Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Weekend Picks: Speedy Ortiz, Jenny Lewis, Alvvays, Hardywood Gingerbread Stout Release Party, People's Blues of Richmond, Southern Belles

As we ease toward Thanksgiving, our local bands come home, outdoor festival season is over, and the national acts start to take time off. Does that mean you should just stay home and rake your leaves? Hell, no! This is a great time to support your favorite local bands or find a new favorite, or find an up and coming national act.

Speaking of new local artists, there will be a whole bunch of them at the Breakout Artist Competition at Canal Club on Thursday. Doors open at 6 and it's $10 to get in. Last year's overall winner, All About a Bubble (from Tulsa OK), will headline the show. Twelve other bands will perform over the night and you can click the event link up there to see the lineup.


Grunge rockers Speedy Ortiz are at Strange Matter Thursday. Doors open at 9. It's $10 in advance, $12 day of show. This is a good all around show so get there early. Ex-Hex, Sundials, & Ar-kaics open the show. Here's Speedy with "Everything's Bigger" at the Pitchfork Music Fest this summer:



The Trongone Band begin their final run of shows at Cary St. Cafe, They have three Thursday night shows this month, then they move on to bigger venues, having outgrown the friendly environs of Cary St. Show starts at 10 and there is no cover. Their last show there on 11/20 will be their 100th show there so they are leaving on a nice round number. They also plan on getting their first EP out soon. Here they are at Cary St on 10/2 doing their original tune, "Ain't It Funny":


Garage/punk/soul/slink/swivel rockers, Lady God, will celebrate the release of their new 7", "Lady God Presents: The Pebbles" on Friday with festivities starting at The Camel, but only starting there. Here is the agenda:
"A 40-passenger coach leavesThe Camel for the Virginia Moonwalker Studio at 6:00 sharp. Cardboard Poncho provides live sights and sounds en route. Then The Milkstains howl into action, followed by an enthralling display of fire stunts by Cody Beastman, Mr. Mud, Bitsy Buttons, and Natty G. The night slinks and swivels to a close with Lady God and you are returned to town to do as you will..."
 You may be able to get a spot on the bus for $20 by checking out the Facebook page for the event. Here's the cool little promo vid for the gig:



Jam band The Southern Belles will be at The Camel for their regular First Friday gig. It's $7 to get in. Doors open at 9 with The Captain Midnight Band from Nashville opening. The Belles just got a nice write-up/interview on the Jambands.com site which you can check out HERE. Here's the Belles at Hogtober this year when they were the first band on. The camera work is a little shaky for the first 2 minutes but the sound is great:



Saturday, Hardywood Brewery releases this year's batch of Gingerbread Stout. The esteemed Beer Advocate site gave the Stout a perfect score of 100. You can pick up 750mL bottles (4 per person limit) or growlers to go. Or just enjoy a 6 or 12 oz. pour, hang out, and listen to some great bands. The event starts at 2 and the music starts in the late evening (I'm guessing 5-ish?) and will go until 9 PM. Here's the band lineup in the order of appearance. This show has great bands from start to finish and considering you've got FREE admission, one of the best beers on the planet, and fine mid-fall weather so you can hang outside if you want, this is the go-to show of the weekend.
Here's Marco With Love's "In the Shade":




And after that's done, you can just head up Boulevard to The Broadberry for People's Blues of Richmond, Night Idea, and Sleepwalkers. Doors open at 8 and it's $10 to get in. They'll have some fine vids for the show courtesy of VIDEOmetry so drop 'em if you got 'em. PBR is also promising some new tunes. Here's PBR getting heavy at the Mustang Music Festival last month in Corolla NC:




Wednesday at The National it's folk/pop from Jenny Lewis and Waxahatchee. Doors open at 7, Waxahatchee comes on at 8. Tix are $22 in advance, $25 day of show. This show sold out in NYC and Philly so get your tickets soon. Here's Jenny performing "She's Not Me" for radio station KCRW a few days ago:


Over at Strange Matter Wednesday, indie poppers Alvvays will appear with openers Absolutely Free and Various Eggs. The show will not be free, nor where there be eggs (OK, there might be eggs, I can't be 100% sure about that), but you can get in for just $10 in advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 9, music starts at 9:30. Alvvays is just getting back from a tour of the UK and Europe so ask them about their trip. They'll be heading back there in January and February. Here's the video for their latest single, "Next of Kin":



This one goes out to Phil Rudd, drummer for AC/DC, who may have taken this song a bit too seriously...



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

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