Umphrey's McGee, The xx, Tegan & Sara, Cat Power, Brown Sabbath

The weather may be getting colder, but the concert scene is heating up! OK, that's pretty cheesy, but it's true. The national acts are finally hitting the road again and stopping in Richmond.

Things start with indie folk pop duo, and twin sisters, Tegan and Sara at The National on Friday night. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door. There is no opening act so get there on time. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. Their new album "Hearthrob" comes out on January 28, but you can hear it tomorrow when it streams on the Rolling Stone site starting at 9 AM. I'm sure you'll hear a number of new songs from that album at the show. Here's the first single from the album, "Closer":



Over at the Camel on Friday night, local jam band Former Champions will play with Arpetrio opening. Doors open at 9, show starts at 10 and it's $7 to get in. You can download a free live album from Former Champions HERE. Here's a little sampler and their tour dates this month which shows they are branching out from the nest:



Friday night at Cary St. Cafe, King Solomon's Marbles will play some good ol' Grateful Dead. Show will start at 10 PM and it's $7 to get in. You can listen to their show at Cary St. Cafe on 12/28 on the Internet Archive HERE.

Saturday night, prog rock/jam band Umphrey's McGee will be at The National. Tix are $22.50 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener The Mantras. If you're going to this one, let me know because I'll be there too. They just posted on Facebook that they anticipate this show will sell out in advance so get your tickets ASAP. This is their 15th anniversary tour. They burst on the scene at some of the early Bonnaroos after forming at Notre Dame and have carved themselves out a nice niche in the jam band world. Here they are doing the rocking "1348" at the Tabernacle in Atlanta GA on 12/29:



If you are more in a headbanging mood on Saturday night, head down to Republic to see Black Sabbath tribute band, Brown Sabbath. The show starts at 10:30 with opener Pike Possum and it's FREE to get in!

Monday night, Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) will be at The National. Tix are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener "a special guest". Cat is up for a Brit Award for Best International Female. Her music has been compared to Liz Phair, Sonic Youth, Elliott Smith, PJ Harvey, Beth Orton, Feist, Throwing Muses, Aimee Mann, Ani DiFranco, and Fiona Apple. Here is one from her latest album, "Sun". It's called "Cherokee". I'm not sure what the video means but I think it's telling us that it's good to have Native American friends when alien zombies attack.



Tuesday night, English indie pop group, the xx, will come to The National. Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with Austra opening. The xx have a similar sound to Hot Chip, Peter Bjorn and John, and Portishead and cite bands like The Cure, Belle & Sebastian, Interpol, the Pixies and Romeo Void as influences. Here they perform "Sunset" live on Seattle's KEXP:


#6 on the Paste Magazine 25 Best Music Videos of 2012 is the Arctic Monkeys' "R U Mine?". Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols (now on radio) does the intro. He gives it a thumbs up. Lone Ranger chicks are hot.



Have a great weekend! See you at the Umphrey's McGee show.

Tony Jordan

Marshall Crenshaw, Horsehead, The Atkinsons, No BS! Brass Band, Goldrush

Another good week for local music so go out and find yourself a new favorite local band.

No BS! Brass Band will be at Balliceaux on Thursday night. Show starts at 10 PM and it's $3 to get in. No BS! has a number of new releases coming out including a new album ("RVA All Day"), a live DVD ("Live at Montrose Studios"), and an EP ("Fight Song - A Tribute to Charles Mingus"). Here they are doing a Rush cover in Roanoke. Sorry that they talk so much in Roanoke.



Also on Thursday, yacht rock tribute band, Three Sheets to the Wind, will be at Republic. Show starts at 9:30 and it's free to get in. Here they are doin' "I Keep Forgettin'/Regulate". Some language is NSFW.

Starting on Wednesday night (1/16), Furthur, the band featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, will be webcasting an entire weekend of shows from Bob's small venue, the Sweetwater Music Hall in Marin County, CA. On Weds. (11 PM ET), Thursday (12:30 AM ET so technically Friday morning), and Saturday night (10:30 PM ET), the show is on the Sweetwater site. On Friday night the show is on the Yahoo Music site starting at 10:30 ET.

Saturday night, an Americana triple bill at The Camel with Horsehead, Allen Thompson and The Atkinsons. The show will start at 8 and it's $7 to get in. Horsehead's album, "Sympathetic Vibrations", is in Amazon's top 20 New Releases for Roots Rock. Here's Horsehead playing "Spinning Your Wheels" at Gallery 5 in November:


Goldrush will be at The Camel on Sunday night. The show starts at 8 and it's FREE to get in. Scolaro will open. Here's Goldrush playing "You Won't See Me Crying" at the Ghost of Pop show last month.


On Tuesday night, Marshall Crenshaw will be Ashland Coffee & Tea. Marshall will be performing with The Bottle Rockets, who are a pretty good band in their own right. Besides still playing and making new music (he just came out with his first album in 6 years, "Jaggedland"), Marshall also does a radio show on the great indie radio station, WFUV. The show will start at 8, tix are $28 in advance, $33 at the door. Here's a blast from the past, with Marshall playing Buddy Holly's "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" from the MTV New Year's Eve party in 1986:

And just for kicks, here's Marshall, Brian Setzer, Dave Edmunds, Carl Perkins, and, yes, that's Joe Piscopo on drums (he was big in 1986) from the same show. Joe is now doing an old school variety show and helping out with a lot of charities so good on ya, mate!

Finally, here's the next video on Paste Magazine's 25 Best Videos of 2012. This is the Ben Folds Five "Do It Anyway" and if you were growing up in the early 80's and had HBO, you will recognize the Fraggles from Fraggle Rock. "Dance your cares away!" Rob Corddry also makes a guest appearance.

Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Torche, Marco Benevento, 3 Sheets to the Wind, Late Night Pick: Donald Fagen

Tonight (Thursday) at The Camel, stoner/sludge metal band Torche will head a lineup of three bands including Gritter and Brief Lives. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. It's $10 to get in. Here's Torche's "Across the Shields":


Over at Capital Ale House tonight, it's jam band veteran keyboardist, Marco Benevento. Tix are $14, show starts at 9 PM with opener, WOLF!  Here's part of(?) Marco's set from 9/27/12 in Louisville:


If you are in more of a yacht rock kind of mood, check out Three Sheets to the Wind at Republic tonight. Show will start around 9:30 and it's FREE. The theme is "Back to the Future" so they may play this one tonight:


Speaking of yacht rock, tonight's Late Night Pick is Steely Dan's Donald Fagen on Late Show with David Letterman on CBS at 11:35 PM. Donald will probably do a song from his new album, "Sunken Condos". To celebrate here is the episode of "Yacht Rock" featuring Steely Dan and their epic feud with The Eagles. BTW, this video is NSFW due to some nasty language. Hey, it was a nasty feud.

Jimmy Herring & Victor Wooten, PBR, Late Night Pick: Lianne La Havas

Tonight, jam band veterans Jimmy Herring and Victor Wooten play with their respective bands, and hopefully together, at The National. Tix are $30 Reserved Orchestra, $27.50 Reserved Balcony 1, $22.50 Reserved Balcony 2, $20 GA Standing. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. Not sure who is opening so just get there on time. Victor Wooten is the bassist for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, has won five Grammy awards, and "Bass Player of the Year" from Bass Player magazine three times. Jimmy Herring is currently playing guitar for Widespread Panic and has also played with what is generally regarded as the best version of Phil Lesh & Friends, as well as the Allman Brothers Band, Derek Trucks Band, The Other Ones, The Dead and Aquarium Rescue Unit.

Here's Victor Wooten performing "Amazing Grace":


And here is the Jimmy Herring Band doing The Beatles' "Within You Without You" a few days ago in Georgia:


Also tonight, People's Blues of Richmond will be at Republic. They'll get things under way there around 10 PM. The show is free if you are over 21 and $5 if you are under 21. Yesterday, PBR announced that they will have some big announcements coming soon. So I guess that's sort of a pre-announcement announcement. I suspect a new album and tour, but we shall see. Here's PBR playing at Camp Barefoot this year:


The Late Night Pick is British singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight. That's on at 11:35 PM on CBS. Lianne has been named as a "Band to Watch" by Rolling Stone magazine and was also nominated for the big British Mercury award. Also, on the show Robin Williams and a top ten list presented by Homer Simpson. Sounds like a winning show.

More on the rest of the weekend tonight.

Tony Jordan

Drive-By Truckers, A Place to Bury Strangers, Hospitality, Man Overboard, STS9

Looks like a pretty good weekend for music beginning with two shows from my beloved Drive-By Truckers at The National on Friday and Saturday night. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 both nights with J Roddy Walston and the Business opening. Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. I've waxed poetic about DBT a million times now. All I can say is that if you are ready for a kick-ass rock n' roll show, get yourself to The National this weekend. I'll be there for the Saturday night blowout. (BTW, if you like the artwork above, that's done by Richmonder Wes Freed, who does all of the artwork for DBT going back for over a decade.) Here's DBT doing their fantastic song about growing up loving rock music, "Let There Be Rock" (some language NSFW). Three guitar rock n' roll glory at it's best.:



If you are home this weekend, check out the Voodoo Experience music festival webcast HERE. There is no schedule posted for the webcast but bands playing the festival include Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Metallica, Jack White, Skrillex, The Avett Brothers, Justice, Bootsy Collins, Gary Clark Jr., George Porter, Die Antwoord, Thomas Dolby, Anders Osborne, Toots & the Maytals, Dave Stewart, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Treme Brass Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Coheed & Cambria, Marcia Ball, and more. The fest starts at noon Eastern time Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday, if you want a spooky good time, check out the Carytown Zombie Walk. No music but lots of the undead wandering through Carytown starting at 2 PM. They'll mosey from the Kroger down to the Byrd Theater and back.

People's Blues of Richmond will be at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery as part of Hardywood's First Anniversary party on Saturday. The festivities start at 2 PM and will go until 9 PM. PBR will play from 6 PM until the end. The Threeo play from 2 PM - 3:30 PM and River City Band play from 3:45 - 5:45. Here's PBR doing "Leaves Die" (some language NSFW. It's just a NSFW video kind of night.):



Noise pop band A Place to Bury Strangers will be at Strange Matter on Saturday night along with like-minded bands Bleeding Rainbow and Canary Oh Canary. Doors open at 9, show starts at 10. Tix are $10 in advance, $12 at the door. APTBS just got back from touring Russia so be sure to ask them about that. Here's their song "You Are the One":



If you are in the mood for some Halloween holiday music, check out Black Sabbath cover band, Brown Sabbath, at Republic on Saturday night. No info on the Republic site or Brown Sabbath's Facebook page about when this will start, but figure around 10 and figure a few dollars cover charge, at most. Here's the band playing "Wicked World" at The National a few years back:



Indie-pop band Hospitality will be at Strange Matter Sunday. Doors open at 6 for this all ages show and the music starts at 7 with openers Herro Sugar, The Garbers and Teen. Check out the article in Style Weekly HERE for a little more info on Hospitality and their charming pop music. Here's a little ditty from Hospitality called "Friends of Friends". The video stars Alia Shwkat of the once and future show, "Arrested Development":



Tuesday night, jam band STS9 will be The National. Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Kap10 Harris. Conscious Alliance is hosting a food drive at the show and it you bring 20 cans of food to donate, you'll get a free poster and do some good. Here's STS9 doing "Vapors":



Emo-pop band from NJ, Man Overboard, will be at Kingdom on Tuesday night. Doors will open at 5:30 and there are sure to be some openers but right now they are TBA. Tix are only $10. Here they are doing "Love Your Friends, Die Laughing":



Have a great weekend! See you at the Drive-By Truckers show on Saturday night!

Tony Jordan

Tonight: Galactic & PBR @ The National, Three Sheets to the Wind, Late Night Pick: Frank Turner

New Orleans funk band,Galactic, plays at The National tonight. Tix are $20 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with local heroes, People's Blues of Richmond. Corey Glover of Living Colour will be on vocals with Galactic. I thought he sounded great with the band when I saw them at RiverRock this summer. Some long-term Galactic fans were a bit put off by the vocals, depending on how they liked Corey in the first place and whether they just wanted the old, instrumental Galactic. Here's Galactic last year in Brooklyn doing "Goin' Down Slowly":


Also tonight at Republic, yacht rock cover band Three Sheets to the Wind will perform for your smooth rockin' pleasure. It's FREE to get in and the show starts at 9:30. Since tonight's show is dedicated to "Danger Zone", here is the band Calexico doing a cover of Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and making it into a ominous, southwestern acoustic thing. Very good!


Calexico covers Kenny Loggins 

Tonight's Late Night Pick is Frank Turner on Conan. Conan is on TBS at 11 PM and then repeated at 1 AM. Frank Turner is an alternative singer/songwriter you might dig if you like Bruce Springsteen, Rocky Votolato, Billy Bragg, Ryan Adams, Elliott Smith, Neil Young or Nick Drake.

Lucero, PBR, Late Night Pick: Jack White

Alt-country rockers Lucero hit the Epic Theatre (the venue formerly known as Hat Factory) tonight. Tix are $18, doors open at 8 and show time is 9 with opener J. Roddy Walston and the Business.  If you like Drive-By Truckers, Rolling Stones, The Silos, The Blasters, The Replacements or The Hold Steady, these guys will be right up your alley. The more I hear of these guys, the more I'm liking them. Here's their video for "Sixteen":


Also tonight, local faves People's Blues of Richmond will be at Republic. The show is FREE if you are over 21 and $5 if you are under 21. Show will start around 9 and Golden Butter Band will open.

Jack White will be playing a track or two from his new critically acclaimed album, Blunderbuss, tonight on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central at 11:30 PM and then on repeats at various times throughout the next 24 hours. Jack will be scoring the new "Lone Ranger" movie which stars Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger. He'll also have a concert webcast on YouTube tomorrow night, directed by Gary Oldman. The dude is everywhere.

Tonight: Matt & Kim, Three Sheets to the Wind

A quick post on tonight's music action in Richmond.  I was going to do this last night but was too shocked, angry and depressed after the Phils blew it in the 9th against the Giants.  I knew we were in trouble when all the "experts" said the Phils were the overwhelming favorites to win the World Series.  Odds are now heavily against us even making the Series.  I hope to have a blog up on the full music activities for the weekend later tonight but that will again depend on the results of the Phils game and how I feel and how late it is.\

Anyway, enough of "woe is me and my woeful team" blubbering.  Matt & Kim will be at The Canal Club tonight.  Tix are $18 and doors open at 7 PM with Donnis opening.  Matt & Kim hail from hipster Mecca, Brooklyn NY.  You may like Matt & Kim if you like The Decemberists, B-52s, New Order, or Elastica. 

Here you can listen to their song "Lesson Learned" while watching them gettin' nekkid in Times Square.  I love watching the people who try to be cool and not look at the naked people.  Be sure to watch until the surprise ending.


Also tonight at The Republic, Richmond's favorite yacht rock band, Three Sheets to the Wind, will perform the greatest 70's smooth rock hits of ALL TIME!  Festivities get under way at 10 PM and its FREE. 

Have a great day!

GO PHILLIES!

Tony Jordan

Dukes of September review, Tears For Fears, 3 Sheets to the Wind, Moedown webcast

Had a great time at the Dukes of September concert on Sunday night.  Dukes of September of course being Donald Fagan of Steely Dan, Michael McDonald & Boz Scaggs.  This show was heavy on the covers including a nice version of the Grateful Dead's "Shakedown Street" and a mini-set of songs by The Band with each singer taking a song.  And kudos to them for not choosing the obvious.  I really don't need to hear "The Weight" again.  Fagan did "King Harvest Has Surely Come", Boz did "Rag Mama Rag" and McDonald did "The Shape I'm In" with Boz faring the best, I think.  The backup singers, Carolyn Escoffery and Catherine Russel, were also prominent all night including taking front stage for a couple songs.  One did Aretha Franklin's "Rock Steady" and the other did Muddy Waters' "I Love The Life I Live", and this allowed the prime players to just sit back and groove.  Other highlights included Boz doing Teddy Pendergrass' "Love TK" in which he really nailed the soulful vocals, Donald Fagan's "I.G.Y." from his "The Nightfly" album, and Michael McDonald doing Ray Charles' "I Got News For You". 

I was reading some of the commetns on the Richmond Times-Dispatch review and some people seemed upset that they didn't play more or all of their original songs but that wasn't really what this was meant to be and I enjoyed seeing a great band, including guitarist Jon Herington who shone all night, and a crack horn section play some of their favorite songs.  I do think that they should have loaded some of their originals toward the end of the show.  Of the encores, ("Help Me Rhonda" by the Beach Boys, "Something In the Air" by Thunderclap Newman, and "Them Changes" by Buddy Miles) only "Something in the Air" really took off with Fagan, Boz & McDonald each taking a verse.

I was also reminded of what a lame venue Innsbrook can be when it is packed.  We got there at 5:30 to get a good spot and by the time they opened the gates, the line was literally about 200 yards long.  Innsbrook has no slope whatsoever making it hard to see if you are in the back.  As predicted, this was a sit down crowd in fact virulently so, with one of the biggest cheers of the night in the area I was in coming when security told some dudes in the Gold Circle to sit down.  We also had a couple who tried to stand in front of us.  Look, I know you paid the same amount as we did but when 99% of the crowd has brought chairs, just move to the edge or to the area near the very front where people are standing.  As someone said, "Just because you have the right to do something, doesn't make it right".  They did move shortly before the show started after a member of my party informed the standing gentlemen that he had a brown stain on the back of his white shorts from a wet fart.  And that was not a lie.  He really did.

Just a suggestion here.  How about taking the land that the Classic Amphitheater is on, tearing down the old shed and building a new shed or even just a stage like the one at Innsbrook?  You can take out the seats too and have a set up like Charlottesville Pavilion with an open area in the front that you can leave open or add seats to depending on the show.  But at least you'd have the natural slope to enable better sight lines.  Or if we must keep Innsbrook, then they should buy some dirt over the fall/winter and add a little bit of slope at Innsbrook.  I do appreciate that you keep the prices down (tix for the Dukes at Innsbrook were $30 for GA, $50 for gold circle.  Tix for the Dukes at The Chicago Theater start at $58 and top seats are $153!) but I've gotta think twice next time about going to a show there with a large Gold Circle (or any Gold Circle for that matter) that I know will be heavily attended.

Now, if you would like to see some Yacht Rock in a more comfortable venue, check out some of the guys I met at the Dukes show from a band called 3 Sheets to The Wind.  I started a conversation with them when I saw them dressed in their finest Yacht Rock attire including aviator shades and captain hats.  The band will be at The Republic on Thursday night.  The show starts at 10 and is FREE.  They are promising "Nautical Costume Contest (free tshirt prize), New Songs, Hall & Oates 3-way, Premier of "3 Sheets TV", New Stage Antics, Same old smoothness!".  Here's a little promo video from them:


Also this weekend, if you are hangin' out and having that final summer bar-b-q, tune into the Moedown XI fest on iclips.net.  As usual, iClips has nothing on their site about the webcast yet but they did say it was coming on their Facebook page.  The actual festival runs from 5 PM Friday - 1 AM, noon Saturday - 2 AM, and noon Sunday - midnight.  So tune into iClips around 5 on Friday and see what's what.  Bands at the festival (though all may not be shown on the webcast) include Tortoise (playing in Richmond next week), moe. (duh.  Its their fest so they'll do 6 sets over the weekend.), Lotus, Built to Spill, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Mike Gordon (from Phish), and Black Keys among others.

One of the top band of the 80s will be in town on Sunday night.  Tears For Fears will be at The National.  Doors open at 7 and show starts at 8 with opener Wainwright.  Tix are $42.50 in advance and $47.50 at the door.  A great pop band and I don't think they toured much in their more popular days let alone now.  They of course had the hits "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", "Shout", "Head Over Heels", "Woman In Chains" and my favorite TFF song, "Sowing the Seeds of Love":


Cee-Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley fame has done it again.  Just like "Crazy", he has made an insanely catchy song that once you hear it, you will want to hear again and again and it will be playing in your head for days, maybe weeks.  But don't sing it around your grandma or your kids.  After all, the title is "F**k You".  Never did those words sound so happy.  And it has an awesome video too.  Language obviously NSFW.  But listen anyway and get your whole office to sing along.  Here is the link.  Embedding is not allowed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/cee-los-official-fck-you-music-video.

Have a great weekend!