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WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN MAY
May 07
GO: Wettest Block Party on Saturday, May 7 at the corner of Ninth St. and State Line, KCMO. 4–11 pm. BOTTOMS UP In August of 1907, the Kansas City Times reported that the Ninth Street block from State Line to Genessee Street in the West Bottoms was “the wettest block in America.” When Kansans went dry after banning alcohol in 1881, Missourians opened pubs right on the border to serve their neighbors.
By that September, two dozen of the twenty-nine buildings on Ninth Street were occupied by saloons and liquor retailers. One of those, a building constructed by Pabst Brewing at 1717 W. Ninth St., has recently been restored to its roots by owners Heather Hamilton and Sean Smith.
Hamilton is honoring the history of the West Bottoms with the Wettest Block Party. As part of Historic West Bottom Heritage Days, an outdoor festival with live music will be held on the boozy block on the border of Kansas and Missouri.
“Because the event is a part of Heritage Days, it’s really meant to draw attention to the history of this other side of the West Bottoms,” Hamilton says. “This side doesn’t get a lot of attention, and it’ll be a nice chance to get people down here to see a different part of the West Bottoms and realize there’s still a lot of potential here.” —MARY HENN
May
WHAT YOU WANT TO DO THIS MONTH
Jason Isbell
May 5, 7 pm
He’s a staple in every indie-folk playlist: Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell is doing a show at the Uptown, where he’ll perform hits from his latest record, Georgia Blue, which came out last fall. Originally released for charity, the album is composed of covers that celebrate music from the state of Georgia artists like Brandi Carlile and John Paul White of The Civil Wars. Thursday, May 5. 7 pm. Uptown Theater.
Buddy Guy
May 5, 8 pm
Arguably the greatest living bluesman, Buddy Guy is in his mid-eighties but remains in remarkable health and still possesses the blues on an almost mystical level. As DownBeat says, Guy performs like a man half his age. He is playing Knuckleheads in support of 2018’s The Blues Is Alive and Well, an affirmation of health for himself and the tradition he has dedicated his life to. Thursday, May 5. 8 pm. Knuckleheads.
The Old Man and the Old Moon
May 6, 8 pm
KCRep has a new, whimsical American fable running this month that blends puppetry and live indie-folk music. The Old Man and the Old Moon is an epic tale of love and triumph created by PigPen Theatre Co. and was called “a phenomenon” by the Boston Herald. Opening night is Friday, May 6. 8 pm. Spencer Theatre.
Lenexa Art Fair
May 7, 10 am
May typically offers some of the best weather KC sees all year, and the annual Lenexa Art Fair is a great way to spend a Saturday—live jazz, wine, food trucks, activities for kids and the works of more than fifty local artists. Saturday, May 7. 10 am–7 pm. Lenexa Civic Campus.
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Sheep Shearing at Missouri Town
May 7
Missouri Town 1855 in Lee’s Summit takes you back to Kansas City’s time as a frontier town. In those days, giving sheep their annual spring haircut to make woolen clothing was not as much of a pageant as it will be this Saturday when kids can also try the diversions of the day, which included stilt walking, egg racing, tin punching and log sawing. Saturday, May 7. 9 am-4:30 pm. Missouri Town 1855.
Savor the Season
May 12, 6 pm
Kansas City magazine is debuting its first Savor the Season event, the first in what will be a series of dining experiences. Executive chef of the Savoy Brandon Brumback will prepare a customized three-course meal with complimentary cocktail pairings crafted by Lifted Spirits Distillery. You’ll also learn how to create the cocktails served as you tap into the tastes of spring at this first-of-its-kind event. Thursday, May 12. 6–9 pm. The Savoy.
Sum 41
May 18, 7 pm
Often hailed as “the Candian Blink 182” but sometimes dismissed as merely “the Canadian Bowling for Soup,” this Ontario-based pop-punk band will always and forever be known for their pledge to never “be a casualty to society” in breakout single “Fat Lip.” Rewatch the “Fat Lip” video today and you might be struck by the extent to which the scene outside the convenience store anticipates Letterkenny. Expect a tight show since Sum 41 still plays hundreds of shows a year—after the Uptown, it’s off to Council Bluffs. Wednesday, May 18. 7 pm. Uptown Theater.
May 21
Charlotte Street Foundation presents another stellar exhibition, Sweeping the Chimney through the Mantle of the Earth, featuring nine contemporary artists. The exhibit is curated by Charlotte Street Studio resident Andrew Ordonez and presents new interpretations and recordings of nature while considering the physiological extension between the body and Earth through the lens of social and environmental unrest. Through Saturday, May 21. Various times. Charlotte Street Foundation’s new gallery at 3333 Wyoming St.
Tori Amos
May 31, 8 pm
And thus we come to the ‘How I Spent My Quarantine’ era of album releases, where favorite artists share the varied revelations that came amidst their lockdowns. For Tori Amos, the classically trained pianist and singer-songwriter known for compositions that run the range from piercing to devastating, it’s all on Ocean to Ocean, which she wrote in her adopted hometown of Cornwall on the southern English coast. “I was in my own private hell, so I told myself, then that’s where you write from—you’ve done it before,” she told Brooklyn Vegan. Tuesday, May 31. 8 pm. Kansas City Music Hall.
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Animal Collective
May 28, 8 pm
The electro psych-pop band from Baltimore may never have lived up to the heaps of praise ladled on them when long-defunct blogs wondered aloud if they might have a career trajectory that tracked Radiohead, but their new album, February’s Time Skiffs, has still gotten friendly B-level reviews. Time Skiffs is still gauzy and atmospheric—completely directionless to the ears of enemies who have not changed their minds—but now uses the hurdy-gurdy and the taishogoto. Saturday, May 28. 8 pm. The Truman.
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Phoebe Bridgers
May 31, 8 pm
Known for her gothy, folk-adjacent vibe, Phoebe Bridgers emerged in the late 2010s and is gaining even more traction lately for her songwriting, producing capabilities and smashing a guitar on SNL last year. Catch her under the stars, as she is set to perform an outdoor concert at the end of the month. Tuesday, May 31. 8 pm. Starlight Theatre.
STREETS OF WAGE
The Lawrence Busker Festival brings world-class street performers to town.
BY MARTIN CIZMAR
RICHARD RENNER had already been working full time as a street performer for almost two decades when he decided his adopted hometown of Lawrence would be the perfect place for a festival featuring others who make their living playing music, juggling, clowning, playing with fire and the like.
“One day, I was walking through downtown and just noticed that the performers that were there were pretty low talent—close to panhandling,” he says. “People with harmonicas and maracas and that type of thing. And I thought to myself, ‘We can do better than this.’”
Street performing—Renner’s act is slapstick comedy and circus arts—isn’t panhandling, despite some confusion. How can people easily tell the difference?
“I always say it’s up to the legitimate street performer to be so damned good that people totally know the difference,” Renner says.
You should be able to easily tell the difference at the Lawrence Busker Festival. The four-day event in downtown Lawrence features twenty acts from Australia, England, Canada and across the U.S.
“These people are top-notch,” Renner says. “They travel all over the world doing this, and they make their living solely off this.”
The Lawrence Busker Festival started in 2008 and has been held every year save 2020. The event is free, of course, though attendees are encouraged to swing by the ATM and stock up on fives and tens. The level of performance is high by any standard, with acrobatic feats and NY-based breakdancing twins Tic and Tac, who have been written up in the Washington Post and the Miami Herald. They’re acts that stop people in their tracks even outside the context of a festival.
“I’ve seen people start with nobody around and you think, ‘Oh man, why even bother,” Renner says. “But they start working and little by little stopping one person, stopping two people, three, four, and before I knew it they had a hundred people around. That is a legitimate skill.”
BUSKER LINGO
THE TIP The audience that gathers. “I did a show before a tip of a hundred people.” THE PITCH The spot on the street where a performer stages their act. “I can do a show in front of ten people, and I can do the same show in front of two hundred people,” Renner says. “I want to do the show for two hundred people. I’ll make a lot more money. So I’m looking for the right pitch.” THE HAT How much the performer made. “Hey, how much was your hat at that show?”
There are three well-known shortcuts—height, fire and noise.
“Get up high and set something on fire, and you’re going to get people’s attention,” Renner says. “Then make a loud noise. You want to bang on a pot or something.”
The festival takes place on Eighth Street, which is closed off. Attendees are allowed to drink beers from sponsor Free State while they watch. The most prized seats are at Sand Bar’s patio overlooking the festival. Renner books the festival so that each performer works a few different sets during the four days—but crashers are both tolerated and encouraged.
“We have control over five different sites, so I don’t control the whole downtown area,” he says. “So if somebody wants to show up and find a place and perform, I can’t stop them—they’re adding to the event.”
GO: The Lawrence Busker Festival is May 27–30 on Eighth Street and Massachusetts in downtown Lawrence. Free. See the schedule at lawrencebuskerfest.com.
