RVA Shows You Must See This Week: February 15 – February 21
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, February 17, 9 PM
Terror Cell (Photo by @no.visuals_), Black Matter Device, Thin, The Wind In the Trees @ Ipanema – $10
OK, I admit it — I’m up to my old tricks again. The out-of-towners are the ones listed as headliners on the flyers for this show, and the locals are listed as openers. Traditionally, though, it’s the local bands that get everyone out to the show, and in so doing, drum up support for the touring bands. So with that in mind, I’m gonna talk about Terror Cell and Black Matter Device first out of the bands on this bill, even though Thin and The Wind In The Trees will probably be headlining. Don’t worry, we’ll be talking about them before you know it.
That whole year-end-list discussion is more serious among actual music journalists than you might ever expect, and since both Terror Cell and Black Matter Device released (excellent, IMHO) albums last year, I’ve been talking to some people about them lately in discussion of my faves from Richmond in 2022. In comparing and contrasting the two, I said something like “Black Matter Device are a whirlwind tornado of chaos, but Terror Cell are just trying to crush your fucking skull.” And really, that sums it up — if your taste in metallic hardcore runs more toward ferocious midtempo brutality, mosh for days but still with a blackened edge, Terror Cell is gonna be your musical drug of choice. On the other hand, if you get a big kick out of fast, hectic riffage that leaves your head spinning even as you flail around frenetically, Black Matter Device are gonna blow your mind. Really though, if you’re inclined in either direction, you’re gonna love both of these Richmond-based metallic hardcore bands, and if you’re not familiar with them yet, it’s time to fix that with the quickness.
Having said all of that, none of the preceding two paragraphs should give you the idea that leaving before the out of town bands is in any way a worthwhile course of action. New York’s Thin and Baltimore-based trio The Wind In The Trees both consider themselves to be “mathgrind,” but neither of them are going to make your head spin with overly complex time signatures or anything like that. Instead, on Thin’s brand new album, Dusk, they pummel you with minute-long blasts of apocalyptic chaos, all of which veer repeatedly from blastbeats topped by shrieking vocals and double-time riffs to pummeling breakdowns overlaid with guttural growls, then back again. It’s a great listen, and should provide for a truly wild live experience. The Wind In The Trees’ most recent album is last summer’s Architects Of Light, and it has a stronger technical edge but offsets that with more straightforward song structures that emphasize hair-raising howls and panicky chord changes that will if anything be catnip for the more metallically-inclined of the screamo fans among you. Here’s the bottom line: this show is the latest in what’s starting to be a pretty long line of unmissable metallic hardcore rippers happening at Ipanema. And if you’re not on this bandwagon yet, it’s high time you made the jump. Do it. Start with this show.
Wednesday, February 15, 7 PM
Shamarr Allen, Lunch $pecial @ The Camel – $12 in advance, $15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Valentine’s Day is over, and whether you enjoyed a romantic evening the night before or are now trying to forget the entire holiday for another year, you definitely need an amazing night to propel you into the second half of February and toward the impending arrival of spring. All of which makes it a wonderful opportunity to spend an evening with Shamarr Allen. A New Orleans singer and trumpeter, Allen and his band The Underdawgs bring a variety of influences together in their wide-ranging sound, which includes everything from the traditional second-line jazz sound of his hometown to the hip hop scene that gave the world the one and only Lil Wayne.
Allen’s tuned in to all of this Nola musical history and more, mixing hip hop, jazz, soul, pop, blues, and more into a potent melange that features a great deal of variety but always makes you want to forget your troubles and dance. The fact that Allen is such a fervent New Orleans Saints fan that he has made multiple songs about how great they are might not be your favorite thing if your team is the Commanders or the Cowboys, but if you can put aside the NFC rivalries, you’re sure to have a blast when Shamarr Allen hits the stage tonight. Special bonus surprise: his opener will be none other than Lunch $pecial, one of my favorite new Richmond hip hop discoveries of 2022. Show up on time for this one, and be ready to dance the night away.
Thursday, February 16, 6 PM
Clem Snide @ The Tin Pan – $20 (order tickets HERE)
OK, first things first — the guy who records under the name Clem Snide isn’t really named Clem Snide. He’s actually an Israeli-American singer-songwriter named Eef Barzelay, who has been making music as Clem Snide for close to three decades now but for whatever reason has never quite broken through. If you’re familiar with excellent past material by Clem Snide, like their classic 2001 album The Ghost Of Fashion, you know they’ve got a whole lot to offer. Unfortunately, you probably also know that it’s never quite been the right time for Barzelay and Clem Snide, and they’ve never quite broken through to the mainstream.
The hope was that that would change with Clem Snide’s comeback album, Forever Just Beyond, which Barzelay made with Avett Brother Scott Avett in the producer’s chair. The Pitchfork review of the album mentioned that, up until that point, Clem Snide’s timing had never quite been right — doubly ironic, considering the intended comeback album was released in March 2020, just as the world was shutting down for a year and a half of pandemic isolation. I guess that’s why it’s only now, three years after the release of the quietly brilliant collection of understated yet adroit tunes, that Clem Snide comes through Richmond on tour. But it’s like Robbin Thompson once said: Better late than never. Whether you’re one of the few who’ve been tuned into Clem Snide’s greatness for decades, or one of the many who’s never had the pleasure, there’ll be a lot to gain from spending a laid-back evening at The Tin Pan, enjoying some tunes that, in any just world, would be universally regarded as classics. Tickets would be cheap at twice the price.
Friday, February 17, 8 PM
The Wonder Years, Hot Mulligan, Carly Cosgrove @ The National – $30 (order tickets HERE)
I’ve been telling anyone who would listen about how great The Wonder Years are for at least a decade now, and they’re coming through Richmond, so it’s time for me to make another one of my heartfelt pleas for conversion once again. Let me put it simply: This band rules. They may have started out as a prime mover within the always fun if slightly silly “easycore” scene of the late 00s, but they quickly matured beyond the goofy keyboards and bouncy tunes that marked their early EPs. By the time of their landmark third album, The Greatest Generation, they had become a heartfelt, emotionally-driven group with a sensibility too mature to simply call pop-punk, even as their devastatingly incisive lyrics marked them as heirs apparent to 90s titans like Jawbreaker and Hot Water Music.
It’s been a damn decade since then, and The Wonder Years haven’t gotten an ounce less amazing in the interim, releasing a run of flawless albums starting with 2012’s Suburbia I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing (that’s an Allen Ginsberg reference for those of you who are less nerdy about the Beat Generation than Dan Campbell and I are) and continuing through The Greatest Generation, 2015’s No Closer To Heaven, 2018’s Sister Cities, and last year’s fucking amazing The Hum Goes On Forever, an album that definitely made my best of 2022 list. With this formidable catalog to draw from, their performance at The National this Friday night is sure to be devastating in its emotional power even as it gets everyone dancing to this band’s brilliant tunes, which should please everyone from Bruce Springsteen-loving dads to the kids who can’t get enough of those recent Machine Gun Kelly albums. Special shout-out to everyone over 30 who’s still wondering when their life is gonna stop feeling pointless and desperate. Y’all, it’s worth the thirty bucks to get into this one, just to feel for one night like you’re not alone.
Saturday, February 18, 7:30 PM
Eliza Edens, Deau Eyes @ Get Tight Lounge – $14.55 (order tickets HERE)
When I’m writing these columns, I try not to just pick out names I know, but also listen to all the random groups that are coming through town who I’ve never heard of before, on the off chance that they’d blow away anyone else I could be writing about on that night if I only gave them a chance. Most of the time it’s just another boring jam band or whatever, but sometimes I get lucky and find someone like Eliza Edens, an indie-folk singer-songwriter who’ll be at Get Tight Lounge with Deau Eyes (yes, I know who Deau Eyes are) this Saturday night. Last fall, Edens released a solo album entitled We’ll Become The Flowers, and I only had to listen to about half a song from it to decide that she was definitely making it into the show column. Because y’all. You’ve got to hear this music.
Edens sings and plays acoustic guitar on this album, backed by a trio of talented musicians on guitar, bass, and drums. It’s a quiet listen, one that at times feels like Edens is whispering into your ear, playing music only intended for you. Her bio mentions Nick Drake and Karen Dalton as inspirations, but I also hear elements of more modern songwriters like Laura Marling, Feist, and Frances Quinlan. The mood is wistful at times, carries a dark undercurrent of tension at others, and is always riveting. How this will all come across live remains to be seen, but with songs like the ones on We’ll Become The Flowers in Edens’s set list, I can’t imagine it’ll be anything other than transcendent. Much beloved local singer-songwriter Deau Eyes, who like Edens has crowdfunded albums in the past, will open this show in her usual brilliant fashion, bringing her indie pop gems to Get Tight Lounge and pleasing all of Richmond in the process. Don’t miss this one.
Sunday, February 19, 7 PM
Spaced, Wasted Space, Contact, Guardrails @ Powers BMX – $10
The hardcore scene has always prided itself on inclusive ethics and an everyone-is-welcome approach to the world, but as someone who has been going to hardcore shows for three decades, give or take, I gotta tell ya, it’s way better today at following through on its stated beliefs than it was for most of the time I was involved. One way you can really tell that things have changed, have gotten better, is how many active bands there are in the hardcore scene today who aren’t just collections of straight dudes. It’s inspiring — and not for tokenistic reasons either. A lot of these bands are the best on the scene today; examples include Gel and Scowl, of course, but also the band coming through the ol’ Bike Shop this Sunday night: Spaced.
Spaced are a quintet from Buffalo, New York who keep things straightforward and old-school without ever getting boring or predictable. On Spaced Jams, the nine-song LP that collected their first three EPs this past summer, they come at you hard and heavy, drums pounding quick tempos into your skull as the wailing guitars and furious vocals do the aural equivalent of grabbing you by the collar of your shirt and shaking you. It’s discombobulating and enervating, but it’s also a lot of fun, and Spaced are sure to benefit from the always off-the-chain energy of the Bike Shop, where bands play amongst the half-pipes and launch ramps. With a trio of local hardcore bands on the bill to lend their own energy and take this show even farther in the direction of insanity, this one is going to go hard as hell. You won’t want to miss it — especially if you dig it when you get to see people other than typical hardcore boys up onstage.
Monday, February 20, 7:30 PM
Nnamdi, Big Baby Scumbag @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $16 in advance, $18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Monday night is always a great opportunity to hear something new and unexpected, but it doesn’t always have to be something coming out of the local scene. For example, there’s Chicago artist Nnamdi, who is really tough to pin down to a single genre but instead has a variety of great sounds to pull from on his most recent album, Please Have A Seat. Writing and performing the entire thing himself, he covers the musical spectrum from choppy guitar riffs and glittering emo arpeggios to clicking electro-pop beats and bedroom R&B melodies to quick, nimble rhymes spit in a skilled hip hop style.
What all of it has in common is catchiness, a strong backbone in melody that will let listeners with all sorts of varied musical backgrounds find a way into the tunes and get enveloped by their layered beauty. At times when listening to this record I find myself thinking of The-Dream’s best tunes; at others I’m suddenly reminded of Tuneyards or Night Idea, or maybe even a tiny bit of Saves The Day. Nnamdi’s music is all over the place, but in a good way, and no matter where he might be, musically speaking, at any given moment of his set, the overall effect is sure to be an enjoyable one. So hey — liven up your Monday night. Go enjoy Nnamdi’s set at Richmond Music Hall. You won’t regret it.
Tuesday, February 21, 7 PM
Cory Wong feat. Victor Wooten, Trousdale @ The National – $27 (order tickets HERE)
This column ends with a fun one, as guitarist Cory Wong comes through Richmond on tour for his 2022 album Power Station. Wong’s virtuoso guitar playing finds him mainly operating in the world of funk, and once you know he’s from Minneapolis, it should be no surprise to hear that he’s recorded at Paisley Park and worked with members of Prince’s legendary backing band The New Power Generation. Sure enough, you can hear Prince in his sound, but you can also hear classic horn-section soul music of the 60s, among a variety of other things.
That all being said, Wong’s influences being what they are, it makes sense that his main goal with his music seems to be to make people happy and get them dancing. His current Power Station Tour reflects that fact, as does the album he released last month that consisted of live recordings from the tour’s West Coast dates late last year. The East Coast version is what’s going on right now, and it will find Wong pulling into town Tuesday with a band featuring legendary bassist Victor Wooten, a founding member of Bela Fleck’s Flecktones and a man who has his own deep store of funk knowledge to add to Wong’s own extensive expertise. The end result is sure to be you dancing around the National with a big grin on your face, in the company of 1500 of your closest friends. Why in the world would you ever want to miss that? You wouldn’t. So get your tickets now and ensure that you don’t.
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
Also, I’m a freelancer now, and I’m looking for commissions, so if anyone needs press releases, band bios, or even actual articles written, you should hit me up! I work cheap.
