FEATURE SHOW
Thursday, May 9, 10 p.m.
Beach Day, Implodes, The Garbers @ Strange Matter - $8/18+
Florida’s Beach Day is true to their name. 60s garage music meets beach music when this trio takes the stage. Compared to the Dum Dum Girls or a female fronted beach Boys, this band is a bitchin’ good time. Beach Day is a throwback that I know all fans of psych, garage, mod, and experimental music here in Richmond will appreciate.
Chicago’s Implodes is self-described as fuzz rock. This band can take you from the mountains to the sea, or vice versa, in seconds. Their ambient psychedelic rock is climbing the charts of what is aesthetically pure. Their tour with Beach Day is a match made in heaven.
Richmond’s The Garbers, featuring those stalwarts of Richmond music, Matt Deans, Giustino Riccio, and Allison Apperson, shoves exquisite pop music our way. And, it feels so good. This is a perfect show for Thursday night--the best night for live music, in my opinion.
Wednesday, May 8, 10 p.m.
Nervous Ticks, Numerators (pictured above), Men’s Room, Hot Dolphin @ The Nile– Donations please/21+
When you research a band, you sometimes find that said band covers many genres. Well, if there ever was a band that touched upon a wide spectrum of music, Brooklyn’s Numerators is it. This band encompasses punk, garage, psych, surf, acid, folk, classic rock, blues, spaghetti-western themes, Americana, and indie. Look at it this way--this marvelous band is worth it to all music fans, because everybody loves at least one of these genres. Good thinking by the Numerators, if you ask me. Oh yes, there are many musical parts indicated by the denominator.
Richmond’s Nervous Ticks will bring their version of Appalachian noise fuzz to this sure-to-be-a-party. This band gets you in a tizzy, and that’s a good thing. It appears to me Richmonders need to just let loose. Witnessing the Nervous Ticks first hand will do just that to you.
Also local is Hot Dolphin; this power-garage rock band leaves no one disappointed. They penetrate the ears like a corkscrew penetrates a wine bottle. These guys get so into it, they even might be construed as punk. Speaking of punk, how about some stoner punk? For that, I give you Richmond’s Men’s Room.
Thursday, May 9, 10 p.m.
Sacred Teachers, Weird Girl, Geometric Shapes @ The Nile - $4/21+
If you haven’t yet seen Sacred Teachers, you cannot define the word fun. This band is electric, they entice, they set your hair on fire, and they make you sweat. Bring your dancing shoes to the estuary that is soul. The absolute epitome of God’s honest American rock and roll is laid out by Sacred Teachers. The lesson is simple: for those about to rock, we will be like that hot ass teacher at Cosby High School last year and do it with you. Oh, spiritual promises, I have found the holiest of holies, and I’m getting punched in the face by teachers that are quite sacred towards their rocking roll instruments. Here’s some more chalk--my mind is ready to expand.
That girl who you always thought was weird; well she’s back, and she’s a band out of Louisville. She’s a divine combination of fuzz, garage, and psych rock that is a stampede of outta control gyrations. Local duo Geometric Shapes open up the evening in congruent fashion.
Saturday, May 11, 9 p.m.
Luray, The Low Branches, Nick Coward & the Last Battle @ The Camel - $5/18+
Here’s the most beautiful Saturday night of music you could imagine. DCs Luray come to us with their indie folk rock, coupled with two of Richmond’s best bands. They are a wonderful explosion and are known to bring aboard extra musicians on stage to widen their exciting sound.
The local support is the wonderful soothing folksy sounds on the Low Branches and the folky post-rock from Nick Coward & the Last Battle. If vocalists with extreme talent are your thing, Nick Coward and the Low Branches’ Christina Gleixner are here for you. If you haven’t seen these bands, there is something wrong with you.
If I were a general district or circuit court judge, honestly, I’d force idiots--and we got plenty of them in this city--go to this kind of show to see what beauty, spirituality, quality hand crafted music, and art is all about. Yes, I'd force real culture on these so-called idiots. It’s about time. This is a powerhouse show, and I for one will run, not walk to the Camel this Saturday night.
Sunday, May 12, 9 p.m.
The John Lee Experience (Photo by Cozmik Photography), Pakuna, Ben Shirley @ The Camel– price at door/18+
Sunday night should be for jazz fusion the way Virginia is for lovers. The John Lee Experience, of course, is led by John Lee, a mesmerizing jazz fusion guitarist out of DC. This composer and band leader will take you to the great western frontier with his on point style of guitar. Lee plays with a vigorous attack by incorporating his inspirations from jazz, blues, Indian classical, alternative rock, and West African music. This is a guitarist who makes the stage a symphony. You cannot miss this maestro.
Pakuna, from right here in Richmond, is an electronic jazz outfit lead by a guitar sound that speaks to you. Whether it is an improvisational freestyle guitar jam or an organized number, Pakuna is a force. The piano alone could get you in the door. I’m keeping my eye on this band; they remind me of early Medeski Martin and Wood, along with the New Deal. Jazz can rock the funky and have your toes tapping violently - just take in the sounds of Pakuna.
Richmond folk artist Ben Shirley opens this glorious night of music. This is a show not to be missed, but how many times have I said that? Jesus people! Go out and support live music. Sorry, had to get that in there.
Monday, May 13, 10 p.m.
Tatsuya Nakatani & Michel Doneda Duo, Godzilla Meets King Kong Quintet @ The Nile– $5/$10 Donations Please/21+
Tatsuya Nakatani & Michel Doneda are back in town as a duo, and what a night of true experimentation it will be. Japan by way of Pennsylvania’s Tatsuya Nakatani will deliver his one-and-only style of percussion. His assortment of percussion instruments is an endless list of the rhythmic experimentation. Nakatani includes an assortment in his performances, varying from small metal bowls, gongs, broken cymbals, and homemade bows to toms and a snare.
It is said that when you see Tatsuya Nakatani, you’re taken on a journey to the inner soul. Your senses are sure to stand up and salute. And if this isn’t enough to take into account, France’s Michel Doneda joins in by combining his soprano sax and sopranino sax with Nakatani's percussion. It is said that Doneda has developed one of the most extensive musical vocabularies in free improvisation. It is easy to see why. His style can be lyrical, playful, or raucous, and he can turn on a dime towards the liveliness of street melodies, roundabout breathing, microscopic sounds, or even shrieking. Like I’ve said before, this is way beyond noise and experimentation. Tonight will be a test of just how far into the depths of the subconscious one’s imagination can reach.
Tuesday, May 14, 6 p.m. pre-game/ 8 p.m. music
A_Rival, Inverse Phase, Cuttlefish, Visuals by Datacats @ Gallery 5 - $8/All Ages
Can video game sounds be music to your ears? They sure can. There’s even a term for it--it's called chiptunes, or 8–bit music. Chiptunes are synthesized electronic music produced with the sound chips of vintage computers, video game, and or arcade machines. Participating in this video game noise parade will be A_Rival, who is a hip-hop/electronic rapper/producer from San Francisco, CA. His entire repertoire centers on video game sound.
Inverse Phase is one of the more well known chip-tune musicians around. His latest album, Pretty Eight Machine, is a chiptune tribute to Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine. Yes, I got this info from Wikipedia. Do you honestly think I know anything about chiptunes? As a kid I never played video games. I chased girls and watched basketball.
Anyway, Cuttlefish will amaze you with his invite into the world of virtual reality, and I just watched a video of Datacats. Now these are what I call video projections. I’d come to just watch these projections. They are that good and artistic unto themselves. This will be geek heaven for sure tonight at Gallery 5--it's definitely a “now for something completely different” type of show. Hell, event. That’s why I recommend it. And you thought Devo was nerdy?
* Come early (6 p.m.) and pre-game with some gaming setups sponsored by Play N Trade.
By John Lewis Morgan (onewayrichmond.com)