Parquet Courts, Justin Moore, Young Jeezy, The Shins, Of Montreal, Ra Ra Riot

On Thursday down at Pocahontas State Park Amphitheater, country pop dude Justin Moore will perform. Gates open at 6, show starts at 6:30 with "guest TBA". General Admission is $25 in advance, $30 at the gate, and $45 if you want to be up front in the Standing Dance Pit. You'll probably like Justin if you like Taylor Swift, Jewel, ZZ Top, Skynyrd, or Hank Williams Jr. Here's his latest single, "Point at You":



Thursday over at Canal Club, it's the experimental rock of Of Montreal. Last time they were in town they played The National so it looks like their fan base is dwindling and the critics seem to be souring on them too. But they are known for their crazy, surreal shows so it should be a good, or at least an interesting, time nonetheless. Tix are $15, doors open at 7 PM and the opener is Wild Moccasins. Lead singer/songwriter Kevin Barnes says their new album, "lousy with sylvianbriar" was inspired by Gram Parsons, Sylvia Plath, Grateful Dead, Neil Young and Flying Burrito Brothers. Here's a little acoustic thang they did at NPR Desk Concerts with their friend Rebecca Cash:

Over at Friday Cheers this week, looking forward to a nice, mellow (at least mellow incident and crowd-wise) local music show this week after the Toots incident last week and Radical Face's 5 minute opening "We know you don't know us but we are depressing and we're gonna suck" speech two weeks ago which sent people away in droves. Weird last couple weeks. Glad Toots was OK. I was there and saw the bottle fly. Thought he ducked out of the way until the guitarist came out and told us he had been hit. Definitely an unsettling and disturbing experience to end what had been a great night of music from Toots & the Maytals, Anders Osborne and Southern Belles. But on to better things and this week's Cheers features Richmond's own No BS! Brass Band (8:15 PM), Murphy's Kids (7 PM) and Former Champions (6 PM). It'll be $5 to get in. Here's a video made up of clips from No BS' DVD release party on 2/28/13 that'll give you a feel for their show:



At The National Friday night, it's rapper Young Jeezy. Doors open at 9:30, the show starts at 10 and no opener is listed. Doesn't mean there won't be one but none is listed. Tix are $50 in advance, $60 at the door.There are at least 50 tickets still available because that's how much Ticketmaster will let you order and the order would have gone through. Here's Jeezy's latest video for "R.I.P.":



There's a punk rock show at Strange Matter on Sunday night. Vinyl Conflict record store is sponsoring the show with a couple bands from Australia (Total Control and The UV Race), Dead Fame from Richmond, and Parquet Courts from Brooklyn. Doors open at 9 and it's $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Here's a 30 minute performance from Parquet Courts that they did at a bike shop in Austin TX at this year's SXSW for the great Seattle radio station, KEXP.



On Monday night, indie guitar pops group The Shins will be at The National. Tix are $30 in advance, $32.50 at the door, doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with Ra Ra Riot so don't be late. You'll dig The Shins if you like Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, or Arcade Fire, and remember that Natalie Portman proclaimed they would "change your life" in the movie "Garden State". Here's The Shins "Simple Song" and this is a pretty cool video:


Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan