don't underappreciate...

The next time you're bored on a Thursday night (or Sunday morning, or many other times actually) consider a drag show.  These happen to be highlights from the Nations series entitled "Esta's Drag Race" which just wrapped up their "4th season" about two weeks ago.

 

 

Deftones at the National

As I looked around the sea of X-handed teenagers and drunken 20-somethings just waiting to be 1-man mosh pits, I almost wondered what I was doing there.  Then I remembered:  I’m seeing the fucking Deftones! (For the first time might I add.)

But dare I ask, was I too old to be going to a Deftones concert?

I can still head bang and all that (maybe not as hard as I used to, but sufficiently).  But when there’s a bunch of assholes around that are acting like they’re drunk at a concert for the first time and bumping into/jumping onto/elbowing in the head/pushing/stomping on the people, I suddenly feel old.

But Chino still has the angst of his younger successors in his stage presence.  In fact, he took it out on an unsuspecting microphone several times during his second song.

The whole show had a ridiculous amount of energy, but I just wish it had been used more on their older songs.  They played a few like “Knife Party” and “7 Words”, but stuck mostly to new songs, which I don’t know the names of.

But all-in-all, it was definitely an excellent live show that I’m glad I finally got to see!

***Note:  I've tried to upload 2 videos but Blogger keeps saying there's an error during uploading.  So, hopefully videos coming soon.

Belle Isle Labor Day Weekend

I went down there (Dead Rock specifically) the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.  It was so beautiful I was surprised it wasn’t more crowded.  Perhaps Sunday and Monday were crazy then?

Flying Squirrels Labor Day Weekend

The Flying Squirrels wrap up their inaugural season this Labor Day Weekend:
The turn-out for the Friday Labor Day Weekend game was unprecedented.


They lost the game to Bowie on Friday (i.e., the game I attended), but won 4-3 at the final game Monday (apparently I’m bad luck?).

Richmond Flying Squirrels’ president Lou DiBella was at the final game of the Squirrels' first season to thank all of us for giving them an impressive amount of support.

The final game drew in 6.569 fans, making Richmond the leader among the 12 Eastern League clubs in average home attendance this season.

This may lead you to ask, since when do Richmonders care about baseball?  We don’t.  We care about a guy dressed in a flying squirrel suit (that smells awful apparently) calling himself Nutsy.  We care about GOING NUTS! (sorry I couldn’t help myself)

While the firework show was a Thursday exclusive throughout the regular season (plus July 4^th of course) the Friday of Labor Day saw a “Fireworks SPECTACULAR” following the game.  And yeah, it was pretty awesome (especially since I tried to leave before it and ended up seeing the entire thing from the parking lot- ie right underneath the fireworks).

Everyone was at the game!

Coheed and Cambria at the National

I cannot stress enough how good this show was. Coheed and Cambria have been around for over 10 years (since they released their first EP Plan to Take Over the World in 1999) but it’s obvious their passion for live performances hasn’t lessened at all.


They stuck to their classics from In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, but had stretches of new songs from their album Year of the Black Rainbow as well.

Claudio proved that he is, in fact, human (to the relief of diehard fans) when he botched the beginning of “Wake Up”. However, he performed the rest of the song flawlessly. It is now one of my most cherished pieces of concert footage.

A true all-around crowd pleaser.

Secco? or Succo? (jk, that's just bad)

On the old St. Tropez corner of Cary and Sheppard Street now sits Secco Wine Bar, a small….well, wine bar (obviously). And that’s really all there is to it.


Allow me to explain:

My first and only visit to Secco was on a Friday afternoon around 4:00. This is arguably the WORST time to visit the place. They don’t have much to offer in the ways of food anyway, but their lunch menu (which consists mostly of paninis) ends at 4:00 and the dinner menu doesn’t start until 5:00 (and is all small plates).

So our food choices were comprised of different antipasti, meats, cheeses, their sweet corn soup, and three salads. That being said, we did love the food we selected. My friend and I split some prosciutto and 2 different cheeses (zamorano and something that looks like quadiello but I'm not sure because it's not on their wesbite menu http://www.seccowinebar.com/main/#to-eat), complying with their ‘3 for $13’ deal on meats and cheeses. They also have ‘1 for $5’ and ‘5 for $21’ deals. We also got an order of an antipasto which, honestly I can’t remember the name of (because once again, it’s not on their website menu) but was surprisingly amazing to me. We were not disappointed in the quality of the food. It was quite good. Quite.

The décor didn’t hurt the experience either. Even though the space is rather small, the custom built cork-top bar or tables provide enough seating space for any size group. The small 2 couch lounge area in the front of the restaurant and the floor to ceiling windows make for an excellent environment for sipping (or chugging, no judgments) a glass of wine while watching the sidewalk traffic of Carytown.

The best and most surprising part of the experience was the price of the wine. We both got white, her’s being on the drier side and costing $6, while mine was sweeter and $8. Both delicious.

But when came time to pay the bill, they may have lost a customer in me. After requesting our food be split evenly, we found it was not. So we sent back our checks with our debit cards and our TRUST. When the checks came back we noticed that it seemed I’d paid for the more expensive check; another mistake. But then later on I found out that they hadn’t charged me for the wrong check, they’d charged me for both checks. Times are tough people. I was not happy.

However, owner Julia Battaglini was very cooperative with fixing the problem. After informing me she could not put the money back on my card, she offered the options of gift card or cash. I took the cash; maybe even a little more than I was owed. But you know what, I’m not sure. Either way, the problem was corrected.

And besides the check mix up, the staff was overall very friendly.

In short, go for the wine. Expect little more than that. But, after all, that’s what it’s there for.

Best Friends Day Collage ("who the f*** are ya'll?")

6 Track Amateur "Get Wasted"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl1PsHQjUh0

No BS! Brass Band doing "Take On Me"

No BS! Brass Band doing "Tom Sawyer"

Best Friends Day 9

What you may have missed at Best Friends Day 9:


• The No BS! Brass Band being a literal crowd pleaser as they took their performance off stage and marched around in the masses

• The Bitch City crew wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting Pavilion 4, at one point chanting only “ASS AND TITTIES!” as they hurled PBR cans

• RVA Magazine interviewing attendees as they filmed their first Best Friends Day movie

• The filming of 6 Track Amateur’s first music video, “Get Wasted”

• A slow motion fight complete with chair smashing in the tent between Gazebo A and Pavilion 4

• Security bullies spontaneously being real serious about the no glass policy and getting free liquor

• Lots of personal property getting lost or stolen

• Wastedness, wastedness, and even more wastedness…

Well Hello There...

Welcome to RVA Grit & Glitter! A blog devoted to anything and everything happening in the River City, from bike rallies to benefits, mainstream concerts to one-man punk rock shows, fuck ups to shining achievements. Sorry snobs, we’re merging the cultures of RVA.