%{}% %{}% Info Gates, Ces Cru, Heartfelt Anarchy, JL B. Hood, Joey Cool RecordBar hosts its final hip-hop show Sunday before the venue closes for good — or, at least, until its owners find a new location. Rapper Justin Gillespie, who performs as Info Gates, welcomes to the stage local favorites Ces Cru, Heartfelt Anarchy (rapper Les Izmore and producer…
%{}% %{}% Stevie Wonder’s band at Mutual Musicians Foundation, October 23 Those present at Stevie Wonder’s epic October concert at the Sprint Center will be retelling their versions of that night for years, but I will never forget the unofficial after-party that I stumbled upon in the early hours of the morning at the Mutual Musicians Foundation. A handful of…
%{}% %{}% We’ve built some big memories in 2015. New bands. New venues. New record stores. New beginnings — and a few goodbyes. There were live-music moments that we’ll try to top in the new year. We experienced concerts that might not have made headlines but have remained in mind. Here are a few of the highlights. Say Hello ……
%{}% %{}% What were people talking about in Kansas City’s restaurant scene in 2015? I can name quite a few things. Ramen. Bakeries. Pizza. Comeback stories. Barbecue. But ramen, that dish of kinky Japanese noodles in a full-bodied broth, was the hottest restaurant story of 2015. Why? Kansas City has seen the start of a ramen revolution. The Columbus Park…
%{}% %{}% Natural light streams in through the long windows above the Belger Crane Yard Studios gallery. In the middle of the floor, a thorny bramble reaches for the opposite wall, anchored to the ground on spiny legs that untangle from the busy sculpture. Chaotic at first, the wooden “Singularity” begins to make sense the longer you study it. A…
%{}% %{}% Transportation victories are hard-won in Kansas City. City leaders and downtown boosters hail the 2-mile streetcar line on Main Street, slated to begin carrying passengers in 2016, as a long-awaited return to rail transportation for the city. As it stands, a rail line that covers 2 linear miles won’t make a dent in a sprawling city’s public-transportation issues….
%{}% The St. Louis Board of Aldermen last week passed a package to publicly finance a new stadium for its professional football franchise — a package that the city’s top financial administrator called “fiscally irresponsible.” What could possibly go wrong? In a city whose elected officials cry poverty when residents wonder why dangerous buildings can’t be torn down, St. Louis…
%{}% A friend of mine, a highly critical diner, called me one day in the middle of her lunch to tell me how much she loved this new place she had stumbled upon in Independence. “It’s a nothing little place from the outside,” she said. “And it’s not much inside, either. But the tacos are sensational. Don’t tell anyone about…
%{}% Boulevardia is coming back for a third year. The three-day urban street festival is set to return Father’s Day weekend, June 17-19, in the West Bottoms. Not a lot of details are out there about the third edition of Boulevardia. But Taps & Tastes, the one-day beer festival, is slated for Saturday, June 18, according to Boulevard ambassador brewer…
%{}% John Ondrasik, who performs as Five for Fighting, was kind of like the Adele of the early aughts: No matter where you turned your radio dial, there was no escaping one of his depressing ballads. On Thursday, June 9, you can relive the glory of “100 Years,” “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” and “The Riddle” when Ondrasik performs with the…
%{}% Just because Joe Stanziola, who performs Second Hand King, is still promoting his May-released album, Before the Bomb Drops, doesn’t mean he pauses on writing new material. On January 8, we’ll have a new album, Almost Blue, from the rapper. On Wednesday, Stanziola released the lead single from that album, called “Tokyo.” “The album is a concept album that follows…
Season of Change by Bran Cerddorion
A Christmas 45 to Pay the Rent by Lucky Luxury
A Perfect Christmas by The Perfect Things
Just Me: Christmas by David Simmons
CHRISTMAS AIN’T A DRAG by The David George Crooked Christmas Orchestra
Jolly Time! by Sam Billen
The defense didn’t allow the Kansas City Chiefs winning streak to end as it reached seven games after defeating the San Diego Chargers 10-3 last Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. Now in second place of the AFC West at 8-5, the Chiefs control their own destiny for an AFC playoff spot after coming back from a dreadful 1-5 start. The Chiefs…
%{}% For movie fans, this is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. Studios are rushing to make sure that their best and brightest are shipshape in time to meet Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar eligibility. Most years, that means audiences are inundated with middlebrow literary adaptations, gaudy costume dramas and maybe an honest-to-goodness good movie. This…
%{}% “We’re out of doughnuts,” Jake Randall cheerfully told me last Thursday, December 17, when I popped into the Doughnut Lounge, his new Westport shop, just after 2 p.m. “We ran out of everything by 11 a.m.” That’s fine, I told him: I’m here for the cocktails. The full bar at the Doughnut Lounge, which opened Thursday, doesn’t open until…
