The scene at local band Piranha Rama's performance at Strange Matter in March. (Photo by Joey Wharton)
Strange Matter, for the past eight years a haven for the varieties of the rock and art music experience, is closing this weekend. Among the final shows are ostensible benefits for other organizations — as befits the giving season. Tonight is the Rumors Holiday Grunge Ball, 10 p.m., presented by Rumors Boutique. Richmond's Brain Drain and DJ MASS FX and DJ DEVOLVED will be spinning. Rumors promises photographers trophies and memorable moments. This is a 21-and-older event, with a $5 donation for Meals on Wheels. Because some of the old punkers may one day need that service.
Tomorrow, Dec. 15, from 9 p.m. 2 a.m., is Punks For Presents Night 2, with a $10 admission for those 18 and older, in part to raise funds for the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, because some kids will grow up to be rockers. The lineup includes OD Cretins (Ramones), London Caroling (The Clash), Snow Control, (Bad Religion), Christmas Jerks (Circle Jerks) and X-MAS (X). Patrons are urged to show up early because this is the last show in the space. Doors open at 9 p.m., with music at 10 p.m. No shoving.
Prior to that show, all day Saturday until 8 p.m., there will be a showcase of bands of various approaches, and you can see that lineup here.
Under different names, the long gallery space of 929 W. Grace St. has provided a stage for generations of musicians and performers. For some, the rear section of the place was the Back Door. The Bruce Springsteen Band played a nine-show series there in February 1972.
Brad Kutner gives an elegy for the club, including a story from Lucy Dacus about writing her name in blood on the bathroom door. You can see that here.
In whatever incarnation, whether Twisters or Nancy Raygun, the space provided something any city or college music environment needs: a venue for new bands to get started, a stop where touring groups earn their chops, and a place where occasional surprises and the unexpected can introduce a casual passerby to something they’d never even thought they’d hear or see.
For a time, a GoFundMe campaign to put a foot in the closing door was up, but, that’s offline now. The general desire seems to be that after all these years and changes to 900 block of West Grace Street, that something of its raucous and gritty past should just not survive but endure. This writer remembers being 19 years old and in that bustling loud stretch with its porn theater, rough bikers, tattooed punkers, philosophers, poets and cinemaphiles decompressing after seeing an intense flick at the Biograph, usually at a crowded booth at The Village (the old one, the Bohemian cathedral, which is now something else, after years of dormancy).
Thus, Strange Matter is soon to completely disappear into lore. We hope it isn’t “the end of live music on Grace Street,” as has been despaired on the Agony Wall of social media. In the scheme of things, it’s a small passage, but for Richmond, a significant one, because, well, ask not for the whom the bell tolls, and all that jazz.