Weekend Picks Part 2: Noam Pikelny, Mack Avenue SuperBand, No BS! Brass Band, Lucy Dacus

On to Saturday night, or more accurately, Saturday afternoon when Hardywood's  Raspberry Stout release happens. That's a chocolate stout brewed with local red raspberries. Mmmmmmm. That starts at 2 PM. Bands start at 5 PM with Samantha Pearl, Horsehead, Andrew Leahy and the Homestead, and one of Rolling Stone magazine's 20 Acts You Must Know for February, Lucy Dacus. It's FREE to get in and there will be food trucks if you get the munchies. But don't forget to eat. I was having so much fun playing pinball and video games at Hardywood last weekend, by the time I made it the food trucks, only was left open and they only had tater tots left. They were delicious. Lucy was also featured on NPR's All Songs Considered New Mix the other day. If you missed Lucy at the WRIR fest the night before, or want to see her again, now is your chance, while you enjoy delicious beer. Buy Lucy a beer. I bet she'll appreciate it. Here's Lucy when she was at Hardywood in November:



Modlin Center for the Arts at U of R features the Mack Avenue SuperBand Saturday night. Who's in the Super Band you ask? "Mack Avenue SuperBand musical director and bassist Christian McBride and his trio of pianist Christian Sands and drummer Carl Allen will be joined by legendary seven-time GRAMMY® Award-winning vibraphonist Gary Burton, Saxophonist and member of Beyoncé’s superstar band Tia Fuller, and trumpet virtuoso Dominick Farinacci." The show starts at 7:30. Tix range from $10 to $40 depending on who and what you are. Here's a slightly different incarnation of the SuperBand playing at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2015:

Banjo player Noam Pikelny (of the Punch Brothers) is at Ashland Coffee & Tea Saturday. Show starts at 8, tix are $20 advance, $23 day of show. Here's the press blurb on Noam:

NOAM PIKELNY has emerged as the preeminent banjoist of his generation, and the greatest color-blind banjoist of all-time. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “pros’ top banjo picker,” Noam is a founding member of Punch Brothers, a string ensemble which The Boston Globe calls “a virtuosic revelation” and The New Yorker describes as “wide- ranging and restlessly imaginative.” In September of 2010, Pikelny was awarded the first annual Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. Pikelny is a 3-time Grammy Award Nominee and his most recent release, Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe, was described by the New York Times as “a token of reverence, a feat of translation and a show of dominion”. The album is widely considered a landmark recording in acoustic music, and was named “Album of the Year” at the 2014 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. While he has been recognized internationally for his immense musical skill, Pikelny’s greatest talent is perhaps his ability to insert, without fail, into almost all conversations that he was the first member of Punch Brothers to become a homeowner.

 Here's a short documentary about the making of his second album, courtesy of Funny or Die. It features fellow banjo players Steve Martin, Ed Helms, Bela Fleck and Earl Scruggs.



Over at Broadberry on Saturday, No BS! Brass Band will get crazy. Tix are $12 advance, $15 day of show. Show starts at 9 and Flashlight Tag opens the show. No BS will be at the Lava Music Fest in Suffolk VA in May. Here's some live No BS from November:



Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with an hour long set from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.



Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Dumpstaphunk, Dave Rawlings Machine, Suzanne Vega, Duncan Sheik, Hardywood Goldrush party

The weekend before Thanksgiving and I'm desperately trying to avoid the early Christmas songs and decorations. I don't want to hear Christmas music until 2 weeks before Christmas. And the decorations shouldn't go up until the day after Thanksgiving. But I guess it's too late to put the genie, or should I say the quest for the $, back in the bottle. Every store is trying to be first now. At some point it just becomes background noise starting before Halloween and it loses its meaning.

But no Christmas music here this weekend (at least I hope not)! Friday night, Suzanne Vega and Duncan Sheik are at Modlin Center for the Arts. Show starts at 7:30. Tix are $20 - $40 depending on your demographic. They'll play alone and together. Here's the press blurb for the show:

Two of America’s most iconic singer/songwriters, Suzanne Vega and Duncan Sheik, join forces for one incredible night of music.

Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who “observed the world with a clinically poetic eye,” Suzanne Vega’s songs have always tended to focus on city life, ordinary people, and real world subjects. Notably succinct and understated, often cerebral but also streetwise, her lyrics invite multiple interpretations. In short, Suzanne Vega’s work is immediately recognizable as utterly distinct and thoughtful, and as creative now as it was when her voice was first heard on the radio more than 20 years ago.

After breaking through in the late ‘90s with his Top 20 single “Barely Breathing,” Duncan Sheik spent much of the subsequent decade taking a breather from the usual rock singer/songwriter rituals. He focused on albums that broke with pop music conventions as well as theatrical musicals such as Spring Awakening, the Broadway sensation that won him two Tony® awards and a Grammy®.

Suzanne recently played at the 60th Birthday Bash for another one of my faves, Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens. Here she is doing "Small Blue Thing". Her voice still sounds amazing.



And here's Duncan Sheik a few days ago performing "Avalanche" from his latest album, "Legerdemain":

Hardywood has created a beer named after one of their favorite local bands (at least I assume that's what happened). The Goldrush beer is a saison and a limited, experimental, small-batch release. Be there and be part of the experiment. Drink the beer, listen to the band, live the experience. Live music starts at 5 with Landis Wine, who should change his name to Landis Beer for this event. Landis plays beat-driven electronic pop and improvisation. He'll be followed by New Boss (vibrant, rambling power-pop) and J. Flax & Heart Attacks (onslaught of surf & rock n roll). The night ends with the beer's namesake, Goldrush, and their psychedelic power pop. Here's Goldrush's "Pale Blue Dot":

The Americana super group Dave Rawlings Machine is at The National Saturday night. Tix are $33 in advance, $38 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. No opener is listed. The DRM is made up of Dave Rawlings, Gillan Welch, Paul Kowert of Punch Brothers and Willie Watson of Old Crow Medicine Show. Besides songs from Dave, expect to hear covers of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, The Band, and Neil Young. Here's the opening track from DRM's new album, "Nashville Obsolete". It's called "The Weekend":



Monday night, The Broadberry will be oozing the funk out of every nook and cranny. Great New Orleans band, Dumpstaphunk, will bring the jams to free your booty and your mind. Dumpstaphunk features Ivan Neville, because if you're a band from NO, you've got to have a Neville and they have two. Ian Neville is in the band too. The Nevilles just keep on comin'!  And if they aren't funky enough for you, the funk-o-meter will get turned up even more with local funkmeisters DJ Williams Projekt and Sam Reed Syndicate opening the show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9, Tix are $15 in advance, $17 at the door. Dumpstaphunk was in the recording studio today (Wednesday) so they've got some fresh tracks to drop on your ass. I'll be there to make sure my soul is properly funkified and to give thanks to the Great Funk God in the Sky. Please join me and you too can feel the funk. Here's Dumpstaphunk with "Liar" from this year's Camp Barefoot:



Have a great weekend! I'll see you at Dumpstaphunk! Maybe Hardywood! Maybe Dave Rawlings Machine!

Speaking of Dave Rawlings, here's Dave with Gillian Welch on her song "Revelator". I am obsessed with this song today. I've listened to it 10 times today. It gives me goosebumps every time.



Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Zap Mama, Antibalas, BRONCHO, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Avers, Bio Ritmo, Trongone Band

Thursday night at the Modlin Center, two-time Grammy winners Spanish Harlem Orchestra will turn up the heat. The show starts at 7:30 PM and tickets range from $10 to $32 depending on your demographic. Here they are a few years ago:

Friday night at The Camel, Trongone Band headlines with opener Dale and the Zdubs. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 and it's $7 to get in. Trongone Band just got back from Key West, where they played a private wedding event, so they will be tanned and ready to go. Here they are at The Camel in December with Ron Holloway on sax doing an Allman Brothers classic:



Indie garage punk alternative noise rock band BRONCHO (out of Norman OK) will be at Strange Matter Friday. Doors open at 9 and it's $10 to get in. Yonatan Gat, The Milkstains and Daddy Issues open. You can download the Dine Alone Records Winter Sampler for FREE which includes BRONCHO, Lucius and others HERE. Here's BRONCHO's video for "Class Historian":

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery has a party on Saturday to celebrate their work with Cigar City Brewing to create The Milkmaid (White Milk Stout) and The Milkman (Chocolate Milk Stout). The tapping begins at 2 PM. Live music starts at 5 PM with The Trillions (shred pop), then
Warren Hixson (Lofi psychedelic surf pop) at 6:15 PM and Avers (hard psychedelic pop) at 7:30. Charlie Glenn will pull double duty playing with both The Trillions and Avers so buy him a beer. The Trillions will most likely be doing some songs from their new album, "Superposition", which comes out 1/31. Here's Avers doing "Hold On" at The Broadberry in October:



Wood Face, The Green Hearts and Jordan Tarrant will be at Sound of Music Recording Studio Saturday starting at 7 PM. It's $5 to get in. Here's The Green Hearts in the dark at Southside Lounge somewhere in America in 2013:

You can get your salsa on at The Broadberry on Saturday with Bio Ritmo. It's $8 in advance, $10 at the door and things get under way at 8 with DJ Felty and DJ Pari. They'll be recording this show live so get there and be on the recording. I'm on three official live recordings: The Kinks - "Live: The Road", Grateful Dead - "Nightfall of Diamonds" and Grateful Dead - "View from the Vault 1". I'm the guy yellling "Wooooooooooooooo!" after each song. Here's Bio Ritmo at The Camel in December:



Wednesday night, African jazz avant garde group Zap Mama is at the Carpenter Theatre with Antibalas. Tix are $30 - $38 and Antibalas opens the show at 7:30 PM. They'll be playing together so this should be a really cool funk jazz show. Here's the press blurbs for the bands:

Known to her fans as Zap Mama, Marie Daulne redefines the term "vocalist." Athletic and powerful on stage, Daulne is a “sonic stylist who alternates between storytelling and creative vocal expression.” She is the sound of urban, afro-scat, and alternative funk. Since bursting on the scene almost 20 years ago, the Belgian-Congolese diva has wowed audiences around the world with her unique sound, which seamlessly blends African, American, and European cultural influences and effortlessly mixes genres such as R&B, hip-hop, and jazz with indigenous and tribal sounds.

Antibalas is Afrobeat’s premier second-wave ensemble and disciples of Fela Kuti, the brilliant big-band leader and Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer. This eleven-member ensemble from Brooklyn deals in the rhythms that define the Afrobeat style, but bring in jazz, funk, dub, improvised music, and traditional drumming from Cuba and West Africa to much acclaim. Through their concerts, tours, and recordings, Antibalas has earned the admiration of a wide array of respected musicians, including everyone from Questlove and David Byrne to members of Fugazi and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. NPR Music’s Bob Boilen writes “If they come to your town, drop what you’re doing and go see them. Wear dancing shoes.”

Here's Zap Mama in Belgium:



As you may have heard, the remaining members of the Grateful Dead will be playing three final shows together in Chicago's Soldier Field on July 3, 4, and 5 to commemorate the band's 50th anniversary. Trey Anastasio from Phish will be on guitar (which I'm excited about, Hitler not so much) and Bruce Hornsby will be on keys. And I know you were probably wondering how Hitler, apparently a big Deadhead, would react. So here you go.



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Marc Broussard, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Scott & Charlene's Wedding, Jackass Flats, Hard Day's Night, Fido Fest, Diggity Fest

Back to normal this week. The post-Lockn' depression is over and they've already got early-bird alumni tickets on sale for next year (Sept. 10 - 13). And so it begins again.

But in the here and now, the weekend begins with bluegrass from Jackass Flats at The Camel. The Northerners will open the show so this looks like a good one. Doors open at 8. It's $7 in advance, $10 at the door. Here's Jackass Flats last year:



A couple festivals on Sunday, one for the dogs and one for the kids. RVA Fido Fest will be down at Brown's Island from 11 AM to 6 PM. It's $5 in advance, $10 at the door and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Richmond SPCA. Kids under 12 and dogs of all ages are FREE. There will be performances from the Olate Dogs, 2012 winners of America's Got Talent. Also, live music, stuff to do with your dog, stuff to buy for your dog, food for you and your dog, and beer and wine for you and your dog. Here's the Olate Dogs doing their thing:



For the kids, the Diggity Fest will be out at Westchester Commons where Midlothian Turmpike meets Rt. 288. It's FREE but all proceeds from the stuff you buy and from the Kid's Zone ($5) goes to support Connor''s Heroes, which supports families for children cancer patients and survivors. The Fest features a bunch of children's music acts including Richmond-based, nationally touring band, The Diggity Dudes. Here's the lineup:

12:15 - Hope Harris & the Cousins Jamboree

1:15 - Steven Courtney & the Suitcase Musicians

2:15 - The Diggity Dudes

3:20 - Justin Roberts & the Not Ready for Naptime Players

4:20 - Joanie Leeds & the Nightlights

And here's the Diggity Dudes with a song about everyone's favorite gym day, the Presidential Physical Fitness Test:

It's a celebration of The Beatles' Hard Day's Night at The Byrd on Sunday. Hard Day's Night is one of the greatest rock n' roll movies of all time, capturing Beatlemania at it's height and The Beatles at their funniest. Here's all the details:

Pre-screening Happy Hour, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m., at the Portrait House, across the street from the Byrd. The movie starts at The Byrd at 6 p.m. The sound and picture have been newly restored for the movie’s 50^th Anniversary this year. Admission is $7 at the box office. Before the day of the show advance tickets are available at Bygones Vintage Clothing and Steady Sounds for $5. The proceeds of the screening will benefit the Bijou Film Center and the Byrd Theatre Foundation’s “Journey to the Seats.” The film will play one time only. The after-party at the New York Deli starts at 8:15 p.m., where The Taters will play live; no cover charge. HERE's the Facebook page for the event. And here's the trailer:

Wednesday at Innsbrook, Americana based blues jam band Big Head Todd & The Monsters come to town. Tix run from $15 for GA Advanced ($20 at the door) up to $58 for super deluxe VIP or whatever the hell Innsbrook calls the tix in the first few rows. Gates open at 5, show starts at 6 with a band TBA. Here's the band doing the title song from their latest album, "Black Beehive", which was written about Amy Winehouse:



More blues at the Modlin Center for the Arts Wednesday night. with Marc Broussard. Tickets range from $10 to $36 depending on your demographic. Show starts at 7:30 with openers Mingo Fishtrap and Andy Suzuki. Here's the little press blurb: "In 2002, then 20-year-old Marc Broussard released his independently recorded debut album, Momentary Setback. Since then, he’s seen nothing but success with his mix of funk, blues, and passion entwined with distinct Southern roots. Having shared the stage with Dr. John, Willie Nelson, Gavin DeGraw, and the Dave Matthews Band, Broussard emanates a soulful, youthful, and inventive sound. Take a day out on the bayou with Broussard as he blazes up New Orleans flavor on his guitar, strumming chords of classic, southern melodies with fiery verse." Here's the title track from Marc's new album, "A Life Worth Living":



Wednesday night you are invited to Scott and Charlene's Wedding at Strange Matter. No, those aren't pending nuptials, that's the name of an indie pop band out of Australia. This is their first US tour.  It's $8 to get in, doors open at 9. Dead Fame, Colony and Bare Thoughts will open. Here's their video for "Jackie Boy" which is a tribute to "Rocky":



That'll do it. Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan