RVA Shows You Must See This Week: June 17 – June 23
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, June 19, 7 PM
Juneteenth, feat. Kings, Cassidy Snider & The Wranglers, Shormey, Robalu Gibsun, Habeeb, Sweet Potatoes, Heavy Petting @ The Camel – $12-$20 (order tickets HERE)
I’m so glad Juneteenth is a federal holiday now. Not because of shallow bullshit like getting a day off work, or admittedly fun and cool stuff like cookouts — mainly because I’m sure it makes racists really fucking mad. I can’t imagine our president and his brigade of idiots at the UFC match last week are thrilled about everyone getting Friday off to celebrate Black freedom and Black joy. But listen — listen. That’s exactly why we’ve all gotta get hyped for Juneteenth. Including middle-aged white ladies like myself, and all you other white people reading this. And a great way to get involved, join in the fun, and let the world know how much you love the many different cultures and types of people who make the USA the great place it is (even if our government sucks) is to head over to the annual Juneteenth celebration at The Camel, which is gonna be full of amazing musicians playing songs you love.
Some of it might be a little bit of a surprise this year in particular, though, as Kelli Strawbridge has gotten involved as part of a long-overdue attempt to revive his project Kings, which saw him collaborating with DJ Harrison about a decade ago to make an album of washed-out R&B jams. Strawbridge, known for his work in everything from Prabir Trio to The Big Payback, is a percussionist extraordinaire, and Kings was a great showcase for his raw talent as a songwriter and musician of many different styles. I remember this record when it surfaced briefly a decade ago, and I don’t really think it got the attention it deserved. So I’m delighted to hear that Strawbridge is working on a full-scale re-release, and delighted to see him bringing back Kings for a full-on performance at this Juneteenth celebration.
That right there is reason enough to show up to this one. But of course there are quite a few other incredible talents on this show as well — ones you definitely don’t want to miss. Cassidy Snider & The Wranglers always hit the spot with their excellent recreation of old-time country, jazz and folk sounds with a lovely modern sensibility. Shormey’s application of the bedroom-pop vibe to classic R&B and hip hop sounds is delightful to experience in any context, and will be sure to get everyone dancing on this fine evening. Robalu Gibsun brings an unorthodox and creative take on hip hop, while Habeeb comes at the same genre from a more complex and intriguing technical approach. Meanwhile Heavy Petting combines noise-rock songs with a rap-influenced vocal approach for a scathing final result. So yeah, lots to hear, all of a quite eclectic nature, and all great! There’s really every reason in the world to go to this show, and no reason not to. Make your way down to the Camel for this one.
Wednesday, June 17, 7 PM
Northeast Regional, Doll Baby, Vacancies @ Cobra Cabana – $15 (Order tickets HERE)
Trying to have a band as you get older and deal with a multitude of adult responsibilities is a difficult endeavor. Anyone who doesn’t get out of making music after they leave college will eventually learn this the hard way, and it seems longtime Richmond musician Jeff Byers has dealt with it several times. This is assumedly what led him to start his most recent project, Northeast Regional, as a solo endeavor, in which he wrote all the songs, programmed the beats, played all the instruments, and sang all the vocals. That lasted a while, too — but when you like what you’re doing enough to want to play the songs in front of people, and you’ve still got a ton of musician friends, it can be easy for a band that starts as a solo project to become a real band. That’s what happened with Northeast Regional, and their brand new LP, In The Desert, documents a quintet version of the band, featuring members of former Byers bands like REPS and Wow Owls coming together to revive the biting yet subtly melodic sound that has become the musician’s stock in trade over the course of his quarter-century of making music.
This show is a celebration of that LP, a fully realized full-band effort that features songs written and sung by Byers alongside songs written and sung by other members of the band, including Mike Morris and James Doubek. They really seem to have gelled as a unit, and this is a strong musical statement from a band that by all rights should be taking a step forward in their musical career. Ah, but there’s the rub — this is also potentially the last Northeast Regional show ever, as members will be moving out of the country in the near future, pursuing life and career moves that will take them in different directions. That might mean tonight is your last chance to ever see them — and I highly recommend you take it, because even if Northeast Regional won’t be a going concern in the future, what they’ve created together is very worth your time and definitely needs to be experienced now, before this ephemeral moment is gone and the band members are once again trying to find new ways to express themselves musically. We are fortunate to also get a set from the excellent emotional folk-punk group Doll Baby on this show, as well as an introduction to Vacancies, who formed out of the ashes of the recently departed Richmond post-hardcore powerhouse Sea Of Storms. You don’t want to miss this one — you may never get another chance to see it.
Thursday, June 18, 8 PM
Maddy Curtis Quartet @ Reveler Experiences – $17.50 (order tickets HERE)
It’s been good to have Maddy Curtis in Richmond over the past year or so, playing regular gigs at Reveler and a few other places, bringing her unusual and highly delightful approach to classic jazz sounds to the city. Her throwback approach often reminds me of pre-WWII sounds involving close vocal harmonies, a more frequent use of acoustic stringed instruments like her ukulele, and song structures that draw from classic standards of the Jazz Age (you know, the one from a century or so ago). She’s done some delightful live performances here in Richmond in the recent past, including some focused on holidays — but up til now, if you’ve wanted to sit down and listen to Maddy Curtis and her backing band perform, you had to go to a venue to do so.
All of that is about to change now, though, because Curtis and her quartet have recorded an album, How Are You?, that’s about to be released. This show will mark its official live debut, with the quartet who backed Maddy on the album — bassist Jack Byrnes, drummer Stephen LaRue (both of Be-Sides Quartet), and pianist/trumpeter Quincy Harmon — coming together again to perform the originals and standards that make up the album’s length. How Are You? isn’t on streaming just yet (though preview single “Wishin’ On A Star,” which is, is an absolute delight), but you’ll have the chance at this show to pick up vinyl and CD copies in advance of its wider release — and you’ll be able to buy a variety of handmade Maddy Curtis merch that the talented musician put together herself. This will be a lot of fun, as well as being your last chance to catch on to Maddy Curtis’s lovely music before the whole world can discover her — so show up and get in on the ground floor.
Friday, June 19, 8 PM
Mt. Forever, Lie Heavy, Uzio @ Bandito’s – $10
There was a time when it felt like the entire heavy-music underground here in America was in love with doom. This goes back maybe 15 years or so, so maybe only people over 30 know what I’m talking about, but back in those days bands from all sorts of different heavy subgenres were tapping into slow, mournful grooves and blasting distorted Les Pauls through multiple full stacks to blow the eardrums of everyone in the basement. I definitely got a little tired of that sound at one point, but the scene moved on in recent years, and it’s become rare enough that I’m back to craving it once again. So when a new band full of Richmond underground post-hardcore lifers like Mt. Forever comes along, featuring members of several underrated local combos past, I definitely respond to the siren call of the ringing full stacks and the brutalized eardrums they’re about to give us all. Mt. Forever combine a heavy-doom approach with some sludgy post-hardcore vibes, and Jonathan Lee’s powerful clean vocals add an impressive amount of melody without losing an ounce of heaviness.
The group’s new EP, This Is Mt Forever, is certainly an impressive slab of powerful doomy, metallic post-hardcore, and hearing it all played at mind-shearing volume directly in front of you on the Diablo Room stage is sure to be quite the experience. The set from Lie Heavy that will also happen on this fine evening is sure to be every bit as affecting as well, as this band brings generational metal talents from previous decades into the modern era and gives them the chance to remind all the new jacks how it’s really done. With former Corrosion of Conformity vocalist Karl Agell up front, and guitars wielded by former members of Confessor and Loincloth, there’s no doubt that this band’s got the chops and the power to rock out in classic hard-rockin’ metal style. Their 2023 album Burn To The Moon shows that they’re able to bring the heat, and this performance should be even more concrete proof that Lie Heavy is a band to watch out for. So show up at Bandito’s this Friday night and do so already. The evening will open with a performance from local heavy rockin’ newcomers Uzio, and should stay loud and heavy all night. Get with it.
Saturday, June 20, 8 PM
Roughshod, Twin Films, Shagg Carpet, Said Never @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
OK, this is an exciting one. Roughshod, a local alt-rock combo, have been around for a few years now, dropping a few songs early on and a few more singles since then. They’ve steadily impressed, and in fact have gotten more impressive as they went on, hitting a real high-water mark with the release of “I Can’t Be Your Girl” last fall. This catchy slab of crunching rock n’ roll with late-era Bikini Kill riffage and strong lyrics about dealing with the dysphoria induced by other people’s expectations (yup, I know how that goes) got me really excited for what a new Roughshod record might sound like. Now, after most of a year, we’re finally getting one — indeed, this show will act as the release party for Roughshod’s first LP, Very Human Reaction. I myself have not heard it yet, but based on this band’s track record, I don’t feel like I need to worry about whether or not they’ll bring the absolute fire when they hit the stage at the Camel this Saturday night. And hey — we can all learn the new songs together, am I right?
Roughshod’s new LP is certainly a cause for celebration, and this show is a great opportunity for it. However, the three opening acts on this bill offer just as much to get excited about. Richmonders Twin Films started out as a somewhat random alternative pop band, and have steadily gotten harder to categorize and more interesting and delightful as a band as they’ve gone on. At this point, I’d say indie rock, alt-pop, and electro-pop all fit at various times in their discography — and at other times, none of them fit. That’s not that big a deal though, because they’re always a great listen, and they’ll surely add a lot to this bill by being on it. Local hotshots Shagg Carpet bring a sort of egg-punk (that means its punk with synths and programmed drums) sound to the bill, with plenty of energy, intensity, and weirdness to throw into the mix. Finally, Said Never is a new project bringing together singer-songwriter Zach Benson and guitarist Tyler Adlam to make New Wave-ish indie pop gems. This whole night will be a lovely example of sound. Take part, won’t you?
Sunday, June 21, 7 PM
Worm, Lichen @ The Canal Club – $18 in advance, $22 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Where black metal is concerned, it often feels like the genre’s most fervent fans only care about the most raw and primitive sounds it has to offer. As a connoisseur of filthy fucking noise myself, I get this — there’s something incredibly charming about a record that sounds like it was recorded in a dank cellar with a 1980s boombox, with rattly drums and totally blown out guttural vocal roars being the main things you can distinguish. But the unfortunate converse here is that people tend to dismiss black metal that is recorded more professionally and played with more technical prowess and melodic flourish. I say fuck all that — the clean and polished stuff can be just as good. Take Worm, for example — this Floridian band’s latest LP, Necropalace, features clear production, synth-heavy arrangements, and tons of melodic guitar leads. And yet, the band retains all the brutal heaviness that lies at the core of their black metal-based sound.
Unlike classic bands of a similar disposition, such as Cradle of Filth or later Emperor, Worm don’t tend in gothic or thrashy directions — instead, they integrate a horror-film aesthetic and a strong helping of sludgy doom riffage to the proceedings, making their sound somehow both black metal as fuck and also inclined to produce slow-motion headbangs. If the grand guignol violence and brutality of black metal is your thing, this band will definitely make you happy… but you doom-metal fans will also probably find a lot to love here, even if you’ve never worn corpse paint in your life. Norfolk black metallers Lichen, who take things in a much more straightforwardly brutal and terrifying direction, will be on hand to open things up, and they’ll ensure you get your US Recommended Daily Allowance of blast beats and tortured screams. This one’s gonna be a rager.
Monday, June 22, 6:30 PM
The Breeders, Sweet Tooth @ The National – Dynamic pricing (order tickets HERE)
I’m so glad the Breeders are still around. A lot of the bands I grew up with, who were changing the landscape of pop music in the early 90s alternative rock era, did not make it to this moment in time. And some that did, such as Kim Deal’s original band, Pixies, haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory during their returns to action. Indeed, that’s why Kim’s not still in the Pixies — she didn’t think they had the fire to make new material that would stand alongside their earlier work. It seems she was right, in hindsight. Luckily, The Breeders, the band she’s been leading, along with her sister Kelley, ever since she quit Pixies the first time, has still got the fire. Granted, their last album of new material was 2018’s All Nerve, but that album reunited the classic Last Splash lineup, and recaptured the spark and intensity of that all-time classic album, which brought us all the immortal “Cannonball” and “Divine Hammer” singles.
The Breeders are back once again, touring America for the first time since Kim Deal released her 2024 solo LP, Nobody Loves You More. I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping this means another Breeders album will soon be in the offing, but honestly, regardless, it’s always a good time to see this strange, noisy, off-kilter band, which mixes a lead guitarist who never really knew how to play her instrument all that well (I’m not dissing her either, Kelley has admitted this herself) with a truly bizarre songwriting mind and a lock-tight rhythm section with some really unexpected instincts to, somehow, produce perfect cerebral alternative pop classics. I don’t even know what to say beyond this — it’s sorta hard to try and explain a band that felt like a core piece of my DNA back when I was a teenager. Like, how could you not already get it? Be that as it may, I know most of you don’t have the relationship with this band’s music that I have. And I know some of what I’ve written here might make them sound like they aren’t that great. But that’s the hell of it — they are all those things, and they still rule! If anything, they rule more. Don’t ask me to keep explaining — just go to the show and find out for yourself. I promise you won’t regret it. West Virginia shoegaze-influenced alt-rockers Sweet Tooth will open things up with some catchy fuzzed-out tunes that’ll get everyone in the perfect mood for what’s to come.
Tuesday, June 23, 7 PM
Brotality, Quantifier, Bone Wraith, Ashwolf Grayson @ Ember Music Hall – $21.40 (order tickets HERE)
Let’s just say it right now: Brotality is a silly band name. You know it, I know it, and I have no doubt that the band themselves know it too. They started back when they were teenagers, and had records out before they were even past high-school age, so you have to figure if they’d labored away in obscurity for a bit longer, this band would have changed their name to something less diabolically cringe. At least you’ll remember it now, right? Listen, you’d remember Brotality either way. Their most recent material, a bunch of loose tracks collected onto the six-song Eat Your Flesh, Know Your God EP, finds this groove-oriented metal trio integrating more melody into their vocals than at previous times, while remaining just as heavy, technical, and catchy as they ever were. If anything, they’ve leveled up — attained a new level of musical sophistication while remaining a ton of fun to listen to and mosh to.
Brotality are sure to bring a great time to Ember Music Hall when they show up there next Tuesday, and tourmates and fellow New Yorkers Quantifier will also be on hand to intensify the whole vibe of the evening. Bringing a harsh yet atmospheric feel with their heavy, technical metal sound, this group has an understated yet obvious epic, astral-traveling sort of vibe that should do just as much for the cerebral headbangers who enjoy figuring out time signatures in their heads as they rock out as it does for the moshpit denizens who just want it to hit and hit hard. Maryland-based gothic power-metal synth vampire Ashwolf Grayson and Richmond newcomers Bone Wraith will round out the bill with plenty of metallic rage of their own. Get ready to rock out for this one.
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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