%{}% Kansas City quartet Merlin has been making music for several years now, but only just this year released its first full-length. That album, Christ Killer, came out digitally back in April, but thanks to pressing-plant back-ups, won’t be out on vinyl until this month, when it arrives via Poisoned Mind Records. It’s a massive piece of work, simultaneously encompassing…
%{}% THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 Breckenridge T-shirt night, at Barley’s (11924 W. 119th St., Overland Park), 5 p.m. Against the Grain Schwillie Nelson, at Flying Saucer (101 E. 13th St.), 7 p.m. Sierra Nevada Narwhal Imperial Stout and Bigfoot Barleywine tappings, at Waldo Pizza (7433 Broadway), 6 p.m. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16 Nebraska Brewing cellar event, at Barley’s (16649 Midland Dr., Shawnee), 5…
%{}% The aptly titled Pig & Pinot mini festival is going down at Char Bar on Sunday. If you haven’t nabbed a ticket to this tasty backyard shindig, there are a few things that might convince you to go. Namely — as you might have guessed from the event theme — food from pigs and wine from grapes. “With Char…
%{}% The countdown has started: six more days until the start of Burger Week, October 19 through October 25. Among the 16 special $5 burgers is the decadent Bomb, created by chef Eric Quisenberry of the Well (7421 Broadway). It’s pictured above — clearly a burger that costs considerably more than five bucks to make. “Very considerably,” says the Well owner…
If there’s one team in baseball over the past two seasons that know how to seize an opportunity, it would be difficult to argue that anyone does it better than the Kansas City Royals. After last year’s miraculous World Series run, their 2015 season was near over before Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa misplayed a double play ball that gave…
%{}% Last October, Chris and Mistie Roberts spent their 12th wedding anniversary brewing beer in the garage of their Olathe home. This year, they’ll open the doors to the newest brewery in the metro area: Red Crow Brewing Co. (207th Street and U.S. Highway 169, Spring Hill). Earlier this month, Red Crow announced on Facebook that the brewery and taproom…
%{}% In April, Rick Compton, the general manager at Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar on the Plaza, became a Certified Cicerone. Call him an overachiever: Compton already held his Court of Masters Sommelier certification. Recently, the beer list at Jax has undergone some significant changes with Compton’s guidance, and the restaurant has just rolled out a new all-day beer…
%{}% For the last six years, restaurateur Denise Hayes has been serving the best traditional soul food — including tender oxtails, crispy fried chicken and slow-simmered greens — at her namesake restaurant, Niecie’s, at 6441 Troost. But the staff here also puts out one hell of a hamburger that can be ordered with fries or, for a slight upcharge, one…
%{}% Kansas City, Missouri, Fire Department veterans John Mesh and Larry Leggio died when a building on the 2600 block of Independence Avenue collapsed in the midst of a two-alarm blaze. Fire crews responded to the massive fire at an apartment building last night at about 7:30 p.m. The cause of the fire was not immediately known as KCFD and…
%{}% Kevin Yoder took more campaign donations from the payday-lending industry than any other member of the U.S. Congress between 2011 and 2015, according to a new study by Allied Progress. The group found that the Kansas congressman has received $100,357 from the industry since 2011. Our own analysis last year — which tallied up not just big payday operators…
Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield is a bit of an anomaly in the popular singer-songwriter landscape. Her latest record, Ivy Tripp (released in April on Merge Records), finds the Alabama-born artist — and former frontwoman of P.S. Eliot, the pop-punk band she formed with her twin sister, Allison — spreading out her most honest self-assessments in songs that have a Lilith Fair-era…
%{}% Ian Davis, the 25-year-old coffee roaster who has set up shop in the West Bottoms, is a motorcycle enthusiast. He owns a 1976 Honda CB 554. So when he wanted the right name for his business, he thought about his bike. “A throttle blip,” he says, “is a rev-matching technique where a rider blips the throttle to match the…
%{}% A scary moment occurred early in today’s playoff baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Houston Astros when a young fan in the stands was hit by a foul ball. It was a sobering scene as the child was quickly rushed out of the stands in the second inning of Monday’s game at Minute Maid Park. ESPN…
%{}% You would never guess what they keep on the second floor of the Uptown Arts Bar. It’s not office space or stock for the bar or old furniture. No, in the 600-square-foot room, there’s another venue: an electronic dance club called Niche. The bar is small, but that’s fine because at Niche, drinks are a bonus — the real…
%{}% Rhiannon Giddens with Bhi Bhiman The Folly Theater Sunday, October 11 At first, Rhiannon Giddens’ silhouette was enough. Giddens and her band took the stage last night as shadows against a blue-lit scrim. As they strapped in and tuned up between a quartet of tall, dim, old-fashioned, Singin’ in the Rain-syle street lamps, it was obvious this wasn’t the…
%{}% As The Pitch counts down the days to the beginning of the second annual Burger Week — Monday, October 19, through Sunday, October 25 — the chance to sample 16 different local burgers for a five-spot each isn’t just a great economic deal, but also an opportunity to actually pay a long-overdue visit to some of the newer restaurants and…
We’re making The Pitch’s Best of Kansas City party extra special this year with a local music lineup you won’t want to miss. It’s an eclectic pack, including members of the Kansas City Symphony, sure to amp up the energy as we raise a glass to the finest examples of local talent in Kansas City. Yes You Are Yes You…
Christ Killer by Merlin
%{}% For a band scarcely (if ever) heard on the radio anymore, Kraftwerk quietly remains one of the world’s most influential bands. Beginning in the early 1970s, the band’s pioneering use of synthesizers, electronic beats and vocoder laid the groundwork for electronic music and hip-hop, influencing artists from David Bowie to Jay-Z. That music — especially for how foreign it…
%{}% In April, we found out that Stretch was expanding his Grinders empire to Leavenworth, Kansas, taking over the High Noon Saloon. We now have an opening date: Wednesday, October 28. Grinders High Noon (206 Choctaw, Leavenworth) will be Stretch’s fourth restaurant, following two locations on 18th Street in the Crossroads Arts District and one in Lenexa. According to a…
The Kansas City Chiefs had a recent three-game stretch against some of the best teams in the NFL, but did not pass the test with flying colors as the franchise now looks to snap a three-game losing skid against the Chicago Bears this Sunday. After defeating the Houston Texans in the opening weekend by seven points on the road, the…
%{}% The latest Boulevard Smokestack Series beer can’t be found in a bottle on a store shelf. Deep Dive Wet-Hopped Ale is draft only — it first started hitting taps on Monday — so you’re going to have to get to a bar or a restaurant to taste it. “Last year, we did Last Splash in the Backroads Series, and we…
%{}% Nine months ago, a story in the “paper of record” announced, with some fanfare, that local businesswoman and singer Darcus Gates — the daughter-in-law of barbecue legend Ollie Gates — was taking one of the retail spaces in the new Gates shopping development at 47th Street and Troost, the Cleaver II Blvd Shoppes, and opening a 180-seat supper club….
%{}% Lord Huron, José González Uptown Theater, Kansas City Thursday, October 8 An amazingly cheery crowd came in out of the evening rain for last night’s show at the Uptown. Everyone in the theater was all smiles and animated conversation as they milled about the floor. And why not? For all the mournful aspects of Lord Huron’s music, there’s a…
