On February 25, 1964, a brash, fast-talking young boxer named Cassius Clay shook the world of professional boxing to the core when he defeated heavyweight champion Sonny Liston by technical knockout. On January 5, 2012, a similar clash of the titans is set to take place in the sphere of local rock, as the meticulous, shred-friendly Astronomers go head-to-head with The Invisible Hand, Charlottesville’s resident champions of fidgety power pop.
But seriously, though the Jefferson Theater’s "Hometown Showdown" may not actually claim to settle any scores, $5 for back-to-back sets from two of this town’s most promising bands sounds like a worthy way to ring in the first Thursday night of 2012. The last time we heard from Astronomers—who received the documentary film treatment in We Are Astronomers, which screened at this year’s Virginia Film Festival—they were opening for Corsair at the Tea Bazaar, but Nate and Alexandra Bolling et. al. shared a bill with The Invisible Hand in October, when they covered The Smashing Pumpkins at the second-annual Mock Star’s Ball. Adam Smith and the rest of the Hand, who have been working on the follow-up to their debut album for a while now, did their best Beastie Boys impression.
This latest batch of Jefferson Theater announcements also includes "Soul to Soul: A Charlottesville Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan with The Eli Cook Band, Ian Gilliam and the Fire Kings, The Chicken Head Blues Band, and XPS" for Saturday, January 14. Also, it turns out that Everclear is still around, because the hangdog alt-rockers are playing that Sunday with Sinclarity and TorchRed.