The major artists who played Richmond before fame
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A scene from Chappell Roan's BRown's Island show last year. Image: Courtesy of Lucas Fritz
Richmond might not get a Beyoncé, Oasis, Kendrick Lamar & SZA tour stop this summer, but you might be able to catch some of music's hottest rising stars.
Why it matters: RVA has proven itself as the place major artists pass through before they get too famous to stop coming here.
Case in point: Chappell Roan played her biggest show to date in Richmond last May on Brown's Island. The sold-out show was part of LiVE LOUD Concerts series.
- By the end of the summer, she was a household name. In February, she won a Grammy for Best New Artist.
Zoom in: But long before Roan, there were others.
Notably Dave Matthews Band, who played (long-closed) Flood Zone nearly 80 times in the early 1990s, per RVA Mag.
- And plenty of locals and Axios Richmond readers recalled those shows, like Mary G., who caught DMB at the Flood Zone twice while she was still in high school.
- Reader Chris C. caught DMB there, too, plus, a "secret show" at Moondance that turned out to be Cracker along with Joan Osbourne on guest vocals.
SZA was at The National in August 2017, reader Taylor H. tells Axios.
- "It was the second stop of her first tour and just one month after 'Ctrl' came out."
Then there was Big Freedia, at Stranger Matter (RIP) in 2016 at a sold-out show, Taylor H. says.
- Freedia and her crew saw him trying to get tickets and let him and a friend walk in with the crew. For free.
OK Go opened for They Might Be Giants in the early aughts, Karen M. tells us.
"Train open[ed] for Better Than Ezra at Mulligan's in Mechanicsville....that seems like a thousand years ago," Amanda M. says.
Grammy-nominated band NEEDTOBREATHE played in the Bon Air Methodist Church gym, says reader Bill G.
And our favorite: The Bruce Springsteen-era, which ran from 1969-1971 according to the Shockoe Examiner, and included at least 16 shows of The Boss playing with this Steel Mill band.
- Deborah C. caught one of those shows in Monroe Park in about '68 or '69, she tells Axios
- While Mary K. saw him play in a downtown parking deck around 1970 — for free.
What's next: LiVE LOUD's 2025 concert series starts this weekend.