Thanksgiving Breakfast Dance, version M.O

Though I’m gonna be out of town again this year for Thanksgiving, my heart sank when I heard the news a few weeks ago that Roger Naber would not be holding his Thanksgiving Breakfast Dance this year.

For those who’ve never attended the 33-year-old tradition, it is a beautiful, rapturous, and very bibulous Thanksgiving-morning event that finds hundreds of people in their beyond-Sunday-best piling into the KCK National Guard Armory drinking, eating and dancing to three or four hours of beatific jams provided by 30-piece soul bands.

The first time I went, the “Candy Licker” Marvin Sease headlined, and I ended up drunk at a former Chiefs’ player’s house. The next year, Millie Jackson headlined, and I took a camera.

This year, the Armory will be empty, but there is no need to lament! Another group, the Southeast Bar and Restaurant Association, has taken up the torch and will be holding a dance of their own tomorrow morning on the Missouri side, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Phase II Entertainment Complex at 8625 Troost. Mississippi-based R&B singer Willie Clayton will headline, with openers Priscilla Price and Billy’s Soul Bonds Band.

Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door, and can be purchased at the Green Duck Lounge, 6902 Club, the Epicurean, Papa Lew’s, Phase II, the Juke House on 18th St., Necy’s and other associated venues. Free breakfast is included with the ticket (YEAH!), and it’s still BYOB (DOUBLE YEAH!). The event is also a fundraiser for the group’s scholarship fund.

Damn, Sam, sounds like this could be even better than the Armory dance. With any luck, my plane will get grounded tomorrow morning, and I’ll get to go. If not, I expect you to do at least seven cranberry Jell-O shots in my name. Cheers!