RVA Shows You Must See This Week: February 25 – March 3
FEATURED SHOW
Thursday, February 26, 7 PM
Pay Rent Brass Band plays Mega Man 3, Piranha Rama, The Dawnstars @ Gallery 5 – $14.64 (order tickets HERE)
One fascinating thing about being a jazz musician is that you can expect to make a living playing music. As someone who grew up playing punk rock, this is impossible for me to fathom — none of us ever made anything. We all had day jobs — usually crappy ones in restaurant kitchens or construction companies; anyplace that would let you take a couple weeks off at a time to go on tour. And then we’d come home with barely enough money to cover the bills for the month we’d been gone. Jazz players, though… they have a very different experience. And that’s especially true because, if nothing else, they can pull together a band with half a dozen or so friends, get a gig at a bar on a random weekend night, and pull in enough cash to pay the rent. According to legend, it was this sort of endeavor that originally brought Pay Rent Brass Band together — six friends starting a brass band so they could pay the rent. Hey, more power to ’em — beats washing dishes any day of the week.
That was all quite a while back, though, and these days Pay Rent Brass Band have grown quite a bit beyond those ad hoc roots. For one thing, they’ve become quite the force, playing events like the Nickel Bridge centennial and the New York-based hip hop/breakdance festival King Of What, treating their audiences to covers of iconic pop hits and video game soundtracks, and finally, half a decade after coming together, releasing an actual album. Their vinyl debut, Mega Man 3, finds the group rocking through the soundtrack to the eponymous classic Nintendo game and transforming things like the boss battle with Hard Man or working through Dr. Wily’s castle into brassy jazz bops that’ll make you want to dance even as those of us of A Certain Age relive memories of spending way too much time in the basement rec room trying to get past a particularly difficult boss. God, if only that was the hardest thing I had to deal with in my life today. I had no idea how good I had it.
Anyway, come to Gallery 5 this Thursday night to see a group that started out as an easy path to covering bills demonstrate their skills and delight all comers with the full soundtrack to Mega Man 3. Pick up a copy of it on vinyl once the set is over so you can relive the evening again and again. And show up early, so you can catch the opening bands, both of which have a ton to offer in their own right. By now, all Richmonders should know the over-the-top blast of funky soul rock n’ roll fun that Piranha Rama always brings to the stage, but if you’ve somehow missed them before this, it’s time to fix that mistake. Openers The Dawnstars, the official band of Dawnstar Video Games and Arcade in Scott’s Addition, will get things started off right by reviving the music of an absolute classic of the SNES — Donkey Kong Country. I remember this game’s soundtrack being so amazing I could just sit and listen to it, so this band has great raw material to work with. How will they bring it to life? Show up on time to find out — then stick around for an evening of all-around amazing sounds.
Wednesday, February 25, 6:30 PM
Lotus @ The National – Dynamic pricing, who knows (order tickets HERE)
I’ve always been pretty down on jam bands. Ever since I was a teenager singing along with that Teen Idles song that goes “I’ll be grateful when you’re dead” (which hits different now that most of them are), I’ve been thinking shorter, more concise songs were the way, and jam bands are unforgivably self-indulgent. However, sometimes in this life you find yourself in a position to be exposed to a thing you’d never normally give the time of day. And sometimes when that happens, you realize that you have maybe written that thing off too quickly. Over 25 years into Lotus’s career, I’m realizing this about them, and I’m feeling kinda silly for having never given them a chance to win me over before. Lotus are part of the jam-band subgenre known as “jamtronica” — indeed, they’re one of the pioneering groups of the style. Their instrumental tunes stretch across long spans of time, and feature spaced-out guitar solos and freeform jams, but are also generally driven by techno-inspired four-on-the-floor beats, and incorporate all kinds of synthesized and electronic sounds. It’s not at all what I expected going in.
This might be why Lotus do a lot more for me, musically speaking, than a band like Phish — while the jammy elements of the group are still there, the rhythm-oriented propulsion of the songs, and the almost postrock feel of the guitars take the overall sound into a totally different place than you typically get to with bands whose most popular YouTube videos are all three-hour live sets. On the most recent Lotus album, Rise of the Anglerfish, there are moments that remind me of groundbreaking post-dubstep artist Burial, while at other times they land closer to the spaced-out German cosmische vibes of Ash Ra Tempel, and at yet other times I find myself thinking of Squarepusher rocking out with Mogwai. Frankly, I had no idea anyone was making music like this, and now that I’ve heard it, I’m impressed enough that I’m inclined to overlook the fact that this band came out of the 90s jam band scene (which I still pretty much can’t stand). Maybe you should too — especially if any of the references in this writeup (other than the Teen Idles one) caught your fancy. This isn’t your granddad’s jam band.
Thursday, February 26, 8 PM
Siphon, Subversas, De()t, Disintegrators @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10
I really like seeing how modern hardcore punk bands, both here in Richmond and beyond, are handling the increasing domination of the internet into all our lives. These days, it’s easier than ever to get your music out there, to make it so someone on the other side of the country, or the world, can hear your band before you’ve ever even played an out of town show. God knows that makes my life easier — a lot of the reason I can write this column is that when I encounter bands I know nothing about playing a local show, I can just do a quick google, listen to a couple of songs, and decide if I want to write about it. But in a cultural environment like that, deliberately choosing to make your band impossible to find on the internet is a pretty significant statement. And to varying degrees, it’s one all of the bands playing at Fuzzy Cactus Thursday night are making. Headliners Siphon are making it the most strongly — this quartet, featuring members of Prisoner, Future Terror, and Benderheads, have played several shows, but have allowed no record of their sound to make it onto the digital airwaves. At least, not that I know of. So I’m left pondering what they sound like, even as I know that for hardcore/punk maniacs like myself, they’re liable to be irresistible regardless.
No matter how secretive Siphon have been about their sound, though, it’s all about to get blown wide open (at least out there in the real world), since Blackwater Records will be releasing their debut EP, and this show is the celebration of that release entering into the world. You can grab yourself a copy very soon, but why wait when you could see them this Thursday night and end the mystery right now? Sure, it involves leaving the cozy confines of your home and heading out into the cold night, but … isn’t that what we all really want out of life? Something better to do than sit around waiting to go to bed, get up, and go to work the next morning? Seems right to me. Considering what I do know about Siphon, I expect whatever sound they’re cranking out to be really fucking good, at least if you’re a fan of hardcore punk. The same can more definitively be said about the other bands on this bill: Subversas, who this year have already released an excellent EP entitled Psychic Death Feed, generate a roiling cloud of three-chord punk venom that slaps you upside the head with its raw and uncensored attitude. De()t, or as my Apple Music app calls them, Temporary Debt Band Name, play a more postpunk-influenced type of synth-laced punk rock that definitely has the catchy riffs necessary to grab the attention of those who enjoy the earlier, angrier Joy Division stuff. Openers Disintegrators aren’t doing anything you’ve never heard before, but their high-energy three-chord hardcore punk will regardless be a delightful way to start your evening. Come out to Fuzzy Cactus this Thursday night and enjoy an evening that you can be sure has nothing to do with being online.
Friday, February 27, 8 PM
See You Next Tuesday, Underneath, .gif From God, Auto-Icon @ Bandito’s – $15 (order tickets HERE)
When I saw the name See You Next Tuesday on the list of upcoming shows, I was sure it was a different band by that name. I remember the wild, hectic grindcore See You Next Tuesday were spewing into the world 20 or so years ago, and I remember how it took seeing one of their t-shirts to realize what the acronym of their name was REALLY supposed to mean. The mid-00s were a great time for hectic, blurry, and vaguely sassy grindcore bands with a tendency toward brutal proto-deathcore breakdowns, and I saw quite a few in my time. It never felt like any of those bands were built to last, though. Surely the See You Next Tuesday I remember broke up ages ago, and this is another band with a propensity for dirty acronyms, right? Well no, as it turns out, this is the same See You Next Tuesday some friends of mine played a gig with in 2004. While they broke up at the end of the 00s, they reformed toward the latter half of the 10s for some reunion shows, and ended up enjoying themselves so much they decided to stay together. Since then, they’ve released an album of new material, Distractions, that manages to stand tall next to their earlier material, carrying on their legacy of blurry speed, high pitched screams, irreverent song titles, and song structures that stay unpredictable and fascinating regardless of tempo.
While the most recent See You Next Tuesday music video depicted them as old men in wheelchairs, more recent live material shows that this clip is highly exaggerated, and actually, See You Next Tuesday remains every bit as capable as they always were of laying down an absolutely scorching live set. Expect to be blown away at ultra-high speeds at Bandito’s Friday night. Pennsylvania’s Underneath are out on tour with See You Next Tuesday for this jaunt, and they’ll be bringing a similar sort of chaotic, grinding, moshing wall of metallic hardcore fury to the stage, though if anything these kids are even heavier. Expect blast beats and sick mosh aplenty during this set. Hometown heroes .gif From God have been doing this sort of thing for over a decade now, and have only gotten better, darker, and sicker at it as time has gone on, so we should certainly expect them to tear the place up when they’re onstage. In other words, don’t stand too close. I don’t know too much about openers Auto-Icon, but I have heard their demo, and it’s a raw, lo-fi burst of manic hardcore energy that will add all the chaos that might have been missing from the other bands’ sets and then some, depositing it all at the very top of the evening. Show up early, is what I’m saying.
Saturday, February 28, 8 PM
Glassing, Ostraca, Prisoner, Terror Cell @ Bandito’s – $10-$15 (sliding scale, pay what you can)
Something I’ve really liked about the rise of Persistent Vision Records is seeing the more old-school, down-to-earth approach they take to pretty much everything they do. A lot of quasi-industry bullshit has built up in the music underground over the last few decades, but Persistent Vision neatly sidestep a lot of that and are much more clearly just fellow music lovers using the access and resources they have to make cool shit — not because they want credit or fame, because the cool things they make are things they want to see in the world. They understand that the point of doing the thing is doing the thing and getting to be glad it was done, and that we all got to experience it. I see a lot of that in this show Persistent Vision has booked at Bandito’s on Saturday night for Austin, Texas band Glassing. This is a show that Persistent Vision are clearly doing because they consider Glassing friends and want to show them a good time when they come through town. What’s more, they’re avoiding a lot of music-business surcharge bullshit by skipping the advance-ticket thing in favor of selling tickets strictly at the door — and making the price sliding scale, since some of us have day jobs at finance companies and others of us work in restaurant kitchens. I dig that a lot. Reminds me of an earlier time when the local scene felt more human-sized.
It’s great that something like that can happen for a show that has such an incredible lineup, as well. Glassing are a fascinating band — a trio that pulls from a variety of musical directions to make an impossible-to-pigeonhole sound that feels equal parts blackened hardcore, epic screamo, and postrock ambience. Think One Eyed God Prophecy and Envy jamming with first-LP Liturgy. Yes, it’s that fucking good. And so are the three Richmond-based openers on this bill, though I would hope you already know about all of them. If not, here’s your intro: Ostraca, the long-running emotional noise tornado of a trio who are always pushing the boundaries of the genre known as screamo, mixing in shoegaze ambience, quiet atmospheric melodies, and titanic walls of scorching yet beautiful sound. Prisoner, who started from a biker-crust hardcore foundation and steadily built onto it with layers of industrial static, metal roar, and apocalyptic noise, until their music sounded like the tortured cries that pour from the entrance to hell itself. Terror Cell, whose unrelenting metallic crunch seems specifically designed to crush your skull — and make it feel blissful the entire time. Add them all together and you get a night to remember; one of the best shows this year has seen thus far, certainly.
Sunday, March 1, 7 PM
Heavy Is the Head, Full Nelson, Mean Jesus, Coded @ Bandito’s – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Let’s wrap up a top-level heavy metal weekend by heading back to Bandito’s for one more helping of nachos, salsa, and rage, shall we? In light of what’s on the musical menu, it really seems as if you can’t go wrong with this choice. Richmonders Heavy Is the Head have remained very active over the last year or two, despite many personal setbacks in the lives of the band members, and their powerful metallic hardcore is certainly great enough to buoy both the band’s members and its many fans. Their most recent EP, For Your Loss, is an intense venting session about everything from the horrific political environment in America today to the death of the band’s original guitarist. The riffs contain a huge amount of energy and vast potential for moshpit activity. So make sure you don’t let the Heavy boys down this Sunday night, OK?
Meanwhile, Indiana band Full Nelson will join Heavy Is the Head at the top of this bill for a double dose of intense, energetic midtempo hardcore with a lot of metal mixed into the crunchy guitars. Their latest EP, For The People Closest To Me, mixes classic two-step hardcore groove with subtly complex chugga breakdowns and occasional bursts of speed, just to keep it unpredictable. This band will be a blast to mosh it up to, especially at the moments where they throw you for a loop for a second and you find yourself struggling to balance on the wrong foot. Tidewater boys Mean Jesus will join in on the fun, bringing a sore-throated hardcore free-for-all energy that has more than a little meanness to it. They didn’t pick that name for nothing, it seems. New local hardcore band Coded will open this one up, and they feature Rival Booking’s fearless leader in the band, so I’m expecting great things even though I haven’t heard a note of their music. I’m expecting great things from this whole night, actually. Really this whole weekend. I’m also expecting a whole lot of nachos.
Monday, March 2, 7 PM
Mike Viola, Drumming Bird, Horsehead @ The Camel – $25.25 (order tickets HERE)
Mike Viola is an artist who can be tough to explain if you’re not the sort who checks the credits of records you like. See, his most famous roles have all been behind the scenes. He’s contributed to a variety of film soundtracks over his 30-plus-year career, most notably co-producing and contributing lead vocals to the title track of legendary cult film That Thing You Do! Having previously fronted the New York-based band the Candy Butchers, he later went solo and created well over a dozen solo albums, the most recent of which is 2024’s The Rock Of Boston. But his most successful work has been as a producer, working with artists like Butch Walker, Andrew Bird, Mandy Moore, Jenny Lewis, Fall Out Boy… the list goes on and on. The guy is clearly a generational talent with an incredible ear. But I can totally imagine what you’re asking right now: if that’s the case, then why haven’t I heard his songs on the radio?
You know why? Because radio is trash these days. There are some incredible songs on Rock Of Boston that, in any justifiable criteria, several of them would absolutely deserve to be heard on the radio by people who love great power-pop hooks. But no, we’ve just got to hear that same old Lumineers track again, and pretend it’s the best we can ask for. You know what? You should push back on that, and the best way you can do that is by coming out to The Camel this Monday night and learning up close and personal all about the musical genius of Mike Viola. As part of this whole evening of excellence, you’ll also get a set from the project known as Drumming Bird. Led by singer-songwriter Austin Sawyer, this mellow, introspective group brings out some brilliant, understated melodies and subtly cutting lyrics that are worth a close lesson in order to hear. As for Richmonders Horsehead, who are getting this one started, their twangy, Southern take on classic rock n’ roll a la Sticky Fingers-era Stones will be the perfect addition to this delightful bill. Show up on time, folks — you won’t be sorry you did.
Tuesday, March 3, 7 PM
Tipa Tipo, Miramar @ Reveler Experiences – $15 (order tickets HERE)
I don’t know if you’re already paying attention to these folks, but on the off chance you’re not, I’m gonna go ahead and put a bug in your ear (that’s a metaphor, don’t panic): Secret Planet Richmond are bringing a lot of great acts from all over the world to Richmond and putting them in front of local crowds on intimate local stages, most often at Reveler Experiences. This is the latest example of such a thing, and it’s a bit different from previous Secret Planet-sponsored gigs, such as El Mantis or Sangat. This time, the group coming to our lovely little city is Tipa Tipo, a Peruvian group with an intriguing sound that updates a lot of classic Latin American folk sounds and mixes them into songwriting, production, and feel that’s drawn right from 1970s American AM Gold. The result has a sort of late 70s Boz Scaggs feel, only if Boz Scaggs sang in Spanish and took a much bigger influence from indigenous musical traditions, most notably the rhythm and swing of cumbia.
Tipa Tipo released their debut album, Cintas (Ribbons), in 2024, and it’s full of catchy, bouncy, highly danceable tunes that might very well appeal to your Bee Gees-loving aunt. However, it’s subtly deep, integrating the Latin American elements of the group’s sound so seamlessly that you could be forgiven if you missed it on first listen. It’ll be a lot harder to miss when you experience Tipa Tipo up close and personal at Reveler this Tuesday, and are treated to a full set of Latin American disco-funk grooves. I feel confident predicting that booties will be shaking throughout the building. As for openers Mirarmar, well, we should all know about this excellent local trio by now, right? On the off chance some of us don’t, that’s OK — you can get a great window into what this band is all about by showing up on time this Tuesday night and treating yourself to a set of Miramar’s delightfully warm and romantic electrified bolero sound. If you need a primer beforehand, the group’s 2025 LP Entre Tus Flores is sure to get you in the proper mood. Show up to this one ready for romantic moods and plenty of dancing.
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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