Archives: July 2014

Kasey Rausch’s ‘Heavy Fog’ is your Pitch Music Awards song of the day

This year, the 2014 Pitch Music Awards Showcase is split over two nights: This Saturday, July 19, at the Riot Room and Friday, July 25, at Knuckleheads Saloon (lineup details and tickets here.) The PMA Awards Show is at the Uptown Theater, held this year on Sunday, August 3, and hosted by World Air Guitar Champion Eric “Mean” Melin and Mills Record Co.’s Judy…

Pastry king Jacquy Pfeiffer rolls into KC for the ACF convention

Bread and pastry look like art, but they’re science. Scary, scary science. And because everything we know about science comes from Breaking Bad, let’s put it in Walter White terms: The grocery-store croissant you ate this morning — which, for $1.50, left buttery little shadows on your pants when you got out of the car and brushed off the flakes…

Michael Gelphman, founder of Kansas City IT Professionals, answers The Pitch‘s questionnaire

Name: Michael Gelphman Occupation: Founder of Kansas City IT Professionals Hometown: Overland Park Current neighborhood: Brookside/Waldo What I do (in 140 characters): I’ve built a tech community in Kansas City of 12,000-plus over the past six years, and we do tech events like the Compute Midwest conference and Hack Midwest hackathon, as well as educate software developers via the Disruption…

Jazz Beat: Westport Art Ensemble at Take Five Coffee + Bar

The Westport Art Ensemble captures your attention, welcoming you for a listen to the complex and dynamic interplay among master musicians. These days, the ensemble usually reunites when drummer Todd Strait – who moved to Portland and often tours with Karrin Allyson – returns to town. With bassist Gerald Spaits, keyboardist Roger Wilder and saxophonist Dave Chael, WAE performs original…

Joy Biggs watched her sister die in a jail cell over an ounce of pot

For Joy Biggs, the memories of January 22 in the Sherman County jail (“the Bastille,” locals call it) are still as vivid as the day they happened. “I can’t stop thinking about my sister dying there,” Biggs tells The Pitch. “It’s all too much.” Biggs remembers the dirty, western Kansas jail cell where her sister, Brenda Sewell, was lying, her…

Songs of themselves: Your 2014 Pitch Music Award nominees

About a year ago, I made my first trip to Kansas City for The Pitch Music Showcase. I remember sweating inside the Riot Room as Not a Planet, Antennas Up, Sons of Great Dane, and Hammerlord delivered blistering sets. As the streets of Westport swelled with enthusiastic local-music supporters, I felt a sense of appreciation for this diamond-in-the-rough patch of…

A raft of Kansas Republicans announce their endorsement of Democrat Paul Davis for governor

Lawrence Democrat Paul Davis last month told The Pitch to look out for a wave of what he called unprecedented Republican support for his bid to replace Sam Brownback as Kansas governor.  That prediction came true on Tuesday when more than 100 Republican officeholders, past and present, were part of a press conference in Topeka to announce their support for Davis…

Remedy’s zucchini banh mi sandwich is a meatless masterpiece

There’s no longer a chef in the kitchen at the two-year-old Remedy Food + Drink (500 West 75th Street, 816-361-9788) in Waldo, but the innovations of past chefs, including the venue’s debut chef Max Watson, continue to be offered on the abbreviated but solid menu. “We’ve decided to put less emphasis on chefs,” says general manager Brian Tagg, “and we…

Rick Springfield on his first novel; at Starlight this Wednesday

Rick Springfield has written a New York Times bestseller. He’s on a co-headlining tour with Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. Additionally, Springfield’s getting ready to star work on a new album. So, those of you who refer to him as “teen actor turned musician” for his work on General Hospital in the 1970s or make “one hit wonder” comments regarding…

The Kansas City Bear Fighters’ ‘They Won’t Stay Dead’ is your Pitch Music Awards song of the day

This year, the 2014 Pitch Music Awards Showcase is split over two nights: This Saturday, July 19, at the Riot Room and Friday, July 25, at Knuckleheads Saloon (lineup details and tickets here.) The PMA Awards Show is at the Uptown Theater, held this year on Sunday, August 3, and hosted by World Air Guitar Champion Eric “Mean” Melin and Mills Record Co.’s Judy…

Journey brought it ‘Any Way You Want It’ last night at Starlight

Journey with the Steve Miller Band and Tower of Power Starlight Theatre, Kansas City, MO Monday, July 14, 2014 Arnel Pineda is the best thing to happen to Journey since Steve Perry’s hip-replacement surgery. He’s a rail-thin, mic-tossing 46-year-old Filipino guy who jumps all over the place, sounds just like Steve Perry and can almost pull off head-to-toe denim. (Fact:…

Cloud Nothings is at the Granada on Wednesday

If you didn’t get to see Cloud Nothings at the Riot Room back in April, the sun may be shining in your corner of the lot this week. The Cleveland band is back in town, riding waves of raves for its recent live shows. This is unsurprising, given Cloud Nothings’ latest full-length, the excellent Here and Nowhere Else. Throughout the…

Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo and Rick Springfield are at Starlight on Wednesday; tickets still available

It was 1983 when Pat Benatar proclaimed that we stand together, heartache to heartache. There is no part of “Love Is a Battlefield,” from the heavy electronic drumbeats to Benatar’s defiant singing, that is not pop gold. The same can be said for much of the original heartbreaker’s catalog, which you’ll be able to hear reproduced live on Wednesday at…