Today is, officially, the first day of spring. It’s also opening day for Murray’s Ice Cream & Cookies (4120 Pennsylvania), the beloved Westport homemade ice-cream shop; the store always closes for the winter and reopens, traditionally, right after St. Patrick’s Day for the new season. This year marks the 30th anniversary for the shop that owner Murray Nixon opened in…
Berlin’s Fenster likes to call its music “deconstructed pop,” which is a pretty typical European way of describing electro-pop music. Still, we’ll let them have it. The songs on Fenster’s latest full-length, The Pink Caves, are like feathers strung into a dreamcatcher: wistful, mysterious and a little creepy if you really think about them. The band takes inspiration from a lot…
Davina Sowers is a force just begging to be reckoned with. From behind her piano, in the company of her impressive quartet the Vagabonds, the classically trained Sowers commands a stage presence to rival any arena-ready diva. She skats like Christina and belts like Etta, and she’s got the get-up-and-dance-with-me magnetism of Tina Turner. At home in Minneapolis, crowds pack…
In the dystopia posited by Neil Burger’s long, somewhat turgid adaptation of Veronica Roth’s popular young-adult novel Divergent, society – or rather, Chicago – has been divided, not unlike most American high schools, into five “factions” determined by personality types. The Amity faction is known for being peaceful farmers; those in Candor are (duh) honest; the Erudite are intelligent and…
Ask around, and most bar and restaurant owners will tell you that 2008 was Westport’s nadir. Downtown’s bright, shiny, city-subsidized Power & Light District had opened early that year. The city passed an indoor-smoking ban in April. In October, the economy tanked. “It was a 1-2-3 punch for us,” says Bill Nigro, a longtime Westport property owner who now leases…
When Mary Ocher was 20 years old, she packed her bags and left her home in Tel Aviv for what she hoped would be a more liberal creative life in Berlin. The move worked. On her latest album, the King Khan–produced Eden, Ocher’s eccentric musical style lands somewhere between avant-garde art songs and opera. Now 27, Ocher has settled into…
The dudes of Psychic Heat refer to their music as “ADHD rock” for a reason. Clustered around a table at Lawrence’s La Prima Tazza, the four 20-somethings answer questions about their psych-tinged rock and roll with awkward starts, stops and laughter. Psychic Heat’s lead singer and guitarist, Evan Herd, speaks quickly, almost nervously, about the band’s evolution after forming nearly…
This year, the Newport Jazz Festival turns 60, and it’s celebrating with a tour of past festival all-stars that stops Saturday night at the Gem Theater. One artist of special interest to locals: singer Karrin Allyson, who spent the better part of the 1990s building her repertoire and swingingly expressive vocal style at the Phoenix and other KC clubs before…
Davina and the Vagabonds Davina Sowers scats like Christina Aguilera and belts like Etta James, and she has the get-up-and-dance-with-me magnetism of Tina Turner. From behind her piano, in the company of her Vagabonds, the classically trained Sowers wields a stage presence that rivals any arena-ready diva. In her adopted home of Minneapolis, crowds pack blues and jazz rooms to…
I have a dream that someday in Kansas City, I’ll be served a cheese plate that doesn’t look as though it had been hastily assembled for — or by — a group of third-graders. There is something both romantic and elegant in a proper assiette de fromage, that combination of fruit, cheese and bread designed as the overture to a…
When Matthew Dehaemers makes his art, his point isn’t simply that it be beautiful — though his works do function on that level. He means to connect the object to the place-ness of where it will be — as in “Catalyst,” for instance, his kinetic metal sculpture at 31st Street and Troost. The public art’s subtle mechanics and striking symmetry…
After Wednesday night, it’s easy to see why Major League Soccer teams haven’t won a CONCACAF title in years. Cruz Azul, a top Mexican-club soccer team, displayed far greater skill on its way to a crushing 5-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City in the second game of their two-game playoff. Cruz Azul won the series 5-2 on aggregate goals when…
Baked in Kansas City is almost too much of some good things, writes Pitch food critic Charles Ferruzza. Read his review here and see photos by Angela C. Bond in this slideshow.
Tonight there is an amazing hockey game taking place between two of the best teams in all of the NHL, the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks. These two teams both have over 90+ points on the season and the Blues are the only team in the league to have over 100 points (101) and are separated by just 7…
Pretty in pink: Yoki. The City Market will welcome a new tenant this weekend, when Yoki opens for business on Saturday at 400 Grand, Suite 426. “Yoki” translates roughly to “cheerful” in Japanese, and the shop is aiming to reflect that with its variety of Japanese-inspired “housewares, kitchenware, dishes & ceramics, stationary and home office items, health and beauty products,…
Crosby Kemper III sent a letter last year to Tax Increment Financing Commission appointees and Kansas City, Missouri, City Council members that, among other things, invited its recipients to take a tour with him of the infamous, failed Citadel project. To date, no one has taken the Kansas City Public Library CEO up on his offer. And without Kemper-led walking…
Talented young chef Grant Klover, a recent graduate of the New England Culinary Institute, has already bid adieu to two-month-old bakery and bistro Baked in Kansas City (reviewed this week in The Pitch) after, he says, “continual disagreements” with the restaurant’s owner, Frank Sebree. Klover, who left his post last Friday, says he has been interviewing with three high-profile local restaurants. Executive…
Waldo-based KC Bier Co.’s German-style beers will be on tap in Waldo-area restaurants starting tonight. KC Bier Co. made the announcement on Twitter and Facebook Tuesday afternoon. “Huge news! Our first shipment of bier has left the building, and will be in Waldo-area restaurants tomorrow evening! Waldo has already supported us tremendously, and we’re excited to let other restaurants and bars pour our bier.” The…
The Entrance Band with La Luz and the Conquerors RecordBar, Kansas City Tuesday, March 18, 2014 There were no obvious signs of fatigue from the Entrance Band’s long Austin commute after performing at SXSW on Saturday. Instead, the power trio from Los Angeles kicked off the show in full force last night at RecordBar, delivering an electric live display of…
We will be running periodic ticket previews for all MLB teams visiting Kauffman Stadium this year, starting with the NL Central. The only team that will be visiting Kansas City this season from the NL Central will be the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals and Royals have been playing each other ever since Interleague Play began so they’ve built a…
My cocktail orders are usually specific, down to the garnish. But the highly skilled Ryan Miller has taken it upon himself to re-educate me ever since my first trip to Voltaire. The restaurant’s head bartender has never led me astray, and I’m happy to be at his mercy. This time, though, he’s at mine. “Make me a drink with Cynar,”…
You can make a French macaron taste like almost anything, but Sarah Rami has her limits. “I heard there’s a Vegemite macaron,” says Rami, who co-owns Colors Macarons with Colleen Kirk and is a native of Brisbane, Australia. “I’m not going to experiment with it. I love Vegemite, but I don’t think anyone else will eat it.” The City Market…
