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

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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

Phutureprimitive and AN-TEN-NAE at The Broadberry on 12/4

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Broadberry Entertainment Group Presents!

Phutureprimitive and AN-TEN-NAE at The Broadberry

Phutureprimitive and an-ten-nae
at The Broadberry
Wednesday, December 4th
$18 ADV, $22 DOS
Doors: 8pm, Show: 9pm

Phutureprimitive
http://phutureprimitivemusic.com

an-ten-nae
http://an-ten-nae.net

Phutureprimitive and An-ten-nae team up to bring you the Altered Frequency Tour. The two California Bay Area acts will be bringing their unique fusion of west-coast bass music across the US on a comprehensive national tour. Tickets on-sale Friday September 6.

Phutureprimitive is the moniker of Bay Area producer and songwriter Rain. Early childhood photos reveal Rain sitting at the piano plinking keys, grinning from ear to ear… a true sign of things to come. Continuing his early fascination with music, Rain was later drawn to electronic music, inspired by its ability to combine the best of organically played instruments and the synthetic pleasures of sounds more exotic to the human ear. After beginning a DJ career in the 90s, Rain began incorporating the music he was making in his home studio into his DJ sets. That was all it took to trigger a full-blown love affair with electronic music and the process of its creation… and Phutureprimitive was born.

Phutureprimitive’s music is singular and unique in its approach. Lush melodies drift across intricate rhythms, groove heavy beats and warm, fuzzy bass lines. Often exploring a dark and dense palette, his music also manages to convey a sense of tranquility and beauty, engaging the listener into hypnotic movement and often escalating into a full-on kinetic experience. Shimmering with cinematic qualities, his music ultimately speaks to the body, mind and soul.

An-ten-nae

An-ten-nae is an instrumental figure on the west coast, from his role as music director, producing legendary events at the iconic 1015 Folsom in San Francisco, to his signature Acid Crunk compilations which helped define an era and help lay the foundation to what is now the Westcoast Bass scene. One thing is always constant, and that is constant evolution. With numerous successful projects like Dimond Saints, The Invisible People, DnA, An-ten-nae always manages to reinvent himself and push his boundaries. Utilizing his own custom set up, An-ten-nae pushes the envelope with his live remixing abilities and wildly engaging performances.
An-ten-nae has well over 200 releases under his belt and collaborations far and wide including artists like Bassnectar, Beats Antique, Dirtwire, Desert Dwellers. He has charted in the iTunes Top 10, constantly in top charts on Beatport and featured in the Huffington Post, This Song Is Sickand Billboard. With over 60 Million combined streams / Downloads to date, and has played such venues and festivals such as Red Rocks, Electric Forest, Shambhala, Lightning in a Bottle. 2019 promises to be his most prolific one yet with the launch of WHYT RBBT and a constant stream of new music that sees him pushing boundaries into new realms with exciting new collaborations and productions.

La Dispute, Touché Amoré, Empath at The Broadberry

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La Dispute with Touché Amoré and Empath at The Broadberry on November 26

Broadberry Entertainment Group Presents!

La Dispute, Touché Amoré, Empath at The Broadberry at The Broadberry with Touche Amore and Empath
Tuesday, November 26th, 2019
$25 in advance
Doors at 7pm, Music at 8pm.

La Dispute – Post- Rock
https://www.ladispute.org/
Spotify: bit.ly/LaDisputespotify
Listen: “ANXIETY PANORAMA:” bit.ly/anxietypanorama

Touche Amore
https://www.toucheamore.com/
Listen: “Benediction:” bit.ly/benedictionTA

Empath
https://empathx.bandcamp.com/
Listen : “Soft Shape:” bit.ly/EmpathSoft

La Dispute has never been a band prone to settling. The five-piece from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is responsible for some of the most uncompromising, experimental hardcore music of the last decade. From their 2008 debut (in their current formation) Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair, to 2011’s Wildlife, to 2015’s Rooms of the House, La Dispute have continually pushed themselves to find new ways to portray some of the most difficult and universally affecting subject matters. Casting a wide stylistic net that includes – but isn’t limited to – jazz, blues, spoken word, screamo and prog rock, La Dispute have developed a sound that, while constantly evolving, is unmistakably theirs.

VA Shows You Must See This Week: November 20 – November 26

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, November 22 & Saturday November 23
Raw Mom Weekend, Night 1: Alfred, Trapcry, Archangel, F.R.E.E.
Night 2: Gumming, True Body, VV, Lance Bangs, Sofia Lakis
@ Gallery 5 – single night: $8 in advance/$10 at the door. Weekend pass: $15 in advance (order tickets HERE)
Hope everyone’s getting their wallets limbered up, their psyches strengthened, and their cars fit for traveling, because it’s that time again! Yes indeed, folks, the holidays are coming sooner than you think — Thanksgiving is a mere eight days away, and Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa are only a month past that. It’s coming time to see the fam, with all the happiness and terror that entails. But before the holiday season officially kicks in, let’s celebrate our river city fam with the first ever Raw Mom Weekend at Gallery 5.

My old pal Rivanna Youngpool has really outdone herself with this one, bringing two nights of incredible local talent together on the Gallery 5 stage to celebrate the ever-renewing wellspring of talent that is the Richmond music scene. Night one is the night on which we will all dance, featuring hip hop, ambient electro, and psychedelic dance grooves from several different politically-informed artists of color. Rapper Alfred will headline and bring his lysergic beats and tongue-twisting rhymes to keep your ears burning and your feet moving. Trapcry, meanwhile, brings powerful electric funk with a strong social conscience, as Archangel explores spaced-out anime-inspired breakbeats.

That’s Friday night, and on Saturday, night two brings us a whole different approach that’s sure to be equally invigorating. The noisy, quirky, brilliant, powerful punk rock of Gumming tops the bill and promises to trip you out and rip your head off all at the same time. Things will get more gothic at points with sets from True Body and VV, while Lance Bangs will bring you an always-pleasing dose of slack indie rockin’. Sofia Lakis will kick things off with some beats to ensure that there’s plenty of dancing on this night as well. What better way do we have to celebrate the last weekend before the holidays spread their ambivalent malaise across the next six weeks? I can’t think of one.

Wednesday, November 20, 9 PM
Ant The Symbol, GIANT, Johnny Ciggs, Reppa Ton, Rah Scrilla, Jarv, C Shreve @ The Richmonder – Free!
Over here at RVA Mag, we’ve been following the work of Ant The Symbol for a solid decade now, since back when he was still Just Plain Ant of the Just Plain Sounds crew. He’s been growing and maturing as a producer and musician ever since, and over the past few years, his massive collaborative albums have become event listening for the entire RVA hip hop scene whenever he releases one. THE WHAT?! is the latest in a string of Ant The Symbol releases on his post-JPS home of Gritty City Records, and it shows that as time goes on, the man just gets better at making incredible music for the city’s best to spit rhymes over.

That doesn’t mean he’s getting predictable — even his latest crew of collaborators can acknowledge that. The first thing Kels says on his THE WHAT?! track, “My Way,” is, “I love you, Ant, but this beat’s weird.” Speaking personally, that’s why I look forward to each new Ant The Symbol project — where others get predictable, he gets creative. He’s put out so many records I’ve honestly lost count, and he still hasn’t come anywhere near repeating himself. That’s why you should make a point to show up tonight at Gritty City’s longtime live home, which is called The Richmonder instead of Emilio’s now but is still the same dope spot. Ant The Symbol’s gonna join with his Gritty City crew and a whole bunch of other talented rappers from Richmond and beyond to bring you the freshest new sounds this city has to offer, in the form of his new album. Don’t be left asking, “the what?” Show up tonight so you know the answer.

Thursday, November 21, 7 PM
Wild Pink, Addy, Recluse Raccoon, Beeline @ Poor Boys – $5
If you’ve been seeing the phrase “Prsmcat Presents” on a bunch of good shows lately, you’re not the only one — this new booking project from members of Majjin Boo has brought a cornucopia of excellent live music to the city over the past couple months, and established themselves as a name to look out for. This visit from Brooklyn’s own Wild Pink is just the latest positive result of Prsmcat’s efforts around town, many of which have involved the return of rad live sounds to the backroom stage at Poor Boys, the venue formerly known as Flora and, before that, Balliceaux. I can’t imagine anyone having any complaints about that.

Wild Pink are definitely worth spending a Thursday night in the aforementioned back room. On last year’s Yolk In The Fur, it’s clear why this trio dedicated their latest album to the memory of Tom Petty — that recently-departed heartland rocker is an obvious influence for Wild Pink, one they feed through a 21st century sensibility that evokes the best work by The War On Drugs. It’s smooth, comfortable, and ever-so-slightly melancholy, in a manner sure to evoke a sad smile of recognition. Wild Pink will be joined on this weekend-preview night at Poor Boys by some excellent local indie groups as well, foremost among them Recluse Raccoon. The results are sure to charm you.

Friday, November 22, 7:30 PM
Bonsai Trees, Dropping Ugly, Linden Row @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
Damn, y’all, I love it when this happens — when I’m poking through a list of bands, all of which I’m unfamiliar with, trying to find the makings of a killer show. I always find something good — this is Richmond, after all; we do live music RIGHT. But it’s rare that I am totally blown away by a band whose name I’ve never even heard before. However, Connecticut’s Bonsai Trees are that rare band.

This talented quartet’s recently-released Learn To Grow LP came out of nowhere to blindside me with its incredible collection of melodic, emotional alt-rock tunes. The more I listen to it, the more stoked I get. At this rate, I’ll be bouncing all over the room by the time they even take the Garden Grove stage Friday night. And whether you’ve heard them before or not, I pretty much guarantee that once they start playing, you’ll be just as over the moon as I am. The fact that their show is free and also features talented RVA combos Dropping Ugly and Linden Row merely sweetens the already-delicious pot. Is that how that particular cliche works? Oh, who cares. All I care about is you going to see Bonsai Trees Friday night. Seriously, do it.

Saturday, November 23, 8 PM
David Shultz, Nick Woods, Jonathan Vassar, Trey Burnart Hall @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $8 (order tickets HERE)
By now, you’re probably used to seeing “singer-songwriter night” tagged onto certain performances that take place around this city, and you’ve come to expect certain things — talented solo performers who are for the most part just getting started with their musical careers, playing a selection of tunes you probably won’t have heard before but you just might love. This Saturday night show at Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall could accurately be termed a singer-songwriter night as well, but if it were, it’d be a particularly stacked one, featuring as it does multiple Richmond musicians who’ve built decade-plus careers here in the river city.

Take David Shultz, for example. From his days fronting alt-country combo The Skyline to more recent solo acoustic outings and now some brand new tunes created with the assistance of multiple Spacebomb-affiliated creators (perhaps a harbinger of positive things to come?), Shultz has quite the track record going for him — and he’s clearly far from done as a creative musical force. His old pal Nick Woods is similar — once the Richmond-based frontman of indie-folk group Orioles, these days he’s making country-style acoustic music down in Nashville. And of course, Jonathan Vassar’s heartfelt folk-Americana sounds have been a constant here in Richmond for over 15 years now. Trey Burnart Hall is a relative newcomer by comparison, but he’s an incredibly talented one. If it’s a showcase for some of the most talented singer-songwriters this city’s ever produced that you crave, you’re in for a major treat at Capital Ale House this Saturday night.

Sunday, November 24, 6 PM
RVA Rap Elite Season Finale, feat. Team Radio (Radio B, Michael Millions, Cole Hicks, Cane, Intalek) vs Team Petey (Nickelus F, Big Sty, Easalio, Illa Styles, Fan Ran), Bravo vs. Chance Fischer, Big Sty, BlackLiq @ The Dark Room – $10
Battle rap is a strong tradition that dates back to the very dawn of hip hop, but it’s had its ups and downs over the decades. Freestyle battles between talented rappers are definitely on the upswing here in Richmond, though, and have been for the past few years, from the work of the Southpaw Battle Coalition to the star-studded presentations by RVA Rap Elite. This particular event constitutes the 2019 Season Finale for these events, which have relocated with the closing of Champion RVA to The Hofheimer Building’s Dark Room.

RVA Rap Elite majordomo Radio B is really pulling out all the stops for this last event of 2019, too — he and his AGM partner Nickelus F have each formed five-MC teams that will battle it out in a cypher sure to have faces melting and heads exploding all over the Hof. Between Radio B’s enlistment of heavy hitters Michael Millions, Cole Hicks, and more; and Nickelus F’s recruitment of Illa Styles, Fan Ran, and other world-class talents, it’s hard to predict who could prevail in this clash of the hip hop titans. Meanwhile, Bravo and Chance Fischer will strut their own stuff in a battle that’s guaranteed to showcase some devastating rhymes from these two top-level rhyme spitters. And of course, BlackLiq and Big Sty will each bring the fire with sets of their own. If you care at all about hip hop in RVA, you have got to make it out to this one — it really doesn’t get better.

Monday, November 25, 7 PM
Jimbo Mathus @ The Canal Club – $15 (order tickets HERE)
It’s entirely possible that right now, you’re thinking what I was thinking when I first saw this listing: “Jimbo Mathus… do I know who he is?” You almost certainly do, but chances are you know him better as the co-founder and leader of the Squirrel Nut Zippers than you do as a solo performer. Everyone remembers the Zippers from their late 90s hit, “Hell,” but that quick taste of success did them a disservice, as their old-time Dixieland jazz approach got them swept into the “swing revival” dustbin with the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and old VHS copies of Swingers when the turn of the millennium rolled around.

Meanwhile, Jimbo Mathus was and remains a world-class talent with a wide-ranging creative sensibility that finds him dipping into the worlds of folk, blues, and Southern soul, as he’s proven with his 2019 solo album Incinerator — his fourth under his own name. The album sees him collaborate with former Zippers bandmate Andrew Bird, as well as Lily Hiatt and members of the Drive-By Truckers. The result isn’t that much like your memories of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, but it’s sure to be a hit with anyone who loves heartfelt American music created by truly unique characters that haven’t been homogenized by our country’s creeping suburban wasteland. That’s what you’ll get from Jimbo Mathus, and you’re going to love it.

Tuesday, November 26, 8 PM
La Dispute, Touche Amore, Empath @ The Broadberry – $25 (order tickets HERE)
One of the first articles I wrote for RVA Mag, nearly a decade ago, was about Touche Amore and Pianos Become The Teeth coming to town to perform. While La Dispute wasn’t part of that gig, they were, along with those other two bands, part of the loosely-aligned group known as The Wave. This was a cadre of half a dozen or so bands who formed an affiliation based on their mutual status as groups attempting to thread the needle between emo and hardcore at the dawn of the 2010s. Those groups have gone in a variety of musical directions since then — Pianos Become The Teeth have dropped the screaming and found a deep well of melodic emotion to draw from, Touche Amore have remained closely musically aligned to hardcore even as their exploration of deeply fraught lyrical content has cut ever closer to the bone.

As for La Dispute, 2019 has seen them sign to Epitaph Records and release their first LP in five years, Panorama. On it, vocalist Jordan Dreyer — always the most literarily inclined of The Wave’s songwriters — has gone deeper than ever into his novelistic inclinations, exploring his own emotional responses to trauma and tragedy in the lives of those he cares about over the course of the album’s 10 songs, even as the rest of the band generates dynamic compositions that move from quiet introspection to overwhelming crescendos in a matter of minutes. The result is an incredible musical journey that will have a powerful impact on all who witness it — especially in the live environment La Dispute will create at The Broadberry this Tuesday night. Let it impact you. Be there.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, November 22, 6 PM
Femme Funk, feat. Shagwuf, Ships In The Night, Harli & The House of Jupiter, Dropping Julia, Marti @ The Southern Cafe (Charlottesville) – $15 (order tickets HERE)
This Friday night in Charlottesville, The Southern Cafe will bring us the third annual celebration of C-ville’s showcase of femme musicians, Femme Funk. This year’s event is set to benefit Planned Parenthood of Charlottesville, and with the kind of peril reproductive rights and women’s health care face in Trump’s America, you’d be hard pressed to find a better cause than this one. Plus, you’ll get to hear a highly diverse set of sounds from Central Virginia performers of a feminine persuasion, and that’s always a joy.

It’s especially a joy when the evening is headlined by the unrestrained rock n’ roll passion of Shagwuf, whose blues-inflected alt-rock has been blowing minds around VA and beyond for quite a few years now. The evening will also feature as wide a variety of sounds as is possible to find in one room on one evening, from Harli & the House Of Jupiter’s powerful soul-punk fusion to Ships In The Night’s dark, ambient electronic sounds to the rootsy pop of Dropping Julia and the indie rocking of Marti. See how much femme artists have to offer the world of Virginia music and take a drive up 64 this Friday night for Femme Funk — you won’t be sorry.

Tuesday, November 26, 7:30 PM
Immortal Technique, GOOGZ @ Elevation27 (Virginia Beach) – $20-$25 (order tickets HERE)
If you’ve just been following the lists of new releases over the past eight years or so, you could be forgiven for thinking that Immortal Technique had retired from the hip hop game. We haven’t gotten any new music out of the most radical rapper in the game since his 2011 collection, The Martyr, and while he swears he’s still working on long-promised fifth album The Middle Passage, there’s no release date as yet. That’s all the more reason to head to Virginia Beach this Tuesday and see Immortal Technique murder the mic, live and in person.

While these days he’s probably better known for his radical left-wing politics due to multiple appearances on the shows of Joe Rogan and (uh) Alex Jones, Technique’s hip hop mixes those politics with some incredibly harsh lyrical content, leaving him somewhere between political rap and outright horrorcore — a dichotomy clearly visible in songs like “Point Of No Return” and “Dance With The Devil.” Regardless of whether you agree with everything Immortal Technique raps about (personally, I’ve never been a fan of his casual use of homophobic slurs), he’s an incredibly talented and provocative MC of the sort who doesn’t come around very often at all. So go see him, because there’s no telling when you’ll get the chance again.

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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: Gumming, by Joey Wharton, via Twitter

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elsewhere Around The State:

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

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

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

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

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

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond