FEATURE SHOW
Wednesday, September 26, 8 p.m.
David J (of Bauhaus/Love & Rockets), Adrian H & the Wounds @ Fallout - $10/18+dark (*No cameras of any kind)
David J has been there and done that. This forefather of gothic rock, synth, and first-wave post punk has decided to pay Shockoe Bottom a visit. Even Bela Lugosi would be proud. This is an extraordinary opportunity to take in an exemplar of a musician. David J burst onto the musical landscape with his originally styled bass guitar endeavors in the one and only iconic British band Bauhaus. If you haven’t heard of, let alone listened to, the seminal Bauhaus, take a shotgun and put it in your mouth. You know what to do from there.
David J and Bauhaus basically started an entire sound, which spawned many bands that center on the Goth genre, as well as other forms of rock. You might also know David J from a band I find quite underrated--the mighty Love & Rockets. David J formed that group back in ’85, after Bauhaus broke up, with his brother Kevin Haskins and fellow musician Daniel Ash. Love & Rockets was all you heard on the grounds of Trinity Episcopal, my old high school, back in the day. As a solo artist, David J belts out his distinctive voice that will keep you screaming for more, just like crack. If you think about it, from Bauhaus until today, David J has never left us. He has scored films and released huge amounts of ravishingly beautiful gothic/dark/alternative music. Hear it all tonight at Fallout.
Opening this one of a kind show will be Adrian H & the Wounds, with their dark-glam style Goth music. This band is pure emotion and just might steal the show, but you didn’t hear that from me. This Texas trio has all the makings of pure rapture. Be at Fallout tonight.
Thursday, September 27, 10 p.m.
Occultist, Razormaze, Ratmeat @ Strange Matter - $6/18+
Okay, I admit it--the best metal band in Richmond that I’ve never seen live is Occultist. I’ve seen YouTube clips, and listened to them via the internet, and my freaks of nature, I’m in love. Tonight they are making a rare appearance in their hometown, and everyone, including Mayor Jones, should come out to this show along that marvel we call Grace St.
Vocalist K.Z. is a flat out star. She takes the heaviness Occultist slams into your skull and gives it an inspiring touch. This band rocks participles and is louder than an orphaned baby in the woods. Extreme raw metal with a touch of cousin punk will come at you, and Richmond, easily THE city that gets it in regards to quality metal music, will be astonished by how these residents murder the instruments. Let Occultist deliver you a disease-ridden infection of the rude.
Boston trash metal heads Razormaze have put down the clam chowder to ransack Strange Matter before Occultist, so you better come early. The fact that this band isn’t signed yet is a travesty. They put the rash in thrash. Death, murder, and hellbent remind me of Razormaze, for they are a sharp destruction to your metal head ears.
Richmond punkers--really a bunch of drunks that totally know how to mess up a room--Ratmeat, open this snowball freezing in hell.
Friday, September 28, 7:30 p.m.
Foghat @ Virginia State Fair (Meadow Event Park – Doswell) – Fair Admission gets you in show $8-$12 / All Ages
I’m sorry, but I had to do it. If Foghat is playing somewhere in Metro Richmond, I’m going to be on it like a first place ribbon on one of those pigs they race at the livestock pavilion. Foghat is that 70s band everybody adores, but only talks about in a joking matter to cover up the fact that this band still rocks your ass off, even more than today’s hipster/scenester doofus bands. Word is that God listens to Foghat. Now that’s a confidence builder.
Drummer Roger Earl, the only original member left, still knows how to deliver a brand of British rock that single-handedly took over AM gold back in the seventies. Even today, they get played three or four times an hour on 96.5 KLR. Yes, there’s been different lineups, but it’s about the songs, people, and if you are over thirty-five, chances are you remember driving to the Outer Banks with your father’s cigarette smoke blowing onto your face in the back seat as Foghat was just killing it on the radio. Songs like "Slow Ride” and "Fool for the City" are hymnals as far as I’m concerned.
Contrary to popular belief, the state fair circuit is not a joke in regards to good gigs. Where’s Eddie Money? The Virginia State Fair faced some issues this past year, but as new fair owner Mark Lovel came in and saved the day, he knew first and foremost to get Foghat as the opening band for this year’s fair's live music line up. He did, and all’s right with the world.
Fair admission gets you in to the Foghat show as well. So by all means, speed, speed and speed faster up 95 to witness miracles. Yes, it’s the Kings Dominion/Doswell exit you take, and then go east. Hot damn! Foghat’s playing.
Saturday, September 29, 10 p.m.
VCU SHHO presents TWO-9, Nickelus F (pictured above), World’s Fair, Millz @ Strange Matter - $10 in advance--http://worldsfairtwo9.eventbrite.com/$13 at the door/18+
The VCU Student Hip Hop Organization continues to hand our ears perfectly true awe inspiring underground hip hop. Coming up from Atlanta is a fabulous hip hop collective known as TWO-9. TWO-9 deliver everything from the streets to the consciousness--we all better be paying attention too in these trying times. TWO-9 consists of emcees, DJs, and producers who are taking Atlanta’s and America’s hip hop scene to another level. Yes, that can be done, as long as there is visionary talent involved. Well there is with TWO-9, and I’m sold, no doubt.
Curtis Williams, Key, Fatkidsbrotha, Retro Sushi, Wavy Wallace, Damien, DJ Osh Kosh, Gunner Stahl, Originalfani make up the collective, and the more I investigate this group of stalwarts, I’m convinced they are the next best thing. It’s a joy to have them at a venue like Strange Matter, because the next time they come through, it will probably be at The National.
How do you compliment the appearance of TWO-9? You bring in Richmond’s king of the microphone, Nickelus F. This show just gained a Show of the Year nomination. The talented Millz, and the NYC experimental hip hop group you must pay attention to by bobbing your heads, World’s Fair, open this joint.
Support true hip hop, Richmond, because it’s out there. It’s in NYC, Atlanta, and Richmond especially. Attending this show is a good start. It’s not crap club rap, its important rap with beats and grooves that stay with you for a lifetime. Respect.
Saturday, September 29, 9 p.m.
M83, Sun Airway @ The National - $27.50 Advance – http://ticketmaster.com/venue/8996 / $30 Day of / All Ages.
The French sure do know how to get us dancing. French synth-pop and shoe gaze electronica band M83 is carrying the torch right now--with a bottle of the best wine from Bordeaux in tow, of course. M83 was formed in ’01 by Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau. Now M83 is the solo project of Gonzalez, who, when on tour, enlists the help of his brother Yann Gonzalez, Morgan Kibby, and Loïc Maurin. M83 is a delight to the ears and will transfix your mind with bombastic sounds that explore the depths of your soul. Yes, M83 is cool, but there is a reason. Never block out the innovative and spiritual out-of-control mechanisms that are sure to hold serve tonight.
Still touring in support of their most popular album to date, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, M83 is mystifying the critics and giving birth to a sound that only those in spaceships could hear. It’s a new galaxy that society has found to traverse, and M83 is the electricity that empowers us.
Before M83 takes the stage, watch out for the electric pop duo out of Philly, Sun Airway. These guys are amazing at redefining music.
Sunday, September 30, 7:30 p.m.
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson plays Thick As A Brick 1 and 2 @ CenterStage (Carpenter Center) / $59-$75 – www.etix.com / All Ages
You damn right a flutist can rock it down. Ian Anderson of the classic rock band Jethro Tull is in Downtown Richmond tonight for what should be a beautiful night of music. Anderson will be performing his concept album Thick As A Brick, released by Jethro Tull in 1972, and its followup Thick As A Brick 2, released this year, in their entireties.
Anderson has captivated an audience of millions over the years, and still, at 65, knows how to outperform most performers out there. His music is the sounds of the Scottish hillsides if you ask me. Ian Anderson’s multi-instrumental performances simply emphasize this sound. Yes, he’s famous for his flute, but Anderson is an accomplished vocalist, guitarist, bassist, saxophonist, and of course, he might just have the best whistle ever in modern day music.
Ian Anderson is a rock and roll legend and music lovers of all ages should take in this treasure.
Sunday, September 30, 10 p.m.
Noise Night #4, featuring Geordi La Korg, Monolith Zero, Sex Complex, Contortionist Jazz Exotica (pictured above), 36, Astrology Diet, Nu Depth @ The Nile – Donations/21+
Well it’s that time of the month again. No not PMS, but something like it. I’m talking about Noise Night at the Nile. Thanks to Gary Stevens, this has the probability of being the most confusing night of beatitude ever. If this night is anything like the last three, then I’m putting off suicide for more ambivalence. Noise Night at the Nile is the sole reason Richmonders enjoy cupcakes so much. It gets kind of weird, a tad bit retarded, and just downright goofy when a guy performs on top of a cement mixer as he straddles his toaster oven. Don’t ask how they get that stuff in the Nile, please; thank you.
Geordi La Korg is an upside down apple turnover with sound. Monolith Zero is a panda bear who makes it through infancy thanks to echoes. Sex Complex is a nerd who gets laid in the dark and stampedes noises in loops. Then we got Contortionist Jazz Exotica, which is performance-noise-art-deco-bar-b-q-time-lapse that will break the ear. I’m guessing 36 are two eighteen year olds and Astrology Diet is spaced out hi-fi that eats little. And, last but not least, Dylan Mulshine, who has another strange noise epiphany that goes by NU Depth. This evening should be whatever what was going on in the mind of that lady who jumped off that overpass in Short Pump yesterday.
Sunday, September 30, 9 p.m.
Gritter, Meat Cleaver (pictured above), Pistol Whip Nikki @ Bandito’s – Free/21+
Heavy, hard, garage punk and metal music is in the Devil’s Triangle tonight to chase away the inept officiating from earlier NFL games this Sunday. The music is a perfect confirmation of the reason that more alcohol must remain in our lives.
Gritter is just sludge and rawness on top of power chords. Second is Meat Cleaver: Noal Clark and the boys are sharp and to the point with their hard borderline-beast metal of the heaviness. Pistol Whip Nikki, who I thought did an incredible job opening for T.S.O.L a few weeks back, delivers a punch drunk love of old style punk. Nothing bubbly about this night of grown man rock, so come, capture, and cultivate the music in this three sided neighborhood.
Monday, October 1, 10 p.m.
No Babies, Olde Shame, New Turks, Thieves of Shiloh, Mechanically Separated Chicken @ Strange Matter - $5/18+
Only in the most sarcastic of ways will you hear me say that I want a baby. In all actuality, I feel that having a baby is the highest form of child abuse. Have you seen society lately? And let me make this clear: it’s all over the world, not just America I’m talking about. Anyway, there’s a marvelous noise punk outfit out of Oakland that agrees with me; they are called No Babies. This band is as cantankerous as an abortion, let me tell you. But, oh how these freaks get it going.
When you put members of the Richmond bands Caves Caverns, Human Smoke, and Flesh Control together, expect two things: shameful violence and glory. This trailblazing band, Olde Shame, has everybody talking, even hot twenty-one year old girls who work for breweries that champion boring, safe jam, folk, bluegrass, and frat boy rock.
More noise is supplied by J.K’s Thieves of Shiloh, which is a fest of grief contusions; and Mechanically Separated Chicken, who bring some feedback of raunchiness.
Tuesday, October 2, 8 p.m.
Adam Ant @ The National - $20 Advance - http://ticketmaster.com/venue/8996 / $25 Day of / All Ages
If you remember the 1980s, you definitely remember Adam Ant. He was bigger than the 80s itself. This flamboyant new wave, post-punk, and romantic rocker never puts on a bad show. Adam Ant, born Stuart Goddard, in London, exploded in the early 80s thanks to a then-new MTV. Yes, MTV actually played videos 24 hours a day back then. His groundbreaking videos were years before their time and were so wild and fun, he became an instant classic. He gave a new video music channel its first sex symbol.
Ant has never really left the music business or performing, but this multitalented man also has a successful acting career. Personally, I loved him on Northern Exposure. He has been on tour of late to support new material, and of course he’s performing all his classic hits such as “Goody Two Shoes,” “Strip,” “Friend or Foe,” and “Puss 'n Boots.” Show reviews of Ant’s current tour have been remarkable, so don’t miss Adam Ant as he takes you back to a more jubilant time. You know he’ll be wearing one of his outlandish symbolic costumes on stage, so join in the fun, and if you attend this beautiful event, dress up like it’s the 80s!
By John Lewis Morgan (onewayrichmond.com)