Scene Recap: Daydream Fest, Butcher Brown, WVCW

Published May 26, 2023

Countless great outlets, organizations, and individuals cover the music scene in Richmond, so many that it might be hard to keep up to date on all of them. We’ll try and collect some great articles, coverage, and news bits we’ve read each week here at The Auricular.

• I am running extremely behind for the week, but I still wanted to highlight a bunch of important news and tidbits. I’m going to do it rather quickly this week so I can make it to Brown’s Island for…

• Richmond Music Night at Friday Cheers tonight! Butcher Brown! Cassidy Snider & The Wrangler! Celler Dwellers! A great chance to not only support local music but also take in a beautiful day. Well, I assume it’s a beautiful day. I haven’t been outside in hours because I’m trying to finish up everything before the long weekend so I can take in all the musical joy from the Friday Cheers line-up. More on Butcher Brown at the bottom, but make sure you show up in time to check out Celler Dwellers and Cassidy Snider, two equally impressive and astounding acts! (Event link here.)

• Daydream Fest is also this weekend! Davy Jones had a great, in-depth profile of the event for Style Weekly you should check out (article link here) and our very own Marilyn Drew Necci covered it in her show column as the featured concert selection (article link here). The brains behind this event put together something truly special this year and you should definitely make time to attend one day of the event… or both because you don’t want to miss out, right?!?!?! (Ticket & line-up link here.)

• Rikki Rakki graced In Your Ear studios for Shockoe Sessions Live! this past Tuesday and it was an incredible set. You can trust me — I was there live and I also watched it on YouTube the next morning! The band continues to impress me with their free spirit and melodic charm. I’ve seen them in a few different settings now and they just excel any chance they get to play alongside each other. You really need to check it out. And you also might want to bookmark this coming Tuesday’s episode: Mackenzie Roark! She’s someone who will truly thrive in that setting. (YouTube link here.)

• The team at In Your Ear studios are also the people behind Shockoe Records and they just announced a special concert event for 804 Day on August 4th in Shockoe Bottom. This is definitely something you want to mark down in your calendar. Actually, you might want to save that whole week, but we’ll cover that another day… (Instagram link here.)

• I normally go into detail more with article spotlights, but to save some time so I can make it to Friday Cheers tonight, I’m just going to list them out quickly.

• Don Harrison talked with Sherman Holmes for Style Weekly about his upcoming performance at Mary Munford Elementary School. (Article link here.)

• Andrew Bonieskie’s Sound Check column covered a lot of local music in honor of tonight’s Friday Cheers performance. He didn’t rush through it like this column either! (Article link here.)

• Andrew Bonieskie also interviewed Deli Kings for RVA Magazine. (Article link here.)

• Ian Stewart talked with Los Lobos for Style Weekly about their 50th anniversary tour which runs through Richmond next week. (Article link here.)

• Don Harrison took a look at the new downtown amphitheater for Style Weekly. More thoughts on that next week. (Article link here.)

• It’s 3:00 PM. I can finish this and make it to Brown’s Island. I can. I can. I… think I can. I hope I can.

• I’m going to be talking more about WVCW and their Chalkboard Sessions next week, but really quickly, make sure to check out the recent performance by Bruiser as well as the interview they did with Mason Rowley (big shout-out to him). Subscribe to their channel — they are covering stuff in town other people aren’t. (YouTube link here.)

• Issue #2 of Music Is 4 Nerds came out this week and the post office already delivered it! No spoilers, but they’ve got an interesting look at a band making exciting waves in the local scene. Order your copy today and support the DIY scene that’s still active in Richmond! (Ordering link here.)

• Best wishes to Taylor from Tay’s Green Life podcast. She broke her wrist at a recent local show… which is a painful nuisance, but also a cool battle scar! I bet you could make her feel better by subscribing to her YouTube channel! (YouTube link here.)

• I was able to complete a Richmond Music Roundup column this week at the 11th hour. Surprisingly, there wasn’t more music than normal this week, but the albums just had so much more depth to them than usual. Not to say the normal list of albums is paltry, but this week had an exceptionally large amount of long, dense records that I had a lot to say about and couldn’t find a way to condense it all into 10-20 words. Check the list out for yourself. Find something new and local to love! (Article link here.)

• We mentioned Friday Cheers and Daydream Fest, but there’s also much, MUCH more going on this Memorial Day weekend, including a show at Bandito’s that I’m going to try and squeeze in tonight. (I always have to catch Hotspit when I’m able). The folks at RestlessRVA will be working hard this weekend listing out all the concerts in a tasting menu format for you over on their Instagram page. Make sure to check it out. (Instagram link here.) If you want some curated picks, Marilyn Drew Necci has you covered here as usual. (Article link here.) Cook-outs be damned — don’t let a four-day weekend pass you by without catching some live music!

• It’s been a busy week, but next week is even crazier. We’ve got several premieres, a feature article, and a ticket giveaway so make sure to check back in after the holiday!

• It’s 3:10 PM. Let’s wrap this up with a local song and it just has to be Butcher Brown, right? Marcus Tenney, DJ Harrison, Morgan Burrs, Corey Fonville, and Andrew Randazzo. Remove any one of these five guys from Richmond in the last 10-15 years and the music of Virginia’s capital is drastically different. Their fingerprints are everywhere in the music scene, and you can always rely on them to lend an instrument, voice, or opinion for another great musician trying to finish their record. For these guys in particular though, they’re easily one of the premiere groups from the region, something that anyone who has seen them live or heard their records will confirm. Their well-seasoned blend of jazz, soul, hip-hop, funk, and rock carries just enough classic hallmarks that it feels familiar, while also still delivering plenty of exciting and fresh ideas that you know it’s at the forefront of musical fusion. Do we even call it musical fusion anymore actually? That phrase seems so cliché in 2023, especially because of ingenious bands like Butcher Brown who aren’t exactly fusing things, but just letting their experiences and influences come out naturally in their music. As much as I’d like to wax poetically about their enduring power more, I’d also like to see them live tonight and the afternoon is getting away from me… again. Let’s close this out with a song that will make you understand why they’re so beloved in town. This is off of their 2022 record, Butcher Brown Presents Triple Trey Featuring Tennishu And R4ND4ZZO BIGB4ND, which was nominated for this year’s Newlin Music Prize. There are some heavyweight tracks on this record, but today? Today, I just want to chill on Brown’s Island and hear “Cusian” as the sun makes its slow descent. Check it out for yourself below and if you dig it, make sure to stop by Friday Cheers if you can! It’s going to be a great night of local flair and sensational music.