Moon Taxi, Polar Bear Club, Southern Belles, The Heritage, Citizen, Diamond Youth, Sainthood Reps

It's a pretty slim weekend for music. Next weekend picks up nicely as there will be a lot of local bands and national bands from Richmond home for the holidays and squeezing a show in for their local fans and family before Christmas.

Up and coming alternative/progressive/jam band Moon Taxi will be at Capital Ale House Downtown on Friday night. Tix are $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Doors open at 9:30, show starts at 10 with opener The Shack Band. You might like Moon Taxi if you like Steely Dan, Rush, King Crimson, Medeski, Martin & Wood or Phish. Here's a song from their last album, "Cabaret". This song is called "Mercury":



Over at The Camel, local (but spreading throughout the East Coast) jam band Southern Belles plays with The Heritage opening. Doors will open at 8, music will start after 9 and it's $7 to get in. Here's the Belles doing "Getaway" at Capital Ale House in September:

At Strange Matter on Friday evening, alternative/indie/emo/pop bands Polar Bear Club, Citizen, Diamond Youth and Sainthood Reps will give you a full night of rock and roll. Doors open at 6 PM, show starts at 7 and it's $15 to get in. Here's Polar Bear Club doing "Blood Balloon" (NSFW language):



That's it for this weekend. As you may have heard by now, former political prisoner, then South African President Nelson Mandela died today. I'll leave with two songs to commemorate him.The first is a brand-new U2 song that came out in the biopic "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom". The second is the song I first thought of when I heard he died, an early MTV staple from The Specials. RIP Nelson Mandela.






Tony Jordan