Tired of the humidity? Tired of getting COVID? Tired of Richmond’s crappy drivers straddling the center of a double yellow line? Tired of being tired in general? Then perhaps you, my friend, need a good ‘ole fashioned, primitive rock show to bash your brains out. When it comes to scuzzed-out garage rock, we trust the folks from Dig! Records in Leesburg to deliver the goods. This Saturday, they’ve got a full bill of fun at Black Iris that includes the debut of the Barbed Wires, whose Richmond punk pedigree includes Strike Anywhere, Sick Bags, Pink Razors, as well as locals Shawnis & The Shimmers, delivering raw, lo-fi bangers like “Bad Ass Bitch” and “Beer Jacket.”
The headliners tonight include New Yawk City’s Tuxedo Cats, featuring members of Apache, the Tough Shits and Dancer (as well as Human Being Lawnmower artiste Avi Spivak) who should be blasting their “odes to fast living” for the leopard-print faithful. They are joining the Ar-Kaics on the occasion of their debut release for Reminder Records (also based out of NY, and “until now an excellent 70s punk and power pop reissue label,” according to a friend in the know). Finally, the Ar-Kaics are no stranger to Richmond stages, having released a rockin’ live album (“Live in the Shit”) recorded in Richmond at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in 2020. This is a band that once described itself as “troglodyte Teenbeat ’60s-style punk.” We can dig it. Bassist Tim Abondello tells us that the Ar-Kaics recently finished tracking a new album “after considerable delays, false starts and unforeseen failures during the last three years…Now to celebrate, and test drive some of this new material in the wild, we’re putting together a quick run of shows — our first since the tail end of 2021 — in DC and Richmond, this Friday and Saturday.” Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the show. Black Iris Gallery is located at 321 W Broad St.