RVA Shows You Must See This Week: March 25 – March 31
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, March 27, 9 PM
Artschool, Shagwuf, Tentative Decisions, Rat Fight @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
The new generation has been here for a while, and at this point, I think it’s safe to say that they run things where underground music in Richmond is concerned. After all, the youngest millennials are 29 as we speak, and a lot of the bands who are doing the most interesting and best work in town are made up of people whose birth years start with 2. Wild for some of us older people to think about, but regardless, it’s about time we get used to it and start recognizing the kids in this town who have something brilliant to say. One of the young artists who deserves the attention of everyone in this town who likes music is the band Artschool. Led by Griffin Smalley — whose name you may recognize from his written contributions to a variety of music-related publications around town, including this one — this trio is releasing its debut album, Nuclear Sons, today (if you’re reading this on the day the column comes out), and they’re gathering some of their best friends together to throw a big musical celebration of the new record this Friday night at The Camel. You’ll definitely want to be there.
In simplest terms, Artschool is a classic punk rock power trio, and their tunes capture a classic Clash-style anthemic sound while also bringing in a variety of more modern influences from postpunk, indie, shoegaze, and electronic musical forms. Nuclear Sons is a fascinating listen that moves through a variety of moods: everything from straight-up punk bangers to moody synthwave ballads and more. While Artschool may descend from a musical tradition that is straightforward and at times simplistic, the same tags can’t be laid on them so easily; instead, they are a multi-faceted group with a ton of creativity at play in their music. And considering that they’re also known to put on quite the show in the live arena, the time has certainly come for them to take a leading role in the Richmond music scene.
They’re bringing a variety of heavy hitters along with them for this show, and that’s one sure sign that Artschool are bringing the heat — some of the best bands in the state want to play their record release party. Fun freaky rocker trio Shagwuf are along to put on one of their wild n’ crazy performances full of glam glee and delightful, danceable riffs. This will be their last performance with original drummer Pablo Olivieri behind the kit, so it’s certainly the end of the era for this beloved Virginia powerhouse, and you should definitely come out and dance hard to give Pablo a proper farewell. Energetic postpunk trio Tentative Decisions will also be along for the ride, giving the whole evening a shot of nervous jittery tension in the best possible way. And of course, the evening will be rounded out by local punk rock quartet Rat Fight, who aren’t the most active of local groups but always bring a fun, chaotic approach to their noisy brand of punk rock. The kids will have their say — make sure you’re listening to them when they do. Come to this show.
Wednesday, March 25, 7 PM
Ossicles Fest, Day 2: Mary Halvorson: Canis Major, Nicole Mitchell, Laura Ann Singh’s Fracas Quintet @ Gallery 5 – $30 (order tickets HERE)
Between what’s happening up at Reveler in Carytown on any given weekend and what the Out Of Your Head Records folks are doing over at Artspace on a monthly basis, the live avant-garde jazz scene in Richmond is undergoing a renaissance unlike any I’ve seen in my previous three decades of living here and taking part in the local scene. And I gotta tell ya, I fuckin’ love it. I especially love seeing the growth manifest is such brilliant ways as the midweek mini-fest brought to us by the Out Of Your Head folks this week. Ossicles Fest had the goal of bringing avant-garde, jazz, and improvised music to Richmond from around the world, and while there was no hope of me being able to tell you about night one (that Tuesday night show at Reveler, headlined by legendary guitarist Marc Ribot performing solo, was sold out long before last week’s column went to press), I am fortunate to bring you the word on night two at a time when tickets are still available. So if you were looking for something cool and memorable to fill up your midweek evening — look no further. This is the ticket.
Ossicles Fest day two brings amazing guitarist Mary Halvorson to Richmond for the second time in 2026; she previously came through back in January as part of Ches Smith’s Clone Row quartet. Now she’s arriving at the head of her newest project as bandleader, Canis Major, a new avant-garde quartet pairing her up with trumpeter Dave Adewumi, bassist Henry Fraser, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. The music is complex and heady, taking classic jazz forms into completely new directions and demonstrating the generational talent possessed by all members of the group. This will be a night to remember for fans of challenging and unusual music, so let Mary Halvorson and Canis Major stretch your brain out a bit. It’ll be good for you. Nicole Mitchell, who was the first female president of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, will be performing on this bill as well, and Mitchell, who plays both flute and a variety of electronic instruments, is known for her improvisational creativity. She could take this performance in any of a dozen directions, but all are guaranteed to be intriguing. And of course, local singing sensation Laura Ann Singh, known for her work with Miramar, Quatro Na Bossa, and a variety of other local jazz, Latin, and experimental projects, will be bringing her Fracas Quintet to the bill to open up an impressive evening. Featuring some of the most talented jazz players in Richmond, the group will be performing the wild jazz-punk balladry showcased on Singh’s latest LP, the excellent Mean Reds. This show will start off strong, end even stronger, and remain brilliant from beginning to end. Show up for it. You’ll be glad you did.
Thursday, March 26, 7:30 PM
Leslie and the Dots, Roughshod, Brookhouse @ Get Tight Lounge – $15 (order tickets HERE)
I’ve been seeing the name Leslie And the Dots around lately, and while I didn’t know anything about them, I had to admit that their band name was pretty snazzy. So of course, when I heard that they had a new LP coming out, the release of which they were celebrating at Get Tight Lounge this Thursday night, I made a point of checking it out. I was delighted to find that the band I heard on this LP is entirely worthy of a delightful name like Leslie And The Dots. Led by Front Royal-born singer-songwriter Leslie Lilburn, the quintet display a lovely power-pop sound on their self-titled debut album, which is given further depth by witty, sardonic lyrics about the everyday struggles of life. While Leslie and The Dots feel a bit out-of-time in the current moment, their late-20th-century take on introspective rock music is a delightful listen, and their new album is full of memorable tunes that are well worth repeat listens.
This Thursday night extravaganza at Get Tight Lounge will be the perfect introduction to what Leslie And The Dots are capable of, and you should definitely get there so you can properly get on their wavelength. I’m not sure whether or not there will be a physical version of the album available for purchase, but even if you just stream it on the usual platforms, you’ll definitely enjoy repeated listens. Local rockers Roughshod will offer some excellent support for this bill, cranking the distortion and added some punk rock bite to the evening in their usual delightful fashion. Brookhouse’s Latin-inflected melodic rock music is much of a piece with that of Leslie And The Dots, and therefore makes them a great bookend for this lineup, getting the evening started on a delightful note. Expect this one to be a lot of fun — it’ll send you into the final day of the week on a high note.
Friday, March 27, 7 PM
Optic Sink, Jacky Cougar & The Vampyres From Africa, Visiting Hour, Outer World @ Cobra Cabana – $20 (order tickets HERE)
Thanks to the folks at Dig! Records, Richmond is lucky enough to welcome Tennessee band Optic Sink to town for not one but two nights. This particular show is the second of the two nights, with the first being a celebration of Optic Sink’s newest release, Relentless Metamorphosis, over at Studio Two Three. That event will find the band performing their latest release, an instrumental soundtrack for the short films of Maya Deren, along with the films in question. If you’re a film geek, this event is the one for you, but as more of a music head, I’m recommending night two, on which Optic Sink will perform their more accessible synth-driven postpunk material, focusing on their 2025 LP, Lucky Number. Led by Natalie Hoffman, former frontwoman of energetic postpunk combo Nots, Optic Sink feel like a natural evolution from that previous band’s sound, mixing retro electronic elements and heavy synth washes into a sound that is still fundamentally based in nervous, hyperactive postpunk.
The Optic Sink set at Cobra Cabana Friday night is sure to delight all the nerdy punk weirdos (are we still calling this crowd “egg punks”? That always seemed weird to me), and it seems highly likely that DC band Jacky Cougar & The Vampyres From Africa will please similar sorts of folks. This project is led by Jack Abok of Des Demonas and Thee Lolitas, and it’s driven by rhythmic, hypnotic pounding and chanting on drums and synths. It’s weird, and might not seem like the kind of thing anyone in particular would be into when you read about it, but listening to it pulls you right in and makes you want to chant along. Get ready. Richmond band Visiting Hour, whose droning slowcore simultaneously reminds me of Slint and The Velvet Underground, will also be performing, as will a duo version of Outer World. This Stereolab-influenced postpunk group spun out of Positive No and went in a more spaced-out direction, but it will be yet another turn of the screw for them to perform as a two-piece. How this will change the vibe is anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly well worth seeing.
Saturday, March 28, 7 PM
Dropheads, Drunk Mother, TV Battle Stations @ Gallery 5 – $12 in advance, $15 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Saturday nights are a good night to have some fun and forget about all the stupid crap that’s plagued you all week. And this Saturday night, there’s a show happening at Gallery 5 that’s perfect for that, featuring three local bands that are perfect for dancing your ass off all night with a big silly grin on your face. Local trio Dropheads have been cranking out some fun rock n’ roll tunes for several years now, and while they don’t tend to release new music all that often, what does enter the world is always a delight to hear, mixing sinister early punk sounds a la Agent Orange or The Wipers into garage rock vibes that feel fun and energetic without being retro in any way shape or form. This band is a delight to listen to and has plenty of riffs to get you dancing. Plan accordingly.
There are two more Richmond groups to keep your hips swinging and your booty shaking on the bill at Gallery 5 this Saturday night, and the first of the two, I must admit, is musically unfamiliar to me. I’ve never heard a note of Drunk Mother’s music, and all I know for sure is that everyone considers them to be “outlaw country” in some form or fashion. Does it end up sounding just like Merle Haggard? Somehow I ddoubt it — these younger folks will definitely interject some modern sensibilities and good old-fashioned creativity into the mix as well. But as far as how it’ll all turn out? Your guess is as good as mine — but with a name like Drunk Mother, I certainly expect it to be a party. TV Battle Stations, a new side project bringing together folks from Bucko and Catie Lausten’s band to make some twangy indie hits, will round out this bill with some delightful sounds from folks whose work we all know and trust at this point. This one’s gonna be a blast — show up and dance your cares away.
Sunday, March 29, 7 PM
Benefit For Richmond Community Legal Fund, feat. Lacking, White Beast, Plutonium Womb, Madhouse, Jesus Stopped Working @ Gallery 5 – $10 (order tickets HERE)
It’s a tough time in the world today if you’re not crazy rich; it feels like the government and the capitalists have teamed up to turn on ordinary people, restrict our basic civil rights, and go so far as to kill or disappear anyone with the audacity to protest clear violations of the way our country’s laws are supposed to work. This is all fucked enough to contemplate without having to consider entering into this situation without legal help— but plenty of people out there (likely including you and me) can’t afford to hire a lawyer the second anything goes wrong. So we are all indebted to the efforts of folks like Richmond Community Legal Fund, because regardless of where things stand in our lives now, something could always happen and put us in the position of needing legal assistance in a bigtime hurry.
This is exactly why you should support this Gallery 5 Sunday night throwdown. That said, there are a ton of great bands on it too, so even if you are foolish enough not to care a thing about these sorts of legal protections, you can still come out and mosh the night away. Power-violence duo Lacking will be on hand to deliver some minimalist hardcore riffs at hyperspeed. Bass + drum duo White Beast will lay down some ripping riffage and keep things heavy and pounding, even as a subtle melodic undercurrent hums throughout. Plutonium Womb is a new local band with a roaring, brutal take on sludge metal. The Madhouse are a truly strange combination of upbeat rock, melodic metal, and some sort of hip hop. The result is catchy, fun, and a total delight once you get used to it. Jesus Stopped Working are brand new and have a wild name that I particularly enjoy. Their sound is pure metallic screamo chaos, and I find it extremely enjoyable. This whole night will be extremely enjoyable, really, and considering it’s for a good cause that is much needed in these times, you really have no excuse NOT to go.
Monday, March 30, 8 PM
Fishtank Improv Sounds, feat. Sara Bouchard, Ben Broening, Jack Byrnes @ Studio Two Three – $10
If the things happening on the Ossicles Fest bill listed up above felt a little too conventional and accessible to you, don’t worry — Richmond’s music scene is capable of getting way farther out there than that. The Fishtank Improv Sounds nights are a great way of seeing how far out things can get, and they tend to be held in spaces that aren’t typically associated with live music — art galleries, for example, or in this case, a communal print studio — but that if anything seems appropriate, because this stuff is often not exactly what you’d think of when you think of live music. Which, of course, only makes it that much cooler.
Take, for example, the work of Sara Bouchard, whose name is at the top of this month’s flyer. Bouchard, a VCUarts instructor, teaches classes about turning data into sound and has been a FLUXNET artist-in-residence (which is sort of like being named the house band for a worldwide science experiment — which is to say, it’s cool as fuck). Her work mixes together found sounds and generated noises with live singing and instrumentation, creating a musique concrete-like layered soundscape. This is the kind of cool stuff going on at this monthly performance series. Gotta love it. This edition will also feature performances from composer and U of R professor Ben Broening, and from jazz bassist Jack Byrnes, both of whom are Richmond-based. All of these artists will generate some noises that have never been heard before, and the result will be unique, intriguing, and fascinating. It’ll certainly liven up your Monday night — and we all know that every Monday night needs plenty of that.
Tuesday, March 31, 7 PM
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country @ The Broadberry – $43.01 (order tickets HERE)
I’m not a girl who pays much attention to goings-on in the world of country music, mainly because I’ve found the music coming out of Nashville progressively more and more manufactured and terrible for at least 20 years now. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the genre; I’ve certainly spent plenty of time listening to everything from Hank Williams and Johnny Cash to Lucinda Williams and Kacey Musgraves. I just so rarely hear new country that feels worthwhile in any way. I have to figure Daniel Donato feels much the same way; his Cosmic Country project exists to push the limits of the genre and see just what can be done to keep things interesting and creative in a genre that way too often ends up steadily getting more and more samey.
Daniel Donato got his start in Nashville, and as a talented guitarist he certainly did his time playing all the country standards and paying his dues. But his interests were much wider than most artists in his field, and at this point, four albums into his career, it’s obvious the places he turned to push the boundaries of his own music. Grateful Dead vibes, twangy yet psychedelic side trips, and lengthy jammed-out epics all find a place in Daniel Donato’s music, and his incredibly talented guitar playing helps hold everything together across highly eclectic albums and set lists. Expect this night — the first of two at the Broadberry — to take you on a long strange trip to the heart of America and straight upward into the cosmos. You’ll be delighted to be along for the ride.
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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