RVA Shows You Must See This Week: April 5 – April 11
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, April 7, 5 PM
Gallery 5’s 18th Birthday Celebration, feat. No BS! Brass Band, Prabir Trio, Sweet Potatoes, Party Liberation Foundation’s Pyro Circus (Photo by David Morton) @ Gallery 5 – Free! (Donate to support Gallery 5 HERE)
OK, this one’s just a no-brainer. The mere fact of Gallery 5’s survival for long enough that it’s now eligible to buy lotto tickets is remarkable in and of itself, given how difficult it is to sustain any project that is community focused, not for profit, and reliant on the hard work of volunteers and a bare minimum of paid staff (none of which are exactly getting rich off their endeavors). The fact that it managed to stick around for nearly two full decades during which Richmond went from an artistic city on the come-up to a playground for rich suburbanites in which everyone with any sort of artistic vocation is killing themselves working multiple jobs just to barely pay rent every month is a feat of rather extraordinary proportions. And it’s definitely cause for a big celebration, one that’ll definitely be the highlight of this month’s First Friday Art Walk.
There’s some great music on the bill, but I actually want to start out talking about the glorious return of Party Liberation Foundation’s legendary Pyro Circus. Known in pre-pandemic days for its extravagant takeovers of the street beside Gallery 5, the PLF’s Pyro Circus always brought together dancers, fire performers, and EDM DJs to create a festival for the senses, one fueled by the warm glow emitted from rings of fire, spinning fire sticks, and sometimes even outright fire-breathing — always amazing to see. The Pyro Circus has been absent from Gallery 5’s First Friday events since late 2019, sadly, but this Friday sees its long-awaited return, now setting up in front of Gallery 5 on Marshall St. The evening’s outdoor activities will include special performances by faerie dancer Ginnie Fae and belly-dancing collective Ajna Tribal Dance Troupe, as well as a plethora of pyro performers, a selection of DJs whose names have yet to be announced (though it’s safe to assume that there’ll be at least one or two noted PLF regulars involved), and plenty of delightful chaos and mayhem.
Once you make it into the gallery, though, there’s just as much to be excited about, starting with the evening’s headliner, Richmond legends No BS! Brass Band. By now these folks should need no introduction, but if by some remote chance you still haven’t caught up to No BS! since their addition of powerful soul diva Sam Reed to the mix, you definitely need to fix that ASAP. And this is certainly not a night in which the ticket price is gonna hold you back. No BS! will be joined on the bill of musical performers by Gallery 5 mainstay Prabir Mehta (who is stepping down after almost two decades of volunteer work) and his latest group, Prabir Trio, as well as by Sweet Potatoes, wrapping up their one year residency as the Gallery 5’s house band while bringing their modern take on classic old-time string-band jazz to the evening with flair and panache. There will, of course, be plenty of art to see as well — the gallery show will feature work from 18 different artists who’ve been part of Gallery 5’s last 18 years of art shows. It all adds up to a festival for all five senses — yes, even taste: the 1115 Mobile Kitchen will be on hand with their signature brand of Southern-style street food (available in both meat-centric and plant-based versions, so nobody’s gotta go hungry). Even if you’re down to your last $5 after spending all your money to pay rent (I’m sheepishly raising my hand on this one), you’ll be able to afford a good time at Gallery 5 this Friday night! But of course, if you do have a little extra, you should definitely consider clicking the link above and donating to Gallery 5 and/or sponsoring their Patreon. Places this great are rare, and Richmond has lost so many over the years… let’s cherish the ones we still have.
Wednesday, April 5, 7 PM
Woman Crush Wednesday, feat. Faux Fear, Tendersong, Sarah Perrotto @ The Camel – $7 (order tickets HERE)
As established up above, the beginning of every month means First Friday is happening. But it doesn’t just mean that — it also means that another edition of Bri Bevan’s excellent Woman Crush Wednesday shows will be happening at the Camel to chase away your mid-week blahs. This series, spotlighting female musicians and those on the transgender spectrum, always brings new artists to my attention that I haven’t heard before, many of which come to be essential names on the Richmond scene within months of their first WCW appearances. This time around, Bri’s reach has spread beyond Richmond, and tonight’s edition of Woman Crush Wednesday will bring us three different acts who hail from beyond the city’s borders — all of which have great sounds to bring to us.
At the top of the list is Faux Fear, the only artist on this bill that hails from outside Virginia — Reading, PA, to be specific. While at first glance you might expect some gothic vibes from this ensemble, a close listen to last fall’s Perfect Blue EP finds them dabbling in shoegaze textures as well as a postpunk sound that lands closer to Joy Division and Cocteau Twins than any of the usual goth suspects. That said, they’ll surely appeal to anyone with interests anywhere on that spectrum, as their knack for atmospheric melodies is immediately obvious. Fredericksburg’s Tendersong, the musical project of singer-songwriter Tina DeSeta, is also on the bill, bringing soft, delicate, and sincere acoustic indie-folk sounds that are sure to soothe our eardrums and quiet our inner anxieties. Fellow Fredericksburg-based musician Sarah Perrotto will accompany Tendersong on their trip down, bringing solo acoustic tunes that I’ve only heard in snippets on Instagram, but which certainly show a decent amount of promise. The whole evening should be a thoroughly pleasant interlude, as well as a great opportunity to discover the work of up-and-coming female musicians. Be a part of it.
Thursday, April 6, 7 PM
Trophy Hunt, Prisoner, Armagideon Time @ Cobra Cabana – $10
Let me begin with a somewhat embarrassing admission: I had to do a fair amount of detective work to figure out who the band at the top left of the above flyer was. Not to say they’re hard to google or anything — I just couldn’t read their logo. Thankfully I persisted, though, because as soon as I discovered what Trophy Hunt are all about, I knew they had to be in the column this week. A New York-based quartet, Trophy Hunt refer to themselves on Bandcamp as “ecstatic grindcore,” and while it’s not a phrase I would have come up with on my own, I definitely get it. Their latest LP, last year’s The Branches On Either Side, mixes the raging, hyperspeed grind of their earlier EPs with elements that feel drawn from both black metal and the harsher, more metallic end of modern screamo. Trophy Hunt ends up reminding me of bands as far apart from one another as the mystic, experimental black metal of Liturgy and the post-metal screamo epics of Envy. At its core, though, Trophy Hunt’s music is harsh, heavy, and passionate — which are definitely a few of my favorite things to hear in any band.
Trophy Hunt will be joined on this show by Prisoner, an excellent Richmond band who blew the city away with their killer 2017 LP, Beyond The Infinite. They’ve been through a lot of changes since that LP came out six years ago, though, with lead vocalist Justin Hast picking up bass duties, guitarist Pete Rosza becoming a more frequent vocalist, and keyboardist Adam Lake joining the fold to add some dark atmospheres to Prisoner’s raging blackened crustcore sound. Considering Rosza’s background in electronic music, which came in handy for the band on their first LP, the addition of keyboards to Prisoner’s lineup is a logical step forward, one that will add an intriguing new dimension to the band’s forthcoming second LP. The record isn’t done yet, so it’ll be at least a few months before we all get to hear it, but you can get a preview of what Prisoner sounds like circa 2023 by heading over to Cobra Cabana Thursday night and catching this show. You’ll get a performance from Armagideon Time in the bargain. This metallic hardcore band is basically the Body Count to Black Liquid’s Ice T, but they’re way more than a side project, as you’ll see as soon as they take the stage. Be there Thursday night and find out for yourself. You won’t be sorry.
Friday, April 7, 7 PM
Escuela Grind, Bonginator, Krypt, Four Thirty Four, Quiescent Mantis @ Another Round Bar And Grill – $15
Well folks, one ripper of a show certainly deserves another, and you’ll have the perfect opportunity this Friday night to follow up the rager at Cobra Cabana on Thursday with a killer evening of brutality to close out your work week. Specifically, you’re gonna want to head over to Another Round Friday night to catch the formidable Escuela Grind. This New England grind quartet released their second album, Memory Theater, last year. With it they took a step forward in the same manner as Pig Destroyer did around the same point in their career, expanding song lengths, varying compositions to take them beyond formula and into the creation of a more complex sound that mixes their tendency toward blinding speeds with brutal breakdowns and more drawn-out introspective moments.
Of course, don’t get it twisted — this is still extremely heavy music. It’s also got a lot of ideas at work within it, as the band whose name literally means “school grind” delves into politics, history, and philosophical concepts of identity within their cerebral lyrics. Don’t worry that you’ll have to deal with too many heady concepts during their performance, though; Escuela Grind are first and foremost about creating an enjoyable live atmosphere in which to reach thrash nirvana. So come out to Another Round this Friday night and get ready to rage to the killer sounds of Escuela Grind. Weed-mosh goofballs Bonginator are Escuela Grind’s tourmates on this trip, and will come through town to bring us all a brutal preview of their upcoming album, The Intergalactic Gorebong of Deathpot, which will be released on… wait for it… April 20. Augusta, Georgia-based black metallers Krypt, Knoxville-based thrash monsters Quiescent Mantis, and Staunton mountain metal ensemble Four Thirty Four will round out this jam-packed bill. You know what to do.
Saturday, April 8, 1 PM
Love Tiger Connection Fest, feat. Superheaven, Narrow Head, High Vis, Glitterer, All Under Heaven, Webbed Wing, House & Home, Stand Still, Somerset Thrower, Suntitle, Only Sibling, Taking Meds, Day Aches, Sparing, Sleave @ The Canal Club – $65 (order tickets HERE)
Whoa boy. Any other week, Love Tiger Connection Fest would surely have made Featured Show. After all, it’s bringing us fifteen amazing bands from all around the country and beyond, all of which will take over The Canal Club on a single day. And it’s all thanks to energetic local promoter Love Tiger Connection, who further strengthens their reputation for bringing Richmond the best today’s post-hardcore world has to offer by loading us down with over a dozen amazing bands, most of which could have generated a fair amount of excitement even if they’d played Richmond all by themselves. How can I even manage to fit a comprehensive discussion of this jam-packed lineup into two measly paragraphs? Guess I better get started now before I waste any more time, huh?
At the top of the bill is Superheaven, who were both a leading light of the early 2010’s “emo revival” era and always so much more than their inclusion in such a genre tag would indicate. They’ve been largely out of action in the years since their incredible second LP, Ours Is Chrome, dropped back in 2015, and who knows how long their current return to live performance will even last? The chance to see them again is reason enough to shell out the sixty-five bucks to get in the Canal Club doors this Saturday. That said, Narrow Head have upped the ante on the entire post-hardcore genre with their amazing new LP, Moments Of Clarity, and are also worth the cost of admission all by themselves, so even just getting these two on one bill would be a bargain. Throw in the melodic, electro-infused post-Title Fight group Glitterer, the highly talented post-Superheaven band Webbed Wing, the truly excellent up-and-coming New York quintet Stand Still (whose 2022 EP In A Moment’s Notice is fucking incredible), Richmond emo-core leading lights House & Home, talented shoegaze/postpunk-inspired British ensemble High Vis, and punked-out New York alt-rockers Somerset Thrower, and you’ve got a true monster of a bill. And I still haven’t mentioned half a dozen other bands that are playing this show. There’s no more space, so I’m just gonna sum it all up: if you like post-hardcore, alternative rock, emo, melodic punk… hell, if you like catchy rock music of any kind, you’re really blowing it if you don’t buy yourself a ticket to Love Tiger Connection Fest right fucking now. Link’s up above, you know what to do.
Sunday, April 9, 7 PM
Sword II, Lance Bangs, Ethanol @ The Camel – $8 (order tickets HERE)
I’ve definitely talked in the past about how The Camel often saves us on slow nights for live music, bringing great sounds into the world even as every other stage in town is dark. However, this usually happens on a Monday night. Why are we relying on The Camel to come through in the clutch for us on a Sunday night? If it weren’t for the fact that my day job is working for a greeting card company, I might not know, but as it is I can enlighten you: this Sunday is Easter, and all the good and not-so-good Christians will be spending their days at church in super-fancy outfits. Of course, if you’re like me and the only church you attend is the church of great music, then you’ll be thankful that The Camel is there for us once again as we seek the only true solace this difficult world has to offer.
This Sunday night, the Camel is bringing us a set from Atlanta band Sword II, who are actually not a sequel to either of the Richmond-affiliated metal groups who previously used the name Sword, but instead a quartet of young rockers with a stoned alt-rock sensibility that lands somewhere between Mac DeMarco’s slacker rock vibes and the jangly indie pop of bands like Alvvays. While Sword II have only released one four-song EP thus far in their history, the band is currently preparing to bring their debut full-length into the world, and the first single from the LP, “First Rule Of The Bug,” finds them delving further into their experimental tendencies, even as they retain a strong foundation of blissful, stoned-out pop melodies. This puts them in good company with Richmond indie trio Lance Bangs, who dropped out of sight for a while but have been releasing new singles recently — certainly a positive development. Is there more new material in the pipeline? Catching their set at The Camel this Easter Sunday is a great way to find out. Ethanol, the solo project of Richmond musician Ethan Rozario, will get things started, and if their 2021 Citrus City release, Mirror Stage, is anything to go by, we can expect this evening to begin with a pleasant dose of swoony bedroom electro-pop. Sounds just about perfect.
Monday, April 10, 8 PM
Dark Waters, At Arm’s Reach, Dead Format, Tel @ Bandito’s – $10
Any night is a great night to be at Bandito’s, but this Monday I advise you to stick around after you finish your happy hour taco special, because there’s a pretty great show kicking off only an hour after happy hour ends. You can fill the time by munching on nachos and shooting the shit with friends — it’ll definitely be worth the wait. You see, Dark Waters are headlining this show at Bandito’s, and if you ask me, this band is an underrated star of Richmond’s current music scene. Their debut EP, 2021’s Dreams In Bottle Rockets, brought hardcore power to a collection of emotional alt-rock tunes. Recently, they followed it up with a new EP, Fever Dream, that finds them moving slightly farther in a melodic direction, thankfully without losing any of the power and passion that made their first EP so great. Live, they’re known for a hard-hitting performing style that brings out the members’ punk backgrounds (in bands like Sea Of Storms, Race the Sun, Eliza Battle, and more) and is sure to get the whole place going off. You won’t want to miss it.
You also won’t want to miss the set from At Arm’s Reach, a New Jersey band whose new EP, Out Of the Dark, finds them delving into similar sounds to those of Dark Waters. If you’re into melodic, emotional post-hardcore with strong alt-rock elements, At Arm’s Reach is going to make you very happy. Richmonders Dead Format aren’t the most prolific artists; at this point, their 2019 EP, Write Your Own Story, remains their only release. It’s a great record, though, full of speedy pop-punk tunes with melody and heart, and by now they’re sure to have some new tunes with which to delight us all as well. Richmond sludge-metallers Tel will open this evening up, standing out a bit on a lineup mainly focused on catchy alt-rock tunes. However, their slow-motion headbang anthems are sure to provide a delightful change of pace in context. Expect this whole evening at Bandito’s to rule — even if you don’t start it with tacos and/or nachos (you really should, though).
Tuesday, April 11, 7 PM
MIKE, Slauson Malone 1, Sideshow, Cruzin @ Richmond Music Hall – $18 (order tickets HERE)
As a person who has to google artists on a regular basis, I am sometimes taken aback by the choices artists make when naming their projects. That said, rapper MIKE has achieved quite a bit of success operating under nothing more than his first name, so what do I know? It’s probably got a lot to do with the quality of his work; his 10th album, Beware Of The Monkey, finds MIKE spitting loose yet skillful rhymes over strong beats and catchy samples from old soul records. He sounds stoned, but not in a bad way. If anything, MIKE raps like that friend of yours who’s really good at something you struggle to do — and then they get stoned, and they’re even better at it. It’s a self-assured sound that derives a fair amount of its strength from the fact that MIKE doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously.
What this will all translate into in a live environment is hard to say, but it seems a safe bet that, no matter how loose or improvised MIKE’s set is, it’ll be an excellent showcase of his formidable skills and on-mic talent. His approach to hip hop is somewhat unusual, but if anything that’s a refreshing change of pace. It’s one that’s also reflected by some of the openers on the bill, specifically Slauson Malone 1, which is billed not as a hip hop group but “a performance piece created by artist and musician Jasper Marsalis.” While that all may be true, and while there may be a considerable amount of academic thought going into the creation of Slauson Malone 1, releases like Vergangenhietsbewaltigung (Crater Speak) just sound like moody, doped-out hip hop over minimalist beats and intriguing classical and jazz interpolations. It’s strange, but it’s better for its oddity. Sideshow is a bit more straightforward, with banging hip hop beats and tough, skillful rhymes showed off to perfection on brand new LP 2MM Don’t Just Stand There! Cruzin, who opens the evening, has a more laid-back, melodic approach that has a lot in common with MIKE, both musically and tempermentally. If you dig hip hop that sounds chill as fuck, even as it pushes the boundaries and avoids the genre’s tendencies to find a formula and stick to it, you should get a lot out of the MIKE show this Tuesday night.
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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