June 13-18

Comedian Nate Bargatze, VMFA Shop Tent Sale, Friday Cheers with LA LOM and Afro-Zen Allstars, Ardent’s 11th Anniversary Party, the amazing Quintron at Gallery5, Aimee Mann at The National, Tomeka Reid Quartet, “Un/Bound” at VMHC, Pride on Forest Hill and more.

Friday, June 13

 

VMFA Shop Tent Sale at VMFA

It’s the VMFA Shop’s most popular event of the year, so expect a crowd shopping this curated selection of merchandise, including books, jewelry, home décor, exhibition products and seasonal items at discounted prices. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Friday Cheers presents LA LOM and Afro-Zen Allstars at Brown’s Island

LA LOM is an acronym abbreviation of Los Angeles League of Musicians, an amalgam of multiple popular genres from its home city. It is a restrained power trio whose all-instrumental songs feature sinuous guitar lines over throbbing bass and aggressively danceable cumbia beats. There is a bit of surf music, a touch of African highlife guitar, and occasional splashes of artful distortion cutting through the reverb. Some of the songs kick into high gear from their midtempo, deep groove rhythmic sweet spot. The band, which features Zac Sokolow on guitar, Jake Faulkner on electric and upright bass, and Nicholas Baker on percussion, forged its sound in five-night-a-week gigs at the Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. Catching the ears and attention of people passing is a challenging performance boot camp. Their mix of originals and covers, drawn from both U.S. popular music and Latin deep cuts- reflects their ability to engage audiences. If that is not enough for one Friday Cheers, Afro Zen Allstars, recent readers’ pick winners of Style Weekly’s Best Global Music category, are also on the bill. The two guitar, three percussionist, four horn, and electric bass ensemble delivers a mesmerizing, geographically complementary opening set. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Children 12 and under get in free.—Peter McElhinney

Recent Style Weekly Best of Richmond readers pick winners Afro-Zen Allstars are “a high-energy little big band featuring blazing horns, a driving rhythm section, and inspired instrumental jams.” Photo by Peter McElhinney

Saturday, June 14

 

Ardent Craft Brewing’s 11th Anniversary Party in Scott’s Addition

One of the chillest breweries in town holds its annual outdoor party featuring live music, 20+ guest breweries on tap (including local and out of state) plus food vendors including nearby ZZQ, Eazzy Burger and Nam Prik Pao. The live music schedule is as follows: Prabir Trio at 2 p.m., Say Less Brass Band at 3:20 p.m., Charm Offensive at 4:40 p.m. and Chris Leggett and the Copper Line at 6 p.m. The event happens rain or shine, kids and families welcome though if you’re drinking, don’t forget your ID. Friendly dogs are welcome as long as they remain on a leash and outside. [Note: Because of special event license required to serve outside alcohol, no to-go can sales will be available during the party]. Takes place from noon to 8 p.m. at 3200 W. Leigh St. in Scott’s Addition.

 

Pride on Forest Hill

Fly your Pride flag high on Forest Hill Avenue, enjoy the day and let the shameless haters waste their lives spewing bile online (those actual real shameless haters and not just AI-generated fake accounts killing social media). Join TransJamRVA to support local small businesses and LGBTQ+ artists. Here’s the schedule from their event page: Noon to 5 p.m. there will be a Pride pop-up artist market at Thirsty’s; 5 p.m. Pride Picnic at Forest Hill Presbyterian Church; 7 p.m. Pride happy hour at Thirsty’s; 8 p.m. Pride afterparty and drag show.  Happy Pride, y’all.

The Pride Flag, which serves as a symbol of love, inclusion, and resilience, will fly over Richmond City Hall for the month of June. Photos by Scott Elmquist

 

“Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians,1619-1865” at Virginia Museum of History and Culture

It’s opening day for the newest exhibition at the VMHC which uses powerful objects and first-person accounts to explore the lives of free Black Virginians upon the arrival of the first captive Africans in 1619 to the abolition of slavery in 1865. The exhibition was created in collaboration with experts and Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, William & Mary, Longwood University and Richard Bland College. Admission is included with the price of daily admission (which is free for members). 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

 

A portrait of an unidentified woman that is part of the VMHC exhibition “Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians,1619-1865.”

 

Corey Fonville Organ Trio with Charlie Hunter and Sam Fribush at Révéler Experiences

Corey Fonville is best known to local audiences as the drumming powerhouse in Butcher Brown. His imaginative rhythmic patterns, spun out crisply at speed in everchanging complement and comment to a song are endlessly fascinating. That virtuosity is integral to Butcher Brown’s genre-defying, hip-hop/jazz fusion. It also made him an in-demand sideman to leading jazz mainstream artists like Kurt Elling, Nicholas Payton and Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah. Attentive RVA audiences know when his name appears at the top of a bill, as with this Saturday’s gig, it is an invitation to something special. In this case, it is an organ trio, a classic jazz combination that reached its peak in the 1960s with players like Jimmy Smith and Larry Young. Those were the pre-synthesizer days when the Hammond B3 organ was the apex electronic keyboard. The organist for this weekend’s lineup is former Hiss Golden Messenger keyboardist Sam Fribush, one of the young musicians revitalizing the form with an admixture of funk, R&B and experimental attitude. The final member of the band is guitar legend [and multiple Grammy nominee] Charlie Hunter, whose mastery of the hybrid (bass/electric) guitar adds additional bottom end to the bass foot pedal keyboard of the B-3. Given the quality of the players and the uniqueness of their combination, you should get your tickets early. Reserved seats for the early show are sold out. Révéler Experiences always holds some in reserve at the door, but the best seats go first. Sets at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. $30-$40 depending on seating.—P.M.

Butcher Brown’s Corey Fonville on drums during the recent Daydream Festival in Richmond. His accomplished organ trio featuring Bay Area legend Charlie Hunter on guitar will be at Reveler this weekend. Photo by Peter McElhinney

 

Richmond Public Library’s Summer Concert Series with Saadia Rais, Tommy Birchett and Molasses at Library Park

The kick-off for a run of three, free monthly concerts held in the park behind the Main Branch library location this summer. Curated by local musician and librarian Michael McBean, with logistical support from senior librarian Hannah Kilgore, each of these concerts will focus on a particular genre represented in the local music scene. For this weekend’s show, expect experimental sounds for area artists Rais, Birchett and Will Mullaney (Molasses), who are all active contributors to the city’s vibrant DIY circuit. Rais incorporates movement to sound; Birchett also utilizes a visual component with screens to accompany their retooled electronics; and Mullaney will install a sound sculpture for an even more immersive sonic experience. Future shows will include hardcore punk and jazz. The concert starts at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public at 101 E Franklin St.—Tim Abbondelo

Multidisciplinary artist Saadia Rais is among the performers to launch a free summer concert series at Library Park. Photograph provided by artist. Photo courtesy of the artist

 

Illiterate Light, Mo Lowda and The Humble at The National

What a time to see Illiterate Light, the Virginia-based duo consisting of guitarist Jeff Gorman and drummer Jake Cochran. Their high-octane, improbably large-sounding partnership turns 10 this year, and if the touring they’ve been doing in support of their latest full-length album, “Arches,” is any indication, they’re only picking up speed. Recent highlights include My Morning Jacket’s One Big Holiday festival in Florida and Third Man Records’ Blue Room in Nashville. Ahead are stops at the Newport Folk Festival and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. In between, on Saturday, June 14, they’ll stop by the friendly confines of the National. For a preview of what to expect, be sure to check out “Arches Pt. 1 (Live at Soundcheck Infinity),” an energetic performance video the duo recently shared featuring the first five songs from “Arches.” It’s also great timing for catching the opening act, Mo Lowda & the Humble. The Philadelphia-based rock band has a new album called “Tailing the Ghost” on the tips of their tongues. It drops on Friday, June 20, less than a week after they’ve graced the National’s stage. Doors open at 7 p.m. and music starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $38.49 and can be purchased at thenationalva.com. –Davy Jones

The duo of Illiterate Light: Guitarist and lead vocalist Jeff Gorman and drummer Jake Cochran. Photo by Joey Wharton

 

Sunday, June 15

 

Nate Bargatze at Altria Theater

He’s one of the hottest comedians in the country, just ask Conan O’Brien. The son of a clown, Mr. Bargatze is full of observational humor and dry Southern wit, and amazingly, his inoffensive humor seems as if it landed from another era; it doesn’t ever rely on graphic, gross-out gutter humor, social media as brain trust, or any kind of self-help performance art. He succeeds just by telling funny stories about everyday things, like how his father can’t admit that his 40-year addiction to Afrin nose spray was far past the three day usage limit given on the box. (Bargatze also has a cousin in Richmond who’s a nice guy that I hope he gives a shout out from the stage in some funny, embarrassing way, but that may be asking too much). UPDATE: Both the 7 p.m. and 3 p.m. shows are sold out.

Monday, June 16

 

Quintron (solo) and Aaron Dilloway with Brown Piss and the Three-Brained Robot at Gallery5

The New Orleans-based artist Quintron returns sans Miss Pussycat for more absorbing, instrumental weirdness with his amazing, spellcasting organ and Drum Buddy prowess. You may feel like you’ve walked into a scene from science fiction film “Mirza the Miraculous,” if he plays material from his recently reissued “Spellcaster II – Death in Space.” Definitely something different, this lineup has a little bit of everything, including Brown Piss, which is the aural equivalent of kidney stone pain. 7 p.m. doors. $12 in advance, $15 at the door.

Quintron

Tuesday, June 17

 

Tomeka Reid Quartet with Mary Halvorson, Jason Roebke and Tomas Fujiwara at Révéler Experiences

The Tomeka Reid Quartet is a band at the forefront of modern improvised music. Their songs are small miracles combining the challenging with the familiar. In the middle of a piece, you always know where you are but never where you are going next in the wild interplay of ideas until a resolution brings it together at the end. The band is stacked with creative players. The Chicago-based Reid has carved out an innovative leading role for the cello, and won a MacArthur Fellowship (the “genius grant”), the Herb Alpert award, and multiple other laurels for her creativity. Fellow McArthur winner, guitarist Mary Halvorson is one of the most unique and unpredictable virtuosos on the current scene. Her appearance alone will bring out all of the serious jazz guitarists in the area. As a prolific leader and sideman, Brooklyn-based drummer Tomas Fujiwara is the key percussive ingredient in a number of adventurous bands. Rounding out the quartet. bassist Jason Roebke is a first-rate Chicago improviser. According to RVA bassist Adam Hopkins, who recommended that Révéler Experiences take advantage of the quartet’s tour coming within booking reach, the band will record a new album in the days after the gig. Expect something new and unexpected. Sets at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. $15.

The Tomeka Reid Quartet (from left: Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid, Tomas Fujiwara and Jason Roebke) photographed by Lawrence Miner.

 

Wednesday, June 18

 

The Oregon Hill Review release party and reading at Shop Two Three

Launch for this new local-centric literary zine conceived by Richmond-based writer Mathias Svalina, whose work you can read more about in our Best Of Richmond. Paris and New York have their own Reviews (both, sneakily, coming out of that large apple up north) and now Richmond does too, from right here in River City proper. The first issue is available in print only and offered to readers in trade for donations made to Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project. Contributors were tasked with documenting a local moment they love. Future issues will cover various themes including “a set of idiosyncratic and personal maps of Richmond, an attempt to collect everyone in Richmond’s dreams that they dreamed on a single night, an issue made entirely out of living spiders, things like that,” according to Svalina — and will benefit a different radical organization in the area. Just don’t expect a particular print schedule or to find these online. Tea time runs from 6 to 7 p.m. and whether that’s of the herbal variety or hot literary gossip, remains to be seen (at press time). That’s followed by readings from contributors Tara Burke, Robert Cataldo, Sam Christian, Trey Burnart Hall, Anna Leonard, Emily Okamoto-Green and Svalina at Shop Two Three: 1437 Hull St.—T.A.

 

Singer-songwriter and Richmond native Aimee Mann plays The National on June 18.

Aimee Mann and Jonathan Coulton at The National

From her early MTV hit “Voices Carry” with the band ‘Til Tuesday, through the hordes of fans who discovered her music from the P.T. Anderson film, “Magnolia,” to her cameos on “Portlandia,” Aimee Mann is still enjoying a long and dynamic career. And it all started right here in the good ‘ole Southside of RVA. Yep, Mann grew up in Bon Air back in the 1960s/’70s and went to Midlothian High before graduating from Open High. She had some childhood family trauma, and her teenage years didn’t sound all that great (being one of the city’s early punks was no picnic) she has noted in interviews that she enjoyed the Fan and VCU, and places like The Biograph Theater, back during her days working at Tortilla Flats. Last time she played in Lewis Ginter, her dad came to the show, if memory serves. She left RVA to attend Berklee School of Music, which kicked off a lifetime of memorable, highly personal songwriting, with Grammy and Academy Award nods (NPR voted her one of the 10 best living songwriters). Not only does she have a somewhat Elton John-like penchant for catchy melodies, but her emotional vocals draw the listener in, whether hushed and intimate or blazingly defiant – or both. This particular tour will be celebrating the 22 ½ year anniversary of her fourth album, “Lost in Space,” and her frequent collaborator Jonathan Coulton will join her. All ages show, doors at 6:30 p.m. and show at 7:30 p.m.—B.B.

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