If you're looking for something awesome to do tonight!

COME TO BALTIMORE WITH US TO SEE THE PROTOMEN!

Tomorrow Night - What a Sight!

ZAC HRYCIAK & The Junglebeats - an impressive symphony of talented musicians from Richmond (A MUST SEE)!!










NICK COWARD - one of the most beautiful male voices I've heard since Keen. A MUST SEE Richmond local!









BILLY WALLACE of Roanoke is an amazing folk musician that is incredible to see live!












LAUREL LANE - the voice of an angel! Richmond folk!




So where can we see all these amazingly talented musicians you ask? At The Triple (located across from Channel 6 News on Broad street near the museum district!) TOMORROW NIGHT - OCTOBER 20th - 9pm - Just $5 measly bucks!

What to do on Monday (Oct.19th)

Join us at the Triple 3306 west broad street for:

Country music superstars - The O's
From the amazing local music scene sweethearts Itchy Hearts own - Andy Cobb
and new to the venue, but equally amazing - Dave House.

Please remember that it is industry night, so if you work in a restaurant or venue than you play pool for FREE! Nice, now you can use all the money you saved on a stress free evening of boozing!

Presented by Community Chest booking & promotion!

nothing compares, seriously.

THE PROTOMEN

For our first major tour we kinda lucked out. These guys have what it takes to wage wars on the music scene and save our tiny planet.
It's epic rock opera that I'm constantly comparing to Nick Cave meets Meatloaf meets post-apocalyptic Megaman. Yeah, they're that intense.

I defy you to watch this video and not fall in love:


Their new album drops on the 25th of September in Nashville, TN. We're definitely riding down there for the cd release if you're not a complete creep we'd love for you to join us. Email TiffanyCale@CommunityChestRVA.com if you want to make the trip.

Let me know what you think!

My Boobs - As Seen in Style Weekly

Photo By Ash Daniel

Check out the story here - Style Weekly

Books on Wheels - At It Again

From owner of Books on Wheels - Shelley Briggs -

Hello Friends!

Ward and I are happy to announce that Books on Wheels is opening a Thrift
Store in the Northside area of Richmond. The store is located at

302 W.
Brookland Park Blvd.
Richmond, VA 23222
We will function as other thrift stores do in selling you
gently used merchandise donated to us from the community, but with a few Books
on Wheels specialties to look forward to! This volunteer run, non-profit thrift
store will provide:

Free books! All the time, always free!

Functioning bicycles for sale. Never buy another thrift store bicycle that
you can’t ride away on!

We will not be providing free bicycle repair in store, but we will be
holding classes TBA that teach bicycle repair and as always, Books on Wheels
will hold events in the neighborhoods with our buses so we can fix bikes during
those occasions!

What we need now is support from the community to get us starting. Currently,
we are asking for donations of any kind to the store before opening our
doors. Also, we always need and greatly appreciated monetary donations so we
purchase the following items that we need:

Supplies to build book shelves

Clothes Racks and clothes hangers to organize clothing donations
A Cash Register

Paint!

Donate to Books on Wheels Here!!

Thanks for your support! We are going to open our doors as soon and will be back
with more information!!

Just a reminder, here is information about Books on Wheels:

Books on Wheels is a Richmond, Virginia based 501 (c) 3 non-profit organizations
that provides free books and free bicycle repair. As a mobile operation, Books
on Wheels is able to travel to many different communities in Richmond and
around the country to provide our services. We work with various other
organizations in order to provide to their clients as well as people in their
communities. Our services are available to anyone and everyone, yet we do
have a concentration in working with at-risk youth in low-income neighborhoods.
Currently, we are working on occupying a space within Richmond so we can expand
our operation to provide free books and offer bicycle repair classes at a
particular location. Our new project will allow for more volunteer
participation, as well as ability to reach more people within the community.

Our Mission:

Books on Wheels is dedicated to promoting literacy and maintaining healthy,
active lifestyles, while providing much need resources to our communities that
lack access to free books and bicycle education. Through literature and bicycle
education Books on Wheels works to provide empowering tools that they can use
within their communities.. In concentrating in working with youth, Books on
Wheels strives to encourage young people to read and to learn skills that they
can use for the rest of their lives.

Donate Online through Network for Good!

Shelley Briggs, MSW

Co-founder, Books on Wheels

www.booksonwheels.org

www.booksonwheelsrva.blogspot.com

Bad day in Good ol Richmond

God I'm having a BAD day. I know you all have been there. I'll give you a couple of scenarios and hopefully you'll relate.

1.) You work for a major corporation and you make a choice: do you spend company time on Facebook or do you justify your boring life by working hard and making yourself proud?

2.) You're a college student and you make a choice: do you aim for c's in order to pass because you know your chosen career really only wants to know you HAVE a degree or do you study your ass off and act as a sponge so you can really take advantage of your inevitable debt?

3.) You're in a band (and probably work at a restaurant) and you make a choice: do you play in town, occasionally hit up DC and NC, occasionally update your myspace, and pray one day someone will offer you an opportunity? Or do you promote the hell out of your band, support your local arts community and come hell or high water tour! tour! tour! in an effort to DO something with your music?

4.) You're a small business and talk a big talk about all you'll accomplish for your community you make a choice: realize you don't have enough time, energy or motivation to actually do it? Or do you work your ass off, find extra time in a day, give and give with blind faith, and make a difference?

Share with me if you want to - I'm loosing my faith in everyone.

ON A SIDE NOTE

If you're in the mood for a low-fi folksy kinda evening might I recommend finding yourself at the beautiful locally owned GALLERY 5 (located at 200 W.Marshall in Jackson Ward) for: Mostly Dimes, Liza Kate, Pedals On Our Pirate Ships and Sweatpants!? What an awesome night this will be. If you're new to town and don't know what the music scene is like here - there are a few bands playing tonight that you NEED to familiarize yourselves with!

Aw, I'm feeling better already!

Best thing you can do to commemorate BFD weekend!

Something I do every year, take a picture of yourself before you go out every night. Passport photo style will yield the best results. Now go out to one of these events tonight:

Best Friends Day 8 at Alley Katz
Featuring - Strike Anywhere, None More Black, Off With Their Heads, Ringers, Blotto, Gatorface and No Friends! Show kicks off at 6pm - 2am 18+.

Protomen
At Plaza Bowl 8pm till 12am.

Wicked After Party @ Couch Heaven
Featuring - SCARCITY OF TANKS, HEAD MOLT, and CAVES CAVERNS! Show kicks off when the party people show up.

Wrenn Mangum (amazing Elvis impersonator!)
At The Triple show starts at 9pm lasts till 1am.

Now that you've had an awesome night on the town - recommended by yours truly - it's now time to drink some water before you hit the hay. Then when you wake up in the morning take another photo.
Do this for the rest of the weekend and you will end up with a hilarious collection of Before and After photos. Encourage your BEST FRIENDS to do it too. Print 'em and hang 'em with pride on the fridge as a reminder of your amazing weekend. You'll be glad you did.

If you want to submit your before and after pics to RichmondRampage.com - send an email to info@richmondrampage.com and I'll put 'em up for you Monday!

You've waited all year and it's finally here....

I'll tell you a little story about how I came to be a Richmonder. It's a simple story about Fun. The type of fun you rarely find anywhere in VA. The type of Fun that makes you feel kinship with a city. I'm talking people, about the type of fun that gives James Madison University and all the date rape house parties the big F-you. The type of fun that tells your parents I don't want your support I do what I want! The type of fun that turns a 20 year old girl into a party-mongering, beer bonging, pit encouraging, drunk off the flask in your pocket, wild child. The type of fun that makes you forget your roots and claim although PBR tastes like carbonated water it is the bourbon of beers and you'll never look back! I'm talking about a catalyst - a single event that makes you forget your roots and assimilate into a community of people that take fun as seriously as you do.
If you didn't know today marks the start of an event that changed my life. BEST FRIENDS DAY The kick off event is tonight at PLAZA BOWL (it's just over the river in the plaza that intersects Broad rock (which is Monument ave) and Hull street (which is just off of COWARDIN, which is the street that BELVIDERE turns into on the opposite side of the river). The party starts at 7pm and will be OUTRAGEOUS so make sure you get there on-time or even a little early so capacity issues don't keep you out of the party.
The list of acts is as follows: (read more at http://www.richmondrampage.com)

Something you rarely see in Richmond...

However this week you will have an opportunity to see more than your fair share. Tonight at the National you can find yourself in the audience for Russ Parr (of the Russ Parr morning show) featuring Earthquake, Ashy Larry, Red Grant, and Huggy LowDown. From what I can tell it'll be a show chock full of racial comparisons and stereo-typical relationship banter. Looks like tickets are still available Show HERE Kicks off at 7:30.

If you're in the mood for something a little more playful (and a little less funny) you could always trek your ass out to the Funnybone located in the Short Pump towncenter for Steve Byrne. Steve is a self proclaimed Caucasian and Asian which makes him CaucAsian. As with anyone who comes from a mixed background, that's exactly what his comedy is about. Check out full details HERE.

Now if you're looking for gritty, raw, honest, and OH SO libertarian comedy you'll want to see Doug Stanhope on August 13th. If the name sounds familiar it is, he took over the Man Show after Adam Corolla left and has been on HBO and Comedy Central on numerous occasions. Doug's return to Richmond has been much anticipated considering every corporate comedy club in America has banned him from returning including the Funny Bone in Richmond! He's quoted as saying that "The Funny Bone are to comedy what Olive Garden is to authentic Italian food."
That's probably why you're only gonna see Doug's unapologetic show at Plaza Bowl. Tickets are still available you can find them HERE.

I know this is a primarily music oriented site and sorry if you were looking for show updates but comedy is still something that I believe this town is severely lacking in. If you guys catch any of these events let me know what you think...in the comment section...

To our fallen friend - Nara Sushi

After days and days of hearsay it's official we've lost yet another unique Richmond venue. Although I represent 2 other venues in town and should be happy another one has bitten the dust, I'm not. How could I be? This stupid city is too small to loose 4 venues in one year.

As of late the villain seems to be CAPS, but unfortunately I can't say I completely agree. So here's who we've lost:

Nara Sushi - Hosted the best Metal/Punk shows. City Dogs has bought the shell that was Nara and we've heard they will be hosting events. Unfortunately it's looking like they're anti punk and metal. I'd venture to say you'll be at a lot of house shows if you dig the Nara scene created over the past 2 years.

Toads Place - Hosted some good events. I can't really comment I had only been there once. Seems to me that whomever is currently interested in the spot needs to figure out parking. I've always wondered if Toads Place could share that parking deck with Black Finn?

The Artist Underground - Owned by an amazing matronly woman who proudly let you sample all of her homemade food before you settled on something you liked. She started hosting early shows in the tiny basement of a venue to supplement her income. CAPS raided her one miserable night and she never completely recovered. A little less than 3 months after the incident her doors shut for good. I heard that someone was turning it into a natural food restaurant but that's yet to be seen.

The Bagel Czar - God why did you have to go in and ruin the capacity? Having a bagel shop that was that big right around the corner from a restaurant that people already liked to sit and relax at didn't seem like the best idea. That and I don't think they made their bagels in house so the enormous kitchen didn't make much sense. I don't know it was exciting that someone finally stepped up to the plate and tried their hand at the infamous 929 but it was more of a let down than anything else.

Can't wait till our only options are CenterStage and The Landmark...blah. Lets stop grieving the losses and celebrating what we do still have. Get out of your house, support local music and local small business's!

Best Weekend EVER...in Richmond!?

I tend to think that Richmond rarely has an exciting weekend of events. Short of a Slaughterama weekend or a Best Friends Day weekend THIS weekend is chock full of thrilling events! Here's where I'll be:


First Fridays in the Courtyard
If you've never taken the time to visit this Broad Street art and music spectacle you're really missing out. Part of what gives this city charm is the first Friday of every month. Basically store owners and gallery owners open their doors to local artists to display their work while music and the arts community filter in and out. This year a new installation to the First Fridays art walk is a music showcase that takes place in a patch of land brilliantly located in the heart of the festivities. This week performers include: Dave Watkins, Zac Hyrciak & the Junglebeats and From Here on Blue. It'll be a nice little indie/folksy event. Hope to see you there!

Johnny Z Festival
In 2007 Richmond suffered a great loss with the death of an amazing man, artist, activist, and musician - Johnny Z. Friends have organized a block party featuring the Bizarre Market, live music, & WRIR DJ's, children's activities, raffle drawings and a mobile mural unveiling by artists from St. Andrew's School in memory of Jonathan Zanin. Be at Shields Ave (near Joes inn) Saturday the 8th between noon and 5pm to celebrate the life of Johnny Z.


Watermelon Festival
See you in Carytown Sunday for this wildly amusing fun-filled day! Why Watermelons you ask...why not!


SETH GREEN IS IN THE HOUSE, Robot Chicken, at the Roller-rink!!
Alright guys after you've been to all these amazing events I know you're tired. But we're not done yet! Monday 8pm at RollerDome on Williamsburg Road Seth Green brings the party to Richmond with Adult Swim and Robot Chicken creators and executive producers Seth Green and Matt Senreich!! We'll be celebrating the release of the Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II DVD this summer by strapping on a pair of roller skates. Green and Senreich host the celebration throughout the nine-city roller rink tour across America featuring performances by one of the hottest bands today, Gym Class Heroes, in addition to special Robot Chicken guests, including the writers, producers and celebrity guest stars, Robot Chicken-themed activities and games and exclusive Adult Swim merchandise. Sponsored by Boost Mobile, Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II...it's FREE so come on guys you can sleep when your dead.

Ever wondered what the social landscape of Richmond was like before you came teenie-boppin' in chasing big artistic dreams at VCU or 'bottoms up' dreams in Oregon Hill? From what I've gathered over the years according to my baby booming pals it was much like it is today, with some differences. Let me let you in on a few.

1.) No Fan Party Patrol - Are these people 'Fucking' serious?

2.) The City hated music, youth, art, expression, kittens, puppies, rainbows, and walks on the beach then too - only they didn't try AS hard to suppress it.

3.) The James River was NOT somewhere you would want to swim.

4.) Richmond once had a booming downtown scene...I find that extremely hard to believe.

5.) Oregon Hill was, and still kinda is, a white ghetto.

From this era amazing musicians were born. Amazing musicians moved to bigger and better social climates. And of course amazing musicians got married, had families, and 'died.'
Fortunately for us some of these amazing acts have weathered the storm and continue to rock our worlds to this day. I'll give you two examples.
If you're in the mood for some surf style rock and roll with insanely hilarious sometimes ad-libbed lyrics, Vapor Rhinos are the band for you. Joining these seasoned rockers will be Nastacoochie, WV (actually Richmond) band Dick Buttkiss & the Tightends. If the name doesn't give you some sense of their lyrical approach than I will. Here are a few of my favorite lyrics from both bands:

Dick Buttkiss & the Tightends, from their Latin flavored song 'Senor Coq' - "So he stepped inside of a smokey den where there were as many cocks as there were men. He knew right away this was the sport for him all he needed was a cock and than he could join in. He's Senor Coq! He's Senor Coq! He's seen your Coq, Coq, Coq, Coq, Coq!"

Vapor Rhinos, "If you can't cut the mustard, cut the cheese!"

If you see that these guys are playing around town for goodness sakes do yourself a favor and go see them!!

Top 4 reasons Richmond youth are out of touch.

As many of you know and many of you may not know, Richmond is not too far removed from traditional artistic cities. We like most are teaming with young ambitious minds, thirsty for change and aimed for a brighter future. Unfortunately we seem to fall flat when it comes to taking action (and by we, I mean you). I have a few theories that might explain the lack-luster effort of our misguided youth:

1.) They truly believe a Facebook friend is more invaluable to their social status and general happiness than a real friend.

2.) No one ever goes to shows, especially if one or more of the musicians names are not familiar to them. Seriously youths...the older crowd of Richmond rockers are ALWAYS at more shows than you and they're ALWAYS having way more fun than you could ever dream of having. Did you forget how to have fun kids?

3.) PBR is more 'lame' inducing than hip. I'll head up the study, starting...now.

4.) Our young scene died when dudes started dressing like chicks, and the chicks actually liked it.

To read more, please visit http://www.richmondrampage.com

Punk Rock Prom - Aftermath

In spite of the -bullshit- we've been dealing with in this war on the arts...the Richmond Woman's Collective holds a benefit - Punk Rock Prom '09. Here's a collection of photos I snapped last night for your enjoyment...

(Warning, the images you are about to see contain people having fun, smiling, laughing, dancing, the whole sha-bang! Proceed with caution!)

ACTUALLY fighting the good fight...

If you follow local news, if you're an avid reader of RVA blogs, if you have a single hip friend on any social network living in Richmond you should be aware of the issues involving CAPS and their unorthodox methods of 'purifying' our city.
Whether or not this issue directly effects you it has and will continue to indirectly influence your life in a number of ways. When you can't see live local or touring acts for under $20 at the local watering hole. Maybe when your favorite spot to catch dinner and a show closes it's doors. When First Friday ceases to exist artists will no longer have an outlet to display their wares, then off to Portland, NY, and Chicago they go. Slowly we may see the VCU arts department become even less relevant and the influx of bright, young, creative minds flooding in to bolster our local economy becomes a distant memory.
If none of those examples have any bearing on your life, why not take a stand against the city of Richmond getting too big for it's britches and taking away the civil liberties of your friends and neighbors?
Join us, we will fight, we will make you informed, and we will not bend over and take it in the ass any longer...
http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=533006211&share_id=84456783252&ref=nf#/group.php?gid=41316594956&ref=share

(yeah it's facebook but at least we're trying...)

New York - Philly - Richmond

So Community Chest takes a trip up to Brooklyn, New York to co-pro a show at the famed 'Southpaw' venue located in the heart of the South Slope community. Many people told us that Brooklyn was like a two million population Oregon Hill. Uh ...not really... First off there's a law and a fine for everything. $1,000 fine for not cleaning up your dogs 'business,' $200(or $500) fine for honking your horn - although EVERYONE was honking, fines for littering - Including cigarette butts, the list goes on and on...
Parking was literally a nightmare. I thought people parked bumper to bumper in Richmond! People had these goofy looking black rubber mats on their cars to avoid scratches and scrapes. At first I thought "that's what your bumpers for..." than I noticed people who weren't donning the rubber pad had the most crucial metal scoring I've ever seen. Picture someone painstakingly gouging their car with a paint scraper.
Very few people had tattoos, none of the girls wore makeup, no-one was dressed like you would picture a hip New Yorker to dress...it was pretty boring as far as eccentric people go. The only way it differed from a ho-hum hippie community was ALL THE FUCKING PEOPLE.
Then you enter Southpaw. Man, what a killer venue! Fliers and stickers replace wall paper - they've got an impressive stage and sound booth. There's a lounge area, video/gambling games, a decent sized dance area, lots of interesting old photos and knick-knacks floating around the VERY well stocked bar, a downstairs lounge and VIP-esque section, lots of bathrooms with no doors on the stalls - just curtains. The vibe is high energy come show time. There is a healthy mix of dolled up (obviously single) women, chic men, and of course the t-shirt and jean-clad population as well.
We put 'Holy Ghost Tent Revival' on a bill with: Skeletonbreath, Drink up Buttercup, and the Woohoo Skittle Crazies(not sure if that's right). It was an amazing line up! The show was $10 which the poor Richmond kid exchange rate would be equivelent to a $5 cover I'm assuming. We're fortunate enough to be working hand in hand with DuggyNYC (our hero and Danny's man-crush). He's given us the opportunity to start promoting up in Brooklyn which has thus far been awesome and un-expected. Doug lived in Richmond for a short time here recently but thanks to the restrictions on music, venues, and alcohol in RVA he moved back to NYC and we missed out on an amazing visionary on the rise. Come back Doug-we could use the support!
...oh well...
So metro, getting lost, time square, walking 30+ miles, pizza, thai food, volcano bowl drinks, a dog named Sirius, and plenty of throbbing hangovers later we head off to Philly...
More on this later. Back to work.

Who's with me?

Community Chest booking and promotion is my business. Currently we're two twenty-something-ers and a few select friends who tend to want to help whenever we really need it. Often times I spend my days and nights mulling over interesting ideas that if ever put in motion could possibly change a lot of peoples lives, for the better.
I'm starting to attend regular meetings with SCORE Richmond - which is a program set up for small business owners to go and talk to retired CPA's, business owners, lawyers, etc. My first meeting is tomorrow and I feel like I could spend all day, week, month, or year with this guy asking him a million different questions. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure the secretary said that I've only got an hour. So apart from going back to school I've got to do all the footwork myself. Ask.com tends to help but usually the answers to my questions are asked from someone on the other end of the issue. For example the other day I asked how to sell stocks, I got, how to buy stocks. So I sat down and reversed the directions, pulled out a dictionary, and cried.
I guess it's true nothing in life is easy.
Basically I need capital to expand my business. As previously stated I've got a crucial list of ideas and an even bigger list of friends that need jobs. Come to think of it I've probably got more unemployed friends than ideas. It's almost impossible to explain to someone with little to no ambition that taking action and doing something they enjoy will pay off (and I'll help in any way I can!!). They'd prefer to be put in debt by VCU, get a job at a hip deli, or complain about being unemployed. If I could expand I would gladly create work for anyone that wants to do something awesome for themselves. It's hard to take on a mentor role when I'm at SCORE seeking a mentor...
Looks like for now I'll keep learning and fighting the good fight in hopes of realizing yet another goal of mine.








...jesus christ why couldn't I have been blessed with rich parents...

Who's Running This CITY!?

On a scale of 1 to poor we're poor. Ramen is not only a staple in our diet it's a necessity. We have to save up to buy household items such as a vacuum cleaner, microwave, and used couches. We have little more than a roof over our heads, our car(that we can hardly afford), and our wardrobe comprised of Plato's Closet, Goodwill, and Rumors Boutique clothing. We're not complaining, hell, we actually love our life. We're small business owners in Richmond which is something to be proud of. It's not that we're bad at what we do...we're definitely some of the most ambitious and passionate about our cause...so why are we doomed for nothing more than retiring at poverty level?

Recently Style Weekly published this article written by Don Harrison, which I think sums it up:

http://styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=6FAFC3462ED8441C9F9F0861CAE5168D

If you don't have time to read the whole article I'll try and sum it up in 200 words or less -
If you are in any way shape or form affiliated with the local music scene in Richmond, whether you're a booking agent, venue owner, coffee shop with acoustic acts, gallery owner with live music, or an A-room (like the National) that provides live music to the people of this city you're fucked. These places not only pay taxes to, The Federal Government, The State(VA), the ABC, and the city of Richmond...but currently the city proposes a "Night Club" tax be imposed on anyone who hosts live music!! The tax basically equates to MORE than what a business owner pays to insure their building a year!! Here's the kicker, the Virginia ABC does not allow any business to operate as a Night Club or Bar. YOU MUST BE A RESTAURANT and adhere to almost impossible ratio's of food to booze sales. Not to mention that if your insurance company catches wind of the fact that you are now being taxed as a "Night Club" and guess what!? Your premiums almost triple! Now fellow Richmonders we are not anti-tax, We're anti REPRESSION!!
I must ask you, how will small business's ever thrive in this climate??? How will new business's ever get their feet off the ground? Plenty of business's are already going under - so long Bagel Czar, adios Artist Underground, later Toad's Place, Alley Katz-the 'katz' outta the bag (your FOR SALE)...

Hmmm, what will we do bands, musicians, booking agents?? House shows perhaps? NOPE, you will be ticketed by this city for not possessing a BUSINESS LICENSE!! Maybe we can hang out and enjoy music at a small locally owned clothing store and offer donations to bands as thanks for playing for us? NOPE, this city will ticket the business owners and shut the place down!!
Looks like we're shit outta luck Richmond, I think we're going to 'Anne Frank it' and wait for the tyranny to subside...