Without much thought, I had been calling Joe Joe’s Italian Eatery (4216 Main Street) a “joint.” Why? The place is a throwback to the no-frills neighborhood grills and pizza shops of the 1940s and ’50s, where a lunch or dinner could fill you up and barely make a dent in your wallet. The slang term “joint” grew out of either…
13 Thursday Almost everyone has been traumatized at some point in his or her youth by a film or television program that was ostensibly designed for children. Many had nightmares about the Oompa Loompas from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; others were stricken with grief about the hardships endured by Dumbo and Bambi. Mine was an obscure cartoon rendition…
The tights-clad crew at The Kansas City Ballet will meld traditional dance with modern passion in its annual spring performance, which showcases a classical masterpiece, a sultry tango number, and a world premiere by local director William Whitener. The performance will include the company premiere of the classical ballet Paquita, choreographed in 1881 by Marius Petipa, who also choreographed Swan…
Tomie dePaola may have decades on the children reading his stories, but they wouldn’t know it. He’s a storyteller who never shipped his innocence off to the youth landfill. Born near the end of the Great Depression, dePaola, now 65, grew up listening to stories told on the radio and read aloud by his mother. But there weren’t many picture…
Even if you have devoured every word about the cinematic adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel American Psycho, about a Wall Street yuppie obsessed with using skin-care products and devouring the entrails of prostitutes, you have not read this one particular fact. And it is a fact. No one could fabricate this. At this very moment, Lions Gate Films,…
Quality Hill Playhouse’s latest cabaret remembers that many songs in the Broadway canon need to be acted as well as sung. Turning sheet music into novellasThe revival of the cabaret format a decade ago predated the obsession with retro that brought back martinis, cigars, and swing music. In clubs such as The Cine-Grill in Los Angeles and New York’s Cafe…
“Everybody always asks me, ‘Is it like PCU (Politically Correct University)?’ and I say, ‘No, we actually practice,’” says Paige Bridgers. Unfortunately for Bridgers and the rest of her Ultimate Frisbee team from Boulder, Colo., the 1994 box-office hit PCU portrayed Ultimate Frisbee as a sport where the ability to smoke pot and have a disc-snagging dog on the roster…
The task of mounting group shows at the Old Post Office has fallen, somewhat reluctantly, on Tom Gregg’s shoulders. With cooperation from Kendall Kerr, who maintains a studio and lives in the space, Gregg periodically gets on the phone and makes studio visits to showcase, as he says, “serious artists working in Kansas City.” What began, quite organically, as a…
There is something so delicately tuneful about the music of Tchaikovsky that critics frequently dismiss his entire body of work as pandering, unsophisticated tripe. This never deters audiences from connecting with the Russian composer’s music, however, and even the most demeaning of his critics begrudgingly admit that Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is a truly great opera. It was, therefore, not surprising…
As I entered The Bottleneck, I looked around and, for the first time in quite a while, didn’t recognize most of the faces that gazed back at me. Whether this was testament to my own growing old or to the crowd that Pedro the Lion and the other low-key Christian acts on the bill draw, I’m not sure. Lawrence’s Appleseed…
Amid rumors that all the beer was gone, which thankfully turned out to be untrue, Creed took the stage, accompanied by a burst of pyrotechnics that appeared to come dangerously close to the band. While playing “Torn” two numbers into the band’s set, frontman Scott Stapp let the crowd in on a secret between verses. “I haven’t felt the…
I had this dream after seeing the Donnas last night: I was sitting at a table at The Bottleneck (already, you can tell it’s a dream) with the band, and I confessed that I wouldn’t be able to stick around for the second set. So Donna A. beat me up. I know from where this dream originates. Both opening bands…
The real joy of this year’s Kansas City Symphony has been the aplomb with which it has handled a drastic reversion in its repertoire. With Anne Manson’s ascension to the podium, our local orchestra has found a revitalized, decidedly more modern sound to complement the expanded breadth of its performances. Manson has shown a willingness to juxtapose baroque and…
“There are dozens of faceless pop/alternative acts that look, sound, and think the same. And then there’s Neve.” So goes the publicity packet for this quartet on the eve of its debut release. More like, “And there’s also Neve.” Okay, they’re a little peppier than most bands. Frontman John Stephens and bass player Tommy Gruber seemed more interested in…
That the Pinehurst Kids opened the show was somewhat of a surprise; this Portland-based band has earned some national name recognition. Last year, this group played The Bottleneck, displaying a great deal of promise and finesse in its live show. Since then, it changed drummers and added a guitarist, bringing the total number of Kids up to four. The new…
The ’80s sitcom Family Ties depicted the madcap adventures of two former flower children who eventually moved to suburbia and gave birth to Alex Keaton, the poster child for the “Me Generation.” Despite the endless laughs (oh, that Skippy!), it was somewhat disillusioning to see that this couple seemed to have abandoned many of its ’60s ideals. However, the…
With scheduled headliners Damnation, TX stranded outside of Minneapolis in their broken-down van Tuesday afternoon, the night’s entertainment at Davey’s Uptown became solely dependent upon the openers, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers. The five-piece group, which includes a former guitarist for the Gin Blossoms and both the frontman and the drummer for the now-defunct Refreshments, was well equipped for…
At Danzig concerts, it’s always difficult to determine whether the band or the audience has the better view. On stage, there’s several gargoyles, a pulsating stadium-quality light show, and four musicians who remain in constant motion throughout the night. And as Glenn Danzig peered down into the crowd, among the visually stimulating spectacles he might have surveyed were: an…
The Palindromes opened up the late show quietly in front of a quiet crowd that was still filtering into The Bottleneck around 10:30. This trio of fresh-face young lads mixes current sedate indie/college rock stylings with pseudo-college-educated funk guitar beats reminiscent of the Sea and Cake, spoken laid-back vocals similar to those of Pavement’s Steven Malkmus or Lou Reed,…
Why exactly is it that male musicians working with their hearts on their sleeves are labeled “emo,” while female performers who do the same thing are automatically thrust into the Amos/Apple fractured-chanteuse camp? Who’s to say that there cannot be female emo rockers? And why can’t guys (other than Sir Elton John) be recognized as divas? Does the way a…
After the breakup of Exit 159, Kristie Stremel performed several acoustic concerts accompanied only by another guitarist, Chris Meck. The Detour meets halfway between these sparse songwriting showcases and the full, polished sounds of her previous outfit, delivering catchy songs that are at once tough and touching. Stremel and Meck are joined by bassist Jason Magierowski and drummer Beth Robinson,…
For those who have witnessed the Revolvers’ energetic live performances, the band’s relatively subdued full-length album might come as something of a surprise. From its first downbeat love song, “Devotional,” to the classic-rock-tinged closing couplet, “Torch” and “The Angel’s Share,” this quartet tempers its punkish formula with plenty of slow-paced songs. At their most frantic, the Revolvers resemble a decaffeinated…
While recording Peregrine, Tara Jane O’Neil isolated herself in her New York apartment, allowing a few musically inclined friends to assist her only if they played their parts without knowing where their contributions would fit into the finished product. O’Neil prolonged the sense of mystery by leaving some of her complex songs incomplete until the final day of recording and…
Thursday the 13th just misses the infamous date for horror-movie mayhem, but it’s hard to imagine anything scarier for rock and roll phobics than this lineup at Davey’s Uptown. Zeke belies both its hometown (Seattle) and its record label (Epitaph) with an intense mix of trashy rock and thrashy punk that produces roughly a song per minute, without even a…
