Flaming Lips, RiverRock, VibeFest, Social Distortion, Amos Lee, Danzig

Big busy weekend. The big event is Dominion RiverRock at Brown’s Island from 4 PM until 11 PM on Friday and 1 PM until 11 PM on Saturday. Besides the Ultimate Air Dogs (my kids’ favorite event), the Mud Run, Freestyle Bikes, Boulder Bash, and the Canal Crashers kayaks, they have a great lineup of music. Here is the music schedule:
Friday, May 13, 2011
6 p.m. - Josati
7:15 p.m. - Big Gigantic
9 p.m. - Perpetual Groove

Saturday, May 14, 2011
1 p.m. - The Bush League
2:30 p.m. - Psychobilly Cadillac
4 p.m. - William Walter & Tucker Rogers
5:30 p.m. - People's Blues of Richmond
7 p.m. - Jonathan Vassar & The Speckled Bird
9 p.m. - Yonder Mountain String Band

Unfortunately, between t-ball games and cookouts, I won’t be able to get down there Saturday. But I’ll be there on Friday for the jam band Perpetual Groove. Here they are deep in their set at the Black Water Music Festival in Suwanee GA last year:


And here is a little Yonder Mountain String Band if you are thinking about going on Saturday night. Here they are in playing “If Loving You Is Killing Me” in Santa Cruz in April of this year.


If you are more in the mood for gothic metal on Friday night, head to The National for Danzig. Tix are $25, doors open at 7 and the show starts at 8 with 2 Cents. Everybody knows “Mother” so instead I’m going with “Am I Demon”. Bang your heads, motherf**kers!


Also, Friday night, Johnny A. plays at the Capital Ale House Downtown. Johnny A plays blues & rock guitar in the styles of Les Paul, Wes Montgomery, Jeff Beck, Chet Atkins, and Jimi Hendrix. The show starts at 10 PM and tix are $15. Here’s Johnny performing “Oh Yeah” in April of this year:


If you are at home on Friday night, you can check out the webcast from Bob Weir (of the Grateful Dead) & Friends. And he has some pretty good friends: Rob Wasserman, Jay Lane, Jeff Chimenti, Steve Kimock, Robin Sylvester and a 4 piece Horn Section. The show starts at 10 PM ET from the Talampais Research Institute (http://www.tristudios.com/ ), which is a state of the art recording and video studio built by Bob Weir and, well, some other friends of his. The main performance space at TRI houses a Meyer Sound Constellation System - a revolutionary acoustic modeling technology which has the ability to dramatically change the acoustical properties of the room. With the touch of a button, an artist can instantly change the sonic environment from that of a small intimate club to sounding like a theater, an arena or even a cathedral. And the video will be in HD.

Saturday night Amos Lee will be at The National. Amos recently had the #1 album in America. Tix are $25. Doors open at 6:30 and the show starts at 7:30 with opener Sonia Leigh. You might like Amos if you like James Taylor, Norah Jones, Ben Harper, Willie Nelson, or Lucinda Williams. Here he is performing “Windows Are Rolled Down”.


Sunday out at The Meadows at The Boulders will be Vibefest featuring The Georgia Satellites, Janet Martin Band, The Taters, Susan Greenbaum and more. The event runs from noon until 6:30 PM and is $10 in advance, $15 at the gate. The event benefits The Positive Vibe Foundation, a non-profit organization preparing people with cognitive or physical disabilities for paid employment in the food service industry. Everybody knows “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” but here’s another good one from the Satellites, “Battleship Chains” as performed by them on Danish TV(?) in 1996:


Also Sunday, I’ll be hitting up the sold out Flaming Lips show (thanks to Wyatt for remembering me when an extra ticket came his way!) at The National. If any tickets do appear, they’ll be $40. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener The Ghost of A Saber Tooth Tiger. BTW, you may want to get there early as TGOASTT is a band featuring Sean Lennon and his girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl. If you can get a ticket to the Lips show, you really must go. It is a super psychedelic mind-blowing party with balloons, Wayne Coyne (lead singer) walking across the crowd in a hamster costume, confetti guns, artsy videos, people in costumes and the music is pretty wild and fine too, like a cross between punk rock and Pink Floyd. And they are about to step out on Broadway as I heard that their classic album, “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots”, is being turned into a musical but I’m sure it won’t be your typical musical. “Typical” is not in the Lips vocabulary. Here they are performing “I Was Zapped By The Super Lucky Rainbow” which is typical of their warped humor:

And here is the Lips performing a medley of songs from The Who’s “Tommy” at the VH1 Tribute to The Who:


On Wednesday, The Wailers will be at Innsbrook. Tix are $12.50 in advance, $15 at the gate. Gates open at 6 and The Wailers will come on about 8. There is an opener which will be announced.

Also on Wednesday, Social Distortion will be at The National. Tix are $27.50 in advance, $32.50 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with openers Sharks and Chuck Ragan. Here’s Social Distortion performing “Don’t Drag Me Down” when they were at The National in 2009.


Blogger is still down (I’m writing this in Word to copy over to Blogger later) (NOTE: Blogger was down until about noon on Friday.  Sheesh!) and it’s late and I’ve got a busy weekend ahead so I am calling it a night. We’ll get back to our lists next week.

Have a great weekend! I’ll see you at RiverRock on Friday night for Perpetual Groove and Sunday night at The Flaming Lips!

Tony Jordan

Shamrocks, Satellites, Bluegrass, Willie, Loose Ends

Let's jump right in. Saturday, you can party like the Irish at the Shamrock on the Block party, a free bash in Shockoe Bottom. Kids are welcome though there will be beer. It is a St. Pat's day fest. The party goes from noon to 6 PM. There are a number of local bands playing and the Georgia Satellites are the headliner, coming on at 4:45. The Satellites were one of the great, underrated bands of the 80s, an island of straight forward rock in a land of synth pop. They had a few big hits on their self-titled album in '86 including "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" and "Battleship Chains". I also really enjoyed their '89 album, Land of Salvation and Sin. Note that the lead singer from that period is no longer with the band. But if you only know "Keep Your Hands to Yourself", you probably won't notice and I'm sure these guys can still rock n' roll. Hopefully, the weather will hold out for this event. I have never been because I think every year it is cold and/or rainy and the forecast isn't looking too good this year either.

Saturday, great bluegrass act, the Del McCoury Band come into the National. Show time is at 8 PM and tickets are $17.50 in advance, $20 the day of show. These guys are one of the greatest bluegrass bands ever.

You can keep getting your Americana groove on Tuesday at the National when American icon and legend and your favorite 70+ year old pot head, Willie Nelson, is here. Show time is at 8 PM and tickets are $55.

R&B queen Jill Scott comes to the Landmark Theater on Sunday night. Show starts at 7 PM and tickets are $48. Jill Scott mixes old soul with hip-hop and I like everything she's done. Even if you can't get to the show, check out some of her tunes on her web site.

Finally, at Toad's Place on Wednesday, its a Richmond music showcase with DJ Williams Projekt (not a DJ, that's his name), Oregon Hill Funk All-Stars, The Silo Effect, and Aparallax. Tickets are just $5 in advance and $10 the day of show. Doors open at 7 PM.

A few loose ends:

One of the greatest shows in the history of TV wrapped up on Sunday night. That would be HBO's The Wire. This show took us inside the drug gangs of inner city Baltimore and the police who tried to catch them. It showed us the unions, the politicians and the schools in a city eating itself alive with corruption. I will miss my look into that world even though it was gut wrenching at times. If you didn't see it, check it out on DVD. Two of my favorite characters were the drunk, womanizing McNulty and the drunk Bunk. These two guys were the good guys, believe it or not. In one of my favorite scenes, McNulty & Bunk investigate a crime scene. This scene displays some of the black humor they would use to lighten the shows cynical feel. Its amazing the different ways they can say the f-word. Its almost poetic. Watch out if you're watching this at work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbsnSVM1zM&NR=1.

Because nothing is funnier than a monkey with a gun. (Again, watch the language): http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/61f64d8204

The Marvelous Crooning Child. Disturbing yet strangely entertaining: http://www.eugenemirman.com/crooning1.html.

And just because it is a strange and beautiful song and video, Mexican Radio.

Have a great weekend. Happy St. Pat's Day!

Tony Jordan