RVA Shows You Must See This Week: September 24 – September 30
FEATURED SHOW
Dark Days Bright Nights @ Studio Two Three – Three-day passes $85 (order HERE)
Friday, September 26, 5:30 PM
Uniform, Dazzling Killmen, Cherubs, Couch Slut, Crippling Alcoholism – $25 in advance, $28 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Saturday, September 27, 4 PM
City Of Caterpillar, Sleepytime Trio, Frail, Ultra Dolphins, Habak, Sunrot, The Supervoid Choral Ensemble, Terror Cell – $35 in advance, $40 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Sunday, September 28, 4 PM
Reversal Of Man, Iron Lung, Great Falls, Stress Positions, Ostraca, Eye Flys, Quiet Fear, Slowhole – $35 in advance, $40 at the door (order tickets HERE)
It sure is great to see Dark Days Bright Nights returning to Richmond this year. This three-day fest, brought to us by the folks at Persistent Vision Records and Yr Screaming Youth, was one of the highlights of the 2024 calendar, where Richmond shows are concerned. And this year finds the folks at Persistent Vision upping the ante — making all three of these shows even more unmissable than last year’s edition. And you didn’t think that was possible! The Dark Days Bright Nights crew laughs at your incredulity. Without any further ado, let’s get started on talking about the top-volume walls of beautifully brutal sound you’ll encounter at all three of these shows over the course of this weekend. After all, there are a ton of amazing bands playing, and our space to discuss them is regretfully limited.
The Friday night show that kicks all of this off is briefer, and tickets for just that show are cheaper, but you get every bit as much proportional bang for your buck at this one as you do on Saturday and Sunday. Friday night appears to be the unofficial “noise rock night,” as the all of the bands on the bill practice the sort of loud, noisy and incredibly heavy brand of stumbling, vaguely dangerous chaos that defined the classic 90s noise-rock sound. Think the Jesus Lizard, Unsane, The Cows… all those hectic, crazy bands. At the top of this bill is New York City band Uniform, whose most recent release, American Standard, begins with the 20-plus minute epic of foreboding chaos that is the title track and only gets more wild from there. They are sure to close out the night in fine style. Also on the bill are two noise-rock forerunners and innovators who released touchstone noise-rock albums in their initial 90s incarnations before returning to action more recently: Dazzling Killmen (whose reformed lineup features Uniform guitarist Ben Greenberg) and Cherubs, both of whom are sure to blow minds and melt faces. Also on the bill is Couch Slut, a band I have a particular soft spot for — their incredibly intense sludge-noise meltdown of a debut LP, My Life As a Woman, got me through some really difficult times when I was still very early in my gender transition. But if you aren’t brought to tears by their song “Little Girl Things,” you can still rage and headbang like crazy when their extremely heavy riffs hit. Friday night’s bill is rounded out by the provocatively named Crippling Alcoholism, whose brutal, downbeat noise incorporates electronic textures as well as more conventional brutality. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s sure to be awesome.
Saturday night keeps the awesome sounds coming, and stretches out a bit, kicking off at 4 pm in order to fit in even more great music. Highlights from day two include City Of Caterpillar, whose drawn-out, chaotic epics took the sound of classic 90s chaotic hardcore bands like Angel Hair or Heroin and fed it through the drawn-out, post-rock sensibility of groups like Isis and Pelican to bring us some of the most influential screamo sounds of the early 2000s — only to up the ante by reforming after two decades and issuing an equally incredible follow-up to their immortal self-titled LP, 2022’s Mystic Sisters. There’s also Sleepytime Trio, whose heyday was the late 90s, and who were groundbreaking in the field of intense, chaotic post-hardcore — the sort of thing that ultimately evolved into screamo. Sleepytime Trio has never gone back to full-time activity, but they do occasionally play shows, and you shouldn’t ever miss any of them — this one definitely included. The Philadelphia-based emo-core band Frail always had an extremely intense stage presence and some really thrashy hectic songs. Plus, they paved the way for generations of screamo bands to have really high-pitched vocalists. Ultra Dolphins was a dynamic and spellbinding post-hardcore trio with a tendency for over-the-top musical insanity. The members went on to play in Gull, Snack Truck, and Brainworms, among others, but are thankfully coming back together to give us another dose of their unpredictable chaos.
There’s so much more happening on Saturday night, but this writeup’s only gonna get longer from here, so let’s move on to Sunday. That equally-extensive bill is a bit faster, a bit more intense, and every bit as guaranteed to satisfy all comers. Reversal Of Man’s high-speed, high-intensity metallic hardcore chaos was also instrumental in innovating the field of high-pitched screamo vocalists, but they bring so much more to the table, from their incredibly dramatic breakdowns to moments of breakneck intensity that are sure to have the whole crowd losing their minds. Legendary power-violence duo Iron Lung will also be on hand to blow everyone’s mind with a series of intense, catchy, thousand-mile-an-hour tunes. Taking things in an entirely different direction will be the harsh brutality of Great Falls, the latest project from Nineironspitfire/Kiss It Goodbye guitarist Demian Johnston. The harsh howling vocals and raging riff attack of this band will knock everyone in the room for a loop — and they’ll enjoy every second of it.
There are a lot of bands on this bill I haven’t even mentioned yet (including local greats like Ostraca and Terror Cell, or up-and-comers like The Supervoid Choral Ensemble or Eye Flys), but this writeup has to end at some point. With three entire days of incredible shows as part of its weekend of amazingness, though, Dark Days Bright Nights will feel like an endless smorgasbord of musical riches. So you definitely should go scoop up a pass for the full weekend, and dive into this one headfirst. You might be exhausted by the time you walk into work Monday morning, but you’ll have spent your weekend taking part in one of the absolute most important musical events of 2025. And isn’t that worth being a bit sleepy in the first meeting of the week? You know what to do.
Wednesday, September 24, 7 PM
Thunderchief, For Fuck’s Sake, Brown Piss, Speedbag @ Bandito’s – $10
One good show full of heavy bands deserves another, so why not make this a really heavy week in general? After all, it’s the perfect time of year for it — we just got through the autumnal equinox, it is finally fall, and Halloween is right around the corner. All in all, a great time to listen to gloomy riffs while you bang your fuckin’ head. That’s what’ll be going on tonight at Bandito’s, as all assemble to hear some really epic riffage from two touring bands and two local groups, all of which are excellent. At the top of the list is Thunderchief, the local duo with a ton of cred who have been pounding out ridiculously heavy stoned-out grooves for a decade or so now, getting better with each passing year. The last time they released an LP of original material was four years ago, and as good as that one was, the anticipation for new material from these fellows is at an all-time high. Cross your fingers for some new tunes at this gig.
But don’t focus too much on Thunderchief and forget to pay attention to the other groups on this bill, because all of them have a lot to offer, and the main thing they have to offer is heavyosity in the extreme. Brooklyn band For Fuck’s Sake don’t just have an amazing name — they’ve also got a few EPs worth of sludgy, heavy, brutal metal tunes in the world that will impress anyone who likes their music to hit hard and leave them woozy. Expect the pit during their set to do much the same — and you’re gonna love every second of it. Our other touring band, Speedbag, is so new that they only have one song out as yet, but they have definitely managed to capture my attention, not only with that one song, which is 100 or so seconds of rip-roaring metallic hardcore fury, but also with their lineup. The growling terror on vocals is none other than legendary North Carolina rapper MC Homeless, who has evidently decided to follow in the footsteps of Ice-T and Richmond’s own BlackLiq and be a rapper who starts a hardcore band. Every time it happens, I love it, and this is no exception. Richmond noise extremists Brown Piss will round out this bill with a wall of hissing harshness that’ll kick this one off with a bang. Get stoked!
Thursday, September 25, 7 PM
Woods, White Fence @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $35.59 (order tickets HERE)
It’s so interesting to contemplate the career of the New York-based psychedelic folk band known as Woods from the perspective I originally heard them: as a side project of the emo band Meneguar. At the time, Woods was just a project in which most of Meneguar played different instruments and experimented with lo-fi recordings and whimsical songwriting ideas. After a few years, though, Meneguar ended, and Woods became the full-time project of some of that band’s former members. The spontaneous creativity that fueled the sounds captured on early releases like How To Survive In and Songs Of Shame evolved across two decades, as did the band’s lineup configuration, and these days, they regularly release slabs of catchy psychedelic folk-pop that are equally likely to delight music-nerd hipster types and jam-band-adjacent folkies. So yeah, if you like The Beatles, or Devendra Banhart, or Dungen, or XTC, or anything else remotely like all that, you definitely want to go to this show and check out Woods.
Better yet, you want to get there early, because White Fence is also playing this show. White Fence is basically a solo project of singer-songwriter Tim Presley, though he’s sure to have a backing band along with him at this performance. Presley, who has been making music since the 1990s, got his start in the hardcore band The Nerve Agents before founding the psych-rock band Darker My Love, then playing with the Fall briefly during their later years. He started White Fence as a solo project about 15 years ago, and began releasing albums through Woodsist, the record label owned by the other band on this bill. He was quite prolific throughout the 2010s, releasing seven albums of retro-psych alternative pop over the course of the decade, before taking a few years off. Now that White Fence is back in action, it seems likely that they’re cooking up at least an album or so worth of new material, and you should expect to hear some new tunes mixed into the classic 60s-style garage-pop tunes you’ll hear from these folks during their set. All of it will be delightful, so again, make sure you show up to this one on time. You snooze, you lose.
Friday, September 26, 9 PM
The Auricular 7th Anniversary Party, feat. Bucko, Flora And The Fauna, Artschool, The Potted Plants @ The Camel – $15.44 (order tickets HERE)
This one should be fun! We here at The Auricular have been doing this website for seven entire years now, and we’re in the mood to celebrate that fact with some of the best bands currently playing music in our beloved city of Richmond VA. And we hope you’ll come celebrate with us as well! Not to toot our own horn or anything, but we do think we’ve assembled some of the best ensembles currently playing music in our fair city with which to entertain you all. Bucko’s at the top of the bill, and this twangy rock n’ roll combo manages to mingle the best elements of alt-country, indie pop, and crunchy-guitar rock n’ roll in order to craft a sound that simultaneously has a strong connection to the history of American music and also feels very up-to-the-minute. They’re a thoroughly exciting listen with tunes that’ll get stuck in your head the very first time you hear them. If you don’t know Bucko’s music, you’ve got to come out this Friday night and familiarize yourself.
And then there’s Flora And The Fauna, the all-transfemme indie-pop quartet with incredibly catchy songs, an irrepressible energy, and a brilliant not-so-secret weapon in keyboard/sax player Valerie Jemison, who adds a touch of that Springsteenian theatrical melodrama to Flora Antonia’s incredibly catchy songs of queer love and longing. This band draws a huge crowd everywhere they go, and it only takes seeing them once for you to not only understand why that is, but become part of the crowd at their next show yourself. I expect big things from these folks — jump on the bandwagon now. Melodic, political punks Artschool are also giving us a set of their catchy, rockin’ songs, which will be a big blast of singalong fun. And of course, The Potted Plants round out the bill with some properly constructed ensemble pop-folk brilliance. This group isn’t all that well known around town, but it’s time for that to change, because they’ve got a ton of incredible songs to delight us all with. So yeah, show up on time for this one — especially since we’re giving away something special to the first 100 ticket-holders. Oh, and coincidentally enough, this show ended up taking place on the same day I’m celebrating 10 years of hormone replacement therapy, so if you want to come celebrate my womanhood with me, I’d be glad to have you! And if you enjoy what we’re doing at this website, we’d love to rock out with you! Come through.
Saturday, September 27, 5 PM
Many Eyes, Contact @ The Canal Club – $20 in advance, $23 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I don’t pretend to have any real understanding of what broke up Every Time I Die. They spent something like 25 years being an incredible band, and their last LP rocked me just as hard as the first one did. That makes it enough of a bummer that they fell apart, and then to see the way it happened, with all the gossip and infighting, the unseemly media hype and the mid-tour meltdowns that blew the band away with no notice, just made it a whole lot worse. I try to look on the bright side, though — we ended up with two bands coming out of it. Better Lovers, featuring 3/5 of Every Time I Die, are a lot of fun. But for me, one of the main elements that made Every Time I Die great (to get in my Beato bag for a minute) was the combination of Keith Buckley’s swaggering yet emotional vocal delivery and his brilliantly acerbic lyrics. So when Keith started Many Eyes, I was really excited to see what he’d come up with.
Now, I won’t pretend I loved the first Many Eyes LP — I did like it, but there were some weird radio-rock breakdowns on some of the songs that always put at least a slight damper on my enthusiasm. Thankfully, earlier this year, the band released a new EP called Combust that captures everything I missed about Keith Buckley’s contributions to Every Time I Die and pairs his brilliant vocals and lyrics with the kind of tough, relentless rock n’ rolled-out metallic hardcore riffs that make his vocals and lyrics hit the hardest. The new EP makes me excited all over again to see what this guy does next, and we’ll all get the chance to do so when he and Many Eyes pull up to the Canal Club this Saturday night. I’ll be crossing my fingers for a minimum of radio-rock moments and a maximum of what this band does best, and I’ve got a hunch they’re gonna deliver in fine fashion. The evening will also feature a killer opening set from Richmonders Contact, who tap into the melodic yet intense and hard-hitting hardcore sound of 2000’s-era greats like Modern Life Is War and Crime In Stereo. This local ensemble will get the evening started on a high note, and it’ll just get better from there. Dive in.
Sunday, September 28, 8 PM
Loud Night, Incisor, Siphon @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10
I have talked often in this column about how Fuzzy Cactus is the place for rock n’ roll in this town, but the question is: how strictly do you define rock n’ roll? Can you handle it if your local home of rock n’ roll puts on a show full of crust-punk bands who draw their main influence from Motorhead and Broken Bones? If your answer is no, you may not be all that stoked about this Sunday night’s three-band bill at Fuzzy Cactus. But personally, I’m gonna tell you to loosen up, because this is going to be one hard-rockin’ night for everyone who can appreciate how Motorhead and Broken Bones are every bit as rock n’ roll as the Rolling Stones. Richmond’s own Loud Night have been laying down fast, hard, and intense punk n’ roll riffage for the entirety of their existence, and recently took time to show us all that their sound remains killer long after the release of their 2020 debut full-length, Mindnumbing Pleasure. They did this specifically with a pair of split 7 inches, with Fredag Den 13:e and TAIFUN, featuring a total of four new Loud Night songs, all of which rip like crazy and bring a real “marauding band of outlaws on choppers” energy to the classic crust-punk sound.
On this lineup, Loud Night is teaming up with Philadelphia band Incisor, who had been on hiatus for a while if the internet scuttlebutt is true, but are back with a vengeance now and ready to follow up the two killer EPs they released in the latter half of the 2010s with a raging set at Fuzzy Cactus this Sunday night. Their version of that old crust-infused punk n’ roll magic has less of a sharp-edged 80s thrash sound than Loud Night, with more of a pounding noise-rock attack showing through at times. But the fact is that if you like one of these bands, you’re sure to like the other, and they’ll be a good pairing to play back-to-back for the kids who want to end their weekend by spending two hours straight in a circle pit. The final band on this bill is our opening group, Siphon, and since this is their first show, one can hardly be blamed for not knowing quite what to expect. I can tell you, however, that the band features members of Prisoner, Future Terror, and Benderheads, so that should let any followers of local metal, hardcore, and crust awesomeness know that this is going to be one ripper of a first set. Get stoked for this one — every band will rule.
Monday, September 29, 6 PM
JC Kuhl Quartet feat. Jimmy Masters @ Reveler Experiences – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Monday night is a good night for jazz, and it’s also a good night to head over to Reveler in Carytown, where you can chill at a table, enjoy a relaxing atmosphere, grab some tasty snacks and drinks, and listen to some excellent music that should do a lot to smooth out your vibe after a weekend of banging your head and a Monday morning rude awakening back at work. In particular, this Monday night finds Richmond saxophone legend JC Kuhl bringing a great jazz quartet to the spot to dig deep into some bop-style flavors with a selection of incredibly talented musicians. Chief among them is Jimmy Masters, an acoustic bass player with a career stretching nearly four decades that has seen him play with everyone from the Richmond Symphony to legendary jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller. These days, Masters plays regularly around the Hampton Roads area, and has previously worked with JC Kuhl as part of his own quartet in that area.
Now, Masters is coming to Richmond to return the favor, and join Kuhl’s quartet on this lovely Monday night. If you’re not familiar with JC Kuhl, I’m suspicious that you are new to the Richmond jazz world, but that’s OK — every show is someone’s first. JC Kuhl’s original claim to fame was his work with Agents Of Good Roots, an alternative rock band from Richmond who released two LPs on major labels in the late 90s. Since that band ended, Kuhl has become a go-to sax player in the Richmond music scene in a variety of genres, playing with everyone from Bio Ritmo to Jandek. These days he teaches jazz saxophone at VCU, plays with all sorts of musicians around town, and continues to produce killer sounds every time he raises his saxophone to his lips. Expect these two heavyweights to combine for some serious jazz power, especially considering the additional help of pianist John Toomey and drummer Emre Kartari, who round out the quartet. This show will be a lovely sound to hear at the end of a long day. Bathe your ears in its sweetness.
Tuesday, September 30, 7 PM
Home Is Where, Forests, Short Fictions, Kitty Corner @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $29.43 (order tickets HERE)
Can emo also be country? That probably depends on who you ask, but on this Tuesday night we’ll be asking Florida quartet Home Is Where, who grew to fame on the strength of their fifth-wave (or so they tell me) emo songwriting, full of evocative, passionate vocals, twinkly guitars, and driving rhythms… then pivoted on their latest LP, Hunting Season, into a sound that verges on outright Americana. That said, the newest Home Is Where material does approach the alt-country genre from a postpunk angle that results in way more screaming, distorted guitars, and twinkly emo leads than you’d ever expect to hear on a Rhett Miller LP. But the twang is undeniably in there, and vocalist Bea MacDonald’s always unique vocal approach only makes it stand out more. As a fan of the first two Uncle Tupelo albums and Hop Along’s Painted Shut LP, I certainly appreciate a band that approaches country genre tropes from an unusual angle. And I appreciate it even more when they capture the unique experience of growing up queer in the South. REM pulled that off 40 years ago, and today it’s a profound strength for Home Is Where. Gotta love that.
Home Is Where are joined on this bill by a trio of other groups, at least some of which still squarely inhabit the emo genre that our headliners have started to slip sideways out of. The most straightforward example of that on this lineup is Forests, a Singaporean (!) band with some incredibly catchy tracks that are nonetheless full of vocal angst and tangled guitar trickeration. Their latest LP, Get In Losers, We’re Going To Eternal Damnation, is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth for twinkly guitars and catchy screamed choruses. Short Fictions, who come from the much closer destination of Pittsburgh, are coming to the emo genre from a completely different angle — that of bouncy tunes with a vaguely mournful undercurrent that’s leavened by a shot of sugary pop hooks buoyed along by synth melodies. This band is a big helping of wistful fun. Richmonders Kitty Corner round things out with a lo-fi take on emo twang that pairs well with our headliners. This is a varied lineup with a variety of delights on offer. Don’t miss out on any of them.
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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