RVA Shows You Must See This Week: April 9 – April 15
FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, April 12, 7 PM
Municipal Waste 25th Anniversary Party, feat. Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, Midnight, Dropdead, Enforced @ The National – $38.50 (order tickets HERE)
A quarter-century ago, when I was going to see Municipal Waste in tiny clubs and punkhouse basements around Richmond, I never would have guessed that they’d one day become a local cultural institution. After all, these were goofballs in Hawaiian shirts and board shorts playing crossover thrash riffs and screaming about sharks attacking surfers while kids wearing clown wigs stagedove off of spring-mounted boogie boards. However, with the impending celebration of their 25th anniversary at The National this Saturday night, their importance to Richmond’s musical legacy is even more assured than it already was. Indeed, they’ve basically become to RVA millennials what GWAR was to Generation X — the metal-thrashing goofball kings of the city.
If any millennials among you are going, “Wait, does that mean I’m OLD?” well, I’ve got some bad news for you (though I imagine you already got the news from those grey hairs you see in the mirror every morning). But take heart — this just means you can go see Municipal Waste in a big air-conditioned venue where you can sit up on the balcony or chill by the bar drinking craft brews while kids who are somehow 15 years younger than you AND old enough to go to a Municipal Waste show do the moshing for you. By the way, if you’re reading this and you ARE one of those kids — don’t worry, everyone involved knows you’re the coolest ones of us all.
But so let’s talk about the music we’re gonna hear at this show. From their earliest EPs (such as the recently reissued action-movie-venerating 2003 masterpiece Tango and Thrash) to their most recent full-length, 2022’s Electrified Brain, Municipal Waste have maintained a high level of shred-tastic brilliance, mingling influences from classic skatepunk with grindcore tempos and thrash-metal guitars — and always remembering not to take themselves too seriously. Whether you’re drinking a craft beer in the back or crowd-surfing in a sleeveless t-shirt, you’re sure to have a blast hearing these guys lay out a quarter-century’s worth of thrashy metallic crossover hardcore punk brilliance.
That’s not even to mention how great all of the other bands on this bill are. Toxic Holocaust, who once released an incredible split EP with Municipal Waste entitled Toxic Waste, are definitely an essential inclusion for this celebration of the Waste’s 25th anniversary, and will fit right in on this bill, even if this long-running Portland grind-crust-thrash ensemble is a bit more deadly serious than the Waste boys. Blackened d-beat hardcore punk thrash madness is their stock in trade, and they’ll dish it out at top quality. Cleveland death-thrash rippers Midnight will add a strong dose of harsh, throaty rage to the proceedings, giving fans of legends like Venom and Slayer plenty to smile about. Left-wing political grindcore legends Dropdead will offer a double dose of blast beats, powered by a fury at our fascist system that is well beyond appropriate under today’s circumstances. And of course, local thrash heroes Enforced, who at eight years into their career are mere neophytes compared to our headliners, will get things started with some metallic mosh fire. Give yourself a bangover at this one for old times’ sake.
Wednesday, April 9, 8 PM
Vastum, Goetia, Left Cross @ Bandito’s – $20 in advance, $25 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It’s a metal-heavy week here at RVA Must-See Shows, and I don’t know how y’all feel about it but I’m pretty fuckin’ stoked at all the headbanging going on around here this week. It all starts on this very night over at Bandito’s — my favorite place to purchase and consume huge plates of nachos, as I’m sure my readers know — where Bay Area death-metal ensemble Vastum will be firing up the guttural low-end steamroller of riffage and squashing all of our heads with it tonight. Yes, that’s a good thing — when you hear the kind of downtuned sludge death and guttural roars that these folks delight in, you can’t help but rejoice with a big ol’ stompy circle pit of headbanging fury. Specifically, those who love classic death-metal milestones by bands like Autopsy and Incantation will really appreciate the way Vastum focuses on the slower end of the spectrum without sacrificing an ounce of heaviness — or of creativity. There’s not a dull moment on their fifth and most recent LP, 2023’s Inward To Gethsemane, and there won’t be when they hit the Bandito’s stage either.
Vastum will be joined on their run through town by DC deathgrind mavens Goetia, who fall entirely on the other end of the speed spectrum from Vastum; their recently-released third EP, Otherworldly Agency, keeps the tempos high and the guitars shredding throughout the proceedings. This makes for an exciting listening experience, and when this trio lets it rip in the Diablo Room tonight, you know you’ll get all the speed and intensity you could ask for — and then some. Rounding out the bill this fine evening will be Richmond metal veterans Left Cross, whose old-school guttural death growl has been refined for maximum velocity over the past decade or so, and is sure to blow away anyone not sufficiently prepared for their classic Death/Morbid Angel-style take on first-wave Florida death metal. Give the rest of your week a jumpstart of pure ripping fury — come to Bandito’s tonight.
Thursday, April 10, 8 PM
Waste Spring Kickback Pre-Party, feat. Asshole Parade, Morbikon, Stepmother, Suppression, Shooting Pain @ Cobra Cabana – $17 (order tickets HERE)
Technically, this Thursday night blowout at Cobra Cabana is just the pre-party for the big Municipal Waste 25th anniversary party weekend, meaning that it doesn’t quite count as part of the extended celebration the Waste boys are throwing on Friday and Saturday. As far as I’m concerned, though, it more than counts — not only does the weekend always start on Thursday anyway for hard-partying reprobates like the Waste, the lineup for this rip-roaring extravaganza at Cobra Cabana definitely deserves to be ranked alongside the incredible lineups hitting stages around town on the other two nights (by the way, the only reason you’re not reading about night 2 of 3 in this column is because it was sold out by Monday when I started work on this week’s edition). Look no further for proof of awesomeness than the headliners — maniacal Florida grindcore legends Asshole Parade are at the top of this bill, and these guys have three decades of wild n’ crazy hyperspeed thrash chaos on their resume.
From the legendary Student Ghetto Violence compilation of their 90s material to the trio of incredible EPs (Say Goodbye, Embers, and Welcome Fucking Home) they released in the 00s after a substantial layoff, and even the unexpectedly delightful Demo 2020 that came out of nowhere to blow everybody’s minds a few years back, Asshole Parade’s catalog is unimpeachable, and all the mophead boys and reefer tokers who get stoked at the mere mention of their name know exactly what they’re talking about. If you don’t, this is your golden opportunity to find out. You’ll also get to hear a set of the blurr-core noise/grind pumped out by legendary Richmond duo Suppression, who once toured with Asshole Parade and have if anything gotten crazier, noisier, and more chaotic over their three decades of existence. We’ll also get a sneaky bonus set from Municipal Waste side project Morbikon, which finds Waste bassist Landphil Hall and drummer Dave Witte teaming up with Finntroll vocalist Vreth to bring us some classic Mayhem/Bathory-style black metal awesomeness. Then there’s Stepmother, the Australian power trio fronted by Annihilation Time axe-slinger Graham Clise and dishing out some classic Aussie-style punked-up fuzz-rock awesomeness. Brand new NYC/Richmond-based metallic punk band Shooting Pain gets this one started with a big fast angry kick in the ass. Don’t just stand around making observations like you’re Isaac fuckin’ Newton — start the pit already!
Friday, April 11, 8 PM
Dropheads, The Sewerheads, Receiver @ Fuzzy Cactus – $12
While I am having a ton of fun with this week’s column, I know some of you are getting sick of the wall-to-wall thrash chaos. Well, don’t worry — no woman can survive on thrash alone. Not even me! Therefore I am pleased to mix it up for this Friday night show at Fuzzy Cactus, where Pittsburgh indie rock project The Sewerheads will take the stage to enrapture us all with a unique and intriguing mix of moody postpunk and theatrical folk. Formed by Gotobeds leader Eli Kasan and violinist Shani Banerjee, this group churns up a dark, ominous windstorm of a sound, which is showcased to devastating effect on their 2024 debut, Despair Is A Heaven. If you like the idea of Over The Edge-era Wipers collaborating with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in the midst of a spectral tornado, you’re sure to love what The Sewerheads have in store for you.
Richmonders Dropheads are also on this bill, and while on the surface this may seem to be a very different sort of band — google searches will yield multiple instances of people calling them a surf music project — in fact, Dropheads have a lot in common with The Sewerheads, and not just because both of their band names end in “-heads.” Dropheads are a bit more of a conventionally rock-based project — no violins here — but they definitely get dark and moody on a regular basis, which isn’t necessarily what you’d expect from a surf band. They capture the ramshackle uptempo vibes of classic 70s punk, and mix them in with 90s-style alt-rock, too. If you can appreciate both Urge Overkill and The Cramps, you’ll surely get a big kick out of this band. Local newcomers Receiver will get things started with their scrappy brand of driving alt-rock. It may not be metal, but it sure will be great.
Saturday, April 12, 8 PM
Shrudd, Power Pants, Lion Country Ferrari, Franky & The Slight Incline @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10
One good night in northside visiting Richmond’s 21st century home of rock n’ roll deserves another, wouldn’t you say? So why not follow up your Friday night at Fuzzy Cactus with another trip through this Brookland Park Boulevard hot spot to catch another totally unique touring band? Shrudd are bringing their mutant punk weirdness to Fuzzy this Saturday night, and they’re sure to thrill anyone who ever listened to a Devo record and thought, “You know, these guys are entirely too normal for me.” Their herky-jerky take on synth punk noise chaos has a distinct whiff of evil technology on their latest EP, For Budding Astrophysicists and Backyard Astronomers, and in an era where it seems like supposedly intelligent idiots are trying to have our entire government infrastructure torn apart and replaced with crappy AI, that feels entirely appropriate. Better to spend your Saturday night jerking back and forth to the music of this maniacal Louisville quintet than to sit around the house thinking about how much worse the economy’s gonna get next week, right?
Winchester-based Sockhead Records affiliates Power Pants will join Shrudd at Fuzzy Cactus on Saturday night, and these folks actually refer to themselves as “egg punk,” so you should definitely expect lo-fi synth punk with vaguely Ramones-ish song structures and muffled yet catchy vocals. Power Pants are impossibly prolific, having seemingly released seven LPs and countless EPs in the past three years, but the quality of the music definitely does not suffer, and it’ll have you dancing up a storm this Saturday night. And isn’t that what we really all want out of a Saturday night? I dunno, maybe that’s just me. Asheville, NC’s memorably named Lion Country Ferrari will be in attendance as well, cranking out some bouncy, tightly wound postpunk tunes that should thrill fans of legends like Wire or the early Minutemen, complete with excellently snarky lyrics. Fellow North Carolinians Franky & The Slight Incline will join Lion Country Ferrari on the trip up to Richmond, and will bring what’s sure to be the most straightforward old-school punk sound of the entire evening — though even these folks have hidden depths, if you feel like going beyond the circle-pit tempos and gruff vocalisms. This one will be a blast for all the punks — even the ones that aren’t secretly just nerds.
Sunday, April 13, 8 PM
Ari Voxx & the Sad Lads, Debrider, Human Worm @ Bandito’s – $15
With a name like theirs, you could be forgiven for expecting Ari Voxx & The Sad Lads to be some sort of moody emo-punk project. And there’s no denying that a sort of spiritual punk attitude infuses their music, but this band really has nothing to do with anything that sounds like My Chemical Romance. Instead, Ari Voxx & The Sad Lads make catchy keyboard-driven New Wave-style pop that sounds like an alternate universe version of early 80s bands like ABC or The Eurythmics, only with a witty sensibility that’s perfect for our modern moment of peak societal alienation. Their 2023 debut, which was given the absolutely brilliant title of I’m Okay, Please Stop Asking, is crammed full of catchy tunes that will get stuck in your head just as surely as a classic top 40 single from 1985, and also manages to sound far more like the creation of a few musicians playing in a room together than the bedroom creations that have become the dominant sound in modern indie pop.
So yeah, what I’m saying is that Ari Voxx & The Sad Lads are an absolute blast to listen to, and should be a delight to witness when they hit Bandito’s this Sunday night to cap off our early spring weekend. They’ll be joined on this bill by ethereal shoegaze veterans Debrider, who’ve had quite a few different incarnations over the years but have settled over the past year or two into a guitar/synth duo with a dark, foreboding sound mixing the funereal indie mood of The Cure circa Seventeen Seconds with the floating melodic haze of the Cocteau Twins at their most ambient. Vibe with it. And make sure you show up on time to this one, so you don’t miss openers Human Worm. This synth-noise trio recently released their first single, “Mega Bitch,” and its wall of noise mix contrasts well with their surprisingly melodic three-part vocal harmonies. If you haven’t discovered Human Worm yet, don’t miss your chance to do so this weekend — and stick around for a show that’s sure to be wall-to-wall incredible.
Monday, April 14, 7:30 PM
Out Of Your Head Records presents Second Mondays, feat. Bouchard/Rayburn/Scott-Celedon, Gen Ken Montgomery & The Enchantress of Bioluminosity @ Artspace – $15
I’m always thrilled to see what the avant-garde jazz heads over at Out Of Your Head Records will unveil for us on their monthly Second Mondays showcases at Artspace. That said, I will freely admit that sometimes I only have the vaguest idea of what to expect. That’s even more true this time around than it has been on many prior occasions of this showcase appearing within this column. Neither of these ensembles have appeared at previous OOYH showcases, and I’m not sure they’ve ever appeared in these configurations at all. Nonetheless, I will attempt to explain what we all have in store. First up on the bill is a trio made up of Sara Bouchard, Chrystine Rayburn, and Robert Scott-Celedon, which will apparently engage in experimental improvisation using mandolin, bass clarinet, synth, vocals, and objects — the last of which I’m guessing will produce percussive noises, mainly. While Bouchard has a background in folk music, Rayburn’s main work has been with found sounds and field recordings, while Scott-Celedon works as a chamber music composer and has collaborated with Classical Revolution RVA and Rumput, among other local ensembles.
So what will these three create when they come together? I’d say the sky is really the limit, especially considering the breadth of their musical interests and the variety of their experience. In the end, we’ll all just have to wait and see, but I’m sure it’ll be a rich sonic experience regardless of how it all turns out. As for our other performers, Gen Ken Montgomery and The Enchantress of Bioluminosity, they’ll combine for a multimedia performance in which they’ll apparently explore quantum entanglements and give us a sense of oceanic depths and the sound of plate tectonics. What that could actually sound like is not something I can begin to guess, but I doubt it will be very much like anything any of us have heard before. Montgomery’s impressive background in the world of avant-garde compositions and mail art show that his experimental credentials are impeccable, while the Enchantress of Bioluminosity has extensive experience in everything from traditional Middle Eastern dances to multimedia performance art. So yeah, I expect something truly unique from this performance. If anything, my difficulty beginning to guess what it might sound like is a point in its favor.
Tuesday, April 15, 7 PM
Wormrot, No/Mas, Bandit, Circle Breaker, Burn/Ward @ Cobra Cabana – $18 (order tickets HERE)
We have come full circle with this week’s column, by which I mean we are wrapping up with another show of full-on grindcore metal noise chaos. And I for one am stoked as hell about it. The first and foremost reason for my high levels of stoke-age is that Wormrot are headlining this evening of blast beat utopia at Cobra Cabana. Wormrot, a Singaporean grindcore trio, first blew my mind when they came through Richmond back in 2012 on tour in support of their second LP, Dirge. They absolutely tore it up over at Gallery 5, and I’ve never forgotten it. They went through a lot of changes and evolutions over the dozen or so years since, but somehow despite several big lineup shifts, they returned to their original trio lineup last year, and are now coming to the USA once more in support of their EP compilation release Left To Rot and their soon-to-be-released first live LP, TNT.
A lot may have happened in the years since that Gallery 5 show, but Wormrot’s music has always remained a 1000-mph bullet train of grindcore fury, and considering how great the preview tunes I’ve heard from TNT sound, I fully expect them to equal the hellacious power of that long-ago performance. If you weren’t there back then — and I can’t imagine many of you were — you’ll definitely want to head over to Cobra Cabana on Tuesday night and see how hectic this power trio from the other side of the world can truly get. You’ll get to hear some pretty great domestic sounds as well, starting with No/Mas. This metallic grind powerhouse may claim DC as their home base, but they make it down to Richmond often enough that I’m sure any veteran fastcore heads from here in the river city have caught them at least a time or two — in which case, you know what a treat you’ll be in for Tuesday night. Philadelphia grinders Bandit will bring plenty of blastbeat fury all their own, with a decidedly more panicked feel (always great). And of course, Richmonders Circle Breaker will bring their brutal blackened brand of metallic queercore to level us all. Rounding out the bill is a particularly delightful treat — the return of Burn/Ward, a veteran Richmond-based grind quartet featuring members of Enforced, The Catalyst, Unsacred, and Street Pizza (among others) laying down some raw, noisy pedal-to-the-metal fury. It’s gotta be their first show in over five years, and we should all be stoked for it — especially since there’s no telling when they’ll play another one. The Trump tariffs are sure to kill the market for international grindcore, so come to this one and grind your face off while you have the chance.
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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