Kansas City audiences might mistake the Von Ehrics for hometown boys, on account of the band’s thrice-yearly visits and the blue-collar sound to which Davey’s Uptown barflies raise a glass. The Dallas-based band has taken the long cut to their current position as alt-country heavyweights, sharing the stage with likeminded last-call legends such as the Reverend Horton Heat and the…
So maybe it takes a little suspension of disbelief to see Kiss in 2009, with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer literally in disguise as founding members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, respectively. Though the band’s lineup hasn’t withstood the test of time, its classic material certainly has. In Kiss’ mid-’70s heyday, it was easy to lose the band’s songwriting strength…
A new rodent is on the loose. Radiating wonder, whimsy and delightful peculiarity, Kansas City’s Capybara mixes sunny harmonies, thudding tribal beats and sparkling electro flourishes into a vibrant, kaleidoscopic sound. Named for the South American rodent, the world’s largest (the word means “one who eats grasses”), Capybara refers to its brand of bright-eyed indie pop as “sunmusic.” And so…
As he does most weeks, Nathaniel “Dutch” Humphrey will spend Friday night at Crosstown Station. But for a change, the red-bearded 28-year-old won’t be slinging shots and making change at the bar. Instead, he’ll be in the crowd or onstage, in a suit. Humphrey and his co-promoter, Kris Bruders, are presenting Stay Down Pretty Polly: the Murder Ballad Ball. It’s…
Hello, Goodbye, the new, freely distributed downloadable LP from D/Will and Stik Figa, is a gift wrapped in sophisticated lyrics and smartly crafted beats. Rapper Stik and producer D/Will hand out 12 tracks of Midwestern shout-outs, underground feist and existential torment. Residents of Topeka will appreciate the first half of the album, which features five tracks of Stik’s riffs on…
American theater long ago sided with three-act storytelling over modernist prickliness, so audiences don’t often find themselves fighting through a play such as Christopher Durang’s Miss Witherspoon, a show that endeavors to capture, through repetition and randomness, life’s repetition and randomness. That’s understandable. A theater has to attract a paying audience. Besides, the repetition and the randomness of work-dominated American…
When the California-based Saddle Ranch Chop House finally threw in the bandanna at its huge leased space at the Legends entertainment complex in Wyandotte County, it left a few things behind. Of what remained in the dining room, what was big enough to stage a small rodeo? The mechanical bull, for one thing. Most of the rustic furnishings stayed behind,…
Emily Roysdon, a thoughtful multimedia and performance artist working in New York, has curated Ecstatic Resistance, a lively and often heartfelt exhibit at Grand Arts. It features an international group of artists and performers including Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, Jeanine Oleson, Ulrike Ottinger, Dean Spade, Craig Willse and Ian White. According to the daunting exhibit statement (almost certainly composed by Roysdon, judging…
Aside from Morgan Freeman, who makes a fabulous Nelson Mandela, there’s this to savor about Invictus, a rosy tale of racial reconciliation neatly wrapped in a triumphalist sports movie: The film is free of Obama parallels. We also could use a happy global moment, and Eastwood picks one out of the otherwise rocky history of South Africa, when the country’s…
The Walt Disney Company has made its first African-American princess — and plunked her down in the middle of Jim Crow-era Louisiana! For most of The Princess and the Frog’s running time, that “princess,” Tiana (Anika Noni Rose), is actually a waitress pulling double shifts in Jazz Age New Orleans, trying to scrape together enough cash to open her own…
After a decade navigating Hollywood, John Woo returned to China to make his latest film but scale back he did not. The most expensive movie ever produced in that country and also the biggest, Woo’s Red Cliff is a third-century battle royale with phalanxes of horsemen and armadas of battleships stretching as far as the eye can see. The source…
Rebecca Miller’s fourth feature is immediately recognizable as the millionth iteration of a sheltered suburban housewife who has a slight crackup and decides that she better get her ya-yas out. Devoted helpmate Pippa (Robin Wright Penn, in near permanent Stepford Wife mode), approaching 50, is married to publishing powerhouse Herb (Alan Arkin), a man 30 years her senior who becomes…
Dear Mexican: As a Chicano/Mexican, I have lost my faith in God. While they take pride in their country like everyone else and like to make frequent jokes, Mexicans are generally very humble (poor) people. Isn’t God supposed to be on the side of the poor and humble? Why is it that Mexico always loses soccer matches to a generally…
Feature: “Thank God for the Rock,” November 26 Losing His Religion People believe “The Rock” is a cult simply because it is. These people are power hungry, greedy and manipulative — using others’ weaknesses to convince them of “signs and wonders” from God. (Fill out a two-page “application”? So they can use it against you.) This is not the God…
The Kansas City Ballet isn’t making a big deal out of it, but one of the stars of the ballet company’s 37th annual production of The Nutcracker is 13-year-old Brittany LaPointe, granddaughter of millionaire arts patron Julia Irene Kauffman. LaPointe dances the pivotal role of Clara on alternate performances with Elena Loyacono-Bustos. But LaPointe wasn’t simply handed the role: The…
The ladies of the Burlesque Downtown Underground have a present for you. Sure, they’re offering glimpses of their fishnetted thighs, waxed bodies, stiletto-heeled feet and tattooed figures, but they want you to spend your tip money on yourself. Though tickets for tonight’s 8 p.m. performance of A Black Tie Cabaret With a Splash of Holiday! at City Stage Theater at…
Just a block and half north of the Power & Light District is an altogether different nightlife experience. Specializing in grown-up and sexy delights, Qudos Cigar and Cognac Bar (1116 Grand, 816-474-2270) is owned and operated by KC natives David Lux and Windell Fields Jr., who say their establishment is an example of the “new millennium of cigar bars.” Open…
Sometimes the best new stuff for gift giving is actually old stuff. Kim Dye, editor-in-chief of Vintage Market magazine, knows this, which is why she set up the Vintage Market Holiday Boutiques at Zona Rosa (Interstate 29 and Barry Road) to run through January 2, with marathon shopping hours from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The market offers vintage and…
For some folks, just one Christmas show isn’t enough. Local actor, singer and lovable lug James Wright, one of the stars of this year’s Spectacular Christmas at Musical Theater Heritage, bursts with so much of the holiday spirit that even on this Monday night — when shows are dark, and actors can start their drinking early — he’s singing in…
The organization Imago Dei is on a mission to unite community, Christianity and the arts. The nonprofit’s fall exhibition, No Hope No Faith, takes its title from the Bible verse Ephesians 2:12, which says those who have no faith are separate from Christ and “without hope.” The exhibit features calligraphy and woodcuts by David Johnson, professor emeritus in the art…
Rico’s Hooligan Christmas Party started out as a modest little house party for the closest friends of the DJ, promoter and local clothing-line maestro. Fifteen years later, it’s Westport’s biggest formal bash, with guests flying in from both coasts and all the way from Europe to clink glasses with Rico and hundreds of his best-dressed mates. Get to the Beaumont…
The songs may be old favorites, but the production premiering at the Lyric Theatre (1029 Central) this weekend has never been seen before. Local wit Ry Kincaid penned the all-new script for How the Symphony Saved Christmas, a playful tale about a family in desperate need of Christmas spirit. “Jingle Bells,” “Sleigh Ride” and other can’t-get-’em-out-of-your-head Christmas classics help the…
Warm your spirit with uplifting sounds this evening at 7:30 when the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center (3700 Blue Parkway) becomes the stage for JERIC Productions’ Noel: A Soulful Celebration. Musicians Mike Andrews, Arrika Brazil, Stephen Brown and others provide a potpourri of the season’s sounds — ranging from gospel to jazz to traditional. The price of a ticket…
In her career, Kansas City native Carol Duboc has worked with the likes of George Duke, Patti LaBelle, Joe Sample, Stephanie Mills and others in the Los Angeles music scene. She’s well-respected as a talented songwriter and arranger in smooth-jazz and R&B circles. And she delivers her own enchanting sounds — Duboc’s warm, congenial voice recalls the singing of June…
