RVA Shows You Must See This Week: March 18 – March 24
FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, March 21, 6 PM
80404 Club 1 Year Anniversary, feat. Muziqhead, 2HEI757, Ty Sorrell, Moe Sample, Ant the Symbol, Profound 79, Fan Ran, Magnus Andrettie, Nickelus F, Oskarr, Glop, Hernbean5150, Swellthy, CJ the Profit, King Kaiju, Tortilla Katour, Sounds by DJ B-Rice @ Cobra Cabana – Free!
Call me old and out of touch (you’d be right), but when I was growing up everyone’s primary musical instrument was analog in nature. Electric guitars, drums, bass guitars, maybe a keyboard or a turntable if you were really adventurous. But these days, all sorts of stuff becomes people’s instrument of choice, and sometimes it’s something that looks more to my middle-aged ass like a computer than anything you can really play. Take the Roland SP-404, a sampler that looks like a large cyberpunk adding machine, with a small screen at the top and a whole bunch of buttons underneath. I’d have zero clue how to turn anything it does into real music, but I’m behind the times, because there are a ton of people based primarily (though not exclusively) in Richmond’s underground hip hop scene who use it for just that purpose. A whole bunch of them — including CJ The Profit, King Kaiju, Hernbean5150, Glop, Swellthy, Oskarr, and Tortilla Katour — originally came together as the 80404 Club just about a year ago now, when all of them were hanging out at Hot For Pizza and figured out that they all worked with the Roland SP-404 as their primary instrument. And at some point, someone plugged into Hot For Pizza’s sound system to show off a sweet beat.
Before long, Hot For Pizza had granted the 80404 Club a regular night, every other Tuesday, when the members of the club would get together and play 20 minute sets of sample-delic beats, effects, and noises on their SP-404s. The event was popular from the start, but it’s only grown since things started last spring, and the 80404 Club regularly pack out Hot For Pizza with dancers, producers, and fans who all want to get down to the cool sounds the crew is dishing out. At points, friends have gotten involved, from guest spots by local hip hop figureheads like Nickelus F and Ant The Symbol to listening parties for new projects local rappers and producers are just about to drop, but the core of the 80404 Club has been seven guys with SP-404s taking turns rocking the party and getting everyone hype with the sounds they’re able to generate in real time.
In celebration of the spirit and energy the 80404 Club has been bringing to Richmond for the past year, this Saturday night finds the group moving down the street to Cobra Cabana to throw a one-year anniversary party that brings together everyone involved in 80404 Club and a whole ton of their talented friends. Nickelus F and Ant The Symbol will make return appearances, local radio disc jockey DJ B-Rice (of WRIR and VPM Music fame) will be spinning the between-set sounds all night, and folks from other hip hop crews around Virginia — including Gritty City veterans Fan Ran and Profound 79, as well as Ty Sorrell, 2HEI757, and more — will be on hand to spice things up even further. It’s hard to predict what avenues the music might go down, but one thing is for sure — the beats will be hellfire hot, and there’ll be plenty of fantastic sounds generated by SP-404s throughout the night. Move over, guitar shredders — it’s the 21st century now, and the kids do things a little differently these days. Thank goodness for that.
Wednesday, March 18, 7 PM
Loss Becomes, Bore, Paradiso, Bleed Out @ Bandito’s – $15 (order tickets HERE)
One thing a whole lot of metal musicians have in common: we’ve worked in a lot of restaurants. I include myself in that number — I’ve worked at five, and I also spent a few years at a company that cleaned restaurant oven hoods. These are jobs you take because they allow you to take off a few weeks at a time to go on tour, but they aren’t exactly glamorous paths to riches and fame. At least, not for most metal musicians. However, Loss Becomes guitarist Brian Tsao is a notable exception. Not only does he have a resume including multiple New York-based fine dining restaurants and a YouTube channel with nearly a quarter of a million subscribers, he’s also competed on Chopped, hosted Metal Injection’s Taste of Metal, and beaten Bobby Flay on Beat Bobby Flay. Restaurant work is a way of life for this guy — playing guitar for Loss Becomes is just how he unwinds.
The music Loss Becomes makes might lead you to think otherwise, though. The incredibly intense metalcore riffage, pounding drums, and tortured screams that can be heard on their new album, Sonder, are enough to thrill fans of early Killswitch Engage or prime-era Architects. It’ll certainly be more than sufficient to get the whole place in an uproar when these guys pull up at Bandito’s tonight to blow everyone’s eardrums. Richmond should definitely be planning to come out already, as the show also finds Bore returning to the city only two months after their last visit. If Loss Becomes have the intensity of early Killswitch Engage, Bore definitely channel the swaggering chaos of early Every Time I Die. Their new album, Feral, summons the spirit of late 90s metalcore, when the genre was at its early peak, and their live performance takes all of that and cranks it up to the absolute maximum. Expect to be overtaken by the moshpit demons when these guys get rolling. You might not remember their set in the clearest detail, but you’ll be glad you were there for it. Local support will be provided by the harsh chugging thrash-core stylings of local trio Paradiso, and by the sludgy, brutal hardcore attack of Richmond newcomers Bleed Out. This one’s gonna pick you up and throw you around, and you’ll love every second of it.
Thursday, March 19, 8 PM
A Sondheim Celebration, feat. John Winn, Laura Ann Singh, Elle Meerovich, Maddy Curtis @ Reveler Experiences – $17.50 (order tickets HERE)
Stephen Sondheim was a Broadway legend whose musicals basically reinvented and modernized the form. Pretty much any musical you can go see today, whether on Broadway or at the Carpenter Center, owes a huge debt to Stephen Sondheim. With plays like West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Merrily We Roll Along, Sweeney Todd, and Into The Woods, he defined the canon of late 20th century show tunes. He did this by writing about darker and more complex themes and subjects than musicals had covered in previous generations, and he wrote more complex and sophisticated lyrics and music than had been the norm back in the pre-WWII days. Sondheim, who died in 2021, has to be considered the father of today’s musical theatre, and if you enjoy musical tunes from anything modern, from Hamilton to Wicked, you’re hearing Sondheim’s considerable influence somewhere in the mix.
All of that makes Sondheim a perfect composer for Richmond’s musical and theatrical scene to pay tribute to, and this Thursday night at Reveler Experiences finds four veterans from both sides of the aisle coming together to put their own spin on the canon of the masterful composer. John Winn, a vocalist, saxophonist, and clarinetist known locally for his work with his bands Neighborliness and John Winn and the Winntet, will lead the charge, deploying his incredible voice at the service of Sondheim’s greatest tunes. Laura Ann Singh, a jazz and bolero vocalist who is best known for her work with Miramar and her Fracas Quintet, will also be on hand to contribute beatiful vocalese. Elle Meerovich is mainly known around town for their theatrical work, having formerly been playwright-in-residence at the Firehouse Theatre and later leading a performance collective called Dog Stuff. And of course, local jazz vocalist and theatrical performer Maddy Curtis, who has been a fixture at Reveler in recent months, will round out the talented array of performers who will give life once again to some of the most treasured works of musical theatre the past century has seen. Whether you’re normally into musical theatre or not, you’re sure to have a blast watching these talented folks give their all to this music, so attend with an open mind, and get ready to fall in love.
Friday, March 20, 7 PM
Emma Jean Oakley, Hot Lava, Juniper Tree @ Gallery 5 – $10 in advance, $14 day of show (order tickets HERE)
The evolution of country music that exists outside the stultified modern Nashville sound, which has been soulless and morally bankrupt for decades now, is an amazing thing to watch. When mainstream country seems like everything that’s wrong with America, watching a burgeoning movement of queer folks playing country music rise up in parallel, simultaneously having more sonic integrity and more creative soul than anything you can hear on country radio, is pretty amazing. Emma Jean Oakley is part of that whole thing, a queer country artist who unabashedly sings her love songs about other women and refers to herself as a “yeehaw lesbian,” and on her latest EP, Throw Me A Bone, she proves that some young woman with a cultural association much closer to indie than to mainstream country can still make proud and unabashed country music, stirring pedal steel guitar and Appalachian folk instruments into the mix as natural as you please.
Her music is just as much of a delight live, whether she’s performing at the head of a full band or just rockin’ with an acoustic guitar and a sideman playing a hollow-body electric. The vibe is queen with Emma Jean Oakley’s music, and it’s always immaculate. Expect to be drawn right into her world of hot girls and country roads as soon as she hits the Gallery 5 stage this Friday night. She’ll be joined on this bill by Richmond’s own Hot Lava, who have a more solid connection to the indie world, though since their post-pandemic revitalization they’ve been showing some small hints of twanginess as well. Last year’s Queen Of Fools album definitely took the Hot Lava sound in a new and fruitful direction, and maybe even a little bit more of a queer one as well. Whether you were into this band back in the day or are just discovering them now, they’ve still got a lot to offer. Get into it. Indie-folk duo Juniper Tree will get this one started with some understated acoustic sounds and some truly lovely vocals. There’s a lot to enjoy on this bill — don’t miss a minute.
Saturday, March 21, 7 PM
Crossed Keys, Not Gorgeous, Almost/Pretty, Dead Format, Full Collapse @ Bandito’s – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Here’s evidence that Rival Booking not only sets up great shows but has real range. After all, you’re probably like me at this point — anytime you see a flyer for a new Rival Booking gig, you think “This’ll be a really good metallic hardcore band who is just this side of full-on metal.” That’s still a pretty good bet, but this show goes in a totally different direction, and manages to still be an absolutely flawless five-band bill at Bandito’s, so clearly Rival Booking have got the sauce. Our headliners for this one are a Philadelphia punk band called Crossed Keys, which is made up of Philly scene veterans with 30 years of experience under their belt — members have been in bands like Kid Dynamite, Kill The Man Who Questions, and Halo of Snakes, among many others. You can hear how talented these veterans are on their most recent LP, 2023’s Crossed Keys Believes In You — this album is wall-to-wall melodic, emotional bangers with real depth and a heart born of significant experience with the slings and arrows of the real world.
I’m sure Crossed Keys will deliver an extremely similar live experience — if anything, I’d expect them to be as good or better than their albums. These folks have plenty of experience delivering on their sound in a live environment, and they’ve got some pretty incredible songs to work with. If you can derive any joy at all from melodic, emotional punk, you’re gonna get a lot out of this set. As for New Yorkers Not Gorgeous, these folks play punk rock as well, but they’ve got a harder, faster approach that still features melodic undercurrents but sends the energy into absolute overdrive. They’ll surely get the pit moving, regardless of the fact that the Bandito’s stage is only about a foot tall. Almost/Pretty is a group of local veterans who’ve been playing in a variety of bands here in Richmond over the last three decades or so, and are now making chunky emo-tinged alt-rock/post-hardcore that has the distinction of pairing one guitar with two basses, rather than the other way around. Their debut EP from last fall shows that this can work really well even for bands that aren’t Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and if anything it adds a welcome heavier undercurrent to these songs. Richmonders Dead Format will also contribute some energetic melodic punk to the bill, bringing a high singalong anthem quotient to the evening. The evening will get started with a set from new Richmond combo Full Collapse, who have a slightly melodic yet undeniably tough approach to traditional hardcore. Gotta love that. Gotta love all of this, really. Don’t miss out.
Sunday, March 22, 6 PM
Riley Ely, Sun V Set, Jonathan Paige Brown Jr. @ Gallery 5 – $12.51 (order tickets HERE)
I admit it — I haven’t encountered Riley Ely before. This youthful Richmond-based singer-songwriter has been flying directly under my radar for multiple years now. At least, I have to assume so, because he’s already had one album come out — 2023’s Nothing Is Finished. Now he’s just about to release another, which will be entitled Waiting, and you’ll get to celebrate its release this Sunday at Gallery 5. Writing to you from most of a week earlier, I gotta tell ya I’ve only heard the two singles released in advance. That said, I’m really enjoying the sound of “Silence” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” two great examples of ramshackle indie brilliance from a burnt-out, downcast bedroom strummer who’d probably lose all the magic if he cleaned up the more slacker elements of his sound and made a totally polished studio album. These songs have heart, they’re catchy and carry a subtle energy, and they’ve got a certain type of mushmouth singalong potential that will probably remind anyone with sufficiently long enough memories of what Modest Mouse sounded like, years before they were ever famous.
I’m sure these songs will sound just as good on the Gallery 5 stage, regardless of what sort of band Riley Ely brings with him — the kid’s just got a thing, and it works. The vibes will surely be immaculate this Sunday night. Sun V Set has a different sort of approach — intricate and subtly technical acoustic indie sounds that are maybe more jazz than folk, like some kind of math-rock Joni Mitchell crossed with side two of Led Zeppelin III. They’ll certainly add a lot to the vibes at Gallery 5 Sunday night, as will local old-style blues strummer Jonathan Paige Brown Jr, whose incredible voice is a highlight of the evening regardless of whether he’s opening things up or closing out the night. I hope I don’t even need to tell you to show up to this one on time. If I do, well… you’ve been told. Don’t blow it.
Monday, March 23, 7 PM
Midamerican Elevator, Rubber Dagger, Tyler Meacham, Jonathan Paige Brown Jr. @ The Camel – $18.54 (order tickets HERE)
Monday night is always the slimmest pickings of the week when I’m putting these columns together. But you know what they say — it only takes one. Thanks to the Camel, there is almost always a really good show happening on Monday night, and this Monday is no exception. This Monday night brings Chicago band Midamerican Elevator to town, and while I had never heard of this band before deciding who to cover in this week’s column, my faith in The Camel to bring us killer sounds was once again rewarded, because this band is very good. Melodic, guitar-driven tunes are their bread and butter, complete with some lovely two-part harmony vocals and chiming power-pop guitar riffs that should definitely start some synapses firing in the minds of folks who loved Grenadine or For Against back in the day. Midamerican Elevator’s 2024 Tell It To Me Now! EP is a delightful listen from beginning to end, and I’m sure the same will be true of their set at The Camel Monday night.
Richmond’s Rubber Dagger are quite a bit different in sound and vibe than Midamerican Elevator, but in a strange sort of way this is quite a fitting pairing. Rubber Dagger initially struck me as having a kind of old-school “street punk” thing going on, but their first LP, Spaghetti Dinner, made me rethink the whole thing and realize that what they’re really doing is catchy old-school rock n’ roll tunes with a bit of a primitive/outsider postpunk feel. Sorta like Chuck Berry meets the Swell Maps, if you’re old enough to pick up what I’m putting down. They’ve definitely won me over at this point, so catching their set this Monday night is highly recommended. As for the rest of the lineup, depending on where I look, I have seen both local indie queen Tyler Meacham and local blues-folk singer-songwriter Jonathan Paige Brown Jr. listed as the third act, so I’m not really sure what you’ll get from this show (one? the other? both?), I do know that it’ll be a good time. Make it happen.
Tuesday, March 24, 7 PM
TV Buddha, Parking, Computer Date, Tentative Decisions @ Bandito’s – $10 (order tickets HERE)
In the early days, before anyone really figured out what punk rock was supposed to be like, there were a whole bunch of bands out there poking around on the fringes of rock music, trying to find the next thing. And a lot of them were into playing loud, stripped-down, no-frills rock n’ roll… but then they also might turn around and go on an eight-minute jazz freakout. And they did this in a manner that made all of those things make sense together — that made them seem unified. Chicago-based duo TV Buddha clearly pulls from that same lineage, taking influence from things like the Velvet Underground, early Pavement, and The Stooges, cooking them up together, and then blasting them all over everywhere in a psychedelic freakout style that often finds them playing catchy distorted-guitar rock riffs but occasionally sends them out into the lysergic stratosphere armed with freakout jazz saxes and endless looping grooves.
How will all that sound when trapped in the earthly confines of Bandito’s on a Tuesday night? Well, first and foremost, it’ll be good no matter what direction the band goes in at any given moment, because Bandito’s secretly has one of the best-sounding live rooms in the city. Second, and more importantly, it’ll be wild, fascinating and unpredictable. And it’s definitely not something you’ll want to miss. TV Buddha’s tourmates are Louisville trio Parking, who have plenty of energy on their own behalf, though theirs seems more derived from classic 80s New Zealand postpunk and underground noise — think Bailter Space, The Verlaines, that sort of thing, only with a big dose of The Fall mixed in as well. Both of these bands are rad, both of them push the boundaries of conventional genre, and both are sure to surprise you at some point during their sets. Local support will be provided by Tentative Decisions, who have a very similar connection to early 80s postpunk sounds, and work up quite a head of steam on their 2024 LP Public Access. This band’s a lot of fun, and one of the more exciting bands on the come-up in Richmond today, so if you haven’t seen them yet, show up on time for this one. The lineup is rounded out by local newcomers Computer Date, who played their first show less than three months ago and have a delightfully ramshackle take on indie pop to share with us all. This one should be a blast. Don’t miss out.
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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