RVA Shows You Must See This Week: January 2 – January 7
FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, January 4, 7 PM
ChupaBowl II, feat. Chupaskabra, Dead End Lane, Paperback Tragedy, Shockoe Zoo, Left Eats Left @ Bandito’s – $10
Once we get through the big holiday explosion that happens when we celebrate both Christmas and the new year in a single week, the next big cultural throwdown generally happens when the Super Bowl comes around in the first week of February. And of course, for all the American football heads out there, there are big playoff games happening every weekend to get stoked for. But in my experience, the true music heads generally don’t care nearly as much about sports as most people, so I imagine most of you reading this don’t have any big holidays to look forward to between now and Valentine’s Day. I do have an alternate suggestion, though — maybe try heading over to Bandito’s this Saturday night to experience the second annual ChupaBowl, starring Richmond ska-punk maniacs Chupaskabra, instead!
God knows it’s going to be a party; the Chupa boys have made their mark over the last few years with their fun-loving, irreverent blend of punk, ska, reggae, and general chaos. Anytime they hit the stage, things are gonna get zany, bouncy, and wild — exactly the kind of thing you need in order to liven up your Saturday night. Featuring veterans of the late-90s ska-punk craze, these guys are the perfect ambassadors to make Richmond a hopping ska-punk town again, now that Murphy’s Kids are largely retired. Their recent split EP with Deadbeat At Dawn showed off some solid early Bosstones-style chops and plenty of the band’s trademark sense of humor. Meanwhile, their ability to dish out note-perfect covers of Harry Styles and Emmett Otter’s Jug Band show that they’re always willing to throw you a curveball.
So hey, come rock with Chupaskabra at Bandito’s this Saturday night — and get a big dose of punk, reggae, and hardcore from the many excellent other bands on the bill while you’re at it! Baltimore’s Dead End Lane, who feature members of Italian Blood, bring a bit of a Misfits-style horror-punk sensibility to catchy melodic punk tunes with excellent vocals. Their fellow Baltimoreans Paperback Tragedy take things in more of a California-style punk catchiness, for fans of Lagwagon, Mr. T Experience, and the like. Roanoke punks Left Eats Left bring the night a strong political energy, with their angry three-chord punk sound taking things in the heaviest direction of the evening, and Richmond’s own Shockoe Zoo will bring in a heavy dose of reggae to act as a sort of breather amidst the punk chaos. All this and an opportunity to scarf a plate of Bandito’s nachos? I’ll take this over the Super Bowl any day!
Thursday, January 2, 8 PM
Rhythm City Collective & For The Afters present A Night Of Bass Music, feat. Hertz, Slap Daddy, Rex Whatever B2B, J. Static, Loki Nasti @ Basic City Beer – $5 suggested donation
It’ll take a little while for everyone to get adjusted to the new year. Writing the wrong year until sometime in March is sadly all too common (at least for me), and there are a million other weird things to get used to that you mostly never think about. Maybe that’s why the music scene is taking a couple of days to get back in the swing of things once New Year’s Eve is over and done. Fortunately for us all, Rhythm City Collective and For The Afters are joining up with Basic City Beer to bring us a change of pace in the form of a Thursday night bass showcase to help us all get our heads back in the game. This one is headlined by one of the two people behind EDM music promotion machine For The Afters, who DJ’s under the name Hertz — but obviously don’t google that unless you want to rent a car. Instead, click on the link above and check out his Soundcloud and Spotify pages, where you’ll hear his metal-infused take on the harshest, heaviest EDM sounds possible.
You’ll also get to be present for Slap Daddy’s set. This local producer and DJ hasn’t played Richmond in several months, so he’ll have plenty of new material to wow us all with — especially since he’s about to drop a new project right before this show. On top of all that, it’s a celebration of his birthday, so you can expect things to get pretty off the wall. His brand of dubstep/EDM is sure to get everyone dancing hard and getting crazy. Local favorite Rex Whatever will also be on hand to keep everyone moving, as will fellow Richmonder J. Static and Virginia Beach’s own Loki Nasti, all of whom will have heavy drops and grooves aplenty for those of you who need to cut loose. Remember, you may be able to enjoy this stuff through your headphones right now, but it’ll never sound as good as it does firing out of the bass speakers in the middle of a top-volume live performance — so make sure you’re there.
Friday, January 3, 7 PM
Massa Nera, Ostraca, Terror Cell, Black Matter Device @ Bandito’s – $12
Let’s get back to some more familiar territory by heading over to Bandito’s this Friday night for an excellent night of modern metallic hardcore. Some might call it screamo, but I wouldn’t want anyone to be confused — what you’ll get at this show has far more in common with Neurosis and Envy than it does with Underoath. In particular, New Jersey quartet Massa Nera are heavy as fuck, occasionally integrating dark, gothic melodies into their sound, but mostly just blasting you in the face with screaming noise chaos. Recent EP The Pioggiadanza Sessions captures a live-in-studio recording from the tail end of their spring 2024 European tour, and properly showcases the brilliance of this band’s live sound. It’s an excellent follow-up to their early 2024 split with Quiet Fear, released on Richmond’s own Persistent Vision label. Massa Nera may not be local, but they have a ton of friends in Richmond, so expect their set to both sound amazing and get the whole crowd going crazy.
They’re joined on this bill by a trio of Virginia combos, all of whom have powerful track records of making powerful metallic hardcore noise on their own behalf. If you’ve been reading this column for a while, you know that Ostraca are both friends of mine and a personal musical favorite, so I was tremendously stoked when they returned to action after a five-year layoff with 2023 LP Disaster. Their intense and incredibly dynamic music has elements guaranteed to appeal to everyone from goth fans to diehard black metallers, and of course to anyone who appreciates speed, power, and heavyosity of any kind. Richmonders Terror Cell may only be two albums into their career, but they’ve developed a pretty rock-solid pedigree on their own behalf, contining to crush all our skulls with their amazing brutality on new LP All Quiet, released only two months ago. If you haven’t caught on to what they’re bringing to the party, you need to be at this show. Last but most assuredly not least, the whirlwind chaos machine known as Black Matter Device will fill the Diablo Room at Bandito’s with frantic, blasting noise panic, and I assure you, you will love it. This show’s got heaviness and chaos aplenty, and god knows that’s just what the doctor ordered as we head into a year that’s sure to be full of chaos and panic of a totally different kind. This is how we’ll get through it — with lots of headbangs (and full plates of Bandito’s nachos).
Saturday, January 4, 7 PM
Camo Face, Wagging, Oh Devil, Reverse Yr Curse @ The Camel – $12 in advance, $15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
For over a decade, bassist Kemper Blair and drummer Stuart Holt made music under the name Sports Bar, generally accompanied by a succession of guitarists. The career of Sports Bar was marked by a succession of brilliant power-pop EPs, which unfortunately tended to broken up by months or even years of inactivity. Plus, no one ever argued that calling your band “sports bar” was a great choice in SEO terms (ask a girl who used to have to google them regularly). Maybe some or all of these factors contributed to the fact that Kemper and Stuart re-emerged this year as a duo called Camo Face, finally standing on their own and forgoing the need for guitars in favor of an excellent bass-drum power-pop sound that just takes that classic Sports Bar catchiness to the next level. Frankly, I don’t care why they’re back under a new name — I’m just glad they’re making music again. Because these guys are brilliant.
They’ve showed that off on their debut EP, Four-Leaf Clover, which just hit the internet in the last few weeks and shows that this duo has lost none of their song-crafting talent. Tunes like “Crimes” and “Sleeping On Sidewalks” are classic Blair/Holt gems with the wry slacker sensibility that always made their songs so much fun to sing along with. And I promise you’ll get them stuck in your head all night, just like you always did after listening to Sports Bar. All of this should be reason enough on its own to get you out to the Camel this Saturday night, but there are three other awesome bands who’ll be playing this night as well, to further sweeten the pot. First of the three is Asheville’s Wagging, who we can only hope didn’t have their lives too messed up by the hurricane last year. Musically, these folks come closest to the early-90s twee-pop scene centered around K Records in the US and Sarah Records in the UK. If you love Tiger Trap and Heavenly, you’ll love what this band has to offer. Richmonders Oh Devil and Reverse Yr Curse will round this show out with driving punky alt-rock and catchy indie-pop bounce, respectively. This one will be great — be there.
Sunday, January 5, 6 PM
Jazz Workshop with Michael Hawkins @ Reveler Experiences – $7/Free for musicians & singers (order tickets HERE)
The great thing about Reveler Experiences is that even when they aren’t having bands in to play in the usual sense, there’s always something fun and musical going on. For example, there’s Richmond jazz bassist Michael Hawkins’s ongoing Sunday night event, Jazz Workshop. Hawkins, who plays regularly around Richmond with his group The Brotherhood, is a member of the Orbital Music Park project, which has been in ongoing collaboration with Reveler Experiences for a while now. For his Jazz Workshop events, he ensures that drums, bass (and amp), baby grand piano, and guitar amps are on hand for anyone who wants to come down and join in with fellow musicians of all levels for a jazz jam.
While you might think, “Oh, it’s a jazz open mic,” things tend to proceed a little differently at Jazz Workshop, with the evening spreading to incorporate everything from classic standards to free-form improvisation, and both vocal and instrumental performances. It’s anyone’s guess where things will go on any particular night, but you can be sure you’ll see something unexpected and amazing. What’s more, you’ll probably take part: audience participation is encouraged, and you can always just bring your guitar, bass, or whatever instrument you have available, and sit in with the band for a while. It’ll be a great way to blow off some steam before we all have to go back to work on Monday.
Monday, January 6, 7 PM
The Birdwatchers @ Reveler Experiences – $10 (order tickets HERE)
The first Monday night after everyone heads back to work and school is a great night to take it easy with some chill tunes. Fortunately for us all, that exact sonic profile is available over at Reveler, where Utah acoustic trio The Birdwatchers will be rolling into town to charm us all with their take on folk-pop. The three Birdwatchers are ukulele specialists, bringing tenor, baritone, and bass ukulele into their sound, as well as acoustic guitar. They also have some amazing three-part vocal harmonies on offer, and their combined talents are sure to charm all comers when they take the stage in the intimate confines of Reveler Experiences.
While this youthful trio doesn’t have an LP out yet (zoomer musicians release actual LPs challenge), they’ve brought us over a dozen lovely singles in the last few years, showing off a range that should please fans of everyone from the Beach Boys and Paul Simon to Jack Johnson and Bruno Mars. You may not need your earplugs for this gig, but (regardless of the fact that this column is frequently an argument to the contrary) music doesn’t have to be loud to be a lovely way to spend an evening. That’s right, you heard it here first.
Tuesday, January 7, 7 PM
McKay, Sheetrock, Dietz & The Dilemmas @ Bandito’s – $10
I really appreciate the diversity offered by Bandito’s’ typical musical calendar over the course of any given week. Take this week, for example — in this column alone, we’ve already discussed a fun, bouncy ska-punk extravaganza and a dark, intense night of metallic hardcore. Now, for our third and final visit to Bandito’s this week, we get a trio of chilled-out rock combos who draw quite a bit of influence from the classic rock AOR era. How’s that for variety? Best of all, you can order one of their amazing plates of delicious nachos to start off all three of these shows! But before I get too carried away, let’s talk about the actual music Bandito’s has on offer this Tuesday night.
At the top of the bill is McKay, an unassuming Nashville quartet who call themselves “post-folk” and display a solid grasp on the fundamentals of both classic folk-rock and modern indie on their self-titled debut, which by turns evokes Neil Young, Wilco, Crooked Fingers, and Trampled By Turtles. But don’t think this is just a bunch of kids cosplaying as their dad’s (or granddad’s) record collection — there’s real heart to these tunes, and an originality that keeps it from ever feeling like it’s just a bunch of influences dumped into a musical stew. These folks have something to offer, and we’d all be wise to listen. They’ll be joined on this set by underrated young Richmond rock combo Sheetrock, whose alt-rock musical stylings I’ve been enjoying for a while now. Their recent split with Halisca finds them in a contemplative mood, but still with plenty of meat-and-potatoes rock riffs to go around. The evening’s program will be rounded out by Dietz & The Dilemmas, the shifting-member ensemble headed by singer-songwriter John Dietz. I hear some Mac DeMarco indie-folk sounds in his music at times, and some of the laid-back electro-infused indie sounds of Grandaddy or The Eels at others. The result is goofy at times, but always catchy and fun. Which really sums up this entire show. You know what to do next.
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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