Riverfront Times, July 27, 2022

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JULY 27-AUGUST 2, 2022

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Rosalind Early

E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor Jessica Rogen Editor at Large Daniel Hill Digital Content Editors Jaime Lees, Jenna Jones Food Editor Cheryl Baehr Staff Writers Ryan Krull, Monica Obradovic, Benjamin Simon Copy Editor Evie Hemphill Contributors Thomas K. Chimchards, Joseph Hess, Reuben Hemmer, Andy Paulissen, Famous Mortimer, Delia Rainey, Mabel Suen, Graham Toker, Theo Welling Columnists Ray Hartmann, Dan Savage Editorial Interns Julian McCall, Carlos Mendoza, Lulu Nix, Kasey Noss, Olivia Poolos A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director Evan Sult Creative Director Haimanti Germain Production Manager Sean Bieri Graphic Designer Aspen Smit

COVER

M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Associate Publisher Colin Bell Account Manager Jennifer Samuel Directors of Business Development Rachel Hoppman, Chelsea Nazaruk Directors of Sponsorship Sales Deanna Schmidt

A Missouri Voter’s Guide to the Most Batshit Senate Race in History

M A R K E T I N G Director of Marketing & Events Christina Kimerle Marketing Coordinator Sydney Schaefer B U S I N E S S Regional Operations Director Emily Fear

Cover illustration by

TYLER GROSS

C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Executive Editor Sarah Fenske VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein VP of Marketing Emily Tintera, Cassandra Yardeni Executive Assistant Mackenzie Dean www.euclidmediagroup.com

INSIDE Hartmann News Missouriland Feature Calendar Cafe Short Orders St. Louis Standards Reeferfront Times Culture Music Out Every Night Savage Love

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HARTMANN How to Spend the Rams Windfall Creating a network of mentalhealth centers — to save lives and reduce crime — would be a great place to start Written by

RAY HARTMANN

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f the residents of the city and county were polled today about the single most pressing problem facing the St. Louis area, the result would be overwhelming: crime.

It wouldn’t be close. And the results wouldn’t vary all that much across the city-county divide.

Even to the extent that crime statistics are skewed when compared to other metro areas by the existence of that divide, crime is still St. Louis’ albatross.

So, here’s a thought you probably won’t hear elsewhere: Let’s use a nice chunk of the $512 million settlement from the Rams and the NFL to focus on the crime problem. And, in particular, let’s replace talk with action on the subject of mental-health treatment as one means to address it.

To describe this idea as quixotic is a grand understatement, but I don’t care. If St. Louis doesn’t think outside the box about how to invest the windfall strategically — and with a rare sense of unity — it will miss a once-in-a-millennium opportunity.

First, some essential background. When St. Louis’ legal team brilliantly outfoxed the NFL and Rams owner Stan Kroenke with a litigation strategy for the ages, St. Louis won a $790 million settlement. An unreasonably healthy chunk went to those lawyers — like I said, they’re brilliant — but more than half a billion dollars landed in the coffers of the previously obscure entity known as the Regional Sports Authority.

The state created the RSA in 1989 to own and manage St. Louis’

downtown domed football stadium. It was only briefly beloved, but it did enable St. Louis to borrow the Rams for 20 years from Los Angeles.

Today, there are 512 million reasons that the RSA is no longer obscure. Its 11 members — five appointed by the state, three each from the city and county — presumably have discovered close new friendships beyond their wildest dreams.

This could not be more of a mess. Even if St. Louis were a well-oiled governance machine, it would be almost impossible to determine what to do with half a billion dollars in found money for which there is neither a governing statute nor precedent.

Throw in the extenuating circumstance that St. Louis is the single most balkanized collection of warring political fiefdoms of any metropolitan area in the nation, and this is not promising. There’s just no sugarcoating that reality.

Multiple sources tell me that the only real negotiation happening at the RSA — behind the scenes with no transparency, in keeping with local custom — is a nasty argument between the parties about who gets how large a piece of the pie. I’m also told that the newly popular kids on the RSA block are receiving all manner of friendly advice — from a wide range of interested parties — as to how to spend all that money.

The RSA probably couldn’t fill all those wish lists if it had $512 billion instead of $512 million. So let me add mine to the pile.

My working premise is that for the windfall to fulfill its potential, it must, in a large part, be invested in initiatives or opportunities that fall outside the normal functions of government. Both the city and county have annual budgets in the $1 billion range. They could blow through this kind of money in a heartbeat.

Also, there’s the RSA’s statutory responsibility to the domed stadium that’s the reason for its existence. It will require resources now that the initial 30-year commitments from the city, county and state to support its building have expired. Who knows what that might entail?

Worse, there’s a real question about whether the RSA can structurally enact something like

The city and county should make a serious capital investment in establishing a network of small, new community mental-health treatment facilities — open 24/7 — to serve the needs of citizens across the metro area. what I’m proposing. That can be fixed legislatively, although an effort to do so at the end of the last state legislative session failed, ominously.

But I still like my idea, so here it is: The city and county, working together, should make a serious capital investment in establishing a network of small, new community mental-health treatment facilities — open 24 hours, seven days a week — to serve the needs of citizens across the metro area.

That would also entail at least some funding to operate the clinics. And since there’s a counselor shortage, the money could also fund scholarships or special programs at local universities to help address the shortage.

The most direct analogy would be the two 24/7 Healthcare facilities that represent the only roundthe-clock urgent-care centers in the region. They would provide outpatient services only.

People in St. Louis with mentalhealth challenges — or crises — very often have nowhere to turn.

For a number of reasons, hospital emergency rooms are not always a viable option. And it’s disgraceful that someone experiencing a mental-health crisis in the middle of the night could have nowhere to turn.

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Like it or not, addressing mental-health concerns is the only point of consensus for preventing violent crime across the nation’s vast partisan divide. If it were up to me, serious gun-control measures, starting with an assault-weapons ban, would be a top national priority. And while I don’t advocate defunding the police, I’m certain that America cannot police its way out its current crime problems.

At least pretty much everyone can agree on mental-health treatment as a pressing priority. Yet, most local governments have neither the funding capacity nor the political will to embark on creating an ambitious network of mental-health treatment facilities.

But for this one shining moment, St. Louis could.

The network could be a model for the nation. It might be sustained, at least in part, by private grants or federal government programs. This would not try to recreate the failed models of large mental-health institutions. Instead, it would meet citizens needing help where they live.

And even setting aside the crime-reduction goal that is the genesis for the idea, community mental-health clinics would be a wonderful way to attack the tragic problem of suicide, which has increased to epidemic levels in St. Louis and nationally.

The unusual investment would be just one use of the settlement money. Plenty more will go directly to the city and county governments, ideally for capital spending or initiatives outside business as usual.

Trash pickup in the city might be a problem for which a one-time capital investment could help.

Finally, watch for the business community to demand that its beneficiaries in the political class throw boatloads of dollars at the usual chamber-of-commerce priorities. Seeing as how that’s about all government does these days, that would be a fine temptation to resist, but don’t hold your breath.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled politics as usual. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann1952@ gmail.com or catch him at 7 p.m. on Thursdays on Nine PBS and St. Louis in the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9-11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

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NEWS

Residents of Holly Hills to Decide on New Property Tax Some residents say the money would be used to make Holly Hills a “sundown town” Written by

BENJAMIN SIMON

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or Christa (Jackson) Edelen, president of the Holly Hills Improvement Association, the public planter is proof of what’s wrong in her south St. Louis neighborhood — and what’s right.

The city erected the concrete planter in the roundabout between Lyle House and Carondelet Park years ago, but no one bothered to maintain it.

“It was just an eyesore,” Edelen says. “It looked like an empty concrete barrier. So we wanted to make it pretty.”

Community members took the planter into their own hands.

Now it’s sprouting holly bush, creeping Jenny and even little American flags. eighbors water it just about every day.

Together, as a neighborhood, Holly Hills keeps the planter alive.

But residents say their efforts could use some help. Some think that will come through the Holly Hills Special Business District, which would allow the neighborhood to collect a property tax that could be spent on neighborhood concerns such as Carondelet Park and safety. Drag racers are tormenting the streets, the police don’t respond to urgent calls, and crime, some say, is out of control.

“Some people say that Holly Hills is a little gem,” resident Anna Baldwin says, “but you got to work to keep it that way.”

On Tuesday, August 2, residents of Holly Hills will vote on whether to establish a special business dis-

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Residents of Holly Hills are trying to introduce a new tax to maintain their community and add security. | BENJAMIN SIMON trict between Morgan Ford Road, South Grand Boulevard, Loughborough Avenue and Bates Street.

If approved, it would create a new property tax that would generate about , for the neighborhood. Properties would be taxed cents per 1 of assessed value, averaging out to $247 a year for houses worth , .

Supporters are proposing percent of the funds would go toward infrastructure, percent toward beautification, percent toward safety and 1 percent toward administration and promotion, including a website and an audit of the district.

“We just want to keep [Holly Hills] special,” Edelen says. “That’s it. We want to keep it safe for our kids, and we want to keep our property values because those are our investments.”

But all that is just a recommendation. If the district is approved, Mayor Tishaura Jones will appoint a board of seven people — five homeowners and two renters — who will decide how the money is ultimately used. They would have to hold monthly meetings that are open to the public.

Through the business district, supporters want to hire a full-

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time police o cer who will patrol the streets at night and quickly respond to crime. They also want gates around the six vehicular entrances at Carondelet Park, the third biggest park in the city, a centerpiece of the community and an alleged hot spot for crime.

Some residents, though, question the plan. or more than years, evin Prange has lived in Holly Hills. e’s all for the beautification efforts, and he understands the concerns about the crime. He has heard gunfire in the par , and no one, he says, wants crime in a community.

But the additional security is a sticking point for him. aving another police o cer manning the streets overnight unsettles Prange. He worries about the possibility of a shootout.

“It feels like our solution to the problems is bringing more force in, to bring more authoritarianism in,” he says. “Having off duty police o cers patrolling with weapons does not feel like it makes things safer — it just brings another armed force into the equation.”

Prange worries about sending the message of “we belong here,

others do not.” He expressed concern about who will be targeted, especially in a majority-white community.

“It means that when someone’s patrolling after dark, and they’re looking for things that are quoteunquote ‘out of the ordinary’ — or people that are outsiders — someone who is not white is going to be more suspicious than someone who is white,” Prange says.

It gives Prange the image of a “sundown community,” he says, a historical term used to describe white communities that barred people of color after sundown.

Paul Sager, who previously served as the neighborhood association president, also has questions about the proposal. Sager says he’s on the district.

He doesn’t have any issues paying more in taxes to complement what the city already provides.

The park needs honeysuckle removal, for example, and the city doesn’t offer that service.

But he believes that parts of the plan are redundant.

“I feel that this district is raising money from taxes on things that we’re already paying for in our [city] taxes already,” he says.

“So, therefore, I’m paying for the

same thing twice. I have a problem with that.

“I think the problem lies in the city and how they’re allocating new resources and not having enough manpower to do some of these resources.”

O

n a weekday afternoon in early July, Holly Hills is quiet. The birds are chirping. Lawn mowers are humming. The bells of the nearby Lutheran church are ringing.

“This is a really special place,” Edelen says. “You’re in a very special postage stamp, right now.

People that live here, there’s a magic to it that you come home to Holly Hills. The kids run the alleys, and they all jump into each other’s yards. The eighth graders come and knock on my door to play with my four-year-old son.”

But beneath the quiet lies a sense of unease.

Stories from residents about crime are endless. They talk about daily carjackings, a man who had his entire garage door smashed, car tires stolen, people shot in Carondelet Park, drug paraphernalia stuffed in bushes and cars flying 1 miles per hour down the street.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is understaffed and stretched thin, they say. Residents note it can take more than an hour for o cers to respond to crime.

People feel unsafe and they’re moving out of the neighborhood, Edelen says. That’s why they are proposing the addition of an overnight police o cer. They want community policing, someone who specifically serves their neighborhood, can be tracked on a GPS app and may walk a beat.

“We need something else,” Edelen says. “We need something that can protect us if we need it. We need more eyes than this, and we can’t sit here on 11 when we have a shootout going on in our park — on hold.”

Crime often takes place overnight in Carondolet Park, residents say. But that happened less when the city closed the park’s roads during the pandemic. Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, who represents the 1 th ard, says there was a distinct difference in the park when the roads were blocked.

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David Dorn’s Killer Found Guilty on All Counts Emotions ran high in the courtroom after the jury handed down the verdict Written by

RYAN KRULL

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fter three days of testimony, Stephan Cannon was found guilty of first-degree murder for the shooting death of retired police Captain David Dorn in June 2020.

Emotions ran high in the courtroom last Wednesday.

After the verdict was read, one woman stormed out, muttering “ya’ll bitches” under her breath and rattling the courtroom door as she left. Cannon was led away by deputies.

Many, though, cried tears of joy, including Ann Dorn, David Dorn’s widow. She hugged prosecutor Marvin Teer, who had just argued and won his first trial case in two decades.

Teer compared trying jury cases to riding a bicycle, with the qualifier that even if you know how to ride a bike that doesn’t mean you can’t get hurt on one.

After a long legal career, including many years as a municipal judge, Teer told the RFT he’d “given away all his suits and ties” until coming out of retirement last year to work for the circuit attorney.

Outside the courthouse, Ann Dorn thanked Teer. She described herself as “elated” and “thankful to God.” She described her deceased husband as “a wonderful man, a wonderful father and grandfather.”

She added that she had sympathy for Cannon’s family.

“I lost David, and they lost a brother and a son,” she said. “My heart goes out to them. There are no winners.”

The jury reached its verdict around 3:30 p.m., about three hours after the case had been handed to them.

The case centered on events in the early hours of June 2, 2020. The city was facing widespread unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Around 2:30 a.m., Dorn tried to stop looters at Lee’s Pawn & Jewelry on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Though Dorn was no longer a police officer, he still worked security for the store, which was owned by a friend. When Dorn arrived at the scene, he fired several shots in the air hoping to

Stephan Cannon was found guilty of killing retired police officer David Dorn. | ROBERT COHEN

“I lost David, and they lost a brother and a son,” said widow Ann Dorn. “My heart goes out to them. There are no winners.” disperse the crowd. A few moments later, a man whose appearance was obscured by a mask and a baseball cap shot Dorn four times.

In his closing argument last week, Teer began by memorializing Dorn, who, Teer said, “dedicated his entire life to nothing but helping others.” He added that Dorn kept serving his community even after “his tour of duty was done.”

He said this as he held a framed portrait of Dorn in his police uniform.

He then ran down the numerous charges against Cannon, highlighting the connection between the lesser charges related to looting and the most serious charge of murder.

“As he exited [the pawn shop], Stephan Cannon made sure, absolutely sure, David Dorn didn’t stop him,” Teer said.

Teer then argued for the jury to find Cannon guilty of first-degree murder, which entails cool reflection before killing someone. The jury could have opted to convict Cannon on the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

“What’s most important is that on that

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day in the city of St. Louis, the defendant caused the death of David Dorn by shooting … and the defendant did so after deliberation,” Teer said.

He told the jury that Cannon retrieving a gun from a friend’s car and then running down that street to his “killing zone” qualified as deliberation.

Teer’s closing statement largely avoided talk of Mark Jackson, the man who drove Cannon to and from Lee’s, and from whose car Cannon retrieved his gun, according to the prosecution. Jackson’s credibility was damaged in court on July 19 by Cannon’s defense.

In his closing argument, Cannon’s public defender Brian Horneyer spent a good portion of his allotted time focused on Jackson, quoting from Jackson’s initial interview with police: “I will say anything to get out of these cuffs and get back to my son. Tell me what to say and I’ll say it,” Jackson said in audio of the interrogation.

Jackson was looking at the possibility of significant prison time on several charges, including felony murder, stemming from what happened on the night of Dorn’s death. Most of those charges were dropped on Friday, and Jackson was only sentenced to parole. Detectives suggested in the interrogation that Jackson might get his sentence reduced if he worked with them. Horneyer theorized that detectives “pressured” and “cajoled” Jackson to give testimony against Cannon.

Teer told the jury that Horneyer’s theory of the case was “fiction.”

Ultimately, the jury agreed.

In addition to first-degree murder, Cannon was found guilty of robbery, burglary and three counts of armed criminal action.

Horneyer said that he planned to file a motion for a new trial prior to Cannon’s sentencing. n

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Investigation into Death of Woman at Center of Mass Overdose Chuny Ann Reed died after having a medical emergency in prison Written by

MIKE FITZGERALD

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llinois State Police’s Division of Criminal Investigation has launched an investigation into the in-custody death of Chuny Ann Reed, 47, a St. Louis woman who remains the only person charged in connection with the deadliest mass drug overdose event in St. Louis history, according to an Illinois State Police statement issued last Thursday.

Reed died at a hospital in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on July 18 after suffering a “medical episode” four days earlier at the Pulaski County Jail in Ullin, Illinois, located 145 miles southeast of St. Louis.

Reed had been an inmate at the jail awaiting trial on a federal charge of distributing fentanyl and crack cocaine resulting in bodily injury at the Parkview Apartments at 4451 Forest Park Avenue.

If convicted, she would have faced at least 20 years in prison.

Eleven residents of Parkview Apartments and the neighboring Park Place

HOLLY HILLS

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“It’s not, ‘Get out of the park, people aren’t wanted here,’” she says. “With COVID and the gates having been up, it felt like a safer park; it felt cleaner. It was cleaner. It was safer.”

The special business district would also fund beautification and infrastructure. Backers say the district will not replicate the city’s services — rather it will add to them. They hope to replace fading signs, install speed bumps, remove honeysuckle plants from the park and trim two miles worth of medians throughout Holly Hills — many of which are overgrown, sprouting weeds a few feet tall and lined with dead branches.

Schweitzer says she sees both sides and will support whatever her constituents decide. But she applauded the even 30-30-30 split of funds as a fair representation of the neighborhood’s wants and needs. She called it a “communitydriven process.”

“Having this amount of money to spend on the neighborhood

Chuny Ann Reed died after a medical emergency in prison. | COURTESY CAROLYN REED Apartments suffered drug overdoses in early February of this year after ingesting crack cocaine tainted with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid painkiller 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Reed had allegedly supplied the overdose victims the drugs at her apartment on Parkview’s 14th floor. Eight of the overdose victims died — making it the second deadliest overdose event in U.S. history.

Reed had been a federal detainee at the Tri-County Justice and Detention Center in Ullin since her arrest in early February. She suddenly took ill the evening of July 13 — the same day the RFT published its story about her case.

The Illinois State Police began the investigation of Reed’s death at the request of the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office,

will make huge improvements,” she says. “I mean, it just will — if it’s done thoughtfully, and in good faith and with community input.”

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he proposed special business district in Holly Hills is not an outlier.

These districts have existed for decades throughout the city. The Central West End, for example, has seven special business districts in the neighborhood — each with its own board. Tower Grove South’s district, which has operated since 2008, features off-duty St. Louis police patrols, increased alley lighting and additional trash pickup. Soulard has had a special business district since 1994, and it focuses almost solely on security.

Robert Lewis, assistant professor of urban planning and development at Saint Louis University, says a special business district is designed to “enhance” the city’s services, rather than “replace them.” He calls it a good starting place for neighborhoods to raise funds for specific pro ects.

“They never raise as much money as people think they can,” he

according to the statement.

“During the morning hours of July 14, 2022, Pulaski County Correctional Officers located a 47-year-old female of St. Louis, Missouri, unresponsive in her jail cell,” according to the statement. “The female was transported by ambulance to an area hospital and later transferred to a hospital located in Mount Vernon, Illinois.”

Reed “was pronounced deceased at the hospital,” according to the statement. “An autopsy is pending and the cause of death is unknown at this time.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office is assisting in the investigation. The investigation is on-going and no additional information is being released at this time.”

Carolyn Reed, Chuny Ann Reed’s mother, declined to comment.

The mother of four children, including a 19-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy, Chuny Ann Reed had a long history of drug use and interaction with the criminal justice system. Family members say she sold drugs to support her own heroin habit.

Reed was not charged with causing any of the deaths at either Parkview or Park Place.

Diane Dragan, Reed’s federal public defender, issued a statement in which she encouraged a full investigation into the cause of Reed’s death.

“When the federal government incarcerates an individual,” Dragan wrote, “they are responsible for providing them both a safe environment and appropriate health care for their medical needs.” n

says. “But at least it’s enough to keep the streets swept and wipe pavements clean and maybe have a security thing or two.”

To Lewis, such districts do more than raise money.

“Probably the biggest advantage to any of those to me is it forces areas to get organized, meet together and agree, or disagree, on things,” he says.

But they can’t bring the whole city together.

Lewis says people may not want to pay higher taxes for hyper-local needs in other neighborhoods. As a result, neighborhoods are forced to tax themselves to fix their own problems. It creates inequities between places that can afford a special business district and places that cannot. The “haves and the have-nots,” he says.

In an ideal world, Holly Hills would receive all of the services it needs, Lewis explains. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t need a special business district.

But in reality, that isn’t the case.

“One of the disappointing factors about special business districts,” Lewis says, “is that we need them at all.” n

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MISSOURILAND

Talking ’Bout a Revolution Soulard celebrates Bastille Day with parade and beheading Words and text by

REUBEN HEMMER

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n July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a political prison that had come to represent the corruption of the French nobility. The mob freed seven prisoners from the Bastille, kicking off the French Revolution, which resulted in the beheading of many members of the French upper crust including Louis XVI

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and his wife, Marie Antoinette.

Despite the bloodbath, Bastille Day is celebrated in France every year with firewor s and military parades.

It’s also celebrated in St. Louis’ own Soulard neighborhood, which was founded by refugees from the French Revolution, Antoine and Julia Cérre Soulard.

The 35th annual Bastille Day Parade & Beheading was on July 16.

The event began with a “gathering of the mob” outside of the Soulard Market followed by a parade led by the “King” and “Queen” (Kathy and Keith Weldon).

The Saint Boogie Brass Band performed as the “peasants” shouted “off with their heads” — while also stopping regularly to get refreshments at local bars and restaurants.

The event culminated with a proclamation and mock beheading of the French royalty. n

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A C E L E B R AT I O N O F T H E U N I Q U E A N D FA S C I N AT I N G A S P E C T S O F O U R H O M E

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Illustration by Tyler Gross

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A MISSOURI VOTER’S GUIDE TO

THE MOST BATSHIT SENATE RACE IN HISTORY* FIVE FOR FIGHTING

A deeply researched, deadly serious voter’s guide to the candidates crowding the GOP clown car

BY DANIEL HILL Primary season is upon us once more, Missouri, and with it comes the usual cavalcade of compulsively ambitious monsters, creeps and ghouls, clawing and flailing desperately in the hopes of securing your vote in an attempt to make their way into the halls of power.

And nowhere is that description more accurate than on the Republican side of the aisle. Ever since soon-to-be-former Senator Roy Blunt announced he would not seek reelection this term, thereby ripping open a fresh hellmouth from which the most hideous creatures imaginable have emerged, those slouching beasts have been crawling all over one another in the hopes of obtaining that most coveted of prizes: an endorsement from former President

Donald Trump.

So far, Trump has declined to offer an endorsement in the race, but with the big day nearing, it seems likely that he will soon. In keeping, we’re running down all the candidates most likely to get the nod — oh, and also Vicky Hartzler.

Candidate: Eric Greitens Current job: Governor Navy SEAL Exercise instructor Unclear Best known for: Resigning in disgrace as Missouri’s governor after getting caught being a creep Latest scandal we don’t even have time to get into: Allegations of child abuse, spousal abuse Weapon of choice: Piles and piles of guns, duct tape Special skills: Shoehorning the words “Navy SEAL” into literally every conversation All about Eric: Eric Greitens styles himself as a “political outsider,” having seemingly forgotten that

he was once governor of a whole state before he was forced to resign in disgrace. Now a private citizen after being run out of Jeff City over credible allegations of sexual assault and blackmail, Greitens is attempting to claw his way back into the hearts of Missouri voters by appealing to the thing they hold most dear: their love of guns.

In a recent campaign ad, a shotgun-toting Greitens made clear his intentions to employ paramilitary death squads to hunt down his insu ciently conservative opponents, which elicited some hand-wringing among his fellow candidates, but probably more so because they hadn’t thought of it first. redictably, that threat of violence seems to have warmed Trump to Greitens after a protracted period in which the former president shied away from the former governor due to concerns among Republicans that Greitens’ considerable baggage will cost the party what should be a safe seat. But with Greitens seemingly indicating he’d be willing to shoot Mitch McConnell in the face if elected, it’s no surprise Trump is starting to come around.

Candidate: Vicky Hartzler Current job: U.S. representative, Harrisonville Best known for: Hating gay people Weapon of choice: The awe-inspiring power of our Lord Jesus Christ

Red flag: Endorsed by Josh Hawley (shudder) All about Vicky: An evangelical true believer whose love of God is matched only by her hatred of people who identify as queer, Vicky Hartzler won’t let a little thing like having a gay nephew stop her from championing the anti-LGBTQ cause. From her early days in politics as spokeswoman for the Coalition to Protect Marriage, which aimed to ban same-sex marriage in the state, to her recent transphobic campaign ad in which she declared, “Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women” (a sentiment that got her campaign suspended from Twitter), the pink-power-suited Hartzler has made one thing abundantly clear: no gays allowed. Despite the naked bigotry, Trump isn’t interested, and recently went so far as to release something of an antiendorsement for Hartzler: “You can forget about Vicky Hartzler for the Senate from the Great State of Missouri,” he said in part. That’s gotta sting, but not nearly as much as the knowledge that people of the same sex can love each other openly without retribution.

Candidate: Billy Long Current job: U.S. representative, Springfield Best known for: Being an actual auctioneer, wearing a cool cowboy hat Weapon of choice: The rapid fire

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sound of his own voice Redeeming quality: Drowned out far-right internet personality and untethered lunatic Laura Loomer by deploying his auctioneering patter when she crashed a House hearing All about Billy: U.S. Representative and sentient thumb wearing a suit Billy Long was an early supporter of Trump, and has stood by the former president through all of his lies about the 2020 election, but so far Trump just ain’t into him enough to reciprocate the love with an endorsement. But Long hasn’t let that stop him. The folksy former auctioneer wasted no time in slapping on his signature white cowboy hat and loading up in his “Billy Bus” — a not-so-subtle homage to the “Trump Train” — for a barnstorming tour across the state, during which his apparent aim was to convince people to vote for him by eating ice cream in front of them.

As prodigious as Long surely is on that front, he’s still been lagging far behind his fellow candidates in the polls, proving it takes more than a huge black-and-blue bus with your name and looming visage emblazoned on it to win over the savvy voters of Missouri. How that bus didn’t impress Trump, though, we’ll never know.

Candidate: Mark McCloskey Current job: Disgraced lawyer Best known for: Pulling a gun on a crowd of people for no good reason, then making that ill-advised decision his entire identity Weapon of choice: An AR-15, until he surrendered that to the state.

Lately, a chainsaw Archenemy: Bees All about Mark: In many ways, Mark McCloskey is the ideal Republican Senate candidate in 2022, in that his ambition is matched only by his complete ideological vacuity and his unwavering love of using firearms to threaten people with whom he disagrees politically.

As unafraid to make enemies as he is a complete asshole, McCloskey’s greatest hits include relentlessly suing his neighbors, sister and father; asserting “squatter’s rights” on a piece of shared property in his neighborhood, even pulling a gun on a neighbor over it; and allegedly destroying beehives owned by the Jewish Central Reform Congregation next to his home, which were meant to be harvested for honey for a children’s Rosh Hashanah celebration.

Notoriously litigious, McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, even sued their way into the home they

stood in front of in June 2020, barefoot and brandishing guns at an uninterested crowd that was just passing by. This level of unbridled assholery was enough to get the couple invited to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention, naturally, and even landed McCloskey as an opener for some of Trump’s rallies that year.

Still, Trump has been ambivalent about his run for Senate, probably because it’s clear to everyone but McCloskey that he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of actually winning. In any case, the most satisfying end to this primary season would be a shootout between Greitens and McCloskey in which both participants lose.

Candidate: Eric Schmitt Current job: 43rd attorney general of Missouri Best known for: Wasting taxpayer money on both sides by relentlessly suing Missouri’s schools, also China Weapon of choice: Blowtorch Fun fact: ou could easily fit two Mark McCloskeys inside Schmitt’s considerably tall body All about Eric: Following in the storied tradition of Senator Josh Hawley, Eric Schmitt has dutifully spent his time as Missouri’s

attorney general campaigning for what he hopes will be his next job as U.S. senator. For the most part, that’s involved fastidiously tracking the latest fronts in the United States’ ongoing culture wars, from mask-mandate mania to critical race theory panic to attacks on trans people — and then suing the shit out of everyone involved. Often that’s the state’s underfunded public schools, which then have to spend what little taxpayer money they’re allotted on fending off the AG’s legal attacks, which are also funded by taxpayers, thereby creating something of an ouroboros of perfectly wasteful spending.

Oh, and he also sued China over COVID-19 — totally on behalf of the people of Missouri, not at all a transparent campaign stunt.

Of late, Schmitt’s campaign ads have centered mostly on how tall he is (wow, 6’6”) and the fact that he owns a blowtorch. “In the Senate, I’ll turn the heat up on the Biden Democrats,” he claims, which, given the state of things, presumably means he’s going to light his political opponents on fire Trump assuredly li es that .

If elected, Schmitt will be extremely useful for reaching things on the top shelf on the Senate floor.

BLUE DREAMS Meet the three Democrats fighting an uphill battle to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate

BY RYAN KRULL

I

t could not be said that the three Democrats running to be Missouri’s next senator suffer from a narcissism of small differences. Just look at how varied their campaigns are.

Former Marine Lucas Kunce is seemingly everywhere in the state all the time.

“It’s been town hall after town hall. It’s about three events you can squeeze in a day,” he tells the RFT, on the phone from Interstate having ust finished a stretch of appearances in St. Louis, Hannibal and Columbia before heading back to Independence, his hometown. “I blew my voice out over the weekend yelling over a train that was driving by one of them.”

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Kunce’s voice, even the blownout version of it, is focused yet homey. That homeyness falls away pretty quickly when talk turns to Wall Street, which, with Kunce, it often does.

Kunce is a Yale graduate and a lawyer who grew up in a blue-collar family, and his barnstorming campaign style matches his populist politics. He wants to protect abortion rights, voting rights and labor unions. But it’s Wall Street and what he calls the “shareholder class” that truly animate Kunce.

“I want to introduce legislation that says members of Congress cannot own stock, period. That’s it,” he says. “Them and their direct family members. And if they

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Lucas Kunce, a former Marine, hopes to become the next state senator. | VIA LUCAS KUNCE violate that law, they go to jail.”

There is currently a law in place to curb congressional insider trading, but flouting it en oys broad, bipartisan support.

Kunce’s diagnosis of why Democrats have fared so poorly in statewide Missouri politics is also tied to his economic populism.

“When Democrats are the party that bails out Wall Street over

and over again, when Democrats … make decision after decision based on their stock portfolios, you’re left with a couple issues to rattle around and you’re fighting over those,” Kunce says. And that, he says, leaves Missouri voters thinking to themselves: “They left me on the economic issues. So I’m just gonna vote on who I think is least likely to take away my guns.”

Spencer Toder reaches voters in person and via text and social media. | VIA SPENCER TODER Spencer Toder is only a slightly less omnipresent campaigner than Kunce. When the RFT caught up with him last week he was headed to Linn (population 1,350), having spent the previous night in Chillicothe and the afternoon in Moberly before delivering some yard signs to the town of Mexico.

Toder also engages in what he calls “digital deep canvassing.”

Despite the fact he claims to have actually trademarked the term, it’s way less cockamamie than it might sound at first blush.

“It’s really important to go to things like county fairs,” Toder tells the RFT. “But then you realize that most politicians go to county fairs because back in the time of Lincoln, that was the only time communities came together and you could get in front of people.

Now, we can literally be in the supercomputer in someone’s pocket at any time and have a conversation with them.”

At the exact moment Toder engaged in our phone call, he says 32 text bankers were having conversations with people across the state. In the past seven days, the campaign had sent over 1 million text messages. Staffers had more than 20,000 conversations with voters.

His campaign’s motto is “doing well by doing good,” and in addition to trying to get himself elected, he’s also using it as a vehicle to improve Missourians’ lives.

Those one million texts helped hundreds of families access the child tax credit, he says, and thousands more enroll in Medicare — benefits these issourians didn’t know they were eligible for until they were contacted by the Toder campaign.

Toder, who made millions from commercial real estate and investing in Missouri-based startups, adds that his campaign is accom-

Trudy Busch Valentine making a rare appearance at the Annie Malone Parade. | ROSALIND EARLY

Spencer Toder says he’d vote to abolish the filibuster, expand and secure voting rights, aggressively address climate change with a “moon-shot climate bill” and codify abortion access into law. plishing all this at a cost of two cents per text message, six cents less than an average campaign’s expenditure.

The emphasis on that six-centsper message savings is reflective of Toder’s overall tech-savvy vibe.

Speaking to him, one gets the sense that last year he really did survey the country’s dire political landscape and decide the most rational thing to do was to run for Senate.

“I jumped into this race because I ran towards the fire, he says, with an urgency in his voice. “I was concerned for the fact that my wife and I have a two-year-old that I don’t want to grow up in a world that is this divided and terrible and doesn’t care for people.”

To that end, Toder says, he’d vote to abolish the filibuster, expand and secure voting rights, aggressively address climate change with a “moon-shot climate bill,” codify abortion access into law and work to see passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and the Pro Act, a piece of pro-labor-union legislation.

The third major candidate, Trudy Busch Valentine, enjoys the highest name recognition of the three thanks to being an heiress to the multi-billion-dollar Busch beer family fortune. However, her lack of availability both to the media and to voters has been a

consistent criticism. A debate between Kunce and Valentine that would have been broadcast statewide was called off earlier this month when her campaign never responded to the invitation.

Hardly the only millionaire in the race, she has taken by far the most flac for her monied bac ground.

Voters don’t care about those attacks, she says.

“Most voters I meet with are concerned about inflation and the high cost of living,” she told the RFT in an email (Valentine declined the RFT’s request for a phone interview). “In the Senate I will focus on real solutions to these issues. I released an affordability plan that outlines my agenda to bring down costs, tackle supply-chain issues, make health care more affordable, and support families, kids, and seniors.”

She also has a detailed policy proposal to combat opioid addiction, an issue incredibly personal to her. In August 2020 she lost her son to a painkiller overdose, which Valentine says spurred her to run for o ce.

It would be foolish to write her off. She can self finance to a virtually unlimited degree, and the name Busch still carries considerable weight in Missouri. Her professional career as a nurse also bucks the worst stereotypes con-

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jured by the word “heiress,” and her health care bona fides only become more important in a postRoe and COVID-19 age.

Toder describes the 2022 election in Missouri as a “perfect storm.”

Kunce and Valentine would likely agree. The incumbent, Roy Blunt, is retiring. A moderate Republican, John Wood, will be on the ballot in the general election as an independent, likely stripping off centerright voters from whoever is the o cial nominee.

And yet, with apologies to Wood and the eventual Republican nominee, the real opponent in November for Valentine, Toder or Kunce is likely going to be the “D” next to their own name.

“Increasingly in Missouri we are seeing [that] in statewide elections, your chances of winning as a Democrat are pretty slim,” says Anita Manion, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “Running as a Democrat is an uphill battle these days.”

Things have changed since Claire McCaskill twice won election to the Senate. Right now, Auditor Nicole Galloway is the only Democrat elected to statewide office, a feat she pulled off in 1 against an opponent with a history of not paying her taxes and who likely did not live in Missouri for the 10 prior years required under state law.

But that was four years ago — back when tax delinquency and a dubious history of residency were considered scandals in Missouri politics. In addition to picking the state’s next senator, the 2022 election will also determine whether even gargantuan scandals are an impediment to election in Missouri.

“All three of those Democratic candidates are eeping their fingers crossed that their Republican opponent is Eric Greitens,” Manion says.

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BATTLE LINES Two Democrats are fighting for the right to take on U.S. Representative Ann Wagner — and a heavily Republican Second District

BY BENJAMIN SIMON

I

n 2019, Trish Gunby made a run at Missouri’s 99th House District as a Democrat. It was a Republican district where, three years earlier, the GOP candidate won with nearly 58 percent of the vote.

Gunby wasn’t a politician at the time. Rather, she was a marketing professional for Citicorp and Purina, who dabbled in serving as the social justice coordinator with Manchester United Methodist Church. But she saw an opening.

So she got on the ground and went door-to-door talking to voters. She swept through the district seven times.

Gunby won the state-representative seat in a special election in 2019. Then she won again in 2020.

Now Gunby wants to achieve the same upset in Missouri’s Second Congressional District. “I beat Republicans twice,” she tells the RFT. “I’m going for the trifecta.”

But in the Second District, she might encounter a tougher draw.

The U.S. House seat has been Republican for nearly three decades, and the new district lines encompass Franklin and Warren counties, which both voted more than 70 percent for Donald Trump in 2020. One Democrat, a political

newcomer named Ben Samuels, dropped out of the current race in May after raising $1 million.

He said the newly drawn district made his candidacy untenable.

Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face off against Republican Ann Wagner, the incumbent since 2012. Gunby takes a dim view of her record.

“She’s been around 10 years, no town halls, we don’t see her,” she says. She literally o ces five minutes from my house. I haven’t seen her in the district in 10 years.”

A self-described progressive, Gunby would like to see expanded gun control. She supports the proposed John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and would support making the right to an abortion a part of federal law. She said that health care — and more specifically, universal health care — is one of her main priorities.

“Many folks who aren’t covered adequately by health care have decided that GoFundMe accounts are the way to get health care,” she says. “That’s not sustainable.”

Despite the district’s history, Gunby sees an opportunity for a Democrat. She notes that, for example, state Auditor Nicole Gal-

Trish Gunby has beaten Republicans before. | VIA TRISH GUNBY loway carried the district in the 2020 governor’s race. Gunby says the Second has a record of voting for more progressive ballot issues, such as supporting Clean Missouri and legalizing medical marijuana.

“When you know they’re voting for more progressive ballot issues, but then they’re not voting for progressive candidates, I think it’s up to the candidate to connect the dots,” she says. “The way you do that is not by doing tons of negative mail and ads. It’s by — shocking — talking to voters.”

But before Gunby can even think about Wagner, she’ll have to win the Democratic primary. That will mean beating Ray Reed, who hopes to be the first person of color elected to lead the district. (Contacted last week via email, Reed did not respond to an interview request.)

Reed has said he believes someone new and fresh has the best chance at an upset.

“I think it’d be more risky for us to run the same type of candidates that we’ve been running in what will be a more di cult district

and expect a different outcome against Ann Wagner,” Reed told the St. Louis American.

Reed believes he’s that person.

He’s 25 years old and a proud Gener. e’s built a significant social media base, with more than 37,000 followers on Twitter, and gained national press from outlets such as NPR. “No matter where you come from, what walk of life you come from, everyone has a place in this campaign,” Reed told MSNBC. “I think we’ve been able to bridge the generational gap in this campaign.”

Despite his age, Reed isn’t new to the political world. A Brentwood native, Reed attended the University of Central Missouri, where he studied political science. Out of college, he got a job on then-Governor Jay Nixon’s policy team, focusing on bill reviews, clemency applications, and boards and commission appointments. Later, he worked for the Missouri Democratic Party and served on Senator Claire McCaskill’s reelection campaign.

“I got the government education under Jay Nixon and the political education under Senator McCaskill,” he told the Missourian.

“I’ve been to every inch of this state for Democrats.”

If elected, Reed says he would support a $15 minimum wage, codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law and forgiving federal student loans.

In the end, Reed believes he can reach people across the district better than anyone else.

The voters need “someone who represents this district in more ways than one and someone who can build a broader coalition of voters across divisions of race, region, religion, gender and income.

So, I think I’m that candidate,” he told the American. n

THE FIGHT FOR THE FIRST

Steve Roberts’ bid for Missouri’s First Congressional District is plagued by scandal, but could he still win?

BY MONICA OBRADOVIC

T

wo years ago, U.S. Representative Cori Bush (D-St. Louis) surprised many when she toppled 10-term incumbent Congressman William Lacy Clay Jr. and captured nearly 49 percent of the vote in the August 2020 primary for Missouri’s First Congressional District.

Before she won, Bush always seemed like the most unlikely

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candidate. An activist who moved into political circles after the Ferguson unrest, Bush rose from humble origins as a nurse, pastor and single mother. Clay, her Democratic primary rival, came from a dynastic family led by civil rights icon William Lacy Clay Sr., who represented Missouri’s First district for three decades before his son took his place. Bush was the

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opposite of a political insider. She lacked the institutional support of bigwig donors and chanted “Defund the police!” to the dismay of more centrist Democrats.

In her 2016 run for U.S. Senate, Bush lost the primary to Democratic golden boy Jason Kander, Missouri’s then-secretary of state, who subsequently lost to Roy Blunt.

But Bush is no underdog now.

She’s out-raised her best-funded opponent by nearly $1.4 million. She’s received endorsements from national organizations and political figures, including Senator Bernie Sanders, and is regarded as one of the most fervent progressives in Congress. (Bush was not available for an interview for this story.)

This election, Bush’s primary

opponent is another moderate Democrat from a dynastic political family.

State Senator Steve Roberts (DSt. Louis) is a fourth-generation St. Louisan, the son of prominent St. Louis doctor Eva Frazer and former St. Louis alderman and businessman Steve Roberts Sr. Frazer helped bring a free clinic to north St. Louis in Saint Louis University’s Victor Roberts Building (named after Roberts’ grandfather) to provide health care to the uninsured. The senior Roberts, along with his brother Michael, once helmed a $1 billion empire of hotels, real estate, TV stations and more.

The younger Roberts has been embroiled in controversy most of his political career. In 2015, he allegedly groped Saint Louis University law student Amy Harms at a bar. In 2016, as a newly elected state representative, fellow freshman Cora Faith Walker alleged Roberts had raped her and asked that he not be seated. Roberts maintained that their interaction was consensual. Prosecutors declined to press charges, and Roberts was seated. He then sued Walker for defamation, and she countersued.

Ultimately, Walker and Roberts settled in 2019, and Walker died not long before Roberts announced his run for Congress. Since then, Harms has spoken publicly about her incident with Roberts, including that his insurance paid her a $100,000 settlement.

Now, investigations into Roberts’ campaign finances reveal he is receiving support from Republican and Clay-backed super PACs, with sloppy paperwork obfuscating how much the PACs have raised and from whom. An article published by the Intercept last Thursday found Roberts’ father held multiple titles at SCD Investments LLC, the largest donor to an anti-Bush PAC. Yet Roberts has trudged through these scandals in pursuit of a congressional position that increasingly feels like a long shot.

Roberts was elected as state senator for Missouri’s Fifth District a year ago after serving two terms as a state representative for the 77th House District. He says he fully intended to serve two terms as a senator but changed his mind when he realized Bush’s actions as congresswoman caused “direct harm to the growth and development of the city of St. Louis.”

“I had great hopes for Cori Bush when she was elected, but she has aligned herself with the Bernie Sanders agenda and that

Steve Roberts’ campaign has been plagued by scandal. | VIA STEVE ROBERTS

Cori Bush regularly returns to St. Louis to speak to her supporters. | MONICA OBRADOVIC is not only creating further division in the Democratic Party, but that agenda does not align with the wishes of the voters in the 1st Congressional District,” Robertswrote in an email to the RFT. Throughout his campaign, Roberts has directed criticism at Bush’s voting record, which hasn’t always stayed in line with her party.

Bush voted against President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure plan when there wasn’t enough support for a separate Build Back Better proposal to address childcare and climate change. She told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “I didn’t come to Congress [to] allow our priorities to be put on a shelf.”

Bush also opposed the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act proposed after 10 people were killed at a shooting in Buffalo, New York. The bill lacked protections for people of color, Bush said in a May interview, but it later passed with a near party-line vote after Bush revised the bill’s language and won the support of fellow progressives.

These “no” votes, and others like them, led Roberts to say Bush has “abandoned the Democratic Party.” He also doesn’t agree with some of Bush’s most progressive pushes such as defunding the police, saying his political ideology is more in line with Biden than Sanders.

“No one knows what will happen in the midterm elections, there is a very real possibility that Democrats could lose their very narrow majority in both the

House and Senate,” Roberts says via email. “It is imperative that we have Democratic leaders that can be counted on to stand with President Biden, and Democrats who are able to work across the aisle to get things done no matter which party holds the majority.

“I will be inside the Capitol voting on issues which are extremely critical to improving the lives of our citizens in the First Congressional District — instead of outside on the steps protesting,” Roberts adds.

Some of Bush’s most outspoken critics are members of the Jewish community, who note her lack of support for Israel. And recent media coverage focused on her association with a local Muslim activist who tweeted about wanting to set Israel on fire with my own hands & watch it burn to ashes along with every Israeli in it.” (In an only-in-St. Louis twist, Roberts had to acknowledge he’d previously been in a romantic relationship with that same activist, though he said he rejected her “hate” and chose to “walk away.”)

Despite her meteoric rise, Bush has not shed her own activist persona. Citing her previous experience with homelessness, Bush galvanized a push to extend the federal eviction moratorium by sleeping on the steps of the Capitol last summer. The Centers for Disease Control later extended the moratorium in counties with high levels of COVID-19 spread, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the extension soon after.

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“I’m not taking off my activist hat to be in Congress,” Bush said on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert in April, describing herself as a “politivist,” a term she coined.

“The activist is going to push, is going to be on the ground and listen and have the courage to move things that other people might not feel comfortable moving.”

It’s high profile, righteous sounding sentiments like these that lead critics to hurl insults at Bush for political posturing.

Roberts aired an ad shortly after Bush’s appearance on Colbert in which he promised he wouldn’t seek fame or celebrity. “I won’t be focused on my next national television interview,” he said in the ad.

“She seems more interested in getting in front of cameras than she is in doing the job,” Roberts tells the RFT. And that’s fine, but voters deserve more and that’s what I’ll provide as the member of Congress from the First District. The job is done inside the building.”

But is a Washington Democrat what St. Louis wants? Before Bush went to Congress, her predecessor, Clay, drew criticism for staying in D.C. during the Ferguson protests.

Bush, on the other hand, was here, building (knowingly or unknowingly) a base of supporters in the streets. And when the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion, Bush was here in St. Louis, at a roundtable discussion with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra at Planned Parenthood’s facility in the Central West End. Moments after the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was announced — in front of reporters’ cameras, in front of pro-choice activists who would later endorse her and in front of constituents who hugged and mourned with her — Bush cried the shout that has both defined and fueled her political career. e will fight n

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CALENDAR

BY JENNA JONES

THURSDAY 07/28 Cluckin’ Good ix one part bloc party and another part competition, and you’ll get Fry’er Fest. hic en tender lovers of the St. ouis area are invited to witness competitors face off in various challenges — all you can eat, hot and spicy, and timed speed eating — while enjoying live music, giveaways, familyfriendly activities and complimentary popsicles and smoothies. resented by hic en ut ir wood, the restaurant has confirmed five competitors Strange onuts chef ason oc man, Sugarfire chef aty obylare allace, uniper chef I y orse and St. ouis food influencers Ace of Ace’s ats and rlando of pic ats. Six additional battle spots are available for additional participants through hic en ut’s social media pages. If a chef or influencer wins, hic en ut will award $1,000 to a charity of their choice, while open-call competitors will receive a year’s worth of tenders.

Attendees will also be able to munch on flappeti ers from i ointe rive In, Sugarfire Smo ehouse and, of course, Chicken ut. The ine and heese lace, ands rewery and 1 Artisan Spirits will serve wine, beer, cocktails and other refreshments. isit hic en ut 1 anchester Road, ir wood 1 1 1 , chic enoutchic en.com on Thursday, uly , from to p.m. for the festival. It’s free to attend.

FRIDAY 07/29 Hold On to Your Butts Thankfully, we will never walk alongside dinosaurs (have you seen Jurassic Park?), but visiting Jurassic Quest provides an opportunity to satiate the curiosity of what exactly that would be li e. uring the three day event, adults and children can walk among animatronic dinosaurs. urassic Quest also offers a chance for kids to ride a few of the dinosaurs, ex-

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plore bounce houses and a crafts table, become archaeologists and dig up some fossils, or even meet some baby dinos. urassic uest comes to the St. harles amily Arena Arena ar way, St. harles , urassic uest.com on riday, uly , and stays until Sunday, uly 1. ours are riday and Saturday a.m. to p.m. and Sunday from a.m. to p.m. Tic ets begin at .

Life Is a Highway A homegrown music festival returns this weekend as live music is still in the process of ramping up post I 1 shutdowns. The three-day Open Highway Music Festival has music from the un y utt rass and, argo rice, the rive y Truc ers and more. ocal vendors — such as Sugarfire, arwhal’s rafted and more — will be on site with food. ar ing is free, and guests are welcome to bring in blankets and small chairs. pen ighway usic estival is scheduled to hit the hesterfield Amphitheater 1 eterans lace rive, hesterfield openhighwaymusic.com on riday, uly .

Additional dates include Thursday, uly , and Saturday, uly . Tic ets for riday’s show cost , and wee end and three day passes are also available. A portion of the ticket proceeds will be donated to St. atric enter.

The “bare as you dare” World Naked Bike Ride is also a form of protest. | REUBEN HEMMER Some hot tips: Bring lots of water, a bag to put your clothes in (you strip down when you get to the ride and your own paint. ace yourself during the 1 mile ride it’s not a race, though if you absolutely need to, you can cut out early — but you’ll be riding bac by yourself. rgani ers as that riders be vaccinated and wear a mask while in close contact with others. o photos can be ta en without consent, as well as no touching others ust don’t be creepy, in other words.

The bare bike ride happens on Saturday, uly , beginning at p.m. in the rove anchester Avenue between Sarah and Talmage streets, wnbrstl.org . o registration is re uired.

SATURDAY 07/30 Bare It All

Cabaret Clique

If a na ed cyclist rides past you later this month, don’t worry about it. The World Naked Bike Ride is coming bac to St. ouis with the same rules — go as bare as you dare in the name of body positivity and cyclists’ rights.

At p.m., the event will include a costume contest with categories such as grooviest moves, cutest crew, hairiest human and more. The ride starts at p.m. sharp, and festival activities will follow at p.m. The night closes out around 11 p.m., but attendees can hit the rove’s bars if they want to continue partying.

ailing from ittle Roc , Ar ansas, the Bombay Cabaret is coming to St. ouis to bring sexy bac .

The cabaret has burlesque roots from its founder, astet afoe, and centers around her appreciation for live music and burles ue.

A traveling showcase, Bombay Cabaret features musicians and burly babes. rgani ers say you’ll want to bring some singles and maybe a change of shirt for all your inevitable drool.

The show will be hosted by i i aynor and performers include afoe, olie oir and Sunnie a ed.

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Catch the Bombay Cabaret at the rac ox 111 live Street, bombaycabaret.com on Saturday, uly , at p.m. Tic ets begin at 1 on Eventbrite and admission is open to those 1 and older.

Going Up This weekend marks the annual Balloon Glow at roo dale arms Twin Rivers, ure a 1 , broo dalefarmsinc.com . ver a do en glowing balloons will light up the night, though the gates open at p.m. for other events, such as inflatables for kids, pony rides for an additional cost, a petting oo and an outdoor concert by Shotgun ree and.

Bring chairs, blankets and cameras and watch the balloons create a magical glow in the s y that’s followed by a beautiful firewor s display.

Catch the Balloon Glow on Saturday, uly . Admission costs per vehicle, so grab your van and s uee e in all the friends and family you can. Tic ets can be purchased at the gate, though it’s cheaper to buy them earlier online. —Julian McCall

Margaritaville Live la vida loca downtown this weekend as Ballpark Village hosts its inaugural Margarita Fest. argaritas will be flowing at every venue, drink specials will be offered, live music will fill the

WEEK OF JULY 28-AUGUST 3 events such as Star Party even better. amilies are invited to cross the river to admire the night s y, courtesy of the St. harles City-County Library and the Astronomical Society of astern issouri. xperts from the astronomy society will be there as you look through the telescopes that are available for checkout from the library. Space is limited, so reservations are re uired.

The Star arty meets up at athryn inneman ranch lm Street, St. harles mylibrary.libnet.info event on onday, August 1, at p.m.

Skatin’ Around

The music festival returns to Chesterfield this weekend. | COURTESY OPEN HIGHWAY MUSICAL FESTIVAL stages — it will be a full on fiesta.

There will even be a taco alley with local vendors serving up some grub as well as taco-eating contests.

The fest hits Ballpark Village (601 Clark Avenue, stlballparkvillage.com events margarita fest on Saturday, uly , beginning at 11 a.m. Tic ets start at 1 . , and the event is for those 1 and older. I upgrades are also available.

SUNDAY 07/31 Wands at the Ready July closes out with a celebration fit for a wi ard — one wi ard in particular, actually. ans of arry otter can put their nowledge to the test at Global Brew Tap ouse’s Wizarding Weekend.

Choose a house and join your fellow Slytherins, ry ndors, ufflepuffs or Ravenclaws to battle it out over who nows the arry otter movies and the antastic easts series best.

Not only will the weekend have a trivia game to remember, but there will also be uidditch ong

and a chance to decorate your own pint glass — registration is re uired for the crafts. Specialty coc tails will grace the bar’s menu in celebration of the event.

The rog hoir won’t be there, but live music will be playing.

Visit the Global Brew Tap ouse Regency ar rive , ’ allon, Illinois 1 1 1 , ofallon.globalbrew.com to participate in i arding ee end. uidditch ong happens on Saturday, uly , while the trivia event happens on Sunday, uly 1. The celebration begins at 11 a.m. on both days.

Broadway and Brunch This weekend, musical lovers can enjoy brunch and a show — one that tells the story of enry III’s wives in the form of a pop concert.

Six: A Drag Broadway Review features drag performers singing the popular tunes. A brunch buffet is served as the performance takes place, and bottomless mimosas are available for purchase.

Experience the musical brunch at ittle evo 1 organ ord Road, 1 , eventbrite. c o m e s i x a b r o a d w ay m u s i -

cal-review-drag-brunch-tickets 1 . oors open at 11 a.m., showtime is noon. Tic ets range from 1 to .

Birthday Bash Come celebrate the birthday of the late Jerry Garcia, lead songwriter and guitarist for rock band the rateful ead. ocal St. ouis musicians Neil Salsich, Brad Sarno, ave relle, ohn ussung and annon e eese will perform at Jerry Garcia’s Birthday Bash.

This event is hosted by amo resents, an independent concert promoter based in St. ouis.

The party happens Sunday, July 1, at the ot at the ig Top 1 Washington Avenue, jamopresents.com thelot from to p.m.

Tickets are available online for 1 in advance, on the day of the event. — Julian McCall

MONDAY 08/01 Star of the Show The universe is wide and full of mysteries. oo ing up at the s y, it’s impossible not to wonder at just how tiny we are in the grand scheme of things, which makes

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Roll around with s aters of all levels at the Monday Night Skate Session. osted at Steinberg S ating Rin , it’s an opportunity to meet local skaters, make some new friends, and learn to skate and about gear. S ate rental and concessions also will be available.

It’s free to s ate at Steinberg S ating Rin efferson rive, faceboo .com events 1 1 1 1 from to p.m. If the weather’s too hot out, the event will be moved to St. ouis S atium, where it costs to s ate. hec the aceboo event for updates.

WEDNESDAY 08/03 Debut A new show opens this next week at the uny, and we’ll give you a few hints as to what it is It is also a Steven Spielberg film and a ulit er ri e winning novel by Alice al er. The musical features a , ragtime and gospel music.

If you guessed The Color Purple, you’d be right. The musical tells the story of elie rittney ac , an African American girl growing up in rural eorgia. Spanning years, the story deals with love, sisterhood, resilience and faith as elie recogni es herself as the survivor she is.

The Color Purple opens at the uny 1 ine Arts rive, muny. org show the color purple on ednesday, August . The show begins at 1 p.m. Tic ets begin at 1 . n

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CAFE

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Caribbean Queen The Crooked Boot’s talented chef brings top-notch Creole and Haitian food to St. Charles Written by

CHERYL BAEHR The Crooked Boot 2012 Campus Drive, St. Charles; 636-7573305. Wed.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Hours are subject to change.

C

oria “CC” Griggs cannot explain the pull she’s long felt toward Haiti. It’s a feeling she had throughout her upbringing in Louisiana, and it’s what inspired her to finally hop on a plane to the island nation a few years ago. As she tells it, there is some sort of connection between her own Creole roots and Haitian culture — perhaps something generational that courses through her A. That’s the only way she can wrap her head around the overwhelming feeling of coming home that came over her when she touched down in ort au rince on her first trip to the country several years ago. hen you taste riggs’ Ayiti bowl, you too will get this sense.

The dish, named after the aitian Creole word for Haiti, tastes less li e something you’d get from a takeout spot in the middle of oldschool St. Charles than a slowcoo ed meal spread before you in Grandma’s western Hispaniola itchen. Tender rice that tastes as if it has been steeped in coconut is topped with succulent pulled chicken that’s spiced enough to ma e your mouth tingle but not so hot as to burn. Griggs places a plantain chip and pickled vegetables atop for garnish; this seems li e enough of a flourish until you pour the accompanying sauce, pois, over the top. The deeply earthy aitian red bean paste wraps the aribbean inflected flavors with a richness so comforting that, li e riggs, you feel it in your soul. any years ago, the thought of being the conduit for such culinary greatness would have been

The Crooked Boot’s offerings include (clockwise from bottom left) the Monroe Clucker, Savage Crabmich, Ayiti Bòl and Voodoo Burger. | MABEL SUEN

Chef-owner CC Griggs opened the Crooked Boot in St. Charles. | MABEL SUEN comical to riggs. A native of Monroe, Louisiana, she describes being dragged, kicking and screaming, into her family’s itchen when her father insisted she learn how to cook. He said she’d need cooking skills if she ever got married. She pushed bac , saying that she was going to marry rich.

Griggs laughs that she married

broke, but her relationship had nothing to do with her burgeoning love for cooking. Instead, as she became more and more comfortable in the kitchen, she realized she had a passion for cooking and began to see food as a way to decompress from her corporate job with Express Scripts. Always on the hunt for cuisine that would remind

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her of her Louisiana upbringing, riggs was continually disappointed and leaned on her own skills as a way to recreate those dishes in her spare time. Her coworkers benefited, and she began to develop a reputation as the o ce’s resident cook. Over time, workplace potlucks evolved into requests for Griggs to cater special events and holiday parties, prompting her to leave behind her full-time gig to devote herself to her side hustle. riggs attended culinary school and worked as a private chef and in itchens around town, always with the goal of owning a place.

During that time, she also became obsessed with food-truck culture, and ultimately bought a truc of her own after working for others for a year. It too six months to get up the nerve to do something with it, but she finally too the leap with the help of a friend from New Orleans, opening the Crooked Boot food truck in 2016.

A mostly reole concept with a little bit of Haitian food sprinkled in, the Crooked Boot developed a loyal following in the city’s food truc circuit. Though she had

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CROOKED BOOT Continued from pg 23

a small space in O’Fallon that served as a home base for the truc and regular crawfish boils, she wished for a place that could serve as both a permanent storefront and commissary kitchen.

This ebruary, she found it on the northeast side of St. Charles in the former home of Tango Argentina. ith its sprawling itchen, ta eout counter and a handful of window seats, it became home base for the Crooked Boot’s operations.

The storefront is tiny and off the beaten path the spot, located in an unassuming strip mall in the older part of St. harles proper, has a large itchen, though its dining room consists of just three red stools at a window counter. Graffiti art, done by riggs’ friend, is emblazoned across the restaurant’s black wall to match the truck’s aesthetic.

The open kitchen allows you to see riggs in action, though the magic that comes from her hands is something you experience only through taste. i e the Ayiti bowl, her dishes are infused with the sort of flavor that lights up every surface of the mouth. Her Yah on sandwich, for instance, features the sort of jerk-seasoned chicken that puts generic bastardizations of the form to shame. ere, the poultry’s succulent seasoning is indeed hot, but it is so multidimensional that your palate experiences more firewor than flame. The meat, tuc ed into a toasted pret el bun, is paired with crispy coleslaw and pickled red onions for a cooling effect, but drizzled with a spicy remoulade Voodoo Sauce that makes sure you still feel a punch.

Griggs’ Voodoo Fries are another study in complex heat. ere, medium cut rench fries are smothered in er chic en, molten cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce, sour cream and oodoo Sauce, then topped with crispy, cornmeal-dusted fried shrimp. It’s the loaded fries that you conjure when you drift off dreaming of the form.

In keeping with its Louisiana spirit, the roo ed oot offers a variety of po’boy sandwiches, including the ountry irl, which pairs a monstrous portion of delicate, cornmeal crusted catfish with tomatoes and cabbage slaw, as well as the onroe luc er, featuring a mound of flawlessly seasoned hand-breaded chicken tenders accented with Voodoo Sauce. The Lafayette Po’Boy is a personal fa-

Tha Monroe Clucker is served with crispy or blackened chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and Voodoo Sauce on french bread. | MABEL SUEN

The Savage Crabmich includes soft-shell crab, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions and Voodoo Sauce on a pretzel bun. | MABEL SUEN vorite than s to the plump, blac ened shrimp. Tucked into a pillowsoft hoagie roll and drizzled with the same esty oodoo Sauce, the shellfish have such a wonderful, snappy texture you want to pop them in your mouth like candy.

The Crooked Boot’s Nawlins Babyee platter features a fried version of these lovely shrimp alongside a generous portion of catfish. oth are coated in a cornmeal breading that’s seasoned enough to make your lips tingle and paired with savory hush puppies that have a slight peppery

taste, as if they have been flec ed with jalapeños. Between this platter, riggs’ glorious version of red beans and rice, and life changing banana pudding filled beignets, you understand the beauty of Louisiana cuisine.

But then you taste Griggs’ Haitian a ra, and you get why she feels equally pulled to the Caribbean nation’s food. The fried fritters, made from the starchy root vegetable malanga, are riggs’ go to Haitian bar food; one taste of these salty, savory fritters, and you understand why. The tuber, mashed

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The poultry’s succulent seasoning is indeed hot, but it is so multidimensional that your palate experiences more firework than flame. to the texture of fluffy whipped potatoes, is coated in riggs’ special seasoning blend — a dry blend of salt, tang and a tiny note of sweet that is so addictive you want to sprinkle it on everything you can find. It’s no wonder this is the first dish she seeks out the moment she steps off the plane in Haiti.

That we are privy to such a journey is nothing short of a privilege.

The Crooked Boot Lafayette Po’Boy ....................................... $14 Haitian akra ................................................ $8 Ayiti bowl................................................... $12

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SHORT ORDERS [FOOD NEWS]

A Slice for Good Edera’s new pizza collaboration features St. Louis chefs and their kids Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

I

f you see little ones running around the kitchen at Edera Italian Eatery (48 Maryland Plaza, 314-361-7227), rest assured it’s not a desperate response to sta ng shortages. rom now through Saturday, August 13, those kids are lending their culinary creativity to the Central West End restaurant for Pizza for a Purpose, dera’s charitable program that features collaborations with several prominent St. ouis area chefs and their children.

The rotating pizza series, which began on July 11, is the brainchild of Edera’s executive chef, Andrew Simon. or the program’s duration, Simon will be welcoming in a different parent-child pair to Edera’s kitchen every Sunday or

[FOOD NEWS]

Road Trip The Factory’s Brewski Kicks on Route 66 will serve beers that hail from states along the historic U.S. Route 66 Written by

KASEY NOSS

F

inally, there’s a solution for people who want to try beer from across the .S. without spending too much time in the car.

The Factory STL (17105 North Outer 40 oad Chesterfield 314-

Pizza for a Purpose features collaborations wtih St. Louis chefs and their children. | CHERYL BAEHR onday there, they will come up with a unique pizza that will be available to the restaurant’s guests for the entire week, with a portion of sales going to a charity of the chef and child’s choice. ar Hinkle of Olive + Oak kicked off the festivities with his daughters; other participants include Yolklore’s Mary Boehne and her daughter, Margot; Juniper’s Daniel Poss and his daughter, Jayla; Vicia’s Michael 423-8500, thefactorystl.com) will kick off its inaugural beer festival Brewski Kicks on Route 66 on Saturday, uly . The event will feature over beers from 1 breweries, bringing beer from every stop along historic .S. Route .

Though most St. ouisans now the actory as an indoor concert venue, Assistant General Manager an essel says the team behind rews i ic s aims to expand its reputation beyond music.

St. ouis and beer drin ing and music are ind of synonymous, says essel, a self proclaimed beer fan. e’re trying to get people out here, and I think one of the things we can do aside from music is offer a bunch of cool beers.

The actory will provide attendees with a map to eep trac of their beer themed road trip, which includes breweries from Il-

Gallina and his daughter, Olivia; and Chicken Scratch’s Nate Hereford and his son, en.

As Simon explains, the idea came to him after an impromptu collaboration with his own daughter, yla, during a very busy chili coo off with Schlafly eer. At first, Simon was reluctant to let his then-six-year-old pitch in, but once she umped in and made herself useful, it opened his eyes.

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“There were a thousand people there, and it was hectic enough trying to serve everyone, Simon says. ut what do you now She came in, got her hands dirty, helped out and loved it. e were loo ing through photos of the event, and I came up with the idea of getting other chefs together with their ids. veryone loves seeing it, and it’s helping out others that need help. It seemed li e a great idea.

Simon notes that it has been fun watching the chefs interact with their kids in the kitchen, and he’s thrilled to give them a venue to spend uality time together — something that can be in short supply for those working in an industry not known for work-life balance. e’s also en oyed seeing the pizzas they concoct and can’t help but laugh as his fellow culinarians struggle with picky eaters li e every other parent.

To see ar from live a do a half-and-half pizza because one of his daughters doesn’t like sauce and the other doesn’t li e cheese — it’s been great, Simon says. e’re ust humans that play with food, so it’s nice to have them ust pic a time slot, come in, mess around and play with their ids. n Pizza for a Purpose is available for both dine-in and carry-out. For more information, including the different pizza creations, visit ederastl.com/pizza-for-a-purpose.

The Factory STL will hold its inaugural beer festival on Saturday, July 30. | COURTESY THE FACTORY

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linois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and California. Drinkers can opt for a Half-Road Trip or Full-Road Trip depending on the number of beers and breweries they wish to sample. Other themerelated features include “Oil Change” stations for attendees to dump and rinse their glasses, “Pit Stops” for hydration and snacks, and a vintage-car show perfect for photographs. St. Louis DJ Ahmad the Prophet will spin “classic road trip tunes for the first half of the event, followed by a set from St. Louis’ Bobby Ford Band.

“There’s not a lot of beer festivals that have a theme — it’s just beer

— but if you’ve been to the Factory, it’s kind of natural,” Wessel says.

“We have signs everywhere: road signs, stop signs, yield signs, guitars that have stop signs on them — all kinds of weird stuff.”

For decades, U.S. Route 66, often referred to as the Mother Road, was the nexus of American roadtripping culture. Erected in 1926, the highway once stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles, ushering in a new era of transcontinental travel and breathing life into the towns and cities through which it ran. Now defunct, the historic route still holds a special place in many Americans’ — and many St. Louisans’ — hearts.

At its core, the festival is a love letter to St. Louis, the largest city between Chicago and Los Ange-

les along the historic route. Even its name, Brewski Kicks on Route 66, alludes to the 1946 rhythm and blues song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” which St. Louis icon Chuck Berry famously covered.

“Living outside St. Louis for almost a third of my life, I always knew that St. Louis had this almost unusual pride to it,” Wessel says. “There’s a myriad of different offerings in St. Louis and Missouri as a whole, and seeing that it’s a Route 66 theme, we’re leaning heavy on Missouri.”

Missouri offerings include beverages from 4 Hands Brewing Company, Brick River Cider and Urban Chestnut. When selecting breweries outside of Missouri, the organizers searched for the most unique offerings they could find, fre uent-

ly turning to local craft breweries.

“We’re constantly sitting down and [asking] how can we move the creative needle and get new, smaller breweries in here,” Wessel says.

Those specialty brews will include an imperial double milk stout by Heavy Riff Brewing Company and a Bourbon County Stout from Goose Island.

Brewski Kicks on Route 66 will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. Wessel anticipates the event will be a blast for beer drinkers and music lovers alike.

“It’s essentially gonna be a midday party for everybody to come out and taste a bunch of great beers, listen to good music and have a great time,” Wessel says.

“It’s going to be fun.” n

Manifest Juice and Broth will serve juice, broth, coffee and more. | KELSEY O’BANION

[FOOD NEWS]

To Health Clayton’s Manifest Juice and Broth will focus on juice, broth, coffee and more Written by

JESSICA ROGEN

H

eads up: If you’re one of the residents of this fine city who gets your health via fresh juice, bone broth and other wellness-forward delicacies, this rebrand is for you.

Conor VanBuskirk, one of the minds behind Beets & Bones, which closed its

doors earlier this year, is filling the gap the popular Clayton spot left behind. The new concept, Manifest Juice and Broth (8401 Maryland Avenue), is a “health cafe and to-go spot” that opened July 25, with daily hours from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

He’s joined in the effort by Katy Fry, who will be chief operating officer and an operating partner. The two met at a farmers’ market and bonded over a shared passion for healthy living, local produce and more. All of their juices will be served in glass containers to align with those beliefs.

“We’re all about manifesting lifestyle change and empowering our patrons to find optimal health,” Fry says in a statement. “Our main goal is to impact the community in positive ways, from immersing guests in a botanical experience to relying on local farmers, producers and artists.”

The restaurant’s menu will include,

Conor VanBuskirk and Katy Fry opened Manifest Juice and Broth on July 25. | KELSEY O’BANION naturally, juice and broth as well as a coffee program. There will also be toasts, salads, pastries and more.

VanBuskirk and Fry also plan to add a retail section featuring ready-made meals and other items as well as juice and broth subscriptions.

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“We want to take the best parts of Beets and Bones — the juice and broth — and simplify the concept,” VanBuskirk explains in a statement. “Our goal is to make it seamless, pleasant, and enjoyable to quickly purchase what you came in for.” n

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ST. LOUIS STANDARDS

The Original Slice The maybe-originator of St. Louis-style pizza, Monte Bello has flourished by building strong relationships with customers Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Monte Bello Pizzeria 3662 Weber Road, 314-638-8861 Established 1953

W

hen Tanya Buechel wants to illustrate just how much her restaurant, Monte Bello Pizzeria, means to people, she points to one of her longtime customers. The regular, an elderly gentleman, had taken his wife many years ago to onte ello for their first date, and the couple made it a tradition to come in every year on their anniversary to celebrate. This year, however, he arrived by himself on their special day.

“This year, his wife passed away,” Buechel says. “He told me, ‘I’m still coming here for our anniversary to have Monte Bello.’ It’s so neat that we are that place for him. We’ve been here for him, and he has all these good memories of the place. That’s what it is — you come here, and we treat you like you are part of the family. People really like that, and you don’t get that at a lot of places.”

Stories like this are as much a part of Monte Bello as its pizza — a phenomenon Buechel has witnessed since she and her husband, Dennis, took over the beloved Lemay restaurant in 2020. However, the Buechels were well versed in the pizzeria’s lore long before signing the paperwork to become its owners; in fact, their own history with the place is what prompted them to become its stewards in the first place. A lifelong emay resident, Buechel and her family were the kind of multigenerational regulars she now serves every day, and her experiences at the pi eria were a foundational part of her childhood.“Growing up in Lemay,

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Clockwise from top left: Monte Bello Pizzeria serves arancini, chocolate-filled toasted ravioli, buffalo cauliflower, t-ravs, pizza and wings. | MABEL SUEN you either went to Cusanelli’s or Monte Bello, and my family went to Monte Bello,” Buechel says. “There was the u ebox in the bac that I always had to play, the cigarette machine, beer and soda in cans. So many customers tell me that they had their first date here years ago or that they came in after prom or championship games. There was a Stoop Brothers behind us, and the guys who worked third shift would come in for beer and pizza when they got off work because we were open super late. It was a happening spot back in the day.”

By the time she was an adolescent, Buechel was putting coins in the u ebox and onte ello was already firmly established in the hearts of the Lemay community.

Founded in 1953 on the spot of an old bar called Buck’s Tavern, the pizzeria was the realization of a dream for the Petrillos, a Sicilian immigrant family who owned and operated the place until 1 .

When they were ready to get out of the business, the Petrillos sold Monte Bello to husband and wife Ed and Peggy Morgan; as Buechel tells it, the Morgans never divorced but went their separate ways over

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the course of the years, with Peggy taking on most of the operations in the early 2000s. Around that time, Peggy’s son Tommy temporarily closed the restaurant to make repairs and helped his mom run things for several years.

When Tommy got out of the business in 2018, Peggy reached out to Buechel and asked if she would help her manage things. A veteran industry professional and longtime customer, Buechel obliged and quickly became the de facto operator of the place as Peggy grew too old to handle the day-to-day business — even though she didn’t let that stop her from pitching in.

“She would come downstairs to cut vegetables, clean floors, clean the bathrooms, always saying that she was so sorry she couldn’t help more,” Buechel says. “She would sneak up on me because she was so little, but you would know she was here from the smell of PineSol she used to clean. We became really close, and she was like a grandma to me. She’d give me advice on kids, marriage and life in general because she had experience with all of that. She was a sassy lady, and I feel like I didn’t

have enough time with her.”

When Peggy passed away in 2020, the Buechels saw that they had a choice: Either take over Monte Bello themselves or watch it close down and become one more St. Louis restaurant memory. The thought of the latter was unbearable to them, so the pair made a decision with their family to buy the restaurant. In April of 2021, they signed the paperwork and became onte ello’s o cial owners, determined to carry on the legacy of a place that has meant so much to them over the years.

The Buechels understand their role as stewards of Monte Bello and have fiercely stuc to the restaurant’s traditions. They use the same metal deck ovens that have been there for as long as they can remember, the same recipes and even the same pasta board that has been a part of the restaurant since the 1 s — a wooden piece made by a local kid in his shop class that can hold exactly ravioli. The old tablecloths are the same, as are the vintage metal pizza trays; both are out of production and cannot be reordered should something happen to them.

[

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ICONIC PEOPLE, PLACES & DISHES T H A T A N C H O R S T L’ S F O O D S C E N E

The Pizza Connoisseurs recently crowned Monte Bello the best pizza in St. Louis. | MABEL SUEN

The meat lovers pizza gets assembled in the Monte Bello kitchen. | MABEL SUEN

The Monte Bello family members are fierce stewards of the restaurant’s traditions. | MABEL SUEN The Buechels know that touches like these are part of Monte Bello’s charm, and they try to balance any changes they make with the desire to respect the touches that have come to define the restaurant over the years. Tanya Buechel admits it’s sometimes a battle. e’re getting new flooring, and customers say, ‘No!’” she laughs. “I tell them that it’s actually peeling

off. Chunks of tile and cement are coming up when we sweep and mop. Some people hate change, but it needs it. If Monte Bello is going to be here for another 70 years, it has to be taken care of.”

One thing that the Buechels will never change is the pizza. Though they cannot confirm it definitively, there are rumblings in the local pizza circuit that Monte Bello may

be the birthplace of St. Louis-style pi a. If it wasn’t the first, uechel is pretty sure that it’s the oldest St. Louis-style pizzeria still in operation, an interesting tidbit considering one key ingredient that is missing from its pies.

“We have never used Provel and never will,” Buechel says. “I like it; I don’t have anything against it.

This pizza just doesn’t need it. If it

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ain’t bro e, don’t fix it.

A legion of Monte Bello pizza fanatics agree: Recently, the Facebook group Pizza Connoisseurs, a local authority on all things pizza, crowned it the best pizza in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The nod brought fresh business to the restaurant, which the Buechels note has historically been a challenge considering the spot’s off-thebeaten-path, basement location.

The fresh accolades have been great, but the pair notes that the thing about Monte Bello they are most proud of has nothing to do with the food.

“It’s the relationships with customers,” Dennis Buechel says.

“We get a lot of posts that say the pizza is phenomenal, but the ones I take to heart a little more are the ones that tell us things like, ‘The girl who waited on us let my daughter color on the special board.’ As much as I enjoy cooking good food, I love coming out and talking to the customers more.”

Tanya Buechel concurs. “This place has so many generations that come here,” she adds. “People will tell me their mom had their baby shower for them here, and now they bring their own kids. We love it, and we are going to keep doing it until we can’t keep doing it anymore. And then, hopefully we will pass it on to our kids so they can continue the tradition and hopefully make the Petrillo family proud that they created a place, and it’s still going strong after 100 years.” n

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[WEED NEWS]

Baked Goods Cookies’ grand opening brings long lines, potent cannabis to St. Louis Written by

THOMAS K. CHIMCHARDS

J

ust two months after the popular cannabis company introduced its celebrated strains to the Missouri medical-marijuana market through a partnership with Swade, Cookies has o cially opened up its own dedicated dispensary in the St. Louis area.

With a big splash and considerable fanfare, the Bay Area lifestyle brand turned purveyor of potent pot celebrated its grand opening in Florissant last Saturday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a block party featuring performances by several local rappers. A line was already wrapped around the building when the event kicked off at 10 a.m., and some customers had camped out in front of the store for days in advance.

Located at 11088 New Halls Ferry Road, the new dispensary is the first from oo ies in issouri, and came about through a partnership with 3Fifteen Primo, which transformed its preexisting Florissant location into the brand’s flagship in the state. According to Jason Corrado, cofounder and CEO of 3Fifteen Primo, the transition started around the same time oo ies’ strains first hit issouri, when the brand reached out about a collaboration.

“They were excited about the location of the store and decided to work with our team,” Corrado explains. “It came together nicely over two months.”

For Corrado and his partners, the opportunity to attach themselves to the popular brand was a no-brainer.

“It is a phenomenal, multinational, at this point, brand and probably the most recognized brand in cannabis,” he says. “We wanted to attach ourselves to that dream. The people that we’ve

The dispensary’s grand opening kicked off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. | TOMMY CHIMS

Jason Corrado, cofounder and CEO of 3Fifteen Primo, was on hand for the event. | TOMMY CHIMS been dealing with are fantastic, and really know how to — I mean, you see what we have here — they really know how to merchandise.”

That know-how extends beyond the cannabis products. Cookies was originally founded in 2010

by Bay Area rapper Berner as a clothing and lifestyle store in San Francisco, whose oft-bright-blue, Cookies-branded apparel rap-

idly became popular among the streetwear set. In keeping, the new location has a good deal of St. ouis specific clothing and other merchandise for sale alongside its cannabis wares.

Many who showed up to Saturday’s event were clearly already well aware of the fashion options the brand brings, and stood outside in the heat sporting clothing

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bearing the Cookies logo as they awaited their turn to enter the building. One young man named Kaeson, wearing a Cookies shirt, said anticipation had been building for months for the big day.

At first they put the sign up, then they took it down and turned it into 3Fifteen for a little while,” he explained. “Now they’re actually opening, so I guess everybody’s been waiting for a while.

Like, the whole summer.”

Another young man clad in a Cookies shirt traveled a considerable distance just for the chance to check the store out. Kenneth Fewell, 26, drove two hours from Springfield, issouri, for the event. He’d heard about it by watching the video stream of a popular weekly podcast, and was previously a fan of Berner’s music through his collaborations with Wiz Khalifa.

“Actually, I was watching Million Dollaz Worth of Game, I seen that, so it let me know [Berner] was coming out here,” Fewell explained. “Then just from, like, a few years back, I’ve been listening to his music anyway.”

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Cookies’ Gary Payton strain packs a well-balanced wallop. | TOMMY CHIMS

COOKIES

Continued from pg 33

Fewell wasn’t yet sure what cannabis purchase he’d be making once he got inside, though he was intrigued by the brand’s Cheetah Piss strain. Meanwhile he said he was just excited to peruse the wares.

“My cousin says they have some options, so I’m gonna go in and check ’em out,” he explained.

Inside, the store was neatly organized and clean, with products lining the walls and a big lit-up sign depicting former professional basketball player Gary Payton, who lent his name to one of Cookies’ more popular strains. That cultivar was on hand, of course, as well as pre-packs of Snow Man, Sticky Buns, the Soap, White Runtz, All Time High, Apples & Bananas, Blanco, Collins Ave., Emerald Cut, Georgia Pie, Helium, Jealousy, Lions Mane, Medellin, Pancakes, Pave and Red Velvet. In addition to the Cookies strains, the shop carries the usual fare from the likes of C4 and Flora Farms and many of the other brands available in dispensaries across the state, but those were obviously not the star of the show here.

I opted to purchase an eighth of the Gary Payton, due both to its stellar reputation and to the hypnotizing quality of the pro athlete’s eyes on the store’s interior signage. It cost me $56.84 after taxes and clocked in at 26.48 percent THC. Upon opening the bag I was met with a powerful floral smell with peppery notes and a light citrus bite, in keeping with the fact that caryophyllene, limonene and linalool are the strain’s dominant terpenes. On breakup, this stuff was exceptionally dense, almost li e lay oh, and left my fingers

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pretty sticky — a grinder would definitely be the right move here.

On inhale the taste was exquisite, with a pleasant spiciness on the back of my tongue that reminded me of a fine cigar. It was also exceptionally smooth, and I could rip my spoon pipe as hard as I wanted with no risk of coughing.

It was approximately 10,000 degrees outside on the day that I tried this strain out, so a companion and I headed to a friend’s pool in a black car whose air conditioning didn’t work. I melted into a sentient pile of goo and wet hair during the half-hour ride, but remarkably I wasn’t concerned that my bones were reduced to a liquid state — I was just straight vibin’, with not a care in the world.

Gary Payton’s reputation is that of an exceptionally balanced and relaxed high, and that reputation is decidedly well earned. I found myself to be in a stellar mood, not too buzzy and not too zoned out, high as hell with no trace of anxiety, and energetic enough to hoist children over my head and chuck them into the depths of a backyard miniature sea for hours.

It was probably one of the most even-keeled highs I’ve ever experienced and, in all, a complete success.

The same can reasonably be said about Cookies’ grand opening. According to a rep for the company, that first day of sales brought between 400 and 450 people through the doors of the dispensary — a good day for retail no matter which way you slice it.

That enthusiasm among the store’s customers is predictably matched by those on the receiving end of those sales as well.

“It’s exciting. It’s, uh — it’s really exciting,” Corrado says, marveling at the crowds at the event. e’re definitely excited to see what’s gonna happen.” n

[WEED NEWS]

Up in Smoke?

Fate of Missouri marijuana initiative petition unclear as signature count continues Written by

RUDI KELLER This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.

W

hether Missouri voters will get a chance to legalize recreational marijuana in November is still in question.

The latest incomplete tabulations from Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s o ce, obtained under a Sunshine aw re uest, show the Legal Missouri 2022 initiative is short of the necessary signatures in four of the six congressional districts necessary to make the ballot. And those same tabulations confirm what bac ers of a ranked-choice voting initiative called Better Elections said in June — their proposal will not be on the November ballot.

The biggest obstacles for the initiative campaigns was the COVID-19 pandemic that made signature gathering di cult and a large number of signatures from unregistered people, says Sean icholson, campaign manager for Better Elections.

“It was a catastrophic failure on the part of ieldwor s, icholson says of the ashington, . ., firm paid more than $8 million total by the two campaigns to collect signatures. “We turned in signatures in the belief we had the stuff.

Fieldworks has managed several successful signature-gathering efforts in issouri, including a 2020 proposal on Medicaid expansion and a 2018 referendum on right to work. Fieldworks is also disappointed in the result, the company says in a statement.

“We share our client’s frustration, the statement reads. Signature gathering campaigns have faced unprecedented challenges in the last two years everywhere in the country. Our industry is not immune from the current workforce conditions.

Each of the campaigns claimed when their signatures were submitted in May that they had far more signatures than necessary to make the ballot. Better Elec-

The latest incomplete tabulations show the Legal Missouri 2022 initiative is short of the necessary signatures. | ELSA OLOFSSON

“Signature gathering campaigns have faced unprecedented challenges in the last two years everywhere in the country.

Our industry is not immune from the current workforce conditions.” tions boasted more than , signatures, and egal issouri said it had in excess of , signatures.

When Better Elections realized in une that it was unli ely to succeed, it issued a statement that the effort would be renewed in the future.

Stay tuned, spo esman Scott harton said, declining to discuss specific plans.

Legal Missouri is still expressing confidence that its initiative effort, where it boosted paid signature gathering with volunteers, will succeed. ohn ayne, egal issouri campaign manager, says he still expects the initiative to make the ballot.

“Having turned in nearly , signatures from issourians who want to become the 20th state to regulate, tax and legali e cannabis, we are confident about being on this ovember’s ballot, Payne says in a statement.

Both the Legal Missouri and Better Elections initiatives were proposed constitutional amendments, meaning they needed signatures from registered voters equal to 8 percent of the vote from

the 2020 gubernatorial election in each of six of the state’s eight congressional districts. egal issouri has su cient signatures in the First District in St. ouis and St. ouis ounty, where validation is complete, and the ifth istrict, ansas ity and ad oining regions, where only afayette County has yet to report.

But it lacks the required signatures in the Second, Third, Sixth and Seventh districts. In the Second and Third districts, St. harles has not reported and could deliver enough signatures to be sufficient. ut with 1 counties with tiny populations left to report in the Sixth, and three counties in the Seventh uncounted, both appear unlikely to obtain the almost , additional signatures needed in each district.

The bulk of the Legal Missouri effort in the Second and Third districts was in St. harles ounty, ayne says, and the campaign is confident it will return enough valid signatures to make up the difference in those two districts.

In the other districts, he says, the gap you are seeing at the moment

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is just because they haven’t reported their numbers yet. All of our signatures went through a rigorous uality control process, so we know what we have in each district.

The Legal Missouri initiative would expand the current medical-marijuana businesses program by allowing existing licensees to serve both medical and non-medical purchasers. There would be an additional 144 licenses for what will be known as microbusiness facilities, with six dispensaries and 12 wholesale facilities in each congressional district. It would also require expungement of marijuana offenses from criminal records.

Better Elections did not have sufficient signatures in the irst istrict, where tabulation is complete. ounty election o cials had until July 26 to complete their review of signatures for their counties. If either is su cient, Ashcroft has until August 9 to issue a statement certifying them for the ballot.

If they fail, there will be four issues on the statewide ballot. Lawmakers approved three: to create a separate state department for the issouri ational uard, currently in the Department of Public Safety; to set a minimum budget for the ansas ity olice Department; and to change the investment policies of the state treasurer’s o ce. The fourth is the question of whether to hold a state onstitutional onvention, put to a vote automatically every 20 years. n

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BREWSKI KICKS ON ROUTE 66 16 BREWERIES, 30+BREWS, FEAT. THE BOBBY FORD BAND

SAT, JULY 30 KSHE PRESENTS

PAT BENATAR & NEIL GIRALDO Mon, August 1 MUSIC… MONEY… MADNESS…

JIMI HENDRIX IN MAUI

SPECIAL SCREENING

Fri, August 5 89.1 KCLC PRESENTS

COURTNEY BARNETT

PLUS LUCY DACUS & QUINN CHRISTOPHERSON

Tue, August 9

OLIVER TREE

PLUS JAWNY AND HUDDY

Sat, August 13

BOZ SCAGGS

SPECIAL GUEST THE ROBERT CRAY BAND

WED, AUGUST 17

THE DRIVER ERA

PLUS SUMMER SALT, ALMOST MONDAY

FRI, SEPT. 2 OH, INVERTED WORLD 21ST BIRTHDAY TOUR

THE SHINS PLUS JOSEPH

Tue, Sept. 06 THE

AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD SHOW Sat, Sept. 10 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

CHRISTOPHER CROSS Fri, Sept. 16

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CULTURE

37

[VISUAL ART]

Out of the Box After the pandemic dried up her freelance gigs, Maxine Thirteen pivoted to full-time artist and now is art director for 31Art Gallery Written by

JESSICA ROGEN

E

verything locked down during Maxine Thirteen’s 25th year — but she kept painting. ne of her first wor s during that time was a selfportrait on a large, 25-by-25-inch canvas. Instead of filling the space with one continuous painting, she broke it into small, three-dimensional painted cubes that evoke pixels. Each box holds part of a face and is separated from its neighbor by a swath of negative space.

That painting, “25,” became a series dubbed “Inside the Box,” a collection of minimalist portraits that used this technique. The unorthodox project came as a response to the unpredictability of the times and served as Thirteen’s method of coping with the many unknowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everything was just turned on its head. I had no idea what the future was going to be,” she says.

“I started focusing on random experiments in my work … [it built] into a larger series, which I then was just kind of using as an outlet during the pandemic as a way of processing various thoughts and reflections over that amount of time and kind of compartmentalizing them.”

The pandemic brought intense uncertainty into Thirteen’s life. Her freelance gigs — film production and welding — dried up, and gallery spaces closed doors, leading her to question if there’d be a way to show her work in the future.

But COVID-19 also proved to be a locus of positive change for Thirteen. She pivoted to working as an artist full-time and connected with 31Art Gallery, where she first showed her wor , became a resident artist and now serves as

Maxine Thirteen became a full-time artist during the pandemic. | JESSICA ROGEN

Maxine Thirteen is art director for 31Art Gallery. | COURTESY MAXINE THIRTEEN art director.

“It wasn’t my intention to become a full-time artist,” Thirteen says, noting she’d had the opportunity to pick those gigs back up as cases waned. “I think I’m just going to stick with the art … if I scale it back now, I’m going to regret doing that.”

Thirteen has always been artistic. Growing up in the Bridgeton

suburb of St. ouis, she’d find herself creating art, mostly drawing, as a child and then as a teenager.

In 2018, she began to teach herself how to use oil paints, and credits being homeschooled for helping her pick up the new skill.

She turned to YouTube and Instagram tutorials as well as books and fine art.

She’d always been drawn to

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portraiture and, as she switched to painting, developed a distinctive style: vintage, sometimes “creepy vintage.” She draws inspiration from old movies and advertisements from the ’30s and ’40s as well as from Medieval and Renaissance portraits.

“Certain faces are really interesting, and it’s fun to kind of study them through recreating them, kind of like putting together a puzzle,” Thirteen says.

Thirteen tries to paint at least five days a wee . She’ll alternate between 5 to 10 pieces to keep things fresh. If she doesn’t feel like painting, though, there’s plenty of other work to do: answering emails, managing her social media and “those other odd jobs” that one has to do as a self-employed artist.

When inspiration strikes Thirteen, she’ll dive full force into a painting. Which is also what happened with 31Art Gallery.

In March 2019, Thirteen stepped foot into the gallery for its first opening.

“The space is gorgeous,” she says. “It’s this massive, awesome art-gallery space, and the work in it is amazing. And I remember

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[TELEVISION]

No Fiasco Mehlville School District band teacher Emily Fiasco’s Jeopardy! run netted her more than a year’s salary Written by

OLIVIA POOLOS

E

mily Fiasco, a St. Louis middle school band teacher, has watched Jeopardy! since she was her students’ age. Technically, Fiasco says she was younger than that when she started watching with her dad, but since her elementary school got out late, she couldn’t catch the beginning of the episodes, which aired at 4:30 p.m.

It took until Fiasco attended middle school in the Mehlville School District — where she now teaches — for her to get home early enough to catch the show each afternoon.

The years of watching paid off last week when Fiasco won three straight Jeopardy! contests, amassing nearly $88,000, more than her typical year’s salary.

“I had been working towards it for so long,” Fiasco says with a laugh. “I know it’s a weird goal, but I was really excited.”

Fiasco has been trying to get on the show since 2008, when she was a sophomore at the University of North Texas.

She made it past the initial online quiz, then the proctored quiz and finally to the in-person audition.

“They won’t ever let you know, ‘Yes, you made it,’ or ‘No, you didn’t,” Fiasco says. Instead, an applicant is “in the

MAXINE THIRTEEN Continued from pg 37

saying to my husband at the time, like quietly, I’m like, ‘If this place ever does a call for art, I want to have my stuff in here.’”

Later that year she met the owners, Jared and Amy Minnick, and became part of the gallery’s first Punk Rock Art Show that October.

Like Thirteen, Jared Minnick is a self-taught painter who became “consumed by art.” He and his wife own a surveying company, and they’d decided they wanted to open a gallery, purchasing a building on Hampton Avenue so they could run both enterprises together.

Initially, Minnick showed his own art, then added St. Louis painter Andy Dykeman. Thirteen came next.

“One of the hardest things was

St. Louis band teacher Emily Fiasco has been trying to be a contestant on Jeopardy! since 2008. | COURTESY EMILY FIASCO audition pool” for 18 months. If you don’t hear back within that timeframe, you’re out. Fiasco never heard back. In the years following, she made it to three more in-person auditions — flying either to Chicago or Oklahoma City each time.

She never heard back from those either.

Finally, in the summer of 2020, Fiasco took the online quizzes a fifth time. In 2021, she auditioned again, this time on Zoom due to the pandemic.

In April 2022, Fiasco was driving to pick up her kids, ages four and one, when she got a text saying a representative from Jeopardy! would like to speak with her. When they called, the representative informed her that she had made it on the show and there were a couple of date options for taping. Did Fiasco have any work commitments that would conflict?

“I was like, ‘Anytime. Anytime you want to let me on, I will make it work,’” Fiasco recalls. Back at home, she told her husband the good news first.

“I had been crying in the car, which my kids didn’t notice,” she says. “And I walked in, and my husband was like,

inviting artists into the gallery, because the building really became like our baby, our family,” Minnick says. “I wanted people that were similar to me that really have a passion with it, and the art really means something to them. … You can tell [Thirteen] really cares about her art; she really wants to get better and better, and it really means something to her.

It’s more than just about making money or painting stuff — it’s the art.”

Adding her as a resident artist seemed natural, and then when the Minnicks wanted to bring someone on to help out in the gallery, they asked Thirteen to serve as art director.

Now, the three of them brainstorm show ideas and think about the direction of the gallery. Thirteen also handles artist outreach as well as a plethora of different

‘Oh?’ and I said, ‘I think it’s finally happening!’”

In May 2022, Fiasco and her family flew out to Los Angeles for the taping.

She had practiced beforehand using a computer program that her husband, an engineer, had created. The program scraped past Jeopardy! questions off the internet and presented them randomly to Fiasco, who had a handheld buzzer that connected to her TV. “I could see how many milliseconds it took me to ring in,” Fiasco says. “I don’t know if that was excessive as far as preparation went, but I feel like it helped.”

She also read a lot, though she kept her repertoire mostly to low-level literature.

“Some people don’t believe this, but the questions [on Jeopardy!] are very broad, but they’re not in-depth. So a lot of the information that you would need, you can get out of children’s books,” Fiasco says.

On the show, Fiasco can be seen wearing brightly colored blouses and her signature large, black hipster glasses.

Artist Jared Minnick owns 31Art Gallery along with his wife, Amy. | JESSICA ROGEN tasks as the need arises.

Thirteen says the gallery is a unique and inclusive space in St. Louis. She points to its annual

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She answers questions quickly, seemingly without hesitation, occasionally flashing a nervous grin. The first day, Fiasco won $28,000, well above the two other contestants. On day two, she added $25,201 more to her total. The next day, $34,000.

Though Fiasco’s run aired over four afternoons in July, she said it really only took about two hours in total to film a few months earlier.

“It goes really fast. As fast as it goes on TV is kind of as long as it takes to tape the episode,” Fiasco says. “I didn’t really have much time to process.”

Fiasco did well in the opera category, which she attributes to her master’s in music history but didn’t buzz in fast enough to a question that she should’ve gotten right.

“There was one about Meet Me in St. Louis, but I just didn’t get there in time,” Fiasco says. “So I want to defend my honor there. I knew it was St. Louis!”

Finally, in her fourth round, Fiasco lost by a single dollar to fellow contestants William Chou and Erica Weiner-Amachi.

Though she pulled out the correct answer (Waiting for Godot) in Final Jeopardy!, Fiasco’s maximum wager, which doubled her score to $15,600, wasn’t quite enough to pull ahead.

On day three, host Mayim Bialik quipped that Fiasco could buy “whatever new musical instrument she chooses” with her earnings.

Fiasco, however, has other plans. She has access to all the instruments she can or would want to play — flute, clarinet, saxophone, French horn, trombone and more — and instead wants to put her money towards a project she’s been thinking about for a while.

“We have a bathroom that I’d like to redo,” she says. “How much money will it take? A lot. And I feel like I’m finally there.” n

Punk Rock Art Show, which features both local and non-local visual artists as well as bands playing “a full-on concert.” There’s a welcoming and laid-back vibe to the gallery, which is open to the public on Saturdays.

“I feel like 31Art Gallery is kind of changing the St. Louis art scene,” she says. “You walk into 31Art Gallery and there’s music playing, there’s a fun vibe happening, you know, somebody’s going to greet you and be like, ‘Hey, do you want to drink? Like, check out the space. You have questions? What do you want to know?’” n See Maxine Thirteen’s work at 31Art Gallery (3520 Hampton Avenue, 31artgallery.com) on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The gallery’s next show is Saturday, August 13, from 5 to 9 p.m.

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MUSIC [NEW RELEASES]

Playtime Is Over Eric Dontè pushes his “ghetto trance” forward with a new EP and several high-profile collaborations Written by

DELIA RAINEY

I

nspired by childhood memories of St. Louis and a teddybear mascot, as well as “fantasy movies and things that are uncanny and surreal,” musician and “nightlife icon” Eric Dontè has always created a dichotomy of lightheartedness and boldness.

“It just comes from being an alt Black boy from the hood that likes experimental music,” Dontè says of his self defined genre ghetto trance,” which he describes as “a combination of hip-hop, R&B, punk and trance, with a taste of experimental and cutting-edge atmosphere.”

While many may be familiar with Dontè, who has been performing in the city since around 2016, it can be hard to keep up with the prolific artist. ont ’s first full length album, God Don’t Like Ugly, came out that year, and his EP A Lamp in the Room was released in 2018, featuring standout single and video “Nothing.” Since that time the rapper has stayed busy, posting freestyle videos, new singles and collaborations with local musicians including singer-songwriter and producer Zaethone.

The past six months have been an especially fruitful time. Dontè put out the stellar EP Don’t Play With Me, started a new rave collective, opened for New York rapper billy woods at Columbia venue Cafe Berlin and was featured on aris based musician Sicaa’s song “Departure Unknown,” with a music-video collaboration with St. Louis royalty Maxi Glamour. ilmed by ont ’s longtime videographer and collaborator

Released in April, Eric Dontè’s five-song EP Don’t Play With Me fearlessly melds fantasy and reality. | IRIS KELTING Dylan Schnitker, the video came out in March, starring Dontè and Glamour as futuristic green and blue aliens. Sicaa and Dontè met through the Black Marble Collective, and their track “Departure Unknown” echoes a glittery outer-space beat alongside the music video’s dream li e gau iness.

Glowing in their sprite ears, Dontè and Glamour excitedly roam around south city in search of gasstation treats.

Dontè says that his music videos are very important to him. “When I’m writing music, I already see how I would like to be performing in the music video,” he notes. The collection of videos he’s released over the years feels like a treasure trove, where one might reach in and find goth vampires, fairy tale makeovers and a big rainbow wig.

Prior to the pandemic, Dontè lived in Chicago for a couple years, where he continued performing and writing music. At a party in Chicago one night, he met producer Jeremiah Meece. The two quickly hit it off.

“I had already heard of [Meece] because they had produced for other artists I love like Mikki Blanco and Mister Wallace,” Dontè says. “The night we met, I just put it out there that we could snap on a track together. I could tell they got that all the time, so I didn’t re-

ally force anything. About a year later, they hit me up.”

Out of the beats that Meece sent over, Dontè picked the ones he loved, creating the five songs for Don’t Play With Me. Released in April of this year, the record fearlessly plays with fantasy and reality, seduction and humor, vulnerability and coolness. Even its shortest song, the intro “Tried to Take Me Out,” carries one of the catchiest choruses, managing to sound both soulful and spooky. eece’s beats and eys provide a retro and often-hypnotic force over which Dontè adds playfulness with his versatile voice.

Every track beckons a different mood: “Homie Whaddup” imagines a good day due to good sex, getting paid, or maybe “you might be high.” “Horror Movie” is about his love for scary movies. Perhaps ont ’s voice is the director of the movie, and we, the listeners, are the main characters instructed to “keep running” from the scream around the corner. “Feel So Good,” the last track, switches to an ethereal and misty place than the rest of Don’t Play With Me. Dontè rhymes and sings intimately (“your stomach, I kiss it”) about feelings between two people, where nothing else matters.

Although under a singular moniker, Eric Dontè is always

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surrounded by collaborators and community. His music videos naturally incorporate groups of fellow local artists, and this culture of inclusion is a huge part of ont ’s ethos.

Think back to the 1990s rave scene in St. Louis: The address to the rave was often kept secret, revealed at the very last second to a select group. Today, Materia, a new arts collective that Dontè helped form, is bringing rave parties to St. Louis with, yes, an address attached to each flier. ateria is composed of other electronic musicians and DJs Nadir Smith, Manapool, Umami and Sweeet, who “all had the same vision for experimental music raves, which don’t happen often here, in ont ’s telling. The monthly shows have mainly been inhabiting house venues and basements, influenced by a lac of club venues in the city since the pandemic and perhaps by an “experimental” desire to stray away from the constraints of traditional venues. ont defines their audience as “the weirdos, the outcasts. Our events make everyone feel comfortable, everyone is welcomed.” ont ’s carefree party performer persona doesn’t hide his genuine vulnerability.

“I grew up feeling unheard, and when I started doing music, I think people really started paying attention to how I may really feel. My music is the more assertive version of me,” Dontè explains. “All of [my] music is about things I actually experience and go through.

I want people to know you are in control of your own narrative. I want my music to make people feel like they can rule the world.”

Eric Dontè seems ready for a world takeover guided by his stacked future plans: a possible headline show, Don’t Play With Me music videos, learning how to DJ and a promise of more songwriting. “I have so much in the vault I can’t wait to put out, he says.

Like many St. Louis musicians, Dontè wants the wider country (or intergalactic universe) to notice St. Louis as a place of creative gravity, and also really fun shows.

He has hopes “to show the world what STL is made of through vibes and song,” he says.

“So far, everyone tells me they wanna visit here. I make it look fun. I’m li e, it isss!” n

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OUT EVERY NIGHT

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ach 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. And of course, be sure that you are aware of the venues’ COVID-safety requirements, as those vary from place to place and you don’t want to get stuck outside because you forgot your mask or proof of vaccination. Happy showgoing!

[CRITIC’S PICK]

THURSDAY 28

AARON CARTER: w/ RosesHands 8 p.m., $20$220. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BUDDY CRIME: w lypi, ome ce, Shake Uranus 8 p.m., $7-$10. CBGB, 3163 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis.

DIZZY WRIGHT: w/ Yonas 7:30 p.m., $25-$30. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

ETHAN LEINWAND: w iss ubilee p.m., 1 . oe’s afe, 1 ingsbury Ave, St. ouis.

OPEN HIGHWAY MUSIC FESTIVAL: w/ Steve Earle & The Dukes, The Whitmore Sisters 8 p.m., $40. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

PECOS & THE ROOFTOPS: 8 p.m., $20/$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

RYAN MARQUEZ BAND: p.m., 1 . ’s a , Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SAM PRICE AND THE TRUE BELIEVERS: 9 p.m., TBA. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THE WILMINGTONS: p.m., free. as evo iergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

FRIDAY 29

ARLO MCKINLEY: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

BETH BOMBARA: w/ Middle Class Fashion, Boxcar p.m., 1 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE BROKEN HIPSTERS: p.m., free. as evo iergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

BROTHER JEFFERSON BAND: 7 p.m., $15. BB’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. ouis, 314-436-5222.

DEMARIUS HICKS: p.m. uly , p.m., free. The arold orothy Steward enter for a , ashington Ave, St ouis, 1 1 .

DR. ZHIVEGAS: 6 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, S. ingshighway, nd floor, St. ouis, 314-376-5313.

GOO GOO DOLLS: 7 p.m., TBA. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244.

IMPENDING DOOM: w ar of Ages, This Is e reathing, ard raves, Sacrifice the Sacred 6:30 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THE MALL: w/ 18andCounting, D.Sablu, Scott lant, ong, Sex intendo p.m., 1 .

The Golden Record, 2720 Cherokee Street, St. Louis.

MIDDLE CLASS FASHION: w/ Beth Bombara, oxcar p.m., 1 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE MONOCLES: w/ No Antics, 1781 8 p.m., $10.

The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

OPEN HIGHWAY MUSIC FESTIVAL NIGHT 2: w/ ames c urtry, the Screechin’ alts p.m.,

42

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The Mall will release a new album, Time Vehicle Earth, in October. | AUSTIN ROBERTS

The Mall w/ 18andCounting, D.Sablu, Scott Plant, Kong, DJ Sex Nintendo 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 29. The Golden Record, 2720 Cherokee Street. $15. No phone.

Following up on the runaway (and international!) success of 2020’s Zone, the Mall’s upcoming album Time Vehicle Earth promises more of the driving beats, minimalist synths and existential angst for which St. Louis’ premier hardedged minimal wave act is by now well known. Take “Deconstruction,” the only track released so far from the project: Singer Mark Plant’s half-shouted, reverb-

. hesterfield Amphitheater, 1 eterans lace rive, hesterfield.

SAINT BOOGIE BRASS BAND: 10 p.m., $10. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

SUPERFUN YEAH YEAH ROCKETSHIP: w/ The Legendary Tiger Rider, Ricki Marvel, Zantigo 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SWEET LIZZY PROJECT: 7:30 p.m., $15. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

THIRD SIGHT / DHORUBA COLLECTIVE: 11 p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SATURDAY 30

BACKSTREET BOYS: 7:30 p.m., $39-$435. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

BIT BRIGADE PERFORMS MEGA MAN AND CASTLEVANIA: w/ Super Guitar Bros 8 p.m., 1 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. ouis, 314-498-6989.

BREWSKI KICKS ON ROUTE 66: w/ the Bobby

JULY 27-AUGUST 2, 2022

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drenched vocals hover over a propulsive beat fueled by sequenced drums and layered ’80s synthesizers, delivering equal parts urgency and danceability alongside a set of seriously unsettling lyrics. “There’s an illusion we can’t break/ We lick the windows of our enclosures/ Spotting prey,” Plant growls as the intricately crafted synths rise to a crescendo, buoyed by skittering hi-hats and haunting pads. Driven by a punk ethos and a DIY mindset, the dichotomy between the legitimately ass-shaking grooves and the dark, often furious subject matter is part of what makes the Mall’s sound so fascinatingly effective, and the band plays the resulting tension to devastating — and

very deliberate — effect. Or, as Plant put it to RFT in a 2020 interview, “I want it to be pretty. They’re still pop songs. I just am mad.”

It Takes Two: Formerly a solo project, the Mall now consists of both Plant and relative newcomer Spencer Bible. The pair will take their show on the road following Friday’s performance with a 24-date tour on the East Coast from Canada to Florida. The run will be followed up by the release of Time Vehicle Earth in October.

The Mall has promised there will be more songs released in the meantime; head to punk.bandcamp.com (no seriously, they got that URL somehow) for all the latest.

—Daniel Hill

Ford Band 1 p.m., $20-$75. The Factory, 17105 uter Rd, hesterfield, 1 .

CLOUD MACHINE: w/ At My Worst, the Doubted, Unknown & Sailing 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

CONVERT: w nemy of agic, an uren, The ast p.m., 1 . The Sin hole, South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

DEMARIUS HICKS: uly , p.m. p.m., free. The arold orothy Steward enter for a , ashington Ave, St ouis, 1 1 .

THE FACTORY INAUGURAL BREWFEST: BREWSKI FIX ON ROUTE 66: noon, $50. The Factory, 17105 uter Rd, hesterfield, 1 .

THE FORESTWOOD BOYS: p.m., free. as evo iergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

GARCIA PEOPLES: 8 p.m., $15. The Ready Room, 4140 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

IVAS JOHN BAND: p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

JASON COOPER BAND: p.m., 1 . ’s a , Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

LARAAJI: 7 p.m., $15. Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 3600 Hampton Avenue, St Louis, 314-352-8050.

OPEN HIGHWAY MUSIC FESTIVAL NIGHT 3: w/ argo rice, Shovels Rope, ayes arll, ohn Moreland, Funky Butt Brass Band, Western States, Riley olt p.m., . hesterfield Amphitheater, 1 eterans lace rive, hesterfield.

OVER HEAD DOG ACOUSTIC: p.m., free. ile arden, ravois Rd, Affton, 1 .

PINEGROVE: w/ Poise 8 p.m., $27. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

PROUD LARRY: 6:30 p.m., $10. The Attic Music ar, S. ingshighway, nd floor, St. ouis, 314-376-5313.

THIRD SIGHT / DHORUBA COLLECTIVE: 11 p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

WITH GLEE: w rip Slime, iant’s nife p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

SUNDAY 31

THE EXTRA 3: p.m., free. roadway yster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THE HANGOVERS: w x athedra, ormation, Gavin Crowe 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

[CRITIC’S PICK]

TUESDAY 2

ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS: w/ ashboard onfessional p.m., .

St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244.

COIN: w/ BLACKSTARKIDS 8 p.m., $29.50-$35.

The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

CRASH TEST DUMMIES: 8 p.m., $40-$50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

DUHART DUO: p.m., free. roadway yster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

NIGHT MOVES: p.m., 1 1 . ff roadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

STEVE BAUER AND MATT RUDOLPH: p.m., free.

Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

WEDNESDAY 3

BANARANG: p.m., free. Steve’s ot ogs, 1 South Grand, St. Louis.

OLD SALT UNION: p.m., free. issouri otanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd., St. Louis, 314-577-9400.

VOODOO JGB: 9 p.m., $12. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

The Lot Goes Local is an excellent intro to the local music scene. | VIA TRENT DICKERSON

The Lot Goes Local w/ Cara Louise, Valencia Rush, Choir Vandals, Holy Posers, Lumet, Michael Franco, Nite Sprites, Mold Gold, the Vanilla Beans, Macaron Afterparty, O[C] 3 p.m. Saturday, July 30. The Lot at The Big Top, 3401 Washington Avenue. $15 to $20. 314-533-0367.

Sure, St. Louis was thought of as “flyover” country at one point in time, but as the past year has shown especially, music lovers living in the river city are spoiled for choices. With national acts frequently hitting the Pageant, the Factory and the Saint Louis Music Park, it’s easy to forget that this region is also an incubator for incredible original music. If you’re not the type to see local bands on the regular but you are curious about the vibrant music community here in St. Louis, The Lot Goes

HOT HANDS WONDERLAND: p.m., free. T’s Smokehouse, 4574 Telegraph Road, South St. Louis County, 314-892-7788.

LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: p.m., 1 . ’s a , Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

MONICA: p.m., . allpar illage, 1 lar Ave, St. Louis, 314-345-9481.

PRESS PLAY CONCERT SERIES: w/ Monica, Tono a oet, uddy uv, arius radford p.m., . allpar illage, 1 lar Ave, St. ouis, 314-345-9481.

ROCKY AND THE WRANGLERS: 1 a.m., free. as Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS: 8 p.m., $17/$20. ff roadway, emp Ave., St. ouis, 314-498-6989.

Local offers a daylong speed run of the scene with a varied lineup that spans multiple genres. This festival comes by way of Jamo Presents, the local music entity behind an ongoing series of concerts that has so far featured the likes of George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic and Stephen Marley, to name a few, at the Lot at the Big Top. On this night, the spotlight will be turned toward 11 of St. Louis’ most exciting bands for a marathon of local music inside a giant circus tent — all hosted by the Shitshow sketch-comedy crew. With an area dedicated to yard games and a market for local vendors, it’s hard to think of a better (and still family friendly) introduction to the music scene.

From the Start: Wondering where to begin with the long list of performers on the lineup? We suggest looking up Holy Posers, an exceptional genre-hopping group led by songwriter Trent Dickerson — the very person responsible for helping bring together this all-star cast of hometown heroes.

—Joseph Hess

SUNDAY RHYTHM & BLUES SESSIONS: 3 p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

MONDAY 1

ALEX RUWE: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

COMEDY SHIPWRECK OPEN MIC: w/ Chad Wallace p.m., free. The eavy Anchor, Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

DREADNOUGHT: w ath of ight, lac well, Nest 7 p.m., $10/$12. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

PAT BENATAR AND NEIL GIRALDO: 7:30 p.m., TBA. The actory, 1 1 uter Rd, hesterfield, 314-423-8500.

T IS

ST I

ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS: W/ ashboard onfessional, Tue., Aug. , p.m., $29-$59. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244.

BANARANG: ed., Aug. , p.m., free. Steve’s Hot Dogs, 3145 South Grand, St. Louis.

BEATLES NIGHT: Fri., Aug. 19, 6 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

BETH BOMBARA: W/ Middle Class Fashion, oxcar, ri., uly , p.m., 1 . ff roadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

BILLYE3: ri., Aug. 1 , p.m., free. as evo iergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

BREWED ARTS FESTIVAL: Sat., Aug. 20, 1 p.m., $30-$40. Cherokee Street, Lemp Ave. & Cherokee St., St. Louis.

BROTHER JEFFERSON BAND: ri., uly , p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

COMEDY SHIPWRECK OPEN MIC: W/ Chad Wallace, on., Aug. 1, p.m., free. The eavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

CROWN JEWEL: ewel harger, reon, abrielle, Rainy oss, Ace of Spit, lair arnher, Punk Lady Apple, Tue., Aug. 30, 8 p.m., $121 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. ouis, 314-498-6989.

DEAD POET SOCIETY: W/ BRKN Love, Sat., Oct. 22, 8 p.m., $17-$20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

THE DEAL: Sun., Aug. 1 , 1 a.m., free. as evo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

DISQ: W/ Ducks Ltd, Sat., Nov. 26, 8 p.m., $151 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. ouis, 314-498-6989.

DIZZY WRIGHT: onas, Thu., uly , p.m., $25-$30. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

DOLL SPIRIT VESSEL: W/ Yuppy, No Antics, Mon., Aug. , p.m., 1 1 . ff roadway, Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

DREW SHEAFOR AND THE SOUL RANGERS: Sat., Aug. 1 , p.m., free. as evo iergarten, Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

ETHAN LEINWAND: iss ubilee, Thu., uly , p.m., 1 . oe’s afe, 1 ingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

FAIR WEATHER FRIENDS: Fri., Aug. 5, 6 p.m., $10.

The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

FLORENCE DORE: W/ Cave States, Thu., Sept. 22,

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p.m., 1 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

FUTURE/MODERN: W/ Seashine, Enemy Airship, Sat., Aug. , p.m., 1 1 . ff roadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

GENE JACKSON’S POWER PLAY: Fri., Aug. 26, 5:30 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

GLENN TILBROOK: Fri., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $35-$50.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

GOOSE: Tue., Oct. 4, 8 p.m., $35-$55. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE GREETING COMMITTEE: Tue., Nov. 29, 8 p.m., $20-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE HAMILTON BAND: Thu., Aug. 11, p.m., free.

Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

HIRIE: allyhoo , Surfer irl, ri., ct. 1 , p.m., $20-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

IVAS JOHN BAND: Sat., uly , p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. ouis, 314-436-5222.

IZAAK OPATZ: W/ Little Cowboy, Thu., Aug. 4, 8 p.m., 1 1 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

JASON COOPER BAND: Sat., uly , p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

THE JULIANA THEORY: Fri., Sept. 16, 8 p.m., $35. ff roadway, emp Ave., St. ouis, 314-498-6989.

JUSTIN JAGLER & THE EVERGREENS: Fri., Aug. 12, 6 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

KILLER WAILS: Sat., Aug. 20, 6:30 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

KILTRO: Fri., Nov. 11, 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

LADAMA: Fri., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $35-$45. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: Sun., uly 1, p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

MALIBU 92: lamingo a e, Arbor, ri., Aug. , p.m., 1 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MARC COHN AND SHAWN COLVIN: Fri., April 14, 8 p.m., $40-$50. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

MARSH COBB: Sun., Sept. 11, 4 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

MAX: incint, on., ec. 1 , p.m., .

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES: W/ Son Rompe Pera , The Black Tones, Fri., Sept. 30, 8 p.m., $25-$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MUSTARD SERVICE: W/ Late Night Drive Home, Sun., Oct. 16, 8 p.m., $15-$18. Blueberry Hill The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

OLD SALT UNION: ed., Aug. , p.m., free. issouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd., St. Louis, 314-577-9400.

PI’ERRE BOURNE: Mon., Sept. 12, 8 p.m., $25$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

POKEY LAFARGE: Fri., May 19, 8 p.m., $40-$50.

The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

PRINCE DADDY & THE HYENA: W/ Restraining Order, Sun., ct. , p.m., 1 . ff roadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

JULY 27-AUGUST 2, 2022

Continued on pg 44

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43

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Synoptic Frequencies 2 will feature renowned artist Laraaji. | VIA ARTIST BANDCAMP

Synoptic Frequencies 2 w/ Laraaji, Aria Thomé 7 p.m. Saturday, July 30. Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 3600 Hampton Avenue. $15. 314-352-8050.

The public response and turnout for the first edition of Synoptic Frequencies was proof positive of curator Fitz Hartwig and the Distant Bloom music collective’s vision for experimental music in sacred spaces. Now, exactly three months later, Hartwig and Co. return to the serene sound environment of the Gethsemane Lutheran Church with world-renowned ambient artist Laraaji, who is considered a pioneer of new-age music. His nearly five-decade tenure as an experimental musician includes more than 50 releases — most notably a collaboration with Brian Eno in 1980 titled Ambient 3: Day

HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS MONDAY-FRIDAY 11AM-4PM

WEDNESDAY, 7/27/22

SUNDAY, 7/31/22

J.D. HUGHES 4:30PM FREE SHOW! SEAN CANAN’S VOODOO PLAYERS PRESENTS: VOODOO ALLMAN FALLING FENCES! 9PM

COLT BALL 2PM FREE SHOW! THE EXTRA 3 9PM FREE SHOW!

THURSDAY, 7/28/22

ALEX RUWE 5PM FREE SHOW! SOULARD BLUES BAND 9PM

SAM PRICE & THE TRUE BELIEVERS 9PM (NATIONAL TOURING BAND) FRIDAY, 7/29/22

SAINT BOOGIE BRASS BAND 10PM SATURDAY, 7/30/22

TBA 10PM

MONDAY, 8/1/22

TUESDAY, 8/2/22

DUHART DUO 5PM FREE SHOW! STEVE BAUER & MATT RUDOLF 9PM FREE SHOW!

ORDER ONLINE FOR !

CURBSIDE PICKM-UP 30 9: PM

Y 11A MONDAY-SATURDAMSUNDAY 11A 8:30PM 44

RIVERFRONT TIMES

JULY 27-AUGUST 2, 2022

riverfronttimes.com

THIS JUST IN

Continued from pg 41 RAGING NATHANS: W/ Slow Death, Breakmouth Annie, the addonfields, Thu., Sept. 1, p.m., 1 1 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. ouis, 1 .

RYAN MARQUEZ BAND: Thu., uly , p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. ouis, 1 .

SALES: Sat., ct. 1 , p.m., . elmar all, 1 elmar lvd., St. ouis, 1 1 1.

SALTY GINGER & THE SURFERS: Sat., Aug. , p.m., 1 . The Attic usic ar, S. ing shighway, nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

SISSER: They eed achines To ly , agheera, Sat., Aug. 1 , p.m., 1 . lueberry ill The uc Room, elmar lvd., niversity ity, 1 .

SLAPSHOT STL: Sat., Aug. 1 , p.m., free. The Attic usic ar, S. ingshighway, nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

SUNDAY RHYTHM & BLUES SESSIONS: Sun., uly 1, p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. ouis, 1 .

THEM DIRTY ROSES: ri., Sept. , p.m., 1 1 . ff roadway, emp Ave., St. ouis,

of Radiance. The story goes that Laraaji had converted his zither into an electronic instrument, and he met Eno while busking on the streets of New York. While that’s a stirring origin story, Laraaji’s recent work has rightfully brought him accolades and attention from a wide range of media outlets, from NPR to the Washington Post to Vogue. From his emphasis on calming and serene sounds to his penchant for almost always wearing the color orange, Laraaji has left an indelible impression on the landscape of electronic music in the United States.

Don’t Forget the Fine Print: While the first event in the Synoptic Frequencies series was free, prospective concertgoers will have to throw down $15 for entry to this show. But, all things considered, that’s a bargain for the world-class musicianship on display.

—Joseph Hess

1 .

THIRD SIGHT / DHORUBA COLLECTIVE: ri., uly , 11 p.m., 1 . Sat., uly , 11 p.m., 1 . ’s a , lues Soups, S. roadway, St. ouis, 1 .

THROWN OUT BONES: Thu., Aug. 1 , p.m., 1 . The Attic usic ar, S. ingshigh way, nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

TITUS ANDRONICUS: Thu., ct. 1 , p.m., . lueberry ill The uc Room, elmar lvd., niversity ity, 1 .

TRIVIUM: etween the uried and e, hitechapel, hemmis, ed., ov. , p.m., . The ageant, 1 1 elmar lvd., St. ouis, 1 1 1.

TRIXIE DELIGHT: Sat., Aug. , p.m., 1 .

The Attic usic ar, S. ingshighway, nd floor, St. ouis, 1 1 .

WHISKEY WAR BBQ: unter eebles, aness rothers, ld apital S uare ance lub, on y Ton Airlines, Sat., Aug. , p.m., 1 . ff road way, emp Ave., St. ouis, 1 .

WITH GLEE: rip Slime, iant’s nife, Sat., uly , p.m., 1 . The eavy Anchor, ravois Ave., St. ouis, 1 .

ZYI LI MUSIC’S 2-BAND FUNDRAISER SHOWCASE: Sat., Aug. , p.m., . lue Strawberry Showroom ounge, oyle Ave, St. ouis, 1 1 . n

SAVAGE LOVE Pound for Pound

BY DAN SAVAGE This is a preview of this week’s Savage Love. The full version is now exclusively available on Dan’s website savage.love.

Hey Dan: A friend hooked me up with a much younger guy for weed. Let’s call him “Pretty Boy.” He knew something about me — Pretty Boy had been to a party at my house — and I knew something about him: He’s a burner, like our mutual. Consent is supposed to be a core burner value, and before we hook up, Pretty Boy asks if he can bring his paddles. We had a talk, and I tell him I’m open to a little pain, but I’m mostly meh about it.

(Except love bites. I love me some love bites.) Long story short: Pretty Boy thinks he’s a great fuck cuz he’s got a great big one and can pound long and hard. My pussy ain’t been touched in almost three years, but “OUCH” is the universal safe word! Maybe I should’ve picked a better one because I had to say it so many times figured it was heat of the moment stuff, so I wasn’t mad and agreed to hook up again. Much more OUCH but on both sides this time. (Love bites!) ext day m figuring out how to manage this. find a thing called an Ohnut, and I tell Pretty Boy I’m willing to plunk down the money to make his PIV pounding less OUCH. Then we have this conversation: Sore Lady: “So, surely this has happened before, yes?”

Pretty Boy: “Of course. LOL.” Now I’m mad. He knew! He did it on purpose! I ask him if he got off on it, and he won’t answer. Which means he did. Now I want to set him on fire. ut here s the thing retty oy is the finest thing ve ever had the pleasure of putting my hands on. I ratted him out to the dude who hooked us up. As for Pretty Boy, I could tell him to sit down, shut up, and hear my truth, but I delivered that message. (See: OUCH.) I should probably slam the door, but he is the finest thing And ve never had a hookup that wasn’t a bit sketchy.

This is too much, right?

Boys Are Supposed To Ask, Right Dan? P.S. I didn’t even cum either time!

45

So Pretty Boy doesn’t care if you come or not, he ignores your feedback during sex, and he engages in rough sex knowing it’s sometimes painful — in a bad way — for his sex partners. Fuck that guy.

By which I mean, of course, don’t fuck that guy. But you’re obviously tempted to fuck that guy again, BASTARD, as you make clear in your letter (a letter I spent an hour editing for, um, clarity).

Pretty Boy is so hot, BASTARD, that you’re tempted to fuck him despite wanting to set him on fire — in a bad way — after you spoke to him about the sex being painful.

Look, BASTARD, having a hot FWB is great, but having a hot FWB — or boyfriend or girlfriend or enbyfriend — who’s a shitty, selfish, inconsiderate lover is li e owning a house with an amazing view that happens to be right next door to a trash incinerator.

Sooner or later you get used to the view and start taking it for granted, BASTARD, and the only thing you really notice after that is the stench.

If you’re inclined to extend Pretty oy the benefit of the doubt, BASTARD, it wouldn’t be hard to whip one up. He’s young! It’s entirely possible all the women he’s fucked up to this point in his short life liked his style. It’s also possible the women he’s fucked hated his style and, like you, hoped Pretty Boy would hear “OUCH,” stop, solicit their feedback and correct course. Seeing that’s not something he’s either able or inclined to do, you’re gonna have to use your words and the actual leverage you have over him — your pussy, not your mutuals — to get him to fuck you without hurting you.

If he wants back in your pussy, tell him he has do it/things/you differently. More foreplay, going slower, using lube, not going all the way in (with or without an Ohnut) — whatever he needs to do to make sex more comfortable and pleasurable for you, that needs to be a clearly stated (by you!) and enforced (ditto!) condition of him getting near your pussy again.

And if he laughs it off, BASTARD, set him on fire not literally .

P.S. What happened to the paddles? questions@savagelove.net Check out the Savage Lovecast @FakeDanSavage on Twitter

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JULY 27-AUGUST 2, 2022

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riverfronttimes.com

JULY 27-AUGUST 2, 2022

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JULY 27-AUGUST 2, 2022

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