Scene Recap: East End Festival, Armagideon Time, Drook

Published September 23, 2022

There’s a ton of great outlets, organizations, and individuals covering 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.

• Hey, the RVA East End Festival is happening tomorrow at Henry Marsh Elementary! Great food, cool booths, and a lot of performers will be there, including members of the Richmond Symphony. The East End Festival has always done a great job raising money for the local schools so you definitely should check it out. Emily Carter had a really nice article about the event for Richmond Magazine too (link here) so make sure to read that if you want a little bit more about the story and goals. Either way, make sure to check that out tomorrow if you can! (RVA East End Festival link here.)

• Speaking of festivals, did you see the new poster for the Richmond Folk Festival? (Link here.) They’re usually pretty great, but this one in particular feels really special. Huge props to the artist behind the work, Virginia native Cassandra Kim! Make sure to check-out the festival line-up too if you haven’t already. It will be here before you know it! (Richmond Folk Festival link here.)

• We talked last week about Ignited’s member meet-up so here’s a friendly reminder that it’s taking place tomorrow! Also a reminder to just sign up for Ignited in general — it’s a great resource for any local musician in Richmond and the rest of Central Virginia. (Ignited link here.)

• We also talked about the Richmond Remix Competition last week and that is concluding this weekend with the winners being announced and getting to perform! Definitely check that out if you want to see some great producers around town. (RVA Remix link here.)

• Busy weekend for sure because there’s also a “Brahms v. Radiohead” classical concert going on this weekend, from the mind of composer Steve Hackman. Chuck Bowen at Style Weekly took a look at the event if you want to know more about how a modern art-rock band blends with an 18th century German composer. (Article link here.)

• Speaking of Style Weekly, the great Davy Jones talked with the Richmond band Drook about their recent re-brand, new single (it’s great), and upcoming record. Definitely bookmark this one. (Article link here.)

• One more from Style Weekly — Jeff Terich talked with hardcore/metal band Armagideon Time who recently added the local rap legend BlackLiq to their group as a vocalist. Oh and BlackLiq is performing at RVA East End Festival this weekend! Full circle, people. Full circle. (Article link here.)

• So we’ve covered four events going on this weekend. If you want some more, check out the great folks over at RestlessRVA for a full list of all shows the next three days. There’s a lot, but they do an amazing job covering it all so definitely follow them where you can. (Instagram link here.) And if you’re looking for stuff outside of the weekend, the weekly show column at RVA Magazine by Marilyn Drew Necci is always a must-read so hit that up too. (Article link here.)

• Did you catch Australian singer MANE on Shockoe Sessions? Well, make sure to add it your list of things to watch now. This coming Tuesday is Whitney & The Saying Goes and I think it’s one we are extremely hyped to catch. (YouTube link here.)

• Stevie Ash was on the latest episode of River City Sounds along with his band The Dropheads (band name pending) and they had a really interesting discussion about the struggle of going from recording as a solo musician to performing with a full band. Highly recommend this one. (Spotify link here.)

• Lots of great music came out this week. HearRVA’s got you covered with a curated sample of new music. (Instagram link here.) We had our own Roundup covering the previous week come out this past Tuesday. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot. (Article link here.) Hey, we made it two weeks in a row with the Roundup! Would love to say they get easier as we do them, but the depth of Richmond music just continues to expand week-by-week giving us that much more to coverage. A great problem to have! Check in with us early next week for the skinny on all the music that came out this week.

• That’s all I got for you this week so I’ll close out with a local song. I was racking my brain trying to think of an older song to throw on here, but I just can’t get “Baby,” the opening song off of Skinnyy Hendrixx’s latest EP, out of my head. I reviewed it this past week (link here — shamless self-plug!) and literally the song has just been looping in and out of my ears for over week now. Hendrixx’s new EP Rendezvous is just fantastic in general, but this opening track? You just gotta hear it yourself. Shout-out to Madam V too for going toe-to-toe with Skinnyy here. Everything on this track is amazing. Put it on and then hit repeat just like I’ve been doing. I’ll catch you all next week!