When a new rock bar sprang up in Westport earlier this year, the scene held its breath to see what would happen. After all, attempts to revive the legendary Hurricane at the same location had recently failed. But the Riot Room has been living up to its name and earning a reputation as Westport’s true rock bar. If the Record…
Promoters in Kansas City’s East Side rap scene have been bringing big-name artists to town for years, right under the noses of us mainstream types. They usher these artists through the back door; festoon them with cash, champagne and women; hand them a mic and a crowd; let them rap; and escort them out under cover of darkness. This Halloween…
The Blackest of the Black Tour isn’t exactly the cream of the crop. First, there’s Dimmu Borgir, whose painfully self-aware “evilness” and overly slick black metal venture on self-parody. Danzig, as a nostalgia trip, might be worth the price of admission, but there have been a lot of years between Danzig III and now. But it’s the bottom of the…
Were it just his mashups — which criss-cross the pop-music landscape like a contestant on The Amazing Race — Girl Talk DJ Greg Gillis would be impressive enough, but the man’s live show is equal to his sampling acumen. Gillis began his career making “intelligent dance music,” a smug misnomer used to describe glitchy, generally undanceable electronic music. Gillis decided…
If only there were a TV show called America’s Next Top Afrobeat Band. Imagine Kansas City’s Hearts of Darkness taking the stage: a 16-piece ensemble composed mostly of white dudes who probably haven’t played such challenging music since their high-school marching bands tackled “Flight of the Bumblebee.” “These songs are frighteningly complex,” trumpeter Bob Asher says. “Since we have 16…
Because of all the hype surrounding the Power & Light District, it’s hard for some people to remember that “downtown” extends north of 12th Street! That’s why it’s important not to forget one of the survivors of downtown Kansas City’s less glamorous days: Anthony’s Restaurant and Lounge at 701 Grand. In 1978, when Anthony “Butch” Spino Jr. expanded the Soup…
The classic neighborhood joint will probably thrive in this rough economy. Most people I know still go out to eat, but they’re downsizing their expectations — if not their appetites. If you can get a tasty and filling meal for 10 or 11 bucks, why not have a professional do the cooking? Ray Dunlea and his wife, Molly, who serve…
If you can’t get enough trains at the Nelson’s Art in the Age of Steam, then Locomotion is for you. Billed as a companion to the Nelson exhibition, this one consists of works from the Linda Hall Library’s extensive collection of historical books and follows developments in steam engines, railway design, locomotives and general railway technology in the early to…
Truth might still be neck-and-neck with its old foe beauty, but in its other contest with fiction, it’s enjoying a bit of an October surprise. Who would have thought that, just three years after the great playwright August Wilson’s death, the local premiere of his final play would excite this city not so much for its quality or its historical…
When Phil Lindsey went to vote in the Missouri primary election, he took his poll notification card, a bank statement and $500 to bail himself out of jail. A little after 10 a.m. on August 5, the 63-year-old strolled into the basement of East Alton Community of Christ Church in Independence, where he had exercised his civic duty for the…
The radio in Kim Heckman’s Subaru is tuned to National Public Radio as she steers away from Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign office (a former J.C. Penney) in downtown Springfield, Missouri, and toward her own neighborhood. Heckman, an eighth-grade teacher, has been canvassing door-to-door on this turf every weekend since May, rain or shine. “I’ve been happy,” she says. “I’ve been…
Without an abortion-obsessed zealot or adulterer in the Johnson County D.A.’s race, it isn’t easy to tell the difference between the candidates, Democrat Rick Guinn and Republican Steve Howe. Both are balding, bespectacled former Paul Morrison employees with impressive résumés. So The Pitch tried to differentiate the two. Click on the image to compare the candidates. Click here to send…
Kelly Kultala is in a hit man’s cross hairs. Kultala, a Democrat running for Kansas state Senate, isn’t paranoid. She has proof: a $3.05 check from Stephen Marks and Kingfish Consulting. Marks is a nationally known Republican political operative and author of Confessions of a Political Hit Man, a tell-all of the tricks he has used to torpedo Democratic candidates….
The first McCain volunteer I met was Mary, 74, a Republican precinct captain from Blue Springs. When I walked into the campaign headquarters at 3600 Noland Road in Independence, she said she was surprised to see me because I was young, and young people go for Obama. “I don’t always agree with people my age,” I told her. It was…
Dear Mexican: I know you’ve been asked variations of this before, but I’m going to ask you again anyway. I’m a gay white guy and I’ve had three relationships with Mexican men in the last seven years. Each lasted from three to six months. This past relationship actually lasted a year and culminated with us moving in together for a…
As a service for busy registered voters, whose schedules don’t accommodate researching the many measures on the 2008 ballot, The Pitch presents this “Thinking Voter’s Guide to Not Thinking About the County Ballot.” Following are ballot cheat sheets for Jackson County, Missouri, and Johnson County, Kansas, with The Pitch’s recommendations for quick, no-hassles voting. Click the ballot to see your…
Feature: “Monopoly Boy,” October 16 Power Play The latest scandal from the BPU follows decades of scandals: The 2006 incidents of BPU management and their cronies dining out lavishly and visiting a KCMO strip club with BPU credit cards; concealing information regarding pollution at their coal-fired power plants; using ratepayer money to purchase suites at Kansas Speedway and blocks of…
By DAVID MARTIN This photo, taken Wednesday at around 10:30 a.m., confirms the rumors that Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser now conducts a significant amount of city business at home. Last month, the City Council passed an ordinance that more or less banished his wife and primary adviser, Gloria Squitiro, from City Hall. The cars were photographed outside the mayor’s…
All Hallows Eve is right around the corner, so Rocks Off asked Houston’s Nick DiFonzo – album-cover connoisseur, proprietor of bizarrerecords.com and author of Seriously Bad Album Covers (available at Cactus Music and Antidote) – to pull some of his collection’s most ghoulish examples.
By ANDY VIHSTADT Despite charting well in Europe for over a decade, Travis has won over American audiences the way contemporaries like Radiohead and Coldplay have. The Scots’ sixth LP is its first on Fontana Records and it’s noticeably grittier than their usual acoustic fare. Ode to J. Smith is already out overseas and will be available in the States…
By OWEN MORRIS Of all the foods on my list, this is the only one I could conceivably eat with every meal. It is the perfect side to any breakfast, lunch or dinner, and also a completely 100 percent Kansas City classic. I am, of course, referring to the rolls from Stroud’s, which make up my fifth food in this…
Alanis Morissette October 28, 2008 The Midland Theater by AMC Better Than: Morissette’s “funny” cover of “My Humps” By JORDAN EDWARDS Photos by NICOLE REINERTSON Click Here for Slide Show In the mid-1990s, before Britney and Christina slithered onto TRL, a female rock singer could get away with just being angry or introspective. And they could actually rock, not pop….
By OWEN MORRIS So I was at the AMC Studio 30 in Olathe yesterday afternoon, going by myself to see the matinee of Sex and the City for like the 1,000th time, when this guy in a suit grabs me and asks if I would like a sneak peek of AMC’s new dining-at-the-movies concept. I said sure and was immediately…
By CHRIS PACKHAM %{}%Over my usual breakfast of coffee, Hydroxycut and a fistful of creatine powder, I learned that the Dow has jumped up 11 percent this week. So, the econocalypse is obviously over. You can all emerge from your underground armageddon shelters, y’all, it’s totally starting to smell like a gym towel in there. I guess gym-towel-smelling Ayn Rand…
