The Go August 7 The Record Bar Better Than: Paying to see the Hives open for Maroon 5; Renee Zellweger; getting peed on. Review by Ashley Brown. “Some guy told us we toe the line of ‘fuck it’” said Go frontman Bobby Harlow from the stage last night at the Record Bar. “We thought it was one of the best…
Lately, western Missouri seems to be attracting law enforcement personal who don’t understand pregnancy. First there were the two cops in January who let a Sudanese woman miscarry when they refused her medical treatment. Then in July an Independence cop came under fire for pulling over a pregnant woman and forcing her to lie on her stomach on the…
Edwin R. Hall looked surprised to see me when he walked into his side of the visitation room at the Johnson County Detention Center on July 14. He wasn’t surprised because of who I was – I’d already sent him a letter introducing myself and explaining that I was going to try to come and talk to him – but…
Our resident cartoonist, Josh Ziegler, just sent these in, taken showcase night at the Beach Club. Enjoy. This is the condition This Is My Condition was in. Categories: Music
The Pitch Music Showcase Friday, August 3 Westport Better Than: Just about any other night of local music in Kansas City. Photos by Jenni Brown It’s Over. 8:30 (more like 9:30) p.m. at the Beaumont. It’s Jamie Searle! Categories: Music
The Pitch Music Showcase Friday, August 3 Westport Better Than: Just about any other night of local music in Kansas City. Photos by Anna-Marie Perry Lights & Siren. 8:45 p.m. at the Hurricane. Anna Cole of Lights & Siren cries havoc. L&S guitarist Andrew Kirk whammies for his mammy. Categories: Music
I’m no fan of Mike Hendricks, but I gotta give the guy credit for being the first Kansas City Star writer to finally – finally – realize that the search for a NBA or NHL team to play in the Sprint Center has been a disaster. In today’s column, Hendricks finally catches on to what I’ve been saying since the…
Global-warming skeptics are a dwindling species. Even Newt Gingrich, a conservative hero, is calling for a new era of environmental stewardship. Skeptics don’t argue that the planet is getting warmer. They’re just not ready to fault human activity, and they tend to equate a sense of urgency with hysteria. Olathe resident Mike Sturdivan laid out the unbelievers’ case in…
Crossroads resident Don Omer likes to keep an eye on the neighborhood. One morning in July, he called the police after two cars collided at 20th and Main. After reporting the non-injury accident, Omer reached for a stopwatch and timed the response. Here are his notes: Categories: News
Earlier this week we reported that Kris Kobach has raked in more than $115,000 defending Hazleton, Pennsylvania — a town sued by the ACLU for passing an immigration ordinance that would punish landlords and business owners for hiring or harboring illegal immigrants. Having helped Mayor Lou Barletta craft the sweeping measure, the University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor stepped in…
Here’s the finalized schedule for the Pitch Music Showcase tonight in Westport. It’s going to be wild, man, wild, especially considering how Westport gets on any given Friday night in the summer. Get your wristband at the door of any participating venue. Asterisks denote last-minute changes. The Beaumont 8:30 – It’s Over 9:45 – the Popsicles 11:00 – Flee the…
Tonight is the Pitch Music Showcase, a Westport-sized festival of the best music that Kansas City has to offer. Wristbands cost five bucks and are available at the crowd-control perimeter that surrounds the neighborhood. Please queue in an orderly fashion and ensure that your official,state-issued identification is in order. Citizens under the age of 21 will not be admitted and…
When a fierce tornado leveled Greensburg in May, Kansas Mutual Aid came to the rescue, dispatching a handful of Lawrence anarchists to aid in the recovery. They came, they helped, they got kicked out by police officers. Now, after several trips to the Western Kansas town, KMA members say they’re moving on to other efforts. Categories: News
There’s a Segway shop inside Hudson Homes on 1619 Walnut, just down the street from the Pitch offices, so we couldn’t help but notice a flock of Missouri Highway Patrol troopers getting lessons using the two-wheeled dorkmobiles. Melissa Graham, a pretty, red-haired Segway tour director, says the Highway Patrol is renting four “units” to zoom around the 2007 Missouri…
The Pitch’s crack calendar editor, Crystal K. Wiebe, caught the Yeah Yeah Yeahs last night in Lawrence and offers up this review. (Photos by Scott Spychalski) Opening up for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would be an intimidating prospect for any local band. The New York City garage punks have helped bring art rock back into the mainstream, largely through the…
The latest Pitchcast, Wayward Cast 11: All for the Dogs, is up! Download it here, and you’ll hear … (playlist after the jump) Categories: Music Tags: wayward cast
Americans think of Canada as kind of like the States, except with better health care and fewer gun battles. Our indifference results in a lopsided balance of trade in which Canadians provide Americans with comedians and singers, and we reciprocate by sending drug-seeking octogenarians north and letting a Canadian baseball team compete in the American League. The Toronto Blue Jays,…
With a new production of La Cage aux Folles at the Unicorn Theater (3828 Main, 816-531-7529), it’s worth noting last week’s passing of celebrated French actor Michel Serrault. Serrault played the maternal Albin, the drag queen called Zaza, in the original stage production and the 1978 film. “I’m inspired by that man,” says Ron Megee, who portrays Albin at the…
Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn’t have casual fans. They’re obsessed creatures with a rabid bloodlust for all things Buffy, be it comic books, action figures or fiction penned by fellow devotees and posted online. So if you aren’t a Scooby-lovin’ psycho, we suggest extreme caution when attending tonight’s showing of Buffy’s musical episode at the Screenland Granada (1015…
In Missouri, where the humidity spawns elephantine June bugs and thrumming cicadas, the yearly insect invasion can seem like a plague. Exceptions: lightning bugs and butterflies. You don’t have to be a kid to be mesmerized by the color-saturated Rorschach of a butterfly’s wingspan. But shadow boxes pinned with the long-dead insects, quietly moldering in natural history museums, don’t quite…
The storyline of Shuffle, a new play written and directed by Jeremy Lillig, smells suspiciously like Garden State: A numb young man questions the mental-health system as he tries to make sense of his relationships and destiny. And all that post-adolescent figuring out is set to a cool soundtrack, too. Lillig uses the Pixies, Incubus, Guster and Nancy Sinatra…
The Replay Lounge (946 Massachusetts in Lawrence) may be painfully hip now, but the rebel paradise opened in 1993 as a humble arcade serving burgers and PBR. With Free Play, the dive gets back to its roots, spotlighting pinball machines rather than indie bands. From 3 to 6 p.m. Fridays, pinballing is free of charge at all six fab machines,…
For those of us who didn’t grow up on a farm, the phrase “state fair” is synonymous with “pig stench.” But those in the know appreciate the finer aspects of fairing: people watching, snow cones, the sensual lick of a petting goat’s tongue, stilt walkers, chainsaw art, 4-H crafts, watching nauseated children spinning in teacups. The Missouri State Fair (2503…
