RVA Shows You Must See This Week: February 18 – February 24
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, February 20, 7 PM
Suppression, Ostraca, The Slads, Cicada, Service Weapon, Curriculum @ Studio Two Three – $10
The threat is real. One of the best things about the United States, one of the things that has always made this place what it is, is our immigrant culture, which brings people and traditions from all across the world together into one place, and makes it so you can get great food, hear great music, and visit vibrant communities with roots all around the world… without ever leaving our own mid-sized city. But the people who are running this country now don’t like that. They want it to stop. They want us to go back to a time a century in the past, when the KKK marched on Washington DC and an independent label had to release Billie Holiday’s legendary anti-lynching anthem “Strange Fruit,” because her major label was too afraid of political reprisal. They’ve got masked thugs armed with machine guns and pepper spray invading city streets across this country, killing American citizens and disappearing valued members of local communities for the crime of having been born somewhere else. It’s disgusting, it’s threatening to our way of life, and it’s being done in our name.
Music is an important part of everyone’s life, and for some of us, it’s the main thing that makes life worth living. For the people who provide us with this life-giving force to get involved with the political struggle that defines our era is only natural. They’ve gotta live here too, after all. So it’s heartening to see so many shows like this one being booked around town — shows in which bands, venues, and promoters join together with local activist organizations to raise money and fund important efforts to keep the struggle going and help those in our communities who have been targeted by Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and their footsoldiers in ICE. This show’s proceeds will go to benefit Richmond Community Legal Fund, who have been stepping in to help those targeted by ICE, and No Mas Muertes (No More Deaths), who provide humanitarian aid for those attempting to cross the United States border with Mexico without going through border checkpoints. At a time like this, it’s good to know that you can do a small thing to support these positive efforts just by going to a show on a Friday night.
This show brings together a variety of bands from around Richmond and beyond, all from the heavier/noisier end of the spectrum. Suppression has been an active project since the early 90s, and it’s current two-piece lineup has been through a variety of evolutions, the most recent of which has been documented on a whole bunch of cassette releases that have come out from Suppression founder Jason Hodges’ label Chaotic Noise Productions. On the most recent, Whispering Campaign, Hodges and drummer Ryan Parrish blast through 30 tracks of raw, chaotic vocal-bass-drum grindcore in about 10 minutes, and you can expect a similar blitzkrieg of noise chaos at this performance. With literally thousands of songs to draw from at this point, who knows what the set list will look like, but you are guaranteed to be blown away by whatever they choose to play.
Five more bands are participating in this shot back at the repressive fascists in power, including Richmond screamo veterans Ostraca. This band’s scathing epics shift from quiet, haunting interludes into cascades of raging metallic noise at the drop of a hat, and remain captivating and passionate throughout. Their most recent release, 2025’s Eventualities, manages to be both heartfelt and absolutely devastating. Expect to experience a wide range of emotions over a brief span of minutes during their set. Philadelphia’s The Slads are the only band on the bill from outside Virginia, and these folks play catchy, pugnacious oi-influenced punk rock that’ll make your uncle with the Sham 69 tattoo dance around Grandma’s living room at Thanksgiving. These folks should have no trouble getting the pit strutting. As for Richmond’s Cicada, they play old-fashioned Boston-style no-frills hardcore of the sort that Siege and Negative FX used to traffic in back when you could still get a gallon of gas for less than a buck. Richmond’s Service Weapon is a band I have not heard, but only seen in pictures — just like bands from other cities that I’d read about in zines back in the day. They look like rippers and the frontman’s a cutie, so there’s that. Find out more for yourself. Curriculum will start this show with some energetic post-punk about space exploration and eating the rich. Seems eminently appropriate. Come to Studio Two Three ready to donate and rock out for this one.
Wednesday, January 21, 7 PM
HOTPANTS @ Plan 9 Music – Free!
Editor’s Note:
Doug here, inserting myself Drew’s column once more to let you know that our next Plan 9 showcase of 2026 is happening this Wednesday with HOTPANTS. Led by frontwoman Mackenzie Roark and also featuring Billy Bacci, Caroline Vain, Matt Moran, Drew Barnocky, and Leigh Pinner, HOTPANTS is one of Richmond’s most dynamic acts and their latest record, Ghost Of Rock And Roll, is a great showcase of that fact. Americana roots with rock grit. Soaring harmonies with heartfelt songwriting. It’s music that’s a welcome companion on the open highway or in a packed barroom… or in a record store like this Wednesday night. It’s free for all to attend so make sure to stop on by.
Wednesday, February 18, 7 PM
Duunes, Fo Daniels @ The Camel – $15 in advance, $20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
This one should be a lot of fun. Not for any complex or unpredictable reason, either. It doesn’t need to be. Fact is, Duunes is just a solid alternative rock band with some good riffs, a decent amount of energy, and some really catchy tunes. After years and years of dad-rock slop coming out of that whole genre, I really can’t complain that bands are starting to crank up the guitars and write some fun, catchy stuff. Course, Duunes did get a great deal of attention online when they released a Cage The Elephant cover, but if you ask me, it’s far less interesting than their original songs. Frontman Harrison Cohen has some real talent, and he puts it toward crafting catchy guitar-driven songs. Sure, they’re radio friendly, even now in 2026 when the radio pretty much always sucks. But someone’s gotta make the one good song the radio plays every two hours or so. This band is a better candidate for that than a lot of others I’ve encountered out there.
Duunes are joined on this tour by Fo Daniels, a South Carolina singer-songwriter who approaches his craft with the kind of song-first focus that motivated some of the most legendary songwriters of the classic rock era. Don’t let that fool you, though — he’s definitely not a throwback. His songs fit right in with the 21st century’s most interesting alternative rock music thus far; sometimes he conjures up a Jack White-like feel for his guitar-driven rockers, while at other times he strips things back and goes for a more bouncy pop feel to get everyone’s toes tapping. The combination of his fun-loving bounce and Duunes’ catchy rock riffage will definitely help drag you out of the midweek doldrums. Come to this show ready to smile.
Thursday, February 19, 7 PM
The Culture Current, Vol. 1, feat. Habeeb, Sneeze, Myrish, JR Booker, Fuggin Doe, Sonny Kolfax @ Gallery 5 – $10 suggested donation
Something I really appreciate about the hip hop scene in Richmond is that it has a strong sense of itself as a culture with a history, an evolution, and a future. You don’t see that too often in underground music — I’ve watched scenes re-invent the wheel every five years since I started going to shows in 1992, and it can be a real bummer sometimes to see how little the knowledge of the old heads and the culture established by those who came before sticks around after the people who put it together become middle-aged folks with families and jobs to worry about. The hip hop scene, more than any other, is multigenerational, and I love that. What’s more, I love seeing people like Ant The Symbol, who put together this new hip hop showcase at Gallery 5 known as The Culture Current, pass things on to the next generation and put the spotlight on folks who are still on the come-up. It’s inspiring — a good reminder that for any of us in this world of non-mainstream music, we aren’t the first and we won’t be the last, so we need to treat this as a community, not just as a springboard to personal fame and fortune.
The Culture Current brings in three feature artists every month, and adds on three spotlight artists who are not as well known. This time around, at the top of the feature list is Habeeb. This MC, who is affiliated with the I Am I Collective, splits his time between creating dope tracks with an off-kilter, hypnotic flow, and competing in battle rap competitions that often find him shining bright. Another feature artist this evening is Sneeze, a laid-back rapper with smoked-out vibes and the kind of flow that seems so natural it can take you a minute to recognize the depth of his skills. Don’t sleep on this guy though — he’s the real deal. The third featured artist is Myrish, who straddles the line between hip hop and R&B with a highly musical flow that turns into outright singing at times. Spotlight artists will include smooth R&B singer JR Booker, tough rapper Fuggin Doe, and chill MC Sonny Kolfax. so you can get a taste of what’s bubbling under while enjoying some of the best the city has to offer. Learn from those who know; that way the scene will grow.
Friday, February 20, 7 PM
Tired All The Time, White Beast, Human Worm, The Smirks @ Bandito’s – $15.26 (order tickets HERE)
This should be a great Friday night at Bandito’s. Washington DC’s Tired All the Time will be in town, fresh off the release of their latest LP, Somewhere Else, and ready to conquer the world. This trio deletes the usual rock showcase instrument of guitar, and instead structures itself around the powerful synth sounds created by frontman Michael Talley. While you might think that would create a rather thin overall mix, nothing could be further from the truth — Talley’s synth parts can be melodic, rhythmic, or noisy. They can create a rumbling bedrock that acts as musical foundation for the entire song at one moment, and at another, launch into a psychedelic flight of fancy. They’re every bit as versatile as a guitar would be in the same musical position, and perhaps more so. Therefore, Tired All The Time is an incredibly engaging listen that will make straight-ahead rock n’ roll fans happy while also offering a lot to bring in the folks who like things a bit more off-kilter. It doesn’t hurt that their new album is chock-full of bangers that’ll get stuck in your head for hours.
Richmonders White Beast have a similar sort of thing going on, even though their approach to deleting core parts of the standard rock instrumentation is more minimalist than that of Tired All The Time. Which is to say, where Tired All The Time replaces guitar with synth, White Beast ditches it entirely, sticking with only bass and drums and wringing out thick riffs and bottom-heavy grooves that will knock you right on your ass. Those six strings are not missed when White Beast steps onto stage; if anything, they just make even clearer how truly heavy a band can get when they focus on the low end. Human Worm goes in a different direction, mingling guitars and synths, acoustic and programmed drums, to create a moody postpunk pop-ballad feel on their self-titled EP, which ends with a song that’s about, or at least called, “Bandito’s.” I hope it mentions how good the nachos are at this place. Anyway, The Smirks round out the bill, playing the most straightforward rock n’ roll sound of all the bands on the menu for this evening. High-energy three-chord garage rock with some psychedelic touches — hard to complain about that. Hard to complain about anything where this show is concerned, really. Show up, rock out, eat tacos. That’s your Friday night sorted.
Saturday, February 21, 7 PM
Prayer Group, Oxrun, Demons, Jealous God @ Cobra Cabana – $10
These are trying times. And at times like these, while some seek refuge in escapism, others — like me, and maybe like you too — just want to immerse themselves in noise. The bands on this bill have plenty of noise for you, of the sort that was extolled in the 90s by Amphetamine Reptile Records, home of the Melvins, Unsane, The Jesus Lizard, and quite a few other bands who played loud, heavy rock music with the maximum amount of buzzing, furious noise mixed in. Richmond’s own Prayer Group has been keeping that tradition alive for quite a while now, and their most recent LP, Strawberry, finds them doing much the same — this time on a release from Baltimore’s Reptilian Records. Harsh roaring vocals, massively overdriven guitars, walloped drums… they’re all here, and they all add up to a big old musical wrecking ball that’s sure to bowl you right over.
This bill teams Prayer Group up with Oxrun, who are also based in Baltimore, and whose self-titled debut EP finds them working similar noise rock territory. However, Oxrun has a tighter, choppier guitar sound that feels a bit more metallic than that of Prayer Group — though they still get noisy and wild on a frequent basis. Still, expect a more tightly focused stream of sparks to shoot out of these folks’ guitars when they’re hitting the peak moments of their set than you’ll see out of Prayer Group at similar times. (If you actually do see something like this — duck and cover.) Norfolk band Demons aren’t too far from Prayer Group and Oxrun, spiritually speaking, but somewhere between the two camps lies that fine, invisible line between noise rock and metal — though if anything, Demons are more metallic hardcore than metal. If you like Hope Conspiracy and Blacklisted, you’ll find a lot to like in Demons. Jealous God will start the evening off with a sound that’s the most identifiably hardcore of the night. However, their tendency toward blown-out amps and reverberating vocal bellows puts them closer to noise-rock territory than I had previously considered. Maybe people who like Slapshot and people who like Skullflower should hang out more often.
Sunday, February 22, 7 PM
Staff Picks feat. Dials Dials Dials, The Clergymen, Cats In Houses @ The Camel – $10 in advance, $12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Here’s a pro tip for all you musicians out there: creating yet another pop, rock, or indie combo might seem like the safe play when you’re trying to put together a project. God knows there’s a long track record of bands in those configurations who end up successful. However, there’s a much longer track record of bands like that that struggled to break through. What Dials Dials Dials receiving the coveted Staff Picks residency slot at The Camel this month has shown is that there’s good reason to go a completely different route. Why? Because unusual musical projects get noticed. Wrong Worshippers drummer Milo McAdams has been doing Dials Dials Dials (or Dials x3 if you’re not trying to hit a word count) for several years now, and the fearless creativity he shows in this project is a fascinating thing to hear and observe. The solo tracks generally consist of Milo playing drums and triggering loops and breakbeats for him to play overtop of, building up layers of thick rhythmic noise. At other times, as on the most recent Dials x3 EP, Shifting Distorted Fish, he introduces collaborators into the mix to see what the two of them will come up with when their efforts are added together. On that EP, the result is an energetic free-jazz breakbeat free-for-all, one that is a truly delightful listening experience for those with minds open enough to appreciate it.
I have no idea who, if anyone, will join Milo for his performance this Sunday night, but I can tell you that the things Dials x3 get up to during their Staff Picks residency will be some of the most fascinating things you’ll see on the Camel stage this month — if not ever. So you definitely want to be in the house for whatever Milo chooses to unleash. Dials x3 will be joined on this bill by relatively new Richmond trio The Clergymen, whose lo-fi take on classic garage-style indie-pop will connect equally well with those who loved the early-90s Sarah Records twee-pop explosion (think Heavenly or Tiger Trap) and those who dug the classic girl groups and still love to break out their Shangri-La’s and Crystals records every now and then. I know very little about openers Cats In Houses, but they do seem to have an emotional focus and a knack for writing songs that work well both acoustically and in loud, full-band environments. We’ll all learn more about them together this Sunday night, right? Sounds like a plan to me. See you there.
Monday, February 23, 7 PM
Smush, Daundry, Undertow, Bleed Out, Siren Wells @ The Camel – $15 in advance, $20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Monday nights are usually nights when I need to take it a little easier on myself. The fact that a couple of excellent touring shoegaze bands are pulling up at the Camel this Monday night to enthrall us all certainly fits right in with my needs. New York trio Smush has gotten a lot of praise from the guy who ran the last label a band of mine released records on, so that caught my attention when I heard it, but if it weren’t for how incredilbe this band turned out to be, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as hype about them. Smush have a knack for creating an ethereal, ambient atmosphere in their music without ever losing track of the melodies and riffs that underpin their song structures and make everything memorable despite the pretty, colorful haze in the air. It can’t hurt that these folks know how to bring in the drum pound and guitar crunch when the songs need to make an impact — debut LP If You Were Here I’d Be Home Now captures the emotional intensity of Slowdive with the garage-band vibes of Ovlov, and it all adds up to be quite the knockout.
Chicago band Daundry definitely aren’t the same sort of band as Smush, but the fact that they land within the same genre is undeniable. While Smush’s brand of shoegaze is more ambient and ethereal, Daundry’s is heavy, almost slowcore in its plodding tempos and focus on distortion and heaviness. Daundry’s vocals are screamed at times, and the drums are always hitting hard. However, that fuzzy feeling of being carried off by a lovely wave, that feeling that infuses all shoegaze to some extent, remains here beneath all of the downcast distortion and crunch. This will be a delightful pairing all around. As for the bands from closer to home, well, you might look at the name Undertow and think of the Seattle straight edge band from the 90s, but this is instead a quartet from Northern Virginia who play moody, guitar-driven alt-rock tunes that pull equally from moody 80s New Wave and fuzzy, ambient 90s shoegaze. The result, from the one single I’ve heard, is very good — melodic, energetic, and at times spilling over into roaring anger and frustration. Richmond’s Bleed Out are the heaviest band on this show, playing chugging metallic hardcore with emotional vocals — and they definitely scored some points from me by beginning their Unborn EP with a sample of Sylvia Rivera. Siren Wells will open the evening with a set of melodic indie tunes that’ll get everyone in a good mood. Monday night chill vibes activated.
Tuesday, February 24, 5 PM
Black Punk Fest, feat. 30MinuteNap, Plutonium Womb, MyDiaryToYou, Nimrod, Heavyweight Champs @ Backroom (fka Another Round) – $15
Calling your show Black Punk Fest and filling it with five Virginia bands I’ve either barely heard or never heard it all is a great way to grab my attention. I always love to see different perspectives brought to the types of music I love the most, and honestly white people have had a stranglehold over the entire genre for far too long. That being said, if you come to this show expecting to see bands featuring Black members doing something that sounds like The Clash, 7 Seconds, or Agnostic Front, you’re in for a surprise. These are all bands working somewhere within the broader metallic hardcore territory, so their definition of punk may not ring true to your 50-year-old uncle who loves Sham 69. But if you like good, heavy music, you’re sure to get plenty out of this show regardless of how you define its genre of choice.
30MinuteNap are an energetic band with chunky grooves and an undeniable Rage Against The Machine influence, who aren’t afraid to have their vocalist straight-up rap, though at other times their melody-infused midtempo riffs land in more of a Deftones space — which the singer handles just as well. Having never heard of these folks before finding this flyer, I can see that their talent is what has propelled them to the top of the bill. MyDiaryToYou are more emotionally centered, using lead guitar melody as a delightful contrast to their vocalist’s screams and croons. Their recent EP You Have A Way With Last Words indicates real talent in the metalcore domain, and if this band lasts another year or two, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them a lot bigger than they are now. Plutonium Womb are pretty new, and haven’t got any recorded material I was able to find, but between the lo-fi videos I saw of them on Instagram and the brutal name they’ve given their band, I expect these folks to be downright scathing and dangerous. I haven’t heard Nimrod at all, and this Tidewater-area band appears to have started playing shows since the start of 2026, so they’re brand new, but that’s all the more reason to be excited to see them. The night is complete with the addition of Virginia Beach hardcore kids Heavyweight Champs, who play fast no-frills hardcore in a manner most likely to please the folks who take the word “punk” in the name of this show very very literally. Show up early, and hey, stick around for the whole thing! This is gonna be a rager.
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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