RVA Shows You Must See This Week: June 21 – June 27
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, June 23, 9 PM
Destructo Disk, Lobby Boy, Rex Tycoon, Earfthgirl @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Destructo Disk has generally approached their music from a very particular place: that whole melodic punk mindset that puts the emphasis on irreverent fun and carries the punk spirit forward primarily in the sense of disrupting social conventions. You know what sort of band I mean: the kind who sings songs about pizza and skateboarding, whose live shows are a goofy blast of excess energy being channeled into catchy tunes played really fast. On last year’s Bad Gravity, Destructo Disk were true to the type with their bouncy, upbeat tunes carrying obvious influence from bands like Agent Orange and NOFX. But on their brand-new followup single, “I Look Up And See You” (premiered last week here at The Auricular), they’re starting to show some personal and musical growth, getting beyond the speedy skate-punk of Bad Gravity and into some real heart-on-sleeve emotion, stretched out over five minutes of lovelorn midtempo angst.
“I Look Up And See You” might be a harbinger of coming Destructo Disk sounds, or it might just be a random symptom of a bad breakup. I think it’s safe to say that when Destructo Disk take the stage at The Camel this Friday night, they’ll still be cranking out high-energy punk tunes with an insouciant flair. But we might also get a more open-hearted emotional depth from this band, who after all are not as young as they once were. It’s always nice to see talented artists challenge themselves, especially when they rise to that challenge as well as Destructo Disk has. And in fact, you could say the same of Lobby Boy, Destructo Disk’s co-headliners on this bill. They recently followed up their 2022 musical manifesto, Pretty Songs/Pursuits of Personhood, with a new EP on Richmond’s own Citrus City entitled Pure P.O.P. The title does not lie — the songs on this release find Lobby Boy moving past the electro-indie vibes of their earlier work into, well, pure pop. And honestly, we’re all better for it, as this release shows sure-footed mastery of pop production techniques, and even brings us some honest-to-goodness dance remixes that bring out a whole new side to their music.
Now, how will that all translate in a live environment? That remains to be seen. But what we can be sure of is that Lobby Boy will continue their tradition of riveting live performances that bring a very real human element to the fore, regardless of how far they go in the programming/synth direction. Like Destructo Disk, that spirit that has always animated their music will remain even as their sound grows and, dare I say, matures. As for the other bands on the bill, you can count on Pittsburgh’s Rex Tycoon to bring yet another musical genre to the event, with their noisy garage-punk riffage. They recently demonstrated the strength of said riffage on brand new EP What’s Good, and based on how these songs sound on record, we can expect Rex Tycoon to get us all moving once they take the stage. As for opener Earfthgirl, you can expect them to kick things off with some atmospheric electro-dance sounds that’ll get things started in fine fashion and with plenty of energy. In the end, that’s what all of these bands have in common. So if you arrive at this one tired from a long week, don’t worry — this show will perk you right up.
Wednesday, June 21, 7 PM
No/Mas, Knoll, Black Matter Device, LCTR @ Another Round Bar & Grill – $15
This evening of heavy sounds at Another Round promises to give your week an instant lift. The primary reason is No/Mas, one of two out-of-town headliners — though if you’ve been around the Richmond scene for a while, you’re probably familiar with their brand of fast, metallic grind. After all, this DC-based project is only a couple hours away; we’re lucky enough to get them into town on a relatively regular basis. If this has kept you from checking them out in the past, though, it’s time to fix that; the release of their 2022 LP Consume/Deny/Repent showed that No/Mas were not messing around, and the fact that they’ll arrive in Richmond in full-scale touring form means we should get them at the peak of their considerable powers. That’s not something you want to miss.
No/Mas tourmates Knoll, who hail from Tennessee, will bring plenty of raging power to this event as well. They bill themselves as deathgrind on their Instagram, and their latest LP, Metemperic, shows the clear influence of death metal on their guttural vocals and chugging low-end riffs. At the same time, there’s still plenty of high-velocity fury to their sound to please all the grind kiddies who just wanna hear a band get frantic. With local support from Black Matter Device included on this bill, we’ll definitely get a bonus shot of uptempo chaotic metalcore craziness, while relatively new openers LCTR will be showing off the skull-crushing power of their heavy hardcore. Their debut EP, Goodness Won’t Save You From The Fire, features somewhat of a wrestling theme, and that’s always awesome. Will their be powerbombs in the pit during their set? You’ll have to show up to find out.
Thursday, June 22, 8 PM
Muck, Bogus Machine, Bruiser, Curriculum, Ultra Bleach @ Bandito’s – $10
I’m not as in the loop as I’d like to be these days, and a lot of it is because I’m getting old. When I’ve gotta be up at 6 am for work five days a week, it’s hard to make it til midnight to catch the last band on a show. So I don’t get out too often, and sometimes that can be frustrating, because I still want to hear all the new bands everyone’s talking about, and sometimes they just don’t have any music online. That was how things were with Richmond hardcore punk band Muck for about a year or so, but luckily for me, they released a tape a few months ago with some really great songs. Lo-fi, full of energy, and with really angry, snotty lyrics — turns out Muck is hardcore punk just the way you want it: full of piss and vinegar. So that’s what you’ll get when you keep yourself awake late enough to catch their headlining set at Bandito’s this Thursday night. It’ll certainly be worth the extra hours awake and the sleepiness at work Friday morning.
As for Bogus Machine, while I remember them being around a decade or so ago and feel like they were a punk band with members of some other local indie and punk bands from the late 00s, I can’t really confirm any of that, because they still don’t have any presence online. For all I know, this isn’t even the same Bogus Machine! It’s worth taking a shot and finding out, though — especially since they’re playing right between the aforementioned Muck and formidable Richmond hardcore quartet Bruiser. Bruiser have significantly refined their sound since last year’s two-song demo, and demonstrated their newly sharp and slightly more metallic take on old-school hardcore on their brand new EP, Natural Justice. This set is gonna hit hard. Curriculum finds former members of long-gone Richmond postpunk band Field Day coming back together to create a significantly harder attack that still shows some of those noisy postpunk edges, and despite the recordings I’ve heard being only of the lowest fidelity, I can tell you that there’s an undeniable fury inherent in this band that will make them a great fit on this bill. Things open up with a set from Ultra Bleach, who are playing their first show ever, and that’s all I know about them. On the whole, this will be yet another excellent hardcore/punk evening at Bandito’s — especially if you have a plate of nachos first.
Friday, June 23, 7 PM
Alien Boy, Glare, Old Suns @ Bandito’s – $15 in advance, $18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
This is gonna be sweet. Portland’s Alien Boy are a total treat of a listen, and they’re still slipping below the radar for way too many people, so whatever I can do to fix that, I hope to do it. Right here and right now is a great time for that, right? So here goes: 2021’s Don’t Know What I Am is still the most recent Alien Boy offering (a streaming-service-confusing dubstep compilation by some other artist named Alien Boy notwithstanding), but two years after its release, it only continues to grow on me. What I’ve started realizing is that there’s a lot in common between this modern indie band with shoegaze touches and a particular classic band of a similar style from back when I was in high school in the early 90s: Velocity Girl. Is this too obscure a reference for anyone who isn’t, like me, Of A Certain Age? I’m not sure, so let’s get away from the specific references and just talk about the fact that Alien Boy have a plenitude of killer power-pop riffs that pull in the perfect amount of shoegaze-style guitar fuzz and feedback, as well as the propulsive energy of the best pop-punk. Songs like “The Way I Feel” and “Dear Nora” are perfect lovelorn anthems that will make a home in your brain for years to come — and you’ll be so glad they did.
There, you convinced to spend your Friday night at Bandito’s yet? If not, let’s not even get into the nachos (I’ve already hit my one-mention-per-column quota). Let’s instead talk about South Texas band Glare, who are the co-headliners on this three-band bill, which comes to us courtesy of reliably awesome show booker Love Tiger Connection. Glare have been releasing records since the mid-10s but have still not brought out a full-length, content instead to give us a series of EP-sized chunks of music over the last five years. They recently reissued their first two singles as the four-song Into You/Void In Blue EP, but their latest new jam is actually the “Bloom” single, which casts a Slowdive-shaped shadow that is very pleasant to stand beneath, especially if you love side one of Just For A Day as much as I do. I’m making References Of A Certain Age again, aren’t I? Glare’s glittering melodies and languid atmospherics waft you away on pillows of soft guitar fuzz, in a manner that manages to be both overtly beautiful and subtly heavy. Openers Old Suns hail from Raleigh, NC, meaning that this entire bill is an opportunity to see bands that are not normally in town. So be sure to get there on time, because this opportunity to rock out to the heavy, fuzzy indie rock sounds of Old Suns won’t come around again next week or anything — and you definitely won’t want to miss it.
Saturday, June 24, 7 PM
Clishae, Sunflower’d, Handsome Grandson @ Ipanema – $5 (order tickets HERE)
Anyone who knows me knows I’m into some pretty extreme forms of music. Grindcore, experimental noise, angry hardcore… it’s all awesome to me. But what style of music do I tend to listen to most often? Well, in truth, it’s probably some form of alt-rock. Which is why, regardless of the fact that I’m way more likely to talk about metal or punk in this column, the “Alt Night” taking place at Ipanema on Saturday night is probably the single show most squarely up my alley of this whole entire week. I was a little worried it might not be my thing when I first looked at the flyer, considering I’d never heard any of these bands, but one trip to Apple Music cured me of all those worries very quickly. Because see, here’s the thing: there are some really, really good bands playing this show.
First and foremost, we should start by talking about Clishae, whose name appears to be a clever misspelling of “cliche.” Fair enough, but these guys feel like they rise far above cliche level to me. They’ve only got two singles out, but both “That Damn Dog” and “Smiley Face Knee Tattoo” are so catchy and fun that I really hope they bring out more ASAP. Of course, the quickest way to get more highly toe-tapping melodic alt-rock from Clishae is to go see them at Ipanema this Saturday night. As for Sunflower’d, an equally new Richmond band, who also only have two singles out, their sound is a fair bit darker and moodier than that of Clishae. However, new single “Mary” creates just as formidable an atmosphere and unleashes just as memorable a chorus as anything Clishae bring to the table. Openers Handsome Grandson are a bit of a mystery, at least to me — they’ve only been playing shows for a few months, and don’t have any recordings out there yet. But that’s OK; a big part of the fun here is going to be hearing some new bands with some catchy new songs that you’ve never heard before. Experience what it was like to go to a show in the pre-internet era and roll up to this one. I promise you won’t be sorry.
Sunday, June 25, 7 PM
Flummox, Orbweaver, Rest Aside @ Richmond Music Hall At Capital Ale House – $10 (order tickets HERE)
It’s rough to be transgender and from the South, and at a time where I’m just thanking my lucky stars every day that my home state hasn’t passed any anti-trans laws yet (vote Democrat in November, y’all), it’s been really important to me to support the work of other trans people, especially those who are also from the South. Therefore I was immediately drawn to Flummox, a band I’ve somehow missed up until now despite their having existed for over a decade. Flummox are from Nashville, Tennessee, which would be a wild place to play the sort of avant-garde progressive metal that they play, even if they weren’t made up of a bunch of queer and trans people. Their music is so original, so fascinating, so unforgettable, that I’d honestly want to support them even if they were a bunch of cis straight white dudes from Chicago or something. The fact that they have a single called “Trans Girls Need Guns” is honestly just a bonus at this point.
Flummox’s most recent album, 2022’s Rephlummoxed, is full of high-concept multi-part songwriting, epic thrash riffs, and jazzy basslines, as well as some nigh-operatic screams that might just remind you of what would happen if King Diamond and Les Claypool made an album in collaboration with Children Of Bodom. It can sometimes feel a little absurd, but if you can appreciate a small dose of Zappa in your music, you’ll definitely get a kick out of Flummox. Also, if you’re a fan of supernatural horror literature, you should appreciate the fact that they have a song based on Arthur Machen’s “The Great God Pan.” Once again, something that probably would have gotten me in the door even if this band was full of straight cis white dudes from Chicago. Flummox is more than sufficient reason for you to hit up this show, but the fact that you’ll also get sets from Richmond’s own Orbweaver and Rest Aside should sweeten the pot a bit. Orbweaver have a ripping metal sound with some grunge tinges that hark back to early Soundgarden, while Rest Aside capture that metallic industrial gothic feel that made Fear Factory’s late 90s peak so exciting. Yup, this one’s gonna rule.
Monday, June 26, 7 PM
VA Summer Blaze, feat. Chuloway, Vinny Anthony, Honeymoon, Dugger, Icarus, Rasul, Wooh75, Price, Pgbrenegade, WhoJunior, Lucid Dreamer, CEO.WAV @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Writing about hip hop shows can be tough. For one thing, there’s often so many different names on the flyer that it can be tough to pin down who’s actually playing. And then when you do get it spelled out pretty straightforwardly, you still might end up thinking, “Wow, that many people? Is that even possible on one four-hour show?” I can’t tell you exactly what everyone playing this Chuloway Records showcase, entitled VA Summer Blaze, sounds like. I can’t tell you how to look all of them up online. I’m not even 100% confident the list above includes everyone who is playing and no one who isn’t. But I do know one thing for sure: hip hop shows in the summertime are always a killer party. And there are enough incredible artists on this bill that you should definitely take your chances on the ones we don’t know as much about.
Chuloway himself is for sure at the top of this bill, giving us some of that modern hip hop sound that seems to slip backwards into R&B and soul music due to the fact that, despite the heavy beats and hip hop production, features soulfully sung vocals, often fed through AutoTune, a la T-Pain. His 2022 album, Lost In My Mind (Into), is full of moody jams for the introspective young hip hop fan, and the mix of melancholy vocals and pounding beats should certainly have everyone in their feelings on Monday night. The rest of the bill appears to feature something like a dozen other performers, including some W1TCHCR4FT-affiliated artists like Honeymoon and Lucid Dreamer, some straightforward rhymespitters like Pgbrenegade, and even folks like WhoJunior who split the difference between soulful crooning and hardcore rapping. You’ll get all sorts of sounds from all corners of the modern Virginia hip hop scene, and that’s a pretty amazing thing to get a crash course in for ten bucks on a Monday night. You really shouldn’t miss out on this one — even if there is the potential for a few surprises where the show lineup is concerned. It’ll be all good.
Tuesday, June 27, 7 PM
Live Skull, Ett Eko, Opin @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $15 (order tickets HERE)
New York noise legends Live Skull have a lengthy history, one that might stretch on quite a bit farther than even their fans realize. When they started to get a lot of notice on the underground rock scene of the mid-80s, they featured Thalia Zedek on lead vocals — a legend in her own right, who went on to sing in early 90s alt-rock sensations Come, and has since had a lengthy solo career. That incarnation of Live Skull went by the wayside as the 80s changed over to the 90s, and the band didn’t reappear on the scene for over 20 years. When it did come back, though, it was without Zedek; instead, founding guitarist Mark C. recruited a few other former members and took on the role of lead vocalist in the reunited version of Live Skull.
Since then, the band has released three LPs — almost as many as they released during their 80s heyday — and each of those three have further proven that a couple of decades off did nothing to dull Live Skull’s razor-sharp sound. Their brand new album, Party Zero, was only released a few weeks ago, and it’s already made a big splash in the modern postpunk/indie scene. For good reason, too — not only does the band still have a knack for killer tunes, they are able to combine noise, melody, and multilayered moods in a fashion that sucks the listener right in and does not let go until the album comes to a close. If you appreciate Sonic Youth, Joy Division, The Leaving Trains, or Unsane, you’re sure to appreciate Live Skull. Their post-reunion track record is so solid that, at this point, it probably isn’t even fair to continue referring to their current lineup as a “reunion lineup.” They’re just a killer band with a four-decade legacy — one you should familiarize yourself with this Tuesday night. Relatively new local postpunkers Ett Eko will get this show started, along with a set from the always intriguing experimental indie-electronic collective known as Opin. Don’t miss this one.
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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