Since its opening in 1989, the iconic Midwestern Musical Co. shop at the corner of 19th Street and Locust has been a common gathering for local and touring musicians, and this August, its doors shutter for good. The sad announcement came earlier this week in a Facebook post from Matt Kesler, Pedaljets guitarist and co-founder of MMC. But MMC will not be…
Davis’ chances looking up. How bad of a job can a Republican in Kansas do and still get re-elected? That’s the subtext of the upcoming governor’s race in the Sunflower State, which is all but certain to pit incumbent Republican Sam Brownback against Democrat challenger Paul Davis. When Davis announced his candidacy last year, his odds looked grim. But given…
Another delay for the Verruckt. Verruckt, a German word for “insane,” is also the name of the much-anticipated new waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, out in western Wyandotte County. The slide – which is higher than Niagara Falls and will be the tallest waterslide in the world once it’s up and running – was scheduled to open to the public…
All the hoopla is over. Kansas City made videos, assembled a youth marching band, spruced up downtown, had Mayor Sly James dance on an airport tarmac, had Dick Cheney spend a night in town, covered up the Totally Nude sign, raised millions in private funds and spent public money, all to impress Republicans. But it wasn’t enough to convince GOP leaders to…
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 June edition of Spin Cycle: The Top Five Slept-On Records of the Season. 1. … And Then You Shoot Your Cousin…
Legendary English musician Sir Paul McCartney has been on tour since early May of last year with over 50 concerts scheduled with seven legs across Asia, Central America, Europe, North America, and South America. The tour currently has grossed over $105 million with the last concert show scheduled for October 30 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Throughout the tour Paul McCartney tickets have…
The American Restaurant’s stately dining room is silent and as carefully arranged as a movie still when I stop by early one afternoon to meet Paige Unger. Tables are fully set with china and glassware, and scalloped white-oak fixtures artfully diffuse light. Unger hops down from a bar stool as I arrive. She’s dressed casually in black pants and a…
Willie Grandison went to bartending school in the late 1950s, but what has made him the most iconic working bartender in Kansas City isn’t something he could have learned in class. “If you want to be a bartender, you’ve got to start by working in a bar,” says Grandison, the 76-year-old master barkeep who has been a fixture at the…
Deafheaven The Granada, Lawrence Tuesday, June 24 Resonance seemed to be the keyword at the Granada last night. Based on the last few metal shows I’ve attended, the genre seems to have taken a cue from the noise scene and incorporated body-attacking levels of volume into the mix. An apt example is the fact that Deafheaven didn’t have any pre-set…
Name: Kevin Breer Occupation: Lawyer Hometown: Wichita, Kansas Current neighborhood: Westwood What I do (in 140 characters): I am a real-estate, construction and commercial trial attorney. What’s your addiction? Spicy food What’s your game? Right now, with a 3-year-old son, it is anything he wants to do. Usually a Yo Gabba Gabba game on the iPad. We also like throwing…
There are a lot of things you could say – good and scathing – about Chubby’s, the 24-hour diner at 3756 Broadway, but I had never considered using the words gracious service before. This is, after all, no place for the genteel, particularly after 1 a.m. While a friend and I were waiting for cheeseburgers last Friday night, our server…
Writer-director Gillian Robespierre’s debut feature, Obvious Child, is a fleet, largely artless comedy with a charming but limited cast. But because its woman protagonist elects to have an abortion, the movie seems bound to generate conversation — conversation about the wrong stuff. The procedure itself isn’t the point. Abortion, and the political and moral and socioeconomic specters that shadow it,…
Singing a show’s tunes on the way to the car is a pretty good indicator of that production’s success. So it was the night I walked out of Quality Hill Playhouse’s Rhapsody in Gershwin. The talented performers sharing the tiny stage in the intimate surroundings of QHP brought the material infectiously to life. The gifted Gershwins, from a musical era…
Shakespeare festivals often present comedies and tragedies in rotating repertory, but the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival offers both in one night with this season’s sole production. The Winter’s Tale is late-career Bard, a structural oddity that creaks between courtly tragedy and pastoral comedy. It divides critics — sometimes in their own minds. The Kansas City Star’s Robert Trussell, for…
Every Thursday through August, the Zona Rosa shopping district, in the Northland, hosts an outdoor stage and a jazz band and encourages listeners to bring lawn chairs and blankets. This week, singer and pianist Candace Evans commands the stage by swinging some jazz standards. Evans’ voice is playful and seductively smooth, tinged with a sultry edge. She’s joined by bassist Ricky…
MKTO I don’t really believe in the “guilty pleasure” artist. We all like what we like, right? But even I feel a slight twinge of self-consciousness when I find myself listening to MKTO and not hating it. It’s easily digested power pop, high-fructose stuff that you can dance to, work out to or start your day with — kind of…
Unless you keep an ear planted to the ground, you might have missed Blueprint up to now. But since 2001, the Columbus, Ohio, producer and MC has steadily built his standing in the world of underground hip-hop, as the frontman for the duo Soul Position and as a solo artist. Blueprint’s critically acclaimed 2011 album, Adventures in Counter-Culture, released by…
“We’re an extreme metal band,” Troglodyte founder and guitarist Jeff Sisson declares. “I mean, we sing in masks about Bigfoot. It’s kind of alienating, but people really get behind it.” The notion of guys in horror-movie masks performing ear-blasting death metal to themes of make-believe monsters sounds ridiculous. But since 2005, Troglodyte has built a devoted fanbase in this niche,…
Terra Skaggs, lead singer and bassist for the Quivers, had a rough night. When she arrives at the Filling Station for our Sunday-morning meeting, she emits a dry laugh — really more of a cackle — and tells me that her band had played late the previous night at Westport Saloon, where somehow she crossed paths with a couple of…
Daniel Edwards and Ebony Burnside went to the Greater Kansas City Home Show at Bartle Hall in March. The two were getting married and they needed a fence for their castle. “And he’s like, ‘Sure, every man’s home is his castle,’ ” Edwards says, recalling his conversation with a vendor. “I kept trying to explain that I was serious, that…
Vanessa Severo has become a familiar name and face in theaters around the metro, making memorable appearances and lasting impressions. To name just a few: the Unicorn’s Clean House, The Motherf**ker With the Hat and Venus in Fur; the Living Room’s Blackbird and Burn This; KC Rep’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. And this spring, she wrote and…
