RVA Shows You Must See This Week: July 23 – July 29
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, July 25, 9 PM
Applegate/Pahtoon Double Birthday Bash, feat. Beex, Toward Space, Rubber Dagger @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10
This kind of show is made for a venue like Fuzzy Cactus, the Northside bar I’ve been known to refer to as the 21st century home of rock n’ roll in Richmond (eat your heart out, XL 102 circa 1987). This dual birthday celebration brings together multiple generations of Richmond punk rock legends together under one era to rejoice in the long-standing tradition of killer punk rock music being made in this city. The birthday boys in question are Beex singer-guitarist Tom Applegate and Toward Space singer-guitarist David Pahtoon, each of whom has a long legacy of rocking this city with catchy riffs and memorable tunes. Celebrating the birthdays of both of these gentlemen is a great way to honor that tradition and help keep it alive in this city for a long time to come. And hey, it’s also a great way to have an outstanding Friday night.
Of the two groups, Beex has a deeper legacy, but this is really just because they got started earlier. Forming in the late 1970s when punk rock was still only a few years old, they released a few important EPs in their first few years as a band, which were some of the first independent punk singles to come out from Richmond. They remained active on at least an occasional basis over the next few decades, suffering a devastating blow when original vocalist Christine Gibson passed away in 2007, but resurrecting about a decade ago with guitarist Tom Applegate stepping up into the vocalist slot. Their rollicking take on punk remains a vital blast of gritty energy to this day, and their 2022 split EP with fellow Richmond punk OGs L’Amour is a great collection of swaggering riffs and sneering punk n’ roll disdain. Over 40 years after Beex got started, they’re still an absolute blast to listen to, and their set at Fuzzy Cactus this Friday night should be a major hit of pure joy.
As for Toward Space, this trio got their start a decade or so ago as teenage terrors blasting out noisy garage punk with a ton of attitude. Today, they’re not as young as they once were, but they remain full of youthful energy and vigor on more recent releases, with the vocal interplay between guitarist Pahtoon and bassist Seyla Hossaini standing out as a particular highlight. There’s an undercurrent of classic soul influence creeping into their more recent material, which certainly adds a new dimension to their overall sound, but the garage-punk foundation of their sound remains solid and ensures that fans of classic old-school punk will continue to get a lot out of Toward Space’s killer tunes. Of course, they also deliver a delightful, dynamic performance in the live environment, so they’ll be just as much fun to see at Fuzzy Cactus Friday night as Beex. With the folks in Richmond’s Rubber Dagger kicking things off with a delightful dose of raw garage punk-n-roll, this one’s going to be a blast from beginning to end. Come out, wish the boys a happy birthday, and dance the night away. It’s a great way to carry on the tradition of Richmond punk rock.
Wednesday, July 23, 7 PM
Newmoon, Cold Gawd, Dime @ The Camel – $16 in advance, $20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I tend to think of Love Tiger Connection as a local promoter that is mainly tapped into the post-hardcore scene, but I suppose it only makes sense that they’re the ones who bring us this gig — these days, it seems like modern shoegaze and post-hardcore are growing closer together as genres with every passing year. Sure enough, Newmoon is a shoegaze band; in fact, this Belgian quintet are downright ethereal, filling their songs with clouds of melodic, atmospheric synths and ringing single-note guitar melodies played through a ton of delay. If you’re a scholar of the classic shoegaze material from the dawn of the genre in the 90s, you’ll probably take note of the resemblance between Newmoon’s 2024 LP, Temporary Light, and Slowdive’s legendary 1995 LP, Pygmalion. A more modern comparison might be Beach House’s Teen Dream LP, though Newmoon’s sound draws a great deal more from the dark, chilly postpunk of 80s UK and European bands than it does from anything Americana-related.
Regardless of which nerdy reference I pull out of a hat for you, though, what you need to know about Newmoon is that their gorgeous, atmospheric clouds of melody wash over the listener in the most delightful of ways, feeling like cool ocean spray on your face as you enjoy a lovely evening on the beach. The world is a toxic burning hellhole most days if you ask me, so bathing your mind in the lovely sonic balm that Newmoon provides is surely a great way to break up your week. Newmoon are accompanied on their trip through Richmond by Californians Cold Gawd, who also have a strong connection to the modern shoegaze sound, but are coming from a very different corner of the genre. Their crunchy guitars offset their ethereal vocals in wonderful fashion, but the overall effect is of barely suppressed heaviness and emotional power, of the sort that will probably delight folks who enjoy modern heavy-guitar shoegaze groups like Fleshwater or Glare. These two groups definitely represent opposite poles of a single genre, offering a delightful contrast that should please anyone who can find anything to appreciate about the shoegaze genre as a whole. The evening will open with a set from Floridians Dime, who combine the intense, emotional vocals and heavy guitars of post-hardcore with a shoegazey touch on their melodic choruses. Show up on time, because you won’t want to miss a moment of any of these bands.
Thursday, July 24, 7 PM
Prabir Trio, Shagwuf, Sweet Touch @ The Broadberry – $22.26 (order tickets HERE)
I’ll admit it — I’ve never really gotten the whole Wet Hot American Summer thing. That kind of comedy just doesn’t click for me at all. Therefore I’m actually a lot more stoked on this particular weekend tour, christened Wet Hot Virginian Summer, which will bring Prabir Trio and Shagwuf to a trio of venues around the Commonwealth over the weekend. We’re here to talk about the Thursday night gig (yes, Thursday night is part of the weekend, what kind of a question is that?), which will bring the two touring bands in question to Richmond’s own The Broadberry, accompanied by Sweet Touch. Prabir Trio, who follow in the footsteps of legendary Richmond hardcore band Sleepytime Trio by having four people in the band, are our headliners for this one, and they’re certainly rising to the occasion: the evening will constitute a release party for their latest EP, Jivant. Recorded live, this EP showcases the eclectic mix of influences Prabir Trio integrate into their music, which has its roots in classic psychedelic power-pop and rock n’ roll but pulls in a wide variety of sounds from all around the globe. In the spirit of a true celebration, their set at this show will feature some surprise guest appearances as well as plenty of great tuneage, of the sort you’ve come to expect from Prabir Mehta, talented singer-songwriter that he is, and his highly capable band of musical veterans.
Prabir Trio are joined on this gig — and the entire weekend of travels around Virginia — by Shagwuf, the incredible Charlottesville-based alt-rock trio who’ve been proving their brilliance around the Commonwealth and beyond for over a decade now. Therefore, I’d think they wouldn’t need any introduction for you longtime tapped-in fans of Virginia music. But every column is the first column for someone, so let’s talk in a little more depth about Shagwuf regardless. Lord knows their music certainly merits a deep dive — the tension, energy, and passion that runs through their brand of alternative rock (emphasis on the ROCK) makes it an eternally exciting listen that you’ll have a tough time listening to without moving around. That’s OK though — Shagwuf shows are better when everyone is dancing, and surely there’ll be plenty of frolicking freaks in attendance to dance hard during their set (and all night) at this Thursday night Broadberry gig. You owe it to yourself to be part of that crowd, to let yourself lose your mind a little bit as the killer riffs blaze a trail straight through your brain. You know what to do. And by the way, show up on time, because you’ll definitely want to catch Richmond electro-popsters Sweet Touch, who will open the evening with a lovely set of tantalizing grooves and sick beats.
Friday, July 25, 6 PM
Alpha Wolf, Vilified, Sheoru, Distress @ The Canal Club – $20 in advance, $23 day of show (order tickets HERE)
At the time the whole nu-metal thing was going on, I couldn’t appreciate it worth a damn. It was the mid-90s, I was still pretty young, and it felt simultaneously pretty close to what my friends and I were doing in our metallic hardcore bands, so that whole narcissism-of-small-differences thing kicked in and made us all turn away from nu-metal. But in later years, I came to realize that there was a lot to be said for the best bands of the genre, regardless of their tendencies to pull in hip hop gimmickry and give us at least one embarrassingly over-the-top emotional outburst per album. These days, I have the necessary perspective to embrace the greatness that nu-metal as a genre had to offer, and it’s a perfect time in musical history to do exactly that, as there’s clearly a nu-metal revival in full swing all around us right now.
You can tell it’s got legs, too, because it has made its way all the way to Australia, where Friday night’s Canal Club headliners, Alpha Wolf, hail from. This Tasmanian quintet delivers all the stomping, chugging temper-tantrum moshcore you could ever want on their 2024 album Half Living Things, introducing plenty of turntable scratches, programmed-beat breaks, and 808 bass drops to make it all hit even harder — not to mention a passel of post-Morello atonal guitar noise squeals. You know, just to make sure it squares up and hits you right between the eyes. It’s not necessarily a deep listening experience, but if you want to express the raw frustration and angst that builds up within you after spending a day or a week dealing with the modern world we’re all forced to live in, Alpha Wolf have definitely got you covered. Their performance at The Canal Club this Friday night is a great way to end a terrible work week. Local deathcore mosh kingpins Vilified will provide support on this one; recent singles show that these folks are true headcrushers, so come prepared to have your blocked knocked off, musically speaking. Sheoru have a similarly scathing, brutal deathcore sound, but occasionally integrate melodic vocals and electronic breaks to add nuance and take their music to the next level. The evening will begin with a set of brutal metalcore from Richmond-based newcomers Distress, who’ll get things started out with a bang. You’ll definitely be banging your head throughout this one, so come prepared to mosh it up.
Saturday, July 26, 6 PM
CR_WLERFEST, feat. King Kaiju & Ty Sorrell, MP, Hip Hop Henry, Vinny Giovanni, Erthtone, Nightcr_wler, Computer Wizard, Syntaks, OZO, Shartchan, and a screening of Pop That Shit Up: A BSB Film @ Cobra Cabana – $10
Hip hop culture in Richmond goes far beyond just the music, and one key exponent of modern hip hop culture in this city is the bike crew known as the Broad Street Bullies. Known for their street rides that bring out hundreds and stop traffic for blocks, they’re a polarizing phenomenon — some see them as obnoxious urban terrorists, while others see them as a street-level activist group attempting to point out how hostile and dangerous the streets of Richmond can be by riding as a huge group and protecting each other through strength in numbers. Regardless of how you feel about them, their story and their hijinks certainly make for an entertaining watch, and that’s surely what inspired local filmmaker Andres Fontan, otherwise known as Nightcr_wler, to put together a documentary about the Broad Street Bullies. That film, Pop That Shit Up, premiered at the Byrd Theatre back in the spring. Now, this Saturday night at Cobra Cabana, it will be screened again as part of an extravaganza known as CR_WLERFEST, which celebrates the birthdays of Andres Fontan, MP, and BSB crew member @kanis.major. Whether you know any of these folks or not, you should definitely come to the party, because between the music, the film, and the atmosphere, it’s sure to be a festival for all five senses.
As far as the audio-visual spot, the evening’s highlight has got to be the performance by King Kaiju & Ty Sorrell, both of whom have been making strides in the local hip hop scene for a while now, and have most recently teamed up to take their mutual efforts to a whole new level. As discussed in a recent story right here on The Auricular, King Kaiju & Ty Sorrell just released a collaborative full-length entitled Joints In 4th Gear, with all production handled by MP — who is, not coincidentally, also playing CR_WLERFEST. In terms of Richmond hip hop, this LP is big news, featuring a plethora of incredible rhymes and flows that demonstrate the effortless chemistry between these two talented rappers, which fits perfectly over the deep, powerful production laid down by MP. The whole thing should make for an incredible performance when all three of these local talents hit the stage and lay down a perfect soundtrack for a lovely summer night in RVA. By the way, Andres Fontan also directed the video for Joints In 4th Gear single “Starsky & Hutch,” so the synergy of this evening truly knows no bounds. A ton of other incredible talents from Richmond’s hip hop scene are on the bill at CR_WLERFEST as well, and I really wish I could go into depth about all of them, but I don’t have the space to do that, so hey, yeah, look at that list up there. Don’t you want to catch the sets from Hip Hop Henry, Erthtone, Shartchan, and all those others? You know you do. Show up to this one and prepare to settle in and absorb the many sights, sounds, and tastes this evening has to offer.
Sunday, July 27, 3 PM
Sunday Soundtracks, feat. Opin, Chaka Benson, J&R’s Music World @ Reveler Experiences – Pay what you can (order tickets HERE)
Sunday afternoon matinees have a long tradition of providing rad music to the true heads who have good taste and are willing to go a bit out of their way to locate the best shit happening on any given weekend. That’s definitely what’s going on with Sunday Soundtracks, a live showcase for electronic music that’s been happening over the past few months at Reveler. Curated by veteran Richmond electronic musicians Robert Salsbury and Johnathan Rickman, Sunday Soundtracks have a mission of aiming the spotlight at talented folks from around the region who are working in the electronic-music space. They’ve certainly landed on a group made up of folks that fit that bill by bringing in Opin, who’ve kept a relatively low profile in recent years but have quite the pedigree. Consisting of Landis Wine (White Laces), Jon Hawkins (Navi), and Tori Hovater (Magnus Lush), this group pops up every few years with another slab of indie-electro hybrid brilliance to remind us all what they’re about. They’re just about to do it again, in fact — they’ll be releasing a new single two days before this performance, and dropping their third album, Embrace the Grift, on August 8. That makes this the perfect time to go see Opin perform and remind yourself exactly why this band is so great, just in time to be prepared for the gloriousness they’re about to bring us in a few weeks’ time. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Opin will be joined on this bill by Chaka Benson, a recent transplant from the streets of Philadelphia who has come to Richmond bearing a trunk full of modular synthesizers and a sensibility simultaneously informed by the analog-synth brilliance of folks like Wendy Carlos and Laurie Spiegel and a lo-fi hip hop sound that might sound familiar to fans of local production whizzes like Ohbliv or DJ Harrison. Expect a trip into ambient techno-electronica of the sort that might even remind you of Squarepusher at times. The evening’s entertainment will be completed by J&R’s Music World, the duo formed by our curators, Mr. Salsbury and Mr. Rickman, who surely have many enjoyable sounds of their own to bring to us all. You’ll probably be back out on the street in time to grab dinner at Mellow Mushroom before the sun even sets, but sometimes those are the best weekends of all, right? So spend your Sunday afternoon enjoying the incredible electronic sounds on offer at Reveler. You won’t be sorry you did.
Monday, July 28, 7 PM
Rahsaan Cruse Jr. Quartet @ Reveler Experiences – $12.50 (order tickets HERE)
Monday night, it’s time to head back over to Reveler, especially if you’re a jazz fan. Rahsaan Cruse Jr. is a jazz vocalist of notable youth and considerable talent, who’ll be heading down to Richmond for the first time to knock us all out with his incredible vocal stylings. Monday is often a slow night of the week for live music, but hearing some classic jazz standards interpreted by an amazing singer with a strong sense of connection to the traditions of the genre will surely liven things up considerably. Cruse will be joined at this performance by some of the Reveler jazz scene’s most important utility players — Dr. Weldon Hill on piano, Michael Hawkins on bass, and Keith Willingham on drums.
These four musicians are sure to come together for some delightful tunes, which will surely please folks who appreciate classic jazz singers like Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. There’s not a ton more to say about this show, really — it’s just a delightful evening of jazz to cure your Monday blahs. But really, on a night like this one, what could be better? Especially when you’ll be taking it in within the lovely environment of Reveler Experiences, which has incredible atmosphere (and a pretty damn good charcuterie plate for you to nosh on). Don’t overthink this one. Just go. You’ll be glad you did.
Tuesday, July 29, 8 PM
Sumac, Chepang, Patrick Shiroishi @ Gallery 5 – $23.18 (order tickets HERE)
We talk sometimes within this column about doom metal, about sludge, about bands that take the tempo down as much as they can in order to create heaviness and evoke powerful emotions. However, Sumac does this on a level that I’ve rarely encountered before. This trio has one hell of a pedigree, bringing together former Isis frontman Aaron Turner, Botch/Russian Circles bassist Brian Cook, and Baptists drummer Nick Yacyshyn. And what it brings them together to do is something so atmospheric, so spaced out, that it almost crosses over into a world of dark ambient psychedelia that lies somewhere out there beyond the realms of even extreme sludge groups like Khanate. The Japanese experimental doom band Corrupted is probably the best comparison I can make at this point, though there are hints of Sunn 0))) in their sound as well. And of course, every once in a while when they really get fired up, they land on a brutal metal groove that takes them into the land of Isis in their earliest, heaviest incarnations. But there’s a lot of buildup, and a lot of atmosphere, that gets constructed in the lengthy spaces between those moments.
Really, though, it’s all necessary — Sumac wouldn’t have the incredible power they bring if they just went straight into the brutal moments, and those long drawn-out ambient interludes wouldn’t carry the tension they bring without the constant threat of some apocalyptic payoff that’s sure to knock your socks off. Expect this band’s set to move slowly and deliberately — but when it finally gets where it’s going, it’ll pulverize you completely. Meanwhile, Sumac’s tourmates Chepang are coming from completely the opposite side of the coin. Their grindcore attack will knock your block off at top speed, with incredible riffs aplenty and a tendency toward experimentation with song structure and dynamic shifts that may remind the more alert among you of Melt Banana. Their most recent LP, Jhyappa, is a brief and focused statement of purpose that is perhaps the fastest and heaviest thing they’ve done yet, so whether we’ll get a more wide-ranging set or a straightforward presentation of brutality is open to question, but regardless, their set is sure to be fast, heavy, and mindblowing. The evening will begin with a set from Patrick Shiroishi, who is a prolific composer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as a saxophone player within the world of experimental jazz. So you may expect something akin to what Colin Stetson does from this performance — though, as prolific and wide-ranging as Shiroishi is, you may just as easily get something completely different. Regardless, his set’s sure to be wildly fascinating, as will be true of everything happening at Gallery 5 this Tuesday night. Make sure you’re there.
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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