Before catching Corrie Van Ausdal in Braces, a lashing and funny one-woman shame-a-thon at Late Night Theatre, the greatest moment of humiliation I’d ever seen went down at a junior high talent show. Picture a gal we’ll call Wendy, my school’s official pariah, the kid so low that even the home-for-head-lice crew could score points by picking on her. When…
Cars, the latest vehicle to roll off Pixar’s assembly line, answers that age-old question: What would Doc Hollywood have been like had it been populated entirely by cars? If that premise — hotshot (in this case, a hot rod) gets stranded in a small town on his way to Los Angeles and finds love among the ruins of what used…
Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion grows from the frosty Minnesota soil. Its worldview is Buddhist by way of Scandinavia: Life is about suffering. It’s like the Grand Ole Opry plopped into a fragrant barn at the county fair. No one in Keillor’s Lake Wobegon actually complains (they persevere), and no one expects a miracle. Things can always get…
There’s something endearing about seeing a young, attractive couple like Martin and Wendy Rudderforth (see review) opening a new restaurant together. It’s a gamble in more ways than one — I’ve worked for couples who opened restaurants and wound up losing their money and their marriages. There was the moody chef who ran off with the sullen busgirl. There was…
Sometimes a restaurant opens in a location that just seems so … wrong. Kansas City’s best example is probably the late, great Café Allegro; when Steve Cole opened his upscale restaurant at 1815 West 39th Street in 1984, the neighborhood was better known for its raucous saloons than for anything close to fine cuisine. But Café Allegro had enough…
If fans of electronic music really are modern-day hippies, then the addition of a DJ stage at Wakarusa might lead to some interesting encounters between them and the old-school, patchouli-scented types. But if both groups stick to the PLUR slogan (peace, love, unity and respect), all should be groovy. It’ll help to have some top-shelf spinners commandeering the brand…
Well before a recent brawl turned the place into a police training exercise, we wondered about The Point. During our last and only time at the West Plaza nightspot, back in 1999, we witnessed a white blues band playing what appeared to be a private party on the bar’s top floor. Older, miniskirt-clad blondes with banana clips in their…
One good thing about living in the Midwest is that rowdy, raw rock and roll will always have a niche. We cowtowners can still enjoy a gnarly guitar lick and a boilermaker, even if the folks in Brooklyn feel like the guitar solo is as dead as irony. Don’t expect Olathe cockrockers Crazytalk to break out the alto sax and…
In a convergence of geek worlds last fall, avatarish anti-producer Steve Albini collaborated a second time with a guitarist who calls himself Yoda. The latter isn’t an impish green Jedi master, but, as a member of Japanese instrumental juggernaut Mono, he has plenty of force on his side. When Yoda, guitar player Takaakira “Taka” Goto, bassist Tamaki and drummer Yasunori…
Just who would claim victory in a fight between them and them? Ask Them vs. Them’s Ig and Bish, who are the organist and drummer behind spastic and fabulous Chi-town weirdo-band Oh My God. Here, they join forces with (or against?) guitarist Casey Kannenberg and lead singer J.A.Q., who wrote the music for Bomb-itty of Errors, HBO’s much-lauded homeboy…
Listening to Danielson is like taking a float trip through Appalachia with a kindergarten class and the cast of Pink Flamingos. Even though it’s a little bizarre and scary at times, it can have the profound effect of making you feel good about wondering what the hell is going on. Daniel Smith first created the band as an art-school project,…
When a radio station recruits bands outside its usual rotation to a festival, reactions fall into two camps: Grateful fans salute the station’s role in bringing a high-quality group to town, regardless of its regular programming practices, and music purists rant about the station’s hypocritical stab at hipness. Shadows Fall, the coolest act at KQRC 98.9’s RockFest, plays metalcore, a…
Despite its brutal winters, Minneapolis is the perfect destination for a three-day weekend. The drive is worth it for its music scene alone, which has nurtured the likes of Atmosphere, the Replacements and yes, Prince. If you get a chance, check out one of the frequent midnight showings of Purple Rain, an experience similar to an art-house screening of The…
Last May, Conner unveiled numerous never-before-performed songs at a Jackpot Saloon release party for its second full-length CD, Hello Graphic Missile. On Sunday at the Record Bar, the Lawrence quartet celebrates the same album’s issuance with a set’s worth of unrelated unheard material. Even odder, the remastered record opens not with a fresh creation but instead a song (“Silent Film…
Michael Bolton is the type of celebrity who makes almost every average human feel incredibly lucky to have no talent whatsoever in the realm of entertainment generally (and singing specifically). Because of Bolton, it’s not just bearable to have unremarkable mousy brown or dishwater blond hair — it is desirable. For a longtime life partner or casual date, it is…
Trampled Under Foot is like Law and Order — it’s always playing somewhere. The young Kansas City blues band and its fans call it TUF, pronounced tough. Last week, the group played Wednesday through Sunday, including two shows on Saturday. On Sunday, the singer sat in with another band for an extra noon show before playing again with TUF at…
Lucero The tension between indie and jam fans doesn’t quite equal the strain between George W. Bush and Iran, but then again, it’s definitely more intense than the battle Dubya had with that pretzel. So when a band from one genre crosses so effortlessly into the other, it’s something to note. In Lucero’s case, it’s monumental. Although it’s doubtful that…
Sam’s Clubs Group sects: Regarding the May 18 Kansas City Strip on Sam Brownback: Interesting tie-in with The Da Vinci Code, but perhaps more appropriate would be Brownback Mountain. It’s the tale of a Kansas senator who can’t stop himself from hopping into bed with absolutely any conservative group if he feels that it will somehow further his political career….
Dear Gabachos: Bienvenidos to the world’s foremost authority on America’s favorite beaners! The Mexican can answer any and every question on his race, from why Mexicans stick the Virgin of Guadalupe everywhere to our obsession with dwarves and transvestites. (In the course of his answers, the Mexican will use certain terms and phrases for better-rounded answers; for definitions, see…
It’s no secret that we’ve long been enamored with Mayor Kay Barnes. Here’s a woman who can lord over City Hall with an iron fist and, at the same time, flash a toothy smile outlined with cherry-red lipstick and a cute-as-hell dimple in her right cheek. Sure, there are those who say she’s sinking the city into debt. But…
God’s Mosh Pit A few hundred people congregated inside the Overland Park Convention Center over the Memorial Day weekend to praise the Lord, American Idol-style. The event, “The Connection, Building Musicians for Christ,” offered a cool 20 grand to the band that could beat Christian performers who had made pilgrimages from all over the country. The Sunday afternoon finals…
The tiny Alaskan fishing village of Dillingham has some pretty cool stuff on its Web site. There’s a barge schedule and the current temperature, which is usually cold. In fact, by clicking a few links at www.ci.dillingham.ak.us, Web surfers can see a complete view of the town, thanks to some of Dillingham’s 80 surveillance cameras. Mostly they record the…
Hearing Room No. 7, in the basement of the Missouri Capitol, is beige. The walls, the floors, even most of the suits worn by the state representatives in the front of the room are beige. Then comes Jacqueline Patterson. She wears a pink blazer, fishnet stockings and a pleated black skirt that looks more like a slip. Pink stripes…
Pitch writers took home plenty of gold at the Kansas City Press Club’s 2006 Heart of America Awards banquet June 10. Competing against large daily papers (including The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle), Pitch writers won first-place awards in feature writing (Nadia Pflaum’s “Johnson County Bling,” April 14, 2005), sportswriting (Ben Paynter’s “March Sadness,” March 24, 2005) and…
