Thursday, May 15
Fan Arts Stroll (also Friday, May 16)
Take a leisurely stroll through one of RVA’s prettiest neighborhoods, check out the art and listen to local music along the 2200-2500 blocks of Grove Avenue and the 2000-2500 blocks of Hanover Avenue. Takes place both days from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Visit the Fan District Association for more info.
Richmond Flying Squirrels vs. Erie SeaWolves
Your Flying Squirrels are hosting the Erie SeaWolves, Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, this entire week. Thursday night’s game is Hanover Tomato Night with specialty jerseys and fireworks. Gametime is 6:35 p.m. Friday’s game night is Squirreltoberfest with Lederhosen T-shirt giveaway (6:35 p.m. start); Saturday’s game is Faith Night and In Your Face Fireworks, which sound related (6:05 p.m.) and Sunday’s game begins at 1:35 p.m. and features Bluey and Bingo character meet-and-greet for the kids. For more info, go here.
Pay Rent Brass Band with Knifing Around at The Camel
A night of high-energy Sonic the Hedgehog and local dance rock. Advance tickets are $16.35 and day of show is $19.66. Doors at 7 p.m. Show at 8 p.m.
Jerry Seinfeld at Altria Theater
The famous TV star/comedian returns with a new show to what is beginning to feel like his home away from home. 7 p.m.
Friday, May 16
Dress Like Mrs. Roper Competition at Crossroads Art Center
That’s right, Richmond is jumping on the “Three’s Company” craze that’s swept the country. Get decked out in your most fabulous kaftan, chunky jewelry and red wig and dress like Mrs. Roper for a chance to win prizes. DJ music plus food, beer and wine. Sponsored by Virginia Pride, there will be first, second and third place prizes. 5 to 8 p.m
The 40th annual Lebanese Food Festival at St. Anthony Maronite Church in Glen Allen (Through Sunday, May 18)
Always a popular food festival featuring traditional food, music and dancing. Rain or shine at St. Anthony Maronite Church, 4611 Sadler Road, Glen Allen. Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17 it runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday, May 18 it runs from 11 .m. to 8 p.m. For more info, visit lebanesefoodfestival.com
Dominion Energy Riverrock at Brown’s Island (Friday through Sunday)
May be a warm one this weekend, and while not good for those home energy bills (we’re 20th in the nation in terms of lowest average electricity rate for all sectors), it could be a good thing for the turnout to Richmond’s largest outdoor sports and music festival, sponsored by Dominion Energy. The event runs all weekend and features kayaking, the famous air dog competition, stand-up paddle boarding, biking, running, you name it. This year’s live music will be supplied by Suggesting Rhythm, Mountain Grass Unit, Dan and the Fam, Oh He Dead, The Sugar Hollows, Mikaela Davis, Andy Frasco and the U.N., Garden Variety String Band and more. Free to attend. Go here for more deets.
Afro-Zen Allstars at Révéler Experiences
Celebrate bandleader George Lowe’s birthday and get down to some “treasured tunes and surprises” by this funky group heavily influenced by Afrobeat and Ethiopian music from the ’60s and ’70s. Starts at 8 p.m. Admission is $17.50. Doors at 7 p.m. music at 8 p.m. Update: This show is sold out.
American Red Cross Blood Drive at the Science Museum of Virginia
Have some extra blood? Pay it forward and help save some lives. 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 17
Ice Cream Social and Fundraiser for Social Pups at Ardent Craft Ales
Hosted by Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches, come on over to Scott’s Addition with your pups and enjoy an ice cream social featuring lots of ice cream, pet portraits from Big Day Polaroids, pups for adoption, great drinks and “Henry’s Gone Bananas” a one-time event exclusive “ICE CREAM SANDWICH FOR DOGS!” All proceeds from ice cream sales will benefit Ring Dog Rescue. Runs from noon to 3 p.m.
The ChildSavers 100th Anniversary Block Party
All clients, child care providers, community groups, friends and supporters are invited to join this free celebration featuring music, food trucks and family-friendly fun.ChildSavers is a Richmond-based nonprofit that provides children’s mental health services and child care resources. Medicaid is accepted, go here to learn more. Takes place from noon to 5 p.m. Free to attend. 200 N. 22nd Street in Richmond.
The 27th annual Asian-American celebration at Greater Richmond Convention Center
This annual event brings together communities to celebrate the rich cultural heritage and contributions of Asian Americans. Runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free to attend. Go here for more information.
Aaron Goldberg at Révéler Experiences
Révéler Experiences continues its uncanny ability to book first-rate, New York City jazz performers into its eclectic, Christmas-like spangled confines. Boston-born, Harvard-educated Aaron Goldberg, with a master’s degree in analytic philosophy from Tufts, is one of those high-achieving players whose sophisticated improvisations reflect an adventurous intelligence. His best-known work is with [saxophonist] Dewey Redman, but he has a number of varied, highly accomplished albums as a leaders. His style is streamlined and modern and rooted in the past. His right-hand dances and tumbles on the high keys while his left moves beneath to catch the harmonies. The bassist, Nat Reeves, is a long-term, first-call NYC player who has performed and recorded with dozens of leading jazz players. Drummer Jae Sinnett is both a veteran player with 19 albums as a leader, and the voice of NPR jazz in the Tidewater area. The trio will be playing Friday night at Norfolk’s historic Attucks Theatre, which is a wonderful place to hear music, but nowhere near as intimate as Révéler right here in Carytown. 8 p.m. Tickets are $20-$30—Peter McElhinney
Toward Space with Naked Spirit and Jagwire at Fuzzy Cactus
A triumphant return for the area power trio. Toward Space has remained busy since last touching down in town to strut its particular brand of glam pageantry and amped up rock’n’roll showmanship. This show is a prelude to the band’s new single and music video for “I Could Be Your Soul,” followed by a tour this summer. For the new tune, members leveled up in the collaboration department, with writing duties split down the middle by vocalists-slash-guitarists Séyla Hossaini and David Pahtoon. Continuing in that team spirit, the track was engineered by Pahtoon at his Can & String studio, while the video was directed and edited by Hossaini, whose latest short film “We’ll Still Be Here” releases later this year. This talented bunch will be joined by a pair of touring bands from the Keystone state making their River City debut. Doors are at 9 p.m. and cost $10 (cash only). 21 and over. –Tim Abbondelo
Correction: An earlier version of this pick misspelled David Pahtoon’s name.
Ward Davis solo acoustic at Richmond Music Hall
American singer-songwriter by way of Monticello, Arkansas, Davis is “just another bad apple that didn’t fall far from the tree,” whose songs have been recorded by some of country music’s biggest names, including Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Sammy Kershaw, Trace Adkins and more. Doors at 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 18
Vinyl pop-up at Bingo Beer Company
What could be finer than cratedigging on a Sunday? Plan 9 will be on hand, as well as local vendors like @ghosttrackrecords, plus the musical stylings of Billy Crystal Fingers. Takes place in the Bingo beer garden from noon to 4 p.m. Free, no registration required.
The 35th annual Bellevue Garden Walk
Take a stroll through a historic neighborhood and check out the fancy gardens and local residents’ artwork should also be on display. 1 to 5 p.m.
Profs and Pints Richmond: Who Are The Houthis? at Triple Crossing Brewing-Fulton
Learn something about world politics as you suck down suds. Elana DeLozier, an adjunct professor of international relations courses at UVA and executive director of The Sage Institute for Foreign Affairs, will be on hand to present, “Who Are The Houthis?” a guide to understanding the Yemeni rebel group. Advance tickets are $13.50 plus tax and fees, at the door its $17 or $15 with student ID. The talk starts 30 minutes after doors open at 4 p.m.
Parallel Listening Series feat. writers Josh Galarza, Rabeetah Hasnain, Matthew Wimberley, Divine Okechukwu and performers JJJJJerome Ellis and Beatrice Kelly at Gallery5
Art imitates art to create yet more art at this exciting new multidisciplinary salon. Committee members Trey Burnart Hall, Tristan Brennis, Bird Cox, Sam Christian, and S. Preston Duncan hail from distinct artistic communities around town including VCU, Richmond Young Writers and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Together they hope to bridge artists’ respective practices with an expanded support system and audience. What unfolds is a unique collaboration in real time between authors and musicians that celebrates art writ large. At at time when art is under attack, the Parallel Listening Series amplifies art for art’s sake, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction; poetry or prose; sound installation or musique concrète; plain old noise or from folk, rock or jazz musical traditions; no matter if it’s theatrical, biographical, historical, satirical, erotic, polemic, academic, or amateur; whether its for profit or for fun. So get it while the getting is good. Doors are at 6 p.m. for a happy hour with the performance at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more, read Style’s preview here.—T.A.
Monday, May 19
MJ Lenderman and The Wind with This is Lorelei at The National [Update: sold out]
Straight outta Asheville, North Carolina, MJ “Jake” Lenderman has been on a nice run since the arrival of his widely acclaimed 2024 album “Manning Fireworks.” Noted music scribe Amanda Petrusich at The New Yorker agreed that it’s accurate to call him “the next great hope for indie rock.” His fourth solo record mixes witty, vulnerable lyrics with scrappy, ‘90s guitar rock and a decidedly Southern slacker vibe that seems to appeal equally to Gen Z as well as Gen X (If the Pavement classic “Range Life” had kids, they might resemble MJ Lenderman’s musical nuggets). His album has been championed by everyone from Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis and Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood to Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and even Shaquille O’Neal (that’s right, Shaq Fu is down). Lenderman reportedly grew up listening to Virginia’s own Mark Linkous, so maybe he’ll perform a Sparklehorse song near his hometown, you never know, weirder things have happened. Opening the big show is New York’s This is Lorelei, the project of Nate Amos, who has similarly earned a heap of praise for his latest, “Box for Buddy, Box for Star,” which Rolling Stone named one of the best albums of 2024 and Billboard described as “sophisticated pop with warmth.” Yes, there is a whole lot of critical whoop-de-whoop under the bright lights tonight, but now it’s time for you to decide how you like the live show. All ages. Doors at 6:30 p.m. and show at 7:30 p.m. NOTE: According to Lenderman’s publicist, the show is sold out.
Tuesday, May 20
Sheer Mag with True Body and Strawberry Moon at Cobra Cabana
Cheese and wine aren’t the only things getting better with time, so is Philadelphia’s prime musical export of big ‘70s riffs and timeless, heroic choruses. Years following Sheer Mag’s run of game-changing, self-released singles, two satisfying full-lengths and an appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” and despite its conspicuous absence from social media, the band fully earned its stripes signing with Jack White’s Third Man Records for last year’s “Playing Favorites” album. All the Thin Lizzy guitar mastery and NWOBHM backbone [That’s New Wave of British Heavy Metal for non-music geeks] remain intact, but also benefited by the addition of AM pop and classic rock confectionery. Q. Is that auxiliary percussion I hear? A. Hell yes, that’s auxiliary percussion you hear. And it works! Nimble post punks and Richmond expats True Body are an inspired addition to the bill, and another instance of a band mastering a niche genre so forcefully as to make it their own. On the other band-hand, it’s as if Strawberry Moon was specifically built for this one, having cultivated its own Sheer Mag energy at home, for Richmond headbanger’s benefit year-round. Doors are at 7 p.m. Cost is $20 and show is 18 and over.—T.A.
Nick Woods with Sean Pratt Trio at Northside Grille
For something completely different—yet no less riveting and recession proof—make your way to this reliable Northside watering hole, where the wings are grilled to perfection and the club soda is always unbridled. Like when they say “the place plays a character in a story,” I can’t think of a better locale to house these sounds: intimate, quaint and comfortable. Nick Woods is a gem of a songwriter, recently returned to Virginia after a tenure in Tennessee, where his work continues to glow and grow. His new firecracker outfit, The Periphs, are one to lookout for, but his solo sets are an opportunity to hear a lot more material from across Woods’ previous output, along with a trove of new-to-you tunes he’s kept in the oven for future release. Sean Pratt Trio arrives from Omaha, where Pratt cut his teeth with Simon Joyner’s band and his own, The Echoes. The trio is touring now on Pratt’s forthcoming album “Prairie Whistle Call” on Worried Songs Records. It reminds me of a Dirty Three-backed Bonnie Prince Billy, which is to say, not to be missed. Doors are at 8 p.m. and free to the public.—T.A.
