Archives: July 2015
J. Rieger & Co. has a brand-new product: Midwestern Premium Vodka
Earlier this week, the folks at J. Rieger & Co. — who last year debuted the delightful J. Rieger & Co. Whiskey — unveiled a brand-new product: Midwestern Premium Vodka. Because they just can’t help themselves, I guess. Those crazy kids! “We decided to do the vodka awhile back,” Ryan Maybee, co-owner of J. Rieger & Co. and partner at…
Border Brewing Co. releases American Dark Wheat, North Coast tap takeover at Green Room, Two Brothers Wobble glass night and more beer events
THURSDAY, JULY 9American Dark Wheat release party, at Border Brewing Co. (406 E. 18 St.), 4–9 p.m. Deschutes Pinedrops IPA tapping and brewers table, at Flying Saucer (101 E. 13th St.), 7 p.m. Firestone Walker canned beer and ramen dinner, with Pivo Pils, Union Jack and Opal Saison, at Columbus Park Ramen Shop at Happy Gillis (549 Gillis), $33, 6–9…
Former Grandview Mayor Steve Dennis is back in Kansas City, currently in a halfway house
Steve Dennis is about to be a free man. Dennis, who has spent the better part of the last year in a federal prison in Florence, Colorado, has been transferred back to a halfway house in Kansas City, Kansas. On August 11, 2014, Dennis was sentenced to a year and a day in federal custody for wire fraud. The charge…
Double Shift Brewing Co. opens Saturday in the Crossroads Arts District (update opening postponed)
UPDATE: Double Shift’s grand opening has been postponed according to Facebook. The message reads: “Sad news today, we will unfortunately have to put off our opening weekend to a future date due to circumstances beyond our control. We’ll keep everyone updated as we know more. Stick with us and we’ll serve you a beer soon!” The day I meet him,…
Novel’s Ryan Brazeal not sure yet what he’ll do with 1935 McGee
Plywood has surrounded the 97-year-old brick building at 1935 McGee for some time. In the spring of 2012, a portion of the structure’s roof collapsed, effectively closing down the previous tenant, Cadillac Catering, forever. Since then, the plan has been to raze what was constructed as a car dealership, back in 1918. The new owner of that building and its…
WyCo’s BPU settles an electrocution case for more than it had to
Nick Moeder, a 27-year-old Shawnee resident, was playing a wee-hours round of disc golf in Rosedale Park, in southeast Wyandotte County, on June 16, 2013, when he stepped on a live electrical wire. A strong storm the previous day had knocked down power lines throughout the metro; this one had been on the ground for about 11 hours. Moeder died…
Torn Label Brewing Co.’s taproom opens Saturday
The Crossroads Arts District brewery boomlet enters its next phase this weekend. Double Shift opens Saturday — and so does Torn Label Brewing Co.’s taproom (1708 Campbell). The latter is offering growler fills, flights and beer by the glass. And you can hit both without feeling disloyal to either. “We spoke with Double Shift’s Aaron before settling on that date…
Angela Halloran, touring production coordinator, talks starting Wilder, shopping in the West Bottoms and more in The Pitch Questionnaire
Hometown: Overland Park Current neighborhood: Waldo What I do: My main gig is touring with bands as a production coordinator, but I’ve also just started an online shop called Wilder — our goods give back. Tell us more about Wilder: I wanted to find a way to combine my love for design, creativity and giving in the best way I…
Instagram, art and the naked ambitions of Carrie Riehl
Carrie Riehl shaved off her eyebrows in early June. I know this because I saw it on Instagram, where Riehl maintains — stars in, really — an art-drenched, visually provocative account. By the standards of someone who’s always a nipple or a pubic hair away from being thrown off the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app, the eyebrow episode seemed demure. She posts…
Music Forecast 7.9-7.15: Talib Kweli, Rush, the Griswolds, Sturgill Simpson, and Wilco
Talib Kweli We’ve been promised a new Talib Kweli album, Radio Silence, this year. Kweli has been teasing it since January, and yet we still don’t have an official release date. Fine. We’ll just listen to 2013’s Gravitas on repeat, reveling in Kweli’s verbose — but always refined — lyricism. Gravitas was not perfect, and in some places uneven —…
Krystle Warren returns for a special occasion at Californos
Krystle Warren isn’t a household name in her home country — yet. But the Kansas City native, who lives in Paris, sings like a star, summoning Nina Simone’s bewitching depths and Roberta Flack’s intimate phrasing while sounding like no one else. On her recent double LP, Love Songs, she fuses neosoul and modern jazz into a singular songwriting voice. Warren…
Lawrence’s Spirit Is the Spirit wants to get back on your radar
Usually, when a band that hasn’t toured or recorded lately offers as a reason that “life gets in the way,” everybody knows that the excuse is a bit feeble. But the silent two years since Spirit Is the Spirit’s Baktun Baby EP is owed to more unusual events. In the first year after Baktun Baby came out, the quintet played…
Jazz Beat: ARC Label Week, the Blue Room
Artists Recording Collective, or ARC, is a Leavenworth-based jazz record label with an uncommon business model, one in which musicians retain control of their work. This week, the Blue Room celebrates ARC with two acts and a pair of 90-minute sets each night. Thursday, it’s trumpeter Stan Kessler’s Sons of Brazil and pianist Roger Wilder’s quintet. Friday features organist Chris…
The wrenching doc Amy reclaims Amy Winehouse’s artistic legacy
Add Amy to the growing list of riveting documentaries this year about music icons (Cobain: Montage of Heck; What Happened, Miss Simone?) whose tumultuous lives gave them a wealth of bold personal songs as well as a tragic early demise. With her death still fresh in people’s minds — she has been gone just four years — and her career…
Fashion startup Covey means to make conscientious couture
“Slow fashion means buying less, spending more and having it longer,” Sarah Hicks tells me. She and her business partner, Monica Rojas, believe in slow fashion, but they’re relying on speed to launch Covey, their fashion line. Their $6,000 Kickstarter campaign ends July 14. At press time, they were almost there, which means that by this fall, KC could be…
It’s officially better to be gay in Missouri than in Kansas
You may recall how, last year, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback rescinded an executive order issued by his predecessor, Kathleen Sebelius, that protected state employees from discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. (We’ve written about SOGI laws in Roeland Park, Kansas.) It was a pointless step backward for the state and a cheap attempt to score points…
Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival brings Aziz Ansari, Amy Schumer and lots of other funny people to Starlight in August
The lineup for Funny or Die’s annual Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival is seriously golden this year, featuring headliner Aziz Ansari (of Parks and Rec fame), the never-aproppriate Amy Schumer (go watch Inside Amy Schumer right now) and 20 more highly recommended comedians. The tour kicks off here, at Starlight, on Friday, August 28. After Ansari and Schumer, the tour…
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros rescheduled for July 29 at Crossroads KC
Last night, amid tornado and thunderstorm warnings, Crossroads KC announced that it would need to reschedule the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros concert it had booked for the evening. Here’s hoping the new date, Wednesday, July 29, will stay dry. For more info, go here. Categories: News Tags: crossroads kc, edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros, just announced, rescheduled
Pee Party: Downtown Peanut
Pee Party is an irregular column in which we investigate restrooms around town. There was a time in my life when I was calling in orders of the Peanut’s delicious hot wings on a very regular basis —at least biweekly, maybe every week. There were certain days when simply nothing else would do. One day, I was sitting inside waiting…
Did Kansas City authorities roust signature-gathering activists from RiverFest?
Dan Coffey, a persistent critic of City Hall in Kansas City, lit up local news media e-mail inboxes on Monday with allegations that local authorities disrupted his effort to gather signatures for a petition initiative. Coffey is the public face of a group called Citizens For Responsible Government. CFRG generally opposes the expenditure of taxpayer money on big-ticket items (think…
Konrad’s Kitchen & Tap House in Lee’s Summit is one of a kind
Don’t confuse Konrad’s Kitchen & Tap House, the two-year-old saloon and restaurant in downtown Lee’s Summit, with the slightly older Conrad’s Restaurant & Alehouse in Liberty. They only sound alike. Joe and Julie Kemna, the owners of Konrad’s Kitchen & Tap House, overhauled the former Jerry’s Bait Shop at 302 S.W. Main in the heart of downtown Lee’s Summit into…
REO Speedwagon headlines the Midland in November
If you are looking for an excuse to revel in the glorious sounds of the late 1970s and ’80s, add this date to your calendar: Thursday, November 5. On that night, REO Speedwagon will headline the Midland. No need to fight your true feelings, guys. Tickets go on sale Friday, July 10, at 10 a.m. Details here. Categories: News Tags:…
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