RVA Shows You Must See This Week: April 29 – May 5
FEATURED SHOW
Thursday, April 30, 7 PM
Sravani Kameswari, Roslin, Beya, The Potted Plants @ The Camel – $13.22 (order tickets HERE)
I must say, I’m not exactly a lazy girl; in a given week, I put 50-60 hours into work of various sorts, and I feel fairly productive and industrious. But then sometimes I run across people whose commitment to their mission in life makes me feel like I should quit kidding myself and admit I’m actually kind of a lazy lima bean. This is how I feel when I contemplate Richmond singer-songwriter Sravani Kameswari, a Telugu-American performer who has spent the last few years developing her musical career at the same time as she’s attended VCU medical school. Becoming a doctor isn’t exactly an easy career path to walk, so for someone to not only excel at that endeavor but to also put together a strong body of work as a songwriter in what little spare time they’re afforded is impressive on a level it’s difficult to put into words.
That is, however, exactly what Sravani Kameswari has done, and it reaches a new apex at this particular Thursday night show at The Camel, where she will celebrate the release of her debut LP, Unraveled. As Kameswari has explained, this eight-song collection represents a summation of her time as a singer-songwriter here in Richmond, and is the perfect collection to release to sum that time up as she prepares to move elsewhere — presumably moving on to the next phase in her medical career. The songs on Unraveled are clearly fueled primarily by plaintively strummed guitar chords, which display Kameswari’s roots in folk music forms as well as her love for rock n’ roll. However, it’s the layered full-band backup arrangements that give these songs their full depth, showing that Kameswari’s songwriting works on multiple levels and can be both striking and subtle. To top it all off, there is, of course, her voice — gorgeous, wide-ranging, and full of quiet power, it’s the most impressive instrument on every song contained on Unraveled.
Kameswari will be playing this Thursday night record release show with a full band backing her, so you’ll get the full weight and impact of all of these songs from the performance that takes place on The Camel’s stage. Once you hear it, you’ll surely be adding Unraveled to your personal music library in one form or another. The evening will feature some excellent sounds from other artists as well, and first on that list is Roslin, a relatively new quartet from Richmond featuring members of Hotspit attacking a similar sort of slow-burning shoegaze-tinged indie sound as that of their previous group. The group’s brief but powerful demo gives hints of impressive things to come. Local singer-songwriter Bella Salunga, who performs under the name Beya, has a more country-tinged acoustic indie sound, one that’s always a pleasant, enjoyable listen. The evening will be rounded out by a set from The Potted Plants, a piano-driven indie-alternative combo that has done quite a bit to set themselves apart from the usual indie sounds you’ll hear at local shows, and should definitely grab the ears of all assembled. Come to this one ready to celebrate the musical triumph of one of the hardest-working best-kept secrets in this city’s music scene.
Wednesday, April 29, 7 PM
Harf. & The Subs, Andrew Lucier @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $28.42 (order tickets HERE)
Harf is kind of a cute name for a musician — the kind of name that makes me imagine the person playing the heartfelt acoustic indie tunes on Harf.’s 2025 debut LP, Carve, as a plushie of some sort. Maybe a teddy bear? In fact, he is a human, a guy named Will Harford, and the songs he writes and performs are sunny and joyful to listen to, while containing real emotional depth and thankfully staying away from the Jack Johnson/John Mayer-isms this genre can at times be prone to. Instead, I hear elements of Swedish singer-songwriter Jose Gonzalez, along with early Elliott Smith and maybe the tiniest touch of Daniel Johnston. The overall mix makes for a lovely listen, and will surely translate well to the live environment, especially since Harf is bringing The Subs, his recently formed backing group, along with him to thicken up the sound and add the same sort of subtly brilliant layers to his music that it has on his recorded material.
Harf & The Subs come through town in the company of Andrew Lucier, another singer-songwriter with connections to the midwest and mid-South. Lucier’s most recent EP, Charleston, evokes familiar touchstones for twentysomething Southerners with post-college wanderlust and way too many emotions about everything. I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve been one of those — more recently than the calendar indicates should be possible, in fact, but who’s counting? The powerful emotions brought to life by Andrew Lucier’s music pair well with the sort of introspective sound generated by Harf & The Subs, and the result will be an evening of lovely sounds guaranteed to make you feel a whole lot of big feelings. Which is always nice, even when we don’t expect it to be.
Thursday, April 30, 7 PM
Poison Ruin, The Serfs, Cicada, Destruct @ Cobra Cabana – $15 (order tickets HERE)
For the uninitiated, punk rock may seem like a very basic musical form — three chords played fast and harsh, that sort of thing. However, the genre has always been united far more by philosophical approach and mindset than by fundamentals of musical construction, which is why the breadth of musical styles that tend to cluster under that same banner of “punk rock” is so wide, and seems always to be evolving. Philadelphia’s Poison Ruin is yet another musical evolution of the form, combining classic anarcho-punk rhythms and riffs with everything from the passionate drive of folk music to the cutting rawness of black metal and a surprising baroque musical element that actually makes a lot of sense once you consider the band’s medieval lyrical focus. Poison Ruin approaches sword-and-sorcery themes as a metaphorical tool with which to point out unsettling resonances between the struggles to survive faced by the working classes in those times and the more dystopian elements of our modern capitalist society.
In so doing, Poison Ruin paints a picture of itself as a sort of post-apocalyptic band of punk missionaries, playing a style of music that could just as easily survive and thrive in the ruins of our current civilization as it does in the margins of our late-capitalist dystopia. Pull up at the margin represented by Cobra Cabana’s back patio and enjoy a set from this band of wandering troubadours this Thursday night — and remind yourself of the endless creativity that drives the punk rock movement. They’ll be accompanied on their trip through Richmond by southern Ohio-based trio The Serfs, whose minimalist synth-industrial sound connects much more closely with the modern-primitive ensembles of the genre’s early years than with the EBM vibes of industrial groups of the post-Ministry age. Two Richmond groups will offer local support on this bill. Cicada’s fierce old-school USHC attack will get the whole place moving in a jittery, hyperactive fashion, while Destruct will bring their classic European-style blown-out D-beat energy in an effort to get the party started off right. Expect this night of music to go hard in the paint from start to finish.
Friday, May 1, 7 PM
Our Wits, Dodomeki, Gouge, Auto Icon @ Starr Hill Brewing – Free!
If you’re wondering what it takes to get on my radar where show coverage is concerned, pay attention, because Starr Hill Brewing are fast-tracking themselves to the center of my attention this month. Following up last week’s free Saturday night gig featuring four talented hardcore bands with trans and queer members with another free show full of underrated screamo/hardcore brilliance the very next weekend? Impressive by any measure. OK, Starr Hill, I am officially paying close attention to what y’all are bringing to the scene. This particular offering is headlined by New Jersey band Our Wits, who come to town in support of their recently released second LP, Let Me Join You. Having evolved as a backing group for vocalist Dean Scordilis’s spoken-word poetry, the group slowly moved from a more improvisational framework into the tightly constructed post-hardcore anthems of angst that they bring to us today. Folks who appreciate the work of groups like Indian Summer, La Dispute, or Being As An Ocean will find quite a bit within Our Wits’s sound to connect with.
A few Richmond-based groups will join Our Wits on this bill, the most prominent of which is Dodomeki, a six-piece ensemble who plays in a style they refer to as “lamentation queercore.” The connections with post-hardcore, classic emo, and shoegaze that run through their music are clear on last year’s World’s End Mourning, which is so similar to the kinds of records I was buying in the mid-1990s that I can just imagine these folks doing a split EP with Still Life or Current. It’s good to hear bands carrying this sound (which in my mind traces to a time when I imagine most if not all of these musicians weren’t even born yet) forward into the 21st century with such self-assured grace and musical prowess. I expect great things from Dodomeki’s set — and with this entire show being free, you have no excuse to miss it. The remaining groups on this bill are much newer, with Auto Icon having only a demo to their name, and Gouge being on only their fourth or fifth show. Auto Icon’s demo shows them to be a rough-and-ready lo-fi noisecore group with some appealing energy, and based on the pictures I’ve seen of Gouge playing live, I can only assume they’re pretty intense as well. On the whole, a pretty great bill, and the price is certainly right. I see you, Starr Hill. Keep up the good work.
Saturday, May 2, 7 PM
Searows, Jordan Patterson @ The Broadberry – $37.71 (order tickets HERE)
I don’t really have a Tiktok. Well, that’s not entirely true — I have an almost empty account that I keep mainly so it’s easy to see videos that people send me, on the rare occasions that they do (please don’t start sending me Tiktoks). But I don’t use Tiktok for its intended purpose, and sadly, in the year 2026, this means there’s a certain segment of underground music culture that I completely miss. People who go viral on Tiktok and end up with an entire musical career as a result of one song landing a ton of streams tend to go right by me. I don’t hear about them until years later when they’ve got actual albums out and are going on tour and such. Case in point: Searows, the musical project of a young singer-songwriter from Portland named Alec Duckart. His stuff apparently popped off on Tiktok in the waning days of the pandemic. Meanwhile, I never heard about him until the announcement that he would be playing The Broadberry on his current US tour hit my Instagram feed.
I’m so glad I did. Searows has the kind of sound that always connects on a deep level for me when I’m at my moodiest. And I’m not having the greatest time in my personal life right now — in the last couple of weeks, my wife and I split up and a very good friend of mine passed away. So yeah, it’s definitely a good time for sitting around in dark rooms late at night with melancholy music turned up way too loud. Searows’ latest album, Death In The Business of Whaling, is exactly the right sort of thing to hit me directly in the feels. If you can appreciate My Morning Jacket at their moodiest, loved Red House Painters but think Kozelek lost the plot at some point, and/or really enjoyed the first couple of Torres albums, you’ll definitely connect with the Searows sound — which is very quiet at some moments, very loud at others, but always full of deep melancholy emotion. Opener Jordan Patterson has more of an indie-folk element to her sound, and it shines through on her 2025 debut LP, The Hermit. She’ll definitely set the tone for an evening of intense moods and haunting melodies.
Sunday, May 3, 7 PM
Knifing Around, Velvet Ruin, Dead Format, Dials Dials Dials @ Bandito’s – $10 (order tickets HERE)
It’s been nearly half a year since Richmond got a chance to catch a live set from local postpunkers Knifing Around, but they are returning to action in a big way this Sunday, with a celebration of the release of their debut full-length, Vivisect, on Blank Verse Records. This record finds Knifing Around continuing to evolve in its sound, bringing electronic elements to the fore without losing that sense of urgency that has always animated their music and which contains an irreducible core of molten hot rock n’ roll. Lead single “Bodysnatchers” is by far the least guitar-driven tune to come from Knifing Around thus far, but even as it harks back to new wave and industrial touchstones of past eras, from New Order to Nitzer Ebb, it maintains the dark, ominous moods that have characterized Knifing Around’s music throughout their career, as well as retaining the subtle, understated wit that makes this group stand out from its peers within the broader electro-dance-post-punk continuum.
So yeah, expect plenty more where that came from! Knifing Around will be showcasing their new LP in detail during their set at Bandito’s on Sunday night, and you can expect to hear plenty more of the latest evolution this band has undergone. The album won’t be out on vinyl for another couple of weeks, so I don’t expect them to have copies for sale as yet, but this is a great opportunity to find out exactly what you’ll be looking forward to when your pre-order hits your mailbox. The evening will also feature some great tunes from three other excellent local groups. Death-rockers Velvet Ruin will hit you with the swaggering, moody rock n’ roll that is their stock in trade. Dead Format will bring their killer melodic, emotional post-hardcore tunes to the evening in what promises to be the most high-energy set of the evening. And Dials Dials Dials will bring some sort of mutant indie twist on bedroom electronica and drum n’ bass to give the whole evening a bit of a left-of-center twist. Top it all off with some Bandito’s tacos and you’ve got a Sunday night to remember fondly throughout the work week.
Monday, May 4, 6 PM
Hit The Lights, Major League, Public Works, Rematch @ The Canal Club – $22 in advance, $25 day of show (order tickets HERE)
A public service announcement for all of you reading this who are still in your 20s: the longer you are an adult, the more often you will find yourself looking up and going, “that was THAT LONG ago?” I call this phenomenon the Long Now of Adulthood — once you’re out of school and in the “real world” (bleh), life just kind of rolls on, day to day, week to week, and before long, year to year. And next thing you know, there’s a record you loved when it came out, which feels maybe five or so years ago to you… and it turns out the band are coming back through town on the 20th anniversary tour for that album. Case in point: this Hit The Lights/Major League combo tour. Hit the Lights is the band that I have history with on this bill. Back in the late 00s when that whole “easycore” sound was big — basically pop-punk bands that pulled chunkier guitar sounds and stylistic moves from bands that were far heavier — I was loving a lot of the bands in that whole scene, and I discovered Hit the Lights as part of my explorations. Their catchy chorus melodies and chunky guitars worked for me in the same way records by Fireworks, The Wonder Years, and State Champs did, and I definitely spun their first couple of albums regularly at one point.
However, I did NOT realize that it had been 20 years since their debut, This Is A Stick-Up… Don’t Make It A Murder, was released until the notification of this tour came across my feed. I hadn’t thought about Hit The Lights in years, but I was glad to discover upon checking into what they were up to that their 2025 comeback EP, Tomorrow’s Gonna Hurt, is every bit as good as their classic material from… ugh, two decades ago. As for Major League, who are another band who trace back to those easycore days of the late 00s, I hadn’t heard them before, but one listen to 2010’s The Truth Is…, their debut that they’re touring to celebrate the 15th anniversary of, was enough to make me realize they were right in my wheelhouse. These folks are on the heavier end of the easycore spectrum, connecting with the metal riffs and breakdowns of groups like Four Year Strong and Set Your Goals, while bringing in the same sorts of catchy choruses and memorable lyrical turns that bands like that used to make themselves so powerful. Major League haven’t released anything new in over a decade, so this tour is a comeback of sorts, but that just makes it all the more delightful to hear. Modern bands Public Works and Rematch are well paired with this comeback tour, bringing a similar melodic and emotional energy. This will be a delightful evening, regardless of whether nostalgia is your kind of thing. It’s all just one big long now anyway, really.
Tuesday, May 5, 7 PM
Twisted Teens, Paint Fumes, Ultra Bleach, Radon Abatement @ Cobra Cabana – $17.85 (order tickets HERE)
My deadline fast approaches, so let’s be really straight-up about this one: this will be a great rock n’ roll show for those who love rock n’ roll in its classic no-frills form. Twisted Teens are a duo who use lo-fi vibes and thick guitar and keyboard textures to sound way bigger than they are, and play classic heartland punk in that same sort of post-Springsteen style that Gaslight Anthem perfected at one point — but with more stripped-down heart that can in no way be diminished by their use of a Suicide-style economy-model drum machine. Their latest LP, Blame The Clown, scored a Best New Music review on Pitchfork and is full of charismatic, heartfelt vocal delivery and the surprisingly effective texture of a pedal steel guitar in the lead role. These are all elements that shouldn’t work when put together, which makes it so much more gratifying to realize that not only do they work, they work WELL.
It’s a true testament to how well they do work that fans of the kind of boozy, heartfelt, beautifully decadent rock tuneage that Fuzzy Cactus usually specializes in are the ones who are most clamoring to see Twisted Teens; for evidence, look no further than the fact that Dig Records is who will be bringing them to town. Additionally, they’ll be playing this show with Mid-Atlantic scrappy garage-punk reigning champions Paint Fumes, whose 2023 full-length Real Romancer remains a blast of killer rock n’ roll of the most stnraightforward and delightful kind. Local punks Ultra Bleach and newcomers Radon Abatement (sweet name) will get this one going in proper fashion in order to brighten up your taco Tuesday. Hit it.
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): rvamustseeshows@gmail.com
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