RVA Shows You Must See This Week: June 4 – June 10
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, June 6, 7 PM
Madison Turner, ShotClock, Corporate Fandango, Carnivorous Flower @ Gold Lion Community Cafe – $10
The release of Madison Turner’s latest LP is certainly both a big event and a cause for celebration in the Richmond punk scene. It’s been seven years since her last full-length, A Comprehensive Guide To Burning Out, came into the world — on one hand, way too long to go without new material from a truly great singer-songwriter whose material has always been full of wit, energy, and creativity. On the other hand, after she released an album that was all about burning out, can we really be surprised it took her most of a decade to pull together another one? Really, I’m just glad it happened at all, and that Say-10 Records is bringing us another full album of Madison’s brilliant tunes.
The album in question, her third, is entitled Curtsy When You Land, and while it’s not currently available for listening in its full form, the singles that have been released from it over the past several months show that it’s taking things in an interesting new direction for Madison Turner. The punk, folk, and ska influences that were always clear from her previous releases are still present in her sound, but there’s a definite tinge of 90s-style alternative rock showing up as well. Of course, those influences were always there to some extent — Madison is the person who convinced me to give Fastball a chance, after all — but they’re much clearer on new singles like “Had Enough” and “& The Days Go By,” both of which feature prominent keyboards that add the slightest touch of Counting Crows to the proceedings (to be clear, that’s a very good thing). Judging from the three songs I’ve heard, this will be every bit as powerful of a musical statement as her last LP was — and really, if it took seven years for her to bring us such a top-quality release, it’s definitely worth it.
Madison will be performing accompanied by a full band, with Ryan Clatterbuck, Jake Morley, Eva Dee Wargo, and Keely Burn backing her up (plus a few unnamed special guests, if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly). She and her band will be joined for this delightful musical shindig at Manchester’s Gold Lion Community Cafe by a few excellent openers as well. For one, there’s Richmond pop-punkers ShotClock, who are not the most prolific ensemble — they’ve released three new songs since 2022 — but are certainly brilliant (as is amply proven by the aforementioned three songs). With a sound that mingles early Down By Law, Samiam, and The Parasites, they crank out catchy pop-punk anthems that’ll definitely get your toes tapping. Greensboro, NC ska ensemble Corporate Fandango are also on the bill, and their chunky, catchy take on punk-infused partytime upstrokes is sure to get the whole place dancing. The bill is rounded out by a new-ish punk trio called Carnivorous Flower, who clearly took their name from the legendary J Church epic. Does that mean they sound like J Church? I haven’t heard them yet, so I can’t say, but I can say they have good taste. And at this point, that counts for a lot.
Wednesday, June 4, 7 PM
Cetragore, Blood Desecration, Dead Horse Theory @ Another Round Bar And Grill – $10
You know an evening is going to bring you some right and proper death metal when it is billed as the Pray For Blood & Gore Tour. It’s gonna get absolutely brutal out at Another Round tonight, as Richmond is invaded by the combined forces of Cetragore and Blood Desecration. Both of these bands come from the not-quite-frozen northeastern US — Cetragore is from Boston, Blood Desecration from Rochester NY — and both of them are bringing plutonium-grade heaviness to the northside tonight. Cetragore takes things in a somewhat slammy direction on their 2023 full-length debut, Plagued By Birth; rather than cranking up the speed with typical death-metallic blast beats, these folks throttle it down and dig into some seriously heavy mosh riffs, which are topped by the kind of gnarly vocal growls that give me a sore throat just to listen to them (which is a compliment). Come prepared to give your all in the pit, because Cetragore’s plentiful breakdowns are not playing around.
Cetragore will definitely keep things on the slower and heavier side, but you folks who prefer your metal bands to pick up the tempo and get the circle pit swirling should definitely not despair — Blood Desecration are perfectly willing to crank up the tempo and ramp up the intensity. While still retaining a lot of death metal brutality, of the exact sort you’d expect from a New York death metal band, these folks mix in some significant elements from classic Scandinavian black metal as well, and the high-pitched screams and double-time drums will add some excellent additional flavor to a highly metallic evening. Richmond’s own Dead Horse Theory will get things started with some heavy riffage that definitely makes me think of Entombed in their Wolverine Blues era. What’s not to love? If you’re a true metalhead, you’ll love everything about this show. You know what to do.
Thursday, June 5, 7 PM
Doll Baby, Payphones, Xed Out, Fit Check @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10
If you’re a regular attendee of punk rock shows here in Richmond, you’re sure to have at least some awareness of all the bands on this bill. And if you have any taste, you like them a whole lot. The problem with bills like this sometimes is that everyone gets jaded to them; starts getting way too used to the embarrassment of musical riches we have on offer in this city on any given night. It can lead to poor decisions; you start figuring that if a show isn’t bringing you something totally new and different, it’s maybe not worth your time. And when you do that, you might fight something really cool — but just as often, you’ll overthink yourself out of seeing the best show happening in this city on that evening. Do me a favor: don’t think yourself out of this one. Instead, do the obvious thing; go to Fuzzy Cactus and see four incredible Richmond bands do their thing in one of the city’s best venues.
As soon as you hear Doll Baby, you’ll know you made the right decision. This jangly, twangy punk rock ensemble has always been great, but they really outdid themselves with their excellent 2024 LP, Heirloom — if you haven’t spent enough time with that album to let its full greatness sink in, you definitely need to play it a bunch more times. Doll Baby’s set at Fuzzy Cactus will surely make you want to do exactly that — but you’ll also get a chance to see this talented ensemble bash out many of the songs right in front of your face, which, as we all know, is a better experience than sitting on your couch playing a record any day. The same can definitely be said about catching the set Richmond punk veterans Payphones will lay down at this show as well. Their 2024 EP Gasoline is full of catchy, hard-hitting punk anthems that are sure to hit three times as hard in the live environment. Then there’s Xed Out, whose 2024 LP No More Blue Skies saw them take their veteran punk fundamentals into a fuzzier shoegaze direction, and find musical gold by doing so. If you’ve overlooked this band in the past, it’s well past time to fix that. Getting this one started off will be buzzworthy local hardcore ensemble Fit Check, who are sure to give this evening a major shot of adrenaline to start this show on a high note. Get stoked and stay stoked.
Friday, June 6, 9 PM
Honk Toot Horns Night, feat. Erin & The Wildfire, Marilyn Pham @ The Camel – $12 in advance, $15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
The Camel’s decision a few years back to establish ongoing residencies for local bands has certainly yielded some gold over the past several years, and the current First Friday run is no exception. Like many of the bands who’ve previously taken a yearlong First Friday residency at The Camel, Erin & The Wildfire are doing different things each month to keep the shows interesting and worth seeing even for dyed-in-the-wool fans who have seen them a dozen times or more already. This time around, they’re keeping things interesting with a “Honk Toot Horns Night” that finds Erin Lunsford & co. backed by a horn section on many of their most beloved classic tunes. Of course, their catchy funky alt-rock/pop vibes will remain as flawless as always, but the added textures are sure to bring out a whole new dimension of what this band does. I for one wouldn’t be surprised if the classic funk, soul, and disco influences that subtly sneak into Erin & The Wildfire’s music from time to time become far more accentuated and clearcut. Whether you’re a veteran fan or totally un-initiated into this band’s inimitable goodtime swing, you’ll get a lot out of hearing these tunes in a whole new context this Friday night.
This evening will also feature an opening set from the only other Marilyn in the Richmond music scene that I’m aware of, Marilyn Pham, a talented pop-rock singer who is capable of everything from dance-focused electro party anthems to guitar-driven rock n’ roll barnburners. Her latest single, “Girl, My Girl,” lands closer to the latter end of the spectrum, with a strutting, sensual vocal performance and some snarling blues-rock guitar riffage. Appropriately for a song released on the first day of Pride Month, it’s an unapologetically queer anthem celebrating the power of sapphic love, and I for one am here for it. At the Camel this Friday night, we’ll all be here for it, and between Marilyn’s powerful pop-rock epics, Erin & The Wildfire’s brightly colored alternative indie pop bounce, and everything getting kicked up a notch with a powerful horn section, this will certainly be an evening to remember.
Saturday, June 7, 8 PM
SexFaces, Teen Cobra, Big No, Bummers Eve @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10
Saturday night, and it’s time to head back to the home of rock n’ roll up there on the north side of the city, as Fuzzy Cactus brings us all an incredible performance by DC punk rock phenoms SexFaces. This hard-charging quartet, featuring members of Des Demonas and Coven Tree, among may others, gets at the primal, unhinged energy and off-the-rails brilliance of classic garage and punk rock ensembles like The MC5, Radio Birdman, and Pussy Galore. On their debut LP, Bad Vibes OST, the group bashes and rages full steam ahead through a set of snarling, nihilistic paeans to chaos — and manage to add an unexpected element by combining standard punk rock guitar-bass-drum instrumentation with a distorted violin carrying many of the lead melodies. This sort of 21st-century John Cale element ups the intensity in a fascinating manner and makes the whole band seem that much closer to total musical explosion — exactly the sort of thing you look for when you spend your Saturday night at Richmond’s leading rock n’ roll bar, am I right?
In addition to a killer set from SexFaces, the evening will feature performances from three other excellent groups as well. Teen Cobra is the first of the three, and like SexFaces, they’re based in DC. They also have a lot of wild-ass garage punk intensity, though they get there with a completely different approach to that of SexFaces. Teen Cobra are a husband-and-wife duo whose latest LP, Buzzkill, is so lo-fi it’s recorded in single-channel mono. The primitive nature of their recordings certainly don’t slow them down at all, as they bash out some incredible high-speed three-chord rock n’ roll rippers of the sort that’ll surely have everyone at Fuzzy this Saturday night losing their minds. Richmond-based Big No is playing this show as well, but don’t get it twisted — this isn’t the Richmond rapper, who last made an appearance in the column when he played Charged Up Fest a few weeks ago. This is the hazy indie pop band led by talented singer-songwriter Nathan Grice, who haven’t released anything new in quite a while but remain a brilliant example of moody shoegaze-style rock sounds. The evening will be rounded out by a set from Bummers Eve, whose iconic take on classic surf-tinged garage punk is always a lot of fun and will certainly get this evening started off with a bang. Can’t wait.
Sunday, June 8, 7 PM
Logo Scars, Lahnah, ChestHair @ Cobra Cabana – $10
Here’s a bit of a curveball for all the Cobra Cabana regulars — a show that steers around their usual metal/hip hop bailiwick and into far stranger pastures. Richmond’s own Logo Scars are at the top of this bill, and while this duo has had a bit of a low profile around town, they’ve definitely got an intriguing and unusual sound to fascinate us all with. Coming together when the band’s members started sending each other songs back and forth over the internet, Logo Scars have grown into a driving rock combo whose songs definitely have the potential to be straightforward power-pop tuneage …if the members were willing to approach them straight-on. Instead, they come at them from an off-kilter position that finds synth stabs and angular guitars taking the whole thing to a highly unusual place — one that’s a pure delight to listen to, especially if you enjoy classic noisy postpunk. Last year’s Heartbreak City EP is a blast from top to bottom, and it seems an easy prediction to say that their performance at Cobra Cabana this Sunday night will be much the same.
Philadelphia band Lahnah bring an off-kilter approach of their own to the proceedings, using unpredictable song structures and dissonant chord shapes to construct a hard-driving and unique take on math-rock that loses none of its velocity and power as a result. Fans of noisy postpunk groups like Liars might very well find their new favorite band in Lahnah. As for Richmonders ChestHair, they open this one up and contribute some heavy electro damage to the evening. And yes, that’s a good thing. Their music uses synths as a core element, but instead of making things smoother and more poppy, they just make everything weirder and heavier than it feels like they already would be. I’d compare it to Devo jamming with Thou if I didn’t know everyone would think that was crazy. Let’s face it though — Chest Hair are a pretty crazy band. If you ask me, Richmond could always use more of those.
Monday, June 9, 7 PM
Woe, Obsidian Tongue, Plaguefever, Voarm @ Cobra Cabana – $14.64 (order tickets HERE)
And we’re back to Cobra Cabana this Monday night to get down with some sounds that are a lot more in character with that bar’s decidedly metal reputation. I certainly don’t mind it when local venues throw me a bit of a curveball, but there’s always something delightful about, for example, a metal-as-fuck bar bringing us a night of metal-as-fuck sounds. That’s what we’re getting from Cobra Cabana this Monday night, and it’s an occasion for rejoicing. The evening brings together two amazing out-of-town bands on tour together and heading for cities they haven’t seen in a long time; chances are, unless you saw them long ago or far away, you haven’t had a chance to catch NYC-based black metal ragers Woe in a live environment. This will be a great opportunity to find out what that band is all about, as they bring the ongoing tour for their latest album, Legacies Of Frailty, to Cobra Cabana. Woe have the classic basement-scream black metal sound, full of darkness, rage, and misery, plus a strong undercurrent of the melancholy that their very band name is a synonym for. High-speed blasting drums, scathing roaring vocals, and tons of iconic tremolo-picked guitar riffing awaits us all when Woe hits the stage. It’s sure to be delightful — especially if nothing makes you happier than tortured expressions of abject rage.
Obsidian Tongue are also on the bill, and this black metal duo come Maine, one of the closest places the continental US of A has to the frozen Nordic wastelands that birthed so many great black metal bands of the dark past. Rather than focusing on pure fury the way tourmates Woe do on their latest album, Obsidian Tongue carries on their tradition of more melodic moments amongst the harshness on their brand new fourth LP, Eclipsing Worlds Of Scorn. Most of the songs on their latest album approach the eight-minute mark, and they definitely explore a variety of musical moods in each of these extended epics. As for Richmond natives Plaguefever, these anonymous shredders are going for an old-school speed-metal noise chaos vibe that should warm the hearts of any Bathory and Possessed fans out there (in other words, everybody). Fellow locals Voarm will kick off the evening with some classic no-frills black metal rage, complete with some truly brutal breakdowns. This evening is sure to be an extended musical journey through the best of modern black metal; don’t miss it.
Tuesday, June 10, 6:30 PM
Bug Hunter, The Narcissist Cookbook @ The Camel – $30 (order tickets HERE)
Let’s end this week of shows on a fun note — one played by Seattle-based troubadour Bug Hunter. Yeah, I know, I thought it was a band name too, but it turns out Bug Hunter is the guy’s actual name. He’s got an acoustic guitar, a bunch of catchy three-chord pop songs, a stripped-down backing band, and some serious lyrical wit, and the combination of them all will make for a seriously fun night at The Camel this Tuesday night. Bug Hunter’s most recent LP, Happiness (Without A Catch), was funded by a lucrative Kickstarter campaign, and you can immediately see why — it’s full of extremely enjoyable tunes that pick apart the many trials and tribulations of love and relationships with an undeniably humorous bent. Sometimes the jokes are a bit dark, too, but hey… in the year 2025, that almost seems more appropriate than anything else.
Bug Hunter is joined on this tour by The Narcissist Cookbook, a UK-based project that seems to be named after a reference to famed bomb-making manual The Anarchist Cookbook. Their music has elements of folk-punk and acoustic indie pop, but there are also some interesting spoken-word bits on their albums as well. I’m not sure how the live show will correspond with all that — readings between songs, or just the tunes? I guess we’ll all find out together. But the songs are going to be great — that’s one thing I know for sure. This one will be a fun way to blow off some steam and laugh at some of the tougher aspects of modern life. God knows we all need that kind of thing at times.
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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