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VA Shows You Must See This Week: September 26 – October 2

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, September 28, 8 PM
MDC, The Elected Officials, Cult Of Frost, Lipid, The Alex Jonestown Massacre @ Strange Matter – $12 (order tickets HERE)
I grew up going to punk and metal shows, losing my mind over harsh music with provocative lyrics. I grew up with radical left-wing politics, which are even farther outside the mainstream than they were when I was a teenager, being treated as perfectly normal ways of seeing the world (and to be honest, I still think they are). Therefore, when I see that a band whose nominal acronym has meant (many things, but most often) “Millions Of Dead Cops” is coming to town, all I think is “Oh wow, classic punk band with tremendous career gracing us all with their presence! FEATURED.”

So maybe this isn’t the most family-friendly pick. For those of you who that bugs, I’d recommend scrolling down to the Steely Dan blurb below. For the cool kids among you who stuck around, though, let me explain why MDC are both outstanding and important. Their 1980 debut single, “John Wayne Was A Nazi,” was a groundbreaking early example of re-examining the myths of pop culture to expose the racism, misogyny, and xenophobia lurking at their heart. Their 1982 debut LP, Millions Of Dead Cops, brought us the classic left-wing protest slogan, “No War! No KKK! No Fascist USA!” And it isn’t just their earliest material that deserves celebration; by their 1987 third LP, This Blood’s For You, they had become “Millions Of Damn Christians,” and were infusing their classic speedy hardcore with complex song structures and mind-bending riffs that they still delivered at a million miles an hour.

They’re still relevant today, too. In 2016, they rerecorded their classic tune “Born To Die” as an anti-Trump anthem (chanting “No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!”), then followed that with their first album in over a decade (this time under the name “Millions of Deceived Citizens”), Mein Trumpf, which showed that the hardcore veterans (who still feature three of their four original members) are as fired-up, pissed-off, and full of raging punk tunes as ever. They’ll be joined by fellow politically-informed Texas punk rippers The Elected Officials, as well as Ohio’s Cult Of Frost, who are, of all things, a Celtic Frost tribute act who only play the Hellhammer demos and the first three albums (aw, Monotheist though…). Local freakers Lipid and The Alex Jonestown Massacre will get this started in fine fashion so you can circle-pit all night. No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!

Wednesday, September 26, 8 PM
1476, Paint Store, Desert Altar, Vulcanite @ Strange Matter – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
As a relatively old lady who was born exactly 500 years after the year Salem, Massachusetts band 1476 named themselves after, I’m a little fuzzy on what was actually going on that year, but if you check Wikipedia, you’ll find that notorious Romanian prince Vlad The Impaler was killed that year, and I think that gives you somewhat of an idea. This band pulls from all sorts of dark, mysterious genres of guitar-based music, from ambient folk and moody progressive rock to hardcore punk and black metal.

On their 2017 album, Our Season Draws Near, they create a foreboding musical atmosphere highlighted by passionate vocals and intricate multilayered guitar riffing, all driven by a ferocious rhythm section. They’re sure to take you on a dark journey of the mind when they hit Strange Matter’s stage tonight, and they’ll be aided in their mission by a trio of local bands who all capture a different aspect of 1476’s multi-genre melange: Paint Store, whose technical instrumental metal sound summons memories of long-gone Richmond legends Breadwinner, for one. For another, Desert Altar, who take a fascinating and fun approach to the whole retro-doom thing. And then there’s the groovy sludge of Vulcanite, starting this night off right. Get into it.

Thursday, September 27, 7 PM
Low Cut Connie, Ruby Boots @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $15 (order tickets HERE)
When you think of rock n’ roll these days, the piano is not the first instrument you think of. However, we’d be fools to ignore the legacy this instrument has in the history of the music: founding figures like Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis used their pianos to generate firestorms of rockin’ energy that set the dancehalls and roadhouses of the mid-50s American South on fire. And now, 60 years later, Low Cut Connie frontman Adam Weiner is coming to Richmond to do it all over again.

Low Cut Connie have a hellacious reputation for killer live shows, and in an NPR interview earlier this year, Weiner talked about his onstage activity, and how he can’t stand to sit still in front of his piano when there’s a crowd to interact with. It’s the fact that he’s able to mix it up, getting sweaty and wild onstage every night, while continuing to crank out the old-school country-tinged rock n’ roll sound of Low Cut Connie — as displayed on new LP Dirty Pictures (Part 2) — with flawless aplomb that makes this group an absolutely unmissable live act.  Bloodshot recording artist Ruby Boots, who’s got a raging femme energy and a powerful country-punk sound, kicks things off in a manner worth arriving early for. So you know what to do — get down to Capital Ale House tomorrow night and see it all for yourself!

Friday, September 28, 6 PM
Come Clean, Sharp Sleeves, Nine Line, We Call This Courage @ Cornerstone Cigar Bar – Free!
I may write a weekly column about music, but y’all, I’ve never claimed to be the coolest girl in the world. I just know what I like. Honestly, that’s a whole lot of stuff, and sometimes it’s stuff that no one else seems to pick up on. About a decade back, the thing I was into that no one else (or at least, no one else over 25) was picking up on was “easycore,” a genre that mixed the chunky guitars of melodic hardcore with the catchiness and emotional tone of pop-punk. A whole bunch of bands were doing this par excellence circa 2010 — Four Year Strong, Fireworks, Set Your Goals — but they all either changed their sound or broke up, and it’s been years now since I heard a really good example of the sound. I miss it.

That’s why I’m stoked to hear about North Carolina’s Come Clean coming to town. Their new EP, From Down The Street, isn’t quite out yet, but their 2016 debut, Won’t Wait, hits all the same pleasure centers for me as classic New Found Glory and first-LP Saves The Day did, and I can never get enough of stuff like that. They’ll be coming to the Cornerstone Cigar Bar (really? I hope they don’t allow smoking in the show room) in the company of Sharp Sleeves, who hail from Blacksburg and have a bit of a Florida tinge (a la Hot Water Music) to their pop-punk. With the addition of RVA locals Nine Line and We Call This Courage, you’re looking at a stacked bill of mid-Atlantic pop-punk excellence. Best of all, this show is free! That might even be worth braving a bit of cigar smoke for (be ready to wash everything you wore immediately afterwards though).

Saturday, September 29, 8 PM
Centerfolds, Something More, Nominee, House & Home @ Strange Matter – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
One good pop-punk show deserves another, right? And this time, the headliners are local. Centerfolds have a bit of an easycore connection, as some members of Centerfolds used to play music with members of RVA’s leading easycore export, Broadside. However, since their 2017 LP, Bad Heaven, they’ve definitely moved in a more angst-ridden emotional direction — the desperation in their vocals and the minor-chord moods of the guitars are sure to make this band a fave for anyone who stays up late blasting Real Friends and Knuckle Puck records with the lights off (yes, that has definitely been me at times).

Now, if you were paying attention to this column last year around this time, you probably noticed the Common Grounds fest, an eight-band pop-punk package show that featured not only Centerfolds but also the other two headliners on this bill, Baltimore’s Something More and RVA’s own Nominee. I have never hidden the fact that I love Nominee — last year’s Drag Me Out EP was a big personal fave — and Something More have won me over with excellent tunes like “Brentwood Park” (from their split with Carry The Banner) and “All My Best Friends Are Dogs” (from their Dogs EP). Local newcomers House & Home kick this one off, and it’s gonna rule. Get stoked.

Sunday, September 30, 8 PM
Ocean Heights, Venus Milo, Cupid McCoy, Solace Sovay, Missangelbird @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
A decade after we first learned that Beyonce was a Grizzly Bear fan, the ever-increasing cross-pollination between the worlds of indie and r&b is a well-established reality. However, there’s still a lot of new territory to explore in the intersections between the two genres, and New Jersey’s Ocean Heights are one of the first groups to start mapping that interstitial space out. The results they’ve generated, showcased most prominently on recent single “No Waves,” are both fascinatingly unpredictable and pleasing in the extreme.

Mixing the sort of jangly guitar that early 80s UK bands like Orange Juice and Tears For Fears were drawing from 70s R&B records anyway with a smooth soul vocal and electronic sound results in some incredibly delicious tunes, the sort of thing that will appeal to anyone who ever wished Chromeo were more sincere, or Mac DeMarco had a bit more funk to his sound. A whole bunch of local groups on a similar tip, including up-and-coming standouts Cupid McCoy, the excellently-named Missangelbird, and the dirty-faced, angel-voiced boys of Venus Milo, are also on the bill. Solace Sovay, who are a bit closer to the indie-shoegaze side of things, will make an appearance to start things out and get the atmosphere in The Camel perfectly aligned for a night of musical deliciousness.

Monday, October 1, 7:30 PM
Steely Dan @ Altria Theater – $49.50 – $149.50 (order tickets HERE)
Would you believe that one of the highest-selling, most-played artists of the 70s and 80s, one of the best-produced and most polished-sounding bands of all time, were also a celebration of decadence with a name derived from a sex toy in William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch? Well, it’s true; not only is that really where Steely Dan’s name comes from, singer Donald Fagen loved to write lyrics glorifying debauched behavior, from giving your phone number to a woman marrying one of your friends in case the relationship doesn’t work out (“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”) to gratuitous drunk driving (“Deacon Blues”) to getting ratted out by a friend and busted for drugs at Bard College (“My Old School”). So much for your family-friendly alternate show pick, huh?

After the 2017 death of founding guitarist Walter Becker, Steely Dan aren’t quite the same as they once were, but singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen is still holding it down behind the mic, and anyone who ever listened to their records knows that the best element of Steely Dan’s many classic progressive rock albums is the top-notch work from hired-gun studio musicians under Fagen and Becker’s direction. Rest assured the backing band will be a thousand percent on point at this show, and Fagen will sing just as wonderfully as ever about major dudes and Haitian divorces; it’ll be totally worth the $50 second-balcony tickets. Get yours now.

Tuesday, October 2, 7 PM
Death Bells, Narrow Head, True Body, Serqet @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $10 (order tickets HERE)
I love the way the hardcore kids who are hitting their late 20s these days are all going full-on goth. Something about having that sort of musical background makes bands do a really good job at the whole dark, moody postpunk thing — witness Iceage, Ceremony (the CA one, not the VA one that’s been goth the whole time), and quite a few other bands. Death Bells, who started out in Australia but are located in Cali these days, have a similar thing going on.

Their most recent single, “Echoes,” uses wire-tight guitar leads and foreboding synths to create an atmosphere that is then infused with a dark, spectral energy by their rumbling rhythm section and the powerful, hypnotic voice of frontman Will Canning. For a band that had already hit a high-water mark with 2017 debut LP Standing At The Edge Of The World, it’s a pleasantly surprising ascension to new heights. That’s certainly something you’ll want to experience, as is the set that you’ll get from Death Bells tourmates Narrow Head, who are tapping into that same sort of super-loud shoegaze sound that Jesu and Nothing have done so well with. Norfolk post-punkers True Body and RVA goth-peacepunk band Serqet round out this incredible bill, taking place within the refined halls of Capital Ale House. How strangely appropriate.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Friday, September 28, 7:30 PM
Meg Myers, Adam Jones @ The NorVA – $18 in advance/$22 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Meg Myers is a new discovery for me, but I really dig her. Her latest album, Take Me To The Disco, has a variety of different sounds going on at once, to the point that it’s hard to know what genre it is or how to even describe it. The best I can tell you is that it should appeal to fans of everything from Bat For Lashes to Garbage to Florence And The Machine; it has that sort of dark postpunk appeal while also incorporating a strong electronically-based pop songwriting sense.

Despite the use of the word “disco” in the title of her latest record, there’s no dance music here — you’re more likely to find crunchy guitars running up against programmed beats, like the best of the post-Nirvana 90s meeting the progressive alt sounds of the 21st century. It is at times tough to categorize, but it’s just as tough to dislike — Meg Myers is a talented lady with a ton of emotional intensity injected into her music, and you’re sure to feel the effects, especially when it’s all happening right in front of you in a live environment.

Saturday, September 29, 7 PM
Super Whatevr, Beach Goons, Dube, Morningside, Party Wave @ 37th and Zen – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I’ve seen a lot of different ways to render the word “whatever” over the years, from people making a “W” with their fingers to a fad amongst my friends back at the dawn of the current millennium to say “whatev” or even “whatev2k” (boy, that’s aged poorly). I’ve never seen “whatevr” before, but in this time of dropping vowels to look cool, I’m not surprised — just kind of amazed that Super Whatevr don’t write their name in all caps. But I’m actually glad they don’t, because this California alt-rock band have a much more fun and creative sound than I’d expect from any band pulling the MGMT move in 2018.

Their new album, Never Nothing, is full of catchy choruses and bouncy rhythms, mixing a bit of the ol’ emo revival with that disco-fied garage rock thing that a bunch of bands used to make hay while the sun was shining around the turn of the millennium — think the Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, etc. Why am I talking so much about the Y2K era? Maybe this band put me in the mood — but considering how great music was back then, it’s certainly not a bad thing. They’re joined by fellow Californian rock revivalists Beach Goons, who are capable of evoking everything from mid-60s garage raunch to late 50s teenage-queen balladry. Canadian group Dube will also be on the bill, bringing a similarly fun brand of loud-guitar rock n’ roll. If you wanna dance, this show is really where you’re gonna want to be this Saturday. These groups will get you moving.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers–this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Neverkept, Telltale, We Call This Courage, Nine Line, Epiphany @The Canal Club

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We’re back at the Canal Club this Friday night, and as has become the trend with this particular venue over the past year or two, we’re enjoying some catchy emotional pop-punk sounds at an all-ages gig that one wouldn’t be off base to guess will mostly be populated by high school students (OK, and maybe some college kids too). But seriously, if you let that kind of thing run you off, you’ll miss out on a lot of good shit–as has always been true, the kids know what’s up. The word for this show is Neverkept, a brand new name for an established band who originally introduced themselves to the world under the name Count To Four. Shedding the name last year when founding singer/guitarist Mike Hayden was replaced by the duo of Lucas Cote (vocals) and Aaron Mong (guitar), the group still doesn’t have any music available from their current incarnation. However, a new album is in the works, and the group’s sure to have plenty of new music with which to regale fans who’ve come to expect the sort of strong, melodic combination of pop-punk, emo, and hardcore the band has been delivering for years now.

There are plenty of local groups on this bill as well, and the one we should probably mention first is plucky quartet We Call This Courage, who will be bringing a brand new album into the world at this show. Their self-titled six-song EP shows off a dynamite songwriting sense with killer melodies driven by a great deal of youthful energy. It’s what the Canal Club wants, and it’s what the Canal Club will get–never fear. Telltale are a newer local group who’ve just released their debut EP, Good Intentions. These guys are cleancut enough to pass for a boy band, but their lyrics tell a darker story of issues with relationships and substances. So yeah–they’re an emo band. Which is never a bad thing, by any means. Local newbies Nine Line and Epiphany round out this lineup of bands that need to finish up their sets before curfew–expect this one to go quick and feature lots of hyperactive dudes jumping around with guitars. I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for that shit.

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 10/25-10/31

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FEATURED SHOW
Tuesday, October 31, 9 PM
Fear Of Music plays Fear Of Music @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
It’s that time again–Halloween, when all the good little rock n’ rollers get together to put on costumes by playing the music of other bands. The Halloween parties that have become Richmond traditions are still happening, and will doubtless be as awesome as ever, but this year I find myself drawn to a new thing that I’d enjoy seeing become a tradition of its own.

Fear Of Music, who’ve been plying their Talking Heads tribute band trade around town for years now, have decided to take things one step further this Halloween. Instead of their usual set pulling from the wide variety of awesome songs Talking Heads created over the course of their career, they’ll be drilling down and focusing on one Talking Heads album–specifically, the one that gave them their name. 1979’s Fear Of Music is best known today for its landmark single “Life During Wartime,” which features memorable lyrics involving a New York scenester attempting to survive the apocalypse. But of course this album also sees Talking Heads’ musical explorations into funk, disco, and sounds from around the world kicking into high gear, most notably with Dadaist disco opener “I Zimbra.”

Will RVA’s Fear Of Music have the chops to properly recreate Talking Heads’ Fear Of Music? In light of the group’s impressive pedigree, I think it’s a safe bet. And not only will they do that, they’ll add a second set featuring the jam-packed retrospective of the Heads’ best work that more closely resembles their usual work. Special guests will apparently be in the house to help out, though specifics on their identities are as yet unknown. Whoever they are, they’ll probably be wearing costumes–and you should be too. It is, after all, Halloween.

Wednesday, October 25, 5 PM
Radiator Hospital, Outer Spaces, Big Baby @ Strange Matter – $10 (order tickets HERE)
The return of Philadelphia jangle-punk sensation Radiator Hospital is a big event for a certain segment of the RVA music scene, and considering how great this band is, the rest of you should probably get on board with the quickness as well. Led by singer/songwriter Sam Cook-Parrott, the group just released their fifth (and, by many accounts, best) album so far, Radiator Hospital Play The Songs You Like. Featuring songs with titles like “Long Distance Dedication,” “Pastoral Radio Hit, ” “Dance Number,” and “Old Refrain,” it seems the group is using this album to focus on the way music interacts with the world. Of course, that will become clearer once we’ve all had some time to give it a few listens. Get a jump on that at this show.

Baltimore-based Outer Spaces join Radiator Hospital on this trip down to good ol’ RVA, and while they don’t quite have the same sort of high profile in the scene as Radiator Hospital enjoy, it’s certainly not because they’re any less good. In fact, this band, the latest project from singer/songwriter Cara Beth Satalino, is a big personal favorite of mine. I’ve followed Satalino’s work since her early solo days over a decade ago, and from those early EPs to her previous band Witches and now through Outer Spaces, she’s maintained a consistently high level of songwriting. Last year’s debut full-length, A Shedding Snake, gives us a bushel of great tunes, enhanced by multi-instrumentalist Chester Gwazda’s frequent interjection of electric piano textures. With local geniuses Big Baby kicking off the whole thing, this is an incredible show from top to bottom.

Thursday, October 26, 6 PM
Shadow Age, True Body, Aerial Ruin @ Champion RVA – Free!
These free shows at Champion just keep on bringing the home runs, combining excellent local talent with rad up-and-comers from around the region to make for an evening of excellent sounds. The local stars on this particular bill are Shadow Age, who recently followed up their 2016 debut EP, Silaluk, with an excellent new EP called The Fall. Lineup changes since the previous EP see a slimmed-down, now synthless version of the band focusing more closely on frontman Aaron Tyree’s powerful guitar playing, which continues to evoke The Chameleons, Pornography-era Cure, and early Echo and the Bunnymen to superb effect. I was a big fan of their debut EP, but I might just like this new one even better. A full set like this is sure to be just what the doctor ordered.

This group is joined by a pair of out-of-town groups with some similarly downcast, memorable tunes. Norfolk’s True Body have a brand new two-song single to wow us with, and its gloomy baritone vocals and glimmering postpunk atmosphere strike many of the same notes as Shadow Age, but with a flavor entirely its own. This show is gonna be a real bonanza for the black-clad goth kids of this town, especially since the lineup is rounded out by Aerial Ruin. This atmospheric, mainly acoustic solo project is helmed by Erik Moggridge, a Pacific northwest musician with previous experience in a variety of heavier bands. Apparently this is his move in a quieter direction; recently released LP Nameless Sun also shows a great deal of hypnotic intensity to this group’s sound. Get some sun on your way to this one, because it’s gonna be all shadows once the music starts.

Friday, October 27, 6 PM
Neverkept, Telltale, We Call This Courage, Nine Line, Epiphany @ The Canal Club – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
We’re back at the Canal Club this Friday night, and as has become the trend with this particular venue over the past year or two, we’re enjoying some catchy emotional pop-punk sounds at an all-ages gig that one wouldn’t be off base to guess will mostly be populated by high school students (OK, and maybe some college kids too). But seriously, if you let that kind of thing run you off, you’ll miss out on a lot of good shit–as has always been true, the kids know what’s up. The word for this show is Neverkept, a brand new name for an established band who originally introduced themselves to the world under the name Count To Four. Shedding the name last year when founding singer/guitarist Mike Hayden was replaced by the duo of Lucas Cote (vocals) and Aaron Mong (guitar), the group still doesn’t have any music available from their current incarnation. However, a new album is in the works, and the group’s sure to have plenty of new music with which to regale fans who’ve come to expect the sort of strong, melodic combination of pop-punk, emo, and hardcore the band has been delivering for years now.

There are plenty of local groups on this bill as well, and the one we should probably mention first is plucky quartet We Call This Courage, who will be bringing a brand new album into the world at this show. Their self-titled six-song EP shows off a dynamite songwriting sense with killer melodies driven by a great deal of youthful energy. It’s what the Canal Club wants, and it’s what the Canal Club will get–never fear. Telltale are a newer local group who’ve just released their debut EP, Good Intentions. These guys are cleancut enough to pass for a boy band, but their lyrics tell a darker story of issues with relationships and substances. So yeah–they’re an emo band. Which is never a bad thing, by any means. Local newbies Nine Line and Epiphany round out this lineup of bands that need to finish up their sets before curfew–expect this one to go quick and feature lots of hyperactive dudes jumping around with guitars. I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for that shit.

Saturday, October 28, 6 PM
Spooky Cool, Blush Face, Angelica Garcia, Private Cry @ Hardywood – Free!
Spooky Cool have been one of the more mysterious bands on the local indie scene over the past couple of years–grainy youtube footage was the only way you could learn about them for a long time, unless of course you went to the shows and learned for yourself. But all the buzz they’ve been picking up over that time has finally led to them poking their heads above the waterline, first with a new single, “Strange Rooms,” released last month, and now with a brand new video from the long-running local purveyors of music and filmic excellence, Good Day RVA. The group’s twining male-female vocal harmonies and strangely syncopated alt-rock riffs make a strong impression–though their inacessible air of mystery has no doubt ratcheted up the anticipation, making this overdue release all the more enjoyable.

Get your fill of Spooky Cool this Saturday night at a free show featuring a set from the band along with a premiere of the Good Day RVA video, which will be making its way to YouTube shortly afterwards. You’ll also get a heaping dose of the most excellent sounds from a variety of different subsections of the RVA indie world. Blush Face has grabbed quite a bit of attention on their own behalf with recent debut full-length What Do You Want? The group’s bouncy pop jangle is the kind of thing that worms under your skin and never lets go. The lineup is rounded out by recent local sensation Angelica Garcia, whose bold new sound has grabbed some high-profile attention from the likes of the New York Times recently; and newcomers Private Cry, who bring multi-layered vocals and an intriguing mix of instruments to bear on some vaguely psychedelicized alt-rock sounds in fascinating fashion. And all of this is available to you for the low low price of … absolutely nothing? Why the heck wouldn’t you go?

Sunday, October 29, 2 PM
Washers, Horizontal Hold @ Hardywood – Free!
I have no idea how hard y’all party, but if you’ve followed my previous instructions as to show attendance for the week, you shouldn’t have too much to worry about–after all, if you get too sloppy at Hardywood Saturday night, you can just crash in your car and drag your messy bedhead self back to Hardywood at 2 PM the next afternoon. You should probably go home and get a shower and some breakfast first, though–or at least I would, but far be it from me to tell you how to live, you maniacs.

I will tell you that attendance at this Sunday afternoon show over at Hardywood will bring a great deal of light into your life, if you choose to accept it. The main attraction on this bill is Washers, a new band bringing together the talents of Stuart Holt (Sports Bar), Brad Perry (Worn In Red), and Joel Alford (Pity Party). This band’s fun power-pop sound is exactly what you’d expect from some of these guys, with a heavier edge brought in by the rest of them. It’s tight–go see for yourself. And check out North Carolina’s Horizontal Hold while you’re at it; this group’s herky-jerky postpunk sound harks back to early 80s NYC No Wave without all that early-80s Manhattan grottiness. The whole thing is free, and it’ll be over in time for you to go get some dinner and head back out for yet another show! Or just hit the sack early. I honestly wouldn’t blame you.

Monday, October 30, 8 PM
LA Witch, Guantanamo Baywatch, The Smirks, Sick Bags @ The Camel – $12 (order tickets HERE)
The world of garage rock gets weirder and spookier with every passing year, and I for one think that’s great. After all, there are only so many new versions of “Dirty Robber” and “Psycho” we can all hear without getting bored. LA Witch is certainly not going to bore you. This trio, predictably hailing from Los Angeles, have a lot of venom and vigor to their sound, as well as a great deal of ominous reverb, simultaneously resembling the moody punk garage sounds of prime early Cramps and the psychedelic, um, witchery of bands like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The results, as documented on their brand new self-titled LP from Suicide Squeeze, are incredible. Much the same can be expected from their performance Monday night. Get down with it.

And you garage freaks will get a special bonus, as this one night sees them criscrossing the tour paths of Portland-based Suicide Squeeze labelmates Guantanamo Baywatch, who bring a ripping surf-driven sound to town to get all of us dancing. These guys just released their latest LP, Desert Center, back in August, and its deep dive into speedy mutant surf instrumental territory is matched in intensity by its haunting vocal numbers, many of which have a doomed 50s-retro vibe sure to thrill all assembled. Local garage-damaged young punk snots The Smirks will be on the bill to let the elders know how its done, while Sick Bags sees some former members of local punk louts The Ladies bringing a more openly retro style to their still-antisocial vibe. Don’t miss a minute of this one, folks, it’s sure to be a blast.

Tuesday, October 31, 6:30 PM
Citizen, Sorority Noise, Great Grandpa @ The Canal Club – $17 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
When their first album came out in 2013, Citizen got lumped in with that whole emo-revival thing. At the time of their 2015 followup, they got thrown into the post-hardcore shoegaze crowd. Now, in 2017, their third album, Aim To Please, has been released, and it shows this group to have a sound that’s held true through every attempt to pigeonhole them. The emo aspects are still there. The post-hardcore vibes and ringing shoegaze guitars are still in the mix as well. But at the end of the day, what this band does best is killer melodies with an undeniable infusion of passion and heartache. And they’re still doing it as well as ever, so going to see them live is still a really great idea.

Sorority Noise came together from the ashes of a couple early emo-revival bands, but quickly staked out territory well outside their original expectations. Their most recent album, You’re Not As _____ As You Think (yes, it’s really a blank), continues to explore new sounds that move from slightly-twisted melodic punk to strange ambient gothic vibes, all while digging deeper into the sorts of emotional issues that plague us all. All in all, they’re a great pairing with Citizen, and all the Canal Club kids are sure to eat it up. The evening will kick off with a set from Seattle’s Great Grandpa, who orbit some of the same styles Citizen and Sorority Noise are swirling around, but mix in doses of shoegaze and 90s alt-rock to keep things lively.

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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] [yes, my email is through GayRVA, don’t get weird about it]

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 9/20-9/26

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, September 23, 8 PM
The Broadberry presents RVA Live! feat. Matthew E. White, Natalie Prass, Tim Barry, Bio Ritmo, Clair Morgan @ Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Arts Center – $10-80 (order tickets HERE)
OK yes I am usually on some more underground/DIY type stuff than anything that takes place at the Carpenter Theatre but sometimes something too big and important and cool to ignore comes along and you just gotta send people to the big bourgeois theatre in the center of town, right? Well, that’s my opinion anyway. This event is also being presented by The Broadberry, a relatively small venue with deep connections to the local independent music scene, so its DIY bona fides are pretty well beyond question.

Therefore, I must tell you that something amazing and very difficult to rationalize missing is happening downtown at the Carpenter Theatre this Saturday night, and tickets start at a very reasonable $10, so there’s really no excuse not to be in attendance. RVA Live! is an evening featuring several of the Richmond scene’s most noteworthy veteran artists–everyone from salsa stalwarts Bio Ritmo to punk-gone-country troubadour Tim Barry–performing in collaboration with the Richmond Symphony. With orchestration and arrangements being handled by Trey Pollard of Spacebomb Records, who has done string arrangements for artists ranging from Matthew E. White to Foxygen and The Waterboys; along with Bio Ritmo members Marlysse Simmons and Toby Whitaker; this is going to be a collaborative project on multiple levels, bringing the best of Richmond’s singer-songwriter community together with the leading lights of our local classical music scene–a scene that popular-music fanatics like myself, and probably yourself, tend to sleep on.

With Matthew E. White and Natalie Prass at the top of this bill, you know Spacebomb is going to be representing itself admirably at this performance. Bio Ritmo’s Latin swing and jazzy funk influences will get a whole new twist when recontextualized through the lens of the Richmond Symphony, and will add a multicultural strain to an evening that could get decidedly monochromatic without them. Plus, we’ll get the mathematical pop of Clair Morgan and the austere country blues punk of Tim Barry, embellished with the sorts of layers neither of their sounds generally contain. All of this will be fascinating for any music lover. And with so many hotshot performers on the bill, you’re sure to get caught up in the awesomeness of it all, even if seeing the symphony at the Carpenter Theatre generally isn’t your thing.

Wednesday, September 20, 8 PM
Polyphia, Night Idea, Paint Store @ The Broadberry – $15 (order tickets HERE)
The worlds of screamo, math-rock, prog-metal, and metalcore have some pretty surprising intersection points at times, and the whole prog-metalcore scene that’s built up around bands like Periphery is one of the strangest and most interesting ones. Polyphia are a metallic instrumental quartet of young post-metalcore dudes with swoop haircuts and skills for days, and they’re hitting Richmond tonight on a day off from their current tour opening for prog-metalcore pioneers Between The Buried And Me. If you want to dig into the shred-heavy instrumental end of this whole scene, this show is your perfect chance to do it at a relatively small venue for a reasonable ticket price.

Polyphia’s latest release, The Most Hated EP, sees them dipping into more electronic layers, including programmed beats and synthesized background swells. However, the guitar pyrotechnics remain on full display, with occasional licks copped from the dawn-of-the-90s micro-trend of blazing metal guitarists putting out instrumental solo albums. What I’m saying is, these guys have a definite Vai/Satriani tinge to their djent-inspired riff fests these days, and the intersection of these surprisingly congruent sounds is a lot of fun to explore. With local openers consisting of poppy math-rockers Night Idea (the only band this night to feature a vocalist) and fellow math-obsessed instrumental shredders Paint Store, this show is guaranteed to fill your quota for riffage, even if it does run slightly low on vocalizations. You definitely won’t get bored in their absence.

Thursday, September 21, 6 PM
El Malpais, Candy Spots, Worse Curses @ Champion RVA – Free!
And we progress from one instrumental group to another as we go through this week’s picks, landing once again at Champion RVA on Thursday night to shed the night-before-payday blues with some excellent free sounds from both local and touring artists. The stars of this Thursday night’s show will be El Malpais (“the bad country,” if my rusty high-school Spanish hasn’t failed me), who come from Charlotte, NC with an original and fascinating instrumental sound pairing guitar and drum rhythms with flute to create the kind of unusual and engaging sound that “jazz flute” might have conjured up in your head if it weren’t for that phrase’s eternal association with Anchorman.

Regardless of whether you would ever expect a group based around flute melodies to be able to rock with aplomb, you should definitely be in the house when El Malpais takes the stage, because they’re guaranteed to erase all doubts. Their excellent self-titled LP from earlier this year is full of somewhat foreboding tunes accented by riveting melodies, which create the overall impression of tiptoeing through a forest late in the afternoon, on the hunt for forgotten old huts where strange creatures may or may not still live. OK, maybe I’ve read too many horror novels in my time, but still, this band rocks. They’ll be joined on this bill by local alt-garage rockers Candy Spots and catchy up-and-comers Worse Curses for an evening of jams that would be cheap at twice the price (because after all, zero dollars x2 is still zero dollars).

Friday, September 22, 7 PM
Madeline Kenney, Rikki Shay, Majjin Boo, Minor Poet @ Gallery 5 – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)
The Broadberry’s showing up all over town this week. This show, which is actually the night before that RVA Live! show up at the top of the column (my chronology’s a little weird, deal with it), sees the larger venue collaborating with generally awesome (and kinda cavernous itself) DIY art gallery space Gallery 5 to present an evening headlined by Oakland singer-songwriter Madeline Kenney. You may be unfamiliar with this artist, but Kenney’s brand new album, Night Night At The First Landing, gives all the reason you need to change that in a hurry. In a manner that is spiritually if not entirely sonically similar to alt-rock shredder Marnie Stern, Kenney takes that whole singer/guitarist/songwriter mold and smashes it over her knee on her new album, integrating dreamy guitar textures with an ambient overall sound and topping them all off with evocative vocal melodies and profound lyrics that cut to the heart of the emotional issues that plague so many young women in this world.

Expect her live performance to do just as much to both destroy and elevate your expectations from a “female singer-songwriter” (kill that cliche forever please). Kenney’s openers on this bill definitely reflect the Broadberry’s involvement in this evening, with recent Broadberry performers Rikki Shay and Minor Poet making a rare appearance at Gallery 5. That’s good, though, maybe it’ll bring some new people out to check out this excellent venue. Madeline Kenney is really all the inducement you, the super clued-in RVA show attendee, should need to add this show to your calendar, though. She’s worth the price of admission all by herself.

Saturday, September 23, 8 PM
Meg Mulhearn + Elisa Faires, Dazeases, Womajich Dialysiez, Rachel Lynch @ Vagabond – Free!
OK, this is two awesome free shows in the space of three days; you should definitely take advantage of this phenomenon, because it’s not something that occurs every week by any means. This evening over at up-and-coming new live music space Vagabond brings us a couple of heavy hitters in the ambient/experimental music world, on a collaborative tour linked to a still-in-production album-length collaboration that’s apparently on the way next year. You can get a preview of it this Saturday night at Vagabond though, and that’s certainly worth doing.

Meg Mulhearn is a violinist who has worked with US Christmas, Void Ensemble, and others, and releases solo recordings under the name Divine Circles. Elisa Faires is an experimental vocalist who has taken part in projects like Astral Magick Soundtrack and Xambuca. Both of these artists use electronic effects to loop, layer, and otherwise accent their instruments, and the two together bring to life a lush ambient soundscape that seems way bigger than anything two musicians can produce by themselves. Combined with the soulful vocal-driven ambience of Dazeases, the constantly-evolving improvisational experimental project Womajich Dialysiez, and experimental performance artist Rachel Lynch, this bill will explore all sorts of different musical and performative avenues, and should take the listener on a sonic journey that is not too frequently experienced, but all the richer for that fact.

Sunday, September 24, 6 PM
Common Ground Fest South, feat. Bren Lukens, Daisyhead, Centerfolds, Something More, Small Talks, Telltale, Nominee, She’s A Legend @ Strange Matter – $14 (order tickets HERE)
OK yes there’s always gonna be some emo coming to you in my column, and I guess this is where it arrives, because seriously–how could I neglect this excellent event? Common Ground Fest, a one-day mini-festival of emo/pop-punk bands put on by Common Ground Records and taking place in three different cities across the US over the course of this month, brings its southernmost incarnation to Richmond VA, and we are in for a treat. After all, not long after Modern Baseball co-founder Jake Ewald hit the Strange Matter stage with his Slaughter Beach Dog project, we get the other Modern Baseball co-founder, Bren Lukens, coming through with a solo acoustic performance. How sweet is that?

But that’s just the beginning. If you ask me, one of the biggest thrills on this whole lineup shows up down towards the bottom of the bill in the form of excellent up-and-coming emotionally-driven pop-punk band Nominee, whose January EP Drag Me Out has been a big one for me so far this year. Hearing songs like “Stay” and “White Water” live might just be enough to get me to pay the full ticket price all by itself. But even with both Bren Lukens and Nominee on this bill, so many other awesome groups are showing up that it’s hard to even attempt a full encapsulation. That said, Nashville’s Daisyhead, who released a killer LP In Case You Missed It on No Sleep earlier this year; and Baltimore’s Something More, who impressed all comers with their 2015 EP compilation Physical Copy, are just some of the additional reasons to make sure you’re right up front for this entire gig. I could say more, but this should be enough. Be there.

Monday, September 25, 8 PM
Love Roses, Brainbuster, The Donalds, Skumboyz @ McCormack’s Irish Pub – $5
I was introduced to Love Roses’ fun, speedy take on punk rock earlier this year when my admittedly pretty screamo band played a house show with them. It wasn’t exactly a predictable pairing, but we ended up meshing pretty well, and I really dug this band’s energetic rage. Since then, Love Roses have been busy, releasing a brand new split on local label Tired & Pissed with Fredericksburg punks Brainbuster, who by no coincidence at all are also on this bill. Love Roses and Brainbuster are just finishing up a tour together, and this is a much more predictable pairing of VA punk bands than anything involving my band would have been.

Brainbuster have a Dead Kennedys-ish sarcastic approach to their lyrics and an early-80s LA punk approach to their music, showing influence from bands like the Adolescents and Bad Religion as well as a snottier edge that gives the whole thing a harsh bite. That split is gonna be a real ripper when it hits, that’s one thing I know for sure. Local punks The Donalds and Skumboyz round out a lineup full of Tired & Pissed artists who are sure to please the circle-pitting punk fanatics of this town–of whom there are more than you think–as well as anyone who gets a kick out of speedy riffs that are both angry and fun.

Tuesday, September 26, 8 PM
Dryjacket, Eaves, Sleave, Nine Line @ Strange Matter – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
And here we have some more emo, because it’s awesome. New Jersey’s Dryjacket really impressed many listeners, myself among them, with their debut full-length For Posterity. That album, released earlier this year, shows an introspective, multi-layered approach to the sort of emo-revival template that the best bands from that slowly-fading era are still building and improving upon. Dryjacket definitely demonstrates their own qualification for that top tier of still-extant emo bands with a sound incorporating the complex guitar arpeggios that led people to throw the term “twinkle” around a few years ago and some incredible pop choruses that seem to draw as much influence from The Beatles as from Dads–always a welcome phenomenon.

And how about the RVA bands on this bill? Well, Eaves has certainly shown their own bona fides in the whole introspective, multi-layered emo genre over the past little while, and their contribution to this show is therefore sure to be both apropos and entirely welcome. Sleave has a gruffer approach that draws a great deal from that whole vibe of bands like Hot Water Music or Latterman, but with a chunkier guitar sound that shows a bit more hardcore influence than you might expect. Newcomers Nine Line hark back to the 90s days of the more emotionally-driven Fat Wreck bands like Lagwagon or Good Riddance, which is a refreshing change. There’s definitely some daylight between these four bands, but all share a similar feel, one that’s sure to move 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] [the rvamag address isn’t working for some reason, I haven’t had time to look into it! Bear with me]