Taphouse Grill Archives

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: February 5 – February 11

Marilyn Drew Necci | February 5, 2020

Topics: Andy Jenkins, Bandito's, Billy Varela, Black Dirty, Black Mass Gathering, Capital Ale House Music Hall, Cary Street Cafe, Children Of The Reptile, Colpa Mia, Community Witch, Craigslist Jerry, Daughter Of Swords, Emily Wolfe, events in richmond va, events near me this weekend, events richmond va, Faucet, Fredo Disco, Have Mercy, Horse Jumper Of Love, Hotspit, Humungus, Keep, Leach, Lobby Boy, Manatree, Mega Colossus, Mortal Man, music, must see shows, Night Idea, Pain In The Yeahs, Poor Boys, richmond events, richmond va, richmond va bands, Righter, RVA, Selfish Things, shows this week richmond, shows you must see, Taphouse Grill, The Camel, The Canal Club, The Dead Tongues, The Reign Of Kindo, things to do in richmond va, things to do richmond va, Tom West, Whistler's Mother, Wonderland, Young Culture, Zara, Zima

FEATURED SHOW
Thursday, February 6, 8 PM
Cary Street Cafe’s 25th Anniversary & Big Ol’ Whoopty Doo feat. Whistler’s Mother, Craigslist Jerry @ Cary Street Cafe – Free!
This column is ostensibly about music, but if you want to get technical about it, it’s really about shows. And sometimes the best, most important show of the week is about way more than just the music. Such is the case with the 25th anniversary “Big Ol’ Whoopty Doo” being thrown by Cary Street Cafe this Friday. Oh, there’ll be music — more on that in a minute — but the most important aspect of this event is just the occasion of celebrating a constant source for live music in Richmond over the past quarter century, and the work of founder Robyn McManis to bring it to us, especially in light of the fact that McManis is in the process of selling the place.

If you’ve been a longtime Cary Street Cafe regular, the music on offer this Thursday night should please you; the two groups that will be performing two sets each represent both the early and recent eras of this venue’s standard fare. Whistler’s Mother were one of the first bands to play the place, and had a Friday night residency in the cafe’s early days that lasted years. Having since evolved into projects like the Harrison Deane Band and the Tin Can Fish Band, they’ll be coming back together to rock Cary Street Cafe once again. Craigslist Jerry, who currently perform during happy hour every Friday at Cary Street Cafe, will offer two sets focusing on the Grateful Dead and Dead-inspired material that has been the place’s stock in trade since day one.

Make no mistake, the music on offer on this night should be a real treat, especially if you’re tastes are inclined to bring you to Cary Street Cafe on a regular basis anyway. But what this evening is really about is giving thanks for a venue that, in a constantly-changing landscape of short-lived venues for live music, has remained a consistent source of live performances since the early 90s — a time before a good many of our readers were even alive! Spend your Thursday night showing your appreciation with a night of celebratory jams.

Wednesday, February 5, 7 PM
Emily Wolfe, Tom West, Righter @ The Camel – $10 in advance/$12 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Let’s rock! Austin-based singer-songwriter Emily Wolfe is coming to town, and while you may be used to hearing that term as a coded signifier for “dignified Americana-folk sounds played on acoustic instruments,” Wolfe is quite a different prospect, using her loud n’ proud electric guitar and her wailing voice to create quite the storm of distorted blues-rock riffology. Her self-titled debut LP, released about a year ago, finds her at the head of a storming power trio that has much more in common with Jack White’s solo work than that of Carole King. Follow-up single “Ghost Limb Gambler,” released last week, has much the same fighting spirit, and thank god for that.

But Wolfe sometimes performs solo as well, letting her guitar, some effects, and her magnificent voice dominate the stage. Which version of her live performances we’ll get when she hits the Camel tonight isn’t something I can predict, but the fact that it’ll be great fun to watch is a sure thing. Wolfe will be joined on this gig by Australian singer-songwriter Tom West, who does hew a bit more closely to that whole folk thing, though “Americana” would surely be a misnomer for a troubadour from the land down under. Local indie-folk project Righter will get this whole evening kicked off, and it certainly should be a blast.

Thursday, February 6, 8 PM
Humungus, Mega Colossus, Children Of The Reptile, Mortal Man @ Wonderland – $10
While they’ve been around for pretty much a decade now, Richmond thrash-metal throwbacks Humungus have never been all that prolific a band — which just makes it that much more exciting when they do release new material. They did so back around Christmastime, bringing their second full-length, Balls, into the world via Killer Metal Records. The fact that most people have already picked their faves of the year by the time December rolls around might have led to this album flying under some people’s radar, but as always with Humungus, missing out on it would be a very big mistake.

This quintet does thrash in a manner not often heard in the modern era, keeping alive not only the incredible leads and galloping riffs of the genre’s prime 80s era, but also the high-pitched vocals and occasional goofy subject matter in a manner that shows how good these metalheads are at deadpan humor. No matter how tongue-in-cheek Humungus are being at any moment, though, their thrashing ability is always serious as a heart attack, and their live performance at Wonderland this Thursday night is sure to get you headbanging with abandon — even if the fans they’re known to bring with them onstage (to get the hair blowing around just so) are still pretty silly. A trio of Raleigh shredders — Mega Colossus, Children Of the Reptile, and Mortal Man — will pack this bill with a ton more metal mastery, but any true Richmond metalhead knows that Humungus is what it’s all about.

Friday, February 7, 8 PM
Leach, Black Dirty, Night Idea @ Poor Boys – $5
It’s always fun to head over to Poor Boys and spend an evening in the Voodoo Room, rocking out in a site that established a noble tradition of great music during previous days under the auspices of Bogart’s, Balliceaux, and Flora. Prsmcat Presents has been bringing some great locally-focused sounds into the place since Poor Boys took it over, and this Friday night is no exception. This evening will be headlined by Leach, who are celebrating the release of their latest EP, A Machine, It Seems, at this event.

If you haven’t checked out what this band, featuring former members of Imaginary Sons, are bringing to the table, the fact that their bandcamp URL labels them “Leach rock band” should be some guide. These guys have a decidedly 90s-style take on rocking, one that reminds me of driving around in my Chevette during my college days blasting Urge Overkill and Dig tapes. They’ll be joined on this bill by Philadelphia’s Black Dirty, who despite the name actually have a pretty clean and delightful math-damaged alt-pop sound. They’re certainly musically simpatico with Night Idea, the Richmond mainstay who rounds out this bill. With the aid of these three excellent bands, you’re sure to have a delightful Friday night.

Saturday, February 8, 7 PM
The Reign Of Kindo, Manatree, Colpa Mia @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $15 (order tickets HERE)
This one kinda came out of nowhere for me, y’all. A band of at least half a dozen musicians who are big enough to tour on the performance of an early release in its entirety, whom I have also somehow never heard of? Well, in truth, that seems to be The Reign Of Kindo’s whole thing. While they’ve been around for nearly 15 years, this New York band has never had a high profile in the mainstream, instead releasing all of their albums independently and focusing on the internet and social media as their path to success. What’s really wild is that it has worked out so well — for the past few years, they’ve been releasing new songs monthly on Patreon, and have racked up nearly 1000 supporters who contribute over $3000 to them each time they release a new song. Not bad, right?

And so, therefore, The Reign Of Kindo (or just Kindo, depending on where you see their name) are definitely worth looking into if, like me, you’ve never encountered them before. Their music could certainly be described as alternative rock, but between the incredible talent of their entire ensemble and the fact that they bring such a wide variety of influences to bear on their creative process, it seems a woefully inadequate description. Genres like jazz, soul, and prog also have to be part of the conversation, and of course you can’t ignore the way frontman Joseph Secchiaroli’s voice takes the whole thing to another level entirely. Even if you’ve never heard of them — heck, especially if you’ve never heard of them — The Reign Of Kindo is a group you should really dig into. You can start this Saturday night at Capital Ale House.

Saturday, February 8, 8 PM
Daughter Of Swords, The Dead Tongues, Andy Jenkins @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Where live music in Virginia is concerned, y’all, it’s all about Richmond. That fact is driven home to me at times like this week, when I hunt high and low for non-Richmond VA shows to tell you about and can’t even come up with two — and meanwhile, I’m having a hell of a time narrowing the Richmond picks down to eight. This week I threw up my hands and decided to work with what I’ve got, which is why you’re getting this ninth Richmond show instead of a second elsewhere-VA show. I work with what I’ve got, folks, and in the end, you the live music fan are the one who benefits.

For example, there is this Saturday night show at the Camel featuring Daughter of Swords. I almost didn’t manage to get this one in here, which is remarkable in light of how good the latest project from North Carolina folk singer Alexandra Sauser-Moning really is. Last year’s Dawnbreaker demonstrated Sauser-Moning’s flawless ability to come up with a series of heartfelt, memorable tunes and deliver them in the most minimal of settings. But this tour, on which she’s backed by members of Megafaun, Dirty Projectors, and Hiss Golden Messenger, will present her with a more fleshed-out but just as brilliant musical canvas. They’ll come to town in the company of the Dead Tongues, a folk project from the mind of sometime Hiss Golden Messenger sideman Ryan Gustafson. The fact that the two picked Richmond as the place to start their current American tour just proves the point I was making a paragraph ago — where live music in VA is concerned, Richmond is what it’s all about.

Sunday, February 9, 9 PM
Faucet, Zima, Zara @ Bandito’s – Free!
Round out your weekend with this triple bill of noise-punk awesomeness at Bandito’s, featuring a couple of new groups consisting of members whose talents have already been well established. To begin with, there’s Faucet, who land firmly on the noise end of the spectrum, with an out-of-control raging approach that evokes classic 80s reprobates like Flipper and No Trend. Featuring members of Ceremonial Scissors, Gumming, Fat Spirit, and Among The Rocks And Roots, this band’s pedigree alone makes them worth looking into — but rest assured, their sounds are intense enough in their own right to warrant your continued attention.

Then there’s Zima, a band whom I’m guessing are named after a clear malt beverage that was quite the trend when I was coming of age in the 90s and is probably totally forgotten by the younger readers among you. What actually inspired their name isn’t something I can tell you, but I can tell you that this project, which features 4/5 of Richmond punk ragers Haircut on different instruments but going off just as hard, is absolutely worth your time. If you enjoy being devastated by raw, aggressive punk fucking rock, that is — and who doesn’t? The bill is rounded out by Zara, an ambient electronic project with the most history of any of these three — certainly a great way to start a musically delicious evening.

Monday, February 10, 7 PM
Horse Jumper Of Love, Keep, Lobby Boy, HotSpit @ The Camel – $8 in advance/$10 Day of show (order tickets HERE)
Is it me, or are there a lot of horse-themed bands running around these days? Just last week I wrote about Brooklyn’s A Deer A Horse and locals Horse Culture. And now, this week, I find myself discussing Bostonians Horse Jumper Of Love. As any journalist will tell you, three of anything is a trend. But it’s not a strictly musical one, by any means — all three of the mentioned bands have very different sounds.

The one we’re discussing at the moment, Horse Jumper Of Love, have revived the slowcore genre that was all the rage in the 90s, when bands like Red House Painters, Low, and Duster were big on the scene. On Horse Jumper Of Love’s 2019 sophomore album, So Divine, they show themselves as capable inheritors of the tradition, knowing when to keep it quiet and when to flip the dynamic switch to loud and crushing… but throughout, always keeping things slow and moody in a manner making their music a perfect soundtrack for listening late at night with the lights off. You can do exactly that at The Camel this Monday night, and we humbly suggest you do so… no matter how you feel about horses.

Tuesday, February 11, 6:30 PM
Have Mercy, Fredo Disco, Selfish Things, Young Culture @ The Canal Club – $17 (Order tickets HERE)
I must say, I really dug the third Have Mercy album, Make The Best Of It, back when it was released in 2017. That album came just after singer-guitarist Brian Swindle had replaced his entire backing band with a new lineup, and I remember thinking at the time “I wonder if that guy’s hard to work with.” Now, after one more equally excellent album, 2019’s The Love Life, Swindle and co. are calling it quits entirely, which only reinforces my previous wonderings. The music was totally great, though, so regardless of what sort of lingering tension may be present onstage for this Have Mercy farewell tour, it’s still well worth showing up at The Canal Club and seeing them one last time.

Baltimore-based Have Mercy existed in an adjacent space to the emo revival, but their sound was always entirely their own, drawing equally from 90s alt-rock and pastoral indie sounds and creating wonderful, enduring tunes with strong, heartfelt lyrics about real, important aspects of interpersonal relationships. They’re the kind of band that it’s easy to let into your heart, and therefore, it’ll be tough to let them go. Hopefully Brian Swindle keeps making music in some capacity after this, but even if he does, this will be our last opportunity to see Have Mercy play their many classic tunes. I suggest you make the best of it.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, February 7, 9 PM
Pain In The Yeahs, Community Witch, Billy Varela, Black Mass Gathering @ Taphouse Grill (Norfolk) – $?
The Tidewater area of Virginia has always been a good source for dark gothic industrial dance sounds, and with Pain In The Yeahs operating in that area, this will certainly remain true for the foreseeable future. Brand new single “Animal Within An Animal” shows that bandleader James K. Ultra still has a deft touch with the postpunk spookiness he’s established through his and the group’s last several years’ worth of work.

There is a strong undercurrent of the goth sound of the mid-80s UK, with Cure and Sisters Of Mercy vibes undeniable in their music, but the new single shows that Ultra and co. bring a pop sensibility to what they’re doing as well; surprisingly catchy choruses and occasional synth-pop hooks add a darkly gleaming shine to the mood Pain In The Yeahs creates. Fear not, it’ll still lend itself perfectly to storming the dance floor in a velvet cape, black lipstick, and shiny polished Doc Martens, in classic Norfolk tradition. Get gloomy, y’all.

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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: December 26 – December 31

Marilyn Drew Necci | December 26, 2019

Topics: Alcindor, Altria Theater, Bloat, Cary Street Cafe, Copperhead, Cybernetic Warkrab, Deli Kings, Demons, Fuzzy Cactus, High Voltage, Invaluable, Jouwala Collective, Kurtis Blow, Lord Nelson, Loud Night, Nervous System, No Mas, Organ Trail, Plaque Marks, Prabir, Prayer Group, Riffhouse Pub, Seraph, shows you must see, Sleepwalkers, Song of Praise, Special Ed and the Shortbus, Spiral Fracture, Taphouse Grill, Tauk, The Broadberry, The Hip Hop Nutcracker, The Hot Seats, The Trongone Band, The Vegabonds, Tinnarose, Wonderland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elsewhere Around The State:

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

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

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

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

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: December 11 – December 17

Marilyn Drew Necci | December 11, 2019

Topics: Ages, Alan Parker, Andrew Randazzo, Archbishop, Aster, Bar Stool Preachers, Chicho's Backstage, Deli Kings, Demons, Devonne Harris, EdHochuli, Films On Song, gallery 5, Gardener, Ghost Of Pop 2019, Hardywood, Incantation, Inter Arma, Isabella VanKesteren, Jackson Shurlds, Little River Creek Police, Manas, Marcus Tenney, Mojo's, Morbid Angel, Palm Palm, Poor Boys, Prabir Trio, R4nd4zzo & Co, Righter, Saw Black, Sean K. Preston & The Loaded Pistols, Shockoe Denim, shows you must see, Sid Kingsley, Silent Music Revival, Single Use Plastic, Strike Anywhere, Taphouse Grill, The Broadberry, The Camel, Watain, Yeni Nostalji

FEATURED SHOW
Friday, December 13, 7 PM
Ghost Of Pop 2019, feat. Palm Palm (Photo by Ashley Travis Photography), Deli Kings, Saw Black, Prabir Trio, Aster @ Gallery 5 – $5 in advance/$10 at the door (order tickets HERE)
I don’t think it’s arguable that we’re right in the thick of the holiday season at this point, folks. Christmas is two weeks away, New Year’s Eve and an end to 2019 a week beyond that. Everyone’s cramming the big-box stores, shopping malls, and post offices to take care of last minute present-related needs, and then heading out to a whole passel of big year-ending shows once night falls. There are a ton of those big shows happening this week — more than I had room for in this column, by a good bit. However, in a week that also features the annual South Hill Snowdown, yet another two-night helping of Punks For Presents, and the annual No BS! Brass food drive at the Broadberry, it seemed most important to me to tell you about Ghost Of Pop at Gallery 5.

Ghost Of Pop is an annual throwdown that is the brainchild of Prabir Mehta, a guy who’s been making all sorts of musical, artistic, and scientific things happen around this town for well over a decade now. Every year, he brings together a solid collection of Richmond musicians to present their varying takes on what it means to play “pop music” in the 21st century. The bands are joined by a ton of holiday vendors and a proper holiday party, featuring drinks, photo booths, and a whole ton of holiday cheer to make the entire evening far more memorable than just another local-band showcase.

This year, Ghost Of Pop is headed up by Palm Palm, a band that, on the heels of J. Roddy Walston & The Business’s last show for the foreseeable future two weeks ago, becomes by default the main project J. Roddy is working on. Also featuring members of The Trillions, The Southern Belles, and The Milkstains, among many others, this band has a pedigree sufficient to guarantee a great rockin’ time for all when they’re onstage. We’ll also get a set from local singer-songwriter Saw Black; in light of the season and his recent release of a proper Christmas album, it seems likely that we’ll be getting a holiday-centric set from this fine fella, and that’s sure to be a lovely treat. Of course, Prabir’s current project, the Prabir Trio, will be on hand to present their anthems in praise of Bamboo Cafe and others, while appetite-driven rock n’ rollers Deli Kings and youthful bedroom-pop project Aster round out the bill in outstanding fashion. Head to Gallery 5 this Friday night and get in the spirit.

Wednesday, December 11, 8 PM
R4nd4zzo & Co, feat. Andrew Randazzo, Marcus Tenney, Jackson Shurlds, Alan Parker, Devonne Harris @ Poor Boys – $5
This time of year, the main place you’d expect to encounter bassist extraordinaire Andrew Randazzo is at the head of his R4ND4ZZO Bigband playing classic Vince Guaraldi compositions from the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack. Rest assured, he and his many compatriots are still doing that this year, and you can catch them at least once more between now and December 25 if you play your cards right. But this show is another matter entirely, and it’s a chance to see Andrew Randazzo do what he does best the other 11 months out of the year.

This evening finds Randazzo heading up a jazz quintet that will bring him together with a couple of his bandmates from Butcher Brown as well as several other Virginia jazz heavyweights of his generation. Expect things to be loose and unscripted, but not aimless or boring — all of these musicians are experienced with improvisation and are sure to bring some outstanding sounds to the back room at Poor Boys. If you want to know what’s going on with jazz here in Richmond, this is the place to be tonight. You know what to do.

Thursday, December 12, 7:30 PM
Manas, Gardener @ Shockoe Denim – $10
Here’s an intriguing musical prospect brought to us by Little Dumbo, the experimental music aficionados who’ve been presenting delightfully unexpected evenings of unusual sounds around town for the past couple of years now. This time around, they’re bringing the North Carolina-based duo Manas to Shockoe Denim, and there’s no doubt that the expensive jeans will be threaded just a little differently when the evening is done.

Manas features Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji, who came to the United States as a teenager, cut his teeth on the wild, politically-driven hardcore of bands like His Hero Is Gone, then moved in an experimental direction. He collaborates in Manas with drummer Thom Nguyen, an experienced noise-rock veteran, and the two of them combine abstract free-jazz improvisations with raging noise explosions in a manner that generates a great deal of fantastic tension and will leave listeners on the edge of their seat to see what this group of talented musicians will do next. You won’t know unless you’re there, so plan your Thursday evening now, because you don’t want to miss this.

Friday, December 13, 6:30 PM
Little River Creek Police, Righter, Sid Kingsley @ Hardywood – Free!
December can be a bit rough sometimes; what money you don’t have tied up in keeping the lights on and the rent paid gets eaten up by Christmas shopping, and the next thing you know, you’re sitting home every night watching Christmas specials from the 80s on YouTube because you can’t afford to go out. Well, we certainly know your pain on this one, but this Friday night, you’re in luck, because there’s a free show happening at Hardywood that would be worth your time even if you had to pay for it.

Little River Creek Police are celebrating the release of their latest single, “Yuri,” at Hardywood this Friday night. Following up their debut EP, Quiet The Ruckus, this catchy new tune finds the trio moving in a more immediate direction that adds some rough-n-ready folk-punk appeal to their jangly pop sweetness. Their set at Hardywood is sure to keep your feet moving, and you’ll be lucky enough to get sets from local indie mainstays Righter and Sid Kingsley in the bargain. See? There are still things to go out and enjoy even if you did spend your last dollar to send your mom a Christmas card. Now go enjoy yourself.

Saturday, December 14, 9 PM
Edhochuli, Inter Arma, Archbishop @ Mojo’s – $10 suggested donation
I love it when hardcore bands stick around for over a decade. The main reason I say that is because it’s always intriguing to see the ways a group evolves in a genre where most bands don’t even make it to a second album before falling apart. Edhochuli, who take their name from the most muscular referee in the world of pro football, have been cranking out excellent chaotic hardcore from the land of Pittsburgh for a very long time now, always with excellent results — results which seem to get heavier and more epic in scope with each new release. Their most recent is 2015’s Dream Warriors LP, so at this point it’s high time for them to bring us something new, and we can certainly hope they’ve got a bunch of new songs in their quivers for this performance.

Meanwhile, Inter Arma has been blazing an epic metallic path of their own for over a decade themselves, remaining ambitious and creative on their fourth full-length, Sulphur English, released earlier this year. Their tendency toward long, slowly evolving songs that build toward head-crushing crescendos remains intact on their latest release, and the members’ incredible talent at their instruments remains one of the key reasons to see this band live. This show’s pairing of them with Edhochuli makes this an unbeatable evening of heavy music, and the addition of relative newcomers Archbishop — which features ragers from local groups like The Skin and Memory Loss — will only serve to sweeten the pot that much more.

Sunday, December 15, 7:30 PM
Silent/Music Revival, feat. Yeni Nostalji @ Gallery 5 – Donations appreciated
Silent/Music Revival is a storied institution in the world of live music around Richmond, and another installment of this long-running series is always a welcome treat. Coordinated by Jameson Price of Lobo Marino, Silent/Music Revival pairs a local musical project with a silent move they’ve never seen before, for which they improvise a soundtrack on the spot. This Sunday night’s film is The Wild Cat, a 1921 German silent film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The director was at the dawn of his career when he made this film, and went on to gain fame as a director of uniquely sophisticated comedies of manners in the early sound-film era.

The group paired with The Wild Cat on this occasion is Yeni Nostalji, a Richmond-based ensemble led by singer-songwriter Christina Marie Gleixner. Born in America, Gleixner nonetheless was so strongly influenced by Turkish pop of the 20th century that she decided to create music in that idiom, singing in Turkish and playing songs that have a decided Eastern European influence in Yeni Nostalji. That influence shows through in the lush continental pop of their self-titled 2018 LP, and it’s sure to appear in the soundtrack they create for The Wild Cat as well. The combination of the two will provide a warm and sweet experience for your Sunday night. And if you stick around afterwards, Gallery 5 will also present a holiday-themed installment of Strange Projections, the VHS-driven experimental video montage experience. There’s no better way to wrap up your weekend.

Monday, December 16, 8 PM
Morbid Angel, Watain, Incantation @ The Broadberry – $30 in advance/$35 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Mondays are for metal, just like every day that ends in Y, and this week brings us a particularly metallic Monday with the arrival of three titans of death and black metal to Richmond’s own Broadberry. At the top of the list are those Floridian pioneers of death metal, Morbid Angel, who’ve been raging hard and heavy since well over 30 years ago. Lead guitarist Trey Azagthoth is the only remaining original member at this point, but the group currently features Steve Tucker on bass and vocals once again. Tucker, who previously fronted the band in the late 90s and early 00s, returned for 2017’s Kingdom Disdained, the 11th album to continue Morbid Angel’s tradition of releasing LPs in alphabetical order.

Like the band’s three previous albums fronted by Tucker, Kingdom Disdained is a dark, complex slab of metallic heaviness that stands strong alongside classics like Blessed Are The Sick, Formulas Fatal To The Flesh, and the almighty Altars Of Madness. With the embarrassment of riches within their catalog, Morbid Angel are sure to craft a set of pure devastation from their headlining spot on this bill. However, not to be outdone, Swedish black metallers Watain come to Richmond fresh off 2018’s triumphant Trident Wolf Eclipse LP, and their notoriously bloody live performance is sure to be quite the spectacle as well. Legendary New York death metallers Incantation will round things out with their fiery, brutal take on the genre, and are sure to get the heads banging as soon as they hit the stage. This one’s gonna rip.

Tuesday, December 17, 7 PM
Ages, Films On Song, Isabella VanKesteren @ The Camel – $5 (order tickets HERE)
This Tuesday night of locally-based music is another bargain for all you deal-hunters out there, as it affordably provides you with the opportunity to check out Ages, the latest project from the fertile mind of Richmond musician Age Shurte. Previously of Magnus Lush and quite a few other groups, Shurte now joins with musicians from such leading lights of Richmond rock as Dumb Waiter, Piranha Rama, and New Lions to bring us another wonderful helping of entrancing, powerful rock.

Well, that’s really just my best guess — as far as I can tell, Ages don’t have any music online as yet, and they haven’t played many shows either. But in light of all the talented RVA music vets involved with this project, I’m more than willing to blindly recommend checking them out. With melodic Charlottesville postpunks Films On Song and hypnotic Richmond singer-songwriter Isabella VanKesteren on the bill as well, this evening is sure to be worth way more than the five measly bucks they’re charging you to get in.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, December 13, 9 PM
Sean K. Preston & The Loaded Pistols @ Taphouse Grill (Norfolk) – $5 in advance/$8 day of show (order tickets HERE)
When you’ve named your band The Loaded Pistols, it’s hard for you to fade into the background as an artist, but one listen to Sean K. Preston’s 2018 LP, Forgive, lets you know that fading into the background is the last thing this Baltimore singer-songwriter wants to do. On tracks like “Last Call,” the opening “Barnburner,” and “Snakeskin Boots Boogie,” Preston and his Loaded Pistols draw from the most evocative aspects of mid-20th-century country music, pre-war blues, early rock n’ roll, and dark troubadours like Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave. With all those influences in tow, they create a spooky, dramatic sound that mixes all those styles together and is sure to appeal both to fans of rock n’ roll wildmen like the Gun Club and Reverend Horton Heat and country outlaws like Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash.

So if that sounds like something that’ll appeal to you, you certainly should make it your business to come to Norfolk’s Taphouse on Friday night and enjoy some high-energy sounds from Sean K. Preston & The Loaded Pistols. Sure, it’s the start of the weekend, there’s a lot more you could be doing, but really, can’t the Christmas shopping wait until Saturday morning? After seeing Preston and co. you’ll go all the way home with a smile still on your face. Can you really say the same thing about the holiday crowds at the mall? You know the answer as well as I do.

Sunday, December 15, 7:30 PM
Strike Anywhere, Bar Stool Preachers, Demons, Single-Use Plastic @ Chicho’s Backstage (Norfolk) – $17 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Strike Anywhere is from Richmond, and what’s more, they are one of the best melodic hardcore bands this town has ever produced (Avail’s their only real competition… yeah, I said it). So if you want to see them in both your and their hometown, I certainly understand that. However, the Richmond date on this particular tour finds Strike Anywhere opening for the Bouncing Souls’ 30th anniversary tour at The Broadberry — and right now, as I write, that show is already sold out. If you didn’t grab those tickets, you’re going to need to make the drive down 64 East to catch Strike Anywhere this time around.

And let me tell you, it’s worth doing. While it has at this point been an entire decade since we last got some new studio material from these guys — 2009’s Iron Front — classic singalongs like “Sunset On 32nd,” “Blaze,” and “Chorus Of One” do not diminish with age. Raising your voice to scream along with Thomas Barnett — a dude who remains a tremendously energetic frontman — is not going to feel any less powerful now than it did in years past. And you know you want to feel those feelings one more time. So do it — get your tickets, gas up the car, and make the drive. You’ll never regret it for a second.

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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: July 10 – July 16

Marilyn Drew Necci | July 10, 2019

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

FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, July 13, 5 PM
Punks For Presents: Christmas In July, feat. Operation Icy, …And Out Come The Wools, Snowed Out, Hanging From The Trio, Santa Flag @ Hardywood – Free!
Christmas. As the old song goes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Such a sentiment is certainly up for debate, but one thing’s for sure — if there’s anything you really love about Christmas, you’re as far away from it now as you could possibly get. Thankfully, the folks at Punks For Presents understand that a year is an awfully long time to wait — so once again this year, they’re bringing us a Christmas In July celebration to tide us over until the temperatures drop and the snow (doesn’t) fall once again.

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

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

Wednesday, July 10, 7 PM
Soccer Mommy, Kevin Krauter, Kate Bollinger @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Hard not to get stoked about this one. Soccer Mommy were pretty much my favorite new artist of 2018, blowing me away with their debut LP, Clean, and definitely giving me the feels with their raw, cutting lyrics on songs like “Your Dog” and “Last Girl.” Granted, there are a lot of sad indie girls with guitars out there writing songs about their angst; who you are probably has a big effect on your overall tolerance for that kind of music. But if you’re going to make room in your heart for even one of these artists, Soccer Mommy should be the one.

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

Thursday, July 11, 7 PM
Little Hustle, HotSpit, Missangelbird, Liza & The Heart-Takers @ Gallery 5 – $7
Get your weekend started a day early this Thursday night, and break out of the work-week doldrums with a bunch of rad bands at Gallery 5. Little Hustle are coming down from New York to rock us all, and their killer sound, as demonstrated on brand new album Notepasser, finds them indulging in Asobi Seksu-style delicate shoegaze moments at times, then blasting off into hard-charging Sleater-Kinney style choruses that will have you dancing around the room before you even realize what’s going on. As rad as they sound on record, they’re sure to be a tremendous experience live.

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

Friday, July 12, 8 PM
Franks & Deans, Glitterally Can’t Even @ Wonderland – $10
This one’s gonna be kind of nutty — but in a good way, I promise! Here’s the deal with Franks & Deans: in the tradition of Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, they focus on punk rock versions of classic tunes. Franks & Deans dips further into the past than Me First, though, bypassing the 70s AM Gold era for a deep dive into the tunes and styles of the Rat Pack. That’s right, this band does punk rock versions of songs by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and their legendary associates — and sometimes they mash them up with actual classic punk tunes. For example, Bobby Darin’s “Splish Splash” to the tune of Rancid’s “Roots, Radicals,” or Sinatra’s “Luck Be A Lady” sung overtop “Ghost Town” by The Specials.

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

Saturday, July 13, 9 PM
Jocko, WatchDogs, Cement Shoes, Old Gods Defied @ Champion RVA – Free!
Here’s a really interesting hardcore group that doesn’t just sound like everyone else on the scene these days: Jocko, from Omaha Nebraska. The tagline on this band is “mixing hardcore with hip hop,” but the experienced HC fans among us may then expect them to sound like Cold World. However, instead of going for the Biohazard-ish intersection of metallic breakdowns and banging beats, Jocko goes a different route, mixing a more old-school, less metallic USHC sensibility that draws from both coasts with a braggodocious vocal approach that switches back and forth from angry shouts to rhythmic rhymes.

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

Sunday, July 14, 6 PM
Phantom Limb, VE, Grem Smiley @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
When you hear a band described as “postpunk,” there’s probably a certain image that comes into your head — one that involves laser lights piercing the gloom of a dark hazy club as a band dressed in all black does its level best to sound like Joy Division. Phantom Limb can easily be called postpunk, but they are definitely not that kind of band. Instead, on their 2017 LP Townies, they tap into a wild rock n’ roll energy that lands somewhere between the spooky garage punk of bands like Ex-Cult and the synth-punk madness of Lost Sounds, all while keeping an atmosphere of intriguing mystery floating around.

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

Monday, July 15, 7 PM
Kevin Seconds, Josh Small, Sammy Kay @ Gallery 5 – $15 (order tickets HERE)
You’ve really gotta love this. Hardcore pioneer Kevin Seconds, who began his legendary, long-running group 7 Seconds at the very dawn of the 80s and went on to influence multiple generations of punks with his patented blend of unflinching socio-political commentary, hardcore energy, and unforgettable melodic hooks, has been performing solo acoustic shows off and on since the late 80s. These days, with 7 Seconds having finally ended in 2018 after nearly 40 years, catching him solo is certainly your best bet — and with his solo tunes, most recently brought into the world on his 2016 album Band-Aid On A Bullet Wound, carrying every bit the high quality 7 Seconds’ music always had, it’s a guarantee of a fun musical evening.

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

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

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

Elsewhere Around The State:

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

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

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

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

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: May 1 – May 7

Marilyn Drew Necci | May 1, 2019

Topics: Acid Dad, Bandito's, Black Plastic, Cannabis Corpse, CAPTCHA, Charlie's American Cafe, Crucial Rip, Deli Kings, Ecstatic Vision, Elliot Johnson, Fontaines DC, Gorod, Heavy Temple, Hotspit, IDLES, Keilan Creech, Kenneka Cook, Ladada, Micawber, moniker, Murphy's Law, Nightcreature, Pissing Contest, Portrayal Of Guilt, Psycroptic, Railgun, Rebekah Rafferty and The Wakes, shows you must see, Sinister Haze, Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Strawberry Street Neighborhood Laundromat, T Star, Taphouse Grill, The Black Moods, The Broadberry, The Camel, The National, The Northerners, The Unabombers, The Wimps, Voarm, weekend plans, Whitesnake, Wiegedood, Wonderland

FEATURED SHOW
Monday, May 6, 7 PM
Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood, Portrayal Of Guilt @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $18 in advance/$20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Monday is traditionally the most difficult night of the week on which to find a rad show at which to rock out. However, there have to be exceptions to every rule, and this week the exception to the Monday rule is hitting us in a big way. Huzzah! This bonanza for heavy music fans rolls into Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall Monday night to decimate the vicinity of downtown Richmond and to make the beginning of our week that much better.

Skeletonwitch are leading this parade, and while this long-running black-death-thrash band has been through some trials and tribulations over the past few years that at one point saw them doing a tour fronted by Richmond’s own Andy Horn (Battlemaster), they’ve landed on their feet. Last year, they released their absolutely killer sixth album, Devouring Radiant Light, introducing permanent new vocalist Adam Clemans into the fold and showing that the removal of their original singer did nothing to diminish their energetic metal power. They’ll be bringing the headbanging rage to Capital Ale House with all the fury you’ve always known from them, so prepare yourself.

And prepare yourself for a trio of diverse and amazing support acts as well. Soft Kill are at the head of this one, and this postpunk group has definitely channeled the feel of fog-enshrouded guitar-driven UK bands of past decades, most prominently the Chameleons, on their latest album, Savior. Your head may not bang during their set, but your heart will be moved nonetheless. As for Belgian band Wiegedood, my less-than-perfect understanding of Dutch leads me to hear their name as something a surfer bro might shout as he catches a really excellent wave, but it turns out it means “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome,” a fitting name for a band with such a raging, shredding, hyperspeed black metal sound. Expect blastbeats and tremolo-picking aplenty when these guys take the stage. And please, do NOT be fashionably late and neglect openers Portrayal Of Guilt — this outstanding band has arisen from the screamo scene in recent years with some incredibly scathing, heavy, and passionate hardcore that must be heard to be believed. Make the most of your Monday night — go to this show.

Wednesday, May 1, 7:30 PM
Whitesnake, The Black Moods @ The National – $50 (order tickets HERE)
Y’all know I’m old by now, but I’m even older than you realize, because I’m officially stoked that Whitesnake will be in town tonight. And look, we need to set the record straight on Whitesnake — because while I know everyone today only remembers them for that groundbreaking classic of car-dancing, “Here We Go Again” (a great song, to avoid misconceptions), they actually have a 40-year career of heavy-blues awesomeness. Led for their entire career by former Deep Purple vocalist David Coverdale, Whitesnake included as many as three ex-Purple players in their early days, and has also, over the years, featured guitar-slingers from groups like Thin Lizzy and Def Leppard, as well as the legendary axe-slayer himself, Steve Vai.

These days, Whitesnake — who were already 10 years deep into their career when “Here I Go Again” hit the top 40 — have Reb Beach of honest-to-god glam metallers Winger on lead guitar, and they’re only a week or so away from releasing their 13th album, Flesh And Blood. There’s definitely some of that glam-metal sleaze going on on the album’s first new single, but let’s be real, this night is all about their Zeppelin/Purple-style blues-metal classics: “Fool For Your Loving,” “Still Of The Night,” “Slide It In,” “Love Hunter”… it’s gonna rule. Apparently you can only get tickets through secondary sellers at this point, and they’re going for twice face value, which is too rich for my blood, but if you’ve got the scratch to drop a C-note on a Wednesday night, you’re sure to have a blast at this one.

Thursday, May 2, 9 PM
Pissing Contest, Nightcreature, Railgun @ Bandito’s – Free!
Hey all you punk-as-fuck Richmond ragers out there — take notice of this particular Thursday night gig! And not just because it’s free and there’s beer there. If you like to spike your hair and raise two fingers to the world, Richmond’s own Pissing Contest are the band for you. This quartet’s been venting their speedy, anti-social frustration on this city for over five years now, and they’re releasing their second full-length collection of punk tunes full of, um, piss and vinegar at this free Bandito’s gig. So get stoked.

The new Pissing Contest album is titled The Fountain, and its cover art makes clear that the album’s title is a reference to Marcel Duchamp’s notorious Dadaist found sculpture of the same name — a porcelain urinal of 1910s vintage. That’s proof that these guys are no dummies, and that they understand the process of making powerful art from shunned and rejected aspects of society. No wonder their new album contains songs with titles like “Buttfuck (My Cigarette),” “Boner Forest,” and “I’m Like King Midas But For Shit.” There’s a point being made here, and it’s being made in a loud, fast, furious fashion. The result is the ultimate in catchy punk rock fun. Don’t drink too much beer or eat too many Bandito’s tacos before their set — that sort of behavior does not go well with all the circle-pit action you’ll be partaking of when Pissing Contest hit the stage.

Friday, May 3, 9 PM
Ecstatic Vision, Heavy Temple, Sinister Haze @ Wonderland – $10
Do you like your music trippy? No, more trippy than that — like Hawkwind’s Space Ritual crossed with early Ash Ra Tempel, with saxophones blaring and electronic sounds making you think a spaceship is launching right behind your back even as a really heavy rock groove cranks right through the center of your skull and makes it impossible not to nod along. If so, you’re well on your way to appreciating the sheer enormity of the psychedelic power Philadelphia’s Ecstatic Vision will unleash upon Shockoe Bottom at Wonderland this Friday night.

Ecstatic Vision pull from the exactly the sort of biker-psych fury and German cosmische motorik I was talking about above on their 2017 LP, Raw Rock Fury, making the connection even more explicit on 2018’s Under The Influence EP, where they cover Hawkwind, the MC5, and Zambian psychedelic-guitar legend Keith Mlevhu, among others. Blowing minds is their mission when they come to Richmond, and they’ll be bringing witchy doom-metal crushers Heavy Temple down with them, just to leave us all properly pulverized and in the perfect mindset for the space journey on which we’re all about to embark.

Saturday, May 4, 3 PM
Laundropalooza 2.0, feat. Rebekah Rafferty and the Wakes, Keilan Creech, Weekend Plans, The Wimps, T Star, Deli Kings, The Northerners, Kenneka Cook, Moniker, Elliot Johnson @ Strawberry Street Neighborhood Laundromat – Free!
This is the kind of thing I wouldn’t normally believe could happen in a town like Richmond. An all-day Saturday show… in a laundromat? Get outta here. But don’t be skeptical, because it’s all true, and what’s more, it’s been done before! And why not? Spring is here, the temperatures are rising, the skies are finally clearing, and it’s time to enjoy the world once more. Considering that advance promo for this event advises you to bring a lawn chair and/or a blanket, I’m guessing it’s happening outside — and as I recall, the Strawberry Street Laundromat does have a lovely backyard and patio, so it really does all add up to a lovely afternoon.

The music looks to be pretty great too — the ten excellent Richmond artists performing here are mostly of the sort that don’t need that much amplification and electricity to put their sound across effectively, so expect a lot of acoustic sounds from local stars like Kenneka Cook and The Wimps, intriguing newcomers like Moniker and Elliot Johnson, perennials like The Northerners and Weekend Plans, and a whole lot more! Plus, if you have laundry to do, this is the perfect time to do it. God knows the hours sitting around the laundromat can sometimes get pretty boring — but having a free show break out behind the building just as you throw in your whites is the perfect antidote for that issue. So enjoy washing clothes for once, and head over to Strawberry Street Laundromat after brunch on Saturday. You won’t be sorry.

Sunday, May 5, 10 PM
Black Plastic, HotSpit, CAPTCHA @ Bandito’s – Free!
Sunday night is always a great night to head down to Bandito’s. There aren’t always free shows featuring great local bands happening, but it happens more often than not, and this Sunday is one of the nights where local music is definitely on the menu at my personal favorite local spot to get heaping plates of nachos — so don’t miss out! Black Plastic are a Richmond band who’ve been around for a couple of years but kept the releases to a minimum; thus far, they only have one official single to their name.

However, what that single has made abundantly clear is that they have an excellent songwriting sense and the ability to crank out catchy, memorable, and delightfully off-kilter tunes in flawless fashion. So their set this Sunday night is certainly essential. But the same can be said about HotSpit, who I wrote about only two weeks ago right here in this very column. At the time, I called them “a promising shoegaze quartet with strong vocal melodies and ringing guitars,” and I can’t imagine that much has changed since mid-April, so we’ll go with that once again, and further inform you that, like Black Plastic, big things seem assuredly on the horizon for this outfit. Grabbing a chance to see them for free as you enjoy a plate of tacos is definitely the move. Newcomers CAPTCHA, who are certainly no slouches in the “let’s come up with an ungoogleable band name” sweepstakes, kick this one off. Be there.

Monday, May 6, 7:30 PM
IDLES, Fontaines DC @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$17 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Playing basic three-chord punk can be the sort of decision that leads people to think that a band is untalented; especially today, four decades into the punk rock era, it’s the rare band that can both rage and riff in simple, direct, aggressive fashion and make clear from jump that they are bringing a fierce, critical intelligence to their take on no-frills punk. IDLES did this exact thing on their first LP, Brutalism, with sardonic songs that mocked anti-intellectualism and apathy.

But IDLES went through a lot between that album and their second album, Joy As An Act of Resistance, released last fall. And you can tell; while the raging punk sound remains intact on their second album, this UK band’s approach is significantly more refined, incorporating six-minute dirges and soul covers as well as lyrics that go beyond the first record’s cooking-show references into dark takes on depression, addiction, and death. But in the end, the group’s push is away from nihilism and toward finding positive aspects of life, making it all worth living through and smiling about. They certainly do so with their powerful music, which is if anything getting both more aggressive and more complex; at the Broadberry Monday night, they’ll make you think even as they stir your boots toward the pit. What better way to evoke the spirit of punk in 2019 could there be?

Tuesday, May 7, 6 PM
Psycroptic, Cannabis Corpse, Gorod, Micawber, Crucial Rip, Voarm @ The Camel – $20 (order tickets HERE)
To the uninitiated, death metal probably seems like a lot of undifferentiated low-end noise. However, to those of us who’ve been listening to it for decades, there are many fine gradations that appear in what, to be honest, still is pretty much a wall of unrelenting aggression and brutality. This show at The Camel Tuesday night is definitely an unrelenting evening of death fucking metal in the offing. However, the bands on this stacked bill showcase all sorts of different approaches to the same basic template. And that’s what makes this one truly unmissable. Take Psycroptic, the veteran Australian group headlining this bill. They’re currently on tour in support of their seventh album, As The Kingdom Drowns. On that album — and surely onstage at the Camel Tuesday night — they display mastery of a technical approach to death metal that mixes complex riffing and melodic undertones with powerful brutal breakdowns in a fascinating multi-layered fashion.

Meanwhile, co-headliners Cannabis Corpse, from right here in Richmond, giving their tales of marijuana-infused terror a crushing yet somehow catchy energy, which is pointed straight at your face. Take a big hit of that, and then make sure you give some attention to French thrashers Gorod, whose riffy, progressive approach to the power of death metal shows complex talent while still making sure to rip your head off on a regular basis. There are multiple other bands on this bill, all bringing their own rich understandings of death metal to the stage, all of which will be more than worth your time. Don’t fear the metal — give yourself a chance to understand it. After all, as we all know, the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. And there will surely be excessive headbanging at this gig.

Picks from elsewhere around the state:

Saturday, May 4, 9 PM
Murphy’s Law, The Unabombers @ Taphouse Grill – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Where New York Hardcore is concerned, it doesn’t get much more OG than Murphy’s Law. Formed by singer Jimmy Gestapo (who mostly just goes by Jimmy G these days, for reasons that should be obvious) in 1982, this band’s fun n’ games take on hardcore emphasizes the sort of goofy reprobate attitude that was always the flip side of punk’s iconoclastic, anti-social approach to the world. As a result, over the course of their five albums, Murphy’s Law have often focused on drugs, parties, and avoiding responsibility — themes with widespread appeal among the punk rock masses that may also serve to explain why they’ve been around for over 35 years and, as previously mentioned, only released five albums.

These days, Murphy’s Law are approaching two full decades since their last release of new material, so let’s be clear — this show’s mainly gonna be a big singalong party. From speedy early tunes like “Beer” and “California Pipeline” to midtempo thrashers like “Beer Bath” and “Panty Raid” as well as their many noteworthy ska-infused tunes like “Back With A Bong” and “1%,” you can expect a lot of fun, catchy tunes to be dished out for your slamdancing entertainment. And then you can go home and sleep through work the next day (assuming you have the misfortune of working on Sundays), because as Murphy’s Law would be the first to tell you, living up to adult responsibilities is very overrated. Instead, let’s have some fun.

Sunday, May 5, 7 PM
Acid Dad, Ladada @ Charlie’s American Cafe – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
For a fortysomething nerd like me, who grew up parsing the finer differences between My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, and the Catherine Wheel, it’s hard to figure what actually counts as “shoegaze” anymore. But the mere fact that we have to have this conversation about Acid Dad is in and of itself indicative of something — that something being ringing guitars, hazy distortion, laid-back vocals, and heavy beats, all adding up to a sound that is, if not “shoegaze” proper, at least guaranteed to appeal to fans of good old-fashioned alternative rock.

On their self-titled 2018 debut LP, Acid Dad effortlessly conjure memories of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead in their brief but powerful heyday (think Source Tags & Codes), as well as Thee Oh Sees, Ride, and some of the cleaner Sonic Youth albums. They rock hard, is the ultimate takeaway, and chances are they’ll only rock harder in a live environment, where they can really crank up the amps and let it rip. So do yourself a favor; whether you’re a Hampton Roads denizen or a Richmonder with an itch for a road trip, head down to Norfolk and catch Acid Dad at Charlie’s American Cafe. It’ll be the perfect way to wrap up a lovely spring 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