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VA Shows You Must See This Week: December 4 – December 10

Marilyn Drew Necci | December 4, 2019

Topics: A Will Away, Astral Void, Bandito's, Bent Knee, Black Flake, Black Liver, Boogaloo's, Buck Gooter, Capital Ale House Music Hall, Charlie's American Cafe, Dad, Death Angel, Deathtrap, Dorthia Cottrell, Downhaul, Elvzig, Every King & Commoner, Exmortus, Fuzzy Cactus, gallery 5, Garden Grove Brewing, Good Cretins, Gull, Hell Fire, High Voltage, Infinite Xmas, Insignificant Other, Jenna Kole, Kadavar, Karen Estrella, Krampusnacht, Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery, Madison Turner, Mister Earthbound, Nonfiction, Punks For Presents, Rock You Like A Candy Cane, Ruby The Hatchet, Scott "Wino" Weinrich, shows you must see, Sinn, Sled Boys, Sled Dynamite, Small Talks, Smashing Presents, Snow Control, Spiral Fracture, Sunsleeper, Thank You Scientist, The Canal Club, The Embalmers, The Emma Garell Band, The Golden Pony, The Nine 22's, The Tea Club, Those Weird Neighbors, Tiara, Viktoria Ashley, Woman Crush Wednesdays

FEATURED SHOWS
Friday, December 6, 8 PM
Punks For Presents Night 1, feat. Elvzig, Smashing Presents, High Voltage, Rock You Like A Candy Cane @ Bandito’s — Donations requested
Saturday, December 7, 8 PM
Punks For Presents Night 2 Pt 1, feat. Good Cretins, Black Flake, Sled Boys @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10 requested donation
Saturday, December 7, 8 PM
Punks For Presents Night 2 Pt. 2, feat. Snow Control, Sled Dynamite @ Boogaloos – Donations requested

Last week, we discussed the fact that Thanksgiving is the holiday for jam bands. This week we have to tackle the fact that, as holidays go, Thanksgiving is an exception — the rule for live music around holidays is that there will be punk and metal bands doing tribute sets. It used to be just a Halloween thing, but it’s spread to a variety of other holidays, and through the generous work of Punks For Presents, the punk-and-metal-tribute holiday show has been a fixture of Richmond for around a decade now.

Punks For Presents ensures that our celebrations of this, the most materialistic of holidays, do not overlook the less fortunate. At all of these shows, the group will be collecting donations of toys and cash to be given to the Children’s Hospital of Richmond, so we can be sure that the sick and disadvantaged kids of the area have a good Christmas too. It’s a great cause, and you can be a part of that effort by spending your weekend rocking out at three tribute shows taking place at three different clubs on two nights, which is a pretty good exchange when you think about it.

Start off on Friday over at Bandito’s, where members of Hewolf are presenting a Christmas-themed take on the works of the almighty Danzig, accompanied by equally holiday-themed tributes to Smashing Pumpkins, AC/DC, and the Scorpions, all brought to you by some of the most beloved and talented musicians Richmond has to offer. Then spend your Saturday on Brookland Park Boulevard, where across-the-street neighbors Fuzzy Cactus and Boogaloos will present two shows in one, with bands staggering set times so you can troop across the street to catch the next band as soon as the last one is done! Long-running Ramones tribute act Good Cretins top the bill over at Fuzzy Cactus, with tributes to Black Flag and Dead Boys sharing the stage there as tributes to Bad Religion and Kid Dynamite rock the house across the way at Boogaloos! The block is rocking for a great cause — make sure you’re there to enjoy and support it.

Wednesday, December 4, 6 PM
Woman Crush Wednesdays December showcase, feat. Jenna Kole, Tiara, The Emma Garell Band, Viktoria Ashley @ Lickinghole Creek Shockoe Bottom – Free!

The problem of male dominance at shows, and the need to counteract it by booking shows focusing on female artists, has long been a relevant topic in the worlds of punk and hardcore. However, we’re clearly seeing real progress in the music world as a whole, because the desire to make space for female musicians has spread locally to encompass the indie-folk/singer-songwriter scene as well. That’s what the monthly Woman Crush Wednesday showcases coming to the stage at Lickinghole Creek’s Shockoe Bottom location are all about, and as a woman who loves all genres of music, I couldn’t be happier to see it happening.

This month’s showcase takes place tonight, and the bill is headed up by Jenna Kole, bringing her quietly intriguing folk-rock sounds from the countryside into the heart of the city. She’ll be joined by the female half of local indie-soul duo Tiara & Andrew, presenting a solo set full of smooth, intriguing vibes. The Emma Garell Band will show off their catchy, energetic tuneage and get the room moving, and Viktoria Ashley will open things up with a solo set to get everyone in the mood. It should be a lovely evening of sounds brought to you by women who are too often relegated to the background while men strut their stuff. And if that’s not crushworthy, I don’t know what is.

Thursday, December 5, 6 PM
Death Angel, Exmortus, Hell Fire, Spiral Fracture, SiNN, Deathtrap @ The Canal Club – $18 (order tickets HERE)

It’s been over 35 years since five Filipino-American cousins, all of whom were then teenagers, came together to form one of the earliest and most important bands of the original thrash wave. Death Angel may not be quite as well-known today as the much-vaunted Big Four, but their first three albums made a huge impact on the west coast thrash-metal movement of the 80s, combining galloping speed and guitar pyrotechnics with youthful energy and a wry lyrical approach that shows through in classic tunes like “Bored.”

Three decades later, and Death Angel aren’t as young as they once were (though for a band with a 35-year career, their average age being right about 50 is still noteworthy). But they’re still going strong, dishing out the speed-thrash riffage with intensity and vigor on their ninth album, Humanicide, released earlier this year. Rest assured, Death Angel will rock you right out of your socks at The Canal Club this Thursday night, mixing excellent new jams with time-tested classics in order to create a perfect recipe for maximum headbangs. You’re not going to want to miss it.

Friday, December 6, 7 PM
RVA Krampusnacht “Yuletide Monsters,” feat. Infinite Xmas, Those Weird Neighbors, The Nine 22’s, The Embalmers @ Gallery 5 – Free!

Ah, Krampusnacht. This celebration of Santa Claus’s devilish counterpart, complete with horns and hooves, has become a strong tradition of Richmond’s holiday season, and Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without it. The traditional Carytown Krampus walk will take place this Saturday night, but you’ll be able to get in the mood the night before by spending First Friday at Gallery 5 for their annual “Yuletide Monsters” throwdown.

Music is just part of what you’ll find when you head down to Jackson Ward this Friday night, but there are some noteworthy sounds on offer at Gallery 5 this fine evening, headed up by Infinite Xmas, a project featuring an ambient take on traditional holiday tunes from Lobo Marino’s Laney Sullivan. This will certainly be a new twist on the often-overplayed music of this holiday season. Local performing arts mainstays Mark Slomski and Madame Onca will also bring you a set by their vaudevillian musical duo, Those Weird Neighbors, which should be a true holiday treat, and we’ll hear garage-punk and surf-psych sounds from The Nine 22’s and The Embalmers, respectively. Plus there’s way more artistic and performing action happening, including a wild n’ crazy variety show hosted by Ego Von Hubris, a photo booth run by the Red Vein Army, a dance party featuring ANIMAL’s fearless leader, DJ Dirt Thurston, and of course a fantastic group art exhibition with contributions from over 20 noteworthy local creators. Missing this one may actually endanger your immortal soul. Don’t take that risk.

Saturday, December 7, 6 PM
Thank You Scientist, Bent Knee, The Tea Club @ The Canal Club – $18 (order tickets HERE)

Prog-rock is a much-mocked genre of music, but the main thing people have always mocked about it is its overwhelming solemnity, which tends to come off as humorless pretentiousness. By contrast, prog-rock as a strictly musical genre can be quite enjoyable, especially when a band approaches it with sense of humor at the forefront. That’s the sort of approach Thank You Scientist has always taken — as the above photo of the group in matching bathrobes should make clear. Which is why, regardless of your opinion of bloated prog-rock monstrosities like Yes’s Tales Of Topographic Oceans, you should still make some time for Thank You Scientist in your life.

Their new LP, Terraformer, mixes complex jazz-fusion aspects, driven by the band’s saxophone, trumpet, and electric violin players, with a virtuosic approach to melodic rock riffs that call to mind groups like Circa Survive or Coheed And Cambria. It’s catchy, it’s dynamic, and it’s a whole lot of fun. So whether you want to engage in an in-depth study of complex chord structures or just dance around with a goofy grin on your face, Thank You Scientist will have you covered when they hit the Canal Club stage this Saturday night. Be there.

Sunday, December 8, 7 PM
Kadavar, Ruby The Hatchet, Mister Earthbound, Astral Void @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $15 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)

Thanksgiving’s over, but for Kadavar, the pilgrim hats are a year-round thing. This German band, who’ve been cranking out witchy, psychedelic proto-metal for nigh on a decade now, take an occult-driven approach to groove-laden doom metal. When you think “occult metal,” it’s easy to assume you’re getting Slayer’s Show No Mercy or that first Hellraiser movie, but on their new LP, For The Dead Travel Fast, Kadavar are much closer to Black Widow’s Sacrifice and the original Wickerman. The spookiness of the European countryside is not to be denied, y’all.

Kadavar come to town in the company of Ruby The Hatchet, who hail from a closer proximity (specifically the city of Philadelphia), but still have a strongly witchy doom vibe. These guys strike a really good balance between 70s and 80s pop-culture occult metal on their latest LP, Planetary Space Child, which sounds like an early Blue Oyster Cult record blasting from the tape deck of a Trans Am headed to Camp Crystal Lake, if you know what I mean. With Mister Earthbound and Astral Void rounding out this particular bill, this one will be a real treat for all you denim-vested rock n’ rollers with quartz pendants around your necks. Get with it.

Monday, December 9, 6 PM
A Will Away, Small Talks, Sunsleeper, Black Liver @ The Canal Club – $13 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)

You don’t necessarily need something all that challenging to brighten up your Monday night. After all, we’ve all got a long work week ahead of us, and no one’s really got their Christmas shopping done, no matter what they tell you. So here’s an easy way to bring some lovely sounds into your Monday night — head down to the Canal Club and enjoy a set from Connecticut’s A Will Away.

The quartet describe their sound as “80s pop-rock on acid,” and that might be fair, but just as fair would be to say that their latest EP, the just-released Soup, is a fun slice of catchy tuneage that stands directly on that thin line between power-pop and pop-punk. Which side of the line it leans towards depends on the song, but all of them are a blast to listen to, and this group’s sure to provide a charming end to a day that might need a bit more charm by the time it’s over. South Carolinians Small Talks are slightly more emotionally focused, but still have that killer pop sensibility that will bring a smile to your face even when they’re singing about forlorn topics. Between the two, these bands can brighten up the rainiest and coldest of Mondays. And this Monday might be one of them. Plan to spend it at this show.

Tuesday, December 10, 6 PM
Insignificant Other, dad, Madison Turner @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!

It’s always nice to have a reason to head to Garden Grove — and when you’re a sober girl like me, the brews are never enough. But they’ve subtly carved out a niche for themselves in the local music scene by becoming an extremely reliable source for poppy punky musical fun, and that’s something we can never have too much of around here. This time around, it’s a Close By Air production featuring Florida/Alabama queer pop-punk trio Insignificant Other, and you can certainly expect to get some smiles out of this Tuesday night bill.

I’m So Glad I Feel This Way About You! is the name of Insignificant Other’s newest LP, and it’s a ton of fun, from the both witty and extremely real lyrics about the difficulties of interpersonal relationships to the bouncy, scrappy sound, complete with handclaps, of the super-catchy tunes. Expect a good bit more of that sort of thing when Insignificant Other takes the Garden Grove stage. You can also expect some powerful grunge-punk angst from Richmonders dad, and some speedy acoustic punk tunes full of heart and honesty from Madison Turner. Everything about this one’s gonna be great.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Wednesday, December 4, 7 PM
Downhaul, Nonfiction, Every King & Commoner, Karen Estrella @ Charlie’s American Cafe (Norfolk) – $5

Down in Norfolk, there’s a non-local show featuring a local band on tour that I want to bring to your attention, and I assure you, it’s worth it. Whether you’ve caught up with Downhaul around Richmond, where they’ve spent the past couple years working hard to prove their talent, or you’re still wondering exactly what’s up with this band whose name shows up on a lot of local flyers, anytime is a good time to see what Downhaul is up to. They’ve just released a four-song cassette entitled Tornado Season, and it’s a great demonstration of their Smoking Popes-meets-Hop Along take on melodic, emotional alt-rock. Would calling it “post-pop-punk” make sense to anyone? I have no idea, but it seems appropriate nonetheless.

This current tour for Downhaul pairs them up with Philly’s Nonfiction, a group who are slightly more straightforward in their alt-rock approach, but are sure to appeal to anyone who enjoys sounds in the general emo/indie/pop-punk realm, at least if their latest EP, Same Pain, is any indication. Norfolk locals Every King & Commoner and Karen Estrella round out this bill, making it well worth your time whether you’re a curious Tidewater head seeing what’s up with these regional delights or a Richmonder who knows that a Downhaul set is worth your time even if it involves a 90-minute drive. You’ve got the gas money, right? So use it.

Thursday, December 5, 7 PM
Scott “Wino” Weinrich, Dorthia Cottrell, Buck Gooter, Gull @ The Golden Pony (Harrisonburg) – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)

Sometimes doom metal powerhouses are just as intense without all the volume. This double-headlining bill featuring two legendary frontpeople of the doom world — Scott “Wino” Weinrich of The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, and more; and Dorthia Cottrell of the almighty Windhand — is here to act as proof positive of that fact. Both of these performers have had some artistic success with solo ventures in recent years. While it’s been several years since Wino released a new acoustic venture, 2010’s Adrift is a powerful testament to the strength his music can have even without amplification.

Dorthia Cottrell had a solo release of her own a few years ago, and that self-titled LP on Forcefield demonstrated that the memorable vocals that made Windhand a standout are still attention-grabbing and hypnotic even if they’re laid over an ambient acoustic soundscape rather than a succession of towering riffs. So if you’ve ever had any doubt that heaviness can be achieved without an excess of volume, head for Harrisonburg and this Thursday night and learn what you’ve been missing from two masters of the craft.

—-

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 Drew Sim Photography, via Facebook

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: November 28 – December 4

Marilyn Drew Necci | November 28, 2018

Topics: Accident Prone, Alex Jonestown Massacre, American Television, Battlemaster, Black Tusk, Bottled Up, Broadside, Buzzard Dust, Charlie's American Cafe, Cryptodira, Doll Baby, Dominion Energy Center, Doomsday Lullaby, Drug Church, Earthling, Ghost, Gouge Away, Gumming, Hardywood, Hoboknife, Humungus, Inter Arma, Kaonashi, Lala Lala, Loud Night, Manatree, missangelbird, Negative Approach, Nhibitions, Prayer Group, Raven, Riffhouse Pub, Seattle's New Gods, Serqet, Shadow Age, shows you must see, Sleep On It, Slump, Small Talks, Songe, Split Wrist, strange matter, stray fossa, The Astral Void, The Broadberry, The Camel, The Canal Club, True Body, Twin Drugs, Unmaker, Vatican, WHY?, With Confidence

FEATURED SHOW
Tuesday, December 4, 6 PM
Negative Approach, Battlemaster, Shadow Age, True Body, Slump, Unmaker, Serqet, Gumming, Loud Night @ Strange Matter – $15 (order tickets HERE)
The holiday season is here, but for the Richmond music scene, it’s a sad time, as perhaps our most reliable mainstay for live music over the past decade is going away. However, while it’s hard to think of how we’ll get by without Strange Matter in 2019, the venue’s imminent closing seems to have created an absolute bonanza for people who love seeing awesome bands. Between now and their final closing on December 15, they’ve booked a whole passel of action-packed, star-studded farewell shows to close out their time on a high note.

Indeed, there are so many that I couldn’t possibly fit all of the worthy bills happening at Strange Matter this week into this show column without ignoring some really great shows happening around town elsewhere. But rest assured, if any of the following picks isn’t in your lane, there’s probably something amazing happening at Strange Matter that night — check out the full schedule from now til their last night over here.

All that being said, I couldn’t possibly avoid mentioning this show. It was already stacking up to feature an abundance of excellent local bands from a variety of genres… and then Negative Approach came calling. This legendary first-wave US hardcore band came roaring out of Detroit in the early 80s with an amazing treasure trove of hardcore bangers that made their debut EP and Tied Down LP classics of the era. These days, vocalist and human whirlwind of rage John Brannon keeps the band alive in the company of the band’s original drummer, plus former members of fellow hardcore legends The Necros and Easy Action on bass and guitar.

And believe me, when they hit the Strange Matter stage, they’re going to rip your fucking head off. And yes, I intend that as a very high compliment. If you haven’t seen the reunited Negative Approach on any of their previous trips through Richmond, this is the time to make it happen. After all, you’ll not only be getting to see John Brannon go wild up close and in person, you’ll be celebrating the past decade of greatness Strange Matter brought to us, and in the company of some of this town’s best local bands. Its brought Shadow Age back from their recent retirement to play their first-ever set as a quintet, the dynamic psychedelic-postpunk duo of True Body and Slump are both on the bill, Unmaker’s fresh off the release of their new album and ready to lay you flat with Killing Joke-style heaviness… and there’s a whole lot more. I’ve already taken up too much space saying even this much. Just go.

Wednesday, November 28, 6 PM
Broadside, With Confidence, Sleep On It, Small Talks @ The Canal Club – $15 in advance/$18 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Broadside have been at it for a long time here in Richmond, and they’ve been through a lot during their decade or so of existence as a band. In fact, no one we talked to for our first interview with Broadside back in 2011 is even still in the band — so that should give you an idea. However, since singer Ollie Baxxter joined the band in 2013, they’ve had a standout sound that sets them apart from the pop-punk pack and helped get them signed to Victory. Second LP Paradise showed them branching out in their sound, increasing the emphasis on melody as Ollie grew as a vocalist and showed off some teen-idol vocal chops.

But rest assured, this band still packs the sort of punch you’ll need to get you jumping and dancing even as you sing along to all those heartbreaking lyrics we’ve all memorized alone in our rooms late at night. And they’re coming to town with Australians With Confidence, who have a similarly sure-footed approach to melodic, emotional punk sounds, though these guys are more on the emo tip than Broadside’s whole post-easycore approach. New album Love And Loathing is an excellent listen, and the band will bring all those tunes to life in glorious Technicolor when they hit the Canal Club stage. Wear your basketball shoes for this one, because the club is gonna be jumping.

Thursday, November 29, 8 PM
Manatree, Stray Fossa, Bottled Up, missangelbird @ The Camel – $5 in advance/$7 at the door (order tickets HERE)
If you’d like a one-night crash course in what’s going on in the indie scene around VA, you can’t do much better than this show at the Camel. Your star attraction, as it’s been so many times, is Manatree, a group that started out as bouncy teenagers but have grown up, matured, and been through some lineup shifts in order to evolve into their current form. They’ve developed a new approach that moves away from the alt-rock and emo tinges they had on earlier material in favor of delicate, mathematically complex precision, which they showed off on Engines, the full-length they released this past summer. If you haven’t caught them live since 2016 or so, rest assured, a lot has changed — and in good ways.

To our west up 64, Stray Fossa has been putting together some excellence of their own of late, releasing debut EP Sleeper Strip earlier this fall to give us all a taste of their pensive UK-style tuneage. It borders on shoegaze, but the way frontman Nick Evans’ voice sits above the multi-layered guitars is so strong and assured that the end result is closer to pre-shoegaze UK guitar slingers like House Of Love and The Chameleons. DC’s Bottled Up let loose with a bit more distortion than the two previous bands we’ve discussed, but there’s a great deal of space in their sound nonetheless, and delicate, bouncy pop is ultimately the best way to describe their music. Recent EP BU2 is a lot of fun, and their performance at this show seems certain to be as well. Finally, Harrisonburg’s missangelbird, which grew from a series of quiet solo demos into a softly powerful indie-folk trio over the past few months, opens up, easing you into a night of lovely sounds from around the state. Don’t miss a moment.

Friday, November 30, 7 PM
Drug Church, Gouge Away, Seattle’s New Gods, Twin Drugs @ Strange Matter – $12 (order tickets HERE)
Just to show you a little bit about how the sausage is made: this double-headline bill was a major candidate for Featured Show this week. I couldn’t deny the outstanding nature of the Negative Approach show, but it in no way reduces the greatness this truly stacked lineup has to offer. Drug Church and Gouge Away have both released new albums this year, and both of them show some major growth. Drug Church’s third LP, Cheer, just came out and finds this crunching (post?) hardcore band dishing out their usual top-quality distorted midtempo riffs, only now with a slight undertone of minor-key melody that increases the emotional quotient even as lead vocalist Patrick Kindlon (also of Self Defense Family and the Axe To Grind podcast — yeah, you know this dude) is still blasting you with his usual acerbic wit and cutting insights into the darker sides of human character.

Drug Church have always had a lot to offer, and seeing them on this tour is sure to make that clear. But don’t get too excited about them and miss out on their touring partner — Gouge Away’s new LP, Burnt Sugar, is clearly the best thing this already shit-hot band has done. It finds them cleaning up their sound but continuing to lean into their driving, furious punk rock sound, with the end result landing somewhere between the excellent emotional hardcore of Xerxes circa Collision Blonde and White Lung at their career peak (that being the “Blow It South” single). Both of these bands are guaranteed to offer powerful live performances that you won’t soon forget, and openers Seattle’s New Gods and Twin Drugs only make this show even cooler and more interesting. Get there.

Saturday, December 1, 6 PM
Inter Arma, Black Tusk, Earthling, Humungus, Hoboknife, Buzzard Dust, Prayer Group, The Astral Void @ Strange Matter – $15
OK I can’t talk about ALL of the Strange Matter farewell shows, but some of them definitely need specific mention, and this is one of them. This one is for all the kids who wear old faded metal t-shirts with the sleeves cut off all summer, and denim vests covered in patches all winter. It’s the perfect evening for people who like the idea of doom metal, but prefer bands to be too creative to fall squarely within that genre’s rather narrow borders. That description perfectly fits headliners and local metal legends Inter Arma, who have shown us over their decade-plus career that they are equally skilled at all genres of metal, and are willing to fit pieces from the majority of them, as well as some completely uncategorizable elements, into any given song of theirs. And it always rules.

But there are a ton of other bands on this bill, and all of them deserve your attention, especially Black Tusk. This Savannah, GA band has persevered despite tragedy, returning this year with TCBT, their first album since the death of founding bassist Jonathan Athon. The album’s unrelenting heavyosity makes clear that these guys still have an immense amount of metal power running through their veins, and their set at Strange Matter should make it even clearer. Of course we’ll get a ton of other great metal from around the state on this bill, from Earthling’s blackened crust rage to Humungus’s power-metal triumph and the psychedelic noise of The Prayer Group. Plus more! Get that vest out and let’s rage.

Sunday, December 2, 3 PM
Doll Baby, American Television, Alex Jonestown Massacre @ Hardywood – Free!
It’s always fun to visit Hardywood on a Sunday afternoon when Handmade Holiday is in full swing. Tons of crafters, artists, and other local vendors will be on hand to offer you an artisanal alternative to the Christmas gifts the big-box stores are all pushing this year. And what makes this Sunday afternoon’s Handmade Holiday presentation even cooler is the presence of three excellent bands to liven up your afternoon and give you sounds to tap your foot to as you browse through the tents and get some holiday shopping done.

American Television are the out-of-towners, but they’re from just up the road in DC, and they’ve got a great sound that will find a home in RVA’s heart for sure. The “Death Defier” single they released this summer, which was sold in conjunction with a signature dark roast coffee if you can believe that, has the kind of caffeinated rush you’d expect from a melodic punk band with an addiction to the dark nectar of the bean. The signature roast is sold out, but they’ve still got plenty of killer tunes to deliver to you this Sunday afternoon, as do local favorites Doll Baby and up-and-coming young band Alex Jonestown Massacre. It’s free, it starts at 3 PM, there are food trucks where you can score a late brunch, and you can get all your gift-shopping done in one place. What more could you ask for?

Monday, December 3, 7 PM
WHY?, Lala Lala @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Remember when people used to talk about “backpacker hip hop”? It doesn’t get brought up as much now, but all that stuff released during the 00s on Anticon, Definitive Jux, and similar labels had a real effect on the culture and stretched the sounds and ideas of hip hop into new realms. Why?, a group formed by former cLOUDDEAD rapper and Anticon all-star Yoni Wolf in the mid-2000s, was a big part of that expansion. The project started as a de facto solo thing for Wolf, but soon evolved into a four-piece band that incorporated guitars, keyboards, and drums into a sound that was almost closer to indie than anything anyone would expect from a project associated with the hip hop genre.

But Wolf was still rapping over it all, and it created an intriguing fusion, one that Why? were largely responsible for creating, most prominently on their landmark 2008 album, Alopecia. You might hear about the fusion of rap and rock and think cringingly of Limp Bizkit, but Why?’s sound was about as far as you could get from that, accentuating Wolf’s thoughtful lyrical pensiveness with a quiet, contemplative indie sound that fit in well with groups like the Silver Jews — who Why? actually toured with back then. And they made their mark on a whole generation of music lovers, from hip hop heads to indie kids and everything in between. On this 10th anniversary tour for Alopecia, they’ll be bringing all those fans into the same room once again, and it’s sure to blow your mind whether you were there for the first go-round or you’re just discovering Yoni Wolf and his excellent band today. It’s something you need to see.

Tuesday, December 4, 8 PM
Ghost @ Dominion Energy Center – $39.50 – $79.50 in advance (order tickets HERE)
Nearly a decade after their formation, Sweden’s Ghost remain a very interesting band. Their theatrical Satanism, always exemplified by elaborate characters and onstage costumery, took a bit of a hit after legal action by former members of the group revealed the identity of mastermind Tobias Forge. Forge has actually been the band’s frontman throughout the many transferrences of the vocal position between different characters over the years, and he’s portraying yet another new character on the current Ghost tour — Cardinal Copia, a break from the Papa Emeritus lineage.

However, neither official character changes nor demystification has slowed Ghost down one bit. While their image might lead you to expect King Diamond/Cradle Of Filth-style theatrical thrash, their music has always hewed to a more classic proto-metal sound in line with late 60s-early 70s pioneers like Covenant, Bloodrock, or Blue Oyster Cult. That remains true on Prequelle, their latest offering, which carries their spooky, organ-fueled sound forward into a haunting, multi-layered extravaganza. It’s a bit late in the holiday season for Ghost’s current tour to arrive in Richmond — Halloween would have been much more appropriate — but with two full sets of excellent music and an incredible stage show, we’d be total grinches to complain.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Wednesday, November 28, 7 PM
Kaonashi, Cryptodira, Vatican, Accident Prone, Nhibitions, Split Wrist @ Charlie’s American Cafe – $10 in advance/$13 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It’s been nice to see a new generation of metallic hardcore kids who aren’t afraid to embrace the influence of nu-metal on their music. Because the fact is, the best of those bands had a lot to offer. When PA metalcore maniacs Kaonashi hit us with unabashed Slipknot and Mudvayne influences on their latest EP, Why Did You Do It?, it demonstrates clearly what sort of value can still be gained from those angst-ridden late-90s thrashers who loved tuning down and sporting eyeliner. Kaonashi songs like “My 5 Year Plan” and “You’ll Understand When You’re Older” mix the out-of-control moments of emotional meltdown that marked the best nu-metal into a recipe cobbled together from the best elements of deathcore’s downtuned thud and the gothic emo-prog of groups like Chiodos and Coheed And Cambria.

Kaonashi aren’t alone in following this thread to wherever it leads them — Sworn In has done quite a bit with it over the past few years, and Vein are certainly dipping a bit more than just a toe into the nu-metal pool on their new album. But Kaonashi’s new EP shows that they’re on the forefront of this musical territory, and they are sure to take it to another level entirely in the live arena — making attendance at this Charlie’s American Cafe show tonight all but mandatory (assuming you can make the drive). New Jersey’s Cryptodira are also on this bill, bringing an erudite take on progressive death-metalcore to the table, as showcased on 2017’s excellent The Devil’s Despair. Straight edge metalcore thrashers Vatican, who hail from Georgia, will also hit the stage with metalcore fury that harkens back to the genre’s 90s roots (so you know I’m stoked). All that plus three heavy-as-fuck local openers… gas up the Mustang, y’all. We’re going.

Thursday, November 29, 8 PM
Raven, Songe, Doomsday Lullaby @ Riffhouse Pub – $10
In a world where it seems musicians spend just as much time reinventing the wheel as they do building on the traditions of those that came before, it’s no surprise that some younger metal fans today don’t even remember the legends of the early 80s “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” scene. But that doesn’t make it any less vital, essential, and important to everything that followed. You might not know the name Raven as well as you do other legendary NWOBHM acts like Iron Maiden and Motorhead, but they’re every bit as good, and if you value the history of the music you love, you need to be paying attention.

Raven’s probably best known today for their mid-80s albums — 1983’s All For One featured a song called “Athletic Rock,” in which Raven named their own musical genre years before the “active rock” format was even a twinkle in a Clear Channel exec’s eye, while 1985’s Stay Hard produced their biggest hit, “On And On.” Three decades later, though, Raven’s founding Gallagher brothers, bassist John and guitarist Mark, are still going strong, and 2015’s ExtermiNation showed that they’ve still got the furious metal power they wielded at the height of their fame. So get a history lesson at Riffhouse Pub tomorrow night, and let Raven show you that metal was heavy as hell even before you were born.

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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

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

Marilyn Drew Necci | September 20, 2017

Topics: Bio Ritmo, Brainbuster, Bren Lukens, Candy Spots, Centerfolds, Champion RVA, Clair Morgan, Common Ground Fest, Daisyhead, Dazeases, Dryjacket, Eaves, El Malpais, Elisa Faires, gallery 5, Love Roses, Madeline Kenney, Majjin Boo, Matthew E. White, McCormack's, Meg Mulhearn, Minor Poet, Modern Baseball, Natalie Prass, Night Idea, Nine Line, Nominee, Paint Store, Polyphia, Rachel Lynch, Rikki Shay, rva live!, She's A Legend, shows you must see, Skumboyz, Sleave, Small Talks, Something More, strange matter, Telltale, The Broadberry, The Carpenter Theatre, The Donalds, tim barry, Vagabond, Womajich Dialysiez, Worse Curses

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]

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