Weekend Picks: Lemuria, Tony Bennett, Hamaganza, No BS! Brass Band, Skip Castro Band, The Congress, Lady God, Chatham County Line

This is a busy weekend as many bands try to get in a few last shows so they can have some extra Christmas cash to buy gifts for their friends and family and/or they're doing charity gigs to help people out in the holiday season. Either way, it's a good time to get out, blow off a little holiday stress, sleep late because you're off from work or nothing is going on at work anyway, and enjoy some fine music.

We start with Americana/bluegrass band Chatham County Line on their Electric Holiday Tour and stopping at the Broadberry on Thursday. Doors open at 8, tix are $15 in advance, $17 at the door. They just completed a tour of Norway, Holland, Scotland, Ireland and England and got back in time for Thanksgiving. Here's "Category Stomp" from last year's Electric Holiday Tour:



The national treasure that is Tony Bennett is at Altria Theater Thursday. Tony's daughter, Antonia, will open the show with a set of jazz/pop standards. It will all get underway at 8 PM. Tickets run from $55 to $115. Tony's duet album with Lady Gaga was named one of the best albums of 2014 by the Boston Globe. They wrote, "Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that two outsize Italian-American entertainers from New York would have such an easy chemistry together. It was still a shock to hear how well Bennett and Gaga blended on this album of jazz standards, reminding you that she’s a dexterous singer and he’s the ultimate master of understatement." Though Lady Gaga won't be at the show Thursday, here they are together at this year's lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree:

Over at The Camel, Trongone Band finish their December Thursday night residency. It's FREE to get in. The show starts at 8 with Mister F. Here's Trongone Band from the first week of the residency doing Little Feat's "Spanish Moon" with sax player Ron Holloway, who currently plays with Warren Haynes Band and has also played with Susan Tedeschi, Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Scott-Heron, and Root Boy Slim.

The annual Richmond tradition Hamaganza brings the weirdness to your holidays for 20 years now with two nights. The first is at Hardywood Brewery on Friday night starting at 6 PM. The second is at Cary St. Cafe on Saturday night starting at 10 PM. These shows benefit the Central VA Food Bank aka FeedMore. Admission is $10 or a ham. You never know what you will see at these shows but they are always MC'd by transvestite performer Dirtwoman who will lead the way through acts including Pete Lanzo, Blee Child, Chris Dovi, Kate Andrews, Rebecca Behrman, Jarrod Russell, J. Dean Owen, Mel Chase in the Hamaganza House band, with special appearances by Herschel Stratego, Iggy Plop and the Splooges, Diamond Heist -RVAs legendary Neil Diamond Tribute! The Perverted Puppet Players w/ the Cuttlefish, Female Arm Wrestlers, Jonathon the Juggler, The School of Rock, you may see some local news celebrities, whistlers, comedians and who knows what else. Just about anything goes.

New local band Lady God will be at Plant Zero Events and Arts Center as the musical guest for the new comedy showcase, RVA Central on Friday night. That will get underway at 7. No listing of cost but shouldn't be that much.

And that shouldn't go too late, because then Lady God heads over to Strange Matter to headline a show with SPORTS BAR and The Welcome Hips. The fun starts there at 9 PM on Friday when the doors open. It's just 5 dolla to get in. Here's Lady God rocking their power pop/surf sound last month at Sound of Music Studios:

Friday, No BS! Brass Band have their Annual Canned Food Drive show at The Broadberry. Doors open at 8 and the show starts with Gina Sobel and The Mighty Fine. You can get in for $8 if you bring a canned good or goods. You get in for $12 if you don't. Here's their latest video, "Git It Awn!" and they do:



If you head out to do a little last minute Christmas shopping Saturday morning (Saturday is the biggest shopping day of the year), why not wind down in the afternoon with a beer and some bluegrass-ish rock n' roll music with Flesh Mountain Boys and Adam Eubank at Cary St. Cafe. It's FREE to get in and starts at 2 PM. Here's a little promo for the show:



And here's the band at Cary St. Cafe last year:

Sunday night, it's blues rock/R&B/boogie-woogie galore at The Broadberry with The Skip Castro Band and The Nighthawks. It's $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 7 and the show starts at 7:30. If you don't know Skip Castro Band, here's the press blurb:

It began a long time ago. 1978 to be exact. Four musicians, out of work at the same time got together because honestly, they liked to play music. Thus, the Skip Castro Band was born. A mutual love of rhythm 'n blues, swing, boogie woogie and rock 'n roll became the foundation.

Over the next ten years, Skip Castro would become staples on the East Coast between Boston and Atlanta playing every bar, club, music hall, and college in between. All the while having a great time. Called one of the best party bands ever, Skip Castro brings the party every time they take the stage.

And who didn't they play with? Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Chuck Berry, James Cotton, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, the Nighthawks, the Kinks, Kenny Loggins and a host of others....

Fast forward 36 years and the same four guys are still playing together. Why?

Because even though they stopped playing full time 25 years ago, there's a unique groove and spirit that exists when Skip plays. They've played with other musicians but the greatest satisfaction comes when these four get together.

 And here they are playing at the State Theater in Falls Church a couple weeks ago:

Indie rockers from Buffalo, Lemuria, will be at Strange Matter Monday. Tix are $10 in advance, $12 day of show. If you buy in advance, you get a free 7" single! The doors open at 8. Prince (the band, not the artist formerly known as and now known again as Prince), Cross Eyed & Victory Party will open. Lemuria sold out their shows in Boston and Chicago, and had a number of shows moved to larger venues on this tour so if you want to go, get your tix now. Here's Lemuria talking about "Wise People":



Americana/alt-country band The Congress at at The Camel Tuesday night for a Christmas show with special guests The Southern Belles. Doors open at 8, it's $12 to get in, $10 in advance. The Congress are originally from RVA but reside in Denver now, but they're home for the holidays and want to rock. They've recently been opening for bands like Lake Street Dive and Hard Working Americans. Here's their latest, "Ain't It Easy":



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Avers, Young Widows, Helms Alee, Chatham County Line, Particle, Rocketts Red Glare, Black Girls, No BS! Brass Band

This weekend is very front loaded, with Sunday and Monday given over to barbecues, fireworks and, of course, tributes to our fallen soldiers. Be sure to give some time this weekend to remembering those who gave their lives so we could have the freedoms that we do. Here's one for them, a video of WWII archival footage set to Drive-By Truckers, "Sands of Iwo Jima".



DJ Williams Projekt has two shows this week, before DJ heads out on tour playing guitar for Karl Denson's Tiny Universe (who will play Pocohontas Park later this summer). You can catch DJ and the band Thursday night at The Camel. It's $10 to get in, doors open at 7 and Tauk will open. Their second show is at The Broadberry on Tuesday night. The show starts at 8 with opener Mama Like. It's $7 to get in. Here's the Projekt's show at The Broadberry on May 13. Prepare to get funkified.

Thursday night at Strange Matter, Kentucky noise-rock post-punk band Young Widows will be happy to rock your face off. Helms Alee (from Seattle) and Hex Machine (RVA) will open. Doors open at 9, show starts at 10, tix are $10 in advance, $12 day of show. Young Widows new album, Easy Pain, was released last week and is getting fantastic reviews. Here's Young Widows'  performing Easy Pain in it's entireity in January:

Friday night looks like the big night if you want to go out. Start with Friday Cheers Local Music Night. It looks to be an absoutely gorgeous evening to hang out on Brown's Island and listen to some of the best that Richmond has to offer. It's only $5 to get in. Things get underway at 6:30 with The Green Boys (bluegrass/folk/honky-tonk/Americana). Todd Herrington's Things are next. He's the bass player with DJ Williams Projekt (he's all over the place this week!), Mekong Express, and Big Payback, so I'm betting on something funky and danceable here. Finally, it's Richmond's band of the moment, Avers. I saw them a couple months ago at The Camel and have had their heavy psychedelic rock album, Empty Light", on ever since. They'll come on at 8. They've been hitting Philly & DC and are starting to gain some regional buzz. Check them out now and say you saw them when.... Here they are at Johnny Brenda's in Philly in January:



At Canal Club Friday night, Particle is back! Particle, one of the first bands I saw to really dive into the jamtronica thing and do it well, were gaining some momentum nationally in the mid-aughts when a series of personnell changes seemed to halt the band in it's tracks. We'll see if they can get back to the prominence they once had and Friday night will be a good chance to see if they've still got it. And who knew there was a Particle/Shaq connection! Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz will be doing the soundtrack for a new video game, "Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn". Perhaps Steve will tell some cool Shaq stories on Friday. Mekong Express (is Todd Herrington playing again?!?) & the Get Fresh Horns, DJ Phil Dice and Agent will open. Doors open at 8 and it's $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Here's their full show at the Aura Music Festival earlier this year:



At The Camel Friday night, it's No BS! Brass Band. Doors open at 8, show start at 9, it's $10 to get in, Murphy's Kids and Those Manic Seas open. It was recently announced that No BS will be opening Lockn' Festival in Arrington VA in September. As in the first band on stage on the first day, the ones to get the whole party started. Hopefully, they'll hang out and sit in with some of the other bands that night (The Wood Brothers, The Revivalists, Bob Weir & Ratdog, and String Cheese Incident). I'll be there right up front when they start to represent for the RVA. Here's their full show at the opening of The Broadberry in April:

At Balliceaux Friday, it's the disco party funk of Black Girls. Show starts at 10:30 and it's $5 to get in. This will be Black Girls last show in Richmond for a while because they are hitting the road in June. Here's their video for "Soul Tornado" filmed at 17th St. Farmer's Market, the Canal Walk, and more:



Saturday at Ashland Coffee & Tea, bluegrass/Americana band Chatham County Line will take the stage around 8 PM. Tix are $20 in advance, $23 at the door. Their new album, Tightrope, was released 5/20. Here's "Tightrope of Love" from that album:



At Crossroads RVA (3600 Forest Hill Ave), blues band Bush League will stip down to just guitar, bass and vocals. Note that despite being well known for coffee & ice cream, Crossroads also serves beer and wine. Because you gotta have a little booze with your blues. Here's a little taste with band member Sleepy Eyed Jay and Chicago Slim doing "Boogie Chillun":



Sunday night, celebrate Memorial Day down at Rocketts Landing with Rocketts Red Glare. It's FREE and starts at 5:30 with music from Colin Healy and then the Kings of Swing at 6:30. But we are really going for the fireworks which will start at 9 and should look great with the Richmond skyline in the background. There will be some great food trucks down there, a special play area for the kids and beer & wine sales for the adults. As if that all wasn't good enough, it benefits Connor's Heroes, a great cause.

Looking ahead to Tuesday night, you check out Flesh Mountain Boys (hootenanny/bluegrass/Americana) at Cary St. Cafe. Show starts at 10 PM with opener Danny Plotnik. It's FREE to get in. Here they are at Cary St. back in September:



Here's Paul McCartney & Wings. Because I've been grooving on the "Wings Over America" CD for the last two months. It was one of the first albums I bought with my own money. And because the "Venus & Mars > Rockshow > Jet" show opener is one of the coolest openers in history.



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan