Broadberry Grand Opening, Chili Cook Off, The Coathangers, Local H, Del McCoury Band, Hypercolor, Dopapod, Legend 20th Anniversary, Record Store Day

Thursday night, the newest venue in Richmond, The Broadberry, has it's first of two Grand Opening shows. It'll have 24 beers on tap and go-go dancing platforms. Ladies, wear your tassles. The first night brings the RVA funk with No BS! Brass Band, Black Girls and Goldrush. Doors open at 8 and it's $10 to get in. The second Grand Opening event is on Saturday night with the best of RVA jamtronica and Former Champions, The Polychrons and Silo Effect. Again, the doors open at 8, and it's $10 to get in. I'll be going for free thanks to winning a little Facebook contest and I thank The Broadberry for that. I'm looking forward to seeing the place and I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time there in the future. Buy tickets for these shows now as they are looking like sell-outs because everyone wants to see the new place. Here's Former Champions at The National in March 2013:



Friday, down at the Beacon Theatre in Hopewell, reigning king of bluesgass, Del McCoury and his Band will take the stage. DelFest is happening again Memorial Day weekend in Cumberland MD with Del McCoury Band, String Cheese Incident, Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, Bela Fleck, The Travelin' McCourys and more. Here's a fun video with Del McCoury Band riding down Esplanade in New Orleans in a horse-drawn carriage and playing some fine music:



In town on Friday, alternative indie pop post-grunge rockers Local H are at the Canal Club with The Vacant Stairs and Red States. Doors open at 7:30, tix are $12 in advance, $14 at the door. You may like Local H if you like Sponge, Foo Fighters, Third Eye Blind, Everclear, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, or the Pixies. Here's Local H getting crazy covering Lorde's "Team":



It's Record Store Day on Saturday so celebrate your local independent record store by heading to Plan 9 and buying one of the special Record Store Day releases on vinyl or CD  from one of your favorite artists. There will also be music at Plan 9 with WRIR DJs from 10 AM - 2 PM, Eric Hunter & The Distractions at 2 PM, The Orewlls at 3:30 PM, and The Skaters at 5 PM. Here's The Orwells having fun on the Weezer Cruise this year:



At Richmond International Raceway Saturday it's the XL102 Chili Cook Off with a great lineup including Seether (7 PM), Panic At The Disco (5:30 PM), A Day to Remember (4 PM), The Hold Steady (2:30 PM), Kongos (1:30 PM), and The Orwells (12:35 PM before they head to Plan 9), Fun Size (11:45 AM) & Strongbow (11 AM). Gates open at 10:30 AM and it goes until 8. Tix are $18 in advance and $40 at the gate. If you are looking to prioritize your band watching, in order of my preference, check out The Orwells, A Day to Remember, The Hold Steady, Panic! at The Disco, Kongos, then Seether. Here's A Day to Remember's "Right Back At It Again":



It's Legend Brewery's 20th Anniversary Party at Legend Brewery on Saturday from 2 PM - 8 PM. It's $10 to get in, but only $12 to get in and get an all you can eat wristband. Mmmmm, all you can eat. There will be live music from The Remnants, Wayne Reynolds, Slack Family Band, and Black Girls. Bring the kids because there will be a kids area with face painting, balloon sculptures and special 2% beer for the kids (just kidding about the beer, though they would sleep well that night what with the playing outdoors and the alcohol). And they'll have their new Bourbon Barrel Imperial Brown Ale.

At The Camel Saturday night, see Hypercolor (were they named after the Hypercolor shirts of the 80s?), James Wallace & the Naked Light and The Trillions. Show starts at 9 and it's 7 bucks to get in. This is the release party for Hypercolor's new EP. Here's their excellent new song, "100 Hands". I've only listened to this song 3 times today and I'm already in love with it.



Tuesday night, alternative/indie/garage/punk band, The Coathangers are at Strange Matter. Doors open at 9, show starts at 10 with openers The Audacity, The Nervous Ticks, The Ar-Kaics and DJ Santa Claud spinning between sets. It's $10 to get in. Here's The Coathangers video for "Follow Me". That may or may not be The Coathangers in the video. I'll let you decide.



Over at Canal Club on Tuesday, jamtronica band Dopapod takes the stage to melt your face. Doors open at 8 and The Shack Band opens. Tix are $7 in advance, $10 at the door. Dopapod jammed with Papadosio at Papadosio's 8th anniversary show. Here it is:


I took the latest BuzzFeed Quiz, "What Music Era Do You Belong To?". I got Laurel Canyon in the Late '60's/Early '70's. Not a bad place to be, but too mellow for me I think. If you want to take the quiz for yourself, go HERE.

Have a great weekend! See you at Legend Brewery and The Broadberry on Saturday!

Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Arctic Monkeys, Avers, Snarky Puppy, No BS! Brass Band, Full Moon Fever, Fear of Music, Shangri-Lords, King Solomon's Marbles

No BS! Brass Band kick off the weekend at Balliceaux on Friday night. Show starts at 10 and it's $5 to get in. If you have a high schooler who plays a brass instrument, you can sign up for a 5 day summer camp with No BS Brass Band and Collegiate School. For more info, click HERE. Here's NO BS! doing a hit you may remember from the 80's:



Saturday's a big day and it starts with the Hardywood Park Craft Brewery's Sidamo Release. It don't cost nothin' to get in. Sidamo is a 10.3% ABV Imperial Coffee Stout Aged in Bourbon Barrels. The tasting room will open at 2 for bottles and draft of the new libation. The food trucks will be there with burgers from Station 2, banh mi from the Hungry Turtle, Mexican from Cielito Lindo, s'mores from Super Fresh Carts, and one of my favorites, Goatacado, with healthy, yummy, organic food. At 4:30, the fun really begins with music from Talking Heads tribute band, Fear of Music. At 6:15, the all-male 60's girl group band, the Shangri-Lords hit the stage. Then at  7, Tom Petty tribute band, Full Moon Fever, will rock your world. I may be hitting this one up early with the boys. S'mores for them and one, just one, Sidamo for Daddy. Here's a great show from Tom Petty that was on the BBC in 1980:



At 7:30 PM Saturday at the Modlin Center, jazz/funk/world music band Snarky Puppy will do their thang. Tix range from $9 - 18. Their collaboration with Lalah Hathaway just earned them a Grammy for Best R&B Performance. Here they are performing at Bass Bash 2014:

Over at Strange Matter Saturday, the new psychedelic indie rock band Richmond is buzzing about, Avers, will play. Avers is made up of Alexandra Spalding and Adrian Olsen of Hypercolor, Tyler Williams of The Head and the Heart, JL Hodges of Farm Vegas, James Mason of Mason Brothers, and Charlie Glenn of The Trillions. Doors open at 9, music starts at 10 and it's $8 to get in. White Laces & Sleepwalkers open.

Grateful Dead tribute band, King Solomon's Marbles, will be at Cary St. Cafe Saturday. Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead said in a recent interview on the Rolling Stone site that he hopes band members can "bury the hatchet" and do something for the band's 50th anniversary next year. KSM doesn't have to bury nothing except the deep grooves Saturday. The show starts at 10 PM and it's FREE to get in. I recently purchased the Grateful Dead's "Sunshine Daydream" CD/DVD package and it's great. The 8/27/72 show was always one of my favorites, and may be one of the best GD shows ever, and to have a clean audio version plus the long-delayed movie of the show made it well worth the money. I don't buy much Dead anymore since I have so much but this was a must have show. One of the best "China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider" jams, a 19 minute "Playing in the Band" and a phenomenal 31 minute "Dark Star". Here's "Jack Straw" from that show, which is the first song I liked from the Dead and, perhaps not coincedentally, the first song they played at my first Dead concert.



On Tuesday night, Arctic Monkeys are doing a sold-out show at The National with The Orwells. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8, tix are $27.50 in advance, $32.50 day of show. Here's Arctic Monkeys doing "Do I Wanna Know" on Letterman the other night.


And here is their very trippy (literally) video for "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?":



Have a great weekend! I'll see you at Hardywood.

Tony Jordan