Muscle, a slightly more ramshackle and chaotic combo that will nonetheless bring all the furious energy that Nosebleed contains to bear on its own set. Sweeties are much noisier and less melodic than their name would suggest, while Phantómódel, a new incarnation of Thin Pigeon, offer a postpunk sound full of moody energy. This will be a great night for a great cause — you should really be part of it.

Sunday, February 16, 6 PM
Mean Jeans, Brower, The Ar-Kaics, Sports Bar @ Hardywood – Free!
A lot of people credit the Ramones for having invented punk rock, and many of them feel that the music made by those four New York weirdos in leather jackets has never been improved on. Therefore, it can’t be too much of a surprise that, even after the Ramones spent over 20 years cranking out album after album of their stripped-down, razor-sharp, but always incredibly catchy tunes, there are still bands out here trying to find new ways to wring glory out of that classic Ramones sound.

That’s where Mean Jeans comes in. Having existed for over a decade now, this toe-tapping trio released their fifth album of Ramones-worshipping punk ditties, Gigantic Sike, last year on Fat Wreck Chords. And even if you’ve heard every Ramones song a thousand times, that album and this performance by Mean Jeans at Hardywood on Sunday are guaranteed to prove that there’s still magic left in that classic (one-two-three-)formula. The evening will also feature a performance from New York’s Brower, a glam-punk/power-pop solo project sure to keep you smiling. And of course, consistently talented Virginia punk rockers The Ar-Kaics and Sports Bar open this one up with the retro-garage rock and punky power-pop that you’ve respectively come to expect from them. Get stoked for this one.

Monday, February 17, 7 PM
Ceremony, Loud Night, Ghouli @ Gallery 5 – $13 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
A warning only necessary in Virginia: This show does not feature the group called Ceremony from central Virginia. However, a warning for hardcore kids who haven’t checked back with the Cali Ceremony in a while — this show doesn’t exactly feature the band that made Violence Violence in 2006, either. Oh sure, it’s still the same people, but for the past decade or so, they’ve been moving further and further afield from the fast, angry hardcore that made their name.

That’s really obvious on last year’s In The Spirit World Now, Ceremony’s sixth album and first in four years. Singer Ross Farrar long since traded his harsh bark for a Gang Of Four-ish yelp with occasional dips into outright melody, while the guitars and increasingly present synths have moved away from the distorted and atonal in favor of a UK postpunk sound that might remind you of Joy Division or Echo and the Bunnymen, but certainly not the harsh fastcore of Ceremony’s early albums. Nonetheless, there’s still a lot to love here, including a propulsive energy that takes a vastly different form but remains intact from the band’s earliest works, one that makes singles like “Turn Away The Bad Thing” every bit as essential as Rohnert Park once was. If you’re bummed Ceremony shows don’t feature massive pits anymore, you might be tempted to skip this one, but I encourage you to open your mind and give it a shot. This is sure to be a thrilling evening of musical bliss, even if it’s not quite what you once expected from this talented band.

Tuesday, February 18, 7 PM
Flor, Winnetka Bowling League, Castle OG @ The Broadberry – $15-18 (order tickets HERE)
There are some intriguing things happening in the world of guitar-based pop over the past couple of years, and the success of bands like the 1975 is heartening for anyone who was afraid this stuff was going to fall permanently out of the mainstream musical discourse a few years ago. LA’s Flor are in a prime position to benefit from this resurgence, as on their 2019 album Ley Lines, they dabble in a similar sort of delicate, bouncy pop as that of the 1975 — one that always focuses on the sounds created by the band’s guitars and voices, even though it’s never particularly harsh or loud.

Perhaps we’ve finally gotten far enough past Nirvana for the distorted paradigm they created to lose its lengthy period of ubiquity, and I know there’ll be some out there who are bummed out to think of that, but when bands like Flor are out here on tracks like “Slow Motion” showing how much can still be done with an approach that focuses on playful melodies and delicacy rather than noise, it’s hard to see it as all that tragic. See what sort of magic Flor is able to weave in the live environment at The Broadberry this Tuesday night, and learn to embrace the non-crunchy guitar wave.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, February 14, 8 PM
Witchbaby @ Blue Moon Diner (Charlottesville) – Free!
An alternate approach to Valentine’s Day is available this Friday night in Charlottesville, and it’s being brought to you by Witchbaby, the mother-daughter combo of Catherine Monnes and Sally Rose. You may know Rose for her role at the heart of C-ville’s own Shagwuf, and both are members of the Sally Rose Band, which features a song in its repertoire entitled “Witchbaby” — so it all comes full circle. This stripped-down duo finds Monnes’ cello and electric violin joining with Rose’s guitar and both members’ voices to create a more intimate version of the psychedelic folk-rock the full-scale Sally Rose Band brings to you so consistently.

This Valentine’s Day appearance by Witchbaby at Charlottesville’s Blue Moon Diner is a free gathering offering a welcome space for all — whether lovers or lonely hearts — to spend a holiday that is often fraught and difficult on an emotional level. If you’re looking for your V-Day to be a quiet, pressure-free evening, Witchbaby’s soothing musical presence is sure to help you attain what you seek. And who knows, you might make a friend, or at least find a new musical love.

Saturday, February 15, 7:30 PM
Amanda Shires, LA Edwards @ The Jefferson Theater (Charlottesville) – $25 (order tickets HERE)
There are a few different reasons you might be aware of singer/fiddler Amanda Shires; her frequent collaborations with her husband Jason Isbell and his band the 400 Unit is one of them. Another is her role in The Highwomen, an all-female take on the classic outlaw-country supergroup The Highwaymen featuring Shires, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, and Natalie Hemby.

However, it would be a bad idea to let her collaborations with other talented songwriters steal the spotlight from Shires’ own work as a bandleader, most recently showed off on 2018’s To The Sunset. On that album, her songwriting skills shine through in her evocative lyrics, even as the fuller sound her band on the album (which features Jason Isbell himself, returning the favor) takes her folk-country sound to a new level that, yes it’s true, outright rocks. You’ll be able to see her rock these tunes out for yourself at The Jefferson this Saturday night, but only because they moved this show up from The Southern after it sold out in a heartbeat. So yeah, get with the program if you haven’t already. Go see Amanda Shires.

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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]

VA Shows You Must See This Week: December 26 – December 31

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, December 28, 10 PM
The Return of Sp***** Ed and the Sh****** @ Cary Street Cafe – $10
This week’s show column is entirely focused on that weird end-of-year week between Christmas and New Year’s Day — that week we all are so sure will be a total loss that plenty of businesses shut down entirely until the new year rolls around. We’re still here, though, and while this whole week might feel like a goofy, lackadaisical lead-up to the big New Year’s Eve throwdown, make no mistake, there are some interesting things afoot around town.

One of the most interesting is this reunion show taking place at Cary Street Cafe on Saturday night. And it’s a great example of the way that, every once in a while, something from the recent past will spring to mind in a manner that reminds you how long ago the past actually was. This reunion of a local bluegrass band that was a Richmond music staple less than a decade ago is just such a reminder, in that they were both a really fun band that drew a following with a very original approach to what can be an extremely conservative music form… and a band whose efforts to be goofy led them to an extremely insensitive and inappropriate name.

In fact, the band once known as Special Ed And The Shortbus not only changed their name in 2012 to The Hot Seats, they are using stars to disguise that name in all promotion for this show that will reunite one of the band’s earliest and goofiest lineups to recreate their early-00s days as Cary Street Cafe’s Wednesday night house band. Their name has certainly not aged well, but their music and antics are still as entertaining and fun as they always were, so if you miss the days of their onstage hijinks even as you recognize that their name is culturally unacceptable in these modern times, you should definitely head down to Cary Street Cafe this Saturday night and catch the one-time return of Sp***** Ed and the Sh******… minus 11 letters.

Thursday, December 26, 7:30 PM
The Hip Hop Nutcracker, feat. Kurtis Blow @ Altria Theater – $37 – 67 (order tickets HERE)
People sing that old song without understanding its meaning all the time, but Christmas is technically a 12 day celebration that doesn’t end until nearly a week into January. Therefore, the fact that the Hip Hop Nutcracker won’t reach the Altria Theatre until tonight isn’t inappropriate at all. Tonight, there’s no reason for you not to shake off the food coma from yesterday’s dinner and celebrate the second day of Christmas with two turtle doves and a whole lot of great hip hop dancing set to Tchaikovsky’s classic Nutcracker Suite.

For the real old-school heads, there’s a bigtime bonus to this show as well — Kurtis Blow will be in the house. Blow is so old school, he released one of the first rap records ever; what’s more, it was a Christmas single, so Blow’s connection to this holiday has lasted his entire career. Before the official Nutcracker kicks off, Blow will begin the evening with a short solo set, and if, like me, you’re old enough to remember the days when “Basketball” and “The Breaks” were jams that always got the party started right, you’ll definitely want to be here and see Kurtis Blow strut his stuff.

Friday, December 27, 8 PM
Seraph, Spiral Fracture, Alcindor @ Wonderland – $10
It’s been five years since Richmond deathcore warriors Seraph released their mini-album, Embrace Your Demise, and they’ve been through a hell of a lot since then. At one point, a member’s overseas military deployment led to a lengthy hiatus; at another point, a member passed away unexpectedly. Most recently, one of their founding members has battled cancer; this Wonderland performance marks the first time he’s been healthy enough to play a show in nearly a year.

However, you have to admire any band with the tenacity to endure through all the tough times that have come Seraph’s way and keep going strong. Not only are they returning to action in the live arena once again, they’ve been working on new music that will eventually take the form of a long-awaited followup to Embrace Your Demise. If you love punishing, brutal death/metal/core, it’s hard not to be stoked about that. Celebrate Seraph’s return to action this Friday night at Wonderland, and enjoy two other Virginia heavy hitters — Spiral Fracture and Alcindor — in the bargain. Nothing about this will not rule.

Saturday, December 28, 9 PM
The Trongone Band, The Vegabonds, Lord Nelson @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
As we have previously discussed, the holidays are prime time for jam bands. Their music has a spiritual kinship with those laid-back evenings we all associate with holiday times, when there’s no specific agenday, punctuality isn’t a factor, and the main things people are interested in are relaxing, having fun, and seeing where the night takes them. What musical ensemble could be more apropos to take us on that sort of journey than a jam band?

Where the loose arrangement of prog, folk, and Southern rock that makes up the jam-band universe is concerned, Richmond’s own Trongone Band and their compatriots for this evening, Tennessee’s Vegabonds, are concerned, they’re significantly closer to the Southern-rock axis. And there’s nothing wrong with that — the Trongone Band’s soulful, Muscle Shoals-influenced take on prime Allman/My Morning Jacket sounds is a whole lot of fun, and the Vegabonds’ slightly tougher Drive-By Truckers-ish approach is certainly welcome anytime. If you need a fun way to spend your post-Christmas/pre-New Years weekend, these two bands have just what you’re looking for.

Sunday, December 29, 9 PM
Plaque Marks, Prayer Group, Copperhead @ Wonderland – $10
The holidays don’t usually see a lot of touring bands coming through, but that just makes the few who buck the trend and hit the road all the more welcome. Philadelphia’s Plaque Marks is battling the post-Christmas traffic full of tired families on the way back from Grandma’s house this weekend to bring Richmond a heaping helping of noise for dinner, and it’s sure to be a treat.

So far, this quartet featuring members of Fight Amp, Creepoid, and others has only brought us one EP, 2017’s Anxiety Driven Nervous Worship. That EP’s sludgy, abrasive mix of anti-social punk and Jesus Lizard-style noise-rock is, however, enough reason on its own to head to Wonderland and catch these freaks. And by now, there’s no way they don’t have a few new songs with which to spice things up as well. Local metallic faves Prayer Group and newcomers Faucet, who feature members of Fat Spirit, Gumming, Among The Rocks And Roots, and more, will give us a full evening worthy of the beautiful punishment Plaque Marks dishes out.

Monday, December 30, 7 PM
Tauk, Jouwala Collective @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$18 at the door (order tickets HERE)
New Year’s Eve is the very next night, but that’s no excuse to spend your Monday evening holed up at home, bored out of your skull. And that’s doubly true in light of the fact that Tauk is coming to town. This New York-based instrumental combo has some excellent sounds to deliver to this city, sounds that are sure to expand our minds and get us thinking way outside the box — regardless of whether that box has a bow on top.

On last year’s Shapeshifter II: Outbreak, Tauk mingled guitars with synths and danceable beats to create a genre hybrid with appeal for post-rock nerds, jazz cats, and funk heads alike. The album was spawned by the group’s thoughts on the rise of artificial intelligence, but rest assured, no computer could come up with the riffs Tauk lays down. Get a glimpse for yourself, up close and personal at the Broadberry, and prepare for your New Year’s Eve with a thought-provoking night spent somewhere other than your couch.

Tuesday, December 31, 7:30 PM
NYE 1979, feat. Tinnarose as Blondie, High Voltage as AC/DC, Sleepwalkers as The Rolling Stones, Loud Night as Motorhead, Deli Kings as The Ramones, Prabir as Elvis Costello @ Fuzzy Cactus – $30 in advance/$40 day of show (order tickets HERE)
As we’ve discussed many times, punk rockers and metalheads often see holidays as an excuse to bust out some tribute bands. This celebration at Fuzzy Cactus is the first time I’ve seen this Halloween tradition extended to New Year’s Eve, though, so congrats to Fuzzy Cactus for breaking new ground in the punk-holiday-tribute game.

What’s even better about this show is that it has a unifying concept for its evening of tributes, bringing us an evening full of the sounds of 1979. It’s not just first-wave punk bands, either; with indie-folk crew Tinnarose bringing the sounds of Blondie to life, rock n’ rollers Sleepwalkers invoking the Rolling Stones, indie mainstay Prabir bringing the sounds of Elvis Costello, and more, this is an evening that will cover a lot of musical ground, even as it reminds us all that things were actually pretty great 40 years ago.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, December 27, 7 PM
Demons, Song of Praise, Invaluable, Nervous System @ Taphouse Grill (Norfolk) – Price TBA
Punks and jam bands don’t have a monopoly on the holidays. Noise-rock bands can certainly bring the heat at Christmastime just as easily, and that’s exactly what Norfolk’s Demons are choosing to do with their post-holiday throwdown at Norfolk’s own Taphouse Grill. If you haven’t caught on with what Demons, the post-Mae project of singer-guitarist Zach Gehring, are up to just yet, you really should fix that.

In recent years, this quartet has followed up their abrasive 2017 debut LP, Embrace Wolf, with a pair of hard-hitting EPs showing their political side. Made In The USA and the “Uglier Americans” single show that it’s not just musical influence that they take from intelligent post-hardcore bands like Fugazi and Quicksand. The resulting sound is raw and furious, with an undeniable undercurrent of melody that keeps things catchy and memorable. This is one party you’re going to want to show up for — especially since Demons have invited a few other equally talented Tidewater bands to join in.

Tuesday, December 31, 9 PM
Organ Trail, No/Mas, Cybernetic Warkrab, Bloat @ RiffHouse Pub (Chesapeake) – $5
OK, so picture this: It’s New Year’s Eve. There are more parties happening than you can shake a stick at (that’s a phrase my mother says, I have no idea what it means). All of them are full of champagne toasts, photobooths, and assorted other gimcracks and geegaws. You, on the other hand, don’t feel like dealing with a bunch of ballyhoo — you really just want to rock. Well, I know where you need to go.

Your destination is deep in the land of Tidewater, in the municipality known as Chesapeake, where RiffHouse Pub is bringing us the sort of no-frills affair that is so refreshing on the most overhyped party night of the year. Pennsylvania’s Organ Trail and DC’s No/Mas will be on hand to blast you with some gore-soaked death metal (the former) and hyperspeed grind (the latter), along with some local ragers from Cybernetic Warkrab and Bloat. There will be a toast at midnight, but it’ll be with PBR, because you don’t need all that frou-frou bullshit and neither do any of these bands. Leave the novelty glasses at home; bring your steel-toed boots for this one.

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: November 13 – November 19

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, November 16, 6 PM
High On Fire (Photo by CE Kelco), Power Trip, Devil Master, Creeping Death @ The Broadberry – $25 in advance/$30 day of show (order tickets HERE)
This week, Richmond is visited by the band that started it all: High On Fire, the kings of apocalyptic doom metal ever since guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike bailed on Sleep to start his own musical engine of brutality. That was over 20 years ago, and High On Fire are still going strong today, releasing their eighth album, Electric Messiah, last year and following it up this year with a killer EP called Bat Salad. That EP pays tribute to Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, and Bad Brains — three seminal bands whose influence can clearly be felt in High On Fire’s roaring musical rampage.

For the uninitiated, High On Fire’s sound can be explained to some extent by the fact that 2018 LP Electric Messiah was inspired by comparisons Matt Pike always gets to Lemmy. His gravelly bark certainly isn’t too far from that of the late, great Motorhead majordomo, but musically, High On Fire explore a variety of directions, some of which are more comparable to the speed-loving London trio, while others move in more of a spaced-out astral epic direction. While the former material is always the real catnip for me (is this because I don’t smoke weed? Widespread polling makes it seem like this might just be the case), the longer, slower epics are always fan favorites, mixing the foreboding astral-plane wanderings of Neurosis with the more straightforward old-school doom vibes of my favorite Wino project, Spirit Caravan.

Basically, High On Fire offers the perfect opportunity for all you sleeveless-denim scuzzballs to achieve cannabis-infused headbang nirvana. And on this jaunt through our local atmosphere, they’re accompanied by legendary Texas thrashcore veterans Power Trip, who arose from the hardcore scene a decade ago to engage in a top-notch reincarnation of classic 80s thrash that was just a little too evil to find itself within the notoriously goofy world of “crossover.” So much the better — these guys are capable of all the string-bending leads, propulsive circle-pit tempos, and terrifying vocal exhortations of the best thrash, with a decidedly dark undercurrent that almost reaches the level of early Scandinavian black metal. These two masterful metallic combos will also be joined on this trip through RVA by Philadelphia blackened-punk mayhem creators Devil Master and early-Metallica-loving Texas death metallers Creeping Death. It’s a bonanza for your scorched ears, a circle-pit demon’s delight. Be sure to partake.

Wednesday, November 13, 8 PM
Halshug, Mind Dweller, Loud Night @ Fuzzy Cactus – $8
Southern Lord has been the prime stadium crust label for a while now, and Denmark’s Halshug are just the latest example of that trend. You may not know what I mean when I use the phrase “stadium crust” to describe a band, but you can probably guess based on context clues — filthy hardcore punk that just sounds like its creators are all wearing leather jackets, made by punks who’ve clearly got Disrupt and Tragedy in their DNA but are shooting the moon with a big, loud sound that seems engineered to headline California Jam alongside Sabotage-era Black Sabbath.

While we can’t say that 30,000 kids would pack out the Nissan Pavilion (or Jiffy Lube Live, or whatever that place is called now) to see Halshug, it seems a sure thing that their loud, proud rage will fill the confines of Fuzzy Cactus with arena-worthy riff pyrotechnics tonight. That’s something you won’t want to miss, especially with Raleigh rockin’-punk powerhouse Mind Dweller on the bill as well, doing that classic Black Flag-meets-Ted Nugent sound that Annihilation Time made its name on. The bill is rounded out with the inclusion of local rippers Loud Night, who’ve got their own spin on that exact point where Motorhead meets Discharge, complete with a rollicking thrash vibe that’s sure to make the old-school metalheads smile and raise their studded-bracelet-bedecked fists.

Thursday, November 14, 8 PM
Monolord, Blackwater Holylight, Mister Earthbound @ The Camel – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the glut of doom metal that has overtaken the heaviest of genres in the past decade or so — sometimes it feels like it’s just slow grooves all the way down, and that can cause us to go from headbanging to nodding off. But it is still, in 2019, possible to do doom metal right, and Sweden’s Monolord are just the latest combo to prove exactly that with their new LP on Relapse Records, No Comfort. As with a lot of bands who achieve success in a world of a million soundalike Sabbath/Wino worshippers, Monolord do this by moving away from the 70s proto-metal influences to concentrate on late 60s psychedelia and classic Southern sludge.

No Comfort feels like the record Eyehategod would have made if they’d been contemporaries of Charles Manson rather than some of the foremost metalheads to develop an edgy fascination with that mass-murdering cult-leading scumbag at the dawn of the 90s. And while I love those first couple Eyehategod records, No Comfort‘s relatively unusual approach to moody sludge is like a breath of fresh air compared to the millionth band ripping off the genre’s godfathers. Monolord arrive in Richmond accompanied by Portland’s Blackwater Holylight, who show absolute mastery of witchy psychedelic foreboding on their 2018 self-titled debut LP. Light a candle for this set — it’ll be appropriate.

Friday, November 15, 9 PM
SNAFU, Eradicant, Idol Womb @ Wonderland – $5
This is probably only a warning I have to give to my fellow olds, but: don’t get it twisted, this is not an appearance by legendary Canadian skate-punk band SNFU. Hailing from just across the Canadian border in Detroit and featuring an extra letter in their acronym band-name, SNAFU are just as speedy and intense as their almost-homophone Canadian counterparts, but have a ton more metal in their sound, straddling the border between metal-thrashing crossover-core and outright skate-obsessed thrash-grind.

They haven’t released anything new since 2015’s heaping helping of speedy noise, Present Day Plague, but they are apparently in the process of preparing to record a new album, their first in four years. So you can expect them to have a ton of new tuneage for you when they show up at Wonderland this Friday night. This show, which serves as a birthday bash for Wonderland owner Chad Painter and a warmup for the Wonderland Quinceanera celebration that’s coming up just before New Years, will also feature two new Richmond ragers — Eradicant, who play death metal and feature members of 3:33; and Idol Womb, who are more of a black-death mix (metal, not plague), and feature members of Cruelsifix. Get ready to rock out!

Saturday, November 16, 7 PM
Robyn Hitchcock @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $25 (order tickets HERE)
Robyn Hitchcock is an absolute legend. This British singer-songwriter has been at the forefront of psychedelic pop for over four decades now, starting out as the frontman for psychedelic postpunk band The Soft Boys in the late 70s, and beginning his solo career in 1981. Since then, he’s released 21 studio albums and a ton of live albums and outtake collections documenting his prolific muse. He veers back and forth between solo acoustic albums with a sort of witchy-English-backwoods psych-folk vibe and full-band outings with backing bands The Egyptians and The Venus 3 (which features members of REM), aiding his creation of impeccable alt-pop gems. In indie circles, he’s considered a godfather of the sound, and has worked with XTC, The Decemberists, and Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel.

With all that in mind, the fact that I can’t even tell you whether Hitchcock is bringing a full band with him for his appearance this Saturday night at Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall shouldn’t even matter to you. His last full-length album, 2017’s Robyn Hitchcock, featured a full band and a bushel of delightful melancholy pop tunes with the subtlest of punk undercurrents — but that was two years ago, and the ever-creative Mr. Hitchcock may have moved on to something else by now. Considering how excellent he’s been at every phase of his career, from The Soft Boys’ immortal 1980 single “I Wanna Destroy You” to his outstanding 1990 solo outing, Eye, and from career-defining 1984 masterwork I Often Dream Of Trains to 2006 late-career highlight Ole! Tarantula, featuring the Venus 3… well, there’s no reason to think whatever he wishes to share with us will be anything other than great. Get over to Cap Ale and groove on this one.

Sunday, November 17, 9 PM
Timmy’s Organism, Cruzer, The Wilful Boys @ Fuzzy Cactus – $7 in advance/$9 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Garage rock can sometimes be the rawest, rootsiest expression of the original rock n’ roll spirit as possible, but Timmy’s Organism isn’t that kind of group. Instead, this project from longtime garage innovator Timmy Vulgar (formerly of the Epitonix, Clone Defects, and more) has a bit of an off-kilter, sidewise approach to the garage thing. On their 2018 LP, Survival Of The Fiendish, Timmy’s Organism veer from song to song between the Stones circa Exile On Main Street’s dankest basement sessions, the Replacements at their most plastered, and a loose, antisocial version of the MC5’s soul-inspired full-throttle rock n’ roll attack. It’s wild, it’s crazy, it’s a ton of fun, and it’s sure to get things all stirred up when Vulgar and co. arrive at Fuzzy Cactus this Sunday night.

They’ll be joined in their rock n’ roll assault on Richmond by The Wilful Boys, an NYC quartet fronted by Australian singing drummer Steven Fisher. Something about the way Aussie bands approach no-frills rock n’ roll is unbridled in a manner you’ll never see on this side of the international dateline, and with a half-Aussie lineup including Fisher, The Wilful Boys bring that Cosmic Psychos-esque approach to bear in an enjoyably brutal fashion. They’ll pair perfectly with the northern hemisphere wildmen of Timmy’s Organism, and local surf-punk fun-starters Cruzer will open this one up with the perfect mix of beach-blanket fun and out-of-control bonfire parties. Get stoked for this one.

Monday, November 18, 8 PM
Comedy & Western Showcase, feat. Sarah White & The New Band, Miss JR Rose, Ben Butterworth, Ben Nelson, David Marie-Garland, LE Zarling, Kate Carroll, Bennie Blonkoe Perry, hosted by Herschel Stratego @ The Camel – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I don’t know what possessed someone to create a showcase like this, but I’ve gotta admire their creativity. It certainly would never occur to me to combine standup comedy performances with country music, but considering the mutual variety-show roots of both disciplines, it actually makes a ton of sense. And it gives those of us who are more musically inclined an opportunity to feast our ears on some of the modern country sounds being created right here in VA, which doesn’t ever seem to happen often enough. So liven up your Monday night with this one.

Specifically, enjoy a performance from Virginia singer-songwriter Sarah White, whose 2018 LP High Flyer mixes heartland rock sounds with some classic country approaches and instrumentations to create a result that fans of No Depression-style alt-country are sure to enjoy. Miss J.R. Rose is someone I don’t know a lot about, but her classic country ballads seem like a perfect old-school note to add to this many-flavored stew. And of course Ben Butterworth is a local musical mainstay, though I don’t know as much about his fellow Ben, Nelson. The comedy half of this evening’s entertainment is on lock with some of the best local comedians to ply their trade in this city over the past decade on the bill. And of course, Herschel Stratego will deliver his own unique and inimitable skills as the host. This one’s sure to be a blast. Don’t miss out.

Tuesday, November 19, 7:30 PM
The Goo Goo Dolls, Beach Slang @ Carpenter Theatre – $38 – $73 (order tickets HERE)
I know what some of my longtime readers are probably thinking right now: “The Goo Goo Dolls? This is Drew’s ultimate troll move on all of us.” And I’ll grant that sometimes I have way too much fun in this column engaging in — how should I put this? — “subversion of your expectations.” But y’all, I am not fucking with you in the slightest bit on this recommendation. The Goo Goo Dolls are awesome. I will admit that their last few albums have seen time catching up on these guys, turning them from the best matured-ex-punks-turned-heartland-rockers since The Replacements to a group that’s a bit too Matchbox 20-ish in their balladry these days. But that’s OK, because you don’t have to buy their brand new album (which is called Miracle Pill and is their 12th overall) to enjoy the hell out of their live performances.

And for real, I’ve seen video of them performing in the past year, and they’re still rad! Bassist Robby Takac still bounds all around the stage doing jump-kicks, Johnny Rzeznik still plays electric guitar for most of the set, and they’re still playing legit great tunes from decades past, like “Big Machine,” “January Friend,” and “Broadway.” Granted, there’ll be a few lite-rock radio chestnuts to sit through (I never did fuck with “Iris”), but to make up for those, you get an opening set from legit punk band Beach Slang, who are about to release their fourth album, The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City, and still have the high-energy drive that made classic early-90s Goo Goo Dolls albums like Superstar Carwash and A Boy Named Goo so great. As for the headliners, chances are the Goos are gonna show their age at a couple points during their set, but where their best moments are concerned, you’re still not gonna find anything better.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Thursday, November 14, 6 PM
Vital Remains, Serpentshrine, Sadistikum, Appalling, Rotten @ RiffHouse Pub (Chesapeake) – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Death metal mainstays Vital Remains have been bringing us some of the most punishing riffs in the game for 30 full years now, and they’re on tour right now to celebrate. Having formed in the late 80s, established themselves as one of the foremost groups in the genre with 1998’s Forever Underground, and gone on to collaborate with the almighty Glen Benton of Deicide on Dechristianize and Icons Of Evil — two of the best death metal albums the 21st century has seen thus far — Vital Remains definitely have a lot to celebrate on this tour.

Now, I will grant you that they haven’t released an album since Icons Of Evil in 2007, and that at this point both Benton and longtime drummer/lead guitarist Dave Suzuki have left the band. However, Tony Lazaro is still fielding a lineup of powerful metal players — including latest vocalist Scott Eames of Thy Antichrist. In addition to the full catalog of raging hits that the band has to draw from, he’s supposedly got multiple albums worth of new material in the can and waiting to be recorded. Maybe if this anniversary tour is successful enough, Vital Remains will finally break their 12-year drought and grace us with a new album. But even if they don’t, you’ll get to see them decimate RiffHouse Pub with an unrelenting metal onslaught. And that’s certainly good enough reason to go to this one.

Friday, November 15, 7 PM
Ghostemane, Candy, Horus The Astroneer, Parv0 @ The NorVA (Norfolk) – $23 (order tickets HERE)
I gotta tell ya, I find Ghostemane pretty fascinating. Purely on a visual level, he looks like a goth kid who likes metal a whole lot. But he’s at least ostensibly a rapper — though hardly a straight-up old-school rapper, in light of his connections to $uicideboy$ and Lil Peep. He also used to play in hardcore and metal bands, and has been known to take current hardcore bands out with him on tour (note that Richmond hardcore up-and-comers Candy are playing with him on this NorVA bill). All of this speaks to a pretty wide-ranging set of influences that drive Ghostemane, and you can hear all of those influences on the highly prolific (20 releases in the past five years) rapper’s discography.

Sometimes he croons like Trent Reznor at his most emotionally fraught moments. At other times, his stuff sounds almost like Slipknot and Ministry jamming on solely electronic instruments. Sometimes it sounds like the sort of hazy, downbeat hip hop you’d expect from a $uicideboy$ affiliate. And his latest EP, Hiadica, isn’t even hip hop at all — it’s a straight up metallic hardcore record, full of throaty screams, blastbeats, and breakdowns. Whether you’re into the weirder end of the modern hip hop scene, brutal hardcore, or some combination of the two, Ghostemane’s NorVA performance is sure to have something to delight you.

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond