Weekend Picks: Legendary Shack Shakers, Shawn Mullins, New Stew, Big Mama Shakes, Taters, Runaway Gin, Hazeltone

No alternative facts here. Just the real deal on who's playing where in the RVA this weekend.

Start your weekend right with The Legendary Shack Shakers blues, punk, rock and country Southern Gothic hell-for-leather roadshow at The Broadberry on Thursday. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with openers The Brains & The Delta Bombers. Here's a taste from the Shack Shakers press blurb:

Although not legendary upon being named, the band has grown into its reputation the last several years due to their heavy tour schedule, six critically acclaimed studio albums, and songs that have been featured on television shows such as HBO’s True Blood. Past tour mates and fans include Reverend Horton Heat, Rancid, The Black Keys, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, and Hank Williams III. Robert Plant is also a noted Legendary Shack Shakers fan, and picked the band to open for him on his 2005 tour of Europe. Plant named the band's third album Believe as one of his favorite records of 2005. The list of esteemed admirers goes on to include horror novelist Stephen King, who listed “CB Song” as among his iPod’s Top Five in a 2008 Entertainment Weekly article. Such a wealth of devoted fans over the years has only added to the mystique that the Legendary Shack Shakers possess, carrying them down the road toward new creative pursuits and barn-shaking tunes.

Here's the Shack Shakers playin' in the "Mud":


Louisiana singer/songwriter Marc Broussard is at The Tin Pan Friday night. The show might be sold out, but if tix become available they'll run $45 advance, $50 at the door. Door open at 6 and Jamie McLean Band opens the show at 7:30. Get there early to see Jamie. He used to play with Dirty Dozen Brass Band and his band has been touring with Gregg Allman, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Drive By Truckers, Gov't Mule, Soulive, Jackie Greene, Blues Traveler, North Mississippi Allstars and more. Here's one from Marc:



And one from Jamie:



At Capital Ale House Downtown, help yourself to a big serving of The New Stew Friday night. Who's in the Stew, you say? Here's the lineup:

Corey Glover – Vocals (Living Colour, Galactic)

Roosevelt Collier - Lap Steel/ Pedal Steel (Lee Boys)

Yonrico Scott – Percussion (Derek Trucks Band, Royal Southern Brotherhood)

Dave Yoke – Guitar (Susan Tedeschi Band, Dr. John, Scrapomatic)

Jared Stone – Drums (Stone's Stew)

Matt Slocum – Piano (Oteil and the Peacemakers, Col. Bruce Hampton & Aquarium Rescue Unit, Lee Boys)

Jonathan Meadows from The Congress is going to sit in too. These soul/jazz/blues vets will pay tribute to the classic album "Bill Withers - Live from Carnegie Hall" by playing the album in it's entirety. Tix are $20 for GA or $32.50 for VIP and you can get a $20 discount HERE. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. Here's the band performing "Harlem/Cold Baloney" from that album last year:

The Taters kick off their 20th year with a show they are calling Bridge of The Cyber Taters. Will this be a prog-rock sci-fi epic rock opera? (Probably not.) Will they wear robot costumes? (Maybe!) Find out at O'Tooles Friday night. The show starts at 8 and goes until 11. Here's the band last week on Cary NC:



Phish is off the road for a while and if you miss them already, head to The Camel Friday night. Runaway Gin - A Tribute to Phish will take the stage at 10:30. There's no opener and the doors open at 9:30. Tix are $10 advance, $12 at the door. This is the Richmond debut of the band, who have played 200 shows, earning them the self-appointed title of World's Most Active Phish Tribute Band. Here they are doing "Tweezer > Sneaking Sally Through The Alley" in November:



Big Mama Shakes will shake your big ass Saturday night at Garden Grove Brewing Company. This will be a release party for Big Mama Brown Ale. I always loved Big Mama Brown and I'm glad they named an ale after her. Oh wait, it's a brown ale? I get it. It's a collaboration between the band and Garden Grove to make a fine brown ale. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with openers Dharma Bombs. It's FREE to get in. The band can rock the Southern/classic/blues rock thing pretty loud but they get a little introspective on this song, "Places":



Americana band Hazeltone is at Poe's Pub Saturday night with a special guest opening the show. Doors at 9, show starts at 10. No cover charge is listed. Here's their description of themselves:

We play B side, off the wall stuff from the Tom Petty, Rolling Stones, REM, David Bowie, Neil Young. Our originals lean towards Better than Ezra ,Petty Doors, John Mayer influence. We are a 7 member band that includes 12 & 6 string acoustic, harmonica, 6 string electric guitar, violin, piano, accordion,sax drums, and bass...We are an all original song band with some hand crafted covers.

Shawn Mullins is at The Tin Pan Sunday night. Doors open at 5, show starts at 6:40 with opener Rick Brantley. Shawn's big hit was "Lullaby" in 1998 but he's continued to make great storytelling music: emotional, romantic. sometimes cynical, sometimes humorous. Tix are $25 advance, $30 at the door. Here he is performing "Gulf Of Mexico" last March.



That'll do it. I'll see you at Legendary Shack Shakers on Thursday. Maybe Taters or Runaway Gin on Friday. Maybe Big Mama Shakes Saturday. I'll leave you with "Magic", a song Bruce Springsteen wrote about "alternative facts" during the Bush II era. Who knew it could get worse.



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

U2, Disco Biscuits, Bruce Hornsby, Austin City Limits Fest

October starts with a busy weekend here in Richmond. We kick things off tomorrow night with U2 at Scott Stadium at the University of VA in Charlottesville. Doors open at 5, show starts at 7 with opener, Muse. Tickets range from $30 - $250. As of 9:40 PM on Wednesday, there were seats available (and pretty good ones) at the $250, $95, and $55 levels. The only ones sold out were the $30 seats. (Sidenote: In looking up the Scott Stadium site I discovered that it has the completely ridiculous full name of "the Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium".) If you're going to the Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium to see U2 (I really hope Bono works the whole name in. "Hello, Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia! Are you ready to rock!?!"), they aren't allowing you tor bring anything into the stadium not even a bottle of water. All the better to get you to buy those tiny $4 bottles they'll be selling. And the bastards don't even serve beer!

If you have never seen U2, you really must. They are a legendary band at this point, one of the biggest bands in rock history and one of the few bands left that can do a huge stadium show and do it well. And the stage for this one is the largest stage OF ALL TIME. The previous largest stage, the Stones' Bigger Bang tour stage, could fit UNDERNEATH this one. It should be a site to behold.

I will be there on the field with the rockers who don't mind standing and going nuts for hours on end. I have seen U2 on each tour since the Joshua Tour, except for the last tour, so the layoff has me rather excited to see them. I have been avoiding pictures and setlists so as to keep the show as much of a surprise as possible. So I have come up with my dream setlist. My rules: At least one song from each album, 25 songs and in order of where they should be in the show. Feel free to contribute your own setlist in the Comments field. Here we go:
No Line on The Horizon - from album No Line on The Horizon (They usually start with a song from the latest album and I think this one will make a good opener.)
Vertigo - How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Hello! Hello!)
I Will Follow - Boy
Where The Streets Have No Name - Joshua Tree (No pauses between the first four songs. Come out banging!)
Sort of Homecoming - Unforgettable Fire (A breather. Great bass line from Clayton.)
Surrender - War (Been listening to War a lot lately and this one just seems to stand out. No New Year's Day or Sunday Bloody Sunday. Overplayed.)
Pride In The Name of Love - Unforgettable Fire
Even Better Than The Real Thing - Achtung Baby
Gloria - October
Bad - Unforgettable Fire
Exit - Joshua Tree (A great song that just builds and builds until it explodes. Was phenomenal in the Joshua Tree show. Watch Rattle & Hum if you forgot.)
Until The End of The World - Achtung Baby (Some of Bono's best lyrics. He takes the point of view of Pontius Pilate speaking to Jesus.)
Elevation - All That You Can't Leave Behind
Angel Of Harlem - Rattle & Hum (Perhaps their funnest song. Great horn lines that would have to be pre-recorded or played on keys.)
Stay (Faraway So Close) - Zooropa (When I worked overnights at the radio station, I used to crank this one way up. Perfectly captures that half-awake/half-asleep dream world of 2 AM.)
Love Is Blindness - Achtung Baby (Some of the Edge's best work at the end of this one. Really jammed it out at the end of the Zooropa show.)
Red Hill Mining Town - Joshua Tree (Just something different to play off of this album.)
The Saints Are Coming - single (w/Green Day) (This would be killer live.)
Do You Feel Loved - Pop (A great song with another great Clayton bass line. Listen to it again. You'll thank me. Really nice production on this one too.)
Moment of Surrender - No Line on The Horizon (This one is standing out early for me as I learn the new album. Will probably have a new fav from the album after seeing some of the songs in concert.)
Bullet The Blue Sky - Joshua Tree (The Edge as Hendrix, all squawling semi-controlled feedback. Off the charts.)
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - single (A great song from a lame movie. The movie also gave us "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal. Listen to that one on the headphones. Beautifully sung by Seal and produced by Trevor Horn.)
Please - Pop (I think this one of their best songs ever. No shit. This album also had one of their worst songs ever ("Miami").)
Beautiful Day - All That You Can't Leave Behind (A great, feel-good song. And they gotta get the lights all rainbowy at the proper moment.)
Ultraviolet (Light My Way) - Achtung Baby (A great closer. They must bust out the mirror ball for this one.)

Its getting late now since I took 15 minutes out to watch the Phils win the NL East for the third year in a row (GO PHILLIES!). That list took longer than I thought it would too. Had to get just the right order and seperation between the slow songs. But since it took so long, I'm going to quickly run down the weekend's events in Richmond.

Thursday night, if you can't go to U2, to the National and check out jam band Disco Biscuits. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Big Gigantic and tix are $25. As their name would imply, Disco Biscuits tend toward the dancey, electronica side of the jam band universe. Here they are at the Fuji Rock Fesitval in Japan this year:


The Austin City Limits Music Festival will be broadcast for FREE on iclips.net starting on Friday at 12:30 PM, then Saturday & Sunday at 11:45 AM. They are still working out some of schedule but highlights include Avett Brothers, Coheed & Cambria, John Legend, Medeski, Martin & Wood, STS9, The Dead Weather and you're sure to find a new favorite band in there too.

Jamie McLean & DJ Williams Projekt are at the Capital Ale House on Friday night. Show starts at 10 and its $6 to get in. Jamie is the guitarist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and if you like classic rock, blues and such you'll dig him. Here he is performing in July:


Steve Kimock and his new band Crazy Engine will be at the Canal Club on Saturday night. Doors open at 8 and the opener is the Jesse Chong Band. Tix are $20. Some jam band aficionados worship the ground Kimock walks on. I've found him to be good at jammy and jazzy stuff but he doesn't really rock much or get a dancable groove going at least in past bands I've heard him with. I tend to find his solo stuff a might sleepy. Maybe that's changed with Crazy Engine. Keyboard great Melvin Seals is in the band so that should definitely add some soul. Here they are at the All Good Festival this year. Look for Phil and Angie in the audience. GET WELL SOON YOU TWO! I can't lose my concert buddies for any reason.:


Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers will be at The National on Saturday night. Wonder if you may see Kimock stop by with Hornsby or vice versa as they were bandmates in the Grateful Dead offshoot, The Other Ones. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. No opener, Bruce and the band will do 2 full sets. Tix are $35. Here they are doing a song from their latest album "Space Is The Place":


Sunday, "A Taste of Carytown" 6th Annual Food & Wine Festival will take place in Carytown from noon to 6. Tix are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate.

Sunday, the Richmond Roots Music Sessions "tour" stops at Legend Brewery. This series is leading up to the Folk Festival next weekend. At Legend will be Eden and John’s East River String Band (old timey blues duo from NYC) - with - Slack Family (bluegrass). Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 5 PM.

Also Sunday, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer will be at Modlin Center for the Arts. However that one is sold out so you if you don't have tix you're out of luck.

Monday, Richmond Roots Music Sessions will be at Gibson's Grill with Fight the Big Bull (multi-musical jazz blowout) - with - Miramar (brazilian love duets) & DJ Rattan. Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 8 PM.

On Tuesday, Richmond Roots Music Sessions is at Plaza Bowl with Jesse Lege (cajun dance band) - with - Gypsy Roots (django Jazz and gypsy music) & Horo (bulgarian dance troop). Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 7:30 PM.

Finally, also on Tuesday, guitar great Robin Trower will be at The National. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener 3borne and tix are $20 in advance, $23 day of show. Here's one of my favorite Robin Trower songs (had it on a K-Tel album!), Too Rolling Stoned:


Have a great weekend and I'll see you at U2! Bono, feel free to use my setlist.

Tony Jordan