Photo: Jens Kofoed-Pihl

In less than a week, three of RVA’s music venues have been shut down.

Earlier this week, Grandpa Eddie’s closed its doors suddenly and without warning. Grandpa Eddie’s hosted many country, bluegrass and cover bands and was a nice spot to see live music in the West End – which are hard to come by out in the suburbs.

On top of that, local underground venue The Hospital had its location revealed to the public and was allegedly raided by police/CAPS. The Hospital’s actual location was never given since they were trying to stay under the radar. I just now found out where it was and after reading what a great venue it was, it’s a shame to see it possibly get shut down like that. It seemed like a good place for hardcore and punk bands to play.

The final blow this week was Thursday evening, Sprout the localvore restaurant, which was also an awesome space to see bands, announced they would be closing on Monday, Sept. 5. This one hurts because not only do they serve amazing food, but it was also a great place to see free shows and check out up and coming local and touring bands. nd it was always crowded which makes me wonder how the venue was even struggling financially. Sprout never catered to one genre either. They’ve hosted folk and bluegrass shows as well as metal, shoegaze and rock shows as well. Everyone seemed to have a place there.

In one of the quickest show announcements I’ve ever seen, Sprout will be hosting farewell show on Sunday, Sept. 4 at 5 p.m. featuring Ben Shepherd, Allison Apperson, Canary Oh Canary, Shannon Cleary, Flesh Control, Tate House (members of Caves Caverns), Baby Help Me Forget, Josh Bearman (of the Hot Seats), White Laces, The Snowy Owls, The Nervous Ticks and more TBA.

I’m sad to see these venues go. After the loss of the Triple, Plaza Bowl and Alley Katz (Its replacement Kingdom has yet to announce any kind of opening) in the past few months, it doesn’t look like Richmond is doing too well at keeping good venues around. I mentioned this a while back in one of my River City Rapids columns. Richmond needs its music venues. Where else can smaller acts get their name out so they can eventually become big? At the rate we’re going, we’ll have no places left to catch good live music.