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RVA Shows You Must See This Week: April 13 – April 19

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FEATURED SHOW
Monday, April 18, 7 PM
Circle Jerks, 7 Seconds, Negative Approach @ The Broadberry – $35 in advance (order tickets HERE)
Richmond is in for a veritable bonanza of amazing live shows this week, and it all centers around this amazing triple bill of first-wave hardcore bands, all of whom are ready, willing, and able to run rings around millennials half their age and leave The Broadberry in a smoldering heap. It’ll be a blast. You need to be there. But on the off chance you didn’t get handed mixtapes with all three of these bands on them when you were in ninth grade (status quo for teenage punks when I was in high school — which was admittedly over a quarter-century ago) and actually need an explanation, let’s discuss the bands on this bill.

First and foremost, the legendary Circle Jerks. This pioneering California hardcore quartet was formed by Keith Morris (Black Flag/OFF!) and guitarist Greg Hetson (Redd Kross/Bad Religion), who are still at it over 40 years after their classic debut LP, Group Sex, redefined punk rock in terms of speed and energy, helping to define the then-nascent genre of hardcore. In 2022, they’re on tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary reissue of their second LP, 1982’s Wild In The Streets, which just came out on new label Trust Records in a dramatically expanded version. You should definitely order your own copy of that one, but also make sure you show up for this show, because unbelievably, even at the age of 66, Keith Morris is still the energetic maniac we all saw for the first time in 1980 LA punk documentary Decline Of Western Civilization — and you better believe the music still rules. Come ready to skank.

And show up on time, because speaking of amazingly well-preserved frontmen, Negative Approach leader John Brannon is still an absolute hardcore psycho beast, and he and the rest of his band will be bringing their pioneering Detroit hardcore rage to the Broadberry stage to blow all of us away at the start of this show. Not to be outdone, brothers Kevin Seconds and Steve Youth are back together yet again at the head of their legendary melodic hardcore group, 7 Seconds, whose sound an old friend of mine once described as “the aggression of Minor Threat with the hooks of the Misfits” — I can’t argue with that. The point is this: all three of these bands have been incredible and highly worth your time for every second of the past 40-plus years, and they still will be this Monday night. If you don’t already have your ticket, you know what to do.

Wednesday, April 13, 7 PM
Guerilla Toss, Toxic Moxie @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $14 in advance, $16 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Long running postpunk group Guerilla Toss has been through a whole bunch of changes recently, and they’ve put all of them on display on their brand new album, Famously Alive (their first for the legendary Sub Pop label), which was just released into the world at large a few weeks ago. If you dug the driving, off-kilter funk weirdness and hyperkinetic velocity of previous Guerilla Toss releases, rest assured, the band is still going to make you want to dance like a maniac when they take the Richmond Music Hall stage. There’s a decidedly brighter vibe to their new album, which is truly wild since the songs on it were put together in isolation during the pandemic. Hey, stressful situations inspire different things in everybody.

At this point, though, Guerilla Toss are itching to get back into the world and share the music they’ve created with all of us. And considering how much we all are still recovering from a year and a half without any live music of any kind, what they’re bringing to RVA is exactly what this city needs. Better yet, they’re joined on this bill by Toxic Moxie, who should by now need no introduction to the Richmond music faithful. On the off chance you’re new here, though, let me explain: Toxic Moxie bring a melodic, nigh-psychedelic vibe to songs that are fundamentally constructed at the point where disco groove and punk rock bash come together. Honestly, it’s not too different from what Guerilla Toss does, guaranteeing that these two great sounds will sound even greater together. Make it happen, cap’n.

Thursday, April 14, 7 PM
Pom Pom Squad, Chloe Lilac, Lobby Boy @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $15 in advance, $17 day of show (order tickets HERE)
There’s a real renaissance in melodic punk rock happening these days, and I for one am here for it. And honestly, the best examples of the genre’s recent peaks I can think of are all coming from women. Take Pom Pom Squad’s Mia Berrin, for example, who starts the debut full-length from her poppy, punky project with a song talking about wanting to marry “the scariest girl on the cheerleading team.” Who can’t relate to that one? More importantly, who isn’t totally rocked to death by the many excellent songs on Pom Pom Squad’s Death Of A Cheerleader? Look, if you aren’t, you should probably check your pulse. That’s all I’m saying.

Who am I kidding? I’m gonna say more, and we all know it. The first thing I’m gonna say is that Pom Pom Squad rule more than enough to be the sole reason you come out to Richmond Music Hall on a Thursday night. The second thing I’m gonna say is that the opening acts on this bill constitute one heck of a bonus, with New York’s Chloe Lilac bringing some excellent pop music of her own into the mix. She’s got the biting wit of prime-era Courtney Love mixed with the emotional electro-pop sound of Sky Ferreira at her best, and she’s gonna make you feel some feels when she hits the stage, that’s for sure. Harrisonburg’s Lobby Boy, who only a couple weeks ago released an excellent debut full-length, Pretty Songs/Pursuit Of Personhood, will bring their catchy, vaguely retro indie-electro sound to the river city once more. As openers go, they’re a real treat. So yeah: show up on time for this one. It’s in your best interest.

Friday, April 15, 7 PM
Man On Man, Trapcry, Kuni @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $14 in advance, $16 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Over two years after we all locked down for the first time, the ongoing effects of the pandemic on the music world keep showing up, and they’re less predictable all the time. For example, who would have guessed back in April 2020 when all the yuppies on social media were tweeting about their sourdough starter that the pandemic would eventually result in all of us getting to enjoy a new band from Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum and his boyfriend Joey Holman? Probably nobody, but it happened, and it’s the best thing to happen to queer-themed alternative rock in a long damn time.

Man On Man, who make no apologies for the homoerotic content of their music, released their self-titled debut album last summer. Singles like “Daddy” and “It’s So Fun (To Be Gay)” first grab your attention with their titles and lyrics, which make this band the obvious 21st century heirs apparent to groundbreaking 90s punk rockers Pansy Division. However, it’s the sounds created by Man On Man are what will keep you coming back over and over to this truly excellent album of melodic indie tunes. Whether you’re someone looking for more LGBTQ representation in indie music or just a huge Faith No More fan excited for some new music by one of your faves, Man On Man’s performance at Richmond Music Hall this Friday night is sure to delight you. Be there.

Saturday, April 16, 8 PM
The Pack AD, Ten Pound Snail, Celler Dwellers @ The Camel – $12 in advance, $15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
There’s something about the genre of garage rock that makes it the perfect sound for a bassless rock duo to sink their teeth into. From The White Stripes to The Black Keys, there’s a noble tradition of guitar-drum duos rockin’ hard in the garage-rock domain. Canadians The Pack AD have been carving out their own lane within that tradition for over fifteen years now, and, as is traditional for bands in this genre, they manage to work up a particularly heavy groove without adding any bass guitar to the mix. It’s impressive, especially in light of the fact that they’ve kept it up for eight albums without breaking up (a la The White Stripes) or turning into a basic-ass radio rock band (The Black Keys).

The last time we heard new music from The Pack AD was just about two years ago, when they released their killer eighth album, It Was Fun While It Lasted, which showed off a perfect road-trip aesthetic (song titles include “Gas Station Food” and “Check Engine Light”) just in time for all of us to spend a year and a half in lockdown. Now they’re making up for lost time, bringing their heavy rockin’ sound south of the border to rock The Camel and get everybody moving their feet. So yeah, spend your Saturday night with The Pack AD. That Sunday morning bangover will be 100% worth it.

Sunday, April 17, 7 PM
Juan Wauters @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
It’s been many years since I last wrote about Uruguay-born, NYC-based punk troubadour Juan Wauters, but he’s returning to RVA this Sunday with a whole new spin on his long-running solo project. For 2021’s Real Life Situations, Wauters fought back against the isolation of the pandemic times we were all living through back then, focusing on collaboration and pulling together a variety of talented folks to work with him on different songs from the album — Mac DeMarco, Air Waves, Cola Boyy, and a whole bunch more. This focus on integrating a variety of different voices worked well with his overall mission on Real Life Situations: at a time when circumstances beyond our control were making a whole lot of choices for all of us, Wauters decided to make an album about the way some of the best options and possibilities in life come about when we surrender control and take things as they come.

Musically speaking, the radio is the best metaphor for all of this, and Wauters’ latest album is a lot like listening to a radio on a crowded street corner, mixing tunes in a variety of genres — everything from catchy acoustic punk to traditional Latin American musical forms — with random voices, snatches from newscasts, street sounds, and all kinds of other stuff. The obvious question is: how will all of this translate to the live environment on Sunday night at The Camel? I admit I have no idea, but part of the thrill in catching Wauters on Sunday night will be in finding out. After all, it’s sure to be interesting, and it’s almost definitely going to be unpredictable. So get on Juan Wauters’ level, and take it as it comes. It’s sure to be the most unusual night you’ve had in a while, and who doesn’t need more of that?

Monday, April 18, 7 PM
Digital Hell, Ducttape Jesus, Raneshounds, Hunting Dog @ The Camel – $10 in advance, $12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Mysterious, prolific, experimental, electronic — all of these adjectives and more can be applied to the youthful Richmond collective known as Digital Hell. The music they make is bizarre and somewhat unprecedented, simultaneously based in hip hop and extreme noise. They mix programmed beats and atonal screeching into off-kilter grooves over which they drop rhymes and talk shit with the best of them, along with frequent collaborators like Ducttape Jesus.

Recently, Digital Hell and Ducttape Jesus collaborated for an EP entitled KNC, and it’s that EP they’ll be coming together to celebrate at The Camel. The sounds they’ll be bringing to the stage on that evening are unusual and hard to predict or categorize, but if you like seeing musicians push the limits of multiple genres at once, this is a show you should make sure you get to. Beat-producing wunderkind Raneshounds and experimental electronic project Hunting Dog kick this one off. Come out and broaden your musical horizons.

Tuesday, April 19, 7 PM
Delta Sleep, It Looks Sad, Gender Roles, Colin Phils @ The Canal Club – $16 in advance, $18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
When you’re a fan of the wide world of post-hardcore music, it’s easy to ignore the rest of the world and just focus on America. After all, a ton of great bands on that genre spectrum come from right here in the United States. You don’t necessarily need to look outside our borders to find great examples of emo, math rock, screamo, post-rock, and other affiliated genres. That said, you’re really blowing it if you don’t — there are many great bands doing this sort of thing that come from far-flung corners of the world, and if you sleep on them, you might just miss out on some of the best music being played today.

If you’re wondering whether I’m telling you all this just to get you to pay attention to Kent, UK’s Delta Sleep, well, OK, I admit it, you’ve figured me out. Delta Sleep’s fourth album, Spring Island, came out last year, and it is full of amazing tunes that should absolutely appeal to anyone who appreciates the music of Tera Melos, The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, and pretty much anything inbetween. They’re coming to the Canal Club on Tuesday night, and I mostly have no idea who with; their fellow UK band Gender Roles apparently broke up acrimoniously just before the tour started, and North Carolinians It Looks Sad cancelled their participation in this tour due to lingering concerns over COVID. As far as I know, Richmond’s own Colin Phils will be on the bill, and they rule, so that’s good at least. But here’s what’s most important: Delta Sleep is gonna play, and they’re gonna be awesome. That’s reason enough to be there, even if all the openers bail out. Don’t blow 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): drew@gayrva.com

Trapcry Breaks The Ice

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On his latest project, Dangerous, Richmond-based artist and performer Trapcry explores his identity through experiments in genre and sampling, as well as his artistic predecessors and inspirations.

On “Break the Ice,” the sixth track from his new album, Dangerous, Richmond-based artist Trapcry sings, “I’m black, queer, and upset / there’s blood on this rainbow.” 

That’s one way to sum up the main themes of Dangerous, which Trapcry dropped Nov. 1, after starting to write songs for the project in 2017. The album is an exploration of queer identity, race, politics, sex, resistance, power — a sprawling endeavor with a depth and staying power much longer than its 53-minute runtime. 

For Trapcry, making the album was a labor of love and an opportunity to infuse his identity into the project. He knows he can’t speak for Black women or Black trans people. But as a Black, queer artist, he was confident his experiences would be relatable to many people if he shared them. 

“I’d be doing a disservice to myself if I’m not speaking out in my music, some type of way,” Trapcry said. “I wasn’t seeking political conversation. But it just started popping up, these themes of wanting to take ownership in my Black body that is so politicized right now.”

On Dangerous, the sexual and political are entwined — converging as Trapcry wrestles with forces of power in his life. Even with heavy themes such as these, Trapcry balances sincerity, concern, and anger with his infectious beats and unapologetic presentation. 

“I want to take ownership of who I am,” Trapcry said. “I want to take ownership of my sexuality and my body. Nobody’s going to tell me what I can sing about, or how I want to be seen in images. I’m going to make all these decisions myself, and I don’t care what anybody else thinks.”

Claiming space is another key factor for Trapcry. The music industry tends to prioritize white artists in genres created by Black people, and Trapcry’s respect for his musical predecessors has inspired him to reclaim that territory. He talked about his admiration for other Black artists in Richmond, and his frustration with what he sees as the way the public-facing music scene tends to focus on white artists. 

“There’s nobody out here that sounds like me,” Trapcry said. “Nobody’s doing this contemporary sound that I’m doing.”

Every track is different — something Trapcry aims for in a lot of his work. Club-inspired dance songs are paired with ballads. It’s part pop, part R&B, with bits of everything and samples from everywhere. The intertextual production pairs well with the multitude of themes Trapcry explores, preserving a sense of lively creativity even when the story gets serious. 

“I really have a pet peeve in sounding the same, or making the same type of music over and over,” Trapcry said. “I like to explore everything… there were sounds that I didn’t include on this record that I really wanted to, but I don’t want to overwhelm everybody.”

Trapcry’s love for all kinds of artists who came before him is evident. In our interview, he mentions the Spice Girls, Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Prince, Little Richard, Tracy Chapman, and Joni Mitchell, among others. To form a cohesive project on Dangerous, he had to weave different inspirations, motifs, and samples together. 

The album feels like a personal endeavor as Trapcry reflects on the web of issues through layers of historical references, pop culture audio clips, catchy phrases, and earworm beats. It sounds like a peek into his brain, where pop divas and R&B legends argue about sex and romance, politics and liberation. In choosing to release it so close to the maelstrom that is the 2020 election, Trapcry connected it to the album’s purpose. 

“I was like, this is it, this is kind of divine timing, I need to just go ahead and release it.” Trapcry said. “I feel like everything I’m talking about is really parallel to what is going on right now.” 

Dangerous is a bold endeavor from an artist who isn’t shy about defying stereotypes, transcending genre, and staying true to himself. With a wealth of inspiration from the past and a sense of personal and political urgency in the present, Trapcry is breaking the ice. Are you listening?

All Photos via Trapcry

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): drew@gayrva.com

Top Photo: Gumming, by Joey Wharton, via Twitter

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: January 30 – February 5

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, February 1, 7 PM
WRIR’s 14th Anniversary Party, feat. Unmaker, Black Liquid, Trapcry, Alfred, Minor Poet, Rebekah Rafferty and the Wakes, The Vulgar Bulgars, Sweet Potatoes Music, Jr Wolf, RVA Comedy showcase, and more @ The Renaissance Ballroom (107 W. Broad St) – $15 (order tickets HERE)
It’s kind of amazing to look up every February and realize that it’s been another year with the awesomeness of WRIR right here in our city. From one unicorn to another, we certainly must admit that the cards tend to be stacked against the kind of radio station WRIR is — a community-run, volunteer-operated radio station that manages, despite its low 42-watt broadcast power, to reach a wide range of local listeners and to connect strongly with the Richmond musical community. What’s more, it’s a great place to learn more about the issues of the day, from right here in Richmond to around the country and the world.

So yeah, it’s a little tiny miracle to see WRIR holding on for another year — 14 so far, and here’s to many more. It’s also a cause for celebration, and that’s what the station and its community will be doing when they gather once again at the Renaissance Ballroom this Friday night for the latest edition of a yearly party that never fails to deliver the goods. This year’s edition features all kinds of excellent music, covering the wide spectrum of local talent. Unmaker are at the top of the bill, and their dark, heavy, metallic postpunk is sure to bring down the house at the end of a long happy night — especially considering their always-active live performance style.

But that’s just the beginning, really. The music on offer runs the gamut from the cerebral hip hop of Alfred to the indie rock of Minor Poet and from the klezmer (jazz-influenced Eastern European/Jewish folk dance music) sounds of the Vulgar Bulgars to the melodic alt-rock of Rebekah Rafferty and the Wakes, this show has seriously got everything the curious music fan could desire. Plus, it brings the kind of adventurous programming you can expect from WRIR into real life before your eyes, as Black Liquid coordinates a hip hop showcase that’ll recreate the kind of improvised rhyming excellence that often graces his Saturday night radio shows, and Jameson Babbowski brings a talented slate of local comedians to his own non-musical showcase. And of course, all your favorite WRIR DJs will be in the house, spinning tunes and making friends. Best of all, your ticket price goes toward helping WRIR bring us another year of awesomeness. What could be more worthwhile than that?

Wednesday, January 30, 8:30 PM
Vanilla Summit, Khrundo, Return To Sender @ Vagabond – Free!
Now that we’re out here in the world moving on after the loss of Strange Matter, there’s definitely been some urgent searching (at least on my part) for another reliable local venue to fill in the mid-week holes in the Richmond live music schedule. What I’m fast learning is that on Wednesday nights, Vagabond is likely to deliver the goods. Their Jazz Wednesdays series is a great place to be pretty much every single week if you want to learn more about the community of excellent jazz musicians existing in Richmond. Their scene may not get as much attention as punk, metal, or hip hop, but that says nothing about what the local players have to offer — which, it turns out, is a lot.

Vanilla Summit are a five-piece jazz group who’ve been grabbing spots on live dates around town for a while now, and their 2017 Green Session EP shows exactly why — this dual-drumming quintet creates some excellent funky grooves while also bringing the introspective melodies we so often want from jazz. They may not be joined live by the ever-talented McKinley Dixon, who graces one of the tracks on their EP, but they will be performing along with a couple of intriguing ensembles, also hailing from the world of local jazz. Khrundo is a group led by guitarist Jake Adams, which is apparently going to feature nine members on this Wednesday night, all coming together to kick some ferocious grooves. Plus there’s Return To Sender, a bass-less trio led by Vanilla Summit sax player Nate Clark, to kick things off right. If you don’t know, you’re gonna learn.

Thursday, January 31, 8 PM
Zack Mexico, Piranha Rama, Billy Neptune @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Zack Mexico isn’t one guy, it’s a band — and a full one at that, featuring eight members, two of whom are drummers who each play full kits. And this group doesn’t hail from the country across our controversial Southern border; instead, they come to us from the much closer region of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, which must be a pretty wild place to be if you’re not a tourist or a vacationer. The music Zack Mexico makes is certainly wild, and hard to pin down as well; what sort of sound you get from them depends significantly on which track you listen to.

However, one thing can be determined for sure — there’s a psychedelic sensibility that underpins everything this band does, and an unorthodox approach to music that lands them pretty far outside of what we expect from “indie” in 2019, though it always seems to result in catchy tunes that get your feet tapping and put a smile on your face. In that way, they’re a perfect musical companion to one of the best new bands to come out of Richmond in the last year. I’m speaking here of Piranha Rama, of course, whose music can just as easily be said to be catchy unorthodox psychedelic genius — as you know, if you heard their excellent LP from last year. Openers Billy Neptune will get this show started right, and Piranha Rama and Zack Mexico will come together to take care of the rest. Get on board.

Friday, February 1, 7 PM
Midlife Pilot, Joel Worford, Colpa Mia, Tyler Meacham @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
Here in Richmond, the kids really are all right. This show is a good opportunity for all of you to find that out, assuming you haven’t already been paying attention to the many mini-waves of talented singer-songwriters bringing out excellent music around this wonderful city over the past couple years or so. Midlife Pilot are at the top of this particular list, and they’ve certainly shown sufficient merit to justify that position — this group, the brainchild of singer-guitarist Casey Graham, released an excellent EP of emotionally-oriented melodic alt-rock tunes late last fall.

While Midlife Pilot demonstrated an outstanding full-band sound on that EP, Ready To Be That Way, it’s hard to say exactly how it’ll translate live, since Graham himself played everything but drums on the record. Can we expect an Into It. Over It.-style solo performance? Or will there be a full band onstage? Either way, based on Graham’s track record, we’re sure to get some awesome songs out of it. Colpa Mia is more clearly a full-band effort, and recent single “Atlas” shows them dabbling in both the emotional melodies of the alt-rock world and dipping into synthesized postpunk/indie sounds. Live, their multi-layered sound is sure to captivate. More definitively solo singer-songwriters Joel Worford and Tyler Meacham will round out this excellent bill of up-and-comers, which you can partake of for no money down! How can you pass that up? Be there.

Saturday, February 2, 7 PM
Them Evils, Gemini Love, Loxias, The Goodbye Forevers @ The Canal Club – $10 in advance/$13 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I don’t know where we as a society stand on loud, noisy rock n’ roll in this day and age. It seems like if you check out festival lineups it’s the indie bands who get the most acclaim, and when the occasional band manages to rise above the fray and get a reputation for rocking hard, they draw more hate from the tastemakers than anything else. So are all y’all gonna think I’m a behind-the-times middle-aged lady for sending you to see Them Evils on a Saturday night?

You’ll be either frustrated or relieved to know that I really don’t care how you judge me on this one. I’m over here rockin’ out, blissfully ignorant of any judgment that might be coming my way. And you’ll be in much the same position if you make your way to the Canal Club Saturday night. Because while the hipsters may all be allergic to distorted guitars and hard-hitting good-time grooves these days, it’s always such a relief to cast off that albatross of manufactured coolness and let yourself enjoy something sincerely. Them Evils are primed to provide you with some sincere enjoyment, and in all seriousness, you cool kids who enjoyed Wolfmother and Red Fang at one time or another are gonna dig this just as much as your Greta Van Fleet-loving little brother will. Stop with the excuses and show up already.

Sunday, February 3, 8 PM
30 Year Sick, Cold Choir, Gothic Lizard @ Fallout – $5 in advance/$8 at the door (order tickets HERE)
30 Year Sick is a pretty evocative name for a band, even if any contemplation of the concept behind the name just makes you (or at least me) think, “There’s no way you’d stay sick for 30 years and not die.” I mean, unless we’re talking “siiiick!” in the modern-slang sense of the term, in which case we just end up down a rabbit hole of talking about which bands that have been around since the late 80s still legitimately rule (spoiler: not many, that’s for sure). But seriously, we’re not here to talk about that — we’re here to talk about the show that’s coming to Fallout, everyone’s favorite Shockoe Bottom fetish bar, on Sunday night.

30 Year Sick, the band, who hail from North Carolina, have a pounding synth-goth sound, which is definitely on the rockin’ end of things where that genre is concerned. Their 2018 EP, Postpunks, has an intriguing title that certainly invites rock-crit types like myself to use lazy genre terms, but I’m trying really hard not to take the bait. Instead, I’ll tell you that 30 Year Sick mingle a gloomy rumbling rhythm section with ominous guitar and synth melodies, all of which is topped by the true star of the show: Akmeraj Niroc’s incredibly powerful voice, which is strong enough to raise the tiny hairs on the back of your neck. And then the whole band will rock you out in a manner sure to thrill fans of Sisters of Mercy and Killing Joke alike. Don’t be afraid — explore the darker corners of Fallout for this one. It’ll do you no harm.

Monday, February 4, 7 PM
Boy Harsher, Nightcrwlr, Aesthetic Barrier @ The Camel – $13 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It’s a good week for dark, gothic sounds. Spooky electronic duo Boy Harsher are releasing their latest LP, Careful, this Friday, and then on Monday, they’ll be here in town to play it live for us all. Careful was clearly born out of some pretty hard times, from loss of loved ones to difficulties in relationships, and singer Jae Matthews puts all of that into Boy Harsher’s music, combining as always with electronic musical genius Gus Muller to create an album’s worth of foreboding synthesized soundscapes.

Boy Harsher’s dark melodies and unnerving lyrical conceits have been compared (even by members of the group) to a David Lynch movie, and sonically, their work lands closest to a diabolical combination of Suicide and Yaz, with a strong dose of Nitzer Ebb-style severe European dance music. The kids in gleaming black Doc Martens will be stomping on the dance floor to this one, for sure; meanwhile, Matthews and Muller’s riveting presence is sure to keep you focused on the stage. Local electro-freaks Aesthetic Barrier will kick this all off, and we’ll get a bonus appearance from Nightcrwlr, yet another identity of the shapeshifting Kristina Esfandiari (King Woman/Miserable). It’s all going to be so amazing.

Tuesday, February 5, 9 PM
Brian Jones Trio, Doug Richards Orchestra @ The Camel – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
RVA jazz really is a solid ticket for your midweek musical jones in 2019, and that’s probably why our week is bookended by shows that fall under that category. This one brings us the latest appearance of a Brian Jones-led ensemble here in Richmond, and as local jazz heads know, the presence of Brian Jones in any group is a sign of top quality musicianship. Of course, we’re not talking about the original Rolling Stones guitarist who died in the late 60s, we’re talking instead about the local drummer who has played with everyone from Agents Of Good Roots to Jandek to Randy Brecker.

The Jones trio on display this time will include fellow RVA jazz luminaries Daniel Clarke (piano) and Randall Pharr (bass), but one of Jones’s most frequent collaborators, saxophonist JC Kuhl, will also be on the bill — but performing with the other group. The Doug Richards Orchestra will contain around 18 different musicians on this Tuesday night, including local jazz luminaries like John D’Earth, Bryan Hooten, Stefan Demetriadis, and the aforementioned JC Kuhl, as well as all three members of the Brian Jones Trio. Doug Richards, who founded VCU’s Jazz Studies program in 1980 and recently retired after four decades at the university, has a robust pedigree of his own, and what he brings to this formidable ensemble is sure to be intriguing and delightful. Don’t miss a moment.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Friday, February 1, 7 PM
The Josephines, The Heart Stompers @ Toast – $10 (order tickets HERE)
If you like to rock but also identify strongly with the Southern sound with which all of us from this state are intimately familiar, the music of The Josephines is sure to call to you on a deep, primal level. This group — yet another in which a feminine name belies the all-masculine lineup — hails from Kentucky and will definitely remind you that that state, like Virginia, is very much a part of the South no matter what latitudinal parallel Bowling Green sits on. They’ve got loud rockers in their repertoire that are sure to have you stomping, raging, and headbanging, but they’ve also got a big dose of bluegrass in their sound, ensuring that you’ll never forget what state they hail from.

The Josephines’ 2017 EP Sober Up certainly lets you know the musical headspace where these guys are coming from. Likewise, Hampton Roads local country ensemble The Heart Stompers lets you know where they’re coming from right in their name. Formerly known as Gina Dalmas and the Cow-Tippin’ Playboys — certainly an evocative name in itself — this group taps into the outlaw country sound of the 70s and 80s with a modern punk edge and an amazing voice out front, courtesy of Gina Dalmas herself. If you can get down with some honky-tonk partytimes, Toast is the place to be for you on Friday night.

Tuesday, February 5, 8 PM
Rayland Baxter, Illiterate Light @ Boathouse Live – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
You Tidewater residents are sure to have a fun Tuesday night at the Boathouse with Rayland Baxter. This alt-country singer-songwriter comes from a music family (his dad played on REM and Bob Dylan albums), and certainly has his feet planted in that tradition, as his more alt-country/folk-Americana tunes make clear. But on his latest album, Wide Awake, Baxter showed that he’s capable of the sort of widescreen pop that made the Beatles and the Byrds legendary figures that influenced a generation. Baxter taps into that psychedelic power-pop sound rooted in Americana dirt that is so au courant in 2019 United States of America, evoking the Beach Boys, the Grateful Dead, and other powerful musical touchstones with aplomb… and just a splash of post-Mac DeMarco slacker irony.

But we shouldn’t focus only on our headliner here — tourmates Illiterate Light hail from right here in VA, Harrisonburg to be exact, and have been making a powerful impact on the commonwealth’s music scene for a couple of years now. For a guitar-drum duo, they make strong, deep music, which connects power-pop, alternative rock, and the melody-uber-alles alt-country approach of My Morning Jacket or Band Of Horses. They show off all this and more on brand new EP Sweet Beast, which is an excellent calling-card to present to music fans of all stripes who find themselves wondering whether they should take the plunge on these local boys striving to make good. Message from us: dive in. You’ll be glad you did.

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Top Photo: Unmaker, by David Morton

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): drew@gayrva.com [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: December 18 – December 25

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, December 22, 9 PM
L’Amour, Sick Bags, DJ Sam Slug @ Mojo’s – Free (Donations appreciated)
It’s time to go back to the dawning days of Richmond punk — long before White Cross or Death Piggy, back when punk hadn’t yet become a pedal-to-the-metal speed competition, before it was all about rage and fury. Back in the late 70s, the Ramones, Dead Boys, and Dictators were still kings of the US punk scene, and here in Richmond, our earliest punk exports fit into much the same mold; mixing teenage hormones, class-clown goofiness, and no-frills rock n’ roll into a potent cocktail of melody, energy, and fun.

1979 was the year that L’Amour, one of the foremost bands in that first wave of RVA punk, released their sole EP. It featured two songs, “Sunglass Party” and “Someday,” and preserved the group’s blend of Stonesy catchiness and New York Dolls-style gleeful trashiness for posterity. There was a lot more where that came from, but it was much harder in those days to record and release music than it is today, so the rest of it spent decades languishing unheard on tapes buried in former members’ basements.

Thankfully, this year has seen a resurrection of L’Amour’s greatness, as VA label Beach Impediment has collected all of the band’s known recordings onto an excellent 14-song LP entitled Look To The Artist. To celebrate its long-overdue release, core L’Amour members Tom Applegate and David Stover have regrouped, recruited a young rhythm section from among the fertile talent pool of today’s Richmond punk scene, and returned to action for this incredible reunion show at Mojo’s Saturday night. Most of us probably missed L’Amour the first time (I was three, and I’m OLD), so this is a golden opportunity to be present for a return to the very roots of this city’s near half-century of punk greatness. And how can you possibly turn that down?

Wednesday, December 19, 7 PM
A Very Butcher Holiday, feat. Butcher Brown, R4nd4zzo Big B4nd @ The Broadberry – $12 in advance/$15 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Christmas time is here, and Butcher Brown knows it. This excellent quintet is getting into the holiday spirit at the Broadberry tonight with an excellent set of jazzed-up Christmas standards, paying tribute in particular to the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s classic soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas. They’ll be joined by the R4nd4zzo Big B4nd, a fifteen-or-so-piece project led by Butcher Brown’s very own bassist, Andrew Randazzo, which brought us much the same tribute last year, as captured on their Tribute To Vince Guaraldi LP, released back at the beginning of this year.

Considering Guaraldi often worked at the head of a simple piano-bass-drums trio, this brassy, expanded treatment from a group that includes multiple trumpets, trombones, and reeds is different from the original in significant ways. However, the jazzy spirit of Christmas that makes Guaraldi’s original album the objective best holiday music ever (yeah, I said it) remains intact, even as the group’s inspired new arrangements allow for considerable creativity. Whether you’re a fan of A Charlie Brown Christmas in particular or the holidays in general, and even if you just like good jazz music no matter the season, this show’s got a lot to offer you. Be there, and get into the spirit the Butcher Brown way.

Thursday, December 20, 7 PM
Snail Mail, Bleary Eyed @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Look, I admit it — I’m just discovering Snail Mail. I’m a big-time music nerd (as you may have gathered) and I catch a lot, but sometimes things are gonna slip past my radar until way past time that I should have heard them. Snail Mail is one such thing; somehow I missed their debut full-length, Lush, when it was released this past summer and proceeded to score Best New Music plaudits from Pitchfork. Oops.

I mean, I always take that website with several grains of salt, so don’t get me wrong, but this time they are totally correct — Lush is an absolute tour-de-force. Where downcast indie-pop songwriting is concerned, Snail Mail frontperson Lindsey Jordan has an incredible gift, and songs like “Speaking Terms” cut to the heart of the tremendous difficulties inherent in all human relationships, even as they wash your tears away with beautiful vocal melodies and perfect chiming guitars. This is an album that will resonate with the awkward emo nerd inside us all, even the jaded denim-clad metalheads among our number. I will go so far as to say this — if you’ve ever in your life had feels about a thing, you need to be at the Broadberry this Thursday night. Snail Mail’s gonna make you feel all those feels all over again, and in much more wonderful ways.

Friday, December 21, 8 PM
Camp Howard, Twain, Recluse Raccoon, Kenneka Cook @ Gallery 5 – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Get ready for a lovely night of gorgeous indie sounds at Gallery 5 this Friday. This quartet of excellent Virginia artists will ease you into the weekend before Christmas and all the hectic travel plans you’re sure to be executing in the days that follow. Reliable RVA mainstays Camp Howard are at the top of the bill, and that’s always a good place for them; it may have been a year and a half since most recent EP, Juice, but Nic and the boys have established such a reliable track record of glittering post-punk power-pop over the past several years that everyone in RVA knows what these boys have to offer.

Where this show is concerned, though, Camp Howard is just the beginning. Twain hail from Franklin County, a rural region just south of Roanoke that has legendarily been known as “the moonshine capital of the world,” so you know this band understands how to have a good time. Their 2017 LP, Rare Feeling, is full of beautiful songs that bring an understated, pensive touch to a style landing somewhere between indie and alt-country. They’re simultaneously reminiscent of Sturgill Simpson and My Morning Jacket, and just as excellent a listen as those two, so they’re well worth your time. Recluse Raccoon are a good bit more social than the name suggests, and in fact they recently released a gorgeously weird self-titled LP that makes quite an impression with its introspective tunes embroidered by a variety of unconventional instruments. And of course Kenneka Cook is always someone you should catch, even if it means showing up early — her excellent voice and skillful compositions are worth the price of admission all by themselves.

Saturday, December 22, 8 PM
Planned Parenthood Fundraiser, feat. Occultist, VV, Kuni, Trapcry @ Gallery 5 – $5 to $10 suggested donation
With Strange Matter sadly shuffling off this mortal coil, there seems little doubt that we’ll all be spending more time at Gallery 5 in the near future. Their focus on the DIY community and support for causes that matter to the less-privileged inhabitants of the river city makes the gallery the obvious torchbearers for the sort of local scene support that Strange Matter was so good at. This Saturday night, they prove it for the second time in 24 hours with an amazing benefit for Planned Parenthood — an organization that’s been constantly under siege for several years now, and does crucial work within the local community, from ensuring your right to reproductive freedom to such important things as providing essential health care for transgender people without other options (like me, for instance).

Occultist are headlining this shindig, and it’s great news, considering how difficult it’s been to catch these thrash-metal ragers in a live setting over the past year or so. It’s been quite a while since they brought us any new studio recordings, and at this point they’re sure to have some new material to bring you, so get ready to headbang with a grateful fury. VV are an excellent addition to any bill, and their vitriol-drenched, synth-laced postpunk attack is particularly apropos for a Planned Parenthood benefit — smashing patriarchal faces for the win. Kuni’s queer electro-punk and the seductive techno-dance sounds of Trapcry will round this bill out perfectly. You’ll dance, you’ll rock, you’ll smash the patriarchy… it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Sunday, December 23, 8 PM
Marc Rebillet, DJ Harrison @ The Camel – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Marc Rebillet is a phenomenon that’s not that easy to explain. What I’d heard from other people before I checked out his music led me to expect one thing, but what I found was something significantly different. People will tell you this guy’s a bit of a comedian, and certainly he approaches his electro-funk music with an irreverent, humorous attitude, but the results he gets from synthesizers, beat loops, and most importantly his unforgettable voice are not only entertaining but seriously intriguing.

His Loop Daddy EP, released a couple of months ago, finds Rebillet, who got his start on YouTube, in loverman mode, sounding a bit like Baltimore electro-goof Dan Deacon if he was able to expertly channel R. Kelly. However, he’ll occasionally put the whole damn thing on pause to holler ridiculous improvised exhortations, and yeah, you’re gonna laugh at those times. Mostly though, Marc Rebillet’s gonna get your booty shaking with a rhythm that might seem totally out of place this close to Christmas but is, if anything, exactly what you need to survive another awkward dinner at Grandma’s house. So head to the Camel this Sunday and get in the pool. You know what I’m talking about.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Friday, December 21, 8 PM
Demons, Shy Low, Ladada @ Taphouse Grill – $5
Shit is always pretty heavy down Tidewater way, I’ve found. There are indie shows down there at times, but a lot of what I find coming out of that geographical region of Virginia is hard as fuck and taking its best shot at crushing your skull. The same is true of Demons, though instead of super-heavy deathcore stuff, this band is aiming for more of a thick, metallic sound on latest EP Made In The USA. The resulting pummeling lands somewhere between Far Beyond Driven-era Pantera and early Every Time I Die. And when it lands, it lands on its feet and starts charging straight at you. Be there to meet the onslaught at Taphouse Grill this Friday, and you’re sure to be glad you did.

This show will also bring you a performance from Richmond’s own Shy Low, who’ve been less active recently than they were a few years ago. However, their most recent release, Burning Day, was only a year and a half ago, and it showed that they’d retained their powerful approach to the instrumental post-rock sound on which they made their name back a half-decade or so ago. So you can certainly expect a reliable (post-)rocking from these guys, and you’ll get a bonus set from openers Ladada, who have a catchy indie-pop sound that’s sure to delight. All in all, it’s a fine Friday night in Norfolk. Enjoy!

Sunday, December 23, 4 PM
Shaka’s Appreciation Show, feat. The Unabombers, Beggar’s Row, Accident Prone, Pushing On, Evade, Faded, Freebase, Chain Breaker, Catalyst, Semtex @ Shaka’s – Free!
It’s a sad story, one that those of us here in Richmond know all too well. Norfolk live music mainstay Shaka’s is celebrating its tenth anniversary this month… but it’s also closing its doors forever. That’s not happening after this Sunday matinee show — their last show is actually the Doyle gig on New Years Eve — but it is one of the last chances the Norfolk area will have to show their appreciation for a venue that’s filled much the same role in their scene that Strange Matter has in ours. What a shame.

The show itself will be a glorious occasion, though, with longtime VA punk veterans The Unabombers taking care of business at the top of the bill. These guys have been rocking the Hampton Roads area and beyond for over 20 years now, and they’re the perfect band to send Shaka’s off on a high note. And there’s a ton of hardcore punk on the bill besides, from the speedy metallic rage of Beggar’s Row to the brutal pummeling mosh of Evade to the angry punk/HC of Pushing On. There are a whole bunch more bands on this one too, and the price is certainly right, so if Shaka’s ever meant anything to you, there’s no time like the present to both show it some love before it disappears and to enjoy the Hampton Roads hardcore/punk scene’s past, present, and future all in one great place.

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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): drew@gayrva.com [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond