RVA Shows You Must See This Week: June 3 – June 9
FEATURED SHOW
Friday, June 5, 5 PM
Make Space opening reception, feat. Logan From The Internet (main photo courtesy of Tall Joshua), DuctTape Jesus, Erin Lunsford, You’neek Nu’york, Alayla Armon, Spurweezy @ Gallery 5 – Free!
When you’ve been around for a time in which civil rights were steadily being expanded and new achievements in societal acceptance and diversity were happening on a regular basis, it can be hard to look around yourself and see that all of that shit is busily being rolled back by ignorant fascists with bibles and bulldozers, ready to re-impose all of the hateful, discriminatory “values” of our grandparents era that we thought we’d all agreed to leave behind. Racism, xenophobia, hatred toward the transgender community — these are the civil rights erosions that are getting the most press these days, but it’s happening in a lot of other societal areas as well, from people trying to bring back the r-slur in an orgy of ableism, to the concerning rise of GLP drugs making everyone think it’s ok to hate people who aren’t as thin as the TV and our TikTok FYP tell us we should be.
The art show presented by RVA Fatties at Gallery 5 starting this Friday is an attempt to demand representation and respect for a marginalized group you might not have thought about — fat people, and specifically fat artists, who are likely to be pushed to the back of the line for attention as creators in favor of folks whose bodies fit the standards of our modern internet era. Make Space is an art show that says “fuck all that,” instead focusing on fat artists, who have every right to be recognized as creators who deserve to take up space. All sorts of works in all sorts of media will be on display here — photography, painting, sculpture, mixed media and more. And it’s all by fat artists who are showing up and demanding the space they deserve.
You should definitely show up early for this one and give yourself plenty of time to check out the art in this show. But once you’ve absorbed it all, there’ll be plenty of great music and performance to enjoy throughout the evening. Musically speaking, Logan From The Internet — the mastermind behind rva.lol — is listed at the top of the bill, and based on the name alone, you might be expecting some sort of quirky Atom And His Package style solo project. Logan From The Internet does indeed turn out to be a solo project, and idiosyncratic charm is exactly what you get from his catalog, mostly through singer-songwriter compositions. More recently, he’s added Former Teenage Big Deal to his discography, a delightful LP packed with screaming, frustrated punk bursts, occasionally punctuated by internet-poisoned samples. I don’t know which version of Logan you’ll get at Gallery5, but either way, expect nonstop fun and plenty of catchy moments. Just to keep things interesting, the show will also feature sets by local hip hop superstar DuctTape Jesus, whose loose, vibe-heavy rhymes and beats will get everybody in the place on their feet. Erin Lunsford is perhaps best known for her work up front for Erin & The Wildfire, but her solo material offers plenty of joy all its own, more folky and less poppy than her band, but every bit as catchy and delightful. Show up and find out for yourself, and enjoy drag performances from You’neek Nu’york (possibly the best drag name I’ve ever heard) and Alayla Armon, plus music from DJ Spurweezy to keep the vibes going before and between sets. Head down to Gallery 5 this Friday night and take up space at this show — you’ll be glad you did.
Wednesday, June 3, 8 PM
JoVia Armstrong, with Mike Hawkins, Calvin Brown, Jackson Shurlds, Karl Tietze @ Reveler Experiences – $17.50 (order tickets HERE)
There’s a particular type of jazz gig that happens at Reveler Experiences on a semi-regular basis, and any example of this sort of thing deserve your immediate and undivided attention. I speak, of course, of the gigs in which some noted jazz luminary from beyond Richmond’s borders makes their way to this city and performs a set over at Reveler with a backing group led by bassist extraordinaire Mike Hawkins. I figure this can’t possibly be a coincidence — and hey, I respect the heck out of that. Mike’s getting great players from around the jazz world to come to Richmond and play with he and his band? Sounds like a lovely phenomenon for all of us to enjoy. And if the man gets to play with a whole bunch of musicians he massively respects as part of the bargain, well, it’s hard to have any issue with that.
This time around, it’s Detroit-based percussionist and composer JoVia Armstrong who is coming to town. Known for her experimental approach to music, she’s a member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and an Afrofuturist who enjoys fusing classic Black musical traditions with futuristic technology for a style of music that is optimistic and forward looking but also strongly connected to its roots. What will happen when Mike Hawkins and the rest of his talented bandmates join her for tonight’s performance remains to be seen, but you can bet it will go to unexpected places and showcase a massive amount of talent, both homegrown and from beyond the river city’s borders. Make sure you’re there to see it all go down — this kind of thing happens a lot more than it used to, but it’s still a rare treat for this city’s jazz faithful.
Thursday, June 4, 7 PM
Hudson Freeman, Lots Of Hands, You Bet @ The Camel – $25.25 (order tickets HERE)
I hadn’t heard of Hudson Freeman before I found out he was coming to town, but I sure am glad the show promotion gods saw fit to bless me with this one. Freeman, a young singer-songwriter who started out in Texas, then got led all around the world (most notably Eswatini, fka Swaziland) by his missionary parents before landing in New York at the height of the pandemic, has an intriguing take on the melange of country, blues, folk, and indie sounds that mingle together in his music. His twangy voice reflects his Southern roots, his tendency to incorporate digital beats and subtle distorted effects into his tunes reflects his modern sensibility, and his brilliantly simple approach to acoustic slide guitar pulls it all together with skills that he learned while trying to keep himself occupied in countries where he knew no one and didn’t speak the language.
Freeman’s latest album, from last year, is called Hudson Freeman Is A Folk Artist, and that’s certainly a true claim to all appearances. However, dismissing this artist as just another Bob Dylan… or, fuck, Noah Kahan type will cause you to miss the many different elements his music has to offer, from thought provoking lyrics to fascinatingly unpredictable structural decisions that make his songs simultaneously feel like a warm hug and keep you from ever getting too comfortable. UK ensemble Lots Of Hands will accompany Freeman on his trip through town, bringing their eclectic approach and virtuoso instrumental talent to the Camel’s stage to wow all comers. Opening the evening will be New Yorkers Youbet, an energetic indie duo with a gift for catchy tunes and deceptively complex songcraft. The entire evening will be a musical delight — partake of it, won’t you?
Friday, June 5, 8 PM
Prisoner, Ousted, Circle Breaker, Mass Ego @ Bandito’s – $10 (order tickets HERE)
This show is emitting such dark, blackened vibes, even the flyer is monochromatic (with an emphasis on dark). If that description sounds like a good one for a piece of music, you’re probably gonna have a great time at this show. Not only is Prisoner headlining, but there are a couple of excellent touring bands that should only add to your delight. By now all of you reading this know about Prisoner, right? The local quintet who grew between their first and second albums from a biker-crust group pulling influences from Motorhead and Tragedy into an industrial metal powerhouse who evoke Neurosis collaborating with Killing Joke and Ministry? Yeah, they’re incredible, we all understand and agree. If you are one of the few readers who hasn’t gotten with the program, though, no worries — at $10 this is quite a wallet-friendly way to spend a Friday night, and if you have a few extra bucks, you can pick up some delicious dinner while you’re at it.
But listen, Prisoner is not the only reason for the season — no, far from it. Ousted is the first of two Baltimore bands on this bill, and their brand of harsh, pounding hardcore is heavy as fuck and super-intense, like the legendary 90s hardcore band Undertow combined with Hope Conspiracy and given some extra distortion pedals. Mass Ego is the other Baltimore band playing this show, and they bring a completely different sort of vibe — one that’s equally as harsh and heavy as Ousted. The clear influence of black metal shines through in their raw riffage and throat-shredding screams. That said, this band comes across as punk more than anything else, the raging tempos and in-your-face vocals keeping the tremolo-picked flights of guitar fancy grounded and sharp. The lineup is rounded out by Circle Breaker, the crust-metal queercore trio whose harsh take on metallic hardcore will be a great way to kick off an evening of high-key catharsis. Get stoked.
Saturday, June 6, 6 PM
Just Because Minifest, feat. Dead Billionaires, Madison Turner, Painted World, Sweet Touch, Neal Friedman @ Northside Grille – Donations appreciated
I know the calendar wants us to believe summer is still a couple weeks away, but this is Richmond, and we all know how this works, don’t we? The heat has hit, the sweat is pouring down our faces as we walk to work every morning, and by the weekend, we all just want a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves a bit. At a time like that, wouldn’t a “free” (sorta-kinda… more on that in a bit) show featuring a bunch of local bands you know and love just totally hit the spot? This Saturday, you’re in luck, as a contingent of local favorites are gathering at delightful neighborhood watering hole Northside Grille to give you some great tunes and a great time… just because. I’m not sure who came up with the idea for Just Because Minifest, but they were smart to do so, because by this point in the year, a relaxing weekend night where we just don’t have to think too much, and can just smile with friends and enjoy great tunes we know well from local artists we love, is exactly what the doctor ordered.
So which beloved local artists are on this Saturday night minifest? For starters, there’s the everyman indie-rock trio Dead Billionaires, who mix heartland rock with alt-rock fundamentals and punk grit, then lay complex and well-constructed lyrical conceits overtop. By now I assume everyone in town knows how brilliant these folks are, but if you’re one of the few who hasn’t caught on, this is the perfect time to figure it out. (And if you already know, I assume you’re already marking your calendar.) Then there’s Madison Turner, the ska-loving punk rock girl who resurrected her singing career last year with the first full-length she’s released in seven years — and the best she’s put out so far — the excellent Curtsy When You Land. She and her band will be on the scene getting us all fired up and pogoing to their punk-indie folk-ska hybrid sound. Painted World, the solo project of Knifing Around’s David Long, will offer some of their moody indie vibes. Sweet Touch bring an electro-funk hyperpop vibe that should be quite illuminating in a live environment, and Neal Friedman will round out the bill with some lovely folk-pop sounds. Come chill out and enjoy a lovely summer Saturday night at Northside Grille. You’ll thank me later.
Sunday, June 7, 6 PM
The Acacia Strain, The Callous Daoboys, FromJoy, Mask @ The Canal Club – $27.50 in advance, $32 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Absolute fucking brutality returns to the Canal Club once again, as the legendary Acacia Strain rolls through town on tour behind their 13th (!) album, You Are Safe From God Here, and sets to work pummeling us all with their hardcore-infused metal fury. For a band that’s been around for a quarter century to still be this unstoppably powerful is quite the feat, but they clearly haven’t slowed down or let up on the intensity even one iota, and you can expect their performance at the Canal Club to show it — in the hardest possible fashion. Their new album has a title that makes me think of people marking themselves safe after natural disasters on Facebook circa 2015, and the implications — the disaster that is modern organized religion being something way too many of us need protection from — shows that this band is about way more than just seeming cool and heavy and antisocial. They see the sickness of the world around us, and the sinister forces amassing. They know that sometimes the only way to get space from all that is to gather in a room with other like-minded individuals and mosh it the fuck out. That’s the plan for this Sunday night at the Canal Club. Respond accordingly.
And of course, you’ll want to show up on time, because all of the openers have just as much amazingly powerful metal/hardcore fury to offer as our storied veteran headliners. The Callous Daoboys haven’t been around as long, but have certainly done nearly as much as The Acacia Strain to make their own mark on the modern heavy music scene, incorporating unusual arrangements, interjections from genres like hyperpop and breakbeat techno, and a lineup and stage presence that defies the usual stereotype of metal bands just being a bunch of macho dudes with big beards. There are elements of Between The Buried And Me’s genre-hopping technical savvy apparent in their most recent material, even as the sassy chaotic edge of their riff mania remains quite apparent, giving the folks who were dismayed at the sudden implosion of Seeyouspacecowboy somewhere else to turn. Fromjoy takes things in an even more exploratory direction, mixing drum n’ bass breakbeats with acoustic melodies and EDM interludes, then throwing down Deftones-style overtop of all of it, with brilliant post-hardcore riffs and contrasting crooning and screaming vocals to remind us all that they know how to be heavy. Salt Lake City ragers Mask will open things up with the most obvious and confrontational hardcore sound of the evening, bringing their recent debut LP, Aggressive Contempt, to raging life with an intense onstage presence. Roaring, growling, screaming contempt, backed by chugging midtempo hardcore riffs guaranteed to get the pit started right. Things will only get more intense from here — better be there for the whole thing.
Monday, June 8, 7 PM
Doused, Sparkler, Kitty Corner, Apastoral @ Cobra Cabana – $15
Cobra Cabana is a great place to see live music, and that’s only sorta because it has such an awesome outdoor environment. It’s also because, despite what the haters might tell you, they enjoy a deceptively wide variety of music here. Just because the Obsessed is playing there soon doesn’t mean this is just a metal bar. They love to put on hip hop nights, and they do indie shows like this one on a pretty regular basis. And let me tell ya — in indie terms, this is a fucking great show. Philadelphia’s Doused are your co-headliners, and they’ll immediately prove their value as soon as they let their fuzzed-out guitar haze loose on all attendees. This band gets so much closer to the classic American shoegaze sound of the mid-90s — all the bands from that era that mixed then-current US indie with all the stuff coming out on Creation in the UK — and unleashes a sound that harks back to the prime days of the Swirlies, Black Tambourine, and Rocketship, only somehow even more blissed-out. If you’re not enough of a classic shoegaze nerd to follow these references, think My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless with the melodic brilliance of Slowdive’s Pygmalion, all stirred together with a dash of Heavenly.
San Diego’s Sparkler are touring along with Doused, and they’re bringing an equally amazing classic shoegaze sound to the stage. Their harsher guitar sound sometimes pushes toward early Jesus and Mary Chain or even Bailter Space levels of fuzz noise glory, but the subtle undercurrents of woozy melody and the flawless tremolo hydraulics will just tie right back into that classic MBV atmosphere — the loveliest wall of harsh noise you’ve ever heard. Richmonders Kitty Corner will keep the loveliness going by leaning into the indie vibes with some hazy acoustic sounds that feel just like a lazy evening on a back porch in summer. I know almost nothing about Apastoral, who strike me as a relatively new Richmond band, but are soon to disband and leave the city for good. So yeah, if you want to see this group of musicians who self-describe as “New Balance emo,” this is going to be one of your only chances to do so. Show up early, order a Snake Plissken burger, and wait for the lovely sounds to start. You won’t be waiting long.
Tuesday, June 9, 7 PM
The Snares, Ladada, Leslie & The Dots, Bangzz @ Gallery 5 – $10 in advance, $15 at the door (order tickets HERE)
With this kind of garage punk delight on the menu, I would think every rock n’ roll kid at the Fuzzy Cactus bar is making plans to sneak out this Tuesday night to get over to Gallery 5 for the Snares. This northern Californian garage-rock band is a killer example of the form without seeming throwback or intentionally lo-fi. Instead, they play an organ-driven take on a classic style, but in a modern fashion that is more likely to evoke thoughts of Thee Oh Sees or even King Gizz (in a couple of their many, many moods). If the constant period-correct flailing with buggy vintage gear and the need to recreate behind-the-times technological sounds is something you find a little too fussy about garage groups normally, you’ll love the fact that The Snares aren’t afraid to use modern technology to make their instruments sound incredible, regardless of the fact that they’re still playing a classic rock n’ roll sound.
Norfolk’s Ladada compliment The Snares quite well with their classic melodic lo-fi rock n’ roll sound. Their White Elephant EP is full of excellent melodies that evoke classic punk bands like The Undertones as well as skilled revivalists like The Libertines. Amazingly enough, they also feature former members of Owltian Mia, so my fellow half-century-old 90s emo kids can get stoked. Sassy, snarky North Carolina riot-grrrl punk duo Bangzz will add a dose of classic punk spit-n-vinegar to the proceedings, to delight folks who miss Bikini Kill and love Lambrini Girls. And Leslie and the Dots will be on hand to offer some classic pop along the lines of the mid-60s girl-group golden age. Maybe the Shangri-Las and the Beach Boys running around with some troublemakers like Davie Allan & The Arrows? Regardless of how you think about it, it’s the perfect fit for this bill, which manages to hark back to a classic era without feeling like a tedious exercise in endless recycling of nostalgia. Embrace today’s state of the garage rock art and come to this show.
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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