Sporting Kansas City closed out the 2013 regular season with a 2-1 victory on Saturday over the Philadelphia Union, a game capped by a late Lawrence Olum tiebreaker. But the victory wasn’t enough to earn Sporting the Supporters’ Shield, a piece of hardware given each year to the team that finishes with the best regular season record. That award went…
The Lone Bellow Knuckleheads, Kansas City Sunday, October 27 There were some moments at the Lone Bellow’s show last night at Knuckleheads that felt churchlike – transcendent, even. The Brooklyn trio has been stirring up audiences and critics alike over the past year, and after one evening spent with the members and their music, well, it’s no wonder why. Lead…
There’s something oddly appealing about Michael Angelakos’ high-pitched, childlike singing voice. Every time I hear a Passion Pit song, I immediately want it to be summertime, and I want a popsicle. This might be the musical equivalent of laughing at a funeral because Passion Pit’s songs are generally anything but joyful. (If you’ve been following Angelakos’ well-publicized struggles with depression,…
Yesterday was a sad day for rock and roll. Lou Reed, founder of the Velvet Underground and influential solo artist, died yesterday of complications from a liver transplant. The Velvet Underground forged a path for modern rock in the 1960s, thanks in part to a heavy endorsement from Andy Warhol. Reed left the band in 1970 and went on to…
Embattled Health and Human Services Secretary (and former Kansas governor) Kathleen Sebelius was the star of the cold opening of Saturday’s episode of Saturday Night Live. Impersonating Sebelius, cast member Kate McKinnon addressed the flawed rollout of the Obamacare website. “A lot of folks have been talking about our new health-care enrollment website – how it’s been crashing and freezing…
Jasper’s Restaurant makes a very, very, very rich pumpkin ravioli. Tomorrow – Saturday, October 26 – is the official National Pumpkin Day in the United States. A good time, I suppose, to drive-through McDonald’s for one of their limited edition pumpkin latte drinks (I can’t bring myself to order one, but I’m vaguely interested in hearing how the beverages taste…
The Kansas City Police Department’s Twitter wrangler was right. The Pitch earlier this week dispatched an admittedly hard-to-believe story that the attorney for missing Kansas City baby Lisa Irwin’s family was looking into whether an abducted child found in a Greek Gypsy camp might be the infant who disappeared from here in 2011. No sooner than we had posted the story,…
Zach Bauman Animal CollectiveThe Midland, Kansas City Thursday, October 24, 2013 The Midland, with its 500,000 feet of gold leaf, intricate woodwork and marble, is a spectacular downtown venue, one of the finest in Kansas City. It is somehow made even better with the addition of a brilliantly lit, bright, psychedelic inflatable stage setup brought in by experimental art-rock act…
I’ll be honest: I love the Lone Bellow. Lead singer Zach Williams has this incredible vocal range, and when he’s plaintively strumming a guitar and singing about how he has lost everything and he’s all alone or something equally sad, I want to go bake cookies and swallow a bottle of gin. Add to that the lush and powerful harmonies…
Thirteen years and 10 albums ago, John Vanderslice burrowed into indie folk with lyrics that were as intelligent and moving as they were politically charged. Perhaps you’ll recall Vanderslice’s controversial tune “Bill Gates Must Die.” These days, Vanderslice has moved away from condemning technology brainiacs to focus instead on softer, more personal material. His recent Dagger Beach is a collection…
In the Whale’s Eric Riley and Nate Valdez are serious about rock ‘n’ roll. They’re determined to prove that with every show. Or, you know, maybe just a serious cover of the Violent Femmes. The Denver-based duo released a cover of “Add It Up” a week ago, and it’s a pretty riotous affair. Westword Blog has the stream and download here. …
Who says rock and roll is dead? Night Beats has taken the soul of 1960s psychedelic rock and given it a body, in the form of a new album called Sonic Bloom, and tonight at the Guild, you can hear it all. If your teenage self were locked in a basement with your parents’ old vinyl, a bottle of terrible…
