Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Weekend Picks: The Suffers, Boy & Bear, Robbie Fulks, Jason Isbell, blink-182, Lucius, Jim Lauderdale, Joan Osborne, Sam Lewis, So So Glos, No BS! Brass Band

The good shows start Wednesday night with Joan Osborne at The Tin Pan. Tix are $50 advance, $55 at the door. Doors open at 6, show starts at 8 and there is no opener. Besides her own hits, Joan was amazing when she performed with the band behind Motown's greatest hits, The Funk Brothers, in one of my favorite rock documentaries, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown". She also did one of the greatest versions of the Grateful Dead's "China Doll" I ever heard in Camden NJ when she toured with The Dead in 2003 w/Greg Osby guesting on sax. It still gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Here's the press blurb on Joan:
Joan Osborne has rightfully earned a reputation as one of the great voices of her generation — both a commanding, passionate performer and a frank, emotionally evocative songwriter. Osborne is widely known for her beloved hit song,“(What If God Was)One of Us,” as well as her live performances of “What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted” and “Heat Wave” in the GRAMMY Award-winning documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. A multi-platinum selling recording artist and seven-time GRAMMY Award nominee, the soulful vocalist and noted song interpreter is a highly sought-after collaborator and guest performer who has performed alongside many notable artists, including Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Luciano Pavarotti, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal, and Patti Smith to name a few.
Osborne is widely known for her live performances of “What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted” and “Heat Wave” in the GRAMMY Award-winning documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Both fans and critics have praised Osborne’s contribution to the film. Counting such legendary artists as Etta James and Ray Charles as influences, Osborne is firmly rooted in R&B and soul, as evidenced by the soul covers she has recorded on her albums How Sweet It Is and Breakfast In Bed, in addition to Bring It On Home, which garnered a Best Blues Album nomination at the 2013 GRAMMY Awards. Those heartfelt performances are reflected in her Soul Revue concerts.
And here's that version of "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" from "Standing in the Shadows of Motown". Because I need to know what happens to us.




Indie pop rock band Lucius is at The Broadberry Wednesday night. Tix are $17 advance, $20 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with opener Margaret Glaspy. The lead singers of Lucius, Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, have recently performed with Roger Waters Band too and will do so again at his Desert Trip Indio show. Here's Lucius performing in March at Amoeba Records in LA:




Folk rock band Boy & Bear pull into The National on Thursday night. If you like bands like Fleet Foxes or Lord Huron, you might dig these guys. Tix are $18 advance, $20 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with RVA's own Big Mama Shakes opening the show. As the national bands that play in RVA the two weeks surrounding Bonnaroo, Boy & Bear played Bonnaroo this year. I've been digging this band a lot lately and this song "Southern Sun" is one of my favorite songs of the last year and a half. Even though the video is wintry, it makes me think of heading out on a road trip, driving down a road on a beautiful, sunny morning in the summer, with green filtered shadows from the trees surrounding the road playing on the car. Check it out.



Punk pop band The So So Glos are at Strange Matter Thursday night. Tix are $10 advance, $12 day of show. Doors open at 9 and Big Ups, Honduras, and Ghosts open. Their new album, "Kamikaze", is getting some might fine reviews with AllMusic saying, "Almost a decade into their existence, the So So Glos have matured and tightened their execution, making Kamikaze a huge leap past their already 2014 breakthrough, Blowout. Musically, the album is a pure joy". From that album, here's "A.D.D. Life":



We are gonna get funky at Friday Cheers this weekend with old-school sounding soul/R&B/reggae band, The Suffers. They may sound old school but they just started in Houston five years ago. They'll come on at 8. Openers Too Many Zooz will kick things off at 6:30. Doors open at 6 and it's just $5 to get in. And I will bring my rain jacket this time so you know it won't rain. The Suffers will be playing Cheers a few nights after playing in Tokyo, so while they may be a little confused as to what time it is, they will be sure to get us dancing and you know we dance better than Tokyo. They've also played Paris and Wichita recently. That's right, THE Wichita. Here's a 30 minute show they did recently for Audiotree:



Alt-country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks is at Capital Ale House Downtown Friday night. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. It's $12 to get in. No opener is listed. Robbie has a great new album out called "Upland Stories". Country Weekly said "This is a masterful album, replete with wonderful stories and fully drawn characters." And besides great songwriting, the guy can play guitar like a mofo too. Here's a session Robbie did for Audiotree two weeks after the one The Suffers did up there. Audiotree gets a lot of great artists.:



Jam banders The Southern Belles are at The Broadberry Friday with bluegrassers Jackass Flats. It's $10 to get in. Doors at 8, music at 9. Here's the Belles last Saturday night in C'ville:



Americana band The Taters will be at O'Toole's Restaurant Friday night at 8 PM. And if you miss them there or want to see them twice, they'll be at JJ's Grille in Glen Allen Saturday at 8 PM. The Taters recently did a Badfinger tribute show and did a stellar version of "Day After Day":




Innsbrook's gonna rock Saturday with XL102's Big Day Out Festival. blink-182, Kongos, The Struts, Ann Beretta, and Fun Size will all play. Gates open at 2 PM, show starts at 3. Tix are $30 for GA, $39 for Gold Circle. If you get the GA tix, note that no lawn chairs are permitted for this show. blink-182 will surely be playing songs from their new album, "California". From 2000, here's blink-182's "All the Small Things":




Hardywood has White Laces (future tech psych rock from RVA), Manzara (RVA post expanse driven kraut psych metal rock), Black Liquid Drop (drone psych from Austin) and Spooky Cool (RVA) playing Saturday evening from 5 - 10 PM. The taproom opens at 2 PM. Here's White Laces "Heavenly Creatures":



No BS! Brass Band hits Broadberry up again on Saturday night and we're not complaining.  Doors at 8, show at 9. $15 to get in. My Darling Fury opens. Sometimes No BS play giant European festivals. Sometimes they play for tacos.




Soulful (with a country twang) up-and-coming Nashville singer-songwriter Sam Lewis takes some time away from opening for Chris Stapleton to play The Tin Pan on Sunday night. Chris gave him a shout-out in Rolling Stone recently, calling Sam "a great singer-songwriter." Doors open at 5 PM, show starts at 7 with opener Karen Jones. $15 to get in. Sam's second album, "Waiting on You" was produced by Oliver Wood of the Wood Brothers and has some great musicians helping him out on it, among them guitarist Darrell Scott (Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Robert Plant), harmonica legend Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Neil Young), guitarist Will Kimbrough (Rodney Crowell, Jimmy Buffett), keyboardist Gabe Dixon (Paul McCartney, Supertramp), and vocal group, The McCrary Sisters (Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin). Here's Sam performing "Little Time":



Monday night, it's more great Nashville singer-songwriting with the legendary Jim Lauderdale at Capital Ale House Downtown. Tix are $15. Doors at 7, show at 8, no opener. Here's Jim performing "Why Do I Love You?" last week:



How about one more fantastic singer-songwriter this week? Jason Isbell, whose last album, "Something More Than Free" was recently nominated for Album of the Year by the Americana Music Association, is at the Altria Theater Tuesday night. Tix range from $29.50 to $49.50. Show starts at 7:30 with Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls. Here's Jason's full show in Boston in February as recorded by PBS station WGBH in Boston. Nice!



Alright! I'm out. See you at Cheers and maybe a few other shows this weekend. So much good stuff to choose from. I'll leave you with U2 doing "Mysterious Ways" on the ZooTV tour for no particular reason. One of the greatest concerts I ever saw. I believe Edge married the belly dancer.

Have a great weekend!



Tony Jordan

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