RVA Shows You Must See This Week: March 5 – March 11
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, March 7, 7:30 PM
Digital Detox Concert Series, feat. Radio B (main photo by: Deon Tillman), TROY, Ronnie Lux, Shon Davis, Hosted by DJ Reese, Sounds by Hip Hop Henry @ RVA Boombox – $15 in advance, $20 at the door (order tickets HERE)
We’re living in interesting times, and I definitely mean the phrase in the “ancient curse” sort of way. One of the most interesting (in the worst possible way) things about our current era is the deep hold the digital media world has on us all. OK, maybe not us ALL — if you’re reading this post on a desktop computer because you only have a flip phone, you’re exempt. But for most of us? Smart phones are a major part of our lives, and they’ve got us all trapped in their grip. Whether they facilitate our social media addictions, cause us constant FOMO (fear of missing out), or have us reading way too much really terrible news all day and being in a bad mood all night, we’ve all got our issues with them. Don’t even get me started about the insomnia! But don’t worry — if you also sometimes worry about the ways your phone negatively affects your life, it’s something local musicians are thinking about.
In fact, this show at RVA Boombox is the first attempt by someone in our scene to go beyond thought, and actually do something about it. DJ Reese, who will be hosting this evening’s festivities, has booked this show as the first in a series he’s calling Digital Detox. It’s exactly what you might think it is from the title — an event at which cell phones are strictly prohibited. The hope is that, when we all leave our phones at home for a few hours, we’ll have a more interactive experience, where instead of capturing video clips for Tiktok and photos for the gram or staring into our screens to keep from having to speak to people we don’t know, we’ll all hang out, enjoy the music, and maybe even make some new friends. It’s the kind of thing our scene needs more of, and if people are actually willing to leave their phones in the car instead of sneaking them inside and taking surreptitious glances between sets, it really might create a more positive environment at one venue for one night. I for one am definitely ready for it.
Veteran rapper and Richmond legend Radio B will be headlining this event, and it feels to me like the most perfect pairing of show theme and headlining artist I’ve seen in a long time. Radio B released his latest album at the beginning of 2025; entitled The Internet Is Fake, it’s a full-length collaboration with Don Dubious, who previously worked with Radio B on his 2022 LP, Stop Looking For Noise. Dubious’s production is thick, multilayered, and full of soul and funk textures that combine with hard-hitting beats to create a foreboding sound that fully connects with the album’s lyrical themes. Repeating “put your motherfuckin’ phone down” on multiple tracks, Radio B focuses on technologically-fueled alienation, the diminishment of our attention spans, and the many ways in which misinformation and fakery can find its way to us through the internet, leading us to believe shit that just ain’t true. Radio B’s set at Digital Detox will draw heavily from this new album, creating an immersive atmosphere and reminding us all just what’s at stake with all this.
But wait, there’s more! Richmond rapper TROY will join Radio B on this bill. His 2024 album, 96 Degrees, is a blunted-out masterpiece of modern hip hop beats, rhymes, and flows, full of catchy tracks to nod your head to. When TROY hits the RVA Boombox stage, you can be sure your head will be nodding. Ronnie Luxe is a soulful R&B vocalist who lays down beautiful melodies over sparse trap beats on her new LP, Hermit — expect her set to be smooth and powerful. Fellow local R&B singer Shon Davis will be on hand to get things turned up as the evening kicks into gear. And of course, Hip Hop Henry will be keeping the music playing all night long. Expect this one to be legendary — especially if you do as Radio B tells you and put your motherfucking phone down.
Wednesday, March 5, 7 PM
Hour, Doreen, Abby Huston, Adelyn Strei @ Anytime Beer Co. – $8 in advance, $12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I’m really intrigued by this one. I had never heard of Hour before learning that they were coming to play here in Richmond, but luckily for me, I always check out what Underground Orchard is bringing through; those folks are known to have great taste in modern indie sounds. I didn’t find modern indie sounds when I checked out Hour, but I did find something I really appreciate: a fascinating, difficult-to-categorize instrumental group with a sound that’s very unusual, especially in the cultural milieu where it’s cropped up. You see, Hour, led by Michael Cormier-O’Leary, mix elements of acoustic folk music with atmospheric textures and an approach to structure that simultaneously reminds me of post-rock and classical music. The closest thing I can think of to compare Hour’s brand new fourth album, Subminiature, to is Rachel’s, the dozen-plus-member orchestral ensemble featuring folks from Rodan, June of 44 and Shellac delving into classical chamber music. Hour steer away from bigger orchestral arrangements and mainly focus on interplay between tenderly played acoustic stringed instruments, lightly brushed drums, and woodwinds, but the vibe is very similar. If anything, it’s what you might get if Rachel’s had been led by legendary American primitive guitarist John Fahey instead of by pianist Rachel Grimes.
Listening to Subminiature will give you a very good idea of what you’ll hear when you see Hour tonight at Anytime Beer Co (which, by the way, is starting to do more shows. We love to see it), especially since it was recorded live at a series of shows around the northeast over the course of 2024. Different players appear on different tracks, with only three in the lineup for every track, so it’s tough to say how many people will take the stage as part of Hour tonight. One thing’s for sure, though — the musical results will be transcendent no matter who is involved in creating them. Certainly you could say the same about the other artists performing on this bill as well. Of the three, Abby Huston is probably best known, having released an LP called AH HA on Egghunt Records a few years back. We haven’t heard much of their laid-back indie/folk-pop sound since then, but they had a baby a few years ago, so they’ve got a valid excuse. It’ll be good to see what they’ve cooked up in the interim, musically speaking. Adelyn Strei, who comes to us from New York, is also on the bill, and has an unusual sound, dancing around the edges of avant-garde bedroom pop even as they foreground the clarinet in the musical arrangements on their latest album, Original Spring. How will this play out live? Not sure, but it’ll definitely be intriguing. Local musician Doreen, who performs as a solo act around town on occasion, brings moody solo tunes to us all to get the evening started off. Should be pretty great — make sure you’re there.
Thursday, March 6, 8 PM
Walt Weiskopf European Quartet @ Reveler Experiences – $20-$30 (order tickets HERE)
Last week, I wrote about a jazz show at Reveler, and then I went to said jazz show at Reveler — my first time going to Reveler — and lo and behold, I had a wonderful time and saw some incredible music. So hey, let’s keep the positive streak going, shall we? This week, Reveler’s bringing through another incredible jazz combo, led by saxophonist/composer Walt Weiskopf. A veteran of over 40 years in the jazz world, Weiskopf got his start playing with Buddy Rich and has since recorded with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Steely Dan. Pretty amazing, huh? His work as a bandleader focuses on original compositions, and he’s been quite prolific over the course of his career. He started the Walt Weiskopf European Quartet just under a decade ago, and they’ve released six albums 2018, the most recent being 2023’s Harmless Addiction. This quartet brings him together with a talented European rhythm section (hence the name) made up of pianist Carl Winther, bassist Andreas Lang, and drummer Anders Mogenson.
With their powers combined, these four talented players generate some incredible sounds whenever they visit the recording studio, and their live performance will clearly be no different. With elements sourced from the classic hard bop sounds of prime Miles Davis and John Coltrane, as well as undeniable elements pulled from their geographically and influentially diverse backgrounds, these folks come together to show off some excellent original material. And when they do break out the occasional standard, they put their personal stamp on it from moment one. This is a powerful quartet with a strong, swinging sound and noteworthy musical chops, and they’re sure to liven up your evening and send you soaring into the weekend on a cloud of positive vibes. Head over to Reveler, grab yourself a charcuterie plate, and settle in to catch some outstanding jazz sounds. You’ll be glad you did.
Friday, March 7, 7 PM
Brass Against, Misc. @ The Broadberry – $20 (order tickets HERE)
The growth of the tribute band world in recent years has been a bit overwhelming at times, but I’m not entirely opposed to the whole thing; after all, there’s always the opportunity to bring some new twist to whatever sound you’re paying tribute to, and give everyone the chance to hear the whole thing in an entirely new way. That seems to be what inspired Brass Against, a horn-driven ensemble who performs classic tunes from the alt-rock era, with the occasional look back to 70s heavy-rock excellence thrown in. They got their start back during the first Trump administration, at a time when founding guitarist Brad Hammonds found himself really missing the musical presence of Rage Against the Machine — who obviously had a huge influence on the band’s eventual name.
The first Brass Against album was largely made up of reimagined RATM songs, galvanized by the presence of saxophones and trombones but retaining the rebellious vitality of the original recordings. As time went on, they expanded their repertoire, covering quite a few different bands from the 90s alternative/grunge era and mixing in tunes by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, among others. They became known for their rowdy live performances — indeed, the elephant in the room for any discussion of Brass Against’s history is the story about that time when singer Sophia Urista dropped trou and peed in a fan’s face while performing at Daytona International Speedway. It got them banned from future NASCAR events, which if anything seems like a win to me. There won’t be any watersports happening at the Broadberry this Friday night, but you can nonetheless expect a wild and energetic performance full of the political vitality that our current era sorely needs. Highly talented up-and-coming rap-core Zoomers Misc. will be on hand to add some of the formidable energy they bring in their own right; they’re sure to get this one started on a high note. It’ll only get more intense from there — that’s a promise.
Saturday, March 8, 7 PM
Borracho, Crystal Spiders, Blazoner, Paradiso @ Bandito’s – $15
It’s the latest effort from Rival Booking, who continue to bring incredible music of the heavy variety to Richmond — and boy is it appreciated. Despite their (welcome) predilection for heavyosity, these folks thankfully don’t get tied down to any one subgenre. It was only last week that they were giving us melodic punk and shoegaze, and now they’re bringing some heavy doom vibes to Bandito’s. You can’t necessarily predict what sounds Rival Booking will bring to town next. All you can really know for sure is that all of them will be good. Very good, in this case — take headliners Borracho, for instance. This veteran DC trio has only released one song in the last few years, but a statement like that can be misleading, unless I elaborate by explaining that the one song, “Burning The Goddess,” was 13 minutes long and constituted an entire EP all on its own. Like their previous LP, 2021’s Blurring The Lines of Reality, “Burning The Goddess” channeled some of that same psychedelic approach to classic doom-metal riffage that the legendary Kyuss brought to the table. If you recognize that Blues For the Red Sun is better than anything Queens of the Stone Age ever did, you’ll definitely be stoked to see Borracho carry that same desert-rock tradition on into the 21st century.
Co-headliners Crystal Spiders, who will be driving about as far north from their native Raleigh to play Bandito’s this Saturday night as Borracho will be driving south, come from a similar subgenre but bring a vibe all their own to the proceedings, exchanging the psychedelic desert textures of Borracho’s sound for some ice-queen vocal vibes and some slow, smooth riffage that sounds like sweet honey and molasses rolling downhill to coat us all in sticky sweetness. No, this isn’t a marijuana reference… or is it? I’m not sure, but if you like getting baked — or even if you don’t — Crystal Spiders are sure to please you thoroughly. This bill will be rounded out by two Richmond-based acts. The first, Blazoner, will lay down some heavy rock n’ roll of the sort that splits the difference between groove-metalers like Fu Manchu and something slightly more proggy… if Spaceboy is too obscure a reference to make here, think Failure, only heavier. Paradiso will kick things off with the thrashiest, most energetic set of the evening, dishing out some sounds that fans of early Cryptic Slaughter or Dealing With It-era DRI are sure to love. Get stoked for this one, y’all — and don’t forget to make the most of your Bandito’s visit and order some nachos while you’re there. It’s the right thing to do.
Sunday, March 9, 8 PM
Soot, False Nectar, Gnawing @ Anytime Beer Co – $10 in advance, $12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Oh wow, we’re back at Anytime Beer Co. for the second time in about five days. You know a venue is on the come-up when they make the column twice in a week. Or maybe me saying that just means my ego is on the come-up (though I’ve always been bad at self-esteem, so probably not). I’m always glad to see another semi-regular show space integrate itself into the local musical community, so I’m very pleased by this development. As for the music on offer here, it’s significantly different from the last show at Anytime that we talked about, but remains every bit as intriguing — always a good sign. Our headliners this time around are Nashville-based Soot, who help put the lie to that city’s reputation for country music by dishing out some proper noise rock on their latest LP, Wearing A Wire, which is full of hypnotic, downtuned riffage and moody vibes that are a perfect way to end a weekend and deal with a full-on bout of the Sunday scaries.
Soot are headbangers for sure, but local quartet False Nectar have quite a bit of their own noise to offer this Sunday night. Featuring Ten Pound Snail axe-slinger Holden Wilson, this group has certainly got the six-string firepower needed to make their mark on this evening, and they show off that firepower on recent LP Unlimited Things To Do Forever, which rocks like a very heavy indie album from just after the turn of the millennium, and has made a confirmed False Nectar fan out of me. It’ll happen to you too, and you’ll be glad it did. Openers Gnawing feel like they should need no introduction around this city by now, but every column is someone’s first, so I will tell you that these folks rock hard in a manner that would have fit in perfectly on Sub Pop Records back at the dawn of the 90s when no one knew who Nirvana were and Mudhoney was the most famous Seattle band. They mix in that same subtle undercurrent of twang that livened up all those early Dinosaur Jr. albums too. As you might expect from this description, it’s basically perfect. Everything about this show is perfect, really. Make sure you’re in attendance.
Monday, March 10, 7:30 PM
Bright Eyes, Merce Lemon @ The National – $38 (order tickets HERE)
It’s pretty wild to see Bright Eyes at this point in their career. Back when this group got started in Omaha, Nebraska in the mid-90s, it was really a solo project of Conor Oberst, then regarded as a teen prodigy. When the first Bright Eyes record came out, he was still in high school, and he’d had two other bands already by then. But that was almost 30 years ago; Bright Eyes’ moment of peak indie stardom probably happened around 2005, the year they released two albums on the same day. By 2011, they’d gone on hiatus; it felt like their alt-country/folk-infused take on classic emo-kid indie had gone from unusual to predictable, and no one was all that thrilled by their final pre-hiatus LP, The People’s Key. But Conor kept making solo records, and at one point even did a shortlived band, Better Oblivion Community Center, that paired him with Phoebe Bridgers — the sort of artist who one could easily consider the Conor Oberst analogue of the next generation.
Maybe that’s what lit a fire under his ass, because only a year after the Better Oblivion Community Center LP came out, Bright Eyes reformed and released their first album in almost a decade. What’s more, it was great — and so is their newest album, Five Dice All Threes, which came out last fall. The classic alt-folk-infused indie sound of Bright Eyes is still intact, but doesn’t get too maudlin or emo these days, and instead relies on the super-strong songwriting instincts that Oberst’s best work has always shown off. No wonder all the kids who loved them back in the Lifted days are stoked to have them back. Of course, those kids are in their 40s these days, and so is Conor, but if there’s one thing that’s certain in this world, it’s the passage of time. In this case, though, it’s brought us something really lovely — the return of Bright Eyes, at a point in our lives when we don’t need to blast their music while weeping alone in our high school bedrooms. See, kids? It really does get better.
Tuesday, March 11, 7 PM
BASIC, Bark Culture, Gardener @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $17 (order tickets HERE)
Oh whoa…. two unusual instrumental groups in the same week? Sign me up! That said, BASIC isn’t much like Hour, discussed above. They’re much stranger, though at their best moments their sound is every bit as absorbing. BASIC is also a bit of a supergroup, pairing Philadelphia-based experimental guitarist Chris Forsyth with Desertion Trio guitarist Nick Millevoi on the Bass VI and Mikel Patrick Avery of Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society on drums. Once these three get together, they start engaging in some hypnotic guitar-driven grooves — which feel to me more influenced by postpunk than anything else. I definitely hear some Adrian Belew in the mix of what these three are laying down, though at times it’s closer to what he did with King Crimson in the early to mid 80s and at other times closer to his work with Talking Heads circa Remain In Light, stripped down to its core essentials.
The upshot of all that is that BASIC play something that, depending on your perspective, might sound like prog, punk, and avant-garde jazz/noise, all at once. It’s a fascinating sound, one that i can only imagine will be twice as amazing when we’re all watching it come to life right in front of us. You’ll definitely want to catch their set at Richmond Music Hall this Tuesday night, if only to see how amazing it can be when some truly talented and impossible to predict musicians really cut loose onstage. BASIC will come to town in the company of fellow Philadelphians Bark Culture, who are an instrumental power-trio with vibraphone in place of guitar. Bandleader Victor Viera-Branco pushes the expectations anyone in the 21st century would have of such an instrument, and the results are amazing — jazzy, entrancing, totally unpredictable. Gotta love it. Richmond atmospheric drone wizard Gardener will get this whole thing started in a really gorgeous humming way; exactly the type of thing we all need after a long Tuesday at work. Get down with it.
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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