Spooky Cool Archives

VA’s Can’t-See Shows This Week: March 18 – March 24

Marilyn Drew Necci | March 18, 2020

Topics: .gif From God, Andrew Alli & Josh Small, Antiphons, avail, Benjamin Shepherd, Bio Ritmo, black girls, Brewer's Cafe, Clair Morgan, Dave Watkins, Division Of Mind, Doll Baby, Dumb Waiter, Good Day RVA, Houdan The Mystic, Lamb Of God, Lobo Marino, McKinley Dixon and Friends, Navi, Nelly Kate, New Lions, Nickelus F, No BS! Brass Band, Ohbliv, Palm Palm, Rikki Shay, River City Roll, shows you must see, Spooky Cool, Sports Bar, The Broadberry, The Trillions, The Wimps, White Laces, Windhand, Wonderland

Hey there, folks, it’s that time of the week when we normally let you know all the best goings-on in the live music scene here in Richmond and around the state for the next week! As you may have realized, though, the current COVID-19 outbreak and the many social and legal restrictions placed on large gatherings have almost entirely shut down the live music scene here in Virginia. There may be a few things still going on, but we wouldn’t feel very responsible advocating for you to go see them. What’s a show-loving girl to do?

Well, for this week’s column, I decided to have compassion for those of you who have either joined me in the wonderful world of working at home (welcome to the club — isn’t it fun doing your job in your pajamas?) or, more unfortunately, found yourselves without any work while your place of business is temporarily shut down. I may not be able to send you to any clubs to see awesome bands light up your evening with their killer sounds… but I can offer you ten great performances by Richmond bands, all available for your viewing pleasure right here on the internet. You can space them out one (or two) per day as with the usual column, or binge them all tonight — the choice is yours! Crank the volume on your headphones for this one.

Lamb Of God at Hellfest Open Air, Clisson, France, June 23, 2019

We’ll start with what we all certainly hope is a preview of coming attractions — a full set by Lamb Of God, complete with multiple cameras and top-quality audio. Richmond’s veteran metal faves are planning as of now to release their latest LP, Lamb Of God, on May 8, and follow it up with a full US tour, featuring June dates at Jiffy Lube Live in NoVA and Veterans United Amphitheater in Virginia Beach. Will all that still happen in light of COVID-19? We can hope… and in the meantime, we can take comfort in this one-hour preview of what Lamb Of God’s latest lineup, now featuring former Prong drummer Art Cruz in place of retiring OG Chris Adler, has in store for us.

Division Of Mind at FYA Fest, Tampa, Florida, Jan 5, 2020

Taking things to a bit more of an underground level, here we have a room-destroying performance by Richmond hardcore ragers Division Of Mind, at Florida’s FYA Fest back at the beginning of this year. Guttural vocals, chugging guitars, brutal breakdowns, and an equally brutal mosh pit are what this video is all about. Better yet, despite the circumstances, it still features multiple camera angles and a great sound mix. Division Of Mind don’t have a social media presence (right on, I wish I didn’t), so I don’t know what’s up with them at this moment, but I’m sure they’d appreciate you grabbing a copy of their recent self-titled LP on Triple B Records if you haven’t already.

No BS! Brass Band at The Broadberry, April 17, 2014

Let’s take things in a more upbeat direction, shall we? This six-year-old live performance by No BS! Brass Band isn’t the most recent live footage online by this group, but there’s no substitute for seeing this Richmond favorite right here at home. And since at this moment, we have no way of knowing whether their gig planned for April 3 at The Broadberry is still going to happen or not, we may as well enjoy their music from home right now. Push the coffee table back and dance, y’all. And consider buying some merch from them, if you have the scratch — they will really appreciate the support. (Needless to say, that goes for all the bands on this list.)

Avail at House Of Independents, Asbury Park, New Jersey, September 5, 2019

Did you miss all the Avail reunion sets last year? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. And if you’re not planning to head to Punk Rock Bowling or Furnace Fest later this year, you might especially appreciate this audience recording of their set in Asbury Park last summer. This is one of the few videos I’ve picked that doesn’t have pro audio, so the sound isn’t perfect, but what is perfect is that evocation of what it felt like to be crammed up against the stage (always my favorite spot), singing along and avoiding the moshers… and the sweat flying off Beau Beau’s head. We can’t be there now, but it’s a lovely reminder.

Nickelus F and Ohbliv at Brewer’s Cafe, November 27, 2019

Want to chill with some fine hip hop? Check this Brewer’s Cafe session from last fall, featuring two of Richmond hip hop’s leading lights of the 21st century. Nickelus F is on the mic, spitting some of the best rhymes you’ll find anywhere in the world, while Ohbliv keeps the beats flowing on the decks. They’re behind the Brewer’s counter, and they aren’t serving up any hot drinks, but Brewer’s Cafe is still open for carryout and delivery today, and both Sweet Petey and Ohbliv have plenty of great tunes available over on Bandcamp for your listening pleasure (links above). They’d all appreciate your business during this trying time, I can assure you.

Palm Palm at River City Roll, September 1, 2019

If you know how awesome J. Roddy Walston & The Business were as a live act, you really need to catch Palm Palm, Walston’s new band with members of The Trillions, The Southern Belles, and the Milkstains. These folks had the misfortune of having their spring tour fall apart while they were on it earlier this month; they had to skip the last half of their dates and head home because all the other shows were cancelled. Fortunately for us, their set from last summer at River City Roll is online in its entirety, featuring high-quality audio and a very active single camera capturing the event from all kinds of angles. If you dig this, hit up Palm Palm online to support them by buying a t-shirt. After losing quite a few tour dates, they sure could use the help.

Windhand at Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY, November 2, 2018

Windhand is another Richmond band who had a tour fall apart on them this month; indeed, this very night, they were supposed to be in Harrisonburg playing The Golden Pony. Now that show, and the rest of their March tour dates, are cancelled, and the only place we can see them is on YouTube. Luckily for us, this incredible live performance was captured by Revolver Magazine in high-quality audio by multiple cameras back in 2018, and we can enjoy it to our heart’s content now. With their tour having been cancelled, Windhand have been selling leftover tour merch on their BigCartel page — go grab some records and t-shirts if you’ve got the scratch.

.gif From God at Wonderland, July 5, 2019

Here’s what will doubtless be the messiest live video you’ll see this week — .gif From God laying waste to Wonderland last summer, in their inimitable fashion. This video is washed out and chaotic, full of flying hair and overdriven guitar chugs, and if you don’t know these songs going in, you might at times struggle to make out what’s going on. But that’s what .gif From God are all about, and if you ask me, it’s part of their charm — a delightful wall of chaos. No word as yet on the status of .gif From God’s April tour, but if you don’t have a copy of their latest LP, approximation_of_a_human, now is absolutely the time to get one. And if you do, you should donate to their Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project fundraising team — a good cause is still a good cause, even during a quarantine.

Bio Ritmo at Rio Loco Festival, Toulouse, France, June 19, 2015

And now for something completely different — a high-energy salsa infusion from long-running local band/party machine Bio Ritmo. This was filmed several years ago and far from home, but don’t get it twisted — this impeccably-documented performance is still muy caliente and well worth your time. Bio Ritmo haven’t performed locally since back around Christmas and don’t have anything in particular coming up, so why not stock up on their impressive back catalog over at their Bandcamp? Guaranteed to heat up your living room even if your space heater’s broken.

Good Day RVA Live Sessions Playlist, feat. Benjamin Shepherd, McKinley Dixon and Friends, Sports Bar, Doll Baby, The Wimps, Spooky Cool, Antiphons, Dumb Waiter, Clair Morgan aka New Lions, Dave Watkins, Lobo Marino, Navi, The Trillions, Andrew Alli & Josh Small, White Laces, Nelly Kate, Houdan The Mystic, Black Girls aka Rikki Shay

Who’s up for a lightning round? Good Day RVA have got the mother of all live sessions for you here with a mega-playlist featuring all of the sessions they’ve filmed over their entire career, which has been going on for… damn near 10 years now. Wow, time flies, huh? These videos feature a who’s who of Richmond’s best musicians, captured at various evocative sites around Richmond and ensuring that the city itself is just as much of their videos as the excellent bands involved. Maybe you’ve missed some of these over the years and need a reminder, or maybe you saw them all when they came out and would just enjoy a playlist full of great Richmond sights and sounds with which to warm your heart while you’re stuck in the house. Either way, this will go down smooth and warm your heart and soul. Guaranteed.

Must-See Shows will be back next week. Whether we return with actual live shows around town, or more video picks to get us through another week of quarantine, only time will tell… but I’m not getting my hopes up. See you then!

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

Marilyn Drew Necci | March 4, 2020

Topics: Addy, Ages, Alfred, Another Round Bar & Grill, Ant The Symbol, Antichrist Siege Machine, Ben FM, Buzzard Dust, Castle OG, City Dogs, Community Witch, Danet Jackson, Dead Kennedys, Demons, DJ Elliot Ness, DOA, Dysphonia, events in richmond va, events near me this weekend, events richmond va, f1ng3rs, gallery 5, Gull, Human Agony, Jenny Scheinman, JJ Speaks, Lance Bangs, Leya, Magic Wand, Majjin Boo, Michale Graves, Mind Shrine, Mister Earthbound, music, must see shows, Predation, PT, Rah Scrilla, Reppa Ton, richmond events, richmond va, richmond va bands, Robbie Fulks, RVA, Shormey, shows this week richmond, shows you must see, Sneeze, Spooky Cool, Taphouse Grill, The Camel, The Firnats, The NorVa, The tin pan, things to do in richmond va, things to do richmond va, Triumvir Foul, VV, Wonderland, You're Jovian, Young Scum

FEATURED SHOW
Friday, March 6, 7 PM
RVA Game Jams presents Split/Screen: A Video Games Themed First Friday Art Show, feat. Buzzard Dust, Ages, Gull, Mister Earthbound, Danet Jackson, F1NG3RS @ Gallery 5 – Free!
Sometimes, you guys, the world is just a major letdown. At those times it can be easy to get overwhelmed and feel like taking to your bed, pulling the covers over your head, and not coming out for six months. But take heart — there are still things worth being awake and in the world for. One of those is happening this Friday night, as RVA Game Jams partners up with Gallery 5 to bring us a First Friday art opening with a bit of a twist — it’s entirely focused on video games.

This event is a celebration of indie games in the Richmond area, and will feature playable demos of half a dozen games by local creators, including memorably named examples like Not Safe For Bugs and Deer In The Headlights. You’ll get a chance to check out art and artifacts from the creative process of video game development, as well as the opportunity to play these games yourself. And you’ll get to hear some really great tunes from local musicians while you’re at it!

Between rounds of the playable demos, you’ll enjoy sounds from Buzzard Dust, the fiery blackened thrash group who last released an LP on Richmond’s own Forcefield Records back in 2017. Word has it they’ve got a grip of new material to lay on us, though, so get stoked for that. Plus there’ll be a performance from Ages, the latest project from former Magnus Lush leader Age Shurte and talented members of other rad local groups like Weird Tears and Dumb Waiter. And we’ve still only scratched the surface, as several other area performers, from the almighty Gull to the psych-stoner jams of Mister Earthbound, as well as the video-game inspired electronica of F1NG3RS, are all on tap for the night as well. Let the often-solitary pursuit of video games be an opportunity for connecting with the world, and head over to Gallery 5 this Friday night. It’s better than hiding in bed — I promise.

Wednesday, March 4, 7 PM
Mind Shrine, Majjin Boo, Alfred., Castle OG, Shormey @ The Camel – $8 (order tickets HERE)
Mind Shrine may be from Texas, but things will be getting downright tropical, at least in a musical sense, at The Camel tonight when this catchy quartet brings their remarkable sound to town. On their recent self-titled EP, Houston’s Mind Shrine create a warmly glowing pop sound with roots in both smooth 70s AM radio sounds and the music of Brazilian leading lights like Caetono Veloso and Os Mutantes, but fed through an undeniable 21st century indie filter, resulting in pure indie-pop gold. You’re going to want to dive into the warm, sunny sounds this band produces, and the Camel’s giving you the perfect opportunity tonight.

The evening will also present a set from Majjin Boo, who released my favorite Richmond music of 2019 and still have a very secure place in my heart two months into the new year. If you’re not on their wavelength yet, now’s the time. You’ll also have the chance to catch excellent musicians Alfred and Shormey just before they leave town together on a pre-SXSW tour that will culminate with them performing at that legendary Austin, Texas music fest later this month. And of course, Castle OG will round out the bill with some rad local indie sounds. You’re not going to want to miss a minute of this one — so make sure you don’t.

Thursday, March 5, 9 PM
Triumvir Foul, Human Agony, Antichrist Siege Machine, Predation @ Wonderland – $10
That place on the spectrum of musical genre where death metal meets filthy lo-fi noise is a fascinating one for me personally, as it reflects a lot of the turmoil I find myself dealing with on a daily basis. If you, like me, are someone who has your fair share of mental struggles, you might find yourself connecting with Triumvir Foul, the Portland-based death-black-thrash group whose 2019 EP, Urine Of Abomination, covers old-school Autopsy-style death brutality with a rumbling haze of foreboding terror. In other words, it’s fucking awesome. And you’re going to want to see how it translates live.

Meanwhile, Triumvir Foul’s Invictus Productions labelmates, Human Agony, hail from across the northern border in Vancouver and bring a more grinding speed-metal assault on their most recent LP, Putrescence of Calvary, with just as much of the ominous lo-fi grit as Triumvir Foul has to offer. These two groups should make a great team — and locals Antichrist Siege Machine are the perfect complement, bringing the sort of unrelenting death metal rage they displayed on 2019’s Schism Perpetration to the Wonderland stage this Thursday night. They’ll be accompanied by mysterious noise project Predation, who I hear has something to do with Division Of Mind, but that’s all I can tell you. Assuage your inner turmoil with some outer turmoil at this show. You’ll thank me later.

Friday, March 6, 10 PM
Ant The Symbol’s City Dawgz Takeover, feat. Sneeze, Reppa Ton, Rah Scrilla, Ben FM, PT, DJ Elliot Ness @ City Dogs – Free!
Ant The Symbol’s always up to some interesting things, and in 2020, that definitely has not changed. 2019 saw the veteran RVA hip hop producer release The What?!, a dozen tracks featuring a who’s who of the city’s best MCs dropping rhymes overtop of Ant’s always-killer productions. Now in 2020, he’s surprised us all with a follow-up, Holyfield, featuring new versions of all of the songs from The What?! along with a few entirely new tracks. From my initial lessons, I’d guess he took the vocal tracks from The What?! and laid them over new productions; and since Ant’s productions are always the stars of the show, that makes it damn close to an entirely new album only a few months removed from the last one. That’s something worth throwing a party for.

So that’s what Ant The Symbol will be doing this Friday night at City Dogs, as he enlivens this hot dog shop with a variety of leading MCs from around the city, almost all of whom (with the exception of Sneeze) appear on Holyfield, The What?!, or both. DJ Elliot Ness is providing the music, and rappers who should need no introduction to Richmond hip hop heads, such as Reppa Ton, Rah Scrilla, Ben FM, and PT will contribute the rhymes. This leaves Ant The Symbol to hawk copies of the new Holyfield CD, contribute the tracks that Elliot Ness spins, and hang out with his many talented friends. Come chill with Ant The Symbol this Friday night, hear some great rhymes and dope beats, grab a copy of the new CD, and have a couple chili dogs while you’re at it. You won’t regret it.

Saturday, March 7, 8 PM
Addy, Spooky Cool, Young Scum, Castle OG @ Gallery 5 – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It still feels to me like Addy are a relatively new band on the Richmond scene. Therefore it’s kind of wild to note that they are just about to release their first LP on emo heavy-hitters Topshelf Records — but I’m definitely happy for them, and to see them representing Richmond so well. At Gallery 5 this Saturday night, they’ll be celebrating their debut full-length, Eclipse, which finds the group, originally a minimalist solo project of leader Adam Watkins, moving toward more of a group identity as their current four-piece lineup becomes the focus of their recorded sound.

On Eclipse‘s early singles, we hear Addy embracing a warm, laid-back version of the indie sound, one that definitely pulls in a little Southern flavor to spice things up country-style. There’s an undeniable charm to this band’s aural presence, and that’s sure to translate with ease to the live environment created at Gallery 5 Saturday night. Addy will be accompanied on this joyful musical evening by a few other great Richmond indie groups, including Young Scum, Spooky Cool, and Castle OG, but their new LP is what the evening is all about, so bring a few extra bucks to pick up a copy for yourself, and enjoy a pleasant evening enveloped by the wonderful sounds of Richmond, Virginia.

Sunday, March 8, 7 PM
Lance Bangs, The Firnats, You’re Jovian, Magic Wand @ The Camel – $8 (order tickets HERE)
The Citrus City Sunday residency at the Camel is such a boon to Richmond music, I swear — every time it rolls around, we get a wonderful mix of mainstays from one of Richmond’s leading indie labels and new sounds you might not expect but are always a pleasant surprise. This time around, we’re getting a little more of the known quantities than the unknown delights, but it’s very hard to complain when the known quantity at the top of the bill is Lance Bangs, the slacker-rock trio who’ve slipped into a quieter presence on the Richmond scene recently but still have a ton of excellent tunes to brighten your Sunday evening with. If it’s been a while since you’ve caught these guys live, remember what it was you dug about them so much to begin with this Sunday night at the Camel.

And make sure you show up on time for the other musical delights Citrus City has to offer this evening — rest assured, they are plentiful. The Firnats, who are currently working towards the release of a new album sometime this year, have been described to me as 50s doo-wop and 90s grunge, and as crazy as that sounds, it’s pretty much dead-on — and a very enjoyable listen that will appeal to the indie kids and Future Islands fans out there. You’re Jovian’s Norfolk-based shoegaze sound has been an underrated fave of mine for years, and I’m glad to see them making it up to Richmond more lately. If you don’t know the deal, find out on Sunday — you won’t be sorry. Melodic punk-grunge newbies Magic Wand will kick this evening off with a shot of much-needed energy. Come out to this one — it’ll be a blast.

Monday, March 9, 7:30 PM
Michale Graves, JJ Speaks @ Another Round Bar & Grill – $10 in advance/$15 at the door (order tickets HERE)
How you feel about this event is sure to depend to some extent on what the 90s were like for you. Back then, Glenn Danzig’s original punk band, The Misfits, had a revival in which brothers Jerry Only (bass) and Doyle (guitar) revived the long-dormant project with a new vocalist and some new material. Michale Graves was that new vocalist, and while people who’d grown up with the original Danzig-fronted Misfits were often dismissive of late-90s Graves-fronted releases like American Psycho, those records accumulated a strong following amongst the younger set — many of whom, thirtysomethings today — no doubt hold warm memories of Michale Graves-era Misfits in their hearts.

For those kids — and really, for any of us willing to give an aging punk rocker’s solo project a chance — this acoustic evening with Michale Graves at Another Round should be a treat. His acoustic performances find him bringing new power both to late-90s Misfits songs he wrote and material from his many solo albums since he left that group, all by himself with just an acoustic guitar and his strong, powerful voice. If you have a soft spot for “Dig Up Her Bones” or “Die Monster Die,” you’ll hear them in a whole new way this Monday night at Another Round. You won’t want to miss that.

Tuesday, March 10, 8 PM
Robbie Fulks, Jenny Scheinman @ The Tin Pan – $20 (order tickets HERE)
Based solely on talent, Robbie Fulks should be an outright legend in the country world. However, he’s never completely gotten his due in Nashville circles, partly because he has never been willing to play along with the way the country music industry works. For evidence of that fact, look no further than his classic tune about Music City, the memorably titled “Fuck This Town.” Thankfully, his cult following his given him a viable career over the last few decades, and he’s been able to follow his muse in a variety of fruitful directions.

Fulks’ latest move is one that shows why you should expect the unexpected from this talented songwriter — last year, he self-released a vinyl-only double LP called 16, which is a track-for-track reinterpretation of the long-maligned late-70s Bob Dylan album, Street Legal. That might sound like a recipe for disaster, but Fulks and his band find gold amid the critically-reviled nadir of Dylan’s career. They’ll surely demonstrate this with their Tuesday night show at the Tin Pan; whether Fulks does a whole bunch of Dylan tunes or sticks to his own delightful catalog, this is a musical evening that’s sure to delight all comers.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, March 6, 9 PM
VV, Community Witch, Dysphonia, LEYA @ Taphouse Grill (Norfolk) – $5
Whether you’re a Richmond reader facing the prospect of an hour-plus drive to catch this show by a local favorite or a Tidewater denizen wondering what this RVA band has to offer, I can’t help but encourage you all to make your way to the Taphouse Grill this Friday night to catch VV. This Richmond postpunk foursome brings a harsh undercurrent of horror to their rumbling, dissonant sound on III, the EP they released in January that constitutes their first new material in over two years. If you didn’t catch up with VV a couple years ago when they first arrived on the scene, you should definitely get familiar with what they do now that they’re back in action. This group definitely brings the noise.

They’ll be performing with three homegrown Tidewater musical projects, all of whom bring the outsider punk vibes in plentiful amounts. Community Witch have a charming yet spooky lo-fi rumble to their jangle-punk sound. Dysphonia are hard to find evidence of online, but appear to have a bit more of a jangly indie vibe, one with a bit more melody than the other two groups we’ve discussed so far. And LEYA are just downright odd, but in a riveting manner. So this one is sure to both surprise and enlighten you. Expect the unexpected.

Tuesday, March 10, 7:30 PM
Dead Kennedys, DOA, Demons @ The NorVA (Norfolk) – $22.50 in advance/$27.50 at the door (order tickets HERE)
To all the aging punks out there, I’m sure it seems just as weird to you as it does to me that the Dead Kennedys have been around for longer without frontman, chief songwriter, and punk godfather Jello Biafra on vocals than they ever were with Biafra. But of course, in their post-Biafra incarnation, they’re pretty much a nostalgia act, mainly performing classics from the band’s original early-80s era, and releasing nothing more than a live album or two since they regrouped in the early 00s.

So why go see them? Well, because you certainly won’t ever see them with Biafra on vocals again, and this is the next best thing. Because they’re only gonna play old stuff you already know and love. Because if you can enjoy a DK’s tribute act at a Halloween covers show, you can certainly enjoy one featuring most of the original band. And because Canadian punk legends DOA and Hampton Roads hardcore group Demons are both on the bill as well. The cumulative whole of what this show has to offer is worth appreciating, even if it doesn’t feature Jello Biafra behind the microphone. So enjoy it, and don’t worry too much about the provenance.

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

Top Photo by Carl Raw on Unsplash

VA Shows You Must See This Week: January 22 – January 28

Marilyn Drew Necci | January 22, 2020

Topics: Alison Blue, Amir Driver, Athame, BASIC, black liquid, Blackalicious, Brand of Sacrifice, Bravo, Castle OG, Chance Fischer, Dark Thoughts, Deau Eyes, DJ Almighty, Easalio, Eastcoast Mikey, Fat Spirit, Fuzzy Cactus, Garden Grove Brewing, Grayling Skyy, Habeeb, Henny LO, Hip Hop Henry, Hollywood Cemetery, Illien Rosewell, Inferi, Kai Orion, Kate Bollinger, Kill The Druid, Majjin Boo, Melodic, No-Heads, Poor Boys, Pourhouse of Norfolk, Prsmcat, RVA Rap Elite, Sensual World, Seraph, Serpentshrine, Shadow Of Intent, She, shows you must see, Signs Of The Swarm, Sleepwalkers, Spooky Cool, Talk Me Off, The Adicts, The Broadberry, The Canal Club, The Dark Room, The Southern Cafe, Tone Redd, Tr3demark, Ugly Muscle, Vintage A, Waasi, Will Jung, Xeukatre, You're Jovian, Yung Sums

FEATURED SHOW
Prsmcat Birthday Bash Minifest
Friday, January 24, 8 PM
Spooky Cool (Photo by Joey Wharton), Deau Eyes, Kate Bollinger, SHE
Saturday, January 25, 8 PM
Sleepwalkers, Majjin Boo, Castle OG, Hollywood Cemetery
@Poor Boys – $12 in advance/$15 at door/$20 two-day pass (order tickets HERE)
It’s my birthday today; I am 44 years old, which means I’d only be considered “young” if I was running for President. But Prsmcat Presents is definitely younger — the up-and-coming RVA show booking concern is less than a year old at this point. Therefore, the Prsmcat Birthday Bash Minifest happening this weekend at Poor Boys is not actually a celebration for the booking group’s birthday but that of Prsmcat leader and Majjin Boo guitarist Zavi Yueske, who is… (checks notes) 16 years younger than me. Wow.

Let me stop worrying about how old I’m getting and move on by saying: Happy birthday, Zavi! His birthday gift is for the entire city’s music scene, as he’ll celebrate with this two-night, eight-band extravaganza of talented musicians from around Richmond and the central Virginia region. On Friday night, we get the double-dose of Richmond indie melodicism that is Spooky Cool and Deau Eyes. Both of these groups have exercised a “less-is-more” philosophy where recordings are concerned, which means you’ll surely hear some unrecorded tunes during both sets, and that’s a lovely thing from two world-class talents like these. Friday night will also feature Charlottesville singer-songwriter Kate Bollinger, whose laid-back, tuneful approach should pair well with the others on the bill.

Then Saturday night, Zavi gets to strut his stuff with Majjin Boo — who, in case I haven’t made it clear in this column before now, released the Richmond records I loved the most last year, the “Tension Rod”/”One Wing” single and Egghunt Records full-length Go Between. These guys are essential listening and will surely remain so going forward in 2020. They share Saturday night’s bill with fellow Richmond mainstays Sleepwalkers, who you should all know and love by now, as well as smooth-sounding indie mainstays Castle OG and difficult-to-google newcomers Hollywood Cemetery. Celebrate the wonderfulness Zavi Yueske brings into the world while enjoying that very wonderfulness all weekend at Poor Boys!

Wednesday, January 22, 7 PM
The Adicts, No-Heads, Talk Me Off @ The Broadberry – $25 (order tickets HERE)
If you’ve paid attention to UK punk anytime in the last four decades, you’re sure to have heard of the Adicts. This catchy melodic punk band styled themselves after the droogs of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, and have been cutting a memorable figure in the world of punk since they broke out with 1981 debut LP Songs Of Praise. Their singalong choruses are infectious enough that they’ve had chart hits in the UK with tunes like “Viva La Revolution” and “Bad Boy” — songs you’re sure to remember if you’ve heard them even once.

The Adicts’ heyday was in the 80s, but they’ve never really stopped recording and touring; they’ll be coming through RVA in support of their 11th album, And It Was So!, released by Nuclear Blast in 2017. The group’s core members have stayed the same throughout the past four decades, and their entertaining costumed live performances are still a fun, active spectacle. If you’ve never caught the Adicts live before, this is the perfect time to do it, and wear your best Malcolm McDowell eye makeup while you’re at it.

Thursday, January 23, 8 PM
Kai Orion, Kill The Druid @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
Every musician is creative, but it’s rare to find a musician out there who dismantles every assumption about musical orthodoxy with each new song they create. However, that is exactly how Kai Orion creates. The DC-based songwriter plays over a dozen instruments on his latest album, Start To End, some of which can only be described as “instruments” (vacuum cleaner, lawnmower, wine glasses, etc). He often works by himself, creating thickly layered compositions through use of a microphone, a loop creator, and a menagerie of voices, instruments, and random objects he has at hand.

The result is a collection of catchy and enjoyable tunes on his records, and a fascinating spectacle to behold in a live environment. At Garden Grove Brewing this Thursday night, you’re sure to see Orion create songs out of all sorts of random sounds, and you’re sure to be impressed how beautiful the end result is — especially with his Peter Gabriel-ish vocal chords unleashed overtop. Richmond post-rockers Kill The Druid will open this one up with an instrument-switching set that’s sure to both set the stage for Orion and remain much closer to a conventional rock show. The whole evening is sure to be a blast.

Friday, January 24, 9 PM
Fat Spirit, You’re Jovian, Alison Blue @ Fuzzy Cactus – $5
Fat Spirit have settled into a solid role as utility players in the Richmond alt-rock scene. They haven’t released any new material since 2017’s Nihilist Blues, but they continue bringing their raucous, exuberant performances to local venues on a regular basis, keeping the spirit of the slacker-rock 90s alive and evoking the spirits of Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. with their loud, guitar-driven tunes. You know what you’re getting with Fat Spirit these days, but that’s certainly not a strike against a band who always delivers a rockin’ good time.

They’re joined on this occasion by Hampton Roads residents You’re Jovian, who have a solid dose of the 90s embedded in their sound as well. On 2019’s Singles, this group shows themselves as occupying a similar territory to that of Fat Spirit, though Elliott Malvas’s more ethereal vocals definitely push the needle away from grunge and toward shoegaze — in the original Ride/Swervedriver/JAMC sense, rather than the MBV-plus-postrock context its taken on in the past decade. Putting these two groups together on a single bill makes for a great evening, especially if you’re the sort of guitar lover who can’t get enough of that sweet, sweet fuzz. Youthful VA Beach shoegazing fuzz-lovers Alison Blue will kick the whole thing off with a further dose of what you’ve been looking for, so don’t miss a minute of this one.

Saturday, January 25, 9 PM
DJ Williams’ Shots Fired @ Fuzzy Cactus – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Saturday night, and it’s right back to Fuzzy Cactus, this time for a homecoming show by one of Richmond’s favorite sons, DJ Williams. Around town, he’s known for his time fronting the DJ Williams Projekt, but this talented, blues-inclined guitarist has achieved more widespread fame beyond these shores in recent years with his work in Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. He’s also put together an all-star cast of sidemen for a new group called DJ Williams’ Shots Fired, who released a mostly-live LP called Live From Over Where back in 2018.

The funky, bluesy, Southern-tinged rock n’ roll that group shows off on their debut LP is exactly what they’ll bring to Brookland Park Boulevard when they show up at Fuzzy Cactus this Saturday night. I can’t tell you for sure who will be firing the shots behind Williams during this performance, but the group has included Williams’ fellow Tiny Universe members, as well as musicians from Dave Matthews Band, Slightly Stoopid, and Lenny Kravitz and Dr. John’s respective backing bands. Rest assured, no matter who DJ Williams brings with him on this jaunt, they’ll be talents equal to the kind of firepower he lays down. And as anyone who’s been paying attention around here for a while knows, that’s some serious six-string pyrotechnics.

Sunday, January 26, 6 PM
RVA Rap Elite Season 3 Premiere, feat. BASIC, Easalio, Tr3demark, Bravo vs. Chance Fischer, Team 804 Cypher (Vintage A, Henny LO, Habeeb, Tone Redd, Yung Sums) vs. Team 757 Cypher (BASIC, Will Jung, Amir Driver, Illien Rosewell, Eastcoast Mikey), Music by Hip Hop Henry & Melodic, plus Open Cypher @ The Dark Room – $10
Hip hop shows take research, y’all. For one thing, there are always a ton of people on the show (indeed, the Open Cypher on this bill will feature another 20-plus rappers I decided not to even attempt to list). For another, there are never any website links listed for any of them. And sometimes, you have to do some digging just to even get a list of who’s on the show. But I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining; the fact is, it’s all worth it when you encounter a show like this, full of a murderer’s row of talented MCs battling it out for lyrical supremacy.

There’s been a renaissance of battle rap on the Richmond scene over the past year or two, and RVA Rap Elite has been right at the heart of it, so it’s no surprise to see what a stacked lineup they’re bringing for the premiere edition of their third season. Personally, I’m most excited for the throwdown between world-class lyricists Chance Fischer and Bravo, but the Team 804 vs. Team 757 cypher battle promises some serious fireworks as well. And really, the overall atmosphere is the best part of all this; when RVA Rap Elite is happening, everyone wants to bring their A game, and the results are sure to delight any true hip hop head. So end your weekend at the place The Cheats Movement says is “making its claim to be the [hip hop] venue of choice” — The Dark Room at the Hofheimer.

Monday, January 27, 9 PM
Dark Thoughts, Sensual World, Ugly Muscle @ Fuzzy Cactus – $8
Dark Thoughts is the sort of band name that might lead you to expect a sound resembling that of Christian Death, or TSOL — punk, but a decidedly gothic take on punk. However, as the band’s fans well know, Philadelphia’s Dark Thoughts are made of much catchier stuff than those classic LA death-rockers. Their new LP, Must Be Nice, came out last month on Stupid Bag Records and is loaded with tracks that split the difference between snotty Dead Boys-style rockers and the Ramones at their most clumsily lovelorn.

Dark Thoughts play classic punk for classic punks, and since it’s the middle of a freezing January here in Richmond, you officially have no excuse for not breaking out your leather jacket for this shindig. You’ll get a bonus as well, in the form of two great local punk bands filling out this bill with their own excellent sounds. Sensual World brings a sort of forlorn jangle to their downbeat rumble, almost Gun Club-ish in execution; Ugly Muscle strip down their sound into a pounding, minimalist attack fueled by atonal synths and screaming. The whole thing is sure to delight any among you who appreciate the articulate aggression that punk rock is all about.

Tuesday, January 28, 6 PM
Shadow Of Intent, Signs Of The Swarm, Inferi, Brand of Sacrifice, Seraph @ The Canal Club – $15 (order tickets HERE)
It’s been 50 years since Black Sabbath’s debut album acted as the starting gun for the metal genre. Bands have progressed in all sorts of far-flung directions from that initial ground zero in the intervening half-century, and it’s difficult to find any band still playing a pure form of metal that would have been recognizable to Ozzy Osbourne in 1970. Nonetheless, there are a lot of outstanding musicians at work in the genre, producing milestones that may very well appear equally seminal once they’re 50 years in the rearview.

Shadow Of Intent’s 2019 LP Melancholy may or may not be one of those (though MetalSucks certainly likes it), but no matter how you slice it, the New England quartet definitely gave us a memorable slab of truly redoubtable heaviness when they released their third album last year. It’s both the deepest, darkest death metal and a particularly impressive display of musical omnivorousness, integrating orchestral melodies and gothic lyrical themes into their always-brutal sound in a manner that allows room to breathe while still pummelling listeners with a wonderfully aggressive efficiency. Seeing all of this brought to life on the Canal Club stage is sure to inspire a veritable forest of banging heads. Join the raging sea this Tuesday night, and celebrate the ongoing bounty that is the music of metal.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Thursday, January 23, 6:30 PM
Blackalicious, Black Liquid, Waasi, Grayling Skyy, DJ Almighty @ The Southern Cafe (Charlottesville) – $25 (order tickets HERE)
Hip hop has always been a genre that focuses on skills, but there are some hip hop artists that stand out even in a crowded sea of fantastic MCs and DJs. Blackalicious, the duo consisting of rapper Gift Of Gab and producer Chief Xcel, is one of those, and has been for the past two decades. They haven’t exactly been prolific in that time; they’ve only released three LPs since 1999 debut Nia. However, regardless of how long they take to bring out new material, it’s impossible to deny that Blackalicious continues to make some of the most challenging, intricate, and talent-loaded music in the hip hop world.

The current Blackalicious tour is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nia‘s release, so you can certainly expect a set list that leans heavily on that initial statement of purpose. Nia dropped right in the midst of the bling area and showed an entirely different worldview in the way Chief Xcel’s beats created mellow, soulful landscapes for Gift Of Gab’s witty lyrics about life and love. Blackalicious has remained on their own wavelength ever since, and if you’ve kept up with their less-than-prolific release schedule, you know that anything they want to bring us is more than worth the wait. That said, who knows when they might be back to VA after this? Get to their gig at The Southern this weekend while the getting’s good.

Saturday, January 25, 7 PM
Black Mass//Un-Baptism, feat. Xeukatre, Serpentshrine, Athame @ Pourhouse of Norfolk – Free!
Black metal is a notoriously intense genre, and while keeping it real did go wrong for a while in the mid-90s when the scene’s leading lights were killing each other and destroying thousand-year-old architecture, you have to admire the people who make this music’s commitment to the evocation of evil. That’s why I can’t help but be impressed to see three black metal bands from the MD/VA area teaming up with Satanic Norfolk this Saturday night for an honest-to-Lucifer black mass at Pourhouse of Norfolk.

Norfolk’s Serpentshrine, who occupy the middle slot on this bill, are musical advocates for Satan themselves, and the trio cranks out some old-style gritty riffage on latest EP Occultum Exordium. You Bathory fans out there will get a big kick out of these guys. Meanwhile, Baltimore’s Xeukatre kick out some guttural lo-fi roars and classic tremolo-picked riffs on their split with Hagerstown’s Athame, who round out both that split and this triple bill with the fastest and filthiest take on black metal of these three bands, Transilvanian Hunger-style. But of course the big event is the black mass; how intense is that gonna be? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to show up. Bring your own blood.

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: October 2 – October 8

Marilyn Drew Necci | October 2, 2019

Topics: Acid King, Alice Clair, Blush Face, Capital Ale House Music Hall, Diavol Strain, Dumb Waiter, Erin McKeown, Ethanol, Exotica, Fallout, FM Skyline, gallery 5, Ghouli, Gull, Gumming, Haircut, Hardywood, Hotline TNT, Houdan The Mystic, Imelda Marcos, Jono Stewart, just friends, Ladada, Malimpliki, Mister Earthbound, Mojo's, Mudhoney, Operator Music Band, Pissed Jeans, SameStory, Save Face, shows you must see, Snake Mountain Revival, Spooky Cool, The Broadberry, The Bunker Brewpub, The Canal Club, The Sonder Bombs, The Southern Cafe, Thin Pigeon, Warish, Wizard Rifle

FEATURED SHOW
Monday, October 7, 7 PM
Mudhoney (Photo by Charles Peterson), Pissed Jeans, Gumming @ The Broadberry – $25 (order tickets HERE)
Our city is lucky this week, for we are being graced by the presence of grunge royalty. But if you listen to the typical 2019 discussion around the Seattle scene of the early 90s, you might not even know it. For some unfathomable reason, Mudhoney are often left out of the conversation — the most egregious recent example I can think of being after Chris Cornell passed away, when people kept saying “Eddie Vedder is the only singer from the grunge era left.” If I had a nickel for every time I had to tell someone “Mark Arm is still alive and well and touring with Mudhoney” during that whole cultural conversation, I could have cleaned up at dollar taco night.

So let’s set the record straight right now: Mudhoney are one of the primary progenitors of the Seattle sound of the early 90s. Frontman Mark Arm and lead guitarist Steve Turner had previously been in Green River, the other half of which went on to form Pearl Jam, and they got Mudhoney rolling in 1988 with the classic garage-grunge single “Touch Me I’m Sick.” When peers like Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam were signing to major labels and going big, Mudhoney were the last ones to stay faithful to Sub Pop Records, the label that kickstarted it all. And when they finally made the leap to Reprise in 1993, they never quite got the high profile that those other bands attained. If anything, it was because Mudhoney’s sound was too high-octane for the mainstream, a potent mix of garage-punk freakout and noise-blues howl.

But what Mudhoney lost in commercial popularity at the peak of grunge, they’ve more than made up over the years with sheer staying power. Having returned to Sub Pop for 2002 LP Since We’ve Become Translucent, they’ve cranked out four more raging slabs of classic Mudhoney gnarl, and just last week released an absolute burner of a seven-song EP entitled Morning In America. Over 30 years after their formation, they’re showing no signs of slowing down, and Richmond is highly privileged to have the Mudhoney train stop through at the Broadberry this Friday night to rock us in their time-honored fashion. The fact that Pennsylvania sludge-monster maniacs Pissed Jeans and local noise-punk heroes Gumming are also on the bill is a nice bonus treat, but really, it’s all about Mudhoney. Come out to the Broadberry Monday night and get muddy.

Wednesday, October 2, 7 PM
Acid King, Wizard Rifle, Warish @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $18 in advance/$20 day of show (Order tickets HERE)
Back in the heady days of the mid-90s, if you wanted to be at the forefront of the still-building wave that was the stoner/doom metal scene, you had to be aware of Man’s Ruin Records. The label of legendary Bay Area poster artist Frank Kozik, it’s best remembered today for some of the earliest releases by Queens Of The Stone Age. But that most accessible of stoner groove bands is only the tip of the iceberg. People who knew what was up also picked up on classic releases — many in the 10-inch vinyl format — by bands like Electric Wizard, Orange Goblin, Iron Monkey, and Richmond’s own Alabama Thunderpussy (whose debut LP was a Man’s Ruin release).

Acid King were one of those treasures discovered by Man’s Ruin fans back in the 90s, and unlike Man’s Ruin itself, which folded in the early 00s, Acid King are still going strong over 20 years later. Their current tour is in celebration of their second LP, Busse Woods, released two decades ago and full of the witchy psychedelic doom metal that is Acid King’s stock in trade. Pairing frontwoman Lori S.’s ethereal vocals with absolutely punishing sludge riffs, Acid King created a template that was undoubtedly inspirational for bands like Windhand, and are still dishing it out at peak efficiency after all these years. Come to this one prepared for some slow-motion headbangs — Acid King will not let you down.

Thursday, October 3, 7 PM
Operator Music Band, FM Skyline, Houdan The Mystic, Ethanol @ Gallery 5 – $10
If you enjoy doing shuffle-footed dances to bouncy retro electro-pop, this show is certainly one that will please you. Operator Music Band have a strange name and even stranger haircuts, which are sure to make you wonder how seriously you’re supposed to take them (OK, it makes ME wonder that). However, one listen to their brand new LP Duo Duo is enough to demonstrate that this band is no joke.

Mixing some excellent beat-driven space age bachelor pad vibes in with catchy upbeat tunes that feature the slightest edge of postpunk darkness, mostly covered in dayglo, gives Operator Music Band a certain Stereolab resemblance. But Stereolab never got you dancing quite like this band does, and all of the strange and wonderful trappings ultimately act in service to the hypnotic motorik beat. Wear your dancing shoes for this one — they’re gonna get a workout.

Friday, October 4, 9 PM
Diavol Strain, Thin Pigeon, SameStory @ Fallout – $10
October is only just getting started, but things are always spooky down at Fallout, Shockoe Bottom’s legendary members-only goth fetish club, so I suppose the fact that we still have weeks left before Halloween isn’t really a factor in how dark and occult things get down there on any given weekend. Case in point: this show, featuring Chilean postpunk/darkwave duo Diavol Strain. This non-binary/feminist band brings exactly the sort of terror to Fallout that bands like Siouxsie And the Banshees were bringing to the UK in the early 80s, only with a much stronger political consciousness that’s sure to appeal to the feminist punks who favor heavy eyeliner and black nail polish.

Coming to us all the way from South America, this group’s unique take on the moody synth atmospheres, spectral bass guitar melodies, foreboding vocals, and pounding programmed drums of darkwave stands out as particularly skilled on their 2018 LP, Todo el Caos Habita Aqui (“all the chaos lives here”). The fact that they’re taking the gloom-enshrouded stage at Fallout on a rare weekend night open to non-members makes this a particular treat for all the goth babes out there, non-binary and otherwise. Float on down to Shockoe Bottom Friday night and let’s get spooky. Every day is Halloween.

Saturday, October 5, 6 PM
Blush Face, Gull, Spooky Cool @ Hardywood – Free!
It’s been a couple of years since power-pop/indie-rock combo Blush Face wowed the river city with their debut full-length, What Do You Want?, but they’ve hardly been lazy in the intervening months. If you need proof of that, look no further than the fact that this free Saturday night show at Hardywood is their 100th! Our sincere congratulations to Blush Face, from whom we look forward to many more.

As we reported in the Studio News column in RVA Mag #37, we can expect some new material from Blush Face soon as well — they’ve recently been in the studio with Mitch Clem (Fight Cloud) and Tim Falen (Piranha Rama), crafting a full-length follow-up to What Do You Want? that singer-guitarist-chief songwriter Allie Smith promises should feature not only a new dose of their catchy songs but even some string-section augmentation! Get a preview of all that, as well as a dose of the songs we all know and love, from Blush Face this Saturday night — for the hundredth time! Still not enough for us, by any means. Gull and Spooky Cool will be along for this excellent musical free ride. Don’t be left at the station.

Sunday, October 6, 8 PM
Exotica, Malimpliki, Haircut, Ghouli @ Mojo’s – $8-10 donation
“Exotica” is a musical term that was thrown around a lot in the mid-20th century, but if you show up to Mojo’s this Sunday night expecting some of Martin Denny’s ersatz tropicalia, you’re going to be in for a big surprise. The Exotica that’s coming to Mojo’s is a raging bilingual punk band from New York, whose three releases thus far have all been volumes in their ongoing series of wild, frenetic assaults known as Musique Exotique.

While they definitely hew closely to the sort of old-school punk assault you’d expect from bands using the sort of severe black and white cover art Exotica favor, the spirit of their name does come through in the undeniably chaotic undertones of their songs, which often feature unusual instruments working seemingly at cross purposes to the roaring noise overtop. It all comes together in fine fashion, though, and hits all the harder because of that. Exotica comes to us in the company of Malimpliki, a more stripped-down hardcore punk band hailing from Japan and singing in Esperanto, if online reports are to be believed — it all just sounds like furious screaming to me. Local ragers Haircut and Ghouli are on board to make this one even more wild and wooly. This show’s gonna bowl you over with fury from beginning to end, and you’re going to enjoy it. That’s an order.

Monday, October 7, 6:30 PM
Just Friends, Save Face, The Sonder Bombs, Hotline TNT @ The Canal Club – $13 (order tickets HERE)
Oh shit, y’all — ska-punk is officially back. If you go by what Cali 10-piece (I like to use the number words, but past “octet” I’m kinda lost. Is a 10-piece a “dectet”? That sounds vaguely dirty) Just Friends will tell you, though, they’re funk punk, but anyone else who survived the early-90s post-Nirvana alt-rock explosion knows that “funk-punk” is what you call the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone. What I hear when I check out Just Friends singles like “Supersonic” and “Stupid” is straight-up ska-punk, and not even the speedy and politically-informed sounds of Operation Ivy or even the early Mighty Mighty Bosstones. No, to understand Just Friends, you’ll need to think more along the lines of Voodoo Glow Skulls and Save Ferris mixed with goofy pop like Len’s “If You Steal My Sunshine” or even the outright joke-band sound of Bloodhound Gang.

None of which is to say that this stuff doesn’t rule; we all need a chance to turn off our brains and just dance like idiots every now and then, and this Monday night at the Canal Club, Pure Noise recording artists Just Friends will be providing exactly that kind of opportunity. They’ll be joined on this trip through RVA by some more straightforward sounds, primarily those of Beatlesque emo-punks Save Face, whose full-length debut, Merci, was released by the almighty Epitaph Records last year. Ohio jangle-pop quartet the Sonder Bombs, who apparently named themselves after the realization that other people have complicated lives too, will make this bill that much sweeter and more special, as Minneapolis trio Hotline TNT kick things off with some shoegaze-grunge-punk awesomeness. This one’s gonna be outstanding.

Tuesday, October 8, 7 PM
Gull, Imelda Marcos, Dumb Waiter, Jono Stewart @ Gallery 5 – $5
The band Imelda Marcos hails from Chicago, not the Philippines, and one would assume they have a much smaller shoe collection than that of their namesake (the wife of a dictator who was deposed in the mid-80s). However, what they lack in flashy footwear is more than made up for by their extravagant collection of riffs, which they roll out spectacularly on latest full-length Tatlo, released on cassette earlier this year.

Imelda Marcos’s guitar-drum instrumentals are the sort sure to please people who loved early Hella, back when they too were a duo that just blasted out tangled, noisy collections of riffs backed by complex, hard-driving beats. There’s some Crom-Tech and some some Lightning Bolt lurking in this band’s DNA as well, but their slices of fascinating instrumental chaos are, at the end of the day, entirely their own. It makes them a perfect pairing with local Richmond talents Gull, that one-man machine of beautiful indescribable noise, and Dumb Waiter, that four-man orchestra of jazz-metal chaos. This show will bring you more RPM (riffs per minute) than any other show happening this week — maybe this entire year. Get on board.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, October 4, 8 PM
Snake Mountain Revival, Ladada, Mister Earthbound @ The Bunker Brewpub (Virginia Beach) – $5 in advance/$8 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Things are getting psychedelic down in Virginia Beach, as Snake Mountain Revival prepares to release the follow-up to last year’s self-titled debut EP. We haven’t been able to get a listen to the new EP, which is entitled Valley Of Madness, but if it’s anything like the sort of witchy desert acid-trip jangle they unleashed on their debut, it’s sure to be excellent.

Lots of bands over the years have engaged in astral travels using vehicles that are lysergic in nature, but it’s a bit rarer to find a band that plumbs the depths of the mind’s spookiest corners the way Snake Mountain Revival does. If you ever wished the “killer on the road” verse of “Riders On The Storm” by The Doors hit as hard as Gun Club or The Wipers, these guys are sure to delight you. So come celebrate a new dose of not quite metal, not quite punk, but certainly heavy psych sounds from this killer VA Beach trio. It’ll be worth the drive — even if you are still seeing trails on your way back.

Sunday, October 6, 6 PM
Erin McKeown, Alice Clair @ The Southern Cafe (Charlottesville) – $15 (order tickets HERE)
As musicians go, Erin McKeown is not the easiest to categorize — she mixes folk and country with pop, jazz, and rock n’ roll in a way that makes every new tune a bit of an adventure. But after 20 years in the business, she’s built up quite a solid track record of making unique, entertaining music that’s sure to put a smile on your face. Even when you can’t quite determine what genre each individual song belongs in.

McKeown, who originally hails from Fredericksburg and now makes her home in Massachusetts, most recently released 2017 EP Mirrors Break Back, but has also been busy over the past couple of years with Miss You Like Hell, a musical about family, road trips, and the struggles of undocumented immigrants that she wrote with acclaimed playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes. There’s a certain kind of fun you can expect from a performance by any artist who has written a musical, and Erin McKeown will bring plenty of that kind of fun, plus a bag full of excellent tunes from any and all genres you can think of, to Charlottesville’s Southern Cafe this Sunday night. It’s gonna be a fine way to wrap up your weekend.

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: June 5 – June 11

Marilyn Drew Necci | June 5, 2019

Topics: Angel Dust, Asylum 213, Bandito's, Berries, Big Gorgeous, Broken Beaches, Brown's Island, Cardinal, Cary Street Cafe, Charlie's American Cafe, Colder Planets, Colin Phils, Comrades, Cuzco, Dave Watkins, Deli Kings, Doll Baby, Dumb Waiter, Eaves, evolv, F.R.E.E., feat. MAP Quintet, Firehouse Theatre, Founding Fathers, friday cheers, gallery 5, Gel, Ghost Piss, Glitterer, Gouge Away, Gull, Gumming, Honor Code, ING, Invalids, Kore Rozzik, Ladada, Larrabee/Millner Duo, Mingus Awareness Project, Nervous System, New Turks, Nita Strauss, Piranha Rama, POST RVA Fest, Post Sixty Five, Raging Nathans, Raise Hell Over The Summer, Retrosphere, ROC KANDI, Saint Mingus, shows you must see, shy low, Smoke Break, Spooky Cool, Street Weapon, Talk Me Off, THE BBC, The Broadberry, The Camel, The Canal Club, The Teskey Brothers, The War And Treaty, Toast, Truth Cult, Unity Fight, way shape or form

FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, June 8, 7 PM
New Turks (Photo by Sarmistha Talukdar), Gumming, Deli Kings, Ghost Piss, F.R.E.E., ing @ Gallery 5 – $5 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
The arrival of Raw Mom Presents on the Richmond live music scene has made me really happy, mainly because it allows my old pal Rivanna Youngpool to put her personal stamp on some of the shows she puts on at Gallery 5. Years ago, when we were roommates, Rivanna worked hard to make the shows she booked in our living room safe, welcoming, and fun, and to keep the emphasis on community and friendship. Now that she’s booking at a real venue, it’s nice to see her keeping the vibe alive with an awesome all-local show to celebrate her birthday.

As befitting any birthday party, this one is full of friends, and the headliners in particular are two long-lost friends you’ll all want to see. Heavy bass-drum duo New Turks rocked the hell out of Richmond during their four years of existence, but Ethan and Lou stopped making music together back in 2015, and other than one reunion gig a year later, they haven’t done a thing since. But just for old times’ sake, they will be returning for one night only this Saturday night to headline this show, and that’s a birthday gift not just for Rivanna but for the whole city. You won’t want to miss this one, because who knows if — not when, IF — they’ll ever do it again.

The fun doesn’t stop there, as this gig features a highly varied lineup sure to keep your attention throughout the night. Deli Kings have got that Southern-style garage rock on lock, and Ing keep things eclectic and melodic with some charming lo-fi pop. Former Richmonder and eternal friend River Allen will be back in town for the evening with her haunting electro-ambient project, Ghost Piss, and I can’t seem to figure anything out about F.R.E.E. except that they are neither a reformed version of Have Heart nor that British band who sang “All Right Now.” But with the rest of the bill looking so great, this one is worth taking a chance on. Plus, advance tickets are literally 50% cheaper than the price at the door, so mark your calendar, make your plans, and hit that ticket link now!

Wednesday, June 5, 9 PM
Founding Fathers, Big Gorgeous, Asylum 213 @ Cary Street Cafe – $10
I’ve heard a lot of synth-based bands over the years, and one thing I can say for sure is that the studio recordings by the majority of them give you no idea what the band could possibly sound like live. That’s why it’s always refreshing to run across a band that is both synth-heavy and manages to sound on its records like an actual band playing their songs as a unit. Ohio band Founding Fathers, who place the emphasis on synthesizers and programmed beats but also incorporate guitars and live drums into their sound, totally pull this off on their 2018 LP, Mating Rites, and that’s a big part of why I think you should go see them tonight at Cary Street Cafe.

The music reminds me somewhat of Future Islands, another synth-based band that works particularly well as a live act, and there are also hints of upbeat early-00s bands like Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand in there. It all adds up to a rocking band that’ll keep you dancing throughout the evening — and the world could definitely use more of those, so come out tonight and get familiar with the Founding Fathers. While you’re at it, check out the ridiculously fun synth-metal antics of California’s Big Gorgeous, who’ll give you even more reason to dance around with a big grin on your face. This one’s gonna rule.

Thursday, June 6, 9 PM
Raging Nathans, Smoke Break, Talk Me Off @ Bandito’s – Free!
Raging Nathans are a band out of time. This band from Dayton Ohio, who are probably tired of hearing about Guided By Voices, have a sound that is in its own way just as anachronistic as that of GBV themselves — only instead of harking back to some alternate-universe lo-fi garage-psych past, Raging Nathans will make any of you old-timers who were there the first time around think of pop-punk’s mid-90s heyday. Post-y2k pop-punk tends to follow in the gruffer footsteps of bands like Hot Water Music and Dillinger Four, but on last year’s Cheap Fame LP, Raging Nathans bypass all that for some good old Lookout!/Fat Wreck sounds that, while I wasn’t looking, seemingly became part of a bygone era.

This Bandito’s show is the perfect opportunity for all of us to bring that era back, at least in our own hearts. The fact that the Raging Nathans have released splits with both The Parasites and Jon Cougar Concentration Camp in the past year should let you know that they’re on board. And they’ll have you pogoing up a storm when they hit the stage on Thursday night. They’ll be joined by one of Richmond’s great slacker melodic-punk bands, Smoke Break, who may not play another show for six months, so you better get there. And of course, Talk Me Off opens up with a snottier brand of punk, mostly without the pop, to remind us all of our angry teenage days. It’s gonna be a whole lot of fun.

Friday, June 7, 6 PM
The War And Treaty, The Teskey Brothers @ Friday Cheers at Brown’s Island – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Usually you can expect the bands who play Friday Cheers to be pretty familiar, so I was surprised to see a name I didn’t know on the schedule this week: The War And Treaty. I’m glad I dug in, though, because this musical group is one of the most interesting that’s come to my attention recently. Specifically, The War And Treaty is a husband-and-wife duo, Michael and Tanya Trotter, who sing together while Michael plays piano and a variety of other musicians add color and depth to their exuberant, soulful songs.

The result, born from Michael’s difficult experiences growing up impoverished and joining the military just in time for the Iraq war, is a sound that taps into blues, R&B, folk, gospel, country, and a ton of other American sounds. On their debut album, Healing Tide, Michael and Tanya sing together to chase away the darkness and create a musical force more powerful than any trauma. They pull it off flawlessly, and they’re sure to uplift all of Brown’s Island this Friday night when they take that Friday Cheers stage and make this whole city their own. Be there ready to sing along — this kind of healing is exactly what we all need.

Saturday, June 8, 3 PM
POST RVA Fest, feat. Comrades, Invalids, Gull, Shy Low, Colin Phils, Dumb Waiter, evolv, Spooky Cool, Cuzco, Post Sixty Five, Eaves, Cardinal, Way Shape Or Form, Dave Watkins, Colder Planets @ The Broadberry – $12 – $18 (order tickets HERE)
Here’s an impressive effort that’s starting out the right way. Spearheaded by Richmond-via-Korea band Colin Phils, the first ever POST RVA Fest will take over the Broadberry for a full nine hours of music this Saturday. Rather than going too big and biting off more than they can chew (something I know all about), the organizers of POST RVA Fest have mostly stuck with local groups in pulling together this 15-band showcase sure to appeal to anyone who digs epic instrumental post-rock, jazzy technical math-rock, melodic progressive metal, complex guitar-driven indie, and everything in-between — which covers a good deal more ground than you might expect.

Just look at this bill, which is topped by peripatetic former locals Comrades, a heavy trio who combine metalcore, post-rock, emo, indie, and a whole bunch of other genres into their unique, driving sound. New Jersey’s Invalids, by contrast, dish out hyperspeed math-rock with emphasis on guitar and drum pyrotechnics that’ll have the gear nerds in the audience watching very closely. There are a ton of other amazing bands, mostly from the Richmond area, on the bill, from Gull’s indescribable one-man sonic creations and Cardinal’s gorgeously complex indie-math-rock to Dumb Waiter’s freaky instrumental jazz-metal and Shy Low’s Mogwai-style moving instrumental epics. There’s so much here, for such a cheap ticket price, and if it all comes together perfectly, it may just be able to draw a loose, disparate group of musically similar local musicians into an actual scene. What could be a greater goal for a show than that? Get your ticket and be a part of it. You won’t be sorry.

Sunday, June 9, 7:30 PM
Mingus Awareness Project, feat. MAP Quintet, Larrabee/Millner Duo, Saint Mingus @ Firehouse Theatre – $15 in advance/$20 day of show/$10 for students (order tickets HERE)
This Sunday, if you want to both support a great cause and hear some amazing music you won’t hear anywhere else, then the only place you need to go is Firehouse Theatre. There, you’ll find local jazz-rock drum legend Brian Jones putting on the 12th edition of his yearly Mingus Awareness Project concerts, which exist to bring attention and support to the cause of curing ALS, the deadly incurable disease that took the life of bass legend Charles Mingus back in 1979. And as part of this charitable goal, Jones will be joining together with a variety of confederates from around the Richmond jazz scene to pay unique tribute to the phenomenal masterpieces of the one and only Mingus.

This time around, those tributes will take three forms, beginning with the MAP Quintet, which matches Jones up with his longtime collaborator, saxophonist JC Kuhl, as well as Virginia jazz powerhouses John D’earth on trumpet, Mike Hawkins on bass, and Calvin Brown (aka Calvin Presents) on piano. Then we’ll get a performance from the electric-guitar duo of Adam Larrabee and Jamal Millner, as well as a quintet known as Saint Mingus, which will match Jones with Richmond jazz ambassador Reggie Pace as well as Suzi Fischer (The Big Payback), Giustino Riccio (Bio Ritmo), and Stefan Demetriadis (No BS! Brass). Such an incredibly talented conglomeration of musicians is sure to do justice to Charles Mingus’s incredible compositions, and you’re going to want to be there to see them do it. Donating to a good cause is just the icing on the cake.

Monday, June 10, 7 PM
Angel Dust, Gouge Away, Glitterer, Truth Cult @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
One thing I’ve learned from my years in the hardcore scene is that, as long as you put a few years into playing hardcore music, the kids will follow you to whatever new thing you do, regardless of how it sounds. Angel Dust is a perfect case in point: while this band features members of Trapped Under Ice, Turnstile, and Mindset, you’d be totally incorrect to expect anything hard or heavy from their brand-new album, Pretty Buff. Instead, this album finds the quintet of tough boys showing their sensitive side and, indeed, getting downright upbeat. And that’s not to mention the predominantly-acoustic guitar sound.

All told, Angel Dust’s upbeat sound has led to comparisons with groups like the Lemonheads or early Green Day. But despite all that, it’s done nothing to chase the hardcore faithful away — and one listen to Pretty Buff is enough to see why. These guys are every bit as good at lovelorn melodies as they are at hard n’ heavy mosh-pit anthems. So why not celebrate all of it equally? Join all the HC kids Monday night in doing exactly that at The Camel. And while you’re at it, enjoy what’s sure to be an incredible set from raging hardcore-punk quartet Gouge Away, who will deliver every bit of vitriol you might have expected from Angel Dust and then some. The bill will also feature Title Fight frontman Ned Russin’s electronic side project, Glitterer, and the killer up-and-coming sounds of Baltimore’s Truth Cult, a decidedly Swiz-ish group featuring members of Give, Red Death, and more. Every second of this is sure to be outstanding.

Tuesday, June 11, 6 PM
Nita Strauss, Kore Rozzik, THE BBC, Roc Kandi, Retrosphere @ The Canal Club – $17 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Maybe it’s only because I came up in the late 80s era of hair metal’s world domination (OK, yeah, that’s probably it), but I just love some really ridiculous over the top metal shredding. And as much as I enjoy this kind of thing from veteran masters of the field — Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, you know the ones — it makes me way happier to see someone younger carrying on the tradition. And a woman, at that! Nita Strauss first grabbed attention with her string-bending star turn in all-female Iron Maiden tribute act The Iron Maidens, but she’s since graduated to all sorts of original work, from joining Alice Cooper’s touring band to scoring video games like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Now she’s gone out on her own, releasing her debut solo album, Controlled Chaos, last year and hitting the road on a headlining tour to support it. Keeping with the tradition of shredders past such as Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, Strauss forgoes vocals for this album’s anthems, instead using her multilayered melodic leads as color and giving the album’s many headbanging riffs more than sufficient texture to keep you smiling and thrashing along. You can do that exact thing at the Canal Club Tuesday night when Strauss’s headlining set caps off a night full of shred-tastic adventures. Notorious NYC metal maniacs Kore Rozzik will provide plenty of those, along with several killer locals. Get ready for some serious thrash, y’all — because it’s happening.

Elsewhere around the state:

Friday, June 7, 7 PM
Gel, Honor Code, Nervous System, Street Weapon, Unity Fight @ Charlie’s American Cafe – $5
For all you diehards who might be feeling a little deprived by Angel Dust’s relentlessly upbeat post-hardcore melodies, rest assured we’ve still got plenty of straight-ahead no-frills hardcore for ya, and — unsurprisingly enough — it’s happening this Friday night in Norfolk. Gel, a recently formed New Jersey band who have only a demo to their name, are coming to town to tear it up. The demo’s five songs blow by incredibly fast, and are full of sloppy, out-of-control hardcore riffage with a decidedly maniacal edge. This band seems like a prime candidate for an absolutely explosive live performance, and you’re gonna want to be there to see it go down.

Down in the Hampton Roads area, Honor Code are sure to draw just as much attention as the New Jersey headliners — after all, this is their first show in nearly two years. Does that mean this 82-style old school VBHC combo has returned to full time action? Maybe, maybe not, but it does mean you’ll have one more chance to circle pit to their legendarily primitive hardcore tuneage — and that’s sure to be a blast. The show will also feature local NFKHC up-and-comers Nervous System, as well as brand-new VB bands Street Weapon and Unity Fight, both of whom have names that sound suspiciously randomly generated. However, we can guarantee that both are entirely made up of real flesh-and-blood humans. Pure organic hardcore, coming right up.

Saturday, June 8, 5 PM
LAVA Presents GRILLED OUT, feat. Ladada, Berries, Piranha Rama, Broken Beaches, Doll Baby, Raise Hell Over The Summer @ Toast – $10 in advance/$14 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Memorial Day has come and gone, and at least in Virginia, that means summer has arrived, y’all. And what better way to spend a sunny summer evening than grillin’ out and chillin’ out with some great tunes? This weekend, LAVA Presents has you covered on both of those scores, as their Saturday evening GRILLED OUT fest will find the Tidewater-area promotional crew hanging out in the Toast parking lot, joined by Handsome Biscuit burgers, Smartmouth Beer, and a whole conglomeration of excellent Virginia musicians.

Ladada are at the top of the bill, and this Norfolk indie group has just the tunes you need for a summer afternoon cookout — they even put a guy floating down a river with a red solo cup in hand on the cover of their recent LP, Heaven On The Rocks, so you know they’ve got the right idea. The day will also feature delicious indie-pop sounds from VB group Berries, excellently named New York indie-rockers Raise Hell Over The Summer, and some rad RVA sounds from local faves Piranha Rama and Doll Baby. You Richmonders might want to get a crew and roll down with a carful — especially since the tickets are cheaper if you buy them at the group rate! Grab some burgers, rock out to some tunes, and enjoy the summer — it’ll be gone before you know it.

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: May 15 – May 21

Marilyn Drew Necci | May 15, 2019

Topics: .gif From God, Bandito's, Bat, BATO, blessed, Blunt, Capital Ale House Music Hall, Charming Disaster, Coherence, Copperhead, Cursive, Dehd, Enforced, Fallout, Flatline, gallery 5, GosT, Hardywood, HIRS, Julie Karr, Left-Handed Smoke Shifters, MewithoutYou, NØ Man, Opin, Outer Spaces, Perturbator, Plastic Nancy, Semtex, Serqet, shows you must see, Spooky Cool, The Appleseed Cast, The Broadberry, The Camel, The NorVa, The Struts, True Body, Under Attack, Unmaker, West Beach Tavern, Witchtrial

FEATURED SHOW
Monday, May 20, 7 PM
Cursive, Mewithoutyou, The Appleseed Cast @ The Broadberry – $22 in advance/$25 day of show (order tickets HERE)
This show is an absolute bonanza for people who were crazy about emo fifteen years ago. I shouldn’t even have to tell you that I’m one of those people. Back in 2004, Cursive, a band closely associated with the Omaha scene that also produced Bright Eyes, The Faint, and Saddle Creek Records, had just topped off a string of killer emotionally-driven alt-rock albums with the instant classic The Ugly Organ. MewithoutYou had just released their stunning sophomore LP, Catch Us For The Foxes, which introduced a wider audience to frontman Aaron Weiss’s strangely moving story-songs. And The Appleseed Cast had both blown everyone away and helped to push the genre forward with a trio of amazing albums: Mare Vitalis, the two-volume Low Level Owl series, and the moving, unforgettable Two Conversations.

But look — this Monday night triple-header at The Broadberry is far from a pure nostalgia act. Oh, I’m sure the groups on this bill will play some old tunes you know and love, but all of them remain active, powerful creative forces to this day. Last year, Cursive reunited with original drummer Clint Schnase after a decade, released their first album in six years, and brought in cellist Megan Seibe to recapture the sound they’d had on previous high-water marks Burst And Bloom and The Ugly Organ. Vitriola turns out to be every bit as great as those emo classics, and should be more than capable of capturing the full attention of fans who currently plan to hit the bar during the new songs. (Yo, don’t be that guy. For real.)

MewithoutYou remains a powerful creative force fifteen years later as well. On 2018’s dual releases, an LP and an EP (both untitled), Aaron Weiss engaged in matter-of-fact examination of his own struggles with mental illness and the way it mirrors the mental illness in his ancestry and that of disparate historical figures, including European royalty from centuries past. And amazingly enough, the music behind this emotional travelogue is some of the best of the band’s career thus far. Meanwhile, it’s been six years since the last full LP of Appleseed Cast material, 2013’s Illumination Ritual, but Christopher Crisci and company released a new single, “Asking The Fire For Medicine,” in January, and it apparently heralds a new LP that seems sure to follow their recent pattern of atmospheric, melodic, progressive post-hardcore. Will they bust out some other new ones at The Broadberry? The prospect alone makes this one worth the trip.

Wednesday, May 15, 8 PM
Charming Disaster, Left-Handed Smoke Shifters @ Fallout – $7 in advance/$10 at the door (order tickets HERE)
A simple way to describe Charming Disaster, who come to Richmond from their hometown of Brooklyn this very night, is as a gothic-folk duo. However, if such a descriptor conjures up thoughts of Comus, Current 93, or Simon Finn for you, then it’s been a bit misleading. There’s much more of the carnival folk traditions of old Europe in Charming Disaster’s music, and even as they bring a decided noir sensibility to their memorable ballads, there’s a clear sense of humor running throughout, letting you know that this, um, charming duo have a lot to offer besides pain and sadness.

Their brand new album, Spells & Rituals, doesn’t get an official release until June 7, so chances are you will not have an opportunity to pick up a copy for yourself at the show. But you will get a delightful preview of the excellent sounds on offer — just enough to whet your appetite for your very own pre-order. Opening sounds will be provided by Left-Handed Smoke Shifters, a band named after an old campfire joke and bringing together the talents of local bellydancing sensation Madame Onca and singer/vaudeville host extraordinaire Mark Slomski. It’s always nice to see what these two are up to, so don’t miss this one!

Thursday, May 16, 9 PM
BAT, Witchtrial, Under Attack @ Bandito’s – Free!
If you love metal, hardcore, and/or general headbanging madness, Bandito’s is the place you should be this Thursday night. This free show will serve as a record release party for not one, not two, but ALL THREE bands on this bill! BAT are your headliners, and it’s a fitting spot on the bill for a trio featuring current or former members of Municipal Waste, Cannabis Corpse, and DRI. This old-school thrash band has been inducing serious fist-pumping headbanging good times around Richmond and beyond for years now, and on this night, they’re releasing their second LP, Axestacy.

Axestacy takes things to the next level for BAT; it’s full of the kind of incredible riffs and ridiculous lyrics that fans of early Exodus or Dark Angel are sure to appreciate. They’ll probably also appreciate the new LP from Witchtrial; this DC band is releasing their first full-length on VA’s own Beach Impediment Records, and have a lot of links to the world of hardcore — but the music on their self-titled LP is pure thrash. With a roaring attack sure to remind you of prime German thrash, fans of Sodom and Kreator are definitely going to want to pay attention to this one. Not to be left out, Richmond’s own Under Attack are releasing a new tape full of speedy, no-frills hardcore on the Vinyl Conflict label, and if you dig pedal-to-the-metal ‘core action, you’re gonna want a copy of this. Since this show is free, you’ll be in prime financial position to pick up releases from all three of these ragers. But wait til after the set; you don’t want your brand new records getting messed up in the pit!

Friday, May 17, 8 PM
Perturbator, GOST, True Body @ The Broadberry – $20 in advance/$25 day of show (order tickets HERE)
For those of you who were stoked to see Fallout on the list this week, only to be let down that it wasn’t an industrial show I’m sending you to there — take heart! For the industrial sound can be found in all sorts of places around town, if you know where to look. Take Perturbator’s arrival at The Broadberry this Friday night. People talk a lot with respect to Perturbator about spooky synth soundtracks to 70s and 80s Italian horror movies, and listen, there is a fair bit of that in Perturbator’s sound. But the group’s most recent LP, 2017’s New Model, is going to be even more familiar to fans of Skinny Puppy or Front 242 than it will be to fans of Goblin or Tangerine Dream.

Seriously, regardless of whatever you’ve heard thrown around about “retrosynth,” all you coldwave, postpunk, and industrial fans owe it to yourselves to listen to Perturbator. Because even if the hipsters don’t know how to contextualize this stuff, the goth kids are sure to understand. This is prime stomping-around-a-foggy-dancefloor-in-black-Docs music — black fingernails are definitely a plus. Just to further drive the point home, GOST is on this bill as well, bringing you the exact sort of industrial electro-pound that you know and crave. True Body will start the evening with some moody postpunk from right here in VA. Get the leather pants out, y’all.

Saturday, May 18, 5 PM
Spooky Cool, Outer Spaces, Opin, Julie Karr @ Hardywood – Free!
When you can give your band a name that actually describes your band, you’re really onto something good. Take Spooky Cool, for example; this Richmond band’s name may not tell you what genre they play or how many people are in the band, but it does offer you two specific bits of info: they’re spooky, and they’re cool. That’s enough to make a lot of people curious. And then when you actually hear this band’s hybrid math-prog alt-indie sound, you realize that the name hasn’t steered you wrong. There’s a definite spooky vibe to what this group is up to on their first EP, Every Thing Ever. And it’s definitely cool as hell.

Then there’s Outer Spaces, a band I’ve been excited about for quite a while now. This latest project of incredibly talented Baltimore singer-songwriter Cara Beth Satalino hasn’t released an LP since 2016’s A Shedding Snake, but is returning in a big way over the next month or so — first with a brand-new two-song EP on Saddle Creek, then with a new LP, Glazing Globe, scheduled for release next month. As a longtime fan, I couldn’t be more stoked, and the songs that have been released thus far from these two projects sound excellent, despite their genesis in anxiety, self-doubt, and the end of a long-term relationship. Hey, we’ve all been there, right? Sometimes making art is the best way out. Outer Spaces has made some great music in the past, and there’s no reason to think that’ll change now. Do yourself a favor and go see both of these groups. After all, the price is right.

Sunday, May 19, 7 PM
HIRS, Coherence, NØ MAN, .gif From God @ Gallery 5 – $10 in advance/$12 at the door (order tickets HERE)
The most confrontational queer grindcore band ever finally comes to Richmond and I for one couldn’t be more stoked. HIRS grabbed some relatively mainstream attention in 2018 with the release of Friends, Lovers, Favorites, their first full-length of new material — relatively speaking, that is; its 20 songs still blow by in under 15 minutes. They’ve hardly rested on their laurels since then, cranking out several EPs in the past year or so, as well as a split LP of Nirvana covers with celebrated New Orleans sludge masters Thou.

When HIRS arrive in Richmond, you can expect the confrontational spirit embodied in past EP titles like Trans Girl Takeover, You Can’t Kill Us, and How To Stop Street Harassment, as well as the harsh, raging grind sound of their breakthrough LP, to hit you like a ton of bricks. It won’t just be lightspeed velocity, either — this group knows how to bring the most headcrushingly powerful of breakdowns as well. Basically, this is the heaviest band you’ll see in Richmond anytime this year, and you’re going to thoroughly enjoy having your head knocked off by them. Trust me.

Monday, May 20, 7 PM
Dehd, Blunt, Plastic Nancy @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $10 (order tickets HERE)
A few years ago, that whole droney jangly post-Velvet Underground sound was in the ascent in the indie world, and I was digging it. More recently, it seems like everyone’s on that synthesized bedroom-pop tip, which I guess is also cool, but I’m glad to see Dehd out here proving that the jangle-drone sound is not, um, dead. This Chicago band’s new LP, Water, shows that there are many possibilities for musical greatness embedded within the basic no-frills rock n’ roll package. By channeling VU and The Cramps through a more modern sound that reminds me of Parquet Courts, Beach Fossils, and the like, Dehd has created some serious gold soundz. Yes, with a Z.

Dehd will be joined on this bill by a couple of RVA newcomers with a lot to offer. Blunt takes a sludgy approach to dark garage punk sounds, while Plastic Nancy cranks out some psychedelic punk rock fun. This whole show is gonna rock like crazy, and in 2019, that can’t always be guaranteed. Treasure it when you find it.

Tuesday, May 21, 7 PM
Blessed, Unmaker, Serqet @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Some serious goth vibes going on around Richmond this week, although this Tuesday night show at The Camel only bears a passing resemblance to the other two shows this week that have led me to use that term. Specifically, Blessed play a gloomy, metallic form of postpunk that veers from morose to anxious on their debut LP, Salt, released earlier this spring. The results this Vancouver band are able to generate are transfixing in the extreme, and their reputation for live greatness only makes this show at The Camel feel that much more of an essential part of your midweek.

The fact that Richmond’s own Unmaker are on the bill as well only makes this an even more essential evening of sounds. This group shows off their more intense version of goth-metal awesomeness on debut full-length Firmament, an album that’s turned a lot of heads locally and nationally since its release six months ago. Mixing this powerful blend of Killing Joke-style rage with Blessed’s more deliberate approach will make for a heady musical brew, and adding the gothic peace-punk vibes of Serqet to the mixture is only going to take things to an even higher level. Get on board with this one.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Thursday, May 16, 7:30 PM
The Struts @ The NorVA – $22.50 in advance/$25.50 at the door (order tickets HERE)
The Struts are one of the more fascinating discoveries the mainstream rock world has yielded in recent years. This British band has a fashion sense that seems equally derived from Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, and the Sex Pistols, but musically, they land somewhere in the area of a 21st-century update on Queen. This group clearly comes from a modern time in which the backlash against the 80s hair-metal era has faded from youthful memory; rather than playing their glammed-out, swaggering rock n’ roll for over-the-top laughs the way The Darkness did, The Struts are 100 percent serious about their desire for world domination.

Which might be totally obnoxious if they didn’t have the songs to pull it off. Singles like “Could’ve Been Me,” “Kiss This,” and their collaboration with Kesha, “Body Talks,” are proven arena-rock anthems, and they’re sure to get the NorVA popping on Thursday night. Once you’ve seen The Struts blow the roof off the joint, all your doubts will be cleared away, leaving only the desire to rock! The Struts will definitely help you with that, though after the night that awaits you, you may feel the need to call in to work Friday morning. But hey, why not? That’s the rock n’ roll thing to do.

Sunday, May 19, 6 PM
Enforced, Copperhead, Flatline, Semtex, Bato @ West Beach Tavern – $10
I love the way a lot of tough-guy hardcore is metal as fuck these days. I mean, granted, I still don’t like to get up front at the shows (who enjoys having to keep your back to the band just so you can dodge flying fists and feet?), but the music sure is a lot better when I go to them, and that makes us middle-aged ladies standing in the back of the room real happy. Enforced have shown their crossover-thrash chops off both on tape and in the live environment for a while now, and with their At The Walls LP soon to drop, they’re about to take it to the next level. Get on board now.

Both Richmond’s own Enforced and fellow RVA thrash-masters Copperhead will be heading down to VB for this end-of-weekend rager at West Beach Tavern, and both will bring the sort of aggressive hardcore attack that, if you close your eyes (or even if you keep them open, considering how many longhairs there are in hardcore bands these days) you’ll likely mistake for straight-up metal. Which rules. They’ll be joined on this bill by three Hampton Roads-based ensembles; Flatline and Semtex bring a more straightforward Agnostic Front/Negative Approach-style HC attack, while Bato verge on fastcore with their speedy beats and energetic sound. The pit should be going hard from beginning to end at this one; I’ll be sure to stand back.

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond