This Must be the Place: Richmond’s

is riChMond’s MUsiC sCene GrowinG Up, or am I just now reaching an age old enough to notice it? I haven’t exactly been out of the loop and have been going to shows since my dad took me to see the Go-Go’s in sixth grade. Over the years, I’ve seen some real legends like Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Neil Young. I’ve seen more than a handful of local acts perform across the city as well, but only just now has the house show scene started to come in to my radar, and I’m honestly shocked by its maturity.

VCU seems to be a huge part of the equation. Suddenly, every year, there’s a whole new audience (and potentially, new participants) for the DIY (Do It Yourself) scene with the influx of new students. Those graduating from VCU leave a hole in the community that causes some to work on filling the void with their house, their bands and their friends.

Aaron Mauck holds house shows and new, unplugged “coffeehouses” at his house, “Cruickshanks Manor.” I went to the Cruickshanks Manor the other night, and was surprised by what I found. Performance artists ranged from classical piano (eliciting an encouraging call from the audience – “That’s my favorite nocturne!”), a drippy and crooning Nancy Sinatra-esque female act on ukulele, appearances made by both the jaw harp and the accordion and an acoustic cover of a Say Anything song which I could, embarrassingly, follow along with. It was diverse, and Aaron speaks of more to come from his house: “Anyone can hit us up and be like, ‘hey, I want to do stand-up,’ or ‘I want to do poetry.’ We’ve had slam poetry and I think people have talked about doing monologues and scenes.”

Aaron Throckmorton of “Babe Cave” house speaks of more maturity in the scene. “At Johnny Cave, [Aaron’s first house] it was all on me and it was my first time running shows. I had a different philosophy going into it. I was more like, ‘This place sucks anyway, let’s tear it up!’ But at Babe Cave we’re trying to keep it, like, nice, I guess. People are into the music and not about getting f***ed up, ‘cause they’re trying to support local music, so that’s what [Babe Cave’s] focuses are.”

Avoiding flat out “partying” seems to be a theme throughout this growing community. Several of the people dedicated to the scene have done their research: “When you get busted, what happens is [the house owner] get[s] a charge for every single underage drinking charge, and those pile up to being a serving alcohol to minors charge and that’s what kills houses! If you’re having a party and there are 100 people there and half of them are underage you’ll get multiple thousands of dollars in fines. So, that’s what kills house show venues,” states an anonymous source.

Aaron, of Cruickshanks Manor, reports a similar lean: “Just with our band the Banduras it starts off as like ‘Oh, there’s a show…let me go party,’ and then it’s like, ‘You know what, I’m actually kind of really excited to see them play again, that was kind of fun,’ and so you start to see people recognize the songs, and that’s such a weird thing because you kind of created that from nothing. That really came from actually nothing. And so, you see that on a different scale with the actual houses…you start to see different houses have different personalities, different flavors, and that’s just unreal. I think we’re starting something here that’s like, ‘hey, we want people to be respectful, and conscientious, and aware, and fun, and open, and down to get weird.’”

The RVA show community isn’t just about creating a great environment for the audience; it’s also about the community of musicians. “Getting known among house show venues, it just makes it easier, it makes you more visible,” says a source who collects CDs and tapes from the bands that play at their house and gives them to other touring bands who pass through; so that the music can be distributed across the country and brought to a larger audience.

“Something that people spent a lot of time creating and working toward, it could be looked over in any other context. But people are respectful. They want to listen, they want to be a part of it, and that’s really sweet,” says Aaron of his experience at Cruickshanks Manor.

Musician, and occasional show runner, Joey DeMarco, just moved here from Pennsylvania “where you can play [three hours]; where you’re the background music in a bar and get paid like, $300 to do it. But here [Richmond] I’ve played like 15 shows since I moved here and not a single penny. But it doesn’t really matter. We’ve got spirit, damnit!”

You may have been unaware of this community - or maybe you weren’t, and I’m just late - but it’s kind of amazing that you could be unaware. All of this goes on behind closed doors, on private property, for friends and friends of friends. People care. They’re not just out to get trashed (it’s unreal and it defies the biggest college stereotype), people come to enjoy friends and music. But most importantly, “People dance,” says a source, “people don’t dance at venues very much.” Well, I know I definitely danced at that Go-Go’s concert.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY ALEXANDRA MITCHELL