RVA Shows You Must See This Week: June 28 – July 4
FEATURED SHOW
Thursday, June 29, 8 PM
Rodney “The Soul Singer” Stith @ The Tin Pan – $25 (order tickets HERE)
I’m gonna start this preview with a bit of a fakeout. You see, The Temptations and the Four Tops are playing here on Thursday night. In both cases, though, these groups are led by their sole surviving original member, who has filled out the current group with much younger stand-ins who were children when these groups were in their prime. Is that what you really want from a soulful night of live music? It seems to me that it’d be a much better idea to go see a soul singer whose career prime isn’t half a century ago, but right now. That’s exactly what you’ll get when you head to the Tin Pan this Thursday night to check out Rodney Stith, aka Rodney The Soul Singer.
Rodney The Soul Singer is still a young man, and only really started to make a name for himself on the Richmond music scene in the last couple of years. His first full-length release, The Soul Chronicles Of Rodney Stith, was released by Shockoe Records last year, and while it slipped under the radar of a lot of Richmonders, those who did hear it when it was first released could not stop talking about it. It’s generated a steadily growing buzz ever since, and for good reason: Rodney’s approach on The Soul Chronicles is refreshing, with its emphasis on full-band arrangements, powerful yet not overproduced vocals, and a sound that’s closer to the classic age of soul music than almost anything I’ve heard in the past decade. If you dug the work of sadly departed soul legends like Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, you need to hear Rodney The Soul Singer. He’s keeping that flame alive.
While all who’ve heard it acknowledge the brilliance of Rodney’s debut album, what’s really gotten everyone excited about his music is what a dynamic, energetic live performer he is. It doesn’t hurt that he brings an extremely talented live band, complete with horn section, every time he plays, but let’s be real — Rodney is always the star of the show, and the music he makes wouldn’t be nearly the same if it weren’t him up there at the front of it all. He’ll demonstrate that to you at The Tin Pan this Thursday night, and the Shockoe Records crew will be in attendance to welcome everyone — and to sell you a copy of The Soul Chronicles if you haven’t bought one yet. Both the CD and this show are well worth your time and attention, not to mention your disposable income. So join Rodney The Soul Singer at The Tin Pan Thursday night — it’ll brighten up your entire week.
Wednesday, June 28, 7 PM
Rosette presents: TJ Cole is… So Hot Right Now @ Artspace – $18 (order tickets HERE)
Way back at the beginning of the month, I made a note to myself: I have to include one of the six Rosette shows happening this month in the column at some point. Now that time has come, and if you don’t remember my previous coverage of this local string quartet and their irregular series of shows highlighting the work of current composers, then I’m excited to enlighten you! Rosette is a string quartet containing some players you may know from elsewhere — the Richmond Symphony being the most obvious, but also local ensembles like Goldrush, Miramar, and more. Their “So Hot Right Now” series of spotlight concerts began a few years ago, and always consists of several concerts over the course of a month at which they perform the work of a currently active classical composer — a great thing in a world where most classical composers whose music is regularly performed are all long dead. With their “So Hot Right Now” series, Rosette reminds us that classical music need not be an eternal reanimation of white European men from centuries past, but can (and should) be a living, breathing art form, full of vitality and freshness.
This time around, Rosette is celebrating the work of TJ Cole, a young non-binary composer and synthesizer player who is currently in a residency with the Louisville Orchestra. Cole’s music is inspired by their experience of synesthesia, in which sounds appear as colors and other visual phenomena. Rosette will be performing Cole’s “Playtime: 10 Miniatures for String Sextet,” joined by guest musicians Danielle Wiebe Burke on viola and Peter Greydanus on cello. “Playtime,” a piece inspired by memories of childhood and featuring whimsically named sections called things like “Fairy Wing Glitter Bees” and “Ooey Gooey Nursery Rhyme,” won a Leo Kaplan Award in 2020. These performances by Rosette are the first time the full work has been played in public since it was premiered in 2019. Obviously, you won’t frequently get a chance to hear something like this, or to support the excellent work that Rosette is doing. With that in mind, I think you know what to do — head out to Artspace tonight and expand your musical horizons. You won’t be sorry.
Thursday, June 29, 7 PM
Brass Tongue, Fixed View, Victim Of Suffering, Contact @ Bandito’s – $10 (order tickets HERE)
OK, it’s time to get back to my roots — which is to say, a good old hardcore show. There are a lot of these happening in town lately (always a good thing), and the best of them are frequently the work of Love Tiger Connection, a live music promotion company who are doing a lot right now to make Richmond a better place to see shows. This show represents the latest excellent lineup they’re bringing to us, and it’s every bit as exciting as the many LTC shows that have come before. At the top of the bill is Brass Tongue, a relatively new group hailing from Greenville, South Carolina. Their first EP, Dangerous World, was released just last summer, and it immediately threw down the gauntlet with a strong collection of metallic hardcore tunes guaranteed to get your blood flowing. If you dig what bands like Drain and Mindforce are up to lately, Brass Tongue is a band you should hear now, while they’re still on the come-up. If the singles they’ve released so far this year are any indication, they are definitely on the way up.
Fellow headliners Fixed View are also from the South, specifically from Jacksonville Florida, and while they show a similar drive and energy to that of Brass Tongue on their brand new Promo 2023 tape, there’s definitely a raw, noisy edge to Fixed View’s sound that should appeal to those who like their hardcore with a dollop of crust-punk rage stirred in. That being said, these two bands fit incredibly well together, and Tidewater band Victim Of Suffering is also an eminently apropos support band on this bill. The ragged fury of their Testament To The Living Proof EP will make these guys a powerful addition to this evening of mosh madness. The evening will begin with a set from Richmond’s own Contact, who will provide a hard-hitting set of the sort of politically informed hardcore they showed off on their 2022 debut LP, Before And Through And Beyond All Time. This one’s gonna be a ripper from beginning to end, and with a bonus opportunity to fuel up on Bandito’s tacos before the show starts, it absolutely gets my highest hardcore recommendation.
Friday, June 30, 6 PM
For The Fallen Dreams, VRSTY, Nerv, House Divided, Voids @ The Canal Club – $18 in advance, $20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
There are a lot of reasons to love The Canal Club, but the one that occurs to me most often is the fact that they’re Richmond’s most reliable host of veteran metalcore bands. I know there are people out there who’d love to shame me for it, but I’m not afraid to tell you all that I love a metalcore band that mixes clean vocal choruses and brutal screaming breakdowns. I even like it when bands like For The Fallen Dreams work unmistakable influences from nu-metal and hip hop into the mix. That’s the sort of sound FTFD excels in on their recently released self-titled album, the seventh album they’ve released over the past 15 years or so. There’s definitely a stronger melodic edge to their recent work, and Chad Ruhlig doesn’t scream as much as he used to, but in a live environment, all of these tunes are sure to hit every bit as hard as their earlier material.
As for the rest of the show, there are some solid openers, both local and touring, filling out the lineup. My favorite at first glance is Nerv, who released a moody, metallic emo album last year called We’re All Patients Here, a concept album about mental patients in an asylum. Thematically, it follows in the footsteps of mental-hospital-emo classics like Boys Night Out’s Trainwreck and Red Chord’s Clients (OK, that last one is chaotic metalcore), while it lands musically somewhere between that same Boys Night Out LP and bands like Issues. Meanwhile, VRSTY may be a little late for the whole all-caps-no-vowels band name trend, but I do dig their surprising sound, which is at the center of a Venn diagram featuring circles for hip hop, R&B, and metalcore. Yeah, I know that sounds bizarre, but it’s better than you’d ever expect. Norfolk’s House Divided will offer a heavier, more math-y take on the same melodic metalcore style a lot of these bands are working within, and Hagerstown, MD’s Voids, who have recently returned from a years-long hiatus, might just be the most purely heavy band on this bill. If you need this night to provide you with a fix of that Misery Signals/Underoath “still somehow melodic despite being heavy as fuck” vibe, well, show up on time, because Voids will have plenty of it awaiting you.
Saturday, July 1, 7:30 PM
Belly Of the Heart, Lobby Boy, Orangina, Peleona, Maiya @ Get Tight Lounge – $12 in advance, $16 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Listen, I’m an old lady. I never forget it for a second, and I can’t imagine any of you do either. But I try to be an old lady with perspective, you know? I’m not sitting around condemning all the new music that doesn’t sound just like stuff that was out when I was 22. If anything, I feel like if new music doesn’t leave me totally confused every once in a while, something is wrong. So in a weird way, I was totally stoked to discover Belly Of The Heart. They released an album a couple of months ago called Leech!, and I am pleased to announce that I don’t really understand it. I mean, I can catch some of the places they’re drawing influence from — weird electronic music, sassy white-girl pop a la early Kesha, first-LP Lana Del Rey’s hip hop torch songs, and a giant dose of 100 gecs’ hyperpop maximalism.
Indeed, it may be that hyperpop is the best genre label to slap on Belly Of The Heart, but at the same time it feels like it leaves a lot out. I dunno, really — like I said, I’m old and confused. But I do think that it’s perfectly logical for Belly Of the Heart to share the headline of this gig with Lobby Boy, an electro-indie group from Richmond who’ve moved toward dance-pop in a big way over the past couple years, especially with their new EP, Pure P.O.P. These guys and Belly Of the Heart may not sound exactly alike, but they’re on a similar wavelength, and if you’re digging one of them, you’ll probably vibe with the other in a big way. The rest of the bill is filled out by DJ sets, both from local artists and from members of Belly Of the Heart. They’ll certainly get you in the right mood for the two bands that are the stars of this show, so show up early and shake your groove thing. Or whatever the hip kids say nowadays.
Sunday, July 2, 7 PM
City Kings, Shadowland, Loud Night, Mel Machete @ Cobra Cabana – $12
This Sunday night, it’s time to get back to all of our roots, and kick it old-school in a manner that all our crazy uncles would understand and appreciate. We’re gonna do that by enjoying a barn-burning local gig by Los Angeles trio City Kings. From their hard-hitting uptempo riffs, which are never too fast but also never ease off, to the fact that they are a trio featuring a singing bassist with a throaty voice, these guys are just about as pure a tribute to classic Motorhead as you’ll ever encounter. They aren’t just bashing out covers of “Bomber,” “Overkill,” and “Ace Of Spades,” though — they’ve got a ton of songs that are all their own, as displayed with powerful panache on their new album, Steel Rock N’ Roll (see, even the LP title sounds like something Motorhead might say). If we all have to live in a world sadly lacking in Lemmy, then we can at least take comfort in the fact that City Kings have taken up the torch passed by Motorhead and are carrying it forward in outstanding fashion.
New York’s Shadowland are an excellent pairing for City Kings, perhaps the Girlschool to the Kings’ Motorhead. That said, I hear a good bit more Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in Shadowland than comes through in City Kings. The epic narratives and triumphant swords-and-sorcery vibe of classic power metal is all over Shadowland’s 2021 full-length debut, The Necromancer’s Castle, to the point that I kept expecting them to have a song based on a Robert E. Howard or Edgar Allan Poe short story. It never happened as far as I can tell, but if you’re the sort of metalhead who gets stoked when a song is about Poe-style subject matter, you’ll find a lot to love about Shadowland. The bill is rounded out by two excellent locals. Loud Night is the first, and they mix a decent Motorhead influence of their own into a harsh, metallic crust-core sound that makes them a good candidate for heaviest band on this bill. Mel Machete is the second, and they’ve got the same swaggering garage-punk dipped in sugary girl-group pop sound that made Sheer Mag famous. Wear your black denim jackets and bullet belts for this one.
Monday, July 3, 8 PM
Rikki Rakki, Work Wear, Colpa Mia @ Bandito’s – $10
When the night before the Fourth of July is a Monday, it makes for a weird day. The question of whether it’s part of a four-day mini-vacation or a random interruption in what should have been a long weekend is determined by one’s boss, but regardless of where your employers come down on that question, it’s still hard to know how to handle this random interstitial day, which is neither a weekend or a holiday but sorta kinda feels like both. This is probably why the local live music scene is operating on a pretty low-key level Monday night. Thankfully, Richmond almost never gives us a day without a reliably awesome show to look forward to. This Monday is no exception, and the venue that’s coming through in the clutch for us this time around is Bandito’s — a place that’s rstarting to be downright indispensble to the local scene. Shows like this are the reason why.
This one is headlined by Rikki Rakki, who I’m sure we’ve all enjoyed watching grow from an upstart local indie band to one of the more talented young ensembles on the local scene. Recent singles like “Breaking Skin” and “Crying In The Uber” have got me very excited for their next record, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Thankfully, we’ll get a big dose of their charming, catchy, jangly indie pop/rock at this show, and I can’t imagine it won’t include at least a few unreleased tunes to get us all even more stoked for Rikki Rakki’s latest release. We should also be stoked for a performance by Charlottesville’s Work Wear, who are indie-inclined in similar fashion to that of Rikki Rakki, but forsake some of the jangle in favor of a scrappier guitar sound that makes me think of Cloud Nothings, or classic New Zealand bands like The Clean and The Verlaines. The evening will open with a set from Richmonders Colpa Mia, whose indie sound is sunbleached, reverbed-out, and delightful to hear. Just as this whole show will be.
Tuesday, July 4, 3:30 PM
Full Moon Fever, DJ Sidewinder @ Hardywood – Free!
This Tuesday is the Fourth Of July, a day a lot of people love. It celebrates the United States of America, a place I sometimes find myself loving in that Captain America way, where you have to remember what it’s capable of at its best, rather than getting demoralized by the stupid shit it does at its worst, or you’ll have trouble loving this place at all. This year, I’m gonna try to keep a positive attitude even as nearly half the states in the union make their best attempt to outlaw important aspects of my existence, and one thing that’ll help me do that is listening to great music that comes from America. And of course, you can’t find much American music that is better than the songs of Tom Petty.
Petty is, of course, long gone from this earth, and we’ll never see his like again. But this Fourth Of July, we can still enjoy his music, live and in person, as Richmond’s own Tom Petty tribute band, Full Moon Fever, takes the stage at Hardywood to give us two full sets of Tom Petty music. Full Moon Fever is led by veteran Richmond musician Prabir Mehta, who has not only distinguished himself over the years leading multiple groups including Prabir & The Substitutes, Goldrush, and his current Prabir Trio, but has also fronted multiple tribute acts. The man is nothing if not an evangelist for the things he loves, and Tom Petty’s music is one of the things he loves the most. This is a big part of why Full Moon Fever are so great at evoking the spirit of Tom Petty: they don’t try to make the music perfect, they just play it sincerely, with passion and heart, just like Tom Petty himself. And at a time when I’m sure a good many of us are low-key pissed at America, hearing Full Moon Fever bring the music of one of our all-time greatest Americans to vibrant, passionate life is just what we need to remember why the Fourth Of July, and the country it symbolizes, still has something to offer, despite everything.
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
Not taking commissions right now — much as I could use the money, I’m just stretched too thin. But please consider supporting my Patreon, where I’m documenting my progress on two different novels and (sometimes) writing about music of all types. patreon.com/marilyndrewnecci
