Vagabond, DJ Lonnie B and Kelli Lemon are excited to present NYE in RVA!
Please join us for an exclusive intimate new year’s celebration.
30+ Preferred. Celebration Attire.
Appetizer Buffett and Champange Toast included in ticket price.
Limited reserved tables available. Contact Kelli ([email protected] or Lonnie ([email protected]) for more information!
Some late-breaking news here on the jazz front; tonight at Vagabond, the club fast becoming the epicenter of this city’s underrated jazz scene, bassist Andrew Randazzo will lead a brand-new 15 piece big band through a tribute to the music of Vince Guaraldi, best known for his classic soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Randazzo’s new project, stylized the R4ND4ZZO BIGB4ND, is decidedly different from the work that’s brought him the majority of his local fame; holding down the groove for jazz-funk instrumental quintet Butcher Brown. That group, which also includes local renaissance man Devonne Harris, aka DJ Harrison, just held a celebratory release show for their Live At Vagabond LP last Friday night. Now Randazzo returns to that club only three days later at the head of a very different ensemble.
Randazzo and his 15 piece big band will be paying tribute to pianist Vince Guaraldi, whose work ascended from the California cool jazz scene of the 50s and 60s. At the head of an understated trio, Guaraldi delighted listeners with smoothly swinging trips through quietly beautiful melodies. “Cast Your Fate To The Wind,” which reached #10 on the US pop charts in 1962 when it was released, may have been the biggest hit he achieved during his lifetime.
If he’s remembered today, though, it’s for his work as the principal musical composer on the Peanuts cartoons, most notably the first of these, A Charlie Brown Christmas. On this soundtrack, Guaraldi and his trio bring their understated melodic sense to bear on a series of holiday standards including “O Tannenbaum” and “What Child Is This,” as well as a series of original compositions, including the entrancing “Christmas Time Is Here” and the delightful “Skating.”
But it’s “Linus And Lucy,” the song which became the Peanuts cartoon theme music, that people know best today. You’ll hear it regularly on the stations that went to the “all Christmas music all the time” format about a week into November, even though it is not, strictly speaking, a Christmas song at all. And unlike a lot of the songs on those stations, it never gets old.
Of course, as we mentioned, Guaraldi did his best-known work at the head of a small trio that only added bass and drums to his wonderful piano melodies. It will therefore be very interesting to see what Andrew Randazzo’s 15-piece ensemble does with these relatively minimal songs. Whether they’ll thicken them up considerably and bring in the funk feel of Randazzo’s other projects, add delicate layers of sound atop the skeletons of the original compositions, or take some completely new approach, you can be sure that the results will be fascinating, and well worth your time.
After all, Christmas is but one week away. While Guaraldi’s music was by no means focused on this one holiday, it’s impossible to imagine a mid-December tribute to his work that does not also work perfectly as a celebration of the loveliest music of this holiday season. And who better to bring us that celebration than a pillar of the local jazz community like Andrew Randazzo? There’s no real info out there about who will be backing him up in this band, but suffice it to say that the man has plenty of connections–it won’t be a collection of talentless hacks, you can bet your bottom dollar on that.
And then you can still use that dollar to buy a cheap drink from the bar at Vagabond, because you won’t have to shell it out to cover admission. That’s because this show is FREE! It starts at 9 tonight, at Vagabond, which is located at 700 E. Broad St. Click here for more info, and be there with bells on. Both for the insatiable jazz cats and for those who are merely in the holiday spirit (and at this point, you’d hope we all are), this is the place to be tonight.
Richmond singer/songwriter Anneliese Grant (The Folly) will perform a solo acoustic and dance set and premiere her new music video at Vagbond, Thursday, Nov. 30. The video will be released December 2nd.
Music starts at 8:30 and the Video will premiere at 10:00 pm. Free.
Photo Credit: Jason Pevey
When you think of Richmond jazz in 2017, Butcher Brown is one of the first names that springs to mind. The group has been making moves and churning out funky grooves in the scene since 2012 and on Nov. 17, the quintet is set to release their latest material, Live at Vagabond, a live performance album via Gearbox Records.
The six-track album showcases some of their performances at local music venue Vagabond and prior to its release later this month, the boys have been dropping a few singles here and there to build excitement around their latest effort including the recent “Lysol”.
RVA Mag was fortunate to premiere Butcher Brown’s latest single, “Cairo”, and it is a six-minute prelude to what the album will offer: toe-tapping, finger-snapping, groovy bass lines.
“Cairo” is a fun track driven by synths and a wicked trumpet. It swells with crescendos and sforzando concussive beats from the drums. And yet, what I love the most is the cohesion behind the quintet’s performance here. Anything with psychedelic synths like what’s present in “Cairo” instantly has me engaged. Honestly, Butcher Brown tracks have a little for every music taste.
Composed of Devonne Harris (keys), Andrew Randazzo (bass), Corey Fonville (drums), Morgan Burrs (guitar), and Marcus Tenney (saxophone/trumpet), the group harkens the progressive jazz bands of the 60s and 70s and according to Randazzo, Live at Vagabond gives listeners a chance to hear their true sound captured if they haven’t had the opportunity already.
“We wanted a live record so our fans could hear us in the purest form, and to showcase the raw energy that occurs at a live Butcher Brown show. This record is our celebration of that development and energy in our favorite hometown venue, Vagabond,” he said.
Butcher Brown will return to Vagabond on Fri. Dec. 15 for the Live at Vagabond album release show.
Top Photo Credit: Joey Wharton Photography
For the fourth year in a row, RVA Fashion Week will celebrate the fall season with a special series of events this weekend. Local non-profit Dress for Success and VCU’s student mag will also host fashion-related events. Throughout the weekend of shopping, partying, and walking, Richmonders will have the opportunity to get up close and personal with boutique owners, designers, and local influencers. Check out the rundown of events below and be on the lookout for a followup piece from RVA Mag next week.
Thursday, October 5
This year, the events kick off at Vagabond (700 E. Broad St.) with a private networking party for industry professionals, photographers, bloggers and sponsors. This night is usually filled with reconnecting, brief presentations from event sponsors.
Friday, October 6
The kickoff of RVA Fall Fashion Weekend coincides with First Fridays held in the Arts District. Starting at Fresh Richmond at 5:30 p.m. (213 E. Broad Street), attendees can view designs by Aziz Blas from Midlothian. You’ll want to visit Fresh, which is a new event and art space owned and operated by local DJs Neil Flick (NeilNeil) and Andrea Marshall (DJ Lady Syren). They’re supporting artists in a number of new ways at this new venue. Belle Isle Moonshine will also serve up cocktails using the brand’s locally made moonshine.
Participants are then invited to visit the newly opened Lou Stevens Glam Squad space, just four blocks west on Broad Street. The business specializes in bridal hair and makeup and if you’re one of the first 25 guests here after 7:30 p.m., the Lou Stevens staff will treat you to their lip and lash bar. An 8:15 p.m. fashion show will feature local consignment boutique Ashby and online boutiques Tailor and Trunk Up who both recently launched fall collections. Belle Isle Moonshine will also offer signature cocktails at this stop on the fashion crawl.
Saturday, October 7
Two non-profit events coincide with RVA Fall Fashion Weekend and are worth a visit before the evening’s ticketed runway show. Dress for Success is hosting a pop-up shop during the 2nd Street Festival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at its boutique in Jackson Ward (210 E. Clay Street). Shop new, gently used, and vintage designer clothing and accessories to support the non-profit’s professional development and employment programs. Dress for Success is also the beneficiary of the evening’s formal wear runway show.
River City Fashion Uprising, VCU’s student-run fashion publication, is hosting a clothing drive to collect gently used items and accessories for Born 2B Great, a local non-profit that provides academic support to local children through after-school tutoring. Born 2B Great funds its programs through the profits made at its boutique on Main Street, which relies on donations. The drive will be held 2-5 p.m. at 12 West Broad Street.
Saturday evening is the main event. Fall Fashion Weekend attendees will get a taste for a true runway experience at the Observation Deck at Richmond City Hall. Guests must purchase tickets in advance, which range from $50 to $80 for front row seating. Arrive when the doors open at 6 p.m. to get a view of the city before the sun goes down. Before the show starts at 8 p.m., shop clothing, and accessories from local vendors including Miranda Classic Ties, Tailor, Trunk Up, Ichiakor Designs, Beauty Counter, Lonely Pine and more. Food and drinks are included with event tickets. Food will be catered by Vagabond and Mama J’s. Belle Isle Premium Moonshine will wet palettes again for this final night of Fall Fashion Weekend.
The Weekend Formal Wear Runway Show will feature 11 local designers and boutiques: Travian Vann, STITCH. by Chanel Green, Salome Styles by Salome Autolino, toFREEyourSTYLE by Charissa George, Angelia’s Couture by Angela Cooper, Destiny Howard, House of LaPosh by India Watson, Amanda Welch, DNB by Destinee Nicole Browne, Kamala by Kamala Bhagat and 707. Kelli Lemon will host the Runway show featuring music from DJ MASS FX.
Doors open at 6p, show starts at 8p. Tickets for the Runway Show are $50-$80 and can be purchased here.
FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, September 23, 8 PM
The Broadberry presents RVA Live! feat. Matthew E. White, Natalie Prass, Tim Barry, Bio Ritmo, Clair Morgan @ Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Arts Center – $10-80 (order tickets HERE)
OK yes I am usually on some more underground/DIY type stuff than anything that takes place at the Carpenter Theatre but sometimes something too big and important and cool to ignore comes along and you just gotta send people to the big bourgeois theatre in the center of town, right? Well, that’s my opinion anyway. This event is also being presented by The Broadberry, a relatively small venue with deep connections to the local independent music scene, so its DIY bona fides are pretty well beyond question.
Therefore, I must tell you that something amazing and very difficult to rationalize missing is happening downtown at the Carpenter Theatre this Saturday night, and tickets start at a very reasonable $10, so there’s really no excuse not to be in attendance. RVA Live! is an evening featuring several of the Richmond scene’s most noteworthy veteran artists–everyone from salsa stalwarts Bio Ritmo to punk-gone-country troubadour Tim Barry–performing in collaboration with the Richmond Symphony. With orchestration and arrangements being handled by Trey Pollard of Spacebomb Records, who has done string arrangements for artists ranging from Matthew E. White to Foxygen and The Waterboys; along with Bio Ritmo members Marlysse Simmons and Toby Whitaker; this is going to be a collaborative project on multiple levels, bringing the best of Richmond’s singer-songwriter community together with the leading lights of our local classical music scene–a scene that popular-music fanatics like myself, and probably yourself, tend to sleep on.
With Matthew E. White and Natalie Prass at the top of this bill, you know Spacebomb is going to be representing itself admirably at this performance. Bio Ritmo’s Latin swing and jazzy funk influences will get a whole new twist when recontextualized through the lens of the Richmond Symphony, and will add a multicultural strain to an evening that could get decidedly monochromatic without them. Plus, we’ll get the mathematical pop of Clair Morgan and the austere country blues punk of Tim Barry, embellished with the sorts of layers neither of their sounds generally contain. All of this will be fascinating for any music lover. And with so many hotshot performers on the bill, you’re sure to get caught up in the awesomeness of it all, even if seeing the symphony at the Carpenter Theatre generally isn’t your thing.
Wednesday, September 20, 8 PM
Polyphia, Night Idea, Paint Store @ The Broadberry – $15 (order tickets HERE)
The worlds of screamo, math-rock, prog-metal, and metalcore have some pretty surprising intersection points at times, and the whole prog-metalcore scene that’s built up around bands like Periphery is one of the strangest and most interesting ones. Polyphia are a metallic instrumental quartet of young post-metalcore dudes with swoop haircuts and skills for days, and they’re hitting Richmond tonight on a day off from their current tour opening for prog-metalcore pioneers Between The Buried And Me. If you want to dig into the shred-heavy instrumental end of this whole scene, this show is your perfect chance to do it at a relatively small venue for a reasonable ticket price.
Polyphia’s latest release, The Most Hated EP, sees them dipping into more electronic layers, including programmed beats and synthesized background swells. However, the guitar pyrotechnics remain on full display, with occasional licks copped from the dawn-of-the-90s micro-trend of blazing metal guitarists putting out instrumental solo albums. What I’m saying is, these guys have a definite Vai/Satriani tinge to their djent-inspired riff fests these days, and the intersection of these surprisingly congruent sounds is a lot of fun to explore. With local openers consisting of poppy math-rockers Night Idea (the only band this night to feature a vocalist) and fellow math-obsessed instrumental shredders Paint Store, this show is guaranteed to fill your quota for riffage, even if it does run slightly low on vocalizations. You definitely won’t get bored in their absence.
Thursday, September 21, 6 PM
El Malpais, Candy Spots, Worse Curses @ Champion RVA – Free!
And we progress from one instrumental group to another as we go through this week’s picks, landing once again at Champion RVA on Thursday night to shed the night-before-payday blues with some excellent free sounds from both local and touring artists. The stars of this Thursday night’s show will be El Malpais (“the bad country,” if my rusty high-school Spanish hasn’t failed me), who come from Charlotte, NC with an original and fascinating instrumental sound pairing guitar and drum rhythms with flute to create the kind of unusual and engaging sound that “jazz flute” might have conjured up in your head if it weren’t for that phrase’s eternal association with Anchorman.
Regardless of whether you would ever expect a group based around flute melodies to be able to rock with aplomb, you should definitely be in the house when El Malpais takes the stage, because they’re guaranteed to erase all doubts. Their excellent self-titled LP from earlier this year is full of somewhat foreboding tunes accented by riveting melodies, which create the overall impression of tiptoeing through a forest late in the afternoon, on the hunt for forgotten old huts where strange creatures may or may not still live. OK, maybe I’ve read too many horror novels in my time, but still, this band rocks. They’ll be joined on this bill by local alt-garage rockers Candy Spots and catchy up-and-comers Worse Curses for an evening of jams that would be cheap at twice the price (because after all, zero dollars x2 is still zero dollars).
Friday, September 22, 7 PM
Madeline Kenney, Rikki Shay, Majjin Boo, Minor Poet @ Gallery 5 – $5 in advance/$7 day of show (order tickets HERE)
The Broadberry’s showing up all over town this week. This show, which is actually the night before that RVA Live! show up at the top of the column (my chronology’s a little weird, deal with it), sees the larger venue collaborating with generally awesome (and kinda cavernous itself) DIY art gallery space Gallery 5 to present an evening headlined by Oakland singer-songwriter Madeline Kenney. You may be unfamiliar with this artist, but Kenney’s brand new album, Night Night At The First Landing, gives all the reason you need to change that in a hurry. In a manner that is spiritually if not entirely sonically similar to alt-rock shredder Marnie Stern, Kenney takes that whole singer/guitarist/songwriter mold and smashes it over her knee on her new album, integrating dreamy guitar textures with an ambient overall sound and topping them all off with evocative vocal melodies and profound lyrics that cut to the heart of the emotional issues that plague so many young women in this world.
Expect her live performance to do just as much to both destroy and elevate your expectations from a “female singer-songwriter” (kill that cliche forever please). Kenney’s openers on this bill definitely reflect the Broadberry’s involvement in this evening, with recent Broadberry performers Rikki Shay and Minor Poet making a rare appearance at Gallery 5. That’s good, though, maybe it’ll bring some new people out to check out this excellent venue. Madeline Kenney is really all the inducement you, the super clued-in RVA show attendee, should need to add this show to your calendar, though. She’s worth the price of admission all by herself.
Saturday, September 23, 8 PM
Meg Mulhearn + Elisa Faires, Dazeases, Womajich Dialysiez, Rachel Lynch @ Vagabond – Free!
OK, this is two awesome free shows in the space of three days; you should definitely take advantage of this phenomenon, because it’s not something that occurs every week by any means. This evening over at up-and-coming new live music space Vagabond brings us a couple of heavy hitters in the ambient/experimental music world, on a collaborative tour linked to a still-in-production album-length collaboration that’s apparently on the way next year. You can get a preview of it this Saturday night at Vagabond though, and that’s certainly worth doing.
Meg Mulhearn is a violinist who has worked with US Christmas, Void Ensemble, and others, and releases solo recordings under the name Divine Circles. Elisa Faires is an experimental vocalist who has taken part in projects like Astral Magick Soundtrack and Xambuca. Both of these artists use electronic effects to loop, layer, and otherwise accent their instruments, and the two together bring to life a lush ambient soundscape that seems way bigger than anything two musicians can produce by themselves. Combined with the soulful vocal-driven ambience of Dazeases, the constantly-evolving improvisational experimental project Womajich Dialysiez, and experimental performance artist Rachel Lynch, this bill will explore all sorts of different musical and performative avenues, and should take the listener on a sonic journey that is not too frequently experienced, but all the richer for that fact.
Sunday, September 24, 6 PM
Common Ground Fest South, feat. Bren Lukens, Daisyhead, Centerfolds, Something More, Small Talks, Telltale, Nominee, She’s A Legend @ Strange Matter – $14 (order tickets HERE)
OK yes there’s always gonna be some emo coming to you in my column, and I guess this is where it arrives, because seriously–how could I neglect this excellent event? Common Ground Fest, a one-day mini-festival of emo/pop-punk bands put on by Common Ground Records and taking place in three different cities across the US over the course of this month, brings its southernmost incarnation to Richmond VA, and we are in for a treat. After all, not long after Modern Baseball co-founder Jake Ewald hit the Strange Matter stage with his Slaughter Beach Dog project, we get the other Modern Baseball co-founder, Bren Lukens, coming through with a solo acoustic performance. How sweet is that?
But that’s just the beginning. If you ask me, one of the biggest thrills on this whole lineup shows up down towards the bottom of the bill in the form of excellent up-and-coming emotionally-driven pop-punk band Nominee, whose January EP Drag Me Out has been a big one for me so far this year. Hearing songs like “Stay” and “White Water” live might just be enough to get me to pay the full ticket price all by itself. But even with both Bren Lukens and Nominee on this bill, so many other awesome groups are showing up that it’s hard to even attempt a full encapsulation. That said, Nashville’s Daisyhead, who released a killer LP In Case You Missed It on No Sleep earlier this year; and Baltimore’s Something More, who impressed all comers with their 2015 EP compilation Physical Copy, are just some of the additional reasons to make sure you’re right up front for this entire gig. I could say more, but this should be enough. Be there.
Monday, September 25, 8 PM
Love Roses, Brainbuster, The Donalds, Skumboyz @ McCormack’s Irish Pub – $5
I was introduced to Love Roses’ fun, speedy take on punk rock earlier this year when my admittedly pretty screamo band played a house show with them. It wasn’t exactly a predictable pairing, but we ended up meshing pretty well, and I really dug this band’s energetic rage. Since then, Love Roses have been busy, releasing a brand new split on local label Tired & Pissed with Fredericksburg punks Brainbuster, who by no coincidence at all are also on this bill. Love Roses and Brainbuster are just finishing up a tour together, and this is a much more predictable pairing of VA punk bands than anything involving my band would have been.
Brainbuster have a Dead Kennedys-ish sarcastic approach to their lyrics and an early-80s LA punk approach to their music, showing influence from bands like the Adolescents and Bad Religion as well as a snottier edge that gives the whole thing a harsh bite. That split is gonna be a real ripper when it hits, that’s one thing I know for sure. Local punks The Donalds and Skumboyz round out a lineup full of Tired & Pissed artists who are sure to please the circle-pitting punk fanatics of this town–of whom there are more than you think–as well as anyone who gets a kick out of speedy riffs that are both angry and fun.
Tuesday, September 26, 8 PM
Dryjacket, Eaves, Sleave, Nine Line @ Strange Matter – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
And here we have some more emo, because it’s awesome. New Jersey’s Dryjacket really impressed many listeners, myself among them, with their debut full-length For Posterity. That album, released earlier this year, shows an introspective, multi-layered approach to the sort of emo-revival template that the best bands from that slowly-fading era are still building and improving upon. Dryjacket definitely demonstrates their own qualification for that top tier of still-extant emo bands with a sound incorporating the complex guitar arpeggios that led people to throw the term “twinkle” around a few years ago and some incredible pop choruses that seem to draw as much influence from The Beatles as from Dads–always a welcome phenomenon.
And how about the RVA bands on this bill? Well, Eaves has certainly shown their own bona fides in the whole introspective, multi-layered emo genre over the past little while, and their contribution to this show is therefore sure to be both apropos and entirely welcome. Sleave has a gruffer approach that draws a great deal from that whole vibe of bands like Hot Water Music or Latterman, but with a chunkier guitar sound that shows a bit more hardcore influence than you might expect. Newcomers Nine Line hark back to the 90s days of the more emotionally-driven Fat Wreck bands like Lagwagon or Good Riddance, which is a refreshing change. There’s definitely some daylight between these four bands, but all share a similar feel, one that’s sure to move you.
—-
Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers–this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [the rvamag address isn’t working for some reason, I haven’t had time to look into it! Bear with me]
