Screenland Armour is doing the theater’s X-Men: Days of Future Past premiere up big Thursday night. For starters, B Bop Comics is opening a pop-up comic book shop at the North Kansas City theater (408 Armour Road, 816-421-9700) at 8 p.m. Screenland will be serving “Wolverine’s Spicy Carnitas Tacos” while Rock & Run Brewery will be offering samples of its Apricot…
Maron will be at the Lawrence Arts Center next month. Been digging on the events Lawrence Arts Center has been putting on lately – John Cale and John Waters already this year. At the end of next month, the organization is throwing Free State Fest, a five-day celebration of music, art and film in downtown Lawrence that includes performances from…
Buying a Morrissey ticket is always going to be a gamble – the enigmatic and sometimes, well, difficult singer has an established history of canceling shows and even entire tours at the drop of a hat. Though in the case of Lawrence last year, he canceled due to a variety of medical concerns. On showing up to Liberty Hall last…
It has been nearly 20 years since Kathy Hale owned a restaurant. That was Daily Bread, a vegetarian venue that operated out of several different locations from 1991 through 1996. It wasn’t an easy five years, but she never lost her taste for the food business. Hale, a longtime Pilates instructor, began cooking organic meals for many of her exercise…
The inaugural Westport Roots Fest, centered around the Westport Saloon and taking place on Saturday, May 24, is approaching fast. To prepare for the pending roots romp presented by the good folks at Little Class Records, The Pitch will be highlighting a “song of the day” from one of the featured artists in the weeks leading up to fest. It’s hard to tell whether…
Summer has been slow coming to Kansas City, but make no mistake: The five-finger death punch of heat, humidity, boredom, sweat and sweat-barassment is upon us. Sure, you could get hammered on cold mojitos at noon, but going for a swim is an easier, cheaper and safer way to revel in the sluggishness of the season. So here’s our list…
When I walk into Affäre at 4 p.m. on a Wednesday, the tables are immaculately laid with pristine white linens and brightly polished place settings. The big room is empty, making the walk to the immense concrete bar at the back of the restaurant feel long. Chelsea Almeida, Affäre’s dedicated head bartender, gives me a bright smile when I find…
Name: Matt Fulks Occupation: Writer, broadcaster, T-Bones’ director of media relations Hometown: Overland Park Current neighborhood: “Old” Overland Park What I do (in 140 characters): Usually, I write a bunch of words, delete the ones I don’t like, and hope the remaining ones make sense together. Sometimes they do. What’s your addiction? Baking and eating cookies, cake and caramel pie….
Every month, we ask Kansas City’s Mills Record Co. and Lawrence’s Love Garden Sounds to contribute a top five list to our ongoing column Spin Cycle. This month, our esteemed record store genies have a local focus. Introducing the May edition of Spin Cycle: The Top Five Local Releases You Need to Hear. 1. We Will Fall by the Big…
The latest self-titled album from Brighton, England’s Blood Red Shoes opens with nearly two minutes of bone-rattling, instrumental fury. It’s an introduction that sets the pace for the rest of the record’s 11 blistering songs, as Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell, who share lead vocals, drag their demons out by the horns and beat them senseless. It’s hard to believe…
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito called off a planned execution one minute after midnight on Wednesday for Russell Bucklew, a southeast Missouri man sentenced to death for a 1996 murder. Alito’s order, made about 90 minutes before Missouri planned to execute Bucklew, delays but doesn’t necessarily dissolve the death warrant. Missouri’s death order is good until 11:59 p.m. on…
May Saturday, May 24 Westport Roots Festival, Westport Saloon, westportroots.com, through Sunday, May 25 Thursday, May 29 Animals as Leaders, the Granada David George, Czar Eric Paslay, KC Live Block Friday, May 30 The Big Iron, RecordBar Joe Ely, Knuckleheads Saloon The Naked and Famous, KC Live Block The Runaway Sons, Bummer, Riot Room Spirit Animal, Mime Game, Czar Saturday,…
There was a time when tentpoles like Spider-Man, X-Men and Godzilla would dominate the hot summer months. But those blockbusters already premiered in May, taking in as much box office as possible, then getting the hell out of the way lest they be steamrolled by the juggernaut that is the Summer of Kelsey Grammer. The erstwhile Dr. Frasier Crane appears…
Think of your favorite reading experiences and you’ll probably picture turning pages in the summertime. Last year I dug into the Sherlock Holmes canon, which fueled my love for the BBC television series. In 2012, I tore through Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl in one sitting, then spent the rest of the summer raving about it. And my all-time favorite hot-weather…
MAY Thursday, May 22 New Belgium Clips Beer & Film Tour Theis Park, Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd. and Oak, 7 p.m. newbelgium.com/events Friday, May 23 ConQuesT 45: Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention Marriott Hotel, 200 W. 12th St., conquestkc.org Through Sunday, May 25 Saturday, May 24 Jiggle Jam Crown Center, 2450 Grand, kcjigglejam.com Through Sunday, May 25 Sunday, May 25…
May Tuesday, May 27 Miracle on South Division Street, New Theatre Restaurant Through June 15 Thursday, May 29 Flowers in the Wardrobe, Whim Productions Through May 31 Friday, May 30 August: Osage County, The Barn Players Through June 15 June Wednesday, June 4 By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Unicorn Theatre Through June 29 Thursday, June 5 The King and…
Two weeks ago, Reuters reported that AMG Services, the Overland Park–based online payday-loan behemoth, had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury. The company, according to that report, is being investigated for violations that include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering. That’s no great shock. AMG Services has become a textbook exemplar of the notoriously deceptive online-lending industry. This isn’t…
Riff Raff Any run-of-the-mill cynic can guess why Riff Raff’s album Neon Icon has been delayed since its expected release date, back in January. But we won’t dwell on the hype behind the debut of Houston’s most outrageous rapper. Instead, let’s just welcome this brazen, splashy character — birth name Horst Simco — into our arms for the first time…
Saxophonist Tivon Pennicott was still in college when he joined jazz guitar master Kenny Burrell’s group. Since then, he has toured with the superstar jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding. This emerging artist brings his contemporary sax sound from New York to KC this weekend to play with the Dominique Sanders Trio. Sanders’ bass solos stand out as complex yet lyrical, grabbing…
Dance music is not about getting on a desert island and being by yourself. It’s a fun thing you enjoy with friends.” For Sonny Moore, the 26-year-old producer who records as Skrillex, that’s how simple dubstep success is. In a few short years, since 2010’s My Name Is Skrillex, Moore has ascended to the uppermost reaches of his genre, transcending…
Jody Hendrix has always had big goals when it comes to music — for his own, yes, but also for other artists’, and where he might be able to take it. He remembers booking his first music festival, in Liberty, when he was 14 years old, to help raise money for a mission trip his friends were making. Since then,…
Spike Nguyen’s seven-week-old midtown restaurant, iPho Tower, might become like New York City’s elegant French-Vietnamese Le Colonial when it grows up. Right now, it’s more like something out of the film Saigon Electric: flashy and wildly colored, tuned to a soundtrack that veers from Rosemary Clooney to gospel to sultry house music, depending on the time of day. The shifting…
The next time you’re bored in suburbia, just imagine a man in a bear suit picking his way across your lawn. Video artist and Guggenheim fellow Stanya Kahn — well-known for populating familiar landscapes with bizarre figures — this time turns her lens toward suburban Kansas City. And the bear doesn’t necessarily augur good fortune. Kahn’s latest film, Don’t Go…
