5 Things: Eating with gusto, watching with an open mind, and listening with both

It looks like five things, but it’s actually eight. And those eight things contain, cumulatively, a billion bands, a trillion restaurants, a bunch of panelists, and two very envelope-pushing plays.

June 4, 2015; 12:00 PM • by Susan Howson

Photo by: Well Done Creative

0. RVANews Live #003

IT IS LITERALLY TONIGHT. YOUR TIME RUNNETH OUT. Alarm! Alert! Read more about it here and purchase your ticket here. If nothing else, it’s a chance for you to hang out with the RVANews staff face-to-face and marvel at how much we all talk far too fast without really saying anything. It’s so charming of us! For real, though, please come by and learn many things about the Big Bike Race™ and the way our city works. It’s gonna be good.

• Thursday, June 4th • Doors open at 5:00 PM, program starts at 5:30 sharp!
• Visual Arts Center, 1812 W. Main Street
• $15 (ticket includes one drink ticket)

1. RVA Playlist Anniversary Party

RVA Playlist turns five! In case you didn’t know, that’s the moniker of Andrew Cothern, who writes our live music roundups every month. He is not turning five–that would really be something, though–but his website is, where he cheerfully enlightens the lazy (us) about the Richmond music scene in a supportive and productive way! Bands will include: No BS! Brass Band, Jonathan Vassar & the Badlands, and Goldrush. In his own words, Andrew tells us why he booked those three. But will it start on time??

• Thursday, June 4th • Doors open at 7:00 PM (note, if you attend RVANews Live, we will get you there on time!)
• The Broadberry, 2729 W. Broad Street
• $5 in advance, $10 at the door (buy tickets online here)

2. Friday Cheers: White Laces / Future Islands

Future Islands is one of those bands that makes the brains of everyone I know go kablooey. As Ross describes them, they sound like “when a night goes weird but then turns out perfectly.” See his full preview of this Cheers here.

• Friday, June 5th • 6:00 PM
• Brown’s Island
• $10

3. Stone Soul Music + Food Festival

This mega-popular festival combines two of the best possible things: soul music and soul food. We should really consider making this standard at every festival. Get tickets now, or run the risk of missing Jodeci. Mark Cheatham has a very helpful preview!

• Saturday, June 6th • 1:00 PM – 8:00 PM
• Classic Amphitheater at Richmond International Raceway Complex, 600 E. Laburnum Avenue
• $45 (buy tickets online)

4. Broad Appétit

It is here, the steaming hot festival filled with small plates of food for you to eat from, like, all your fave places! You and every single other person you know will bump into each other, declare that you MUST try X pizza from Y booth, and then move about your merry way! Suggest you leave plenty of time to find parking, and suggest you wear massive amounts of sunscreen.

• Sunday, June 7th • 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
• Broad Street between Henry and Adams
• Free to attend, dishes cost $3 a plate

5. All things TheatreLAB!

TheatreLAB is one of my favorite Richmond theatre companies! They got drive! They got gumption! They got…a bunch of things happening this weekend (and slightly beyond). The first: C*CK (I’m not sure if I should be asterisking that or not? Are we offended by that male genital euphemism these days?) (and yes, it’s OK to click on that link) opens–a comedy about sexuality and personal choices written by Mike Bartlett and directed by Wesley Alan Young. The second: a season-closing event at Hardywood to roast the last season and announce the next. The third: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit gives a sealed play twelve times to twelve different local personalities, each of whom will read it aloud to an audience with no rehearsal and no director. This allegorical exercise in trust is sure to entertain both the reader and the readee. I’ll assume my invitation to perform got lost in the mail (sniff sniff).

• See sites for days • see sites for times
• Plays are in the Basement, 300 E. Broad Street, and Hardywood is at Hardywood, 2408 Ownby Lane
• See sites for prices!

June 4, 2015 12:00 PM 0