Weekend Picks: Circulatory System, I Am the Avalanche, Blues Traveler, Smash Mouth, Sugar Ray, Lee Boys, Diamond Center, Fear of Music

Saturday. Beer. Bourbon DIPA Beer. Barrel Aged Beers (3 new ones). Barrel Day at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. It's free to get in, starts at 2 and goes until 9. Live music starts at 5:30 with The Welcome Hips (Newly formed in RVA, synth-pop channeling the jangle-y rock sound of the Velvet Underground, the Walkmen) at 5:30; Whtie Laces (Dreamy, atmospheric indie-pop from RVA) at 7; and Diamond Center (Electrified folk freak-out drone, but don't be scared) at 8. This will be Diamond Center's last show of the summer, so don't miss it. Here's Diamond Center at Strange Matter a couple years ago (we really need some new videos guys):

Diamond Center is going to have to hustle to get to Hardywood. They are pulling double duty on Saturday as they'll be at Strange Matter for a psychedelic early show. Doors will open at 5, music starts at 5:30 with a new Richmond band with a cool name, Father Sunflower & The Golden Rays (have they been playing Plants vs. Zombies?), then comes Diamond Center, then the headliner, Circulatory System out of Athens GA. Tix are $10 in advance, $12 day of show. Here's Circulatory System at the Caledonia Lounge in Athens on National Slurpee Day (7/11):



The Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Across America comes to Richmond Tuesday. The event will be at The Broadberry starting at 5 PM. This is a celebration of craft beer and they'll have 12 beer collaborations Sierra Nevada did with craft brewers created specifically for the event. Proceeds from the festival will go to the state brewers guilds in the host state of the festival. Proceeds from the sales of the 12-pack will go to hop and barley research, with the idea that fostering the development of new types of hop varieties and barley crops will help fuel the continued expansion of new flavor experiences for the ever-expanding tastes of craft drinkers. It's FREE to get in and Fear of Music, your local Talking Heads tribute band, will provide the soundtrack. Fear of Music needs some new video too, so here's the Talking Heads doing "Heaven":

At The Camel Tuesday night, I Am the Avalanche headlines a punk rock show with Somos, Rustbelt Lights and We Call This Courage opening. Doors are at 7, show starts at 7:30, it's $12 in advance, $14 at the door. Here's I Am the Avalanche's "The Shape I'm In" (not The Band song):



Wednesday night at Innsbrook, it's a whole bunch of pop-rock bands from the 90's on the Under the Sun Tour 2014 with Blues Traveler, Sugar Ray, Uncle Kracker and Smash Mouth. Gates open at 5, show starts at 6, tickets run from $20 for General Admission to $99 for Gold Circle Platinum (really, Innsbrook, this Gold Circle shit has to stop). Here's Blues Traveler from 2012 with "You Don't Have to Love Me":

The sacred steel sounds (like Robert Randolph) of The Lee Boys will light up The Broadberry on Wednesday night. DJ Williams will open the show and hopefully sit in with the boys. Doors open at 8, tix are $7 in advance, $10 at the door. Here's The Lee Boys with "Smile":



Have a great weekend! See you at Hardywood on Saturday and if you are going to the Phish show in Portsmouth on Wednesday, hit me up, and we'll hang out!

Tony Jordan

Lee Boys, Carbon Leaf, Cracker, Willie, No BK3

Friday Cheers on Brown's Island will feature The Lee Boys this week. These guys play "sacred steel" music which is a combination of gospel, blues and funk. If you've seen Robert Randolph, you know what I mean. I've heard good things about these guys so I'm sure they'll be worth checking out. As always, Friday Cheers is FREE and kicks off at 6 with opener DJ Williams Projekt. Get there early for DJ Williams Projekt as they always know how to get the party started. Here's the Lee Boys a couple years ago at the Sioux Falls, South Dakota Jazz and Blues Festival:



After Friday Cheers, the Lee Boys will head up to the Mountain Jam festival at Hunter Mountain, NY. You can check out the pay-per-view webcast of the festival at http://www.iclips.net/mtnjam_premium.php. It'll cost you $30 for the whole weekend or $20 for a single day. You'll get to see Porter Batiste Stoltz, Umphrey's McGee, Gov't Mule, Brett Dennen, Gomez, Jackie Greene, Hold Steady, Bill Kreutzman, Derek Trucks, Richie Havens, Michael Franti and the Allman Brothers Band. I'm kind of bummed that these are going pay-per-view. I can dig that they need to make money to pay for their coverage. But I wish they could pay their way with commercials during the webcast or something similar so more casual viewers could watch. I have two kids and I have to do chores and stuff during the weekend, so I usually watch the festival webcasts when I can but that sometimes isn't much during the day and certainly not enough for me to pay $30. Granted you do get to watch the archived webcast for 6 months after the event. But still....

The Beer, Bourbon & BBQ fest goes down at the Richmond Raceway Complex on Saturday from noon to 6. They'll have...um...beer, bourbon and BBQ. There are few different price packages:
- VIP Tasting Glass: $35 advance ONLY - Valid from Noon-6pm. Includes admission into the event, a souvenir tasting glass, unlimited sampling, TWO EXTRA hours of tastes and a t-shirt.
- Regular Tasting Glass: $25 advance online or $30 on-site – Valid from 2pm - 6pm. Includes admission into the event, a souvenir tasting glass, unlimited samples from 2pm - 6pm.
- Designated Driver Ticket: $15 advance online or on-site. Valid from noon-6pm.
Includes admission into the event only.
- Kids 12 and under are FREE.

Saturday night, Carbon Leaf comes home to Richmond and plays the National. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 and tix are $21. The opener is Alternate Routes. Carbon Leaf has a new album out called "Nothing Rhymes With Woman". You can check some of it out by clicking the Carbon Leaf link above.
Here they are playing "Drops Of Rain" at their Plan 9 in-store show a couple weeks ago:



Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish fame (no his name is not Hootie) brings the new country version of himself (sounds like Hootie & The Blowfish but with country slide guitar) to Innsbrook Pavilion on Sunday for the K95 Countryfest. Also appearing will be Jo Dee Messina & Jamey Johnson. Tix are $20. $40 if you want Gold Circle. Gates open at 3.

Sunday night, Cracker, led by Richmond's own Dave Lowery, will be at the National. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 and tix are $15. Backyard Tire Fire will open. Cracker has a new album out, "Sunrise In The Land Of Milk & Honey". They always put on a great show. Here they are playing the title track at one of their friend's birthday party. This video isn't very dynamic visually but the sound is pretty good.



Monday, you can check out Dave Matthews Band live (really live) at the Beacon Theater in NYC on Fuse TV with no commericals. If you don't know Fuse, you should be able to find it on your cable or satellite provider. They are a music channel that actually plays music unlike some other music channels that don't anymore but strangely keep the word "music" in their name. The show starts at 9 PM.


Willie Nelson will be at Innsbrook on Tuesday. Tix are $20 in advance and $25 at the gate. Gates open at 6 PM and famous opener tba will play first. I love Willie. You should definitely see him once to say you saw the legend. He has a great band. But Willie is getting up in years and the show is pretty laid back to say the least. He also has an annoying penchant to put a bunch of songs in medleys. I realize the dude has written an incredible amount of songs. But just pick a few and play the whole thing. Play some different ones the next night. It'll keep things fresh for you and the audience.


Wednesday night Bill Kreutzman, drummer for the Grateful Dead and The Dead, was supposed to play at The National with his trio BK3 which also features Scott Murawksi from Max Creek on guitar and James "Hutch" Hutchinson from Bonnie Raitt's band on bass. As my friend, Mark H., used to say when we would see Max Creek in college, "Scottie will totally melt your face". But in a good way.

However, the show is no longer appearing on the National web site and according to Ticketmaster, the show has been postponed with no new date announced. But here is a new interview with Bill Kreutzman on the Crawdaddy web site. Bill says he was the reason the Dead got back together for this latest tour. He also states that a nameless promoter wanted to charge even more for tickets on the tour but that the band was able to beat that back. They still charged $95 a ticket so what could this promoter have been wanting for the top tickets. $150? $200? Unreal. It also makes you wonder why the band would get in with a promoter like that.

I'll leave you with a link to the 10 worst performances of "Take Me out to the Ballgame" at the Cubs games, including the classic Ozzy Osbourne performance and a drunk Eddie Vedder. http://www.popeater.com/television/article/celebrities-sing-baseball-song/500487

That's it for me. Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan