Because the swell of an orchestra makes a moment in nature feel that much more special, the Kansas City Symphony will drag its shiny instruments outside tonight for a free concert at Theatre in the Park at Shawnee Mission Park (7710 Renner Road in Shawnee). Take a lawn chair or a blanket. And the kids. The program is light in…
You’re not alone if you feel as though every time you shake off a Guinness hangover, there’s another Irish festival around the corner. After all, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade was a mere five months ago, and lord knows how few went to church the next morning. And now, it’s already time again for Irish Fest, KC’s biggest Irish event….
For most car owners, rust, dust and grease are plagues best left to mechanics. For DIY enthusiasts of old-school hot rods, those things indicate a fun challenge. Gear up for the Kowtown Custom Greaserama this weekend at the Boulevard Drive-In (1051 Merriam Lane, in Kansas City, Kansas). Today and Sunday, the show celebrates custom cars built before 1965 and lowriders,…
“Cannabis cannot kill you, and therefore there is no justification behind its illegality,” says Jordan Baldwin, organizer of Saturday’s Hemp Fest. “The cannabis-hemp plant is being held captive through misinformation and propaganda campaigns, ignorance, peer pressure and bullying. Innocent humans and their families are being terrorized. This must stop, and the time is now.” Clearly, Baldwin isn’t the stereotype of…
This weekend, as that muddy patch of Bonner Springs set aside for the Kansas City Renaissance Festival again leaps back through the ages to a time of jousting, breeches and people strolling about on wood chips like hamsters, The Pitch is proud to offer all time-traveling attendees its first-annual Back-in-Time Ren Fest Challenge. On your way back to the present,…
Today is Labor Day. Therefore, labor — especially the mental, stuck-in-the-cubicle kind — probably isn’t on your agenda. Even so, you oughta roll out of bed before 11 a.m. That’s when the Greater Kansas City Labor Day Parade begins at the intersection of Main and Pershing. Highlights: big-ass construction equipment, shiny new cars that were assembled in the metro, baton…
Kids working out the kinks in their rap acts, performance poetry, scratching, dramatic monologues — or really any other art form that can be performed on a stage in front of other people — will find a receptive audience in a creative atmosphere at the Chameleon Arts Consortium Open Stage every Tuesday, at Chameleon Arts and Youth Development. From 6:30…
(928 Wyandotte, 816-474-5668). Three floors of $2.50 margaritas, $2 tequila shots and any draft for $2 all night. Tuesdays, 2008 Tags: Night & Day, Wyandotte
(418 West Ninth Street, 816-221-4740). From 4 to 7 p.m., get down on domestic pitchers for $6.50. For maximum enjoyment, drink with chicken wings. Tuesdays, 4-7 p.m., 2008 Tags: Night & Day
(106 West 12th Street, 816-346-4410). Feel swanky sipping $7.50 wells, $6 import bottles and $5 domestic bottles from 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, 2-7 p.m., 2009 Tags: Night & Day
In 1757, French astronomer Mssr. Charles Messier began watching for the reappearance of Halley’s comet based on some calculations by another astronomer which turned out to be wrong, wrong, wrong. In the process, he discovered another, non-Halley’s, comet. Further observations yielded still yet more annoying, fuzzy comet-looking objects that were not what he was looking for. He began documenting these…
Poke, Babel Fish and Improv Thunderdome This third round of Improv Thunderdome, the three-shows-for-one-cover comedy competition, should again demonstrate to Kansas City just how daring, diverse and unpredictable the art of improv can be. Go at 7 p.m., and you’ll be treated to two of the best new troupes in town: Poke, the improvised duet between first-class performers Trish Berrong…
When was the last time you heard a band that said it liked the Police actually sound like it? Kansas City’s Making Movies isn’t exactly tearing up the charts like Sting yet, but the group is off to a good start with its debut EP, Tierra Firme Vol. 1. Packing a tight sound that emphasizes funky, offbeat rhythms, the EP…
The slash in the title of Lightning Strike/Phantom Forest, the latest EP from Kansas City singer-songwriter Aaron Hale and his Boy Detectives, suggests that it might be a split release — and in a way, it is. Except in this case, the album isn’t divided between two musicians; it’s one band attempting to mix three or four haunting acoustic stunners…
“The Magnetic North,” by System & Station, from A Nation of Actors (Latest Flame Records): The decade mark is a meaningful one for a band like System & Station, a group that has plugged away in relative obscurity despite owning a polished sound that deserves at least as much props as similar, more-lauded acts such as Foo Fighters or Sunny…
Bob Dylan is an asshole. That’s the impression left by Don’t Look Back, the 1967 film that showed the troubadour humiliating a student journalist and committing other ungracious acts while touring England. Martin Scorsese’s documentary No Direction Home, released 38 years later, puts Dylan’s behavior in context. Home depicts an artist under enormous pressure. When he wasn’t getting booed for…
It’s May-December time again, and for an aging dude who scores one of the ripest young lovelies in cinema (Penelope Cruz), Ben Kingsley looks mighty down in the mouth. Kingsley pulls another of his wooden-faced Sphinx routines as David Kepesh, a skirt-chasing professor who gets his comeuppance from Cruz’s Consuela, the luscious Cuban-American graduate student with whom he falls in…
“Ladron,” by Totimoshi, from Ladron (Volcom Entertainment): Totimoshi. It sounds Japanese, right? It’s actually a word that bandleader Antonio Aguilar’s mom made up to describe his grandmother’s broken English. Fittingly, the band’s imagery is rife with artifacts from Aguilar’s and his bassist (and wife) Meg Castellanos’ Hispanic heritage. But there’s hardly a trace of that influence in the Bay Area trio’s…
“Hope You All Are Gone,” by T.K. Webb and the Visions, from Ancestor (Kemado Records): Kansas City expat T.K. (Thomas Kelly) Webb comes to town on his inaugural American tour just in time for the release of Ancestor, his third album overall and his first with backing band the Visions. Originally a solo performer, Webb split his time between strummy…
Now that he’s reached the ripe old age of 37, you’d think that Tech N9ne would be ready to hang up the mic. But judging by how he’s spent his time lately, Kansas City’s tongue-twisting hip-hop ambassador is just now hitting his stride. His 11th full-length, Killer (the cover of which parodies Michael Jackson’s Thriller with a soft-focus Tech decked…
“Mi Viejo,” by Ratatat, from LP3 (XL): Maybe it’s just the shrieking-panther samples, but listening to Ratatat can make you feel like you’re creeping through a jungle where a dance party is about to pounce. The group’s exotic mash-up of rump-shaking beats, autoharp, video-game blurts and dual-lead-guitar shredding is instantly recognizable and distinctly awesome. The absence of vocals can be…
“Schoolday’s Over,” by Damien Dempsey, from The Rocky Road (UFO Music): Looking like a working-class brawler and singing like Luke Kelly, Damien Dempsey is one of the more inspiring trad-Irish balladeers to step up in recent years. Shane McGowan has praised Dempsey for describing, in his songs, things as they really are (“Which is a pile of shit, you know…
Despite his reputation as that rarest of creatures, the Hollywood intellectual, new evidence suggests that Steve Martin reads — prepare yourself — thrillers and spy novels. That’s the only conclusion one can draw from the story credit the comic actor receives on Traitor, an uneven but engrossing terrorist thriller that’s one part Syriana and many parts John le Carré and…
If you’ve been around 16th Street and Grand lately, you’ve probably noticed a new sign on the building that used to be Late Night Theatre. Painted above the door in striking red letters: Czar Bar. Rumor has had it for a while that the joint would be Kansas City’s hottest new rock bar. That’s because the place is the pet…
