Hot Water Music at The Jefferson Theater 7/28

If veteran Gainesville, Florida, band Hot Water Music is considered punk, then perhaps nothing is punk. In this stage of late capitalism and post-post-post-modern 21st-century rock, it may be pointless to even ask. We old people all realize our musical tribes have basically been absorbed by the monoculture of social media and the blurred boundaries […]

Sound choices: A sunny turn lights the way

MaySuns  Coloso (EP) (Matcatcher Music)  After snagging a Best Rock Album statuette at the Washington Area Music Awards for 2022’s The Oldlight, the band Hanoi Ragmen announced it would be renaming. In an Instagram post last fall, the MaySuns announced that its new name reflects “the identity of the band [it’s] turning into.”  In May, […]

Nickelodeon’s ‘The SpongeBob Musical’ at Four County Players through 8/10

For families—that is, people with kids—there may be no better local entertainment this summer than driving out to Barboursville for The SpongeBob Musical by Four County Players. Sure, you could go see the latest Pixar-y mega-movie, but films aren’t able to offer one critical element: real live humans performing with the thrill of theatrical danger. […]

Üga Büga with Greenhead and Diseased Earth at the Southern 7/26

The best thing about Charlottesville’s Üga Büga is that it’s hard to describe. I’ve seen it called “Southern sludge beard metal” and “hog rock” (likely in reference to its debut, 2024’s Year of the Hog), but neither seems entirely fair. It’s sludge-ish, but not like those who plunder the slo-mo riffery of early Black Sabbath […]

Retracing and rethinking

I’m a sucker for a historical walking tour. Treading where our forebears trod to see current spaces through their historical context reshapes our understanding of places that we thought we knew. Such experiences enable us to learn, in greater detail, about people of the past whose lives were very different from our own. The Albemarle […]

‘Get Happy!’ at Ruth Caplin Theatre 7/24-7/27

In honor of “the world’s greatest entertainer,” Get Happy! is an exciting and engaging evening of songs from American icon Judy Garland. Conceptualized, produced, and performed by lauded cabaret artist and UVA alumna Jenna Pastuszek, this cleverly curated collection of Garland’s greatest hits and hidden gems features music from The Wizard of Oz, Easter Parade, […]

Jen Chapin Trio at Belmont Arts Collaborative 7/24

Jen Chapin Trio debuts a new two-set, cabaret-style performance featuring political insight and poetic storytelling in a musical arrangement made for the moment. Anything Goes and How Did We Get Here? weave historically informed, jazz-inspired queries and responses concerning our current and rapidly changing political environment around selections from Chapin’s critically acclaimed urban folk catalog. […]

‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Coriolanus’ at Live Arts 7/24-7/26

Live Arts offers up a teen show doubleheader of Mel Brooks’ musical Young Frankenstein and Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus. Monstrous laughter ensues when Frederick Frankenstein, grandson of the infamous Victor Frankenstein, inherits his family’s Transylvania estate and quickly takes up the mad sciences in Young Frankenstein. In Coriolanus, Rome is experiencing famine-induced unrest, which is disrupted […]

The Cville Band

The Cville Band continues its 103rd season with Summer at The Paramount. Featuring guest artists Robert Graham playing “Reflective Mood” and Michelle Younger (pictured) playing Julia Delaney’s “Reel and The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the show also spotlights the municipal band’s Assistant Director Burton Hable, who will perform new pieces and old favorites. An […]