Archives: September 2025

UB40’s Matt Campbell on growing up around reggae legends

UB40. // image courtesy the artist British reggae act UB40 has been plying their electric and energetic  brand of music for over 45 years at this point, and they show no signs of stopping. Best known for their covers of songs such as “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Red Red Wine,” along with original smashes such as their debut…

Photos: The Black Keys played the hits at Starlight

The Black Keys. // photo by Kylee Gregg The Black Keys with the Heavy Heavy Starlight Theater Sunday, September 7 Touring in support of the just-released No Rain, No Flowers, blues rockers the Black Keys took to the stage of Starlight on Sunday night. Soul rockers the Heavy heavy opened and our photographer Kylee Gregg was there to capture it…

Former Missouri House Speaker, Republican John Diehl, pleads guilty to federal wire fraud charge

John Diehl during his time in the Missouri House of Representatives (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications) John Diehl, a former speaker of the Missouri House who was forced to resign in disgrace in 2015 when it was revealed he’d been sending sexually inappropriate text messages to an intern, pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal wire fraud charge. Diehl, a Republican from…

AMERI’KANA Fest and Art as Mentorship need your vote to secure grant funding

Celebrate AMERI’KANA Music Festival 2024 Photographer: William J Stribling July 2025’s Celebrate AMERI’KANA had its biggest year yet with 2,500 people in attendance across two stages, street parades, lion dancers, and a refugee-based band. Built on the hard work and career of Latin Grammy-nominated band, Making Movies, Enrique Chi has used the fest not just as a platform for elevating…

Missouri House passes gerrymandered congressional map, limits on initiative petitions

Both bills now head to the Missouri Senate, where Democrats are expected to use the filibuster and other procedural maneuvers to gum up legislative business as much as possible.

House Speaker Jon Patterson presides over the final day of the 2025 legislative session on May 15. // (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications) Bills creating a gerrymandered congressional map and making it virtually impossible to change the state constitution through the initiative petition process are on their way to the Missouri Senate. The Missouri House gave final approval to both proposals…

Oddly Correct debuts a bold canned beverage featuring coffee and lemon

Photo by Sarah Sipple Kansas City coffee shop and roaster, Oddly Correct, launched a unique, even polarizing, canned beverage. Crispy Boi ($6) is a mix of Oddly’s Cheat Code coffee and lemonade. The beverage is poured and packaged by Arete Beverage in Wisconsin, using coffee roasted in Kansas City. As of now, it is only sold at Oddly Correct’s cafe…

Keep Them Coming: A left hook from Peyronie’s Disease

Kristen Thomas // Photo by Nicole Bissey The human penis is as varied and unique as our fingerprints. Some are long, some are thin, some have a big head, and some are curved. While a curved penis is considered nothing abnormal medically, a penis-owner may have negative thoughts about their own member not being straight, but it is totally normal….

Designing Women at Unicorn Theatre tackles political controversy with quick-witted humor

Photo by Don Ipok Directed by Abe Reybold, Designing Women, revised, debuted at Unicorn Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 6. With Linda Bloodworth Thomason, the original creator of the esteemed sitcom, coming back to be the playwright of this production, the piece revives the sharp Southern charm of the original TV series for the present. For those unfamiliar with the original show,…

Turnpike Troubadours played their hearts out at Uptown

Turnpike Troubadours. // photo by Allison Scavo Turnpike Troubadours with American Aquarium and Leon Macjen Uptown Theater Thursday, September 4 A sea of plaid shirts, floral print dresses, and cowboy hats packed a sold-out Uptown Thursday night for an evening of stellar Americana. The sold-out portion was unsurprising, given that headliners, Oklahoma red dirt band Turnpike Troubadours, has the ability…

Kansas City Underground Film Festival returns Sept. 12-20 with weird, wild, and fascinating ultra-indies

Check out the featured highlights from this year’s stacked schedule.

The Garden Sees Fire. // Courtesy KCUFF There are lots of places you can go in Kansas City if you want to see studio blockbusters or buzzed-about arthouse movies (and that’s a great thing!). But if you want to see strange, funny, and fascinating films you can’t find anywhere else — and see them for free — there’s only one…

Photos: Royals lose game three to Twins as the wildcard race heats up

Kansas City Royals versus Minnesota Twins on September 7, 2025. // Photo by Tarik Sykes The Kansas City Royals drop game three of a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, Sept. 7. The Twins got off to a quick start, scoring a run in the top of the first, and then never looked back. Although the Royals swiped…

Photos: Royals sweep Angels with 4-3 final game

Bobby Witt Jr. hit a two-out solo home run in the eighth inning and the Kansas City Royals beat the Los Angeles Angels 4-3 on Thursday night to avoid a sweep in a three-game series. The Royals hit four solo homers in a game where all seven runs came on home runs. Our photographer Tarik Sykes was there to capture…

Jeff Parson’s Riverside yard art is how one superfan puts his love for Chiefs Kingdom on display

Photo Courtesy of Jeff Parson Today, at 7:00 p.m., the Kansas City Chiefs will play their first game of the 2025 NFL Season against the Los Angeles Chargers in São Paulo, Brazil. While all Kansas Citians eagerly await Mahomes’ first touchdown pass of the season, others are also antsy about the flick of another local’s wrist. Alongside the bending intersection…

Legislative push to gerrymander Missouri congressional map advances

A Missouri House committee voted Thursday to redraw the state’s congressional districts to carve up Kansas City and gain another GOP-leaning seat.

State Rep. Dirk Deaton, a Republican from Noel, presents legislation that would redraw Missouri’s congressional map to a House committee on Thursday (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications) If a new Missouri congressional map endorsed by President Donald Trump is put into place, voters living on Kansas City’s east side will share a congressional district with people living nearly four hours away…

Secret meetings of parole study group may violate Missouri Sunshine Law

The working group established by Gov. Mike Kehoe to look at the regulations governing parole has met twice since a public hearing in June. Neither the public nor the media was notified of either meeting.

The Jefferson City Correctional Center. (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent) The panel established by Gov. Mike Kehoe to write rules for how long people who break the law must stay in prison may be violating the law itself by meeting in secret. As one of his first acts as governor in January, Kehoe ordered the Department of Corrections and the Division of…

OK Go’s Tim Nordwind touts the creative importance of intense playfulness ahead of Truman show

OK Go. // Photo by Piper Ferguson After a decade-long hiatus, the genre-defying band, not-strictly-indie, not-strictly-alternative pop-rock band OK Go has hit the road again and will stop in Kansas City to perform at The Truman on September 11. This tour run comes with the promotion of their most recent fifth studio album And the Adjacent Possible, which debuted in…

KC Sipps: Foodie festivals for every flavor, and a Y2K-themed bar opens in Overland Park

This week's Kansas City restaurant news.

KC Sipps logo by Theodore Rosen Life in KC is pretty delicious. In fact, there is often so much going on that it can be hard to decide where to go and what to try. That’s where I come in.  I’ve curated this weekly list of events, openings, deals, and celebrations to keep you in-the-know. Cheers! Something New News Bites:…

Rich in history and vitamins, Lenexa’s Spinach Fest is happening this weekend

Courtesy City of Lenexa, Kansas Government Facebook Lenexa Spinach Festival is back this Saturday, Sept. 6, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with food, music, and hands-on activities for the whole family. Lenexa was anointed as the “Spinach Capital of the World” during the 1930s due to the incredible spinach crops grown in the area. You can experience the World’s…