RVA Shows You Must See This Week: April 16 – April 22
FEATURED SHOW
Holy Shit Fest IV
Friday, April 18, 9 PM
Doll Baby, Circle Breaker, Fit Check, Future Mantis @ Bandito’s – $10-$20 donation
Saturday, April 19, 4 PM
New Junk City, The Social Club, Oh Devil, Memory Hole @ Gallery 5 – $5-$20 donation
Saturday, April 19, 7 PM
Knifing Around, Velvet Ruin @ Mocha Gourmet Market – Free!
Saturday, April 19, 9 PM
Hole Club, Monsoon, Hunting Dog, Taa Tuu Swe @ Fallout – $10-$20 donation
This weekend, Richmond is taken over by a DIY music fest with a difference. Driven by concerns for important causes that find themselves under threat (even more than usual) in our current atmosphere of impending authoritarian takeover, Holy Shit Fest IV is presenting three different musical showcases across two nights, all of which act as benefits for different mutual aid organizations currently active here in Richmond. What’s even more interesting is that there are events taking place as part of this fest that both stretch it out to five days in length and test the boundaries of what constitutes an endeavor that could be considered part of a music festival. From alleycat races and skate-themed cookouts to an Easter Beer Hunt being held on the actual Easter morning, a whole bunch of wild things are happening this weekend under the aegis of Holy Shit Fest IV. That being said, y’all know me — at the end of the day, the thing I care about is the music. And that’s what we’re here to talk about today.
Friday is going to be a more chill day, as it features only one show rather than the ludicrous THREE Holy Shit-affiliated shows taking place on Saturday. Friday night’s throwdown at Bandito’s is a benefit for the Richmond Community Bail Fund, which is working to keep massively inequitable cash bail standards from harming anyone any more than they already have. The lineup taking part in this benefit is an appropriate one, featuring the anti-cop hardcore punk rippers in Fit Check, as well as the furious, downtuned brutality of queercore biker-crust maniacs Circle Breaker. Our headliners, Doll Baby, may fall more into the indie-alternative end of the punk rock spectrum (with a bit of twang stirred in as well), but they’re fueled by the same punk rock spirit as the heavier, noisier bands they’ll be playing with. I assure you, the kids who rock out to Circle Breaker and Fit Check still won’t miss a minute of Doll Baby’s set — and you definitely shouldn’t either. The bill will be rounded out by a set from Future Mantis, the bass-drums duo from the folks who previously brought us Canary Oh Canary and Manzara; heavier and more driving than their previous projects, this group will get the evening started on a note of high drama.
That’s what’s happening on Friday, and it’s intense enough, but things get way more crazy on Saturday, and that’s true even if you skip the Exquisite Corpse Alleycat bike race kicking off at noon. By 4 pm, it’ll be time for the alleycat wrap party at Gallery 5, a matinee show that also acts as a benefit for Food Not Bombs (and we all know how important their work is). Headlining this afternoon shindig is New Junk City, a ramshackle melodic punk band from Atlanta with the sort of raw energy and down-to-earth lyrical sensibility sure to appeal to fans of Jawbreaker, The Replacements, and The Weakerthans. They’re joined by UK-based group The Social Club, who refer to themselves as “polytechnic rock” and have a strong punk sensibility despite being driven by keyboards and also managing to evoke a decidedly Springsteen-ish quality. Energetic Richmond alt-rockers Oh Devil and energetic guitar-slinging newcomers Memory Hole round out this bill.
Don’t get complacent, though, because there are two more Holy Shit Fest-affiliated shows happening this Saturday night. The first is a quick one with no beneficiary — because it’s free — taking place over at Mocha Gourmet Market in Oregon Hill, which is Fine Foods for the old folks. We’ll get Knifing Around’s internationally-infused take on synth-driven postpunk, Velvet Ruin’s moody gothic alt-rock, and then we’ll hustle on across town to Shockoe Bottom to wrap up the evening with an electro-noise dance party to benefit Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project. This evening features all local performers, a mix of some familiar names — especially that of local experimental noise mainstay Hunting Dog — along with some new projects, most significantly Hole Club, which seems to bring together a few different talents from the local queer electronic music scene. I can’t be entirely sure of the specifics for this one, but I can be sure that there’ll be a lot of dancing in the dark at this particular dance party. So freak the night away — but don’t party too hard, because I would think you’ll still want to get up in the morning for the Easter Beer Hunt. Right?
Wednesday, April 16, 7 PM
Solar Powered Generator, feat. Boyscoutmarie & We Wiggle Dolls, SleepyGoLucky, Lichtenvol @ Gallery 5 – $18 in advance, $20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Before I knew anything about what they sounded like, I was intrigued by Boyscoutmarie based purely on their name. It wouldn’t have taken many tweaks to my own personal history for me to have been Boy Scout Marilyn at a certain time in my life, but let’s be real — the world of 1988 wasn’t ready for all that. Close to four decades later, at least some portions of our modern society seem ready to embrace Boyscoutmarie, though, and thank goodness for that. This band’s jangly alt-rock, mixing distinctive up-front vocals with catchy, almost folky song structures, makes them an unusual listen, and one with an unpredictable approach as well. At various points, they evoke country, indie, and sludge-metal riffage, and keep your interest the entire time.
That’ll be twice as true when they bring their Solar Powered Generator show to Gallery 5, too, since that show — indeed, this entire tour — sees Boyscoutmarie pairing up with puppetry group We Wiggle Dolls. Performing behind a sheet, Boyscoutmarie will appear to the audience as rock n’ roll silhouettes while We Wiggle Dolls will use light, shadow, and color to create a psychedelic swirl of visions. The result should be fascinating and hypnotic in a way that not many shows are, especially in smaller, more intimate venues like this. It’s always good to see indie bands taking big artistic swings like this, and considering the talent involved in this performance, I expect it to work out well for all involved. Richmonders SleepyGoLucky, who recently released an enjoyable collection of laid-back indie tunes called Equinox Allergies, will provide an excellent set to get us all hyped for Boyscoutmarie and We Wiggle Dolls, while guitar-driven ambient indie project Lichtenvol will get the evening started on a high note. This one will be delightful.
Thursday, April 17, 6 PM
evicshen, Birchett/Mullany/Hurtado @ VCU Institute For Contemporary Art – Free! (Reserve your spot HERE)
There’s been a certain amount of artsy punk weirdness to this entire column so far, and I for one am glad of it. But things are gonna get kicked up to the next level this Thursday night, and you can tell that’s true without me writing another word, just by looking at the venue where we’ll be heading for this performance. So it’s at an art museum, you say? A contemporary art museum? At a college? Oh yeah, this one’s gonna get downright bizarre. And I don’t know about y’all, but I love it when events take a turn for the bizarre. This one is headlined by the sound artist and experimental performer known as evicshen. Using what she calls “chaotic sound” to do battle with conventional harmonic and rhythmic musical structures, she attempts to eradicate meaning through sheer atonal noise — which comes through in a big way on her 2020 release, Hair Birth.
Her current set incorporates sound from analog synthesizers, vinyl records, and home-built electronic gizmos, all of which work together to build up a fascinating buzz and hum. Full of static and disrupted patterns that build intriguing sonic castles in the air, evicshen’s music — or, perhaps, sound art — is impossible to pin down and never gets predictable. If you’ve enjoyed the work of Pharmakon but wished it was a bit harder to follow, evicshen’s got some delightful noise with which to captivate you. I admit I have far less of an idea what opening trio Birchett/Mullany/Hurtado will have in store for us (I wondered whether the third name was Brandon Hurtado, who used to do a lot of solo ambient guitar performances around Richmond a decade or so ago, but I wasn’t able to find out for sure, so this may be a false lead). The word is that the three members collectively have over three decades of Richmond-based experimental music-making in their history, so we may all know exactly who they are once they take the stage, but for now, all I can tell you for sure is that they’ll be using handmade instruments and modified circuits to eradicate all of your preconceived notions of what experimental electronic music can be… or at least, that’s the goal. Find out just how far this trio, and this whole evening, will get by RSVP-ing to this free show at the link above.
Friday, April 18, 6 PM
Chiodos, Hawthorne Heights, Emmure, The Callous Daoboys @ The National – $96-$450 (order tickets HERE)
Do you have a soft spot in your heart for the emo boom of the early-to-mid-00s? Are you made of fucking money? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you may be stoked to hit up this Friday night extravaganza at The National, featuring the return of two leading lights from the mid-00s millennial boom era. Or, well, “return” in a manner of speaking. You see, while the band that takes the stage to celebrate the 20th anniversary of legendary metallic prog-emo masterpiece All’s Well That Ends Well is calling itself Chiodos, only vocalist Craig Owens has returned to the band after their eight-year hiatus. If you were expecting guitarist Pat McManaman or keyboardist Bradley Bell, who (ahem, unlike Owens) stuck with Chiodos throughout the many lineup changes that plagued their original incarnation, well, they won’t be here. Instead, Owens has brought together a completely new version of the band, featuring talented members of bands like Grayscale and Frail Body, as well as two members of his other band, Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows. They’ll doubtless recreate Chiodos’s landmark album with capable precision, while Owens keeps the manic spirit of the band’s original lineup alive with his inimitable high-energy vocals. As long as you don’t get too hung up on whether the band blasting you in the face with these incredible prog-metal-screamo anthems really counts as the same band that made the record, you’re sure to have an absolute blast at this show.
Hawthorne Heights are also here, and are also in the process of celebrating a landmark album they released 20 years ago; their latest EP, Sandpaper And Silk, finds them rerecording five different songs from their 2004 breakthrough, The Silence In Black And White. The version of their signature song, “Ohio Is For Lovers,” transforms it from an angst-ridden howl into a melancholy slowcore meditation, full of atmospheric sadness. Which version of this song, and this band, you’ll get at The National this Friday night is uncertain, but I kind of think it would be cooler to get the Sandpaper And Silk version of the classic Silence In Black And White material. After all, we’ve all been listening to those original versions for over two decades now; it’s fun to hear a new take on some well-loved classics. Not to mention that, if anything, the more melancholy mood of the re-imagined versions is much more suitable to this particular season of our discontent. Not that melancholy will be the rule of the evening; with Emmure on the bill, that’s impossible. These legendary pioneers of the deathcore movement will be here to get everyone moshing it up in straightforwardly brutal fashion, locking into some serious downtuned grooves and keeping the spinkicks coming. Relative newcomers The Callous Daoboys, who are currently on the cusp of releasing their fifth album of chaotic, prog-infused screamo-metal, will get the evening started with some subtly complex brutality. I would say their set is likely to be worth the price of admission, but… as we saw above, this show costs a whole lot of money to get into, so if you want the maximum bang for your buck, stick around until the very last note. PS — if you want to go to this and haven’t already bought your tickets, do so immediately. The price of this show has already gone up $6 since I started working on this week’s column. Gotta love dynamic pricing, right?
Saturday, April 19, 7 PM
Sea Of Storms, Dark Waters, Beggars, Payphones @ Cobra Cabana – $10
Folks, it’s the end of an era. This Saturday night, Sea Of Storms will play their final show. This band has been a part of the Richmond musical community for over a dozen years now, originally coming together from the ashes of driving post-hardcore combo Mouthbreather as a more introspective, emotionally fueled trio who were a little farther beyond hardcore but still retained an undeniable punk spirit. Over the past dozen or so years, as they grew from a trio to a quartet and issued a triad of excellent releases, Sea Of Storms maintained a high quality of songcraft and gave us all some unforgettable, passionate tunes. That said, they always felt a bit underrated and overlooked to me, never quite as popular as they deserved to be. Perhaps now, as they take their final bow, their hometown will finally give Sea Of Storms their due. You can certainly be part of that; head over to Cobra Cabana and catch their last set ever this Saturday night. I have a feeling that some of you will be blown away at how great these guys truly are; those of us who’ve been down from day one will all exchange knowing nods. Damn right, these guys rule.
Experience the amazingness of their heartfelt post-hardcore rock energy one last time, and catch excellent sets from a few other Sea Of Storms-affiliated groups that are all awesome in their own right while you’re at it. Dark Waters is heavy, emotional rock n’ roll from Sea Of Storms’ original drummer and a bunch of other longtime collaborators from bands like Race the Sun and The Blue Letter. They recently followed up their excellent third EP, Piedmont, with a cover of PJ Harvey’s slow-burn classic “Rid Of Me,” so you know they’ve got good taste. Beggars features Sea Of Storms’ current drummer, Shane Johnson, getting together with some other local players to bash out some absolutely ferocious metallic hardcore, of the type that’s sure to liven up your Saturday night. As for Richmond-based emotional punk combo Payphones, who’ll open this one up, this is Sea Of Storms guitarist Nick Bergheimer’s new project with some of his old bandmates from local punk legends Landmines, and their debut EP, Gasoline, carries on gloriously in that band’s storied tradition. While it’s Sea Of Storms we’ve come together to celebrate, this entire evening will be filled with amazing music from projects old and new. Glory in it all this Saturday night at Cobra Cabana. You won’t regret it.
Sunday, April 20, 7 PM
Terror Cell, Rotting In Dirt, Hynoki @ Bandito’s – $10
Let’s wrap up this 420 Easter weekend (is Trump going to go off on a diatribe about how dare 420 be on the day Jesus was resurrected or whatever the way he did about Trans Day of Visibility last year? Will the notoriously 420-loving Musk man catch a few strays if so? To both questions, I say: we can only hope) on a majorly heavy note by weighing our bellies down with some delicious Bandito’s nachos (or tacos, or burritos… they’ve got something for everyone) and then banging our heads all night to some brutal musical phenomena in the Diablo Room. At the top of this particular list is Terror Cell, a Richmond heavy-hardcore mainstay at this point, whose second LP, All Quiet, continues to blow me away all over again every time I go back to it. If they keep taking things to the next level like this, they’ll be rulers of all they survey in another year or two. Which is a very good reason to jump on the Terror Cell bandwagon now, if you haven’t already.
Terror Cell are joined on this gig by Rotting In Dirt, and will actually be wrapping up a weeklong tour with the North Carolina quintet, who recently released an incredible EP called Anabiosis. Running through four scathing tracks in just over ten minutes, this slab of brutality demonstrates just how well-matched a tour partner Rotting In Dirt is for Terror Cell. Expect an odyssey of rage and chaos from their set at Bandito’s; by the time it’s over, you just might find they’ve become your new favorite non-Richmond band. Something similar is definitely already happening to me, and this show hasn’t even occurred yet. Take note. The evening will begin with a set from brand-new epic metallic screamo/hardcore crew Hynoki, featuring my former journalistic colleague Clara Endres on drums. Regardless of whether I have friends in the band, though, their debut single “Phasmophobia” (named for a survival horror video game, not one of Freud’s classic anxiety disorders) is a dynamic ripper that integrates both quiet interludes and moments of absolute sonic attack. Expect a full set of that sort of thing when Hynoki kicks this one off. This evening of metal noise brutality and Tex-Mex deliciousness is the best possible way to celebrate Easter, if you ask me. I highly recommend taking part in the festivities.
Monday, April 21, 8 PM
Fan Club, Ultra Bleach, Dream World, Gleex @ Bandito’s – $12
I’ve been married for close to a decade now, and that’s definitely affected my musical influences. One way I can easily point to is that my wife is a huge fan of wild, rocking punk bands — bands that I really love once I hear, but who wouldn’t necessarily have made it onto my radar back when I was a single girl obsessing over screamo and power-violence. The bands she loves the most tend to be based in Australia (COFFIN, Private Function, Bad/Dreems) or the UK (Lambrini Girls), but every once in a while her head will get turned by an American band, and as soon as I heard Seattle-based combo Fan Club, I knew this was the sort of band that would definitely grab my wife’s attention. Their latest release, an EP entitled Another Demonstration, is full of the sort of rollicking, chaotic punk rock energy that tends to be on heavy rotation around my house. There’s a subtle wit to what these guys are doing that definitely makes me think of The Hives (who rule, and always have, don’t @ me), but they also bring a good bit of that unstoppable steamroller of rock n’ roll vibe that marked AC/DC in their prime Bon Scott years.
Indeed, if I have any complaints about Fan Club, it’s one that’s surely outside their control: their previous moniker, Lysol, was a way better name. But that’s capitalism, I suppose. Go figure, robbing us of the chance to see the band names Lysol and Ultra Bleach on a flyer next to one another. We can at least take solace in the fact that Fan Club and Richmonders Ultra Bleach are two great tastes that taste great together. Ultra Bleach are more raw and garage-punk oriented than Fan Club, but definitely have a similar sort of wild-rockin’ approach to their brand of punk, one that’s so delightful I’ve gotten to the point where Bandcamp won’t let me play their demo anymore. Guess I better scrape some bucks together and buy it already, huh? Two other Richmond bands I’m not as familiar with but every bit as stoked on will round out this bill. The first is Dream World, and I don’t know a ton about this band but I have heard their demo tape from late last year, and let me tell you, it slays. Driving punk with a strong crust quotient but some goth elements mixed in as well. Folks who, like me, lost interest in Iceage after their second LP will likely get a big kick out of what Dream World are up to. Openers Gleex are literally playing their first live set at this gig, so hopefully they won’t be too nervous to recreate the charming mix of The Coneheads and Matador Singles 08-era Jay Reatard that I’ve heard on the limited amount of recordings they have available. This whole show will be full of punk rock awesomeness. Get stoked.
Tuesday, April 22, 7 PM
Euphoria Again, Whitehall, Dogwood Tales @ The Camel – $15 in advance, $18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
We’ll wrap up this week of shows by heading over to The Camel for one of those intriguing shows you might never notice if they weren’t on an evening early in the week and relatively free of other distractions. Of course, it might just be me that kind of thing happens to, but considering you’re all reading my words here, I guess I’ll see if I can get y’all to look over a musical four-leaf clover that you might have overlooked before. This particular under-the-radar evening of killer tunes features Euphoria Again, a project led by John Klein. Best known as the guitarist for Philadelphia shoegazers Knifeplay, Klein takes a decidedly different musical approach in Euphoria Again. While this project started out with a bit of a slowcore sound, that all happened before he had joined Knifeplay and had an outlet for his interest in loud, hazy guitar explorations. When he revived Euphoria Again with 2021 LP Lifetime, he took things in a mellower, more pensive direction, and 2024 follow-up Waiting On Time To Fly is a mostly acoustic affair that gets downright countryish at times.
That’s not to say that the 2025 incarnation of Euphoria Again will bore all the shoegaze heads in the audience wanting to see the guy from Knifeplay’s other band. Euphoria Again create a multilayered atmosphere through use of synth textures and more abstract, less predictable song structures. That said, there’s clearly an influence from fellow Philadelphian Kurt Vile at work here, with that laid-back stoned-guitar jangle sensibility coming through in lovely ways throughout Waiting On Time To Fly. Euphoria Again may not be all that shoegaze-y, but they’ve got a lot to recommend them to the more psychedelically-inclined among you nonetheless. They’ll come to Richmond accompanied by Brooklyn’s Whitehall, who have a similarly laid-back sound, though they manage to somehow be simultaneously be twangier and funkier than Euphoria Again (though really, I suppose that depends on the song). Home state openers Dogwood Tales hail from Harrisonburg, and describe themselves as “emotional alt-country” — a description that leads me to fondly recall the first two Uncle Tupelo albums. Dogwood Tales actually do a great job of evoking those long-gone classics, albeit with a significant dose of stoned-out fuzz-guitar haze, on their most recent EP, Sending. I’m sure they’ll bring that sound to glorious life when they get this Tuesday night Camel show started. Make sure you’re there to come alive as well.
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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