For the last two years, Kansas City rapper Joe Stanziola – who performs as Second Hand King – has been hard at work putting together his latest album, Before the Bomb Drops. Tonight at Riot Room, he celebrates its release. If you haven’t had the chance to listen to this elaborate 15-track offering, you’re missing out: Stanziola has crafted a…
Saturday’s fifth annual Hopfest Craft Beer Festival is setting up to feature a strong lineup of hard-to-find beers. “I try to have a good mix of stuff that is so rare that you’re not going to find it at any liquor store and even other festivals,” says organizer George Clarke. “And then we also have everything from that all the way…
Jason Hancock, The Kansas City Star’s Jefferson City correspondent, had the big story on Wednesday that left Missouri’s political establishment quivering. Hancock revealed that John Diehl, the Missouri House Speaker, had enjoyed a semi-steamy string of text messages with a legislative intern. Rumors of these exchanges circulated around Jefferson City for a while now. Hancock stayed on the story, despite having to…
If anyone can name every band that Jason Beers has ever been in, they deserve an award just as much as Beers does for his genre-hopping, multi-instrumental talents. In addition to bands like Wild Chipmunk and the Cuddly Poos, the Brannock Device, and others, Beers plays solo quite a bit, where you can see his prowess on the likes of…
Before the Bomb Drops by Second Hand King
LiveKC’s mission to bring life to Barney Allis Plaza this summer kicks off Thursday night with the first Backyard event. At 5 p.m., downtown Kansas City’s most underused town square transforms into an urban Backyard with a food truck (Werner’s on Wheels), a biergarten and leisure sports. Downtown Kansas City hasn’t always been the most vibrant place after 5 p.m., with…
Erik Mariscal’s cocktail menus have always been very garden-inspired, so it should surprise no one that his new spring cocktail offerings at the Local Pig in Westport is his most flavorful yet. As part of our ongoing “Drink This Now” blog series, we decided to stop in for a quick taste of the California transplant’s newest drinks. The cocktail list…
Thursday, May 14Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA and Bur Oak Dark Star Black Kölsch, at Waldo Pizza (7433 Broadway) New Belgium Pear Ginger Beer cocktail mixer with Girls Pint Out, at the Belfry (1532 Grand), 6–8 p.m. Prairie Artisan Ales tap takeover, with 2nd Anniversary and Spaghetti Western, at Bier Station (120 E. Gregory Blvd.) ESB on Nitro release, at Border…
In their third season as a member of the Southeastern Conference, the Missouri Tigers captured their second SEC East title, the school’s second consecutive year doing so in its 14th season under head coach Gary Pinkel. The Tigers finished 11-3 (7-1 SEC) after defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers, 33-17, in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl. The Tigers lost in…
Just seven months after his sold-out show at Knuckleheads in December, Sturgill Simpson returns to Kansas City on his summer tour in July – this time at Crossroads KC. The psychedelic country singer-songwriter’s breakthrough 2014 full-length, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, has doubtlessly earned him a larger stage. If you missed your chance to see Simpson live at Knuckleheads, don’t…
Kansas City Public Schools once again appears to be on the verge of another search for a superintendent. Stephen Green, the superintendent thought to be the superintendent who would restore stability to the upper echelon of KCPS administration, has been named the sole finalist for the DeKalb County School District near Atlanta, Georgia, according to a report Wednesday morning from…
Your hair is probably better than my hair. For years, I bleached the life out of my locks, giving hollow reply to well-meaning hairstylists who called my natural shade of blond “dirty” or “dishwater” or (worst of all) “mousy.” Today I’m older and … let’s not say wiser but agree, instead, that I’m more practical. Which means I have given…
When it came time for Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to pay for a meal at Topeka barbecue joint Boss Hawg’s earlier this month, his server crossed out the ticket’s tip line and wrote: “Tip the schools.” Brownback left a little money for Chloe Hough anyway, 10 percent on the $52 tab — markedly below the industry standard for adequate service….
Name: Gerald Dunn Occupation: Entertainment director, American Jazz Museum; general manager, the Blue Room; freelance musician Hometown: Lindale, Texas Current neighborhood: Grandview What I do: As the GM of the Blue Room and director of entertainment for the American Jazz Museum for the past 17 years, I’ve had some humbling experiences helping me realize that we stand on the shoulders…
Terry Rouse, a wiry 67-year-old engineer, has spent the better part of the past year building his dream home: a 60-square-foot box on a trailer that he can attach to the hitch on his Crown Victoria sedan and haul to, presumably, his dream lot. From the outside, the structure resembles a child’s playhouse, a deluxe version of a certain kind…
Mad Max: Fury Road begins not unlike The Road Warrior, the beloved second film in director George Miller’s Mad Max series, with a grim narrator describing how the world became a post-nuclear desert wasteland. But this time, the voice belongs to our hero himself, Max Rockatansky — once played by an unknown named Mel Gibson, here played by Tom Hardy….
You’re named a Rising Star in DownBeat’s critics poll for three consecutive years only if you’ve awed people. Well, Israeli-born trumpeter Avishai Cohen has done more than awe the masses with his compositions and performances; he has opened doors to new worlds. His own music, constantly reaching out and exploring, is jazz with a sense of adventure — never repetitive,…
Sometimes, Meryl Streep just isn’t available. That’s one playwrighting lesson worth internalizing from the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s world premiere of Sticky Traps, a promising play that makes superhuman demands on its actors and suffers here from inattentive direction. Written by KC Rep playwright-in-residence Nathan Louis Jackson and directed by Kyle Hatley, Sticky Traps centers on Linda, a grieving mother…
Making Movies Making Movies hardly needs a gimmick at this point. The much-loved local four-piece, fronted by Panamanian-American brothers Enrique and Diego Chi, makes a mix of heady Latin rhythms and smart alternative rock, with lyrics in both Spanish and English. But there’s an added enticement Friday at the VooDoo Lounge, when the band pays tribute to Farnia Records and…
In “Live By the Water,” the first song off Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear’s debut full-length, Skeleton Crew, Ward’s strong, sonorous tenor flows over gentle, folky guitar chords. The lyrics sketch out scenes of simple comforts — All I need’s a sip of cherry cola and pie, Ward declares — while Ruth Ward, the eponymous Mama Bear, Ward’s mother,…
