Lotus, Pinback, Wale, Larry Keel & Natural Bridge, Nighthawks, The Atkinsons

St. Patty's Weekend! Dance a jig, wear green and party until you puke green beer. Much music this weekend.

Jamtronica band Lotus headlines two nights at The National on Friday and Saturday night. Tix are $22 in advance, $25 at the door, or you can buy a two day pass for $40. Doors open at 8 and the show starts at 9 each night. Friday night, the opener is The Werks, Saturday night, Richmond's own Former Champions opens. Both shows are getting close to sold out so get your tix now. Here's Lotus doing "Kodiak" live at Red Rocks:



If you are more Mr. Natural than rave guy, head to the Capital Ale House on Friday night to see Larry Keel and Natural Bridge. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. Tix are $12 in advance, $15 day of show. Last time they played at Capital Ale House they sold out so get your tix early. They recently played NPR's Mountain Stage Radio Show with Asleep at the Wheel and others. The show will be broadcast on May 3. Here they are playing a few days ago at Jewish Mother in VA Beach:



Saturday, Shamrock the Block goes down in Shockoe Bottom around the Farmer's Market area. This has become a huge event with more than 30,000 attending last year. It'll run from noon to 6. It's free to attend, there will be food and beer to buy, and bands playing all day. Click HERE for the band lineup.

That night at the Canal Club, indie pop band Pinback will perform. Doors open at 8, tix are $15 in advance, $18 at the door. No opener is listed on the Facebook event page for this one, but you might want to check the Canal Club site later. The site is down as I type this. They'll be playing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on March 19. Here's their video for the fine song "Proceed to Memory" from their latest album, "Information Retrieved":



Sunday night, blues greats The Nighthawks will be at Lulu's. The show will start around 7 and it's $15 to get in. Here's a taste of their show in Rockville MD on 2/23:



Underground rapper Wale will be at The National on Sunday night. Tix are $32.50 in advance, $40 at the door. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. No opener is listed on The National's site. You might like Wale is you like Gorillaz, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Jay-Z, Outkast, DJ Kool, or Chuck Brown. Here's Wale's "Street Runner" (language NSFW):



Over at Capital Ale House on St. Pat's Day, it's a full day of FREE music with Donnybrooks Band from 3 PM to 6 PM, then The Atkinsons from 7 PM to midnight with St. Andrews Legion Pipe & Drums making appearances throughout the day. The Atkinsons are an Americana band but they say they've got some Irish tunes ready for the show. Here's The Atkinsons playing at the 2012 Watermelon Fest:



The tenth best video of 2012 according to Paste Magazine is this sad little animated video from Wilco for "Sunloathe":



Have a great St. Patrick's Day!

Tony Jordan

The Cult, Monsters of Folk, Larry Keel, Tony Rice

We've got some good shows in Richmond this week and I'll catch you up on Halloween happenings too.

Friday night, The Hat Factory will have Larry Keel & Natural Bridge featuring Tony Rice. Larry & Natural Bridge hail from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and plays mountain music with a modern twist. Bluegrass great Tony Rice will be playing with the band. Should be a great show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 (no announced opener so get there early), and tix are $15. Here they all are playing together in C'ville back in '07:


A couple music-related events during the day on Saturday. The 10th Annual Brunswick Stew Festival will take place from 11 AM - 5 PM at the 17th St. Farmer's Market. Here is the lowdown on that from Venture Richmond:
"The Brunswick Stew Festival, the cornerstone of the 17th Street Farmers' Markets annual events, is one of the largest of its kind in the nation. It will feature the bluegrass/country sounds of Native Son and the smooth rock, reggae and rap rhythm sounds of Richmond's own Proverbial. It will also offer children's programs along with Too Tall Torrie. The Brunswick Stew Festival was recently featured in Pat Willard's 2008 bestselling book, America Eats! and is listed as an example of "one of the best Americana-style festivals merging traditional country recipes, local beer and eclectic mix of music to mainstream America." Taste samples from the stew masters will be available for purchase from 11:00am-1:00pm. Larger-sized containers will be available to the general public after 1:00pm. For additional information please visit http://www.17thstreetfarmersmarket.com/ or call 804-646-0477. The event is presented by the 17th Street Farmers' Market and Shockoe Bottom Neighborhood Association (SBNA) along with partners at Cox Communications and Brown Distributing."

Also on Saturday from 11 AM to 5 PM at the Capital Ale House Downtown is the Screens 'N' Suds benefit. Here is what's up with that:
"On Saturday, November 7, Screens ‘N’ Suds will feature the art of some of America’s most celebrated concert poster artists, and the beers of some of Virginia’s finest breweries, including Starr Hill, Blue & Gray, St. George’s, and Legend. Nationally known poster artists Jeff Everett (El Jefe Design), Richard Biffle, JP Flexner (No Division Design Syndicate), John Foster, Ryan Kerrigan, and Richmond’s own Adam Stockton and Andrew Stronge will show and sell their limited-edition, collectible posters for bands ranging from The Decemberists, Grizzly Bear and Gov’t Mule to The Melvins, Helmet and Rancid in the Capital Ale House Downtown Music Hall. Richmond’s own one-man band, Gull, alt-jazz duo Illbrain, and more will provide the soundtrack, while in the Ale House proper, some of the area’s best brewmasters will offer tastings and specials of their best brews. In addition to 100% of a raffle featuring rare, autographed concert and beer memorabilia, all proceeds from ticket sales will go to benefit Young Audiences of Virginia (www.yav.org), an organization that brings no-cost, SOL-ready music and art education into Virginia schools. All event sales of the Screens ‘N’ Suds poster series will go to benefit the Central Virginia Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society."

Tuesday brings alternative-folk supergroup Monsters of Folk to the Landmark Theater (finally a new, real web site for the Landmark). Monsters of Folk are Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), M Ward and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes). This will be a 2 1/2 hour show in which they'll play songs from their new album as well as songs from their respective Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket and M Ward catalogues. Tix are $35 , doors open at 7 and the show starts at 8. If you are going, get there early because there is usually a good size line to get through security into the Landmark. As of Thursday night, there are still good seats available. Here is their video for "The Right Place" sounding very The Band-like in this one. And that ain't a bad thing.


Next Wednesday night, a show I may be attending (holding off on buying tix in case kids get sick or rowdy), The Cult at The National. Tix are $25 in advance, $30 day of show, doors open at 7, show starts at 8 and there is no opener listed. The Cult hit it big in the 80's and early 90's. Lead singer Ian Astbury also sang with The Doors for a few years this decade. The Cult will be doing their entire Love album along with their greatest hits. Love was the album that first gained The Cult big exposure in the States with the hit "She Sells Sanctury". Here they are doing that one back in '85:



Just for kicks, here's Ian playing with the Doors:


Some cool shit went down on Halloween. Out in Indio, CA, Phish held their huge Festival 8 with eight sets over the weekend including their Halloween "costume" of playing the entire "Exile on Main St." album with Sharon Jones (of the Dap Kings and coming to Richmond in December) and a horn section. Here they are doing one of my favorite tracks from the album, "Ventilator Blues/Just Wanna See His Face":


Pearl Jam played the last show ever at Philly's Spectrum on Halloween and played Devo's "Whip It" costumes and all:


Hopefully some good music this week will help soothe me after my Phils couldn't pull off the Series win. But its been a great ride the last two years and hopefully they'll continue their winning ways next year.

Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

All the weekend shows and some Loose Ends

A bunch of shows this weekend so let's get started.

Ben Folds, formerly of Ben Folds 5, now I guess he's just Ben Folds 1, comes to The National on Friday night. Show starts at 9 with opening act Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide, tickets are $35. Ben had a big hit with "Brick" about taking his girlfriend to get an abortion the day after Christmas, probably one of the most depressing songs of all time but very moving. He was in a much better mood when he wrote the soundtrack to the animated film, "Over The Hedge", which is good because its a kids film and a pretty funny one at that. The songs had much more depth than you would expect from a kid's film soundtrack. Here's "Rockin' The Suburbs" from that.

Larry Keel & The Natural Bridge are at the Capital Ale House downtown on Friday night. Doors open at 9:30, tix are $10 in advance, $12 day of show. You can check out their web site to hear some selections. Here's what the Capital Ale House site says about them: "Connecting traditional songs of yesterday with their own original and inventive sounds of today, Larry Keel & Natural Bridge create astonishingly powerful acoustic music rich in heritage, heart and hotlicks! With a style that evokes both atomic rock energy and dynamic tonal purity, Keel and hisensemble are intent upon taking their instruments and their voices to their fullest potential for emotion and amazement."

Monday night, classic reggae band Toots & The Maytals come to Toad's. Doors open at 8, tix are $20 in advance and $23 day of show. Toots Hibbert helped write the blueprint for reggae/ska along with Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Jimmy Cliff. Here's what the Toad's site says: "Legendary ska and reggae group, Toots and the Maytals are credited with coining the word "Reggae" on their 1968 single "Do the Reggay." Until that time Reggay was a dance fad in Jamaica and was not associated with the style of music played by bands we now consider Reggae musicians.

In 2005, Toots and The Maytals won the Grammy award for Best Reggae Album, True Love, an album consisting of re-recorded versions of their classics alongside popular and legendary musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards, as well as popular artists today such as No Doubt, Ben Harper, The Roots, and Shaggy.

Light Your Light album was nominated in 2007 for a Grammy Award in the Best Reggae Album category. This makes the 4th nomination for Toots since the grammy has had a reggae category."

Queen of 80's rock, Pat Benatar, comes to The National on Tuesday night. Tix are $35 and the show starts at 8. She'll play all the hits, I'm sure. Note her Richmond connection, from Wikipedia: "After graduating in 1971 from Lindenhurst High School Benatar married her high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar that same year and took his name. Benatar immediately moved with her husband to Richmond, Virginia where she worked as a bank clerk and sang at night. She would later remark her time at the bank was unpleasant partly because of her obsession with keeping all the bills face up and turned in the same direction, causing her to be one of the slowest tellers." Did you know her video for "You Better Run" was the second video played on MTV? She was totally hot and the song still rocks.

On Wednesday night at The National, much hyped Iron & Wine are there. Iron & Wine is the stage and recording name of folk rock singer-songwriter Sam Beam. He has a dreamy, folk-blues sound that I like and has gained much critical acclaim. If you like Sufjan Stevens, Ray LaMontagne, or Nick Drake you may want to check him out. The show starts at 8 PM with Califone opening. Tix are $23 in advance, $25 day of show.

Finally, jazz-funk-jam band, Greyboy Allstars play at Toad's on Tuesday. Toad's site says: "The Greyboys borrow funk's urgent rhythms, jazz's sophisticated improvisation, and the polished, easy-flowing groove of soul. Their funk is not "nasty" as much as it is "tasty."" Doors open at 8 PM, tix are $18 in advance, $20 day of show.

Some Loose Ends:
-Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine joined Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band for a killer version of "Ghost of Tom Joad" on Monday night. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJT1EdKRF2g. The video isn't the best but the sound is surprisingly good.
- Check out the "Everyday Normal Guy Rap Song". NOTE: This is not safe for the work or the kids. He drops the f-bomb regularly because he's rappin' and its needed for comic effect.
- The Friday Cheers line-up was announced the other day. Here it is: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-04-08-0172.html.
- Mike K. sent esteemed rock critic Robert Christgau's review of the Drive By Truckers latest album, Brighter Than Creation's Dark: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89146776.
- Mike K. also sends this crazy version of Back in Black by Wing. Wing is a middle-aged (at best) Chinese woman. Find it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88670991. Her Casio keyboard totally rocks.

That's all. Have a great weekend!
Tony Jordan