Weekend Picks: Robert Randolph, Steve Winwood, Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band, No BS! Brass Band, King Easy, Toxic Moxie, The Atkinsons

You can kick back on the roof to some cool reggae sounds Thursday evening when King Easy plays at Kabana Rooftop. The show will run from 6 to 9 PM and it's FREE to get in. Here's King Easy earlier this month at The Camel:

It's gonna be a honky-tonk hootenanny throw down of epic proportions when Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band takes over the Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House Downtown Thursday night. It's $15 to get in, doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Derelicts of Grace. RPBDB will be playing in Spain & Switzerland this summer along with playing the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, Here's the new video from RPBDB's new album, "Front Porch Sessions". Things get kind of crazy on their front porch...



Down in Hopewell Thursday night, pedal steel guitar player extraordinaire Robert Randolph & the Family Band take the stage at The Beacon Theatre. Doors open at 6:30 and Luke Wade will open the show. Tix range from $20 advance/$25 day of show to $60 advance/$65 day of show with a couple price points in between. From their press blurb: "Often called the “Jimi Hendrix of the pedal steel guitar,” and named one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” by Rolling Stone’s David Fricke, Randolph has, since the turn of the century, revolutionized the role of his chosen instrument." They're out now promoting their new album, "Got Soul". Here they are live in the van a couple weeks ago in LA:

The Atkinsons bring that Americana groove to Poe's Pub Friday night. Music starts at 9:30 with Brandon Martin. If there is a cover, it won't be much. Here's The Atkinsons at the Tin Pan last year:

It's a night of cool Virginia power dirty disco punk headlined by RVA's Toxic Moxie at The Camel Saturday night. Spooky Cool, Illiterate Light (experimental indie rock duo), and Majjin Boo (math rock featuring members of Spooky Cool) open the show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. $8 advance, $10 day of show. Toxic Moxie with have a couple new songs for you that night. Here's Toxic Moxie's full set from January 28 at The Camel:

No BS! Brass Band does another "matinee" show at The Broadberry on Sunday. Doors open at 6, show starts at 7 with Angelica Garcia. Tix are $12 advance, $15 at the door. It's an all ages show so you can bring your mopey teen, get them groovin' and still get them home in time for bed. Here's No BS a couple years ago playing for tacos, the best kind of currency.



The great singer/keyboardist/guitarist (he really is an excellent guitar player) Steve Winwood is at the Carpenter Theater (Dominion Arts Center) Tuesday night. Tix range from $69 to $89 though I did see some on GroupOn the other day for $30+. The show starts at 7:30 with Steve's daughter, Lilly, opening. Steve will play stuff from throughout his illustrious career with bands such as Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith and his solo career. This is one of my favorite Steve Winwood solo songs with some great guitar work in it. The video reminds of many a late night of MTV watching in the early 80's.



That'll do it. Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with two songs. First, I heard the original version of this today but I was singing the version below all day after that. It's a good thing Norah had Elmo to console her.



On a sad note, director Jonathan Demme died today. Besides making movies such as "Philadelphia", "Something Wild", "Silence of the Lambs" and "Caged Heat", he made great rock movies. He made films with Justin Timberlake, Robyn Hitchcock, Neil Young and videos with Bruce Springsteen and The Pretenders. And, of course, one of the greatest concert films of all time, Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense". The way the concert builds piece by piece is truly brilliant and Demme's camerawork never gets in the way and stays on the onstage action. Watch it here:



Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: DJ Williams Projekt, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, The Revivalists, The Wailers, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Band of Horses, Dopapod, Southern Belles

Newgrass/jazz band Bela Fleck & The Flecktones kick off the weekend and the first show of the year at Maymont on Thursday night. Gates open at 5:30 and the show starts at 6:30 with no opener. Tickets run $20 - $65 and kids under 10 get in for free. Here's the press blurb on the band:

Béla Fleck, often considered the premiere banjo player in the world, picked up the banjo at age 15 after being awed by the bluegrass playing of Flatt & Scruggs. 

In 1989 Fleck and Victor Wooten formed Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, along with keyboardist and harmonica player Howard Levy and Wooten's percussionist brother Roy "Futureman" Wooten, who played synthesizer-based percussion. The band made their self-titled debut recording in 1990 by playing a "blu-bop" mix of jazz and bluegrass , soon becoming a commercially successful, critically-acclaimed and award-winning band. Levy left the group in 1992, making the band a trio until saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the group onstage part-time in 1997, eventually becoming a permanent member. Howard Levy has rejoined the band, while Jeff Coffin is now a member of Dave Matthews Band.

Fleck has been nominated for Grammys in more categories than any other musician in history (jazz, bluegrass, pop, country, spoken word, Christian, composition and world music categories) and has shared Grammy wins with Asleep at the Wheel, Alison Brown, and Edgar Meyer. Fleck has a total of 12 Grammy Awards, including a 2010 Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album.

Here's a full show from the band in 2007:



The Wailers are at The Beacon Theatre in Hopewell Thursday night. Tix range from $25 to $65. Doors open at 6 PM and Kyle Davis will open. Besides playing songs from the great Bob Marley, they may also do some originals, like this song they released in 2010 to help support The World Food Programme.

Jamtronica band Dopapod comes to The Broadberry Thursday night. Tix are $15, doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with Jouwala Collective. Here's Dopapod's first set in Cambridge MA on 4/30/16:



Friday Cheers brings rock/R&B/jam band The Revivalists (8 PM) and soul/garage/alternative/indie/roots/blues/punk rock band Seratones (6:30) to Brown's Island this week. Pandora recently chose The Revivalists as one of the "Artists to Watch" at this year's Hangout Fest and they responded with a great set. Here they are at the classic New Orleans venue Tipitina's in May:

The Southern Belles are back for their monthly First Friday gig at The Camel. Tix are $10 advance, $12 day of show, doors open at 8 and the show starts at 9 with openers Soul Mechanic. The Belles always like to jam with their opener and here they are doing "Terrapin Station" with members of the Captain Midnight Band at May's First Friday show:



DJ Williams Projekt celebrate their 13th Anniversary with a show at The Broadberry Saturday night. Tix are $10, doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with The Slank. This is also a farewell show of sorts as DJ Williams is moving to LA to pursue more studio and production session work with prominent artists. He'll still be playing live and I'm sure he'll return to RVA when he can, but he will be missed. Whether with the Projekt or sitting in with local or national bands, I've never seen him perform a bad show, bringing the power of soul and funk to whoever he was playing with. Here's the full story on his departure from Style Magazine. And here's the Projekt performing at this year's RiverRock. We'll do two for old times' sake.

Disco punk band Toxic Moxie do a free show Sunday night at Bandito's. Spectaculars open the show at 9 PM. Here's TM at the Camel a couple weeks ago:



Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats are at Innsbrook After Hours Wednesday evening. This is one of the few bands that will get me out to that lame venue this year. That and the $10 GA tickets they had the first seven days they were on sale. If you missed that deal, tix are now $20 for the GA lawn and $25 to $59 for Gold Circle. Gates open at 5 PM, music starts at 6 PM with an opener TBD. Their blend of roots soul rock has inspired their own brand of moonshine and you know you're good when they name moonshine after you. Here's the band's "Howling At Nothing" which you may find yourself doing after drinking a bottle of that moonshine:



Over at The National Wednesday night, it's Band of Horses. Tix are $27.50 advance, $33 day of show, doors open at 7, show starts at 8, no opener is listed. BOH's new album "Why Are You OK" comes out June 10 so expect to hear some stuff off of that. In fact, here's some stuff off that. This is "Casual Party" featuring some fine jello molds and some freaky looking creatures.



That'll do it! I'll see you at Friday Cheers and Nathaniel Rateliff and maybe Southern Belles and DJ Williams Projekt. Could be a fun weekend and I need it.

I'll leave you with this cool video from Placebo and a mystery to figure out:



Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Holy Holy, Gregg Allman, Beirut, The Congress, Full Moon Fever, Toxic Moxie, Venus Guytrap, Atta Girl

Get ready for some grrrrl power as three rock bands featuring strong women play Gallery5 Thursday night. Toxic Moxie, Venus Guytrap, and Atta Girl perform at this benefit for Elbow Room, "an inclusive collective aiming to create encouraging spaces for under/misrepresented individuals." Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 and should run until around 11. It's $5 to get in. Here's Toxic Moxie in September:



Over at The National Thursday night, a Bowie tribute with guys who actually played with Bowie. Holy Holy is made up of Tony Visconti (who produced 14 Bowie albums, including his last, "Blackstar"), Woody Woodmansy (who played drums on four Bowie albums and toured with him) along with James Stevenson (The Cult, Gene Loves Jezebel Gen X) guitarist, Paul Cuddeford (Ian Hunter, Bob Geldof), vocalist, Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17), keyboardist Berenice Scott (Heaven 17), sax player Terry Edwards and backup vocalist Jessica Morgan. They were the house band last week for the David Bowie tribute shows at Carnegie Hall. They'll perform the album "The Man Who Sold the World" in its entirety and then do another set of Bowie classics. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. Tickets are $19.50 to $23 in advance and $25 day of show. Here they are at the Tower Theater in Philly a few nights ago, the venue where Bowie recorded his "David Live" album:

The Congress will be in session at The Broadberry on Friday night. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with opener Poser. Tix are $12 advance, $15 day of show. If you are in Rochester NY on June 25, you can see The Congress along with Erykah Badu, Chick Corea, Grace Potter and Gregg Allman. Not bad company. Here's The Congress when they opened for Moon Taxi at The National on January 26 doing a great song called "Walls":

Tom Petty tribute band Full Moon Fever boogies into The Broadberry Saturday night. It's $8 advance, $10 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with opener Patrick Bates. Full Moon Fever features members of Richmond bands Goldrush, Long Arms, Horsehead and other getting together to honor one of America's greatest rock n' rollers. I was just listening to the great version of this song TP & the Heartbreakers did at Lockn' a couple years ago. This is "Woman In Love" performed on Tom Snyder's show in 1981:



Gregg Allman plays at The National on Sunday night. There are very few tickets left so if you want to go and you didn't get them yet, don't wait on it. Tix run from $40 to $75. Doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:30 with opener Gabriel Kelley. Gregg has started his own festival, the Laid Back Festival, which will play five one day performances throughout the country this summer (Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, NYC, and Red Rocks, CO). There are different lineups for each show and bands include ZZ Top. Blackberry Smoke, Shovels & Rope, Jaimoe's Jasssz Band, Peter Frampton, Jason Isbell, America, and Marshall Tucker Band. Hopefully there will be lots of great collaborations like this one at Telluride Blues & Brews Festival last year when Taj Mahal sat in with Gregg's band for a fantastic version of "Statesboro Blues":



Folk/pop/indie rock band Beirut will be at The National Monday night. Tix are $23 advance, $26 day of show. Doors open at 6:30, show stars at 7:30 and no opener is listed. You might dig Beirut if you like DeVotchKa, The Decemberists, The Smiths, David Byrne, or Calexico. Here they are performing "Fener" from their latest album "No No No":



That's it. Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with this smooth yacht rock from Little River Band, Be sure to ignore and turn off the stupid annotations:



Tony Jordan

Weekend Picks: Dan Baird & Homemade Sin, No BS! Brass Band, Manzara, Pop.1280

Dan Baird led one of my favorite, and one of the funnest, bands of the 80's, The Georgia Satellites. Dan is still rocking, now with his band Homemade Sin and they'll be at Capital Ale House Downtown to kick off your weekend on Thursday night. Tix are $12 advance, $15 at the door. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with opener Fire Childe. Here's Dan & Homemade Sin the other night in Decatur GA:



Saturday, Hardywood busts out the Bourbon Barleywine and the Walpurgisnacht with a release party that starts at 2. As usual, it don't cost nothin' to get in and there will be yummy food trucks to fill your belly. Music starts at 4:30 with Landis Wine (Beat-driven electronic pop and improvisation), Gull (guitar/percussion hybrid street muse), BIG NO (Dark pop band), Ghastly City Sleep from NYC (Drifting from epic, atmospheric post-rock through monumental textures of piano and blistering brass) and Manzara (post expanse driven kraut psych metal rock). Here's Manzara at Sound of Music Studios last year:



Saturday night at 10, No BS! Brass Band takes the stage (the floor?) at Balliceaux. This is a small venue so get there early if you want to get in. It'll cost you $10. No opener. Here's the band doing "Brass Scene Kids":

Sunday night at Bandito's, a FREE show starts at 9 with alternative/indie/noise rock bands Zooanzoo, Toxic Moxie,  Pop. 1280 and Buck Gooter, Here's Pop. 1280 in NYC last year (language NSFW):



That'll do it. Have a great weekend! If you haven't seen it yet, here's the new OK Go video that they filmed in zero gravity. Another video win for OK Go!



Tony Jordan