Thursday, Aug. 7
French Salon Happy Hour at Chez Foushee Restaurant and Bar
Inspired by the 17th– and 18th-century Salonnieres, Chez Foushee’s inaugural French Salon happy hour will feature live music, seasonal bites, exquisite glassware and sparkling conversation. Sip on The Lavender Helene (an elevated take on the Hugo), served in an antique, etched coupe (that you can purchase and take home) and sup on the restaurant’s sliders placed delicately on mismatched china. The walk-in only event runs from 5-7 p.m. Keep an eye out for more Chez Foushee salon happy hours to potentially take place this fall.—Mary Scott Hardaway
Friday, Aug. 8
Richmond Jazz and Music Festival at Maymont (Aug. 8-10)
Friday, this Richmond jazz music and other music festival begins in earnest with Homegrown at the Hipp, a ticketed event featuring Kemi Adegoroye. Saturday the festival moves to Maymont and includes: Alexander Mack (see our feature), Hot Like Mars, October London, Muni Long and T.I. on the Virginia is For Lovers Stage. On the Dominion Energy Stage for Saturday artists are: Charles Owens, Norman Brown, Aloe Blacc and Jodeci. On Sunday, there’s a whole other day of artsists including CeeLo Green, Dru Hill Masego and more. Maymont gates open both days at 1 p.m. For more info on set times and prices, visit the website; also check out our previews.
Richmond Writers Round: A Songwriters Showcase at The Broadberry
Features Morgan Lynsey, Cody Christian, Dean Lee, Jacob Ritter, Ben Shepherd, Brady Heck and Trace Nixon. 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show. $15.
Saturday, Aug. 9
The third RFN Indie Fest at The Park RVA
The second of four festivals of independent cinema from RFN this year; this installment features 16 films (14 shorts and two feature docs, including four films by Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Filipino-American filmmakers in celebration of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.” Fourteen filmmakers are scheduled to appear and participate in post-screening Q&As. Visit the website for Richmond Film Network to learn more about the films and screening times. Noon to 9 p.m.
Jam Packed Craft and Beer Music Festival at Brown’s Island
Beer and jam bands go together well on the island. This year’s bands featured include Lotus, Moon Taxi, Spafford, Tauk featuring Kanika Moore, and Kendall Street Company. All ages. 3 p.m. gates. Tickets range from $59.59 to $144.18 (VIP). Check out the website to learn more info.
Richmond Oddities and Curiosities Expo at the Greater Richmond Convention Center (Aug. 9-10)
For lovers of the strange, unusual and bizarre, a traveling event showcasing “hand-selected vendors, dealers, artists and small businesses with all things weird. You’ll find items such as: taxidermy, preserved specimens, original artwork, horror/halloween inspired pieces, antiques, handcrafted oddities, quack medical devices, creepy clothing, odd jewelry, skulls/bones, funeral collectibles and much more.” Kids 12 and under are free. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Richmond Public Library’s Summer Concert Series with Spaceholder and Adam Hopkins’ School Work at Library Park
For the finale of its first season hosting monthly, free outdoor concerts curated by local musician (check out Hard Copy) and librarian, Michael McBean, audiences are invited to enjoy an early evening of jazz featuring local talent including guitarist extraordinaire, Rinatt Montoya, as well as Out of Your Head Records head honchos, Adam Hopkins and Scott Clark. School Works’ sound veers toward the avant-garde; it’s likely to appeal to fans of greats like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane, that even the most pedestrian of jazz cats (such as myself) are likely to dig. Meanwhile, Spaceholder is a trio anchored by the previously mentioned fretwork of Montoya, while also full of sonic surprises. If it doesn’t rain and get moved indoors, it’ll be the first time in this adventurous and otherwise well received endeavor. Here’s to hoping for the Richmond Public Library’s fall concert series. Library Park is behind the main branch location at 101 E Franklin St. The show gets underway at 6 p.m. rain or shine. (In the event of inclement weather, the proceedings will reconvene beneath the covered front patio, or inside the library.) Admission is free and all ages.—Tim Abbondelo
Deputy Dan: A Tribute to Steely Dan at Reveler Experiences
Exploring the musical legacy of Steely Dan before returning later in November to play the Tin Pan with one of Steely Dan’s most famous studio drummers, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, on the skins. $15 admission. 8 p.m. show.
Mark Farina at Ember Music Hall
The internationally known house and mushroom jazz DJ known for his role as a “modern day traveling minstrel.” Doors at 9 p.m. Music at 9:30 p.m. 21 and over.
“Smokey and the Bandit” and “The Love Bug” at Goochland Drive-in
It’s a double bill that seems readymade for a summer drive-in experience — two retro crowd-pleasing classics that couldn’t be more dissimilar in tone, but somehow fit together. “The Love Bug” (1968) is a Disney family farce that tells the age-old story of a boy and his magical Volkswagen. With its silly but inventive practical effects and giggle-worthy period trappings, it has been remade and sequeled many times but never bettered. Meanwhile, “Smokey and the Bandit” (1977) is a bawdy, politically incorrect Burt Reynolds comedy involving a ridiculous, high-speed quest to transport a tractor trailer load of Coors beer (not another one of those). Despite wincing stereotypes and often clunky direction, it is undeniably one of the funniest films of its era. Burt is fun and lovably full of himself, Sally Field is cute and cheerfully slumming (she would win an Oscar one year later for “Norma Rae”) and Jerry Reed and his dog Fred have one great moment later parodied in “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” But the movie really belongs to Jackie Gleason who, as beleaguered Sheriff Buford T. Justice, invents a redneck archetype as hilarious as it is horrifying (trivia note: Gleason was responsible for improvising much of his dialogue — amazing). Let’s just hope that the Goochland concession stand doesn’t sell out of El Diablo sandwiches and Dr. Peppers. It’s gonna be a bumpy night. (Gates open 6:15 p.m., showtime 8:20 p.m.) — Don Harrison
Opin at Records & Relics
This is the first in a pair of free, outdoor concerts Opin is playing this summer to celebrate the release of its new album, “Embrace the Gift,” at Church Hill locales you wouldn’t otherwise expect and could happen upon by chance. “We ended up settling on spots that presented a challenge and potentially had a different type of audience than the ones that would show up for a show at a standard venue,” Landis Wine says. Richmond music fans have likely encountered an “in-store” performance before at Plan 9, a “Meet ‘n’ Greet” at Deep Groove or art show at Vinyl Conflict; but this is the first “in front of the store, on the street” show I’ve covered. The band will have copies of its new album for sale, and you can bet they’ll perform their latest single “All Night Repeating,” which Stereogum praised for its “liberated bliss and propulsive anxiety.” I personally think more shows should go down at lunchtime in close proximity to a number of neighborhood foodie destinations. In this case, you couldn’t throw a dollar-bin record without slicing into the lines outside of Cobra Burger or Chimbo Sandwich Shoppe. Mangia! This gets underway at 1 p.m. and, again, it’s free and open to all. — T.A.
Sunday, Aug. 10
The 43rd annual Carytown Watermelon Festival
All my insta-memories of the Carytown Watermelon Festival feature at least two things, blistering heat and pink watermelon shirt stains. This weekend weather shouldn’t be too bad, according to early reports, so stop by and check out 80 musicians, over 100 exhibitors, and a large kids area. Multiple stages, delicious food, shopping, and oh yeah, that juicy juicy thang. Starts at 10 a.m. Pay as you go.
Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts at Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront
One of rock’s most legendary songwriters returns to Richmond with his new band, the Chrome Hearts, which features Spooner Oldham (organ), Micah Nelson (guitar/vocals), Corey McCormick (bass/vocals), Anthony LoGerfo (drums), and Neil Young on guitar, harp, piano and vibes. The band continues its Love Earth world tour; having just left Europe, this is one of its first U.S. shows on a tour that ends up at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. This is one of the bigger shows to take place at Richmond’s new Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront so far, here’s hoping that Young, known for his raw, distorted and intensely grooveless guitar playing, plays an extra long version of “Down by the River.” 7:30 p.m.
“Double Indemnity” at the Byrd Theatre
More than 80 years after its release, director Billy Wilder’s “Double Indemnity” is still a beautifully nasty piece of work. With a script co-written by Raymond Chandler, and based on the James Cain novel of the same name, this murder-for-money thriller consistently places at or near the top of every movie critic’s list of best films noir. For good reason — it still sizzles and stings. And while Barbara Stanwyck steals the show as Phyllis Dietrichson, one of the deadliest, and kinkiest (that anklet!) of all femme fatales, it’s really the relationship between insurance agent and besotted chump Walter Neff (Fred McMurray) and his unsuspecting boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) that gives the movie its emotional resonance. For all of its Chiaroscuro lighting and hot house mise-en-scène, you’ll want to see this one for the sharp, cutting dialogue, courtesy of Wilder and Chandler. “It’s just like the first time I came here, isn’t it?” Neff grunts at Phyllis. “We were talking about automobile insurance, only you were thinking about murder. And I was thinking about that anklet.” 2 p.m. $9. —Don Harrison
“Reckoning” – A Tribute to the Grateful Dead’s 17th album at Révéler Experiences
For three nights, an all-star local band explores the charms of one of the last great albums of the Grateful Dead. The curse of every successful group is to eventually devolve into their own cover band. “Reckoning” revisits old material, but also revives a side of the band that was in danger of being smothered in psychedelic jam. Their shows were bigger than ever, tribal gatherings as much as they were concerts, with an audience that followed them gig to gig. It was a long way from the varied, focused instrumentation of “American Beauty.” The original frontman of the band, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, died in 1973. (As did later keyboard players. That position in the Dead had the longevity of drummers in “Spinal Tap.”) By the 1980s, the band had comfortably calcified into a cultish hippie time capsule, and island of the Summer of Love in a sea of disco, punk and rap. The recordings of “Reckoning” – drawn from the opening, acoustic portion of live shows in San Fran and NYC, were both a return and a revelation. It was a callback to older fans, and an entry point for younger ones encountering the band for the first time.
The RVA band — mirroring the Dead’s instrumentation — is based around the veteran rhythm section of the Révéler “Potluck” series leading up to Mardi Gras: pianist Daniel Clarke, bassist Stewart Myers and drummer Dusty Ray Simmons. Brian Jones, long a pillar of the Richmond musical community, is the second drummer. The Potluck lead guitarist, Willie Williams, is also on hand, with Louis Smith on vocals and guitar. Originally planned as a one-day, two show event, it has doubled to four shows over three days. All but the Tuesday night seats are sold out, but there are always a limited number of additional tickets set aside for the lounge area at the door.
“Reckoning – A Tribute to the Grateful Dead’s Seventeenth Album” takes place at Révéler Experiences on Sunday, Aug. 10 at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 11 at 7:30 p.m., and Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 7:30 p.m. All tickets are $25.— Peter McElhinney
Wednesday, Aug. 13
The Wood Brothers and Mason Via at The National
The American roots band on tour behind the “Heart is the Hero” their 8th studio album. “We love records that come from the era of less tracks and more care,” explains co-founder Oliver Wood. “When you use a computer during the tracking process, you have an infinite number of tracks at your disposal, which implies that nothing is permanent, and everything can be fixed. Tape gives you limitations that force you to be creative and intentional. You don’t look at the music on a screen; you listen to it, and you learn to focus on the feeling of the performance.” All ages. Doors at 6:30 p.m. and show at 7:30 p.m.
