Weekend Picks: Robert Cray, John Hiatt, Gordon Lightfoot, Fireworks, Old 97's, Tommy Stinson, Avers, PBR, No BS! Brass Band, Big Payback

All weekend long, you can watch the Pitchfork Festival online live from Chicago IL. Find out what all the hipsters at Pitchfork.com are diggning with live performances from Beck, Kendrick Lamar, St. Vincent, Giorgio Moroder, Tune-Yards, Danny Brown, Schoolboy Q, Sharon Van Etten, Neneh Cherry, Speedy Ortiz and many others. Go to pitchfork.com to check it out starting on Friday at 4:30 PM ET, Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM ET.

Lots of music locally this weekend. Punk poppers Fireworks will be at The Camel on Friday for a show that includes Young Statues, Better Off, Another Treehouse Acquaintance, and Centerfolds. Doors open at 7, show starts at 7:30, $12 in advance, $14 at the door. Here's Fireworks with "Detroit":

People's Blues of Richmond hit up The Broadberry again on Friday night. It's $8 in advance, $10 at the door, doors open at 8 and Consider the Source opens. PBR comes on at 10. They'll be heading up to NYC for a couple shows in August, stretching out that fan base. Here they are doing "Born to Die" the last time they played The Broadberry:

All weekend long, WRIR puts on the Commonwealth of Notions:Volume 4 in venues all over town. Here's a little video about the festival.



On Friday night, check out Avers, Sundials, Lightfields, Hot Dolphin, and Clair Morgan at Strange Matter. Show starts at 8:30, doors open at 7:30 and it's just $5 to get in. You can check out the rest of the shows on the poster up there. Avers don't have a lot of video out there but here's some short clips from their show at Friday Cheers on 5/30 so you can get a taste of their psychedelic garage pop sound. You can spot me in the crowd at one point but you have to look fast.


Free music at Plan 9 in Carytown Saturday afternoon. Chris Schlarb and TLVS will perform there with TLVS on at 12:45 and Chris on at 1:30. Here's the little press blurb:

Chris Schlarb (on the Asthmatic Kitty record label) is a musician, composer and producer based in Long Beach, California. His newest album, Making The Saint, was recorded alone inside a 140-year old Gold Rush cabin in the San Bernardino mountains. With no collaborations or distractions, Making The Saint contains the most intimate music of his career. SPIN Magazine calls the album, “Gorgeously meditative… Chris Schlarb is a wizard with the guitar. Making the Saint has an inclusive, panoramic feel…” The New York Times calls his playing, “Immersive… meticulous and controlled.”

Here's his cool animated video for the song "Great Receiver":

The big National Beer Expo sponsored by Capital Ale House is here in Richmond all weekend.The big events are at the Convention Center but a special after hours gig goes on at Capital Ale House downtown staring at 6 on Saturday evening. Food is included in the ticket. They'll be tapping special beers every 1/2 hour on the 1/2 hour and James Brown tribute band, The Big Payback will help you get your groove on. You have to get your tickets in advance on the Beer Expo ticket site which is HERE.

No BS! Brass Band will kick it over at Balliceaux Saturday night.Show starts at 10 and it's $10 to get in. No BS! just played the Lowdown Hudson Blues Fest in NYC with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Robert Cray, John Hiatt and Lake Street Dive among others. Here they are showing their RVA pride in New Haven CT in June:



Folk legend Gordon Lightfoot is at the Carpenter Theatre on Sunday night. Tix are $49 to $64. Show starts at 8 and get there on time. The show is billed as "An Evening With Gordon Lightfoot" which usually implies no opener and a nice long show with your headliner. Here he is in 1974 doing "Sundown":



Alt-country band Old 97's come to The National on Tuesday night. Tix are $15 in advance, $18 at the door, doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with Tommy Stinson. Rolling Stone magazine picked the Old 97's latest album, "Most Messed Up" as one of the best albums of 2014 so far. Here's a tune from that album with a title I can dig, "Let's Get Drunk & Get It On":


Wednesday night at Innsbrook Pavilion, the aforementioned Robert Cray & John Hiatt will be in town for your listening pleasure. Tickets run from $15 for GA lawn to $99 for Gold Circle-Platinum (gold or platinum, Innsbrook Pavilion, pick one) with $35 & $55 Gold Circle price points in there too. Gates open at 5, show starts at 6. Here's one from Robert Cray, filmed just a couple days ago:



And here's one from John Hiatt for an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien back in '94:



Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

moe., Dirty Dozen, Fireworks!, Adventure!, Robert Randolph & more

This great week of music starts out with one of my favorite bands from the last 10 years, moe. moe. will be playing at Innsbrook on Wednesday. Tickets are $20 at the gate for general admission and $35 for stupid Gold Circle. Gates are going to open at 5:30 with opener Disco Biscuits starting at 5:45. moe. come on at 7.



If you have ever been a fan of moe. or have ever wanted to check them out, you may want to go see them now. After this summer tour, they are going to take a break until some time in 2009. Hopefully, it will only be a one year break and not a break like The Police took (24 years). moe.'s albums are consistently high-rated because they know how to write a song as well as jam, with their latest "Sticks & Stones" getting 3 1/2 stars in Rolling Stone. They can go from blues to country to electronica to hard rock within the space of a few songs. The guitar duo of Chuck Garvey and Al Schnier was named as one of the 20 New Guitar Gods in Rolling Stone a couple years back.

Hope you can go. I'll be there. Let me know if you're going or look for me. I'll be the guy in the dark blue moe. shirt with the guitar-playing monkey on the front.

Thursday night, more great guitar as pedal steel expert Robert Randolph comes into The National with his Revival show. Show starts at 8 with opener Eli Paperboy Reed & The True Loves. Tickets are $23. The Revival show features his normal band, The Family Band, with some special guests. There will be some new stuff played, some old stuff played, and they'll interpret some gospel standards as Robert gets in touch with his gospel roots.

Saturday night at The National, more great guitar as long time Allman Brother Dickey Betts & Great Southern ramble into town. Show starts at 8 with opener The Dirty Truth and tickets are $22.

Friday at Friday Cheers on Brown's Island, its not great guitar but great....sousaphone? Its the raucous, joyous New Orleans funk of Dirty Dozen Brass Band. As always the show is FREE! and starts at 6:30 with opener Southside Funk. I'm hoping to hit this one up. Dirty Dozen takes the classic brass band line-up and updates it with funk, jazz and rock. Not only have they made great music on their own, but they have also recorded with Elvis Costello, Widespread Panic, Modest Mouse (who they are touring with this summer), Dr. John, Dizzy Gillespie, Branford Marsalis, Norah Jones, Black Crowes, and the aforementioned Robert Randolph. This show should be a lot of fun and if its hot and sticky it will be that much easier to pretend you are in New Orleans.

Also on Friday, new bluegrass band The Waybacks (who recently covered all of "Led Zeppelin II" at Merlefest) will be playing a benefit for the VCU Massey Cancer Center at the Science Museum of VA (where I took Zach to see "Kung Fu Panda" on the IMAX last weekend. Good flick for kids and adults alike.). Music begins at 7 with opener Danny Barnes and tix are $20.

As if that weren't enough on Friday, legendary blues man Taj Mahal plays at Toad's Place. Doors open at 7:30 and tix are $25 for general admission, $37.50 for (blah!) Gold Circle.

When you aren't out seeing live music live, you can tune into the Bonnaroo webcast at the AT&T Blue Room this weekend. The exact schedule hasn't been announced yet, but they will be starting the webcast at 1:30 PM on Friday. At Bonnaroo this year is Pearl Jam, Metallica, Jack Johnson (why is this guy headlining all these festivals this year? His music is pleasant but kind of dull and I can't see him keeping 50,000 people enraptured.), Widespread Panic, Kanye West, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Phil Lesh & Friends, My Morning Jacket, The Raconteurs, Willie Nelson, Death Cab for Cutie, and much much more.

On Saturday at Brown's Island will be the FREE James River Adventure Games featuring athletes competing in seven different outdoor sports events and tons of stuff to see and do. Events start at 9 AM and go until 3:30. Then at 6:30 PM there is a free concert with The Coal Men & DJ Williams Projekt and then at 9:30, FIREWORKS! We went to this fireworks display a couple years ago and it was excellent.

Why Richmond doesn't do fireworks on the James for July 4th is a mystery to me. It would draw people to the riverside, downtown and to Brown's Island from both side of the river and provide a true community event. Instead, you either have to pay for the Braves game or brave the side streets and traffic surrounding the Diamond (though I guess we won't have to worry about that after this year) or get to the Carillon by about 6 PM because you can't see those fireworks unless you are right there. With the Braves leaving, this would be an excellent time to start a new Richmond tradition. Richmond, are you listening.

Anyway, put some music into your life this weekend either live or on the web. I hope to see you at either moe., Friday Cheers, the Adventure Games or the fireworks this weekend.

Tony Jordan