Pietasters, Good Beer, Webb Wilder, Thorogood

Howdy, howdy, howdy!

Listening to my iTunes right now. The artist is the Funky Meters, the song "Jungle Man". Deeeeep fonky bass.

Let's get right into it. Thursday night at the Canal Club, its The Pietasters. I saw these guys at All Good this year and they are a good time ska band. As I watched them play on the second stage during the day, I thought to myself, "These guys would be fun to see in a bar like the Canal Club with everybody drinking and dancing and getting sweaty." So now is your chance. Doors open at 8:30 and tix are $5.

On Friday from 5-10pm and Saturday from 12-7pm is the Third Annual Shockoe Craft Beer Festival at Kanawha Plaza. Kanawha Plaza is located between E. Byrd St and E. Canal Street between 7th and 8th Streets in downtown Richmond. This is the good beer fest as compared to the crappy one on Brown's Island in June. Real craft brewers and plenty o' good brew. Nary a Bud to be found. Admission is $15/One Day Pass (mug and 5 beer tickets) - $25/Two Day Pass (mug & 10 beer tickets). They'll have some good bluegrassy/alt-country music for you to listen to while you quaff your beers. I know there is some shade and a fountain in the Plaza so even though it will be damn hot again this weekend, you may want to brave the heat.

Friday night at the Capital Ale House Downtown, Webb Wilder will be playing. Here you can check out some Webb here on YouTube. Door time is 9:30. $7 in advance, $10 the day of the show. Webb had some minor hits in the early 90's with his Texas blues/honky-tonk style of play, most notably "Tough It Out". As they say on the YouTube description: "He mixes British invasion rock, Hank Williams country, Elvis soul, Screaming Jay Hawkins theatrics and Dick Dale surf punk (with a bit of rockabilly thrown in) who Rolling Stone says "flat out rocks."" Also, since its the Capital Ale House, you'll get to drink more good brews (especially if you went to the beer fest prior to this) while you watch him. If you went to the beer fest before this, you may want to think about getting a cab home that night.

On Sunday night, George Thorogood & The Destroyers play at Toad's Place. Show starts at 7:30 and tix are $25 in advance and $30 day of show. George will probably be doing what George has been doing since the late '70s. Playing the blues. I bet you'll hear "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Alone" and of course, the classic "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer". I saw George a lot in the early days because he is from the Philly area so he was a hometown boy. I believe I last saw George on St. Pat's Day at Lehigh's Stabler Arena while I was in college, oh, about 1987. George Thorogood and him multitude of drinkin' songs, St. Pat's Day and lax security at the arena made for a potent combo as my fraternity brothers and I snuck about 3 bottles of Southern Comfort into the show and we were not alone. Needless to say it was complete drunk fest and a quite enjoyable one if my hazy memories serve me correctly.

Here's some other stuff at the Canal Club:
Friday August 24 - Drowning Pool with The Exies, Separation and Fallen
Under. Doors open at 8:00, tickets are $15.00 in advance or $17.00 at
the
door. A portion of every ticket goes to The USO to support their efforts
for
our troops in Iraq. You can purchase tickets at our web site, Plan 9
Music
or Richmond Music Center.

Saturday August 25 - The 26th Annual Colgate
Country
Showdown. Presented by 93.1 The Wolf. This year, the Colgate Country
Showdown celebrates their 26th Year in 2007 (this is the 3rd one hosted
by
The Canal Club). Over the years, it has grown into the largest country
music
talent search in America with over 450 local radio stations
participating,
50,000 artists competing each year and over $300,000 in cash prizes
awarded
throughout the 4-level competition. As a testament to this fact,
virtually
every major country music entertainer of the past 26 years has
participated
in the Showdown. They may not have won the Grand Prize, but it was often
the
first time they experienced the thrill of performing before a live
audience.Admission is free and this, as is all of our events, is all
ages.
Doors open at 5:30 and the Showdown starts at 6:30.

Here's some other stuff at Toad's Place:

Bruce in the USA
Thursday, August 23rd - 8:00PM
“If Matt Ryan and his band, American Dream, took the stage at a Springsteen concert ...few people would be able to tell the difference.”
18 & Up - General Admission: $12.00 tickets

Stone Sour
Saturday, August 25th - 6:00PM
“The intensity. The drama. The emotion. The colors. The darkness. The melodies. The anger. The honesty. The drive. The new. All of the above and more.” According to Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor, those are the things that define Stone Sour’s passionately pulsing second album, Come What(ever) May (Roadrunner).

Keep an ear out on 102theX (WRXL) for a chance to win an autographed guitar!
Advance: $25.00 / Day of Show: $28.00 tickets

I don't know if I'll be hitting anything this weekend, as we must prepare for the new arrival (potentially arriving earlier now) and because the 100 degree temps may keep us away from the beer fest. Considering Kathy can't drink and can't stand the heat, she is highly not motivated to go.

Have a great weeekend!

Tony Jordan