Riverfront Times, May 3, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher Chris Keating

Editor in Chief Rosalind Early

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor Jessica Rogen

Editor at Large Daniel Hill

Digital Content Editor Jaime Lees

Dining Editor Cheryl Baehr

Staff Writers Ryan Krull, Monica Obradovic Theater Critic Tina Farmer Music Critic Steve Leftridge

Contributors Max Bouvatte, Thomas K. Chimchards, Thomas Crone, Mike Fitzgerald, Reuben Hemmer, Andy Paulissen, Tony Rehagen, Mabel Suen, Graham Toker, Theo Welling Columnists Chris Andoe, Dan Savage

Editorial Interns Katie Lawson, Braden McMakin

ART & PRODUCTION

Art Director Evan Sult

Creative Director Haimanti Germain

Graphic Designer Aspen Smit

MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING

Associate Publisher Colin Bell

Account Manager Jennifer Samuel Directors of Business Development Tony Burton, Rachel Hoppman

Marketing Director Kristen Moser

Event and Promotions Manager John Heinrich

BUSINESS

Regional Operations Director Emily Fear

CIRCULATION

Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

EUCLID MEDIA GROUP

Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman

Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Executive Editor Sarah Fenske

VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein

Audience Development Manager Jenna Jones

VP of Marketing Cassandra Yardeni www.euclidmediagroup.com

NATIONAL ADVERTISING

VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS

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FRONT BURNER

MONDAY, APRIL 24 Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon are both pushed out of their prime cable TV news spots, and for viewers who loathe misogynistic blowhards, today is Christmas in April! In St. Louis, Judge Scott Millikan opts against holding Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner in contempt — yet a second contempt hearing now looms in an unrelated case on Thursday. Cue the ominous music

TUESDAY, APRIL 25 Daylight come, and we want to go home. RIP, Harry Belafonte. In Washington, President Biden says he’s running again. Let’s go Brandon? In St. Louis, it’s the State of the City Mayor Tishaura Jones says she’s focused on “modernizing city government, cutting red tape, and reimagining public safety for a new era.” One small piece of the public safety agenda: The Board of Aldermen confirms it will no longer allow members to legislate while driving That should take at least a few dangerous drivers off the road. Now do the rest!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26 Jerry Springer dies, Disney sues Ron DeSantis and the Cardinals send hot rookie Jordan Walker to AAA. What a news day! That’s also

Previously On LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS

true in St. Louis: The ACLU and Lambda Legal file suit over Missouri AG Andrew Bailey’s regulations barring trans children and even adults from gender-affirming care, and members of the civilian oversight board tasked with investigating the city’s jail tell the Post-Dispatch they are “fed up and ready to resign” if Mayor Jones doesn’t let them do their job. They say they’ve been denied access to the jail and aren’t even allowed to access health reports on detainees. Surely a modern city government includes strong oversight — and humane treatment of jail detainees.

THURSDAY, APRIL 27 Jack Dorsey has a new competitor to Twitter, and once again St. Louis saves the day. Near Kiener Plaza, a skateboarder is brutally murdered in broad daylight. His godmother hopes his death will inspire St. Louisans to come

FIVE QUESTIONS for ‘Sudster’ Leah Sage

together and reduce violent crime. We wish we shared her optimism. Meanwhile, in Kim Gardner’s second contempt hearing of the week (dun dun): Judge Mike Noble blasts the Circuit Attorney’s Office as a “rudderless ship of chaos” and instantly proves he has a better way with words than anyone in St. Louis journalism. The headlines Noble garners are good news for Andrew Bailey, who has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in court — his attempts to enact a new “emergency order” on trans care are rejected by judges in two different courts

FRIDAY, APRIL 28 Kim Gardner wants a new judge in the quo warranto case seeking to remove her from office (she doesn’t explain why, but she doesn’t have to). Meanwhile, thanks to the departure of Assistant Circuit Attorney Alex Polta, she’s now down to just three pros-

ecutors in violent crimes. When your local alt-weekly has more editors than the city has violent crimes prosecutors, you know you’re in trouble.

SATURDAY, APRIL 29 At 10 a.m. on this beautiful spring morning, a 69-year-old county man allegedly shoots a 21-year-old to death on the MetroLink. Police charge him with second-degree murder. Whatever happened to the idea that people age out of crime?

SUNDAY, APRIL 30 The federal government is now hiring stoners, or in the words of the New York Times, “significantly relaxing drug screening rules as agencies struggle to replenish the ranks of a rapidly aging workforce in a tight job market.” Maybe next they’ll let legit cannabis businesses access the banking system? Also: RIP Mike Shannon. The Cardinals great was 83. As Benjamin Hochman writes in the Post-Dispatch, “The crack of the bat, the crackle of KMOX and the cackle of Shannon’s laugh were summer soundtracks, soliloquies and lullabies.” Meanwhile, Shannon’s beloved Cards are now 10-19 and last in the NL Central. Isn’t it time to win one for the Moon Man?

legit. It wasn’t until March of 2021 that an order popped up. It said “five bags, estimated at $100,” and I was like OK, I’m gonna give this a try. That first order ended up being like seven contractor bags full of clothes. They were so heavy I could barely lift them; it was almost 300 pounds of laundry. Sudshare charges $1 a pound. I ended up making about $240 off of that one order, and then I was hooked.

Do you wash all this at home or go to a laundromat?

I typically take it to a laundromat just so I can get it done quicker. Then I bring it home and fold it.

How much time do you think you spend on this?

Well, now I have a day job, so I’ve been doing it a little bit less. But whenever I was doing it more, I would say I was probably spending like 25 hours a week on it.

How much have you made so far?

Since I started, I’ve made $14,000. But there are people who make way more than me who have more time.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever come across in someone’s laundry?

Leah Sage came across an interesting new app on Facebook three years ago. The app, SudShare, boasted that “sudsters” could make up to $20 per hour by washing strangers’ laundry. Sage gave it a chance. She’s since turned the app into a lucrative, yet sometimes messy, side gig.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you become a “sudster”?

I downloaded SudShare to my phone about three years ago, but I didn’t do anything with it for a few months. I didn’t know if it was

One time there was dog poop in an order. I just rewashed it and had to wash out my machine and stuff. Now I know not to take that person’s order again. I can’t deal with that again! I’ve also had moldy laundry, like someone got their clothes wet, and it sat too long. Technically people aren’t supposed to give us anything unsanitary, but it’s kind of up to the sudster whether they’ll wash it or not. But sometimes sudsters just do it. So anytime I’ve had something [nasty], I usually just finish the order.

I worked at Plato’s Closet for seven years and had to go through people’s clothes there, so I was kind of already used to going through stuff and finding not-so-clean things. But for the most part, it’s been totally fine.

—Monica Obradovic

Leah Sage is a “sudster.” | COURTESY PHOTO

WEEKLY WTF?!

SOCIETY PAGE

Mingling on Morrison

Abstract Art Watch

Date of sighting: April 27

Location: Locust Street and North 10th Street

This is: a lightbulb protruding from a suitcase

But really, this is: the city’s newest public art installation

The artist’s intent: to show that the bag just had an idea

Is the suitcase designer?: No, but the bulb is Hermes.

15 SECONDS OF FAME

UNINTENTIONAL POET OF THE WEEK: Judge Michael Noble

Last week, a circuit court judge succinctly described Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office as a “rudderless ship of chaos.”

The eloquence of this comment has garnered Judge Michael Noble a spot in our inaugural 15 Seconds of Fame column, where we honor oddball comments or people that caught our attention. Part of what made Noble’s nautical-themed statement apropos was the “Beat Navy” sign on his desk. Noble also had a picture of an Army/Navy game behind him.

In his honor, we tweaked the opening of The Odyssey, a legendary poem about an adventure on the Aegean Sea. Here it is with a St. Louis twist: Speak, Memory—

The circuit attorney, blown off course time and again

After she battered St. Louis’ sacred courts.

Of Kim Gardner,

Speak

They’ve started calling me “the toast of LaSalle Park.” Well, not really, but I feel like that in the wake of my November 16 Riverfront Times cover story, “The Bricks that Bind,” about the friendship of Geoff Story and Barbara Clark, who owned the same Morrison Avenue house a decade apart and bonded over its history. I’ve been invited to several events on that historic tree-lined block in recent months, including a fascinating salon for Sony Pictures’ Jeff Copeland at the posh home of Dallas Cupp and Daumier Mageswki. Copeland coauthored The Holly Woodlawn Story: A Low Life In High Heels with Andy Warhol star Holly Woodlawn and delighted guests with stories about the late transgender actress whom he befriended when they were both living in Los Angeles. Woodlawn appeared in the films Trash (1970) and Women in Revolt (1972) and was also known as the Holly in Lou Reed’s hit glam rock song “Walk on the Wild Side.”

“Holly didn’t like how Andy used and exploited people, although she certainly benefited from it,” Copeland said. “Her direct quote was, ‘Andy Warhol was a pig.’”

Two doors down, LaSalle Park booster Deb Aerne (known as “Aunt Deb” around the neighborhood) and partner Kris Loewe held a cocktail party on Saturday, April 15, to reveal their three-story Second Empire row house, circa 1890, which had been redesigned by Meg Holmes of MIN+ Architecture and had been under renovation for the past year.

Aerne was thrilled with how the house turned out. “Meg did a marvelous job of coalescing the grandeur architecture of the home with our modern tastes. We also had great fun salvaging and refinishing pieces and parts from seven different staircase railings from the late 1800s to complete the focal point of the home.”

Of all the courtrooms she never saw, the criminals she let go, The suffering deep in this heart of America

As she struggled to survive and bring her staff home

But could not save them, hard as she tried to blame them — The fools — destroyed by their own employment

When they couldn’t be in two places at once, And the judge snuffed out their day in the sun.

Of these things, Speak, Oh Embattled One,

And tell the tale once more of why you should stay in office.

The brick patio, which flowed seamlessly from the kitchen thanks to a sliding glass wall, was lively despite the ominous sky and blaring tornado sirens. New neighborhood president Amanda Chasnoff and husband Zach Chasnoff were engaged in conversation about a recent community meeting where they were horrified to learn that the city plans to install a fence that would separate

Historic LaSalle Park from the affordable housing community, LaSalle Park Village. Several residents of the village were also guests at the party.

“We’d just tear it down,” Chasnoff said.” It’s very segregationist and is the opposite of what we are trying to do.”

“I was born in an anarchist commune,” the effervescent Zach Chasnoff began, “and LaSalle Park has that kind of vibe. It lives in the city, but is self-sufficient. Because it’s so much smaller and less visible than other neighborhoods, we’ve just organically found ways to take care of ourselves, whether that’s street cleaning, planting …”

Due to the storm, I stayed a bit longer than anticipated. I was sitting beside Holmes when somehow the subject of Madonna’s scandalous 1990 hit “Justify My Love” came up and how she’d never seen nor heard of it.

“Meg, it was banned on MTV!” I said. “You had to buy the VHS tape!” This is actually the second time I’ve had the honor of introducing a millennial to this song and video. I pulled it up on my phone and showed it to her in its fabulous entirety.

We listened to Madonna sing about wanting to run naked through a rainstorm while we waited for a rainstorm to pass. Another delightful LaSalle Park shindig.

Are you throwing noteworthy cocktail parties? Hit me up! On Saturday afternoon you can find me judging Kentucky Derby costumes at the RFT’s United We Brunch event at Westport Social, and in the evening I’ll be celebrity bartending alongside Steve Potter at the irreverent Donald Miller’s controversial play From the Garden, which is inspired by Maplewood’s politics.

SOMETIMES IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT

“

I was born in an anarchist commune, and LaSalle Park has that kind of vibe.”

Another Blow for the Circuit Attorney’s Office

The circuit attorney and another prosecutor were found in indirect criminal contempt after not showing up to court twice in one month

Written by RYAN KRULL

Last week a judge in St. Louis Circuit Court said that Kim Gardner was the captain of a “rudderless ship of chaos” and that there was sufficient reason to find the circuit attorney in indirect criminal contempt of court, a matter that required the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Gardner was not present in the courtroom of Judge Michael Noble Thursday afternoon, but her personal attorney was, as were two assistant circuit attorneys from her office.

Judge Noble took them all to task for the office’s handling of the case of 26-year-old Steven Linell Vincent Jr., who is accused of shooting an 11-year-old girl in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood in October 2020. On two occasions this month, the prosecutor assigned to the case, Chris Desilets, failed to show up in court — on April 10 in what was supposed to be the first day of a jury trial and on April 24 for a status conference.

Judge Noble ordered either Gardner herself or a designee to appear in his court last week. Assistant Circuit Attorney Rob Huq was there in the role as Gardner’s designee.

However, when questioned by Judge Noble, Huq knew little about the Vincent case, saying that he hadn’t read the indictment or the probable cause statement.

He didn’t know if the victim or her family were in court or if the Circuit Attorney’s Office had been in contact with them. He was also unaware of any efforts to investigate Desilets’ failure to show up on April 10 and 24.

Later, Gardner’s attorney Michael Downey offered to provide information about the circuit attorney’s investigation into their handling of the case, but Judge Noble didn’t want to hear any of it from him.

“I’d rather hear from Ms. Gardner’s designee. The order was for Ms. Gardner or the designee, not for counsel,” Noble said.

The judge added, “I asked for a designee but you sent someone who didn’t have the ability to stand in Ms. Gardner’s shoes.”

Speaking with Desilets directly, Noble didn’t take the no-shows lightly, taking the tone of an exasperated father talking to a wayward teen.

Desilets said that he wasn’t in court on April 10 because he injured his knee, and on April 24 he was in a different judge’s courtroom.

On April 10, the day the trial was supposed to begin at 9 a.m., another assistant circuit attorney told Judge Noble that Desilets wasn’t in court because he was on his way to the doctor’s office to deal with the knee injury.

Judge Noble asked Desilets where he was on April 10 at 9 a.m. Desilets said he was at home.

At 9:39 a.m.? Judge Noble asked. Desilets answered he was also at home.

“Mr. Desilets, we’ve been working together a long time,” Noble said. “This isn’t the first time you’ve been late to [court].”

“Every lawyer is late to a division every day, unless he’s unemployed,” Desilets replied.

Judge Noble asked Desilets if he’d like to qualify the comment. “When you say ‘every lawyer,’ are you referring to the entire Missouri bar?”

Desilets said it was a “turn of phrase.” “With the inability to be in two places at once, we are in one place on time, and the rest we are not.”

Desilets told Judge Noble that on April 24 he was in a different judge’s courtroom tending to cases there.

“It’s fair to say we’ve made numerous accommodations in the past,” Noble said. “Can you tell me why you wouldn’t have called and informed the court in this particular case? Do you have any justification for not doing so?”

Desilets replied that “justification” was “a strong word.” But he assured the judge he wasn’t playing games with him, though he did not provide any other reasons for not informing the court.

After hearing from all three attorneys, Judge Noble called a 10-minute recess.

When he returned to the bench, he read aloud an order saying in

part that the circuit attorney’s conduct in the case showed “sufficient evidence of disdain and disrespect for the judicial process to determine that both Ms. Gardner and Mr. Desilets’ conduct support a finding of indirect criminal contempt.”

He went on to say that allowing such conduct to continue would render the court’s orders ineffective and undermine the judicial process.

The order also noted that Desilets’ caseload included approximately 104 felony cases and that any “prudent practitioner” should be able to see that such a caseload would create “countless irreconcilable” scheduling conflicts.

“Ms. Gardner has counsel. Mr. Desilets has the right to retain counsel. Both will be afforded their due process rights to discovery and to prepare a defense,” Noble read.

Noble said he would hire a special prosecutor and set the contempt matter for a hearing on May 30 at 9:30 a.m.

Outside the court, Cassandra Hopkins, the mother of Vincent Jr., the defendant in the underlying case, maintained her son’s innocence and had harsh words for what she saw as Gardner’s office dragging out the legal process.

“The judge sounded pretty good to me because we keep coming to court and the prosecuting attorney isn’t here,” Hopkins said. “[The trial] should be over with. It’s been too long.” n

Kim Gardner entering court for a different hearing last month. | RYAN KRULL

The judge’s order noted that any “prudent practitioner” should be able to see that Desilets’ caseload would create “countless irreconcilable” scheduling conflicts.

Mayor Jones Fires Back at Governor Parson

the state government. Where cities are allowed to exist, or where cities are allowed to flourish, despite what the state does — or in spite of what the state does.

“I think in the past you saw a more collegial relationship between cities and the state government, but now it’s more antithetical,” Jones continued.

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Missouri’s reputation for extreme conservatism harms St. Louis, Mayor Tishaura Jones says.

The mayor sat down with the Riverfront Times a day after she railed against “far right-wing Republicans” in Jefferson City during her second State of the City address last week.

She discussed a wide range of topics, from Republicans in Jefferson City to the prospect of Kim Gardner running for reelection. At one point she laid into Missouri’s conservative politics and its adverse effects on the city of St. Louis.

Missouri has one of the strictest abortion laws compared to any other state. This year, Missouri legislators filed more anti-LGBTQ+ bills than any other state. And the state’s loose gun laws could very well be the reason why Black people fall victim to homicides here more than any other state in the nation, a recent study concluded.

“We have seen that conventions have

2 Prosecutors Leave the Circuit Attorney’s Office Alex Polta and Chris Desilets depart after contempt of court hearings

Written by RYAN KRULL

Assistant Circuit Attorneys Alex Polta and Chris Desilets have parted ways with Kim Gardner’s office, leaving the city’s Violent Crimes Unit with only two prosecutors, according to a document shared with the RFT Polta had been with the CAO for more than six years. In early April, Polta took extended medical leave, seemingly with the blessing of the office.

However, a few weeks later, when no one showed up to the first day of a murder trial in a case assigned to Polta, Judge Scott Millikan threatened to hold Gardner or someone else from her office in contempt of court.

decided not to come here,” Jones said.

“Students have decided not to come here for secondary or post-secondary education because of our abortion laws. If things get even more extreme, I’m wondering how that’s going to hurt our economy as well.”

To legislators in Jefferson City, Jones said during her State of the City address, a 12-year-old receiving gender-affirming care is “a bigger threat than a 12-yearold with an assault rifle.” She described legislation against transgender kids and their families as “ugly attacks.”

At an April 24 hearing before Judge Millikan, Polta appeared in court and said, “There really is no excuse for nobody showing up for trial,” but he also indicated his supervisors were well aware he was on leave.

Ultimately there was no finding of contempt in that case.

The other departing prosecutor, Desilets, is also facing a contempt of court charge after twice failing to show up for court hearings (see “Another Blow for the Circuit Attorney’s Office,” pg. 9). At the time, he told the judge he was in charge of approximately 104 felony cases — cases that will now need a new prosecutor.

News of Desilets departure broke Monday morning when Desilets did not appear in court for the cases of Javonn Nettles and Andre Anderson, who are charged with murdering a 7-year-old girl, D’Myah Fleming, and her father, Darrion Rankin-Fleming, on Laclede Avenue near Saint Louis University in January 2021.

The killing shocked the neighborhood and the city as a whole. Both men were arrested in spring of 2021, but in the past two years the murder cases have meandered through the courts. In what’s become a common practice under Gardner, prosecutors dropped and refiled charges

Last month, Governor Mike Parson visited St. Louis and told reporters that crime in St. Louis harms the image of the state, and that when he travels to recruit businesses, he has to “deal with that situation all the time.”

But Jones said she deals with the flip side of that problem — and that Missouri’s negative image could contribute to St. Louis’ population decline.

“I think that people look for places where there’s opportunity,” Jones said. “They look for places where there isn’t a lot of interference between the cities and

Yet there are many contributing factors to the perception that the area is troubled. If the national narrative isn’t focused on Missouri’s reactionary policies, such as the attorney general’s attempt to restrict transgender health care, they’re often highlighting dysfunction, such as the problems plaguing the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.

Circuit Attorney Gardner came under intense public scrutiny after a man out on bond crashed into and maimed a visiting teenager. News of the crash cascaded into widespread criticism of Gardner’s office. The Missouri Attorney General has launched an investigation into the office.

Jones said shortly after the crash that Gardner had “lost the trust of the people.” When asked if Gardner had lost her personal trust, Jones said she “stood by” her previous statement.

“I realize that is a difficult office to run, and we have offered our support, because no one wants to see the Circuit Attorney’s Office fail,” Jones said.

Gardner has said she’ll run for reelection despite calls for her to resign. Will Jones support her?

“We’ll see if she runs for reelection,” Jones said. “You know, filing doesn’t open until February 2024. People can say that they’ll run and then change their mind. You never know.” n

Desilets in indirect criminal contempt of court.

At 9:30 a.m., no one from the Circuit Attorney’s Office was in the courtroom. Eventually, assistant circuit attorney Rob Huq appeared in Desilet’s stead. Polta’s departure unfolded last week. On Thursday, Gardner sent him a letter saying that he was never approved to take leave, “yet you have not reported to work and have failed to cover assigned duties.”

The letter gave Polta until 5 p.m. Friday, April 28, to either resume his duties as normal or to provide documentation supporting his leave.

The letter concludes: “If you do neither of the above, we will assume that you have abandoned your position with the Office, and we will process your resignation accordingly.”

against them in April.

In his final hours with the prosecutor’s office, Desilets filed a motion to continue Nettle’s case. Hearings in both cases were scheduled Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. in the courtroom of Judge Michael Noble, who last week said there was sufficient reason to charge both Gardner and

At 4:21 p.m. Friday — a bit shy of that 5 p.m. deadline — Gardner sent a terse message to her office: “Team: We want to wish Alexander Polta well on his new endeavors.”

When asked what those new endeavors were, Polta replied, “The future is vast.”

According to documents sent to the RFT, the two prosecutors remaining in Violent Crimes are Srikant Chigurupati and Adam Field. n

After the governor spoke out against St. Louis’ crime problem, Tishaura Jones said Missouri has an extreme conservatism problem

Mayor Tishaura Jones at the Board of Aldermen swearing in. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

Alex Polta left the CAO’s office on Friday. | COURTESY PHOTO

St. Louis CITY’s Youngest Player Is Homegrown

Miguel Perez, 17, goes to Pattonville High School in the mornings and plays pro soccer in the evenings

Written by JULIAN TREJO

At 17, midfielder Miguel Perez is St. Louis CITY SC’s youngest player. But his youth belies his experience. Miguel has been playing soccer for 13 years. Miguel’s parents remember little Miguel scoring a penalty kick on his parish team at age 4. Rather than celebrate, Miguel went back to sucking his thumb, but not for long. “The minute the whistle blew, it was all business,” Miguel’s mother, Jackie, says. “He’d pull that thumb out, go get the ball, and score.”

That all-business attitude prepared him for a hectic start to 2023, during which he signed his first professional contract, debuted in Major League Soccer, started in his first MLS game, played for the Under-19 United States Men’s National team, and scored a goal for his country — all while still enrolled at Pattonville High School.

Miguel starts his day at 7:20 a.m. with English and Team Sports classes. When his classes are over at 8:45 a.m., he rushes to CITY’s training facilities in the Downtown West neighborhood. “I train, eat, then I’ll go back home. I’ll take a nap and then do some schoolwork,” Miguel says.

The Perez Family

Miguel Perez was born on April 28, 2005, to Jackie and Luis Perez. The pair were both born and raised in the city. But Luis is a second-generation American, the 9th of 10 siblings. Luis’ grandparents immigrated to St. Louis from Michoacán, México, in the 1930s. “I come from a very big family. We’re very proud of our culture,”

Luis says. “Familia to us was always number one.”

Jackie attended St. John’s High School, while Luis attended St. Mary’s High School just a mile away. The two had mutual friends and met at a carnival hosted by St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. They have been married for 22 years.

Luis is a lieutenant in the Jennings police with 25 years of service. He’s three years away from retirement. “I don’t like sitting in the office for 8 to 10 hours. So I actually get out and engage the community and support my officers. That’s what I do,” Luis says. “Community engagement is so important these days. It gives the community a chance to see us in a different light, and so I try to continue that as a lieutenant. That’s what it’s all about … building relationships.”

For 17 years, Jackie has worked in the foot and ankle division in Washington University’s Orthopedic Department. “If you have a broken bone or anything, she’s the one you need to go see,” Luis says proudly. She routinely puts in 50- to 55-hour weeks.

Jackie and Luis have four boys. Their eldest, Tony, is 25 years old and graduated from Missouri Baptist University in 2020. He’s followed by Louie, 21, who will graduate from Missouri Baptist University in May.

Then comes Miguel, followed by

11-year-old Cruz. Miguel is not the first soccer player among his siblings. Louie holds the record for the most goals scored in a single season at Pattonville High School with 34. He also racked up 44 goal contributions in 63 games at Missouri Baptist University. Miguel was looking to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

Encountering Adversity

Miguel and his family lived in the Bevo Mill neighborhood in south St. Louis for the first five years of his life. This is where his soccer career started at the age of four. “He was a natural at it. It was like he had been playing for years,” Luis recalls.

The Perez family relocated to Maryland Heights when Miguel was five. A year later, Miguel joined the St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club. Miguel started for the top teams in his age group until age 14 when he encountered a setback.

“Miguel was told by the director at the time that he was only going to be a part-time player,” Luis recalls. “It was a demotion. They told him he was going to be a bench player, and he wasn’t going to be guaranteed any playing time.”

Miguel recalls how he felt: “It hurt,” he says. He wondered how he would be able to continue in a sport he loved so much with so much less time on the field. “Since

I was so young, I felt down because I wasn’t old enough to get through that.”

Luis recalls: “I looked at him, and I said, ‘Miguel, you’re gonna be fine. Nobody defines you. Nobody defines what kind of player you are. We know what kind of player you are. You know what kind of special talent you have. Nobody works harder than you.’”

Redemption

In the fall of 2020, Miguel moved to a club that believed in him: JB Marine. Miguel reunited with some of his former Gallagher teammates and played well. In early 2021, Miguel joined Missouri’s Olympic Development team — a program that provides players in Missouri a platform to gain regional and national recognition.

The ODP team held training sessions in Boonville, which is where CITY sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel first scouted Miguel. Pfannenstiel monitored Miguel’s progress for more than a month and attended the most important match of Miguel’s career at the time — a match against St. Louis Scott Gallagher.

“Miguel scored a hat trick, and we beat them 3-2,” Luis recalled. After Miguel’s brilliant performance against his former club, Pfannenstiel offered him a spot on CITY’s inaugural U-17 academy team, a youth team for boys be-

Continued on pg 13

Miguel Perez celebrates CITY’s 3-2 victory against Austin FC after his debut on February 25. | COURTESY ST. LOUIS CITY SC

MIGUEL PEREZ

Continued from pg 11

tween 15 and 16.

Miguel’s development skyrocketed due to high-level coaching in CITY’s academy. “He always liked those hard-nosed coaches that believed in him,” Luis says. “He always performed well under those coaches, and once he started with CITY, his progression just kept moving really fast.”

Miguel’s journey has been unconventional, but Luis believes destiny led Miguel to CITY. “The stars have aligned for him. I mean, everything had to be right.”

Professional Career

Miguel performed well in the academy’s inaugural season and earned a spot on CITY2’s inaugural MLS NEXT Pro roster, a developmental league for MLS teams, in January 2022. In short, he became a pro. Despite a successful season with CITY2, the Perez family believed Miguel would enroll in college to play soccer. “We were under the impression that we needed to start seriously looking at maybe some programs for him to go to college. We had to have college as a backup in case this didn’t work out,” Luis says.

Miguel’s college options in early January 2023 included Saint Louis University and the University of Maryland. Miguel came onto Maryland’s radar via Taylor Twellman, a St. Louis native and United States soccer icon.

“Taylor Twellman called the head coach [at Maryland] and said, ‘You need to get a look at this local kid in St. Louis, Miguel Perez,’” Luis recalls. Miguel started to arrange for an official visit to Maryland.

But plans changed a few weeks later when Miguel joined CITY for the MLS preseason in Florida. “I was actually sleeping when Coach [John] Hackworth called me. He’s like, ‘You’re gonna go to the preseason with the first team,’” Miguel remembers. “I woke up and said, ‘All right.’ Then I got excited and told my parents.

“I was a little nervous,” Miguel recalls. “But I was so happy to be there. That has been my dream my whole life, to play professional soccer.”

College is still a possibility for Miguel. “He could do an online degree if that’s what he wants,” Jackie says. Jackie’s employment at Wash U ensures that the university will support tuition costs for all of her kids. Miguel could pursue an online degree through Wash U’s University College.

Even if Miguel, who the team nicknamed Miggy, felt nervous during preseason, his play on the pitch didn’t show it. “Actually, I was waiting for the nerves,” head coach Bradley Carnell says. “I was waiting for the bad touch. I was waiting for something to be like, ‘OK, this is the MLS, Miggy.’ And it never happened.”

Miguel shined in preseason, so CITY rewarded him with a profes-

sional contract on February 21. Four days after signing his contract, Miguel played 31 minutes in CITY’s 3-1 victory against Austin FC, making him the first-ever St. Louis native and academy graduate to play for the club in MLS.

“I was happy to just be on the roster. I didn’t think I would get in,” Miguel says. Miguel’s debut also surprised his family. They couldn’t make the trip to Austin but watched the match together in St. Louis. “We looked up at the TV and there he was. I couldn’t believe it,” Luis recalls. “I didn’t cry until after the game. I thanked God, and I just broke down. I couldn’t be more proud of him. He gets to play the sport that he loves for his job.”

Miguel made his home debut on March 4 against Charlotte FC. CITYPARK erupted as Miguel came into the match in the 88th minute. “My whole family was there,” Miguel recalls. “People yelling my name, it was amazing.”

Miguel made more history when he started against the Portland Timbers on March 11 at Providence Park. He became the first CITY homegrown player and St. Louis native to start an MLS match.

“It was an amazing feeling being out there,” Perez reflected after the match. “Being able to start for the new expansion team, I mean, it’s been an amazing feeling, and I couldn’t thank the organization enough.”

Miguel’s progress with CITY earned him a call-up to represent the United States U-19 Men’s National Team in March. Miguel

traveled to Argentina and started in the team’s 2-0 victory against Racing Club. Miguel scored a goal and received the Man of the Match award for his stellar play.

Despite his recent success, Miguel stays grounded. “Some players dream a little bit and start getting sidetracked,” Carnell says.

“But I think Miggy Perez is not that character. I don’t think he’s the one to dream and start floating around and think he’s arrived.

“He seems to be a guy with a lot of sensible maturity — like the way he plays.”

Adapting to a New Reality

Miguel is facing fresh challenges off the field as well. “It’s new having a camera in his face. It’s new having a microphone in his face,” Luis says. “He’s still a kid. He’s 17.” Miguel’s youth leads to a degree of discomfort when speaking to the media: He tends to be brief. Miguel wants his play on the field to speak for itself.

“I just go out on the field and do what I do. I try not to get cocky. I stay humble, and I just go out on the field and work hard,” Miguel says.

Luis still has a hard time believing his son is a professional soccer player. “What a blessing playing for the home team. I would have never ever imagined Miguel playing for a professional soccer team in St. Louis.” n

This article was produced in partnership with the River City Journalism Fund.

Miguel Perez posing with his family the day he left for Argentina to join the United States U-19 Men’s National Team. | COURTESY THE PEREZ FAMILY

A school project Miguel made in third grade. | COURTESY THE PEREZ FAMILY

Sandwich Bopz

Formerly an entertainment venue and now a sandwich shop, the Gramophone celebrates 15 years in business

Written by JAIME LEES

Photos by MAX BOUVATTE

The Gramophone (4243 Manchester Avenue, gramophonestl.com) celebrated 15 years in business over the weekend with a big lot party in the Grove. Fans of the sandwich shop / bar (and former entertainment venue) showed up to celebrate and dance in the St. Louis spring sunshine.

Music was provided by Hazard to Ya Booty, Brother Lee, Uncle Lucius, Saint Boogie Brass Band, Emily Wallace and The Fighting Side. The party was sponsored by 4 Hands Brewing Co., Swade Cannabis Dispensary and the Grove Community Improvement District. n

A CELEBRATION OF THE UNIQUE AND FASCINATING ASPECTS OF OUR HOME

A clash over a painting by Cbabi Bayoc set off a firestorm at Jazz St. Louis — and revealed deep concerns about CEO Victor Goines

BY JESSICA ROGEN

The first outward sign of the trouble at Jazz St. Louis appeared on Instagram on April 19.

Cbabi Bayoc, a St. Louis-based artist, posted a photo of himself with his fist raised. In his other hand, he held a painting depicting a Black youth holding a trumpet in one hand, with the other raised in a similar gesture to Bayoc.

In the post, Bayoc wrote about the painting, which is based on Keyon Harrold, Jazz St. Louis’ creative advisor and a prominent jazz performer. Bayoc had painted it live as Harrold performed at Jazz St. Louis in October 2021, and when Bayoc was asked to create a T-shirt for Cocktails for a Cause, a Young Friends fundraiser for Jazz St. Louis scheduled to take place on April 26, it made sense to use the painting.

But within days, Amber HowlettBayoc, Bayoc’s manager and wife, was informed by a Young Friends board member that Jazz St. Louis’ President and CEO Victor Goines had rejected the design.

On Instagram, Bayoc wrote that he and his wife had been told that three white board members expressed unease with the image. Bayoc wrote that he’d been told that Goines had said something like, “I will not support the image as empowerment and solidarity because all lives matter and dollars that support Jazz St. Louis can’t be offended on my watch.”

Bayoc also wrote that a member of the Young Friends board said that Goines later denied offering that rationale, instead saying that the proper protocols hadn’t been followed in selecting the design.

Whatever the reason, Bayoc’s painting was out, and his post was up. Within hours, it garnered thousands of likes and comments from supporters.

Meanwhile, Jazz St. Louis roiled internally. The Bayoc incident and its fallout is only the latest in a string of incidents that has employees and supporters unhappy with Goines as a leader. There have been questions about his hiring, a touring schedule that kept him out of the office, his domineering attitude in the office, his attitudes toward women and non-binary individuals, and his temperament.

Goines did not return a call seeking comment and indicated on April 27 that he had no comment on a detailed list of allegations provided by the RFT.

Goines, a longtime member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet, began his tenure at Jazz St. Louis last September. Earlier that year, he’d retired from a job directing jazz studies at Northwestern University. Previously, he’d been the artistic director of Juilliard’s jazz studies program.

He replaced longtime Jazz St. Louis President and CEO Gene Dobbs Bradford, who had left in the spring of 2022 after more than 23 years at the nonprofit to head up the Savannah Music Festival in Georgia. During Bradford’s ten-

ure, he grew the organization’s annual budget from $300,000 to $3 million and introduced a host of educational programs. He also led the campaign to renovate the nonprofit’s building, which reopened as the Harold and Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz in 2014.

Bradford was only the organization’s second leader. Barbara Rose and Peter Bunce founded what was then called Jazz at the Bistro in August 1995 in order to present musicians in an intimate setting. It later became the nonprofit organization Jazz St. Louis, which has a mission “to lead our community in advancing the uniquely American art of jazz through performance, education, and community engagement.”

When Goines was announced as Bradford’s replacement last year, right away, some wondered about his appointment.

“There were kind of some whisperings from the beginning that the process was set up, and that there were some exceptions made for him to join as a CEO,” says Sherry Nelson Thomas, who was, until recently, a Jazz St. Louis Young Friends board member.

An advisory board, the Young Friends of Jazz St. Louis is made up of individuals under 45 who serve as ambassadors to the community, support the organization’s development efforts to fund education programs and select six shows for a package subscription. It’s different from the Jazz St. Louis board of directors, which is the governing body of the nonprofit. That board has 28 members, including two emeritus members, listed on its website currently. More than 60

percent appear to be white while the Young Friends board and leadership, Nelson Thomas says, until recently was mostly people of color.

Last September, Goines told the RFT that he had been clued onto the CEO position by a childhood friend, jazz great Marsalis, and that he intended to build up Jazz St. Louis. Yet some people questioned why someone with such an impressive pedigree would even be interested in St. Louis.

“For me it was a red flag of, ‘Why is he 62 years old and having a really nice job at Northwestern and suddenly leaving that to come here? It didn’t really compute in my mind,” says a Jazz St. Louis employee who spoke with the RFT on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Both the employee and Nelson Thomas say that Goines was largely absent when he started the position because he was traveling as a musician. Nelson Thomas says she gave him the benefit of the doubt at first.

As time went on, the employee says, Goines was “very frustrating and difficult” to work for and constantly sought to be in control of everything.

“He has demonstrated poor leadership to the point where in January, February of this year, people were concerned that he would ultimately be a liability for the organization because of things that he would say,” the employee says.

One of those instances came at a monthly group birthday celebration that Jazz St. Louis regularly holds, when staffers gather for cake and to chat. The employee says Goines brought up sexual harassment training that he’d gone through at Juilliard and at Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

The man who ran the training

Continued on pg 20

Renowned jazz musician Victor Goines joined Jazz St. Louis in 2022. |

PHOTO BY SARAH ESCARRAZ, DESIGN BY EVAN SULT

JAZZ ST. LOUIS

Continued from pg 19

supposedly said he didn’t want his daughter to worry about being sexually harassed.

“Victor said he asked, ‘Well, what about your son?’ And then he clarified … ‘What about when your son gets wrongfully accused, what protections are there for him?’ and said that ‘You need to rewrite this sexual harassment policy so that it protects men,’” the employee says. “And then he made a remark saying that it’s OK for women to wear whatever they want. But, ‘Why do I have to get in trouble for looking at them?’”

Goines seemed to display a similar attitude toward women in a recording that the RFT obtained of a February 8 meeting to discuss a collaboration with the New Yorkbased Women in Jazz Organization, or WIJO. The idea was to host a celebration of women in jazz.

The recording, which is an hour and 17 minutes long, begins after the meeting has started and opens with the group discussing the budget. Goines expresses reluctance to go to donors for the event, saying that he doesn’t “want them to feel like an ATM machine.”

Instead, he proposes not paying the women musicians. “As artists, you all have to put some skin in the game as women, other than just your intellectual thought to plan this thing out,” he says at one point.

Another person in the room replies, “I would just say that it doesn’t make sense in terms of optics to have an event endorsing women in jazz and offering them greater opportunities and not pay them. The optics on that are just pretty terrible, in my opinion.” The person also points out that women are a “historically underpaid section of society.”

Another person in the meeting agrees. “That’s not a celebration of women in jazz, and that’s not promoting equity in gender in jazz.”

Goines replies, “So if I pay you, that’s going to make it all good?” At one point, he asks, “What number makes women feel treated fairly to be paid?”

“You’re kind of being a bully right now, which is really not appreciated,” one of the attendees says.

Toward the end of the conversation, Goines brings up part of WIJO’s mission, which is to support non-binary people. “Some of my best friends are women musicians … this thing is to invite women and non-binary people, right? Now, in order to ask a question, I got to kind of get out of context because

a non-binary person can be someone who didn’t necessarily be born as a female. So how does that apply to the [indecipherable]?”

Goines mentions a non-binary individual he knew while teaching at Northwestern who had first dressed as male presenting but transitioned to female presenting.

“Who could be in the room at the time and not be quote, unquote, a female?” he asks, later adding, “I would like to believe that we can get all the most sincere people in the world coming to this event … I’m trying to see everything that could come to us so that when we in the room, we can best defend women in jazz and defend Jazz St. Louis.”

Bayoc came to Jazz St. Louis through Harrold. The two men had met while recording a podcast during the pandemic and bonded because they showed up wearing the same shirt. Bayoc is a prominent artist (in addition to high-profile murals and commissions throughout the metro and beyond, he recently illustrated Ibram X. Kendi’s Goodnight Racism), so at some point Harrold asked him to paint something for Jazz St. Louis.

The painting he produced follows a common form in Bayoc’s work. Throughout his Midtown studio, just down the street from Jazz St. Louis, are paintings of young Black people with their fists raised. The images, which Bayoc began painting in the wake of Michael Brown’s killing and a protest on South Grand Boulevard in 2014, are bright and colorful.

“Movements are youth-driven,” Bayoc says. “This is about kids fighting for the life that they want to live.”

Initially, the painting seemed to get a good response from the organization, and Bayoc and Nelson Thomas, the Young Friends board member, say it was used on social media accounts in 2021.

The artwork was made at the end of Bradford’s tenure, and he says that it was arranged by a different staff member.

“I was really happy to have Cbabi because he does so much in the community,” Bradford says. “I was really excited about that. … He’s a great artist and very much part of the St. Louis art scene.”

Bayoc had previously done work for free for Jazz St. Louis, but Howlett-Bayoc told the organization it needed to compensate him this time because there were fixed costs involved in creating the T-shirt design. Because it was a fundraiser, she and Bayoc settled for a fee that was less than one-third of what they’d normally charge, which they were told a private donor had covered.

After Bayoc created a mockup, the response from the Young Friends board member who commissioned it was positive, and there was even talk of selling a poster of it at the event and sharing revenue, Howlett-Bayoc says.

Bayoc was also being hired to create artwork for a brochure for the 2023-24 season.

Then, Howlett-Bayoc says, they heard that Goines had rejected the T-shirt mockup.

Goines made his second-ever appearance at a Young Friends meeting on April 11, where he allegedly made it clear that the image would not be used, and he would not be considering others’ opinions. Though Nelson Thomas wasn’t present at the meeting, she soon began hearing accounts of what had happened.

“He came in, and people were saying hello to each other and getting prepared,” she says. “Victor immediately, as soon as he stepped into the room, slammed down on the table and said, ‘How dare you not address me in my own establishment! I am the leader of Jazz St. Louis.’ And whatever I say goes, blah, blah, blah, sort of thing. And just kept screaming and screaming and screaming and would not hear anything anybody had to say.”

After the meeting, Young Friends board members began talking about the incident over emails, which the RFT has obtained. In

Continued on pg 22

Goines is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. | CEDRIC ELLSWORTH

Jazz St. Louis hosts concerts and a book club at its bistro. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

Continued

them, they discuss their disappointment with the organization and how they perceive it to be failing the Black community who birthed jazz.

Three days after the meeting, Aaron Jackson wrote of his 10 years as a patron and supporter of Jazz St. Louis. “In my time, I’ve never seen such a disgusting display of ‘power,’” he wrote. “I am disgusted, furious, offended, and heartbroken. I’ve been fighting inside JSL to make it better... to improve ‘DEI’... to make JSL a welcoming place and make it accessible. And while I’ve had my fair share of disagreements and tough conversations, this was a whole new level of showing that JSL doesn’t value the black community that created jazz.”

He added that he called Bill Higley, the board president, and informed him of the incident. In the email chain, Nelson Thomas also shared the resignation that she had sent to Goines.

“I have made the difficult decision to not be involved after this year,” wrote another member, Renatta Knox, on April 13. “I have to manage enough difficult unpredictable personalities … I don’t want to have to manage that during my free time.”

On April 13, Cauiterra Matthews, who was at that time both the Young Friends board chair and a Jazz St. Louis board member, wrote that she was heartbroken by what had happened.

“The abrasive tone, comments, and disrespect spewed at us from someone who should have exhibited more emotional maturity as the Executive Leader of this organization was inappropriate and unacceptable,” she wrote. “To know that many of you left feeling unsettled, scared, and disrespected is disheartening to my core, but your conviction in your stance and voiced opinions on Tuesday was admired! This matter is more significant than a T-shirt design or communication protocol — it was a power struggle exhibited through fearful intimidation and displaced hostility towards an undeserving group of mission-driven young adults, and for that, I am genuinely sorry!”

A few of the Young Friends board members reached out to the nonprofit’s board with full accounts of the incident. Matthews shared details of a previous call with Goines about the painting, writing, “Victor informed me of

his disapproval through screaming and shouting at me like I was his child — at one point, him stating to me [that] people in the restaurant where he was having lunch were staring at him, and he needed to lower his tone.”

Matthews also wrote that employees were afraid of Goines and feared retaliation.

Board member John Ferring responded to the concerns by suggesting that Goines be put on paid, temporary suspension. But board member Robert Steward cautioned against haste.

“The momentum of emotional opinions can be dangerous as it will lead to hasty and inaccurate conclusions, which will have negative consequences,” he wrote.

Since the Young Friends meeting late last month, all the members have left the organization, according to an email to the group from Matthews and cochair Abby Devereux on April 27.

“All the staff are trying to find new jobs,” Nelson Thomas says. “Three leadership positions have since left already. … The staff said they are all on edge. They’re scared to use their voice because of the way he’s treating them behind closed doors.”

The anonymous employee concurs, saying that Jazz St. Louis’ main development officer left in November and the director of marketing left in January, and the positions hadn’t been filled until

recently. A press release dated April 17 on the Jazz St. Louis website announces the hire of a new director of development.

The employee says some donors have pulled funds since Bayoc’s post. The Cocktails for a Cause event was canceled, Nelson Thomas says, because its host, the Hop Shop, didn’t want its name associated with Jazz St. Louis anymore.

For his part, Bayoc is OK not having Jazz St. Louis in his life, though he and Howlett-Bayoc met with the board president and Goines on Monday.

Howlett-Bayoc says the whole incident has “felt like a slap in the face,” especially since the couple delayed their honeymoon to participate in a Jazz St. Louis fundraiser in October. She prompted the organization to pay the agreed fee for the mockup, which it has since done.

Bayoc has since returned to Jazz St. Louis to see Harrold play, but he says he’s not going back again — unless something changes.

“I love my music, but there’s other places to see it. So, all right, until Victor’s gone, I’m good,” he says. (He adds that he also has bad feelings toward the white board members who objected to the shirt.)

Reached by phone on April 26, Director of Marketing Nick Garcia wouldn’t speak to the reasons behind pulling the artwork or say if action is being taken. The RFT reached out to three Jazz St. Louis board members. None responded by the time of publication, but on

May 1, Higley and the board released a statement to St. Louis Public Radio backing Goines, writing, “Clearly, certain individuals have not responded well to his more direct leadership style” and that “the allegations and accusations described in various venues are entirely baseless and without merit.”

On April 26, Jazz St. Louis issued a statement about the Bayoc artwork, saying that upon receiving the mockup, Goines told the Young Friends chair he’d like “a different type of image” and that he always had the right of final approval.

“Making the decision to move forward with another design was not intended to disrespect the artist or his work,” the statement says.

The statement goes on to say jazz is “a language of dialogue” that brings people together. It ends: “We thank you for making your voices heard. We are listening. —Victor Goines, Jazz St. Louis President & CEO.”

But is Jazz St. Louis listening? It’s a question surely on the minds of everyone involved and one that harkens back to the promise of new leadership and the goals and dreams Goines brought with him.

That — and everything he was building upon.

“I would like to elevate the status of Jazz St. Louis to not just being known around the world but being world renowned,” Goines told the RFT in September, “but at the same time, as is in the mission statement, to realize it’s there to serve the community.”

Cbabi Bayoc stands in his gallery near the painting that started the firestorm at Jazz St. Louis. | JESSICA ROGEN

CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 05/04 Get to the Punchline

There’s a new comedy club in town — and, this being St. Louis, it’s also a wine bar and a restaurant and a spot for live music. You can’t just have one hustle in this city! This week alone, the multitasking new venue at City Foundry, City Winery (3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158; 314678-5060), will go from sold-out concerts featuring Marquise Knox and the Bodeans, respectively, to Wines & Punchlines, a “showcase of the funniest comedians in St. Louis.” And that’s not just marketing hyperbole; the show’s headliner is Rafe Williams, who is now not only part of the Rizzuto Show on the Point (105.7 FM) but who was also previously described in these pages (in a 2017 cover story) as being quite possibly “the funniest person in St. Louis.” Tell us if we got it right after you catch Williams, JB Buchanan, Chris Oliver and host Jack Wright from 8 to 11 p.m. this Thursday, May 4. Tickets are $10 to $15 with no drink minimums. Details at citywinery.com.

Bandana Days

Eubie Blake might not be quite as famous as his fellow ragtime musician Scott Joplin, but Blake’s story is still a fascinating one. Born in Baltimore to freed slaves, Blake went on to have a successful career in vaudeville before writing Shuffle Along, a music revue that became the first Broadway hit written by, directed by and starring African Americans. The show left an indelible mark on American theater and its influence can still be seen in musicals penned today. Blake’s story is told in the Black Rep’s latest musical Eubie!, which opened at the Edison Theatre (6465 Forsyth Boulevard, 314-935-6543) on Wednesday and runs Wednesday through Sunday until May 21. Showtimes vary by day of the week and tickets start at just $5. Visit theblackrep.org for more details.

Book ’Em

When you attend an event that

bills itself as the Midwest’s largest charity book fair, you know you’re going to see a lot of books. But trust us, you are not prepared for just how many books will be on hand at the Greater St. Louis Book Fair. The event positively jam-packs the Queeny Park Rink (550 Weidman Road, Manchester; 314-615-8472) with tables and tables holding more tomes than the eye can comprehend (all displayed spine-up for easy perusal). There will not only be books but rare books, and also records, CDs, DVDs, comics and ephemera. Most things will cost between $1 and $5, and there’s a $15 to $25 cost of admission on Thursday, May 4, but if you come by Friday through Sunday, admission is free. The fun begins at 4 p.m. on Thursday. More details at stlouisbookfair.org.

FRIDAY 05/05

Deal with the Devil

When composer Hector Berlioz first encountered Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, he couldn’t put it down. And who could? Heinrich Faust is an intel-

lectual and God’s favorite human — wait, isn’t he not supposed to have favorites? — who sells his soul to the devil Mephistopheles. Faust’s devil servant helps him seduce an innocent young woman and her entire family dies as a result, with the woman killing the illegitimate kid she had with Faust. Berlioz recognized that this was ripe for an opera (drama, devils, black magic!) and composed The Damnation of Faust, which is conductor and St. Louis Symphony Music Director Stéphane Denève’s favorite work. The SLSO will perform the show with Denève as conductor at Powell Hall (718 North Grand Boulevard, 314534-1700, slso.org). The show is Friday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m., but there is also a pre-concert conversation one hour before the performance. Tickets are $15 to $93. For more information, visit slso.org.

SATURDAY 05/06

Rosé and Grind

If you like pink wine and supporting charity, then you may want to

check out Rosé Day in the Central West End. The event is a “walking wine festival” that takes over the neighborhood and promotes nonprofits that are all about empowering women and girls. You pick up your wine passport and map and make your way to more than 10 wine-tasting stations throughout the neighborhood. After you get your passport stamped at each station (and sample the twoounce rosé pours), you can turn it in to join a raffle for prizes. While you’re walking to the tasting stations, you’ll be able to listen to live local music and shop pop-up vendors. There will be instagram-worthy stops along the way for photos, and the local businesses will have special discounts. When you buy your ticket, you select which charity you’d like a portion of your ticket price to support. Options include Safe Connections, Habitat St. Louis Women Build, St. Louis Area Diaper Bank, Planned Parenthood, STL Ovarian Cancer Awareness, Diamond Diva’s Pathways to Brightness, Prosperity Connection, Pink Ribbon Girls and Missouri Job’s Daughters. Additionally, the local shops will be donating a portion of the day’s proceeds to a

Watch alpacas lose their fluffy coats at the Alpaca Shearing Demonstration on Saturday, May 6. | VIA FLICKR/PHIL LONG

cause. The event will be held Saturday, May 6, from noon to 6 p.m. Tickets are required and cost $35. Find out more at rosedaystl.com.

Off to the Races

If you loved last year’s United We Brunch, then buckle up because this year we’re doing a United We Brunch: Kentucky Derby Watch Party that will combine every-

thing that’s good: breakfast in the afternoon, hats and drinks. Join the Riverfront Times and presenting sponsor Woodford Reserve for the event this Saturday, May 6, at Westport Social (910 West Port Plaza Drive, Maryland Heights; 314-548-2876). The event will include signature cocktails from Woodford Reserve and additional partners Old Forester, Finlandia and Korbel. A $60 ticket includes four free drink tickets and unlimited food samples from Westport Social, Honey Bee’s, Navin’s BBQ, Herbie’s, Graffiti Grub, Southern and Pappy’s Smokehouse. If that’s not enough, you can get a VIP ticket starting at $90 that includes six drink tickets, a swag bag, preferred parking and more. The party starts at 2 p.m. and lasts until 6 p.m. so you can enjoy the excitement of the Kentucky Derby, which will be playing at the brunch. Dress in your finest Derby Day attire because there’s also a Best Dressed prize valued at $2,500. Tickets are limited, so grab them now at rftbrunch.com.

Mucha Diversión

Fact: You aren’t really living well until you’re drinking a margarita out of a fresh pineapple. Therefore it would be wise to head on

down to Cherokee Street’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration this Saturday, May 6 (yes, we know it’s not really Cinco de Mayo if it’s on the 6, but let’s not quibble) for some booze, some fun and a lot more. Not only can you stuff your face with a selection of traditional Mexican street food like churros and elotes, you can stuff your face while you’re shopping, too. They’ll have more than 100 vendors packing Cherokee Street with offers of drinks, souvenirs and face painting. There will be two stages, too, hosting music from entertainers including DJ Kaas, Crucial Rootz, Groupo Folklorico Panameno and Tef Poe and the Knuckles. The fun starts at 11 a.m. and admission is free. Visit cincodemayostl.com to get more details and plan your day.

A Hairy Situation

It’s amazing what will hold humans’ attention these days. Videos of people squishing synthetic slime between their fingers get millions of views on TikTok. There’s a whole corner of the internet dedicated to “satisfying” rug cleaning timelapses. But this week, a similarly mundane yet oddly satisfying activity is coming to a Missouri farm near you. Watch the folks at Big River Alpac-

WEEK OF MAY 4-10

as (10622 Calico Road, Fletcher, Missouri; 314-606-1190) give their furry friends their yearly haircut at the Alpaca Shearing Demonstration this Saturday, May 6. Trust us, watching cute alpacas lose their fluff is far more titillating than watching a three-minute video of someone running a wet vacuum over a dirty carpet. Don’t question why; just enjoy it. The shearing starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. Big River Alpacas (located about and hour and 20 minutes south of St. Louis) will also have a few llamas, a couple goats and a pig out for feeding. Food will be available but won’t be covered by the $5 admission charge. Follow Big River Alpacas on Facebook for more information.

TUESDAY 05/09 The Queen’s English

If you can’t wait for the next season of Bridgerton, the Netflix miniseries about a huge family with lots of beautiful siblings to marry off, then rest assured, help is coming. While the series won’t return until the fall (most people’s best guess), there is another miniseries debuting on Netflix next month called Queen Charlotte about how the queen fell in love with King George III. Even better, on Tuesday, May 9, you can hear from Julia Quinn, who wrote the Bridgerton book series that Shonda Rhimes has brought to life in her show. The author will be in town at the Ethical Society (9001 Clayton Road, 314-994-3300) to talk about the book she and Rhimes wrote to align with the Bridgerton series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. The book centers on Queen Charlotte, who is a key figure in the main Bridgerton series, and how she met and immediately married King George III. Despite the arranged marriage, the two manage to have a romance for the ages. The event costs $35 and includes a copy of the novel. You can also get a package ticket for $40 that will admit two to the book signing and include one copy of the novel. Tickets are available through Eventbrite. n

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra closes out its season with the Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz. | DILIP VISHWANAT

Julia Quinn will talk about her series Bridgerton on Tuesday. | COVER ART

Every Thursday in MAY

6–8pm Forest Park • Museum’s North Lawn

mohistory.org/twilight-thursdays

COMMANDMENTS

1 THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE THEY WILL RUN OUT

We expect that the restaurants will be extremely busy. So if a place runs out toward the end of a shift, handle it like an adult; go back earlier the next day, order your tacos and thank them for working really hard. Please be nice to our restaurants.

2 THERE WILL LIKELY BE WAITS

People have been talking about Taco Week 2023 for months. Don’t be surprised if restaurants have waits.

3 YOU WILL TIP LIKE A PRO

$5 brings out the cheap in all of us, but really, you’re most likely receiving $10+ tacos. Many restaurants go above and beyond for Taco Week, so please tip at least 20%. Those who are serving you are working harder this week than any other full week in the year. Kind words can go a long way — these folks are our friends and neighbors.

4 YOU REALLY SHOULD BUY A DRINK AND/OR OTHER FOODS

Purchase of sides and extras are not a requirement, but we think it says a lot to those working hard to bring you an extraordinary experience. Grab some queso, a beer or a cocktail and say thanks.

5 CHECK TWITTER, FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM

Restaurants are encouraged to post updates on supply throughout the week, but download the new Taco Week App and check Taco Week social media for the most real time updates. Don’t forget to tag your Instagram photos with #STLTacoWeek too!

6 DINE-IN & TAKE OUT OPTIONS

While Taco Week was designed to be dine in only, with the current state we are encouraging restaurants to offer take out options as well. Many locations will be offering both dine in and take out, however, make sure to double check the Official Taco Week App or www.stltacoweek.com to confirm which locations offer carry-out and which locations are dine-in only.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

There’s the Beef!

Mike’s Italian Beef offers a mesmerizing taste of Chicago in St. Louis

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Mike’s Italian Beef

8001 MacKenzie Road, Affton; 314-282-0007. Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Imade a rookie mistake at Mike’s Italian Beef, the Affton sandwich shop based around Chicago’s quintessential sandwich. After unwrapping the restaurant’s namesake sandwich

— a mammoth portion of tender, paper-thin-sliced, jus-soaked topround nestled into a pillowy hoagie roll and smothered in piquant giardiniera — I knew I should probably grab some napkins before digging in. I’d ordered it dipped, after all, which meant that the bun, already saturated in the meat’s cooking liquid, had been dunked in its entirety into even more au jus, guaranteeing an utter mess of an eating experience.

If I wanted to maintain any sort of decorum, I would have looked at the sandwich, understood the situation and walked 10 feet to one of the many napkin dispensers situated around the order counter. Instead, I glanced down at the beautiful specimen before me, with its glistening meat and vibrant minced vegetable trimmings, and caved. Just one bite, I told myself. Then, I’ll get some napkins. Half a sandwich later

and dripping in a mix of beef jus and giardiniera vinegar nearly up to my elbows, I realized my error: Get the napkins before you sit down. Otherwise, there is no tearing yourself away.

The sort of crave-inducing reverie the Classic Italian Beef sandwich elicits is what inspired coowner Mike Roos to open Mike’s Italian Beef in the first place. A Chicagoland native who moved to Waterloo, Illinois, in 2007, Roos often longed for the hot beef sandwiches that could be found in casual shops on just about every street corner in his hometown. In 2021, when he was presented with the opportunity to open an eatery of his own by his then-employer, Sedara Sweets & Ice Cream owner George Simon, it made sense that he would look to the food he missed so much as the basis for his first restaurant venture.

However, if you would have told

Roos that he’d been opening an Italian beef restaurant back when he first moved to the bi-state area, he would have laughed. Back then, he was a recent high school graduate who had never cooked professionally. He wasn’t even actively considering a career in the culinary field until about six years after the move, when he had an aha moment while watching the Food Network during a vacation. Roos isn’t sure exactly what clicked — perhaps a show that connected with his childhood experiences watching his dad work in the food industry — but he recalls suddenly being filled with a sense of certainty surrounding his future. After returning home, he began researching culinary schools and began his studies at the now-shuttered L’Ecole Culinaire that following January.

While still in school, Roos began

The Monster Italian beef sandwich includes Italian beef, giardiniera, peppers, jalapeños and onions and is available dipped or undipped. | MABEL SUEN

MIKE’S ITALIAN BEEF

Continued from pg 33

his kitchen career at the Country Club of St. Albans, then went on to a variety of culinary positions that gave him insight into a wide range of kitchen experiences — a pizzeria in Waterloo, an assisted living community, an independent school, Delta Queen Port of Call in Kimmswick, the BBQ Saloon in the Central West End, the Frisco Barroom (where he was the restaurant’s opening sous chef). Eventually, he landed at Salt + Smoke, where he met a colleague who hooked him up with a second job working on the Sedara food truck.

While working for Sedara, he and Simon developed a close relationship — so close that when Simon turned to him one day and suggested they open up a restaurant together, Roos thought he was just joking with him. A couple of days later, Simon again brought up the idea, telling Roos that there was a vacant storefront in the Affton strip mall where Sedara Sweets & Ice Cream was located. Pick whatever cuisine you want, and we will make it work, Simon said. Within two days, Roos had a plan: He was going to open a restaurant based around his beloved Chicago-style beef sandwiches.

Roos admits he had never cooked an Italian beef sandwich before opening Mike’s last January, though you’d never know that when you bite into the Classic. His painstaking research and experimentation has led to the embodiment of the form, especially noteworthy because of its tender meat and outstanding giardiniera, which serves as a delightfully crunchy counter to the rest of the soft, jus-soaked sandwich. Offered as either mild or spicy, the pickled vegetable condiment is searing enough as the former, and positively blazing as the latter; the heat is multidimensional thanks to its briny, vinegary taste.

The Italian beef may be the namesake dish, but it is just one of the restaurant’s several outstanding sandwiches. A classic Reuben is piled high with corned beef and generously appointed with zesty Thousand Island and pleasantly pungent sauerkraut. A special shout out must be given to the gentleman working the grill responsible for the flawlessly toasted marble rye bread. He has a gift. A cheeseburger is an equally well-executed dish; made

up of two smashburger patties and gooey American cheese, it can stand up to any diner smashburger in town.

A St. Louis-style cheesesteak subs in molten Provel for Philly’s traditional provolone, with outstanding results. Haters, go on hating, but the way the especially gooey cheese melds into the seasoned steak-juice-soaked bread is otherworldly. Green peppers and onions add a snappy balance to the decadence. However, if I

had to choose one sandwich to eat at Mike’s it might just be the chopped cheese with mushrooms and onions. Here, chopped-up hamburger is seasoned with Cajun spices, seared on the flat top with onions and mushrooms, then covered in provolone and tucked into a hoagie bun. It’s like making an entire cheesesteakstyle sandwich out of the lacy crispies you get from the outer edges of a smashburger.

In keeping with its theme,

Mike’s offers several styles of all-beef hot dogs, ranging from a classic Chicago version dressed in onions, mustard, pickles, sport peppers, tomatoes and relish to a delicious New York-style dog topped with caramelized onions and kraut. No matter the garnish, I was impressed with the hot dog’s snap and wonderful garlic- and paprika-heavy taste. Side dishes are also characteristic of this sort of shop — medium-cut fries accented with garlic and parmesan, battered onion rings, tangy mac and beer cheese and tater tots that are cloud-like puffs of potatoes, sour cream and cheddar cheese. However, the standout is the arancini, a Chicagoland riff on the Italian classic that features Mike’s Italian beef and giardiniera wrapped into a deepfried rice ball. The meat’s rich jus mixes with the pungent giardiniera dressing, infusing the rice with spiced beef nectar.

The next time I go to Mike’s Italian Beef, I’ll know better: Order a second portion of arancini and make sure to get something to wipe my hands with before I dig in.

Mike’s Italian Beef Classic Italian Beef $11 50 New York dog $8 Arancini balls

Mike Roos is the chef/owner of Mike’s Italian Beef. | MABEL SUEN

Mike’s Italian Beef features sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers and sides. | MABEL SUEN

SHORT ORDERS 36

‘We Like Wine’

The new Black Mountain Wine House offers deep knowledge in a relaxed atmosphere

Written by THOMAS CRONE

Anyone that spent real time at the West End Grill and Pub (a.k.a. WEGAP) will walk into Black Mountain Wine House (a.k.a. blk mtn) with strong first impressions. Already, only a month into service, co-owner and proprietor Joe Baker has been fielding feedback, and it’s ranged widely. Some of the diehard neighborhood regulars have been, let’s be honest, a bit cool to the changes; that’s inevitable. Also true: Plenty have been impressed with the multiple changes that have occurred inside the two-room space at 354-356 North Boyle Avenue.

Consider this writer in the latter number. Black Mountain features one of the boldest transitions of a barroom/dining room in St. Louis in quite some time, featuring a total reinvention of the two linked storefronts, with a food and beverage menu that precisely splits the difference between: elegant and casual, hip and homey, rustic and urban. Along with partner Tyler Maganzini (who operates the original, sister location of Black Mountain Wine House in Brooklyn, New York), Baker’s touches are found all over the place at this new Central West End venture.

Baker curates the wine program as a time-tested, multi-city veteran of wine bars across the country. He’s helped construct the actual, physical space, including carpentry work on several of the venue’s notable features, such as sliding wood doors that separate the business’ two rooms. He’s overseeing the build-out of a wine shop, as well, which will open just as soon as the bar and restaurant have found their legs. Based on an early visit, it shouldn’t take too

long. Already, the service is dialed in, the kitchen’s putting out superior fare and the beverage program is both smart and deceptively simple.

As an example of that: Instead of mixing drinks from behind a bar, customers will receive their liquor, a mixer and ice separately, a play on the old idea of set-ups.

“You get to be the bartender,” Baker says. “Mix it however you like it mixed.”

If you read that as glib: don’t. Baker and his small staff are focusing on instilling deep knowledge but presenting that information in a relaxed manner, befitting a place that wants to become known as “a non-pretentious wine bar.” It currently offers in

the neighborhood of 20 wines — all served by the bottle or by the glass — with an emphasis on single varietals, rather than blends.

Baker figures that the shop will offer some of the same curatorial touches with an overall nod to accessibility. While the pricing at the bar will reflect a desire to give bang for the buck, the upcoming shop is all about depth

Black Mountain Wine House opened in the former home of West End Grill and Pub. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

Black Mountain’s aesthetic channels rustic, urban, elegant and more. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

Joe Baker is the co-owner of Black Mountain Wine House. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

and breadth in offerings. Natural wines, which we’ve noted as a growing trend in St. Louis, will be represented. But they’ll only be a component, not the totality.

“I say this without sounding snooty, I hope,” Baker says. “This place will never hang a shingle on only one thing. We’re not going to be a national wine shop or a conventional wine shop. We like wine. There’s a lot of wine in the world. We’ll be non-discriminating.”

Baker’s bar currently offers wine, of course, plus those spirits and a small beer list of 8 to 10 titles. This part of the business he built with regional and local purveyors in mind, atop the template established at the original Black Mountain. Much of the original space’s food is mirrored in the Central West End location’s food menu. That said, there’s a hood in the St. Louis kitchen, which allows the staff to broaden offerings. The Canadian-native Baker points to the poutine, for example, as a fun, new touch for the St. Louis location.

Shareable plates, boards and lighter fare are all highlighted on the menu, which can broadly be defined as “comfort food.” That vibe accurately reflects the antiques-and-reclaimed-woods feel of Black Mountain’s two rooms, too. We’ll note that the future wine shop also offers a six-toeight top table, which is the only reserved space in the house; the others are available as first-come, first-seated.

As of press time, the hours look like this, though tweaks may come: The kitchen is open from 3 to 11 p.m. Monday to Friday, noon to 11 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. on Sunday. The bar is open during those hours, with possible later service if there’s an audience for drinks. As with WEGAP, the space also serves the patrons of the conjoined Gaslight Theater, though concessions were made to keep the audience separated with the addition of a micro-bar.

Though there are no overt allusions to Gaslight Square inside Black Mountain, the legendary entertainment district was found just around the corner. Still, Black Mountain’s singular style has neatly tied itself to the spirit of that long-gone place.

Beer, Wine-ified

Ste. Genevieve’s Charleville Brewery pours beer with a wine sensibility

Written by TONY REHAGEN

Visiting the new Charleville Brewery (16937 Boyd Road, Ste. Genevieve; 573-568-8165; charlevillemo.com) is not like walking into your typical taproom. For one thing, it’s a helluva hike, more like a long, winding road trip into the wooded hills of rural Ste. Genevieve County, from highway to two-lane county roads to a steep gravel drive that leads to a remote hilltop clearing. The next thing a beer drinker notices is the absence of the sweet, yeasty aroma of fermenting brew — nothing but clean, fresh country air. Then you ascend the broad stone steps, through double glass doors, and into a bright, high-ceilinged 2,500-square-foot tasting room with clean lines and a bar made from leather-textured granite framed with old oak staves. And then there’s the glass — floor-to-ceiling windows that showcase the manicured grounds, the deck-chairsurrounded firepits and the panoramic view of Saline Creek Valley beyond.

If you haven’t noticed yet, it sounds like I’m describing a winery, not a brewery — and that’s the point.

First, technically it is a winery, full name Charleville Brewery & Winery, and it still offers several house-made whites along with reds from nearby Wild Sun. But the 10,000-square-foot development that opened in January is focused on beer, part of a growing nationwide trend of brewers taking craft beer out of the dark bars and industrial warehouses and giving drinkers a different, dare we say more sophisticated atmosphere. “People are going where the experiences are,” says Shanna Starnes, part of the ownership group that bought the location and the brand early last year. “A lot of breweries are opening up venues where adults and kids can play games or listen to live music, play murder mysteries and do food pairings and beer release parties.”

Leaning into the winery vibe makes perfect sense for Charleville because this place and its surroundings are inextricably entangled in grapevines. The area’s first French-Canadian settlers were vintners when they arrived in the early 18th century, and the first documentation of

the local practice dates to 1763, when a visiting English engineer reported that “inhabitants make wine with wild grapes, which is quite inebriating.” In the 1800s, Ste. Genevieve even developed its own type of grape, the American Rulander, which was grown and crushed for wine as far away as Ohio. Subsistence winemaking continued to flourish in this area up to (and let’s face it, probably through and beyond) Prohibition, until the late 20th century, when the locals started to uncork wineries for tourists traveling the state’s freshly blazed wine trails.

In June 2003, Jack and Joal Russell joined the party, opening Charleville Vineyard as a retirement project. But within a few years, the couple realized they needed to expand their offerings to beer to attract more tipplers to the remote locale. They enlisted their son, Tait, an experienced homebrewer, who started cooking up small, five-gallon batches. But the beer turned out to be at least as popular as the wine, eventually leading to packaging, regional distribution and even a satellite brewery and tap room near Lafayette Square. Early standouts included Box of Chocolate, a truly unique Belgian quad whose namesake sweetness and smoothness belie its swoon-inducing 10.5 percent ABV; and Whiskey Scented Santa, an annual Xmas present of an imperial porter aged on whiskey-infused oak chips.

In late 2021, amid the pandemic, the Russells closed the St. Louis location and decided to retire a second time. They sold the Ste. Genevieve operations to Starnes and her partners Cara Naeger, RJ Clements and Eric Clements, who had grown up together in the area and had been longtime patrons of the brewery and winery. Part of what they bought was a rustic 500-square-foot tasting room that was essentially a bar, bathroom and no windows looking out onto the gorgeous vista. They invested nearly

$5 million to “open things up,” including creation of a beer venue that could host a bachelor/bachelorette party on Friday night, a wedding on Saturday and Sunday brunch for the entire family.

This sort of “wine-ification” of beer service is not unique to Charleville. It’s happening across the country as breweries search for ways to differentiate and attract new clientele. It’s also an indicator of beer outgrowing its yeoman roots and evolving into a true craft, with artisans producing quaffable flavors and aromas that are every bit as complex and sophisticated as a bottle of burgundy or pinot noir.

Notice the word “sophisticated” appears twice in this story — but in Charleville’s case, that is not to be confused with snobbish. The new owners, along with director of operations Jeremy Gilbert, are continuing the approachable style of Charleville beer that we’re used to, from the easy-drinking Strawberry Blonde Ale to the caramelly malt of Tornado Alley Red Ale to the slightly hot finish of the fruity Pineapple Mango Habanero Blonde. (They are also facilitating the masses’ access to new beers by contracting production space to other brewers such as Center Ice Brewery, formerly of Midtown, and Auburn, Illinois’ Slauterhouse Brewing Company.) They’ve also made the beers literally more accessible by installing a wristband-activated iPourIt system that allows you to grab a glass, pour your own beer, wine or Charle-rita wine cocktail straight out of the tap, so you get as much or as little as you want. “You can try an ounce of each offering without having to wait 10 minutes for a bartender to pour you a flight,” Gilbert says. “And nobody is watching or judging you. You can get what you want.”

So you can feel free to trek to Charleville, pour yourself a fresh tulip of beer and take in the scenery as you swirl, sniff and sip the day away. n

It’s a road trip to Charleville Brewery, but it’s quite the experience. | TONY REHAGAN

Three Kings Ravaged by Fire

A three-alarm fire may have started in the Loop pub’s kitchen around 3:30 a.m. on April 26

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

Three Kings Pub in the Delmar Loop caught on fire in the small hours of April 26.

The fire was a three-alarm blaze that authorities believe may have started in the kitchen.

“We at Three Kings Public House are heartbroken this morning because of the fire that broke out at our Delmar Loop restaurant location,” the restaurant said

[FOOD NEWS]

Driver Crashes into Springfield Panera

The Mercedes demolished a wall and ran over a booth that was unoccupied

Written by RYAN KRULL

Adriver behind the wheel of a Mercedes G-Class sliced through a Springfield Panera restaurant on April 27, demolishing a wall and running over a booth that was fortunately not occupied at the time of the crash.

“I just saw a G wagon in Panera. It was crazy,” Missouri State University student Garrett Reinwald told KY3.

The crash occurred around 4:30 p.m. near MSU’s campus. No one was seriously hurt, though two diners did receive minor injuries.

An MSU public relations major told the university’s student newspaper, The Standard, that two women dining at a booth adjacent to the wall the Mercedes rammed through had to have a window lifted off of them by other patrons. The student added that about 20 minutes before the incident, someone had been sitting at the booth that was run over.

in a statement. “Thankfully, no one was injured during the fire as this occurred in the early morning hours before we were open.”

According to a press release from University City, the fire department arrived on the scene after being called at 3:30 a.m. The fire had spread to the apartments

above Three Kings, which the fire department attacked first. The apartments were occupied but were safely evacuated. After extinguishing the fire in the apartments, the firefighters concentrated their efforts on the kitchen, which was when the second and third alarms were struck

for additional manpower to extinguish the blaze. According to the press release “the units had several void spaces between floors and roofs due to construction over the years, which caused the fire to spread in between those void spaces. The roof of the kitchen collapsed within Three Kings Pub.”

Witnesses described the fire as “massive.” By Wednesday afternoon, it was still not entirely extinguished, due to the rubble. A press release said that it would take firefighters hours to put out. Delmar was closed off in both directions from the scene of the blaze.

A popular spot known for both its food and its strong beer selection, Three Kings is a perennial Best of St. Louis winner dating back to being named Best New Bar in 2011. Most recently, readers voted it Best Chain. After first opening in the Loop, Three Kings has grown to multiple locations, including in the airport, Des Peres and South County.

This is not the first time in recent weeks that St. Louis has been rattled by fire. On April 22, St. Louis lost blues legend Tom Hall due to a fire in his home in Soulard. n

“I’m so glad that she got up and left when she did,” Katelyn Farr told The Standard

The driver of the Mercedes was attempting to turn from National Avenue

onto Elm Street, but, according to Springfield Police Department Lieutenant Steve Schwind, “didn’t quite make the turn.”

The driver has not been publicly iden-

tified or charged, but the Springfield Police Department says he did cooperate with authorities. A police spokesperson tells the RFT that police are still investigating the matter. n

Three Kings shows damage after a three-alarm fire. | RYAN KRULL

A Mercedes crashed through a Panera wall in Springfield, Missouri. | SCREEN GRAB FROM KY3

REEFERFRONT TIMES

It’s a Mad, Mad World

When weed became legal in Illinois and Missouri, Kristen Taylor started crafting Mad World Edibles

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

Kristen Taylor, 37, is still in disbelief that recreational marijuana is legal in Missouri and Illinois. “I can’t believe it happened in my lifetime,” she says.

Taylor has been smoking since before it was legal (don’t tell her mom), and since she’s allergic to alcohol, has a real appreciation for bud. But her excitement about adult-use being legal is not just for her enjoyment: It also opens the door to her expanding her business Mad World Edibles.

Taylor started thinking about entering the marijuana market in 2019 after Illinois legalized adultuse. She lived in Illinois at the time and thought it could be a way to help people.

“My best friend always had tons of health issues. She was carrying around giant bags full of Percocet, and she was getting robbed all the time,” Taylor recalls. Taylor — who had worked at a bakery in O’Fallon, Illinois — was also going through a divorce and “needed something to do.” She started tinkering in her kitchen with edibles. She started with infused cake pops.

“I did a lot of research online and bought a lot of books,” Taylor says. “I spent a lot of time on math to make sure everything is very safely dosed.”

Taylor got her weed from people with caregiver licenses, private sellers who are licensed in Missouri to sell weed to a small number of medical marijuana patients. “It’s nice to be able to buy from people you trust,” Taylor says.

Taylor gave away her treats to taste testers found that everyone liked what they were tasting. She expanded her repertoire to cheesecake and gummy bears. Taylor ran into a issue though when she realized how difficult it was to get a license to sell her treats.

“This whole thing took off on its own before I had any real plans or anything,” Taylor says. “I feel like I’m behind and ahead at the same time. Now, I’m scrambling to figure out how to go about it the right way.”

Now, Taylor is working on building a public CBD and Delta-9 brand, substances she can sell without a license.

“I would love to have my own little coffee shop and bakery,” says Taylor, who has quit her job to focus on Mad World Edibles full time. But she’s worried she doesn’t have enough capital to build her business.

“A friend of mine knew some -

one who had opened a dispensary in Las Vegas, and he was like, ‘I just want you to know that your product is great, and you’re a great person.’ But he was basically like, ‘Don’t get your heartbroken when it doesn’t happen the way you think it’s going to happen. Like what I thought would be a $9 million [invest -

ment cost] turned into an $80 million thing.’”

Taylor does not have millions to invest in the marijuana game. So, for now, she’s sticking with promoting her treats through giveaways to build her brand.

In addition to sweet confections, she makes at least four different flavors of gummies. The THC ones are dosed at five milligrams each and offer a giggly high that doesn’t incapacitate. Taylor says it took her several tries to get to the right texture, but she nailed it as the gummies are not too gummy and full of vibrant flavor.

Her CBD products are in the works, and Joshua Grigaitis at Mighty Kind gave her some pointers on the cannabinoids.

“It made me realize how close these molecules are [in THC, CBD and Delta-9],” she says. “They’re like the same thing when you abstract it. I’m definitely going to start there, where it’s legal and more attainable.”

Kristen Taylor makes all kinds of sweet treats for Mad World Edibles. | COURTESY KRISTEN TAYLOR

“ This whole thing took off on its own before I had any real plans or anything. I feel like I’m behind and ahead at the same time.”

[WEED NEWS]

Marijuana Microbusiness Applications Going Online Early

Missouri doesn’t do much right, but it can run a marijuana program

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

Back in February, adult recreational use sales started a few days early, and now the Department of Health and Senior Services says that it is launching the marijuana microbusiness program months ahead of schedule.

Application instructions will be available June 6 and can be submitted starting July 27. Visit health.mo.gov/safety/ cannabis for more information. Amendment 3, which legalized recreational marijuana in the state, required that DHSS start accepting microbusiness licenses in September 2023.

Microbusiness licenses are an attempt to try to “level the playing field” in Missouri’s cannabis industry. Until now, only those with lots of capital to invest in the expensive and complicated licensing process have been able to launch dispensaries and marijuana-cultivation facilities. The microbusiness license is cheaper to apply for, and the application fees are refundable.

People who obtain a microbusiness license have some restrictions: They can sell weed through a dispensary or cultivate marijuana in a facility; the licenses do not allow them to do both. Plus, microlicense holders are only allowed to do business with other microbusinesses.

DHSS plans to hand out 48 microbusiness licenses via a random lottery drawing in October. Six will be awarded in each congressional district in the state.

The masters of selecting things at random, the Missouri Lottery, will conduct the drawing.

Before Amendment 3 passed, the RFT’s Monica Obradovic outlined how the microbusiness license program would work. Not everyone is eligible to apply, Obradovic explained. Those who qualify for microbusiness licenses would have to prove significant financial disadvantages. Applicants qualify:

• if they have a net worth less than $250,000 and earned less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level in at least three of the past 10 years.

• if they, or a parent, guardian or spouse, have been arrested, prosecuted or convicted of a non-violent marijuana offense, as long as the offense didn’t involve providing marijuana to a minor or driving under the influence. The arrest, charge or conviction must have occurred at least one year before recreational marijuana became legal.

• if they’re a disabled veteran.

• if they live in a financially disadvantaged ZIP code where 30 percent or more of the population lives below the federal poverty level, where the rate of unemployment is 50 percent higher than the state average rate of unemployment, or where the rate of incarceration for marijuana-related offenses is 50 percent higher than the rate for the entire state.

• if they graduated from or lived in a ZIP code with an unaccredited school district for three of the past five years.

Amy Moore, director of the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation, told the Springfield News-Leader that, “This is the first implementation of a new applicant type, and it is an application type for which we are instructed to provide technical assistance and other resources to ensure eligible applicants are successful in navigating the process. We want to do everything in our power to ensure we are fulfilling that responsibility, and allowing for more time in the application processing time period is one way to do that.”

Small businesses will soon have a chance to join Missouri’s weed market. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

‘It Wasn’t My World’

St. Louis guitarist Richard Fortus didn’t know Guns N’ Roses from the Stooges — until he joined the band

Written by STEVE LEFTRIDGE

Seeing a full-blown rock star — the shoulder-length black hair, the skin-tight black jeans, the Chuck Taylors, the tattoos — walk into a generic Creve Coeur coffee shop between a Hair Saloon and a Jimmy John’s is a bit of a shock.

After all, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Richard Fortus regularly travels all over the planet playing stadiums filled with 80,000 or more screaming fans and counts some of the biggest rock legends in the world as his best friends.

Yet here he is on a sleepy afternoon in the suburbs asking the kid at the counter if he has any almond milk.

Fortus is perfectly content with his West County home base. In fact, he lives in the exact same house in which he was raised. Years ago, while living in L.A., Fortus bought and rehabbed his old home as a place to stay when visiting his ailing father. Now, he lives there full time with his wife and two daughters.

“When we would visit, my girls would say, ‘Why can’t we just live here?’” Fortus says. “St. Louis is just such a great place to raise kids. Everything is so easy.”

It’s so easy. That’s a phrase Fortus will hear come screaming through his in-ear monitors soon enough. The morning after our interview, Guns N’ Roses will announce a 2023 world tour, which will include a September stop at Busch Stadium.

Needless to say, he has come a long way since he was playing St. Louis underage clubs Animal House and Reflections as a teen-

age punk rocker enrolled at the then-Visual and Performing Arts High School.

Back in those days, Fortus was already something of a prodigy, having started violin at 4 and guitar at 12. “I had this voracious desire to listen to and learn as much music as I could, an insatiable desire to live music all the time,” he says.

He had plenty of access. His father was co-owner of St. Louis Music, an instrument manufacturer that built Alvarez guitars and Crate amps.

“I was lucky because my dad’s company was going to all these concerts to bring instruments to the artists,” Fortus says. “I would tag along with him, so I was going to concerts at a very young age.”

Fortus’ eyes light up when asked about specific shows, mentioning seeing Kiss and then Parliament at the Checkerdome when he was 10. “That was the Mothership!” he says.

The young Fortus even got Kiss frontman Paul Stanley’s autograph, which reads, “Richie — Keep practicing and someday you might be playing with us!”

Fortus didn’t sit on that advice.

At VPA, Fortus met likeminded singer Michael Schaerer and formed the Eyes, a band that built a grassroots following on the Midwest college circuit and became a popular draw at Kennedy’s on the Landing.

Eschewing the Top 40 and mainstream metal of the day, the Eyes were known for shadowy, goth-y live shows that were smothered in fog and slathered in reverb. While Schaerer struck Jim Morrison poses, the young Fortus flashed formidable guitar skills, using a unique pick-andfinger technique to execute runs up and down the neck. Everyone who saw him knew he was special — driven, talented and already famous looking.

With a sizable fanbase in the

Midwest, the Eyes inked a deal with Atlantic Records in 1990. There already was a ’60s psychedelic band named the Eyes, so the quartet rebranded as Pale Divine, a name sprung from a misheard lyric from the Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes.”

Fortus remembers Pale Divine’s first and only album, the prophetically titled Straight to Goodbye, as a difficult experience. “We had struggles internally with the band and were under a lot of pressure,” he says. “We were trying to change our sound to fit the popular alternative stuff, and it was a mistake, you know? It just wasn’t who we were.”

Regardless, Pale Divine toured the U.S. and Canada, opening for the Psychedelic Furs, and Fortus found a kindred musical spirit in Furs frontman Richard Butler, whom he’d been following since seeing the band at age 14 at legendary St. Louis venue Mississippi Nights.

Richard Fortus was invited to join Guns N’ Roses in 2002. | COURTESY PHOTO

After Pale Divine’s debut album, the band waited in limbo for a follow-up to be greenlit as tensions grew within the band. When Schaerer announced plans for a solo record, Fortus moved to New York to work with Butler on a new project. (Pale Divine continued on with a replacement guitarist for a short time before fizzling.)

With Butler, Fortus formed Love Spit Love in 1992, releasing two albums, charting a single, achieving MTV rotation and recording the theme song for the TV series Charmed

As a session guitarist, Fortus accumulated hundreds of credits, recording with everyone from Puff Daddy to Pink to NSYNC, eventually opening his own successful music production company, Compound, which created soundtrack films, TV shows, video games and commercials.

He also served as a touring guitarist for arena-sized acts such as Rihanna and Enrique Iglesias, maintaining an insane schedule. “I was definitely burning the candle at both ends,” Fortus says.

It was while in Europe with Iglesias in 2002 that Fortus was invited to audition for Guns N’ Roses, a band Fortus had previously never taken much interest in.

“Obviously, I knew who they were, but it wasn’t my world,” he says. “I remember being in a bar in New York and [“It’s So Easy”] came on, and I said, ‘Is this the Stooges?’ My friends were like ‘Are you crazy? This is Guns N’ Roses.’ I thought, ‘Oh, this is pretty cool.’”

With two days off from the Iglesias tour, Fortus flew from London to L.A., jammed with the band and hung out with Axl Rose all night, listening to music in the singer’s car.

“Axl told me that rehearsals started in two weeks, but I told him I had to finish the Enrique tour in Europe,” Fortus recalls. “I could tell he was thinking, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ But I told him I wasn’t going to screw all of [Enrique’s] people over. Then he thought about it and said, “Well, then I know you won’t do it to me.’”

In a bizarre bit of timing, a fan approached Fortus in the airport the next morning and asked him if he was Izzy Stradlin, GNR’s orig-

inal rhythm guitarist. “No one had ever asked me that before!” Fortus says. “I was looking for a hidden camera. I said, ‘No, but I think I might have just taken his spot.’”

Sure enough, Fortus officially joined Guns N’ Roses a few weeks later, jumping into rehearsals, touring Asia and Europe, and rerecording guitar parts for GNR’s long-awaited album, Chinese Democracy.

A huge bonus for Fortus was playing with former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, another of Fortus’ childhood heroes. The two became great friends.

Fortus weathered several lineup changes during the peculiar years that Rose was GNR’s only remaining original member, as fans continually speculated on the possibility of a reunion with original guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagen, a topic Fortus says Rose never talked about.

“Axl is such a loyal guy,” Fortus insists. “I think a lot of people think Axl is always firing people. I never remember him firing anybody as long as I’ve been with him.”

In 2015, Slash and Duff returned to the band after nearly 10 years away, and GNR launched the massive Not in This Lifetime … Tour, named after Rose’s earlier avowal that a reunion would never happen.

Fortus remembers those first rehearsals with Slash. “He’s a nice guy, and I am so used to playing with different artists,” Fortus says. “He’s very streetwise. Musically, I relate to Slash and Duff really well. They were both punkers, too.”

With Slash back on board, Fortus had to recalibrate his guitar role in the band, ceding to Slash some of the intros and solos Fortus had been playing for years. “I mean, obviously [Slash] is gonna play the parts he [originally] played,” Fortus says. “And some of the Chinese Democracy leads that I didn’t play before, I cover now.”

According to Fortus, the old GNR chemistry returned quickly. “When Slash and Duff came back, everything felt totally different,” he says. “It was just a completely different band. There’s so much history there, so it was like getting back in the saddle. There’s magic there.”

As a St. Louisan, Fortus was

well aware of Rose’s reputation as an unpredictable, perhaps volatile, performer. Pale Divine was playing Kennedy’s the night of the 1991 Riverport Riot, when Rose, unhappy with security, stormed off stage midshow. An ensuing melee resulted in multiple injuries, arrests and vast amounts of property damage. “Everyone came down to see us after the show, and people were carrying pieces of the seats from Riverport,” Fortus remembers.

Fortus subsequently learned how traumatic the riot was for the guys in Guns. According to Fortus, when Slash returned to the amphitheater as a solo artist in 2019, he experienced flashbacks. “Slash was shaken up just being there again,” Fortus says. “He was showing me the door backstage that he would open to watch all the chaos.”

The liner notes to GNR’s next album included “Fuck you, St. Louis!” and Rose was later photographed wearing a “St. Louis Sucks” T-shirt. Unsurprisingly, when GNR played the Dome in 2017, its first return to town since

the riot, nerves ran high backstage.

As a sign of good will, Fortus bought the band T-shirts of old St. Louis landmarks to wear during the show: the Coral Courts Motel for Rose, Streetside Records for Duff, Kennedy’s for himself. “I bought Slash a ‘Brains 25 Cents’ shirt, but he didn’t realize he was supposed to wear it in St. Louis. He ended up wearing it during some other show,” Fortus says with a laugh.

These days, Fortus and Rose are close. “He’s a smart motherfucker — I’ll tell you that. We text all the time, and he’s a very sharp dude. And very, very funny.”

In terms of Rose as a singer, Fortus is a big fan. “That is a fucking tough gig, and we play for three, three-and-a-half hours. He does an hour of warmup and 45 minutes of cooldown religiously every night.”

That kind of work ethic fits Fortus, who has been a health nut who runs between 5 and 20 miles every day and a workaholic for decades.

In his non-GNR musical life, Fortus produced the Psychedelic Furs’ acclaimed 2020 album Made of Rain from his recently overhauled home studio, where he continues to score films and video games, composing and performing all the string orchestrations himself. “During COVID, I started diving into that world in a major way,” he says. “I would get up, have breakfast with my family and get to work. It was awesome.”

But now his attention is turning back to Gun N’ Roses. Fortus says new GNR music is on the way, much of it already recorded, and rehearsals for the upcoming tour begin in May.

After a two-hour hang, Fortus checks his phone and announces that Michael Schaerer is waiting for him at home.

“See you at Busch,” he says with a grin. With that, Fortus heads off to meet his old Pale Divine partner, linking his rich Landing-era music past with the stadium-sized St. Louis rock history he is soon to continue. n

Tickets for the Guns N’ Roses Busch Stadium (700 Clark Avenue) show at 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 9, are now on sale. They run from $86 to more than $350.

In a bizarre bit of timing, a fan approached Fortus in the airport the next morning and asked him if he was Izzy Stradlin. “No one had ever asked me that before! I was looking for a hidden camera. I said, ‘No, but I think I might have just taken his spot.’”

More Relevant Than Ever

St. Louis queer film festival QFest returns to the Hi-Pointe this week

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

This story originally appeared in our sister publication Out in STL.

LeeAnne Lowry’s short film

“The Treadmill Switcher” is based on an actual incident. One day, she was in the gym and saw someone get on a treadmill a short distance from her and start running.

“I couldn’t tell if they were a lesbian or a child,” she says. But the story didn’t occur to her until the next time she was in the gym. Lowry was on her treadmill, the same one she always walked on, and the runner hopped on the one next to her.

“I couldn’t tell if they were running next to me because they were interested or because they felt comforted by my presence,” Lowry remembers. She still couldn’t tell if the other person was a lesbian or a teenager.

Lowry was in graduate school at the time earning her MFA. She wrote a short story about the incident, which now, years later, has become a short film that’s having its world premiere at QFest, which is a program of Cinema St. Louis and runs Thursday, May 4, through Wednesday, May 10.

The festival includes 10 feature-length films and two shorts programs, all showing at the HiPointe. The focus of QFest is queer films and filmmakers, and this year’s fest includes local and international films, such as The Blue Caftan, a story about a talented and handsome young apprentice in a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas, who develops a close bond with mar

ried shopkeeper Halim.

There’s also the comedy The Sixth Reel, starring drag legend Charles Busch, who finds a long lost final reel to a classic horror film and antics ensue as he tries to cash in on the find.

Each year, QFest also shows a classic film, and this year’s is the restored 1995 film The Doom Generation, from queer director Gregg Araki, about two runaway teens who pick up an attractive hitchhiker. The films are alternately heartbreaking, hilarious and poignant — and for everyone.

“You don’t have to be anything but a breathing human being who likes movies and wants to experience something interesting with a nice community,” Chris Clark, artistic director of Cinema St. Louis, says.

That made it the perfect fit for “The Treadmill Switcher.”

“We wanted to have a Midwestern, queer premiere,” says Lowry, who identifies as queer.

The short film largely follows the gym incident as it happened to Lowry, and the protagonist, known simply as woman, is Dakota Hommes, a popular transgen-

der TikToker, whom Lowry knew through the True/False Festival.

Lowry is the press and marketing manager for the documentary film festival, while Hommes has volunteered there (and has volunteered at QFest).

The TikTok popularity is important because in the short, the woman talks directly to the camera as Hommes does during her TikToks. “We needed to find someone comfortable talking to [the] camera and who would do it for no money because this was a

no-budget film,” Lowry says with a laugh.

The short isn’t so much about a gym incident but about the roles that women play in film: lover or mother, Lowry explains. When the woman (Hommes) can’t figure out if the person in the gym is a child or a lesbian, it becomes a crisis about what role she is playing in the film, which she is aware of, since she’s always talking to the camera.

The result is funny and bizarre. The fact that the main character is trans adds another layer to the meaning. It’s a critique of “what we’ve been fed our whole lives,” Lowry says. “Cinematic language is built off the male gaze.” n

You can see “The Treadmill Switcher” at Queer Shorts 2, on Sunday, May 7, at Hi-Pointe Theater. This collection of shorts, and Queer Shorts 1 on Saturday, May 6, at 1 p.m., are both free, though tickets are required. Tickets for the larger fest are $15 per film, $12 for students and Cinema St. Louis members. You can also opt for a fivefilm pass for $50 to $65 or an all access pass from $105 to $140.

Dakota Hommes in “The Treadmill Switcher,” which will be at the upcoming QFest at the Hi-Pointe. | COURTESY PHOTO

“ I couldn’t tell if they were running next to me because they were interested or because they felt comforted by my presence.”

Smells Like Tween Spirit

Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret. is a faithful, and moving, adaptation of Judy Blume’s coming-of-age classic

Written by EILEEN G’SELL

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Growing up ravenous for any “young adult” content that offered the slightest glimpse of sexuality, I — along with generations of girls — gravitated to Judy Blume novels like a shark drawn to (menstrual) blood. But I was never a Margaret fan. Give me Deenie any day. Why look up to a sixth grader desperate to get her period when you could aspire to be a masturbating model with scoliosis? The thing about Blume’s adolescent heroines, however, is that all of them spoke to someone. And even if one didn’t speak to you, the storytelling was so damn good that you’d tear through the book anyway.

Margaret — the eponymous heroine of Blume’s 1970 Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. — is arguably the author’s most beloved. And now, more than 50 years from the book’s publication, her glorious, painful coming of age has made it to the big screen. It’s the kind of movie you’re afraid to see because there’s so much on the line, and it would be so easy to screw it up. I imagined a revisionist fantasy of 1970s suburbia (which, if you want it, is Licorice Pizza), a lead actress who resembles a tween TikToker more than an awkward New Jersey transplant, a reactive homage to the nuclear family that tosses out all of Blume’s latent progressivism. Thankfully, Kelly Fremon Craig’s second feature is none of that. It’s a poignant, mid-budget film that stays faithful to the ethos of any Blume novel: Take adolescence — and adolescents — seriously, and the rest will fall into place.

As Margaret, Abby Ryder Fortson is at once endearingly self-conscious and relatably self-centered (anyone who isn’t at 12 should be crushed by a vest of merit badges). When her quirky interfaith parents Herb and Barbara (Benny Safdie and Rachel McAdams) surprise Margaret after summer camp with news that they are leaving their New York City home for a suburban house across the Hudson, she is justifiably piqued — retreating to her room to implore a higher power to intervene. And so begins a series of voiceovers that mirrors the novel’s internal monologue: “Please help me God. Don’t let New Jersey be too horrible. Thank you.”

As it turns out, New Jersey isn’t that horrible — at least at first. Quickly adopted by charismatic tyrant Nancy Wheeler (Elle Graham) — who lives in “the bigger house” down the street — Margaret is inducted into a “secret club” with two other girls from her school. Here she discovers that, pubertywise, she is, well, behind. Much of the film’s humor stems from the girls’ zest for both increasing their bust size and consuming anything remotely taboo — whether it be a diagram of a penis in an anatomy textbook or a centerfold from a filched copy of Playboy

But beyond Margaret’s hyperfocus on achieving the milestones of puberty (most notably her period), much of her turmoil is of an existential variety we might otherwise associate with dead European philosophers and 20th-century intellectuals. As the only child of

non-practicing parents, should she embrace the Jewishness of her father and doting grandmother Sylvia (a delightful Kathy Bates) or the Christianity of her mother? Does God hear her prayers and act on her behalf, or is there “nobody up there” listening?

If her puberty obsession seems petty compared to her spiritual ambivalence (and indeed the “we must increase our bust!” scene is played, appropriately, for laughs), we must simply remember that the two are necessarily of a piece. After all, what could be more seismic for the self than to know that one’s body can, biologically at least, conceive and carry another human being? What could be more alluring — and alarming — than knowing that the size of one’s breasts

might correlate to the amount of attention one receives? Margaret might not be overtly aware of the burden her “womanly” body is about to bestow, but the movie is, as is her mother (McAdams, the original “mean girl,” has possibly never been so warm).

For those who’ve never anticipated, or endured, menstruation: This movie is still for you. While Margaret’s evolution remains the central focus, the narrative honors the implicit magic of grownups at any stage of life also continuing to grow. We see this when Barbara realizes that she can say “no” to the manicured moms at the middle school and embrace her bohemian ways. We see this when Sylvia escapes her lonely prewar Manhattan walk-up and snags a silver fox in Florida. We see this when Mr. Benedict (Echo Kellum), Margaret’s sixth-grade teacher, gets through his first year teaching with a new sense of resolve. If you’re living life right, at any stage you can be “coming of age.” Blume knew that and this film does too.

After the credits rolled to Margaret, my movie-going companion — a gay, 30-something university librarian — commented, “This is so much better than The Fabelmans.” He was right. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. isn’t self-mythology disguised as drama. It’s a soulful account of a story whose classic status is made all the more real by its resonance today. No matter your background, it’s a sweet, honest, moving movie. Period. n

Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig. Written by Kelly Fremon Craig and Judy Blume. Starring Rachel McAdams, Abby Ryder Fortson, Elle Graham, Benny Safdie and Kathy Bates. Opened April 28 widely in area theaters.

Kelly Fremon

Craig’s film stays faithful to the ethos of any Blume novel: Take adolescence — and adolescents — seriously, and the rest will fall into place.

Once the ultimate mean girl, Rachel McAdams embodies warmth as mother to awkward adolescent Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson). | DANA HAWLEY

[REVIEW]

A Pleasing Romp

West End Players Guild gives its season a world premier with Finale

Written by TINA FARMER

Finale

Written by Vladimir Zelevinsky. Directed by Steve Callahan. Presented by the West End Players Guild through Sunday, May 7. Showtimes vary, and tickets are $20 to $25.

In its world premiere at the West End Players Guild (733 Union Boulevard, westendplayers.org), the romantic and musically inclined Finale gives audiences an intimate glimpse into the predilections, proclivities and genius of famed operatic composer Gioachino Rossini. Following the structure of a farce, the show is bawdy and comical, with a touch of musicality that helps convey the artist’s unique approach to writing as well as his complicated romantic history.

The quick-paced, sharp-witted play opens in 1816, in a spare dressing room in the back of an opera house in Rome. We find Rossini furiously transcribing music from his mind onto blank sheets. He is working on the finale to the first act of Barber of Seville, his most recent opera, which is set to open in about an hour and a half. Rossini’s close friend Domenico “Dom” Barbaia bursts into the room, anxiously pacing and demanding the missing pages.

The dialogue is spirited and challenging, but never mean, with Rossini insisting that his friend’s yelling inspires him. That is, until Dom’s fiancée Isabella “Bella” Colbran, a vocalist renowned for her expansive yet flawless range, walks in. From the moment Rossini realizes Bella is that prima donna, his attention and his life are permanently altered. In a matter of minutes, we watch as the singer turns from interruption to muse, even as a previous muse hides in

the dressing room’s armoire.

In contemporary terms, we’d consider Rossini a charismatic bad boy, with a coarse sense of humor and almost irreverent approach to everything except his compositions. As personified by Timothy McWhirter, Rossini is brash and charming, almost always in the mood for a tumble in bed and always, always composing — even while he’s in bed. His appetites seem insatiable and McWhirter ensures his characterization is constantly prowling and purposeful, moving comfortably between gamesmanship and seduction.

Rossini discovers his match in the older, wiser and equally musically gifted Bella, played by Paula Stoff Dean, a performer with a truly impressive range of her own. Matt Anderson is amiable and forgiving as the wealthy impresario Dom, and Sadie Harvey turns in a lively performance as Angel, a comely soprano who serves as an additional muse to Rossini.

Director Steve Callahan embraces the light touch of the comic script, particularly the delightfully farcical first act. The tone is upbeat, with a sense of youthful optimism that matches the successful 19-year-old composer’s drive. The second act, set 13 years later, is decidedly more philosophical in tone, content and pacing. While the first act zips by, the shorter second act seems to plod along without adding much to the story, leaving this reviewer wanting a more satisfying resolution. And the last few moments of the play are genuinely confusing, although they seem to suggest the composer completely exhausted himself until he collapsed, physically and musically.

There was a time when local professional theater companies regularly employed an in-house playwright. While that arrangement has mostly fallen out of practice, this opening is playwright (and nuclear physicist) Vladimir Zelevinsky’s fourth original production with West End Players Guild. Each has featured an entertaining story, solid direction from Callahan and an appealing and capable cast. Finale is among the most entertaining and engrossing of the bunch; theater lovers would be wise to seek it out. n

Finale gives audiences an intimate glimpse into operatic composer Gioachino Rossini. | JOHN LAMB

OUT EVERY NIGHT

Each week, we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the next seven days! To submit your show for consideration, visit https://bit.ly/3bgnwXZ. All events are subject to change, especially in the age of COVID-19, so do check with the venue for the most up-to-date information before you head out for the night. Happy showgoing!

THURSDAY 4

AMYTHYST KIAH: 7 p.m., $15-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

CHASE RICE: 8 p.m., $34.50-$49.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

CLINT HOLMES: 7:30 p.m., $25-$35. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

CREE RIDER: w/ Phil Wright 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THE GASLIGHT SQUARES: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

MALEVICH: w/ Socket, Snort Dagger 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SCIENCE MAN: w/ Miracle Whip, Still Animals, Trauma Harness 8 p.m., $10. CBGB, 3163 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis.

FRIDAY 5

BETH BOMBARA: w/ Nick Gusman, the Bootstrap Boys 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

BROTHER FRANCIS AND THE SOULTONES: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

COLT BALL & FRIENDS: w/ Timeless Corridor 10 p.m., $13. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

DOGS IN A PILE: 8 p.m., $12-$16. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

GENE JACKSON’S POWER PLAY: 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 3143765313.

HAUNTED HERS ALBUM RELEASE: w/ Sewer Urchin, Stinkbomb, Nite Fervor 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

JAVIER MENDOZA: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON: 8 p.m., $20. The Gaslight Theater, 360 N. Boyle Avenue, St Louis.

JOHN BUTLER: 8 p.m., $25-$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

KAMASI WASHINGTON: w/ Ami Taf Ra 7 p.m.,

$55. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

LAKA: 7 p.m., $25. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

MILD CARTOON VIOLENCE: w/ Raze The Alarms

The Bone Docs, Bigfoot 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

NEIL SALSICH & FRIENDS: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

ODIE LEIGH: 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

RICH FLEETWOOD: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THE ROAD TO POINTFEST 2023 GRAND FINALS:

6:30 p.m., $8. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

ROCK OUT HUNGER: w/ The Dirty Muggs, FatPocket 5 p.m., $10. Chesterfield Amphitheater, 631 Veterans Place Drive, Chesterfield.

SAN HOLO: 10 p.m., $25-$550. RYSE Nightclub, One Ameristar Blvd, St. Charles.

Kamasi Washington w/ Ami Taf Ra

10:30 p.m. Friday, May 5. City Winery, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158. $55. 314-678-5060.

To say that Kamasi Washington has an impressive resume would be to dramatically understate the situation. The acclaimed saxophonist is a founding member of the jazz collective West Coast Get Down, a supergroup that has been described as the “Wu-Tang Clan of jazz” and whose members include such luminaries as Ryan Porter, Thundercat and Suicidal Tendencies drummer Ronald Ray Bruner Jr. Many of the members of the collective, including Washington, performed on Kendrick Lamar’s universally acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly LP, with Washington tapped to contribute to Lamar’s follow-up

VOODOO FLEETWOOD MAC: 9 p.m., $15-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

SATURDAY 6

ALEXIS WILKINS: 8 p.m., free. Tin Roof St. Louis, 1000 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-240-5400.

ALL ROOSTERED UP: 4 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

BURIED IN ARMS: w/ The Final Pollution, Hudai, Brave New World 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

DAVE HOLLISTER: 6 p.m., $52. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

EVIL WOMAN - THE AMERICAN ELO: 8 p.m., $29.50-$69.50. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

FEIST: 8 p.m., $40-$70. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN: A TRIBUTE TO METALLICA: 7 p.m., $15. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

JOE PARK & THE HOT CLUB OF ST. LOUIS: 7:30

p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

METRO TRANS UMBRELLA GROUP FUNDRAISER: 8

Damn as well. In 2020, he formed another supergroup, Dinner Party, alongside 9th Wonder, Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin, and the group’s self-titled album was an instant classic. He’s worked with everyone from Lauren Hill to Herbie Hancock to Snoop Dogg to St. Vincent as a first-call live artist and session musician, and as if that’s not enough, he was nominated for both an Emmy and a Grammy for his work scoring the 2020 documentary Becoming, a biopic centered on former First Lady Michelle Obama. More locally, he delivered an outstanding set at last year’s Music at the Intersection festival — and there’s every reason to expect he’ll do so again at City Winery this week.

World Class: North African artist Ami Taf Ra, well-regarded for her fusion of Arabic music with Western jazz stylings, will open the show. —Daniel Hill

p.m., $5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

ROCKIN’ ROD & COMPANY: 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 3143765313.

SPIKE HELLIS: w/ Club Music, Jeff In Leather, Moon 17, DJ Domolition, DJ Sex Nintendo 8 p.m., $17-$20. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SWEETMELK: w/ The Boy (That I Once Knew)

8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

VOODOO FLEETWOOD MAC: 8 p.m., $12-$20. The Blue Note, 17 N. Ninth St., Columbia, 573-874-1944.

SUNDAY 7

BROKEN JUKEBOX: 9 p.m., $9. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

CITY AND COLOUR: 8 p.m., $43-$128. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

THE DEAL: noon, free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

DEATH ANGEL: 7 p.m., $22-$39.50. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

ICON FOR HIRE: w/ Hooked Like Helen 7:30 p.m., $21. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

MISTER BLACKCAT: 10 a.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

SHAELYN ROLF INSPIRATIONS OF STEVIE NICKS: 7 p.m., $15-$20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. TANTRIC: w/ Dirty King, On All Sides, Holding Ground 7 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

MONDAY 8

ERIC SLAUGHTER: 5 p.m., free. Strauss Park, Washington & N. Grand boulevards, St. Louis.

GARY CLARK JR: 8 p.m., $59.50-$79.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MARC ROBERGE NIGHT 1: 7:30 p.m., $55. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW: w/ Tim, Danny and Randy 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $8. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

TENACIOUS D: 7:30 p.m., $55-$99.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

WORLD’S GREATEST DAD: w/ Inches From Glory, Wise Disguise 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

TUESDAY 9

ANDREW DAHLE: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

DEBBY LENNON: 10 a.m., $20-$23. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

ERIC MCSPADDEN & MARGARET BIENCHETTA: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ETHAN LEINWAND: 7 p.m., free. Yaqui’s on Cherokee, 2728 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-400-7712.

JON ANDERSON: 7 p.m., $32-$92. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St Charles, 636-896-4200.

MARC ROBERGE NIGHT 2: 7:30 p.m., $55. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

NAKED MIKE: 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

OFF!: 8 p.m., $22. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THEO KATZMAN: 8:30 p.m., $30.38. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

WEDNESDAY 10

BRYSON TILLER: 8 p.m., $65-$95. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

DREW LANCE: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

GOOD KID: 7 p.m., $22-$75. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

JOHN MCVEY BAND: 8 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

JORDAN WARD: 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

MARGARET & FRIENDS: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: 7:30 p.m., TBA. Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 Touhill Circle, St. Louis, 866-516-4949.

SLEEPSCULPTOR: w/ So Hideous, Nolia, SCUZZ

8 p.m., $12. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

VOODOO DEAD MAY ‘77: 9 p.m., $14. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ZACH WILLIAMS: 7 p.m., $18-$223.75. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

Kamasi Washington. | VIA ARTIST BANDCAMP

[CRITIC’S PICK]

THIS JUST IN

5 STAR ROSCOE: Sat., June 10, 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 3143765313.

6LACK: Thu., Oct. 19, 8 p.m., $45-$49.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

AIDAN CANFIELD: Sat., June 17, 6 p.m., free. Tin Roof St. Louis, 1000 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-240-5400.

ALL ROOSTERED UP: Sat., May 13, noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ALL TIME LOW: Sun., Sept. 24, 7 p.m., $39.50-$55. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

ANDY COCO’S NOLA FUNK AND R&B REVUE: Thu., May 11, 9:30 p.m., $12. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

BABYTRON: W/ Certified Trapper, Tue., June 27, 7 p.m., $27.50-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BETH BOMBARA: Sun., June 4, 11 a.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME: W/ Thank You Scientist, Rivers of Nihil, Tue., July 25, 7 p.m., $28.50-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BLACK MIDI: Wed., June 28, 8 p.m., $26. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BLACKHAWK: Sat., June 3, 8 p.m., $45-$75. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis.

BLOOD RED SHOES: Thu., July 13, 8 p.m., $20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

CHRISTA AND THE BOOMERANGS: Fri., June 2, 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

DANA STERLING: W/ Indisposed, Iron Linings, The Vast, Fri., May 12, 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

DAS BEVO 106TH BIRTHDAY BASH: Sat., June 17, 6 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

THE DAVE STONE TRIO: Sat., May 13, 10 p.m., free. O’Connell’s Pub, 4652 Shaw Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-6600.

DEHD: W/ Sarah Grace White, Fri., Oct. 6, 8 p.m., $21. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

DIESEL ISLAND: Sat., June 3, 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

DISCREPANCIES RELEASE SHOW: Fri., June 2, 7 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

DREW LANCE: Wed., May 17, 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

DUSTER: W/ Sour Windows, Wed., June 21, 8 p.m., $26. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

ERIC LYSAGHT: Sun., May 14, 9 p.m., free. Tue., May 16, 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ERIK BROOKS: Sun., May 14, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

ETHAN JONES: Sun., May 14, 2 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

EUGENE & COMPANY: Sat., May 13, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

FAIR WEATHER FRIENDS: Fri., June 2, 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 3143765313.

THE FRONT BOTTOMS: Tue., Aug. 1, 7:30 p.m., $35$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM: Sat., Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m., $39.50-$59.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40

Off! w/ Upchuck

8 p.m. Tuesday, May 9. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $22. 314-498-6989.

Fronted by punk legend Keith Morris, whose name you may remember from this one band called Black Flag and this other one called the Circle Jerks, Off! was automatically a venerable force from the outset, a living piece of hardcore history that united fans of the genre instantly. But bands are obviously not made of history alone, and none of that matters unless the music is good — and holy hell, it sure is. Lo-fi recordings, bombastic

Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

A GERMAN REQUIEM BY JOHANNES BRAHMS: Sat., May 20, 7:30 p.m., free. Salem in Ladue United Methodist Church, 1200 S. Lindbergh Blvd., Frontenac, 314-991-0546.

GLOW IN THE DARK FLOWERS RECORD RELEASE:

W/ Radiator Greys, Furthest, Sat., May 13, 8 p.m., TBA. William A. Kerr Foundation, 21 O’Fallon St., St. Louis, 314-436-3325.

HEY THANKS!: W/ Bottom Bracket, The Chandelier Swing. Young Animals, Sun., May 14, 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

IT’S TIME: W/ Natalie Grant, Thu., May 18, 7 p.m., free. Faith Church - St. Louis, 13001 Gravois Road, St Louis.

JAKE CURTIS BLUES: Thu., May 11, 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON BAND: Fri., June 9, 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

JODECI: Tue., Aug. 15, 7:30 p.m., $39.50-$179.50. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

JOHN MCVEY BAND: Wed., May 17, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

THE KASIMU-TET: Sun., May 21, 7 p.m., $25. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

KINGDOM BROTHERS: Sat., June 3, 5 p.m., $10.

The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 3143765313.

LAST DANCE: A TOM PETTY TRIBUTE: Fri., June

minute-long songs with enough hook to them to entrench the melodies firmly in your brain and Morris’ trademark howl make each Off! record a must-hear affair.

Last year’s Free LSD is the band’s first album in eight years and was released to universal acclaim, with its 20 tracks — none even hitting the three-minute mark — proving that Off! has still got it. That the cover art was once again created by none other than Mr. Raymond Pettibon is just icing on the cake.

Mon., May 15, 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

THE MOUNTAIN GRASS UNIT: Sat., July 29, 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

MR. WENDELL: Tue., May 16, 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

NAKED MIKE: Tue., May 16, 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

NANDO STL ALBUM RELEASE: Sat., May 20, 8 p.m., $29. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NEKROGOBLIKON: W/ Inferi, Aether Realm, Hunt the Dinosaur, Summoning the Lich, Mon., June 5, 7 p.m., $24-$39.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS: W/ Single Mothers, Thu., June 29, 8 p.m., $18. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

OLD 97’S: Thu., Aug. 24, 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

OTEP: W/ September Mourning. Spider Rockets, Tue., June 6, 7:30 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

PIERCE CRASK: Thu., May 11, 4 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

POSTMODERN JUKEBOX: Fri., Nov. 24, 8 p.m., $29.50-$69.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

RACHEL DESCHAINE: Sat., June 24, 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

RAHEEM DEVAUGHN: Fri., June 23, 9:30 p.m., $49.50-$99.50. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis.

RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: Sun., May 14, 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

ROCKIN RASCALS: Sat., May 13, 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SAWED OFF: W/ Subversion, Drop the Blade, Wed., May 17, 7 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

—Daniel Hill

Night Calls: Atlanta’s Upchuck will open the show with its genre-blending take on grunge-affected, psychedelically tinged post punk.

30, 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 314376-5313.

LET’S HAVE CHURCH: W/ Amos Isaac, These Are They, Mon., May 22, 7 p.m., free. Star Bethel Full Gospel Baptist Church, 3529 N. Jefferson Avenue, Saint Louis, 314-531-3554.

LL COOL J: Sat., Aug. 19, 8 p.m., $56.50-$226.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

LUCKY OLD SONS: Fri., May 12, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

LUEY VELL VITO: Sat., May 20, 8 p.m., $10. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

MARCIA BALL: Thu., June 1, 8 p.m., $28-$38. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

MARGARET & FRIENDS: Wed., May 17, 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

MATT F BASLER EP RELEASE SHOW: Sat., May 13, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MEG MYERS: Fri., June 16, 7:30 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MIDNIGHT: W/ Spirit Adrift, Spiter, Tue., May 16, 8 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

MISSISSIPPI CLEAN: Fri., June 23, 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW: W/ Tim, Danny, Randy,

SOULARD BLUES BAND: Mon., May 15, 9 p.m., $8. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

SPARTA: Sun., June 4, 8 p.m., $28.50-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. THE STEEPWATER BAND: Fri., May 12, 9:30 p.m., $14. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

STEPHEN PEARCY & QUIET RIOT: Fri., Nov. 17, 7 p.m., $30-$65. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

STEVE EWING: Wed., May 24, 6:30 p.m., $55. Steve’s Hot Dogs, 3145 South Grand, St. Louis. TASH SULTANA: Sat., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $49.50$75. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

TODRICK HALL: Sun., Oct. 1, 8 p.m., $30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

TOMMY PRINE: W/ Jordan Smart, Tue., Aug. 8, 8 p.m., $17. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

TRACER: W/ Ptah Williams, Gary Sykes, Darrell Mixon, Erika Johnson, Thu., May 18, 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

TREATY OAK REVIVAL: Fri., Aug. 18, 8 p.m., $17. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

TROPHY EYES: W/ Like Pacific, Dialogue , Uncanny Valley, Sun., May 21, 7 p.m., $26-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

WADE BOWEN: Fri., June 2, 8 p.m., $20. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

WARREN ZEIDERS: Thu., Nov. 2, 8 p.m., $30-$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. n

Off! | VIA ARTIST BANDCAMP

[CRITIC’S PICK]

SAVAGE LOVE 53

Fake and Faker

BY DAN SAVAGE

Hey Dan: Shortly after our wedding my wife informed me that she would be handling our finances and making all financial decisions for us as a couple going forward. Additionally, she had already arranged for my paycheck to be automatically deposited into an account that only she had control over. I would henceforth get a meager weekly allowance for personal expenses. During that same conversation, my wife informed me I would get sex only when I had earned it. I love her, and I reluctantly agreed to this. We have been married for 10 years. I do all of the housework, and I rarely get sex. My wife tells me I have no one to blame but myself, since I agreed to all her terms from the beginning, which caused her to lose all respect for me as a man. I did not realize how difficult this would be. Is it normal for a wife in this kind of marriage to enjoy giving her husband pain? She is almost sadistic. She spanks my ass with a spatula and tells me I am a sissy. Is this normal?

Sorry I Somehow Said Yes

Sure, it’s perfectly normal — in the sense that it’s perfectly normal for a certain kind of deeply frustrated kinky straight guy to beat off while writing me a fake letter about the kind of sexual relationship he’s always fantasized about having but has never actually had before tacking on a fake question at end in the hopes that I’ll respond and then he’ll able beat off to the whole thing all over again.

Zooming out for a second… the fake questions I get aren’t the same as the dozens of fake questions YA writer Bennett Madison managed to get published in Slate’s “Dear Prudence” over the years, and they’re different than the presumed-to-be-fake questions to Slate’s “Care and Feeding” that Ben Dreyfuss has so hilariously picked apart on his substack, CalmDownBen. What distinguishes the fake questions I get at “Savage Love” from other fake questions submitted to other advice columns is the obvious fapping that was going when the letter was being drafted.

There’s a lot in SISSY’s letter that screams fake — a normal person would’ve instantly filed for divorce, there’s no way she could’ve “arranged” to have his paycheck automatically deposited into an account she alone controlled unless she somehow managed to bring his employer in on this conspiracy, that the best question he could come up with was the most

banal question asked of sex-advice columnists (“Is this normal?”) — but what screams fake the loudest, the absolute deadest giveaway, is that this was sprung on him after his wedding.

Now, female-led relationships (FLR) are definitely a thing, and there are certainly some men out there in female-led relationships, and some FLR have elements of TPE (total power exchange), FD (financial domination), DD (domestic discipline) and mild FF/S (forced feminization/sissification) tossed in. But those men — to a man — had to ask for those things. Most had to beg for it. Because creating a FLR is almost never the wife or the girlfriend’s idea. It’s something a man fantasizes about and sometimes succeeds in talking his wife or girlfriend into experimenting with, but it’s not something anyone’s brand-new wife has ever sprung on him at the reception.

“From my research, and from the emails and DMs I get about how to set up an FLR, the askers are overwhelmingly male,” says Key Barrett, sex researcher and author of Surrender, Submit, Serve Her, a book on FLR. “And I have never heard of an FLR that was started unliterally, or out of trickery, that managed to be successful.”

Like a lot of people with fantasies rooted in power exchange, it’s hotter for SISSY to think about it being imposed on him. Because then he’s the victim, not the pervert, because then his submission is pure and unadulterated. But why send a fake question to a sex-advice column? Because getting his fantasy published makes it feel real. Or feel realer. Or, hell, maybe in some alternate everything/everywhere kind of universe, it actually becomes real.

Hey Dan: I am a straight white man. I had been single and divorced for a long time. Then I met a lady, 23 years younger than me, and we started dating. Soon, she suggested I move in with her to save money, and I agreed. I knew her 17-yearold daughter lived with her. One Saturday, I was home alone with my girlfriend’s daughter. In fact, she was walking around with no bra wearing just an unbuttoned men’s shirt and panties. I could not take my eyes off her. She saw me looking and came and sat on my lap. As soon she had my dick in her pussy this other man walked in. Yes, it was a set up. I was caught having sex with an underage teen. The man who walked in turned out to be a Black man who was known to my girlfriend. In fact, he owns the house she lives in, and he was my girlfriend’s actual boyfriend all along. They announced that I had to agree to pay them $1000 a month or they would go to the police and I would go to prison. After signing a confession, I

was then forced me to suck the cock of the man who wasn’t just my girlfriend’s boyfriend all along, but also her daughter’s boyfriend. He took pics of me doing it. That is where I am now. Now this man is also fucking my ass. And both girls know it. I am trapped. This

Really Awful Personal Predicament Ensnared Divorcé

None of this happened — that will hopefully be a comfort to readers who were upset by the underage sex and racialized sexual stereotypes that featured so prominently in TRAPPED’s fake question. His unfulfilled fantasies revolve around a straight white man victim; first, he’s victimized by his lying girlfriend, then by an awful teenage girl who somehow managed to hoover up his dick, and finally by an insatiable straight Black man who’s already sleeping with both the white women in the story but wants that old straight white guy’s ass, too. Because, as everyone knows, old straight white guy ass is irresistible to straight Black men or it is to the kind of straight Black man who exists only in the imaginations of white dudes who send me fake questions about their forced bi fantasies.

Hey Dan: I’m a gay man in his 40s with a gay man fiancé in his 20s. My fiancé just informed me that he has cheated on me with many others. He didn’t tell me until after we had announced our engagement, set a date, and sent invitations to both our families and friends back home in Chicago, where I grew up and we met while training for a marathon. We now live in Los Angeles, the city where we moved so he could pursue his career as a model. He is young and very beautiful and while I was the aggressor at the start of our relationship, he gradually asserted himself and is now the more controlling person in the relationship. Things have to be his way. He wishes for me to remain faithful to him while he continues to enjoy the sexual attentions of other men. I am a handsome man who is frequently approached by attractive young men, but I have always

declined their advances because I am devoted to my gay man fiancé. Canceling the wedding would be embarrassing but the thought of marrying him knowing he has so freely given himself to other men and will continue to do so has broken my heart almost in half. My fiancé holds me while I cry myself to sleep at night. The dilemma I face: Do I break off our engagement and leave him and cleave my heart completely in two? Or do I marry him knowing he will never change?

Feeling Insecure And Needing Clarifying Edicts

So, it’s not just deeply frustrated kinky straight men who send me these kinds of fake questions. (“Help! Help! This terrible thing I’ve been furiously beating off about all my life has suddenly happened to me!”) As FIANCE’s letter demonstrates, sometimes it’s a deeply frustrated kinky gay man who’s out there beating off while he writes me a letter. And on rare occasions, I get a fake question from a woman — and something about this letter (its idealized images of gay men, awkward phrases like “gay man fiancé”) has me thinking it might’ve been written by a woman who has read too much and/ or authored too much and/or illustrated too much shounen-ai manga and/or yaoi manga.

But whoever wrote this obviously fake question, it shares the same fakey-fakefake DNA with the other two fake questions in this week’s column: a power-exchange kink like FLR, forced bi, cuckolding, etc., all kinks likelier to be proposed by a submissive (because most people into these kinks fantasize about being in the sub role), was in this case — this very special, very exceptional, and very hot (to the letter writer) case — imposed by a cruel wife, girlfriend, fiancé, etc.

I get a lot of letters like these and, in all honesty, I don’t mind reading them; I don’t share them often — I don’t get many columns out of them — but they do provide me with a fascinating glimpse into the sexual inner lives of a very special subset of my readers. But guys… SISSY, TRAPPED, FIANCE and all the other guys out there whose fake questions didn’t make it into this week’s column… if you were to put half as much effort into finding partners who want what you want and/or partners who might grow to like what you want as you put into writing and sending me fake questions… you might actually get to live out some of those fantasies of yours.

Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love Podcasts, columns and more at savage.love

“ I have always declined their advances because I am devoted to my gay man fiancé.”