A few weeks back, when we congratulated the Riot Room on its fifth year in business, we neglected to mention that the Westport venue has been on a real tear lately in terms of bringing in hip-hop talent. Kool Keith and Cam’Ron have visited in the last couple of months, and this week, Rakim stops by. Rakim never hit it…
The Blue Moon rises in Overland Park. Neighborhood bars come and go, appearing out of the ether and then vanishing again as suddenly as radio DJs or flavored vodkas. The challenge each of these taverns must surmount: quickly figuring out what a neighborhood needs, then letting the neighbors know you’re there. The three-week-old Overland Park pub Burg & Barrel (7042…
Name: Dan Askew Occupation: Owner of record label Second Nature Recordings; master skateboard gripper at Escapist Skateboarding Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri Current neighborhood: Crossroads Who or what is your sidekick? Wooden plank with four wheels, my cats and my special lady friend What career would you choose in an alternate reality? Woodworking What was the last local restaurant you patronized?…
If Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s scathing Paradise Lost trilogy somehow failed to convince you that West Memphis, Arkansas, was a pus-dripping ass pimple on the American judicial system, you have one more shot at getting your mind right: Amy J. Berg’s deeply resonant new documentary, West of Memphis. In unpacking the legal endgame that finally freed the West Memphis…
Forty-five seconds into a minute-long plank, as your trainer counts down the time and your sweat pools under your face, you remember why you’re really working out. So you can eat more pizza. This is the last day, you tell yourself, the third of three breakfast-lunch-dinner-snack pizzathons. You and your colleagues are taking on slice after pie after slab, tasting…
“We haven’t really solved that issue,” says Blues Control keyboardist Lea Cho, referring to the genre-bending duo’s reliance on cassette decks in its live show. How do she and guitarist Russ Waterhouse deal with maintenance issues when those old decks malfunction or break down on the road? “We bought a ton of new ones at one point,” Cho continues, “because…
Bent Left’s first show was March 7, 2003, at a paintball shack called Insomnia in Rolla, Missouri. The band celebrates its birthday one decade later on an equally punk stage: Art Closet Studios, a new all-ages venue in the back of a quiet pizza place, Open Fire Pizza, at 3951 Broadway. Bent Left recently released Fabergé, a gruff, hooky album…
Locrian One spin through last year’s double album The Clearing/The Final Epoch, by Chicago drone duo Locrian, puts you in a dark place. It’s full of proper apocalyptic noise driven by doom and disaster — breathtaking black-metal-influenced tunes with the power to raise evil spirits and drop testicles. This bill, which also includes metal locals Boreas and Jason Zeh, is…
Last March, Spray Booth Gallery, the artist-run space tucked inside Volker Bicycles’ Crossroads shop, filled its walls with works by 100 local artists. With group exhibitions like that one (the XOXO Salon Show) and New World Border, as well as thoughtful solo runs such as Daniel Reneau’s To Be An, gallerist and curator Andrew Lyles was making Spray Booth financially…
Imagine a bolt of sunlight somehow bursting through drywall. That’s the effect produced by Anne Lindberg’s installation Shift, in which the artist has stretched yellow and white cotton thread back and forth across 26 feet of the west wall of the Dolphin’s front gallery. The thread is secured with industrial staples — densely packed, hard, reflective forms that contrast the…
Lauren Phillips The Houlihan’s French onion soup, a popular menu item since 1972, will be served in a new building in Overland Park this summer. This summer, the Houlihan’s Restaurant across from Oak Park Mall will be closed so that a new prototype version of the restaurant – the chain concept was created by Joe Gilbert and Paul Robinson on…
Rollins not included. In case you weren’t aware, there are two re-formed lineups of Black Flag touring this summer. One is simply calling itself Flag, and its members include former members Keith Morris, Bill Stevenson and Chuck Dukowski, plus Stephen Egerton from the Descendents. That is not the group that is coming to the Granada in Lawrence on Thursday, June…
There’s so much that they feel. The Postal Service released its electro-emo classic, Give Up, 10 years ago (tugs collar, glances around nervously). To commemorate this, the group’s only achievement, members Ben Gibbard, Jimmy Tamborello and Jenny Lewis are doing a bunch of dates this spring and summer. On Wednesday, July 31, they’ll be at the Midland. Tickets are on…
Facebook: Grunauer Spring is 16 days away. Hold on to that thought. It’s important to remember in times like these that there is ground under the snow. And that ground can be home to a pretty sweet biergarten. Food & Wine just named Grunauer’s (101 West 22nd Street) outdoor Shangri-La as one of America’s Best Beer Gardens. Here’s what F…
New restrictions might come to EBT cards. A bill proposed by Lee’s Summit Sen. Will Kraus and University City Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal would bar the use of welfare benefit cards at a variety of businesses including casinos, strip clubs, liquor stores and sporting events. In related news, people on welfare used to be able to use their benefit cards at…
Angela C. Bond It’s been chicharrones for everyone this week. A spot known for hip late-night dining will see how it fares in the sunshine. Port Fonda opens for lunch today at 11 a.m. for the first time. Perhaps you’ll be served by Emily Cox, one of The Pitch’s 12 crushes from our Heartbreakers Valentine’s issue. The Westport dining spot…
Tickets are still available for the Friends of JJ’s Benefit tonight at the Uptown Theater. The music, food and entertainment extravaganza has been organized to help the employees of the former JJ’s – destroyed in an explosion February 19 – and honor the memory of Megan Cramer. As Charles Ferruzza has written about over on Fat City, the restaurant and…
Facebook: Pizza Ranch Supper’s on at the Ranch. For a town that loves to dip pizza crust in ranch, it somehow seems fitting that Pizza Ranch found its way here. The Iowa chain, named for a Cowboy theme rather than the delicious dressing (your mouth is watering, isn’t it), opened a new pizza shop yesterday at 4801 North Oak Trafficway….
The scene in Columbia seems to be on a slight uptick over the past year – bands like Enemy Airship, Believers and Jerusalem and the Starbaskets have reintroduced smart rock into venues around the college town. Add to that list Richard the Lionhearted, an arty Americana group that recently visited the Horseshack studio in Rock Island, Illinois, for a Daytrotter…
The wheeling and dealing continues at Arrowhead. The Chiefs’ eventful offseason continued Monday, as the team announced that it had re-signed wide receiver Dwayne Bowe and punter Dustin Colquitt. Both deals are for five years, ESPN reports. The Sports Leader says Colquitt’s contract – worth $18.75 million and $8.9 million guaranteed – makes the 30-year-old the highest paid punter in…
If enough time passes, apparently you can laugh about anything. Former Royal George Brett had some fun at the expense of current Royals Alex Gordon and Jeff Francoeur during Spring Training. In a video posted today by MLB Fan Cave, Gordon and Francoeur are giving a small group a lesson on how to pine tar a bat. They’re poking fun…
Kansas Citians flocked to the Crossroads for First Friday gallery openings on Friday, March 1. Photos by Lynn Collins
You can eat well at V’s for less than $11, if you’re willing to eat early. I have eaten more pizza in the past two weeks than I’ve eaten in the past two years. This week, The Pitch pays homage to the Neapolitan dish (the American version turns 100 years old in two years) with a metrowide guide to the…
