Riverfront Times, October 18, 2023 by Chava Communications

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

TABLE OF CONTENTS Owner and Chief Executive Officer Chris Keating Executive Editor Sarah Fenske

E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor Jessica Rogen Digital Content Editor Jaime Lees Editor at Large Daniel Hill Staff Writers Ryan Krull, Monica Obradovic Dining Critic Cheryl Baehr Theater Critic Tina Farmer Music Critic Steve Leftridge Contributors Aaron Childs, Max Bouvatte, Thomas Crone, Mike Fitzgerald, Virginia Harold, Reuben Hemmer, Braden McMakin, Tony Rehagen, Mabel Suen, Theo Welling Columnists Chris Andoe, Dan Savage

A R T

P R O D U C T I O N

Art Director Evan Sult

COVER

Creative Director Haimanti Germain Graphic Designer Aspen Smit

The Airbnb Game

M U L T I M E D I A

A D V E R T I S I N G

Publisher Colin Bell

St. Louis is one of the last major U.S. cities to regulate short-term rentals — and bad hosts are laughing all the way to the bank

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

B U S I N E S S Regional Operations Director Emily Fear

Cover illustration by

JOHN KERSCHBAUM

C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

B I G

L O U

H O L D I N G S

VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein Audience Engagement Editor Chloe Murdock

INSIDE Front Burner News Missouriland Feature Calendar Cafe Short Orders Reeferfront Times Culture Music Film Stage Out Every Night Savage

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N A T I O N A L

A D V E R T I S I N G

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

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S U B S C R I P T I O N S Send address changes to Riverfront Times, 5257 Shaw Avenue, St. Louis, MO, 63110. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $78/6 months (MO add $4.74 sales tax) and $156/year (MO add $9.48 sales tax) for first class. Allow 6-10 days for standard delivery. www.riverfronttimes.com The Riverfront Times is published weekly by Euclid Media Group | Verified Audit Member Riverfront Times PO Box 179456, St. Louis, MO, 63117 www.riverfronttimes.com General information: 314-754-5966 Founded by Ray Hartmann in 1977

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FRONT BURNER

MONDAY, OCTOBER 9. Israel hits Gaza hard, and then seals it off. This isn’t going to end well. In St. Louis, it’s chilly, but nice — hello, fall! Dave Peacock moves a $4 billion company you’ve never heard of to Clayton, so apparently happy days are here again. But not at KDHX: Board President Gary Pierson says he will never rehire the fired DJs. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10. Five security officers are honored for their responses to last year’s deadly shooting at CVPA, in which the killer was shot within 20 minutes of arrival. There are no soft targets in St. Louis. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11. St. Louisborn SZA sizzles at Enterprise Center.

Previously On LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS Not so Metro Transit: The Post-Dispatch reports that the agency was hacked, and a ransom has been demanded. This better not give it yet another reason to cut bus service. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12. Israel tells the U.N. that all residents of northern Gaza need to leave in 24 hours. In St. Louis, the state auditor begins a probe of the troubled City Justice Center.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13. Jack Dorsey kicks $1 million into St. Louis’ guaranteed basic income program — roughly enough to give 111 local families $500 every month for 18 months. Here’s to billionaires sharing their chump change with those in need! Not in need: Teacher Brianna Coppage, who lost her job at Missouri’s St. Clair High School. Now Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club St. Louis is offering Coppage $20K to perform a “Hot For Teacher’’ strip

show. Unfortunately, its press release calls her a “disgraced former teacher” — hello, misogyny! — and Coppage makes $10,000 a week without leaving her house. Do better, local strip clubs. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14. The “ring of fire” solar eclipse is a total dud since clouds are already blocking the sun. At least the Blues win their home opener? SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15. A 6-year-old Palestinian boy is brutally murdered by his Chicago landlord, police say, and his mother is gravely injured. The landlord allegedly shouted “You Muslims must die,” before stabbing the child. In St. Louis, thousands of Palestinian supporters take to the streets to protest Israel.

5 QUESTIONS for flatulence expert Don Corrigan After a few rings, Don Corrigan’s phone gets answered. But it isn’t Corrigan’s voice on the other line. An alarm blares, and a robotic voice announces, “Fart detected! Fart detected! Evacuate!” It’s a fart detector, Corrigan explains. Corrigan writes about the device in his new book, “I fart in your general direction!”: Flatulence in Popular Culture. The book is the editor emeritus of the Webster-Kirkwood Times’ third. The first two, Nuts About Squirrels and American Roadkill, examined other oftoverlooked topics that exist all around us. Corrigan recently dished to the Riverfront Times about his fascination with flatulence. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. I guess my first question is why. Why write an entire book about farts? I did my first flatulence story 30 years ago in the Webster-Kirkwood Times. It was about flatulence during the holidays and how to deal with it. I got a lot of heat — a lot of blowback from that story. But it proved to me that people are either really hot or really cold on whether flatulence belongs in general discussion. A state legislator, Bud Barnes, gave me a biography of French fartist Le Pétomane. He could sing with his flatulence and blow out candles from two feet away. When I read that, I said that when I’m no longer a college professor full-time, I’ll write a book about this because there’s so many interesting things about it. What was something you learned in your research that surprised you? Some people have tried to shame me for this. They say, “You’re more talented than this, you should be writing about more serious issues.” But I always say, “Look who’s written about this.” Chaucer wrote about it in The Canterbury Tales. And Jonathan Swift, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, JD Salinger. I include them in a chapter on literary flatulence. Ben Franklin, my hero, wrote Fart Proudly. Here’s a guy who invented the wood stove and bifocals, but he still had time to write about flatulence. In his treatise to the Royal Academy of Science in Europe he begged them to spend more time researching flatulence because he said there had to be a way to get rid of what he called “a stinking in the breeches.” You’ve also written books about squirrels and roadkill. What attracts you to these topics? I’m the kind of man who will go places no one else will go. Anyway, here’s my fart machine. I’ll give you just a couple of examples. Alright, let it rip.

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Don Corrigan: Editor emeritus, professor emeritus ... and perhaps the world’s foremost expert on flatulence in pop culture. | COURTESY PHOTO [Corrigan proceeds to play a variety of fart noises on his fart machine, naming each — the “rip off,” the “brown growler” and the “barking spider.”] Did you name these yourself, or are there actual names for various flatulences? Well, I’m probably the first writer who’s scientifically classified them and named them. There’s a chapter on that where I talk about the characteristics of each one. What do you hope people will take away from the book? In the book, I give the 10 Flatulence Commandments. One of them is, of course, honor thy proctologists and gastroenterologists. Also, thou shalt not break wind in an elevator or a closed space. I can’t believe God didn’t cover all that in the original 10 Commandments. Moses probably sanitized the real commandments. I think these were actually in the original commandments before he brought them down from the burning bush. Luckily we have journalists like you out there, looking for the truth. Correct. —Monica Obradovic

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SOMETIMES IT’S THE L I T T L E T H I N G S T H AT C O U N T

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WEEKLY WTF?!

Alex is either a terrible person, or falsely accused. | RYAN KRULL

PORTALET WATCH When: early afternoon, October 5 Where: Willmore Park disc golf course, between the fifth and sixth hole Potential Alexes this could be referencing: Murdaugh, Jones, the Great, -andria Ocasio-Cortez Perhaps Alex is: misunderstood, a victim of circumstance, framed by another Without a doubt: thief is spelled wrong

15 SECONDS OF FAME BAD DAD OF THE WEEK

Daryl Clemmons

One of the hardest things for any parent to accept is that our kids aren’t all great talents. Not everyone can score a goal. Not everyone is going to the NFL. Daryl Clemmons of Pagedale had a harder time accepting that than most. He apparently visited his son’s football practice in north St. Louis on October 10, approached the coach and demanded to know what was up with Junior’s playing time. Then he shot him repeatedly. The coach, Shaquille Latimore, says he tried to rotate the nineand ten-year-olds on the St. Louis BadBoyz so everybody got playing It is never a good idea to shoot your kid’s coach. | time. Not cool with Clemmons, a COURTESY SLMPD former coach who’d repeatedly confronted the coaches in practices before finally opening fire. “Some parents try to live through their kids,” Latimore told the Post-Dispatch. Now Latimore’s five kids watch him suffer in a hospital bed and Clemmons’ son has a father in jail. That’s two families destroyed — over elementary school football.

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NEWS ‘You Are All Going to Die’ The son of former St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch put the trauma in trunk or treat Written by

RYAN KRULL

St. Louis County cop with a prominent pedigree has been charged in a shooting that terrorized Kirkwood families this past Sunday. St. Louis County Police Officer Matthew McCulloch has been charged with 11 felonies, including four counts of child endangerment, five counts of armed criminal action, making a terroristic threat and unlawful use of a weapon. The charges stem from McCulloch’s conduct at a trunk or treat event at North Kirkwood Middle School on Sunday, October 16. McCulloch was off duty at the time of the shooting. He is the son of former St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch. According to the probable cause statement from Kirkwood Police, Matthew McCulloch “aggressively approached numerous attendees

at the event and made statements such as, ‘You are all going to die.’ The defendant was eventually shoved in the chest after threatening a witness and the witness’ wife in this manner.” Police also say that McCulloch fell to the pavement in the center of the parking lot while surrounded by hundreds of children, stood up, pulled up his shirt to display a handgun and badge, and then began firing his weapon in an upward direction approximately a dozen times while shouting that the attendees would die. According to an initial statement released by the Kirkwood School District, a trunk or treat attendee was “causing a disturbance” and allegedly pulled out a handgun and fired it multiple times into the air. A witness told the WebsterKirkwood Times that the shooter “looked completely deranged. The guy just stood there and fired five shots up into the air with this really welcoming, strange, overly big smile on his face and a blank stare.” The shooter was then tackled by other attendees, and police took him into custody. Initially on Monday, St. Louis County Police did not respond to the RFT’s query about whether the man arrested named Matthew McCulloch was the same McCulloch who works for the department.

Matthew McCulloch now faces 11 felony charges. | ST. LOUIS COUNTY JAIL However, in a subsequent statement, the department said, “We were contacted by Kirkwood Police Department regarding one of our off-duty police officers being involved in an incident in the City of Kirkwood on Sunday, October 15, 2023. The officer was arrested and is on administrative leave at this time. Kirkwood Police Department is conducting an investigation. All questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the Kirkwood Police Department.” Around 2 p.m. Monday, after the RFT reported that the son of

Trouble on the Landing One of the biggest employers in Laclede’s Landing says City Hall has turned a deaf ear to the unhoused population on its doorstep Written by

RYAN KRULL AND MONICA OBRADOVIC

his summer, Abstrakt Marketing Group, by far the largest employer in Laclede’s Landing, grew increasingly frustrated by the city’s inaction on the large unhoused population living on the riverfront near its offices. “I propose you come out of your office and show up,” says one email from Ab-

Abstrakt Marketing Group has significant office space in the Laclede’s Landing district, including in the building to the right. | RYAN KRULL strakt sent to various city officials, including the mayor. “We understand you can’t

magically solve our homeless problem. ... But you can do SOMETHING.”

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former Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch had been arrested, his family released a statement acknowledging their son was “involved in an incident at North Kirkwood Middle School in which several shots were fired in the air.” It continued, “Please know that we will be eternally grateful that no one was physically injured. However, we also a painfully aware [sic] that an incident such as this can and does cause significant trauma to those, especially children and their parents, who witness such an event. Our thoughts and prayers are with those victims. “This incident has had an incredible emotional impact on so many people, including our family. We are also confident that the Kirkwood Police Department will conduct a complete and thorough investigation and we ask that the public and the media be patient while the investigation continues. We will have no further statement.” Kirkwood Police have not responded to our messages seeking comment. According to St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell’s office, the case will be handled by his office’s Conviction and Incident Review Unit, an independent unit formed by Bell formed in order to handle cases involving police officers and other public figures. n

Recently released emails between the company and the city show Abstrakt employees taking pains to document their concerns, some of which are smallball, quotidian happenings that would be commonplace in almost any city, including groups of unhoused individuals simply gathering outside the marketing company’s space. However, for the most part, the emails from Abstrakt to the city describe alarming scenes playing out on the streets and sidewalks alongside — and occasionally in the lobbies of — the buildings where the 500-plus employee company operates. The emails include accounts of a man exposing himself to workers and a woman walking around without pants. A man brandishing a knife. A different man choking out a woman. Two men beating up each other. A man throwing a large rock at landscapers. Bricks have been thrown through windows. There are reports of open drug dealContinued on pg 10

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LACLEDE’S LANDING Continued from pg 9

ing and thefts from the offices. In May, a man reportedly threatened to kill a group of employees eating lunch at the Katherine Ward Burg park on the Landing. That same day, a man entered the lobby of Raeder Place building, which houses the Abstrakt office space and Old Spaghetti Factory, “waving a meat cleaver.” The city’s response, based on the emails made public, appears to be minimal. An email from Adam Pearson, Department of Human Services director, to the mayor’s chief of staff Jared Boyd states, “We have a number of encampments and other outreach efforts we’re trying to prioritize with a small team, but I did give them notice about this one.” Pearson advised that police accompany the outreach workers. In addition to Boyd and Pearson, the email exchanges include Mayor Tishaura Jones, the city’s Executive Director of Operations Nancy Cross as well as other officials. Absent what they feel is effective action from the city, business owners on the Landing have hired private security as well as paid out of their own pockets to have the streets cleaned, further examples of the privatization of what many say ought to be public services in the city. The email exchange also indicates the city repaired a broken traffic signal on Lumiere Place Boulevard but only several months after Abstrakt first raised it as a concern. The city’s treatment of its unhoused population has been increasingly in the news in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the mayor ordered a makeshift tent city on the front lawn of City Hall to be cleared. Jones caught flack for that move, with activists accusing her of only doing so because Vice President Kamala Harris was coming to visit St. Louis for a Democratic National Committee meeting, but she defended her actions as necessary to save lives. After spotting the emails between Abstrakt and City Hall in the city’s open records portal on Thursday, an RFT reporter called Abstrakt and was referred by the company to Jan Sandweiss, who owns the historic Raeder Place building and is the president of the Laclede’s Landing Neighborhood Association. “Everything you read about happening at City Hall has been happening here for years,” Sandweiss says. “I’m not angry. I know it’s a difficult situation. [But] when we saw the encampment at City Hall, we thought, ‘OK, now they’ll understand. They’ll come and help.’” Asked if that has happened, Sandweiss says, “No.” In March, the city cleared a homeless camp under the former President Casino Laclede’s Landing pavilion. The city posted eviction notices to the camp’s residents, about two dozen of whom accepted shelter services from the city, a

RIVERFRONT TIMES

The city cleared a homeless encampment near the river in March, but residents moved just a block or two away. | MONICA OBRADOVIC city hall spokesman told the RFT at the time. Soon thereafter, the remaining 10 or so residents were forced out. But both Sandweiss and Alderwoman Cara Spencer tell the RFT that within a few days, that camp had constituted itself not far from its former site. (The same thing seems to have occurred with the camp cleared from City Hall earlier this month, too.) Syd Hajicek of Lifeline Aid Group, which assists unhoused people in the St. Louis area, says lately the inhabitants of the riverfront camp are moving to other areas of downtown. There’s “not a lot of resources” in the area, he says, and it takes 45 minutes for first responders to arrive at the camp during medical emergencies. Cement blocks obstruct many of the roads that lead to the camp. Despite the rough conditions, the people who live there have nowhere else to go, Hajicek adds. “St. Louis has a very large homeless population, and there’s not enough resources,” he says. Estimates of the population living at the riverfront camp vary depending on who you ask, with numbers ranging anywhere from 10 to 20, to as high as 50. Spencer, whose 8th Ward includes Laclede’s Landing, says that the riverfront neighborhood is a victim of the region’s patchwork of policies related to homeless people, which have the effect of a few areas shouldering the great majority of the burden. “Every business district in the city has the responsibility of shouldering some of the unhoused and being home to members of that community,” Spencer says. “But when we concentrate them in a very

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small segment of the city without helping the business districts in other ways, they can’t shoulder all that.” Put another way, she says, “Laclede’s Landing is out of balance.” She blames both the state and the city. The state has disproportionately put the burden of the unhoused on the City of St. Louis, she says. But the city has in turn disproportionately put its burden on a few specific areas, including the Landing and downtown. The Board of Aldermen is considering a bill to change a laborious plat and petition process that in the past prevented shelters from opening. Current zoning laws require shelters to receive signatures from residents near proposed sites. Some neighborhoods have made their opinions clear in the past — they don’t want shelters near their homes. Critics say nixing the plat and petition diminishes citizens’ voices. The bill, which would incorporate an Unhoused Bill of Rights into city code, has also received flack for its call to allow unhoused people to urinate and defecate in public. Spencer has not come out one way or the other on that unhoused bill of rights. However, she says she recognizes that the city needs to be able to open new shelters. “Our current laws don’t make it possible,” she says.”But it’s important we do this WITH community, not at them.” At least in theory, making it easy to open smaller shelters could have the effect of more evenly distributing the unhoused population throughout the city. “We need to recognize that Laclede’s Landing is literally the closest entertainment district to our region’s national monument,” Spencer says. “We forget

how insanely cool the Arch is. And that’s the entertainment district next to it, that should be working in tandem with it.” There is serious worry expressed by both Sandweiss and Spencer that if the city doesn’t take action, Abstrakt could pull up stakes. Sandweiss says that roughly 700 people work on the Landing (not including Horseshoe Casino), making Abstrakt’s 500-plus in-person workforce crucial for the vibrancy of the area. On a recent sunny morning, Laclede’s Landing was certainly looking the part of a residential and nightlife district worthy of its real estate just north of the Arch. Buildings along cobblestoned First Street have been renovated. Planters dot the sidewalks. What not long ago was a muddy, ad hoc parking lot is now the beautiful Katherine Ward Burg Garden abutting the Eads Bridge. A new barbecue place is about to go in nearby. Yet foot traffic is minimal. “Everyone’s afraid to come down,” says Sandweiss. She says that many tourists who make the Arch their first sightseeing stop come to the Landing right after. As Sandweiss spoke, a family of sightseers did walk by, having just come under Eads Bridge from the Arch. They headed down First Street toward a private security guard on one corner, a man muttering to himself on another. “They say, ‘What have you done with your river?’ They’re from all over the country, and they say, ‘We have a lake, and this is what we’ve done. We have a river, and this is what we’ve done.’” She keeps hearing the question, “How can you do this?” “I don’t know what to say,” Sandweiss says. n

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MISSOURILAND

The Big (and Boozy) Muddy The Cannabis Redneck Rave brought mud, music and mayhem to Missourah Words and Photos by

REUBEN HEMMER

undreds of people from all over the country came to Steedman, Missouri, to party at the Cannabis Redneck Rave over the past weekend. The four-day festival in Callaway County, not far from Jefferson City, was hosted by rapper Who TF Is Justin Time and promoted “Mud, Music, and Mayhem.” But despite the Redneck Rave’s reputation for absolute chaos (a previous rave resulted in 47 arrests, an attendee being impaled and someone’s throat being slit), the elements of cannabis and wet autumn weather kept things somewhat tame this year. That being said, you couldn’t go two minutes without someone handing you a blunt or a bottle of booze. Saturday was the biggest day of the event, and the party went late into the night with performances by P.R.E.A.C.H., Calligraphy, Fedora Mic, Justin Time himself and Lil Wyte. Mayhem? Not this year. Music? Absolutely. 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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THE

AIRBNB

GAME

St. Louis is one of the last major cities in the U.S. to regulate short-term rentals. Can aldermen get it right before it’s too late? BY MONICA OBRADOVIC

The stranger brandishing a pistol on his doorstep was just one in a long line of problems Matt Biegacki encountered because of an Airbnb a few doors down. The man arrived outside Biegacki’s Lafayette Square townhouse shortly after 1 a.m. Through his home’s surveillance video, Biegacki watched as the pajamaclad man left Biegacki’s stoop and walked toward the direction of an Airbnb two doors down where police had broken up a party of two dozen people an hour earlier. Neighbors had reported the noise three times, and Biegacki, as he recalls this story three years after it happened, feels the man showed up in retaliation for the snitching. He’ll never know whether that’s the case. Biegacki doesn’t call police for help with nuisances brought by his Airbnb neighbor. The cops have better things to do, he says, and he doesn’t want to risk lowering nearby property values by having a documented nuisance on the block. But “nuisance” may be putting

it lightly. Biegacki says the Airbnb, which has been operated by two different out-of-town owners, has been the source of frequent noise, trash thrown in neighbors’ yards, large parties, drag racing and, at times, physical violence. “This past weekend, we had guys beat the crap out of each other in the front yard,” Biegacki says. On this block in Lafayette Square, the Airbnb blends in with all the other stately homes. If it wasn’t for the townhouse’s name displayed on the unit’s front door, there would be no sign that the unit was a shortterm rental. But its presence is the scourge of an otherwise peaceful block, Biegacki says. “Every weekend, there were parties, birthdays and other de facto public events,” Biegacki says. Disturbances from the property came to a height during the pandemic. In a May 2020 “take

Signs dot the yards of people living off Kingshighway who are angry about neighboring short-term rentals. | MONICA OBRADOVIC riverfronttimes.com

down letter” to local government officials, five neighbors sent a detailed (but non-exhaustive) list of incidents at the property. The owners at the time, a couple in California who lived in St. Louis before they turned the townhouse into an Airbnb, sold the property a year later. “He was managing the thing completely remotely, saying, ‘Yeah, I got this, I’m on top of it,’” Biegacki says. “But when I call at 1 a.m. because there’s a guy on my doorstep with a gun, he can’t do shit.” There wasn’t much hope that things would change after the house went on the market. A local real-estate agent advertised the townhouse as a “revenue generating property” that included “all the furnishings if you would like to run this as an income-producing property like these owners do with Airbnb.” The townhouse sold to a couple in Kentucky, who, Biegacki says, had originally promised it would be their residence. But the property was soon listed on Airbnb and neighbors say nuisances have continued. “It’s a different owner, same story,” Biegacki says.

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THE AIRBNB GAME Continued from pg 15

Carrie Hoelscher lives right next door and shares a wall with the Airbnb. She says things are generally fine, but she still woke up at 3:45 a.m. the other week to a loud noise and a woman screaming outside. Hoelscher saw a man lying on the street and another man in a car yelling while people milled about, going in and out of the Airbnb. There’s also a bowling lane in the top-floor game room that Hoelscher frequently hears through her wall. “This is a residential neighborhood,” Hoelscher says. “It would be nice to have someone actually live in the home instead of Airbnb-ing it.” Across St. Louis, neighbors to short-term rentals report similar issues. One group of residents became so frustrated they organized a coalition called Neighborhoods are for Neighbors and drafted their own ordinance to dampen the proliferation of home-sharing platforms within city limits. St. Louis is one of the last major cities in the country to regulate short-term rentals, or properties rented for fewer than 30 days. But the city’s years-long effort to take its first steps to regulate such properties is coming to a head this month as the Board of Aldermen deliberates two companion bills that seek to corral an industry that’s otherwise grown undeterred in St. Louis. Short-term rentals have come under intense scrutiny lately as critics blame the properties for nuisance behavior and criminal activity. In the past year, an intoxicated woman jumped from a third-story window of a shortterm rental and broke both of her legs. Two teenagers were shot at after they were denied entrance into a party in the Visitation Park neighborhood. A man leaving a large engagement party outside a rental in Shaw was shot in the abdomen. An 18-year-old was shot in both legs at a large Airbnb party in the Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood. Downtown residents have also blamed short-term rentals for fights, shootings and large latenight parties. This “wild west,” as many city officials have called it, may finally meet its match as aldermen are set to pass measures onto Mayor Tishaura Jones for final approval this Friday. After mulling regulations for years, aldermen hope

Dan Waeltermann and his partner operate three short-term rentals in St. Louis. | MONICA OBRADOVIC this first attempt is the solution the city desperately needs to solve a growing problem.

t. Louis’ first attempt to regulate short-term rentals came five years ago. Then-Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia filed a bill that would have allowed the city’s building division to develop its own rules and regulations for short-term rentals — and the rentals would have to receive a permit. The bill didn’t go further than first readings. Neither did similar bills Ingrassia sponsored in 2020. The city was already behind other area municipalities. Hazelwood, Chesterfield and Ladue had outright banned short-term rentals. In 2017, Webster Groves capped the number of guests a short-term rental can house to four. Maplewood started requiring short-term rental operators to receive business licenses and special use permits two years before that. By 2020, there were an estimated 1,000 short-term rentals throughout the City of St. Louis. The number has since ballooned to 4,600, according to analytics site AirDNA (though city staffers say this number seems excessively high). “We really need to bear down on these,” Ward 5 Alderman Joe Vollmer says. “Right now, out-oftown entities can come in and buy

“We really need to bear down on these. Right now, out-of-town entities can come in and buy five or six properties and get very good money for these. They can destroy neighborhoods.” five or six properties and get very good money for these. They can destroy neighborhoods.” “For a city of our size to have no regulations for short-term rentals is embarrassing,” Alderwoman Daniela Velázquez says. Meanwhile, residents like Kaleena Menke bear the brunt. Menke, 37, has lived in the same Forest Park Southeast apartment for the past eight years. She loves her apartment and says she doesn’t want to move. But her landlord hasn’t given her much of a choice. Menke is the last long-term renter in her sixplex located just a half-block from the main drag of the Grove. During the pandemic, her landlord started turning vacant apartments into shortterm rentals. While these rentals haven’t been much of a nuisance, Menke says, she feels she’s being squeezed out of her building so

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each unit could host shorter stays. Her landlord has upped her rent and, she says, refuses to fulfill maintenance requests — which includes repairing a leaky roof and windows that have allowed mold to grow in her apartment. “While the owners have enough time and money to gut-rehab and furnish five units, my maintenance requests to fix the leaking roof, broken and leaky windows, and inefficient and noisy HVAC are ignored,” Menke says. Menke, an engineer and owner of her own consulting business, is looking to buy a house. But the local housing market is dire, she says. Finding something within her budget has been extremely difficult. “I’m a first-time homebuyer, so my budget is pretty darn low,” Menke says. “I certainly can’t afford my neighborhood.”

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THE AIRBNB GAME Continued from pg 17

And that, too, might be the fault of the short-term rental market. As investors sweep up properties and market them by the weekend, there are fewer homes for purchase for those who simply want to live in them. More crowded cities have cracked down on shortterm rental sites not only because of the nuisance aspect, but because they say Airbnb’s economic model also worsens housing affordability problems. As other cities accomplish what St. Louis has yet to do, the urgency to pass regulations is palpable at public meetings for the bills currently being debated, which are sponsored by Alderman Brett Narayan. And while there’s a consensus to do something, there hasn’t always been agreement on what. Alderwoman Cara Spencer, who has chaired committee hearings after Alderman Shane Cohn recused himself, proposed 21 amendments to Board Bill 33. The amendments would have restricted short-term operators even further than Narayan’s proposal. Spencer wanted to limit the number of short-term rentals in larger buildings to 12.5 percent of their capacity. She also sought to prohibit short-term rentals from receiving city tax incentives or operating within 500 feet of a hotel. Hosts who don’t currently live in their units would not be permitted to operate in single-family, two-family and multiple-family residential areas. The committee refused to vote on Spencer’s amendments, but many of Spencer’s points were addressed last week. The city is close to barring properties that receive tax-increment financing or tax abatements from ever becoming short-term rentals. Narayan also added a cap on how many units in one building could be rented for less than 30 days to prevent socalled “ghost hotels.” And after two-and-a-half hours of debate last Friday, aldermen agreed on final versions of the bills that would provide barriers for short-term rentals to operate in residential areas. Hosts looking to set up a short-term rental in Single-Family Dwelling Districts would have to receive neighbors’ approval via a conditional use permit. This made the regulations more palatable for alders on the fence. Some, including Vollmer and Alderwoman Sharon Tyus, wanted fiercer measures to dampen the

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Amanda McCracken fears the city’s regulations would force her Airbnb operation out of business. | MONICA OBRADOVIC rise of short-term rentals in single-family neighborhoods. But one reason St. Louis began its years-long endeavor to tackle regulations was to curb violence downtown. Not a single part of the city’s central hub is zoned for single-family units — a point that is not lost on Narayan, who says this could cause more short-term rentals to migrate into the very place St. Louis is trying to mitigate them. The bills seemed to please no one. Critics who wanted tough regulations said the city wasn’t doing enough. Operators with a stake in the industry said various components would hurt their operations to the point of putting them out of business. “We need some regulation here,” Narayan said Friday. “Some people say this doesn’t go far enough. That may be true. But at the moment, there is nothing in place.” For Amanda McCracken, a St. Louis-area native with multiple properties listed on Airbnb, the city’s proposed regulations may derail a business she has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into over the past several years. “We are for regulations,” McCracken says of what she describes as “good hosts.” “We’re just against the ones that will put

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us out of business.”

cCracken has seven short-term rentals. One is a restored 1920s duplex in Southwest Garden she rents out through Airbnb with her two daughters. As McCracken walks around the house, she points out things they repaired or restored — the builtin bookshelf in the living room, the bathrooms and kitchens, the windows. The house is homey and clean. Sometimes, depending on the availability of the cleaners she subcontracts, McCracken will clean the units herself. As she walks around the duplex, she fluffs pillows and puts small debris in her pocket to throw away later. “I’m very anal,” McCracken says. McCracken has rehabbed buildings in the city for 28 years but didn’t venture into the world of Airbnbs until 2017. Renting out a small house she calls “the cottage” in the Southwest Garden neighborhood went well, so she later bought the duplex, which is on the same block, with the same purpose in mind. She bought it from owners who wanted to see the house restored. McCracken

also restored a house right next door to the duplex off South Kingshighway, which she also rented as an Airbnb before she started to live in it herself. “We make a difference,” McCracken says. Each floor of the duplex is rented as a separate Airbnb. All together, McCracken allows 20 people to stay in the building at a time — with eight in the first floor unit and ten on the second. St. Louis’ proposed regulations would surely hurt McCracken’s business. They’d let the city limit occupancy based on the properties’ square footage. McCracken fears she wouldn’t be able to break even if her occupancy is forced lower and she couldn’t charge her current rates. She also has concerns about the public registry the city wants to set up of permitted short-term rentals, which she thinks would lure bad actors to properties they know could be empty. Several other hosts have the same concerns. Last week, McCracken and others decided to organize into a group called STL City Short-Term Rental Hosts United to advocate for good shortterm rental operators, who they believe are broadly lumped with problem hosts.

“Our vision is to create a future where short-term rentals coexist harmoniously with traditional housing options, benefiting both hosts and the communities we serve,” the group announced in a mission statement released last Tuesday. “We want to make St. Louis a model for how to do it right,” says Dan Waeltermann, an Airbnb host from St. Louis. Waeltermann owns a landscape construction company; his expertise shows in the back of one of his rentals. The backyard of what was once a “flop house” in the Northampton neighborhood oozes luxury, with an elaborate landscape of brick walkways, a water feature and thriving plant life. Waeltermann owns two more short-term rentals in south city that he fixed up himself. “All of the houses I’ve purchased, not one flipper wanted to even mess with them because they were in such bad shape,” Waeltermann says. In north city, Vrbo host Miles Strickland operates one property with his wife. He views short-term rentals as a way to save north St. Louis, where entire blocks of vacant properties can be seen crumbling into themselves from neglect. “We got 2,600-square-foot homes over here with three or four bedrooms that can sell for $25,000,” says Strickland, himself a 31-year resident of north St. Louis. “If an investor saw that opportunity and rehabbed it, they could turn a $25,000 piece of property and turn it into a $150,000 property.” The United hosts insist they bring value to neighborhoods — that their properties are not just around for parties, which most of them attempt to ban or prevent by requiring two-night minimum stays. Many of the so-called “superhosts,” an Airbnb designation for highly rated hosts, vet their guests and don’t allow instant booking. McCracken estimates 95 percent of her tenants are families; she has a strict “no party” rule, though she does book bachelorette or bachelor parties that need a place to stay after celebrating at bars or other local attractions. Lt. Col. Renee Kriesmann of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police says rentals run through larger booking platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo are often not the problem. “For the most part, we find Airbnb and Vrbo to be pretty responsible,” Kriesmann says. “They do a pretty decent job of trying to keep their properties safe.” Problem properties are often

rented through word of mouth, Kriesmann suggests. Airbnb and Vrbo are by far the most recognized short-term rental platforms. But people also offer short-term rentals through Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and numerous other platforms that have mimicked Airbnb’s setup — but don’t rely on the rating system that is integral for an Airbnb host’s success. That isn’t to say all Airbnb hosts are all saints. Some intentionally turn a blind eye to their properties and will rent to anyone. That’s what leads to the parties with 80 people spilling out into the street and shots being fired. Even the best hosts will admit there are bad hosts who need to be stopped.

ne property owner in Soulard admits she was part of the problem. She thought she could make a little money by partnering with a shortterm rental operator in Texas. She ended up in way over her head. The anonymous property owner, who for simplicity’s sake we’ll call Jane, had gotten involved with a dark corner of the short-term rental world called arbitrage. The term refers to hosts who don’t actually own their units. Instead, they rent an apartment from a landlord just to sublease it through Airbnb or other shortterm rental platforms. The practice can be incredibly lucrative: With the right rates in the right location, hosts make more than their monthly rent, while landlords are stuck with property repairs and in some cases pay for the unit’s utilities. Jane met an Airbnb host through Zillow after he applied to rent one of the empty units in her four-family flat. He was a smooth talker and a good salesman, Jane says. He offered to rent out the apartment for her. He said he’d keep it clean and that he’d only rent to nurses and professionals. “What a lie that was,” Jane says. Things went smoothly the first few months, but then Jane’s other tenants started to complain about noise and bad behavior from the Airbnb unit. Seven months in, Jane tried to terminate the oneyear lease agreement, which the Airbnb host refused. Even though it was her building, Jane says she had no control over what went down at the Airbnb. “What pushed me over the edge was the neighbors let me know there was a shooting outside the building and apparently the

Airbnb guest was involved in the shooting,” Jane says. Jane later found out 15 people had been at a party in the small two-bedroom apartment that night. A few days later, the city condemned the unit. Jane called the inspector’s number on a sign placed outside the unit’s door and was told the apartment was condemned due to “safety concerns.” Jane notified Airbnb about the condemnation notice, and the host’s listing for her unit was removed from the site. But a few hours later, Jane found a new posting on Airbnb for the same unit. “The guy had the intention to keep renting the unit even if it was condemned,” Jane says. A neighbor later called to say she saw a man enter the unit. Jane called the police — who, to Jane’s shock, allowed the host to stay in the unit even though it was condemned. The host’s profile on Airbnb shows 120 listings, but he actually owns closer to 60. Negative reviews shown on his profile aren’t tied to actual listings, meaning the host took down listings that received negative reviews and reposted the units for a fresh start. “He’s a con artist in the sense that he’s not running an honest business,” Jane says. Airbnb arbitrage is most profitable with volume. After adding up the cost of renting, cleaning and furnishing the units, as well as other expenses, a host may hardly earn more than what the unit cost them. So career short-term rental hosts often scoop up several properties for arbitrage in areas with high demand. Zooming in on Airbnb’s map of St. Louis, it isn’t hard to find hosts with several properties listed in apartment buildings that are intended for long-term tenants. One host, “Brandon,” has 11 properties in Midtown alone. On Frontdesk, a short-term stay platform run without hosts, 17 units in the Level on Locust apartment building downtown are listed. Stays cost from $110 to more than $200 per night, depending on the unit’s size. City staffers’ strategies to track short-term rentals aren’t much more sophisticated than hovering over platforms’ maps and finding which locations are listed. Kriesmann with the St. Louis police says each of the six police districts keeps an informal list of properties they know are shortterm rentals based off of calls for service. The length of each list varies per district, but most range between three and six properties, according to Kriesmann.

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City Assessor Michael Dauphin says his office “sleuths the internet” to identify short-term rentals. But what they have on their books is not close to the actual amount of short-term rentals in the city. Dauphin tells the RFT his office has reclassified 300 non-homeowner-occupied short-term rentals from residential to commercial, but they’ve identified hundreds more that are occupied by their owners or available for 30 days or more. “There’s no central system the city has that I’m aware of that has every single short-term rental listed,” Dauphin says. A host’s property taxes nearly double after the assessor’s office switches their classification from residential to commercial. On top of the commercial tax, Airbnb guests also pay a 3.5 percent hotel/motel sales tax and a 3.75 percent convention and tourism tax that Airbnb collects and remits on the host’s behalf. Vrbo does not collect lodging taxes in Missouri, according to its website. Only the implementation of a new city ordinance will show whether the city will gain or lose money by regulating short-term rentals. The proposed four-unit limit would weed out several of the properties run by larger operations with dozens of rentals. But at the same time, every shortterm rental would have to receive a permit in order to operate, and non-owner-occupied units would have to acquire a business license, so the city could gain more by running a regulated market. Permit fees would go toward enforcement, according to Narayan. Nick Desideri, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, says the building division will leverage “existing technology” and implement necessary changes to register and monitor short-term rentals. The division may also bring in a thirdparty vendor, if necessary. If the mayor signs the bills being discussed by the Board of Aldermen, the new regulations would become effective within one year. Narayan has said this is just St. Louis’ “first bite of the apple,” and the regulations may evolve based on the city’s needs as time goes on. Biegacki, the homeowner in Lafayette Square, is not super optimistic the city would put together rules that work. But either way, he says he is determined not to let a nuisance property sour his neighborhood. “This is our home,” he says. “We’re not letting some people two doors down who can’t manage an Airbnb deter us.” n

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CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 10/19 Scream Extreme As a frighteningly fun treat this spooky season, Arkadin Cinema and Bar (5228 Gravois Avenue, 314-221-2173) presents Hysteria Fest 2023 this week, which sees the micro-cinema offering up five nights of scary movies beginning Wednesday, October 18, and running through Sunday, October 22. As per Arkadin’s usual M.O., the films programmed for this series are highly curated and unlikely to be screened anywhere else in town anytime soon. Many of the films played over the five-night run will be from the French Extremity movement, a subgenre of horror in which, as its name suggests, everything is taken to the extreme. In other words: It’s not for the squeamish. The series is rounded out by several short films and a documentary as well. Showtimes vary. Day passes are $15, and $50 gets you into everything on offer all five nights. More info at arkadincinema.com.

Restless Slumber As horror in the Middle East has the world again confronting the long, often tragic history of the Jewish diaspora, Benjamin Kaplan’s Sleep Faster, We Need the Pillows is earning well-deserved attention in St. Charles. The sitespecific installation at Foundry Art Centre (520 North Main Center, St. Charles; 636-255-0270) weaves together Jewish cultural motifs and contemporary art, inspiring viewers to think about identity and heritage, specifically as related to a people who have had to fight to defend theirs. A St. Louis-based post-disciplinary artist, Kaplan has a knack for work that strikes at the heart of the zeitgeist, with past projects that include Documentia (an exhibition at the Kranzberg Gallery exploring dementia) and Living Like Kings: The Unexpected Collision of Chess and Hip Hop at the World Chess Hall of Fame. Pre-pandemic, he also collaborated with St. Louis Shakespeare to reimagine A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a high-end photo shoot because why not? In short,

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Benjamin Kaplan’s Sleep Faster, We Need the Pillows offers a good reason to visit St. Charles. | COURTESY PHOTO here’s a St. Louis artist doing provocative, interesting work, and this is your chance to see it for free through November 18. See foundryartcentre.org for details.

FRIDAY 10/20 Bright Ideas If ever you’ve found yourself in the presence of some uncultured swine beholding a piece of modern art and sneering, “My fiveyear-old could do that,” know that they very well might have been viewing an Ellsworth Kelly canvas (or, just as likely, Jackson Pollock). Kelly, after all, is known for his minimalist color field paintings, which might not look technically difficult but are the result of his innovation and willingness to work outside of the art trends of the time. In the late 1950s, his work began to catch on, and by the time he passed away in 2015, Kelly had become a celebrated artist with paintings in museums and private collections worldwide. Indeed, our own Saint Louis Art Museum (1 Fine Arts Drive, 314721-0072) has a rainbow-esque one, Spectrum II, that seems to be

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Taylor Swift’s ex is bringing his band, the 1975, to Enterprise Center this week. | SAMUEL BRADLEY the linchpin in the museum’s new celebration of his contributions, titled simply Ellsworth Kelly. It’s good timing, since this year marks 100 since the artist was born in Newburgh, New York. The exhibit will appropriately cover all six decades he was active, including his paintings as well as sculptures, drawings and prints in order to showcase his evolution over the years. The free show will be in the South Terrace and Roxanne

H. Frank Galleries 255 and 257 through April 7. For more details, visit slam.org.

Living the Dream Just over 10 years ago, there wasn’t a Leverage Dance Theater in St. Louis. Instead, there was the aTrek Dance Collective, which was putting on its first experimental show, Seen UnSeen, which took dance out of the theater and into the public’s

WEEK OF OCTOBER 19-25 Louis Beer Fest. More than 40 breweries will converge upon the Science Center for a brew-filled night at the museum. The fun starts at 8 p.m. for general admission ticket holders ($50) and 7 p.m. for the VIPs ($65). It seems like an expensive yet rare opportunity to drunkenly stumble through the Science Center and ogle at the dinosaurs with an inebriated brain. (If that’s your plan, make sure to bring along a designated driver.) Brewery participants include 4 Hands Brewing Co., Schlafly, Perennial Artisan Ales and Old Bakery Beer, among others. Get your tickets at stlouisbeerfest.com.

MONDAY 10/23 A Brief Inquiry Leverage Dance Theater’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes event shows that even monsters can cut a rug. | COURTESY PHOTO eye with a performance staged in the windows of the Kranzberg in Grand Center. “There was a stoplight there, and so people would pull their cars up, and they would stop, and then they would lean over, and they would watch,” Director Diana Barrios recalled to the RFT in May. That show turned out to be revelatory for the company, which reformed into Leverage Dance Theater and has since continued to produce work that pushes the boundaries. This year has featured its 10-year celebration, and its annual Halloween show, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, caps that off at 2715 Cherokee Street. Billed as a “perfect spooky season event,” the performance promises to bring audiences into another world, with faces and characters usually only seen by the unconscious mind. It takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 20, 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 21, and at 4 p.m. on Sunday, October 22. Tickets are $20 to $25 at leverage-dance-theater.square. site.

SATURDAY 10/21 Stay Gold It’s never too early to get a jump on holiday shopping, and if you’re

Ellsworth Kelly’s work is vibrant proof that sometimes, less is more. | VIA THOMAS DUESING/FLICKR a person who cares about giving a unique gift, the very best place to shop is the Golden Gems Party Market. This Saturday, October 21, Golden Gems (3108 Locust Street, 314-925-8931) will host a pop-up market where you can buy fun little gifts for all. Already your favorite spot to shop for quirky and distinctive items, Golden Gems is going to do you right when it comes to providing great gifts for everyone on your list. In addition to hosting more than 40 local vendors, it will also have a cocktail bar (by Hidden Gems), a beer bar (by 4 Hands Brewing Co.) and even a cannabis lounge courtesy

of Swade. And if the treats from the latter give you the munchies, food trucks on site will be ready to serve you as well. This free event runs from noon until 6 p.m. Find more information at shopgoldengems.com.

Three Cheers for Beers St. Louis has some damn good breweries. On Saturday, October 21, some of the best among them will take over the Saint Louis Science Center (5050 Oakland Avenue, 314-289-4400) for the St.

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Taylor Swift’s ex is headed to Enterprise Center (1401 Clark Avenue, 314-622-5400) this week as part of his band’s biggest North American tour to date. Of course, we’re talking about The 1975 (and the band’s lead singer, Matty Healy, who made headlines over the summer for being linked with Swift), which is currently crisscrossing the country on the Still … at Their Very Best tour. It’s a play off the band’s recent tour leg titled At Their Very Best, which took the foursome across Asia, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., and which sold a whopping 500,000-plus tickets. Healy’s recent fling with Swift brought both positive and negative press for him — while his name was in the headlines, it wasn’t all great. But he did get to see the Eras tour three times, which we count as a win. Swift herself even showed up on the 1975’s tour with a London appearance in January to sing her single “Anti-Hero” and the 1975’s “The City.” The 1975 has hit singles of its own, such as “It’s Not Living,” “Robbers” and “Chocolate.” The tour has revisited such popular songs, and also features tracks from the band’s new album Being Funny in a Foreign Language. The St. Louis stop is slated for Monday, October 23. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $39 to $99. Pick them up at enterprisecenter.com. n

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CAFE

Nick Dreams of Sushi Sado is Nick Bognar’s homage to his roots, his mastery of high-end Japanese cuisine and his own ambition Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Sado 5201 Shaw Avenue, 314-390-2883. Tues.Thurs. 5-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5-10 p.m.; Sun. 5-9 p.m. (Closed Mon.)

ive years ago, Nick Bognar was a young, ambitious chef who was starting to question himself. Though he’d recently returned to St. Louis after working at acclaimed restaurants in Austin and Cincinnati with big plans for invigorating his family’s 20-year-old restaurant, Nippon Tei, he was beginning to wonder if he had made a mistake. His mother and father — in theory on board with, and even drivers of, some changes — were growing impatient. So was the staff. For the first time in its history, the restaurant had lost money for the month. Employees were quitting. Customers were complaining incessantly. He was regularly arguing with his parents. It seemed as if his plans to turn the longtime Japanese restaurant into a bastion of high-end cuisine were on the road to failure. Fast forward to the present day, and it’s difficult to imagine Bognar as anything but a visionary success story. National accolades, a James Beard nod and his wildly popular restaurant Indo all point to this, but perhaps nothing makes the case stronger than his latest effort, the absolutely dazzling Sado. A culmination of Bognar and his parents’ years in the industry, his passion for fish and the high-end Japanese cuisine techniques he’s mastered, Sado stands not simply as the best restaurant in the area for sushi but as a restaurant vital to telling the story of dining in St. Louis. Though Sado is dramatically different from Nippon Tei, you can-

Sado offers world-class sushi in what was previously the classic Italian spot Giovanni’s on the Hill. | MABEL SUEN

Nick Bognar is the chef-owner of Sado. | MABEL SUEN not talk about it without paying tribute to its predecessor — and Bognar’s parents Ann and Mike, who laid the foundation for all Bognar and Sado have become. Bognar grew up in his parents’ now-shuttered west county restaurant, rolling egg rolls and crab rangoon and helping out in the kitchen as soon as he was old enough to do so. The business got

into his blood, and he began taking culinary classes as a junior in high school, which led to culinary school at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park and cooking jobs at Wasabi and his parents’ restaurants Nippon Tei and Tei Too. Wanting space to develop his skills independently, Bognar left town for Austin, Texas, and the acclaimed Uchiko restaurant, which

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opened his eyes to a new world of high-end sushi and Japanese cuisine. After a year at Uchiko, Bognar helped open a sushi restaurant in Cincinnati, and was given the chance to strike out with his own concept. However, something inside him whispered that, when he was ready to open a place of his own, it should be in St. Louis. This, coupled with his mom’s desire to shake things up at Nippon Tei, made a return home the only option that felt right. Nippon Tei’s transformation from a Japanese mainstay into a bastion of high-end cuisine and world-class fish under Bognar’s guidance may have taken months of struggle at the beginning, but finances turned around overnight thanks to a rave review from PostDispatch food critic Ian Froeb. It also set the stage for Sado, which opened in the former Giovanni’s on the Hill in March. Originally billed as part move, part new concept, Sado stands as more than just a rebrand and relocation of Nippon Tei (which closed earlier this year); it is the realization of Bognar’s vision for elegant Japanese cuisine in St. Louis. You understand this the moment you walk

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through the front doors and are transported into a dimly lit realm that feels positively ceremonial. In part, this is due to the moody colors and vibe, with grays, teals, marble and modern artwork that sets an aesthetic tone. An ethereal jellyfish mural takes up the entire wall behind the sushi bar, and pendant chandeliers cast a soft glow over the front and main dining rooms. However, it’s Sado’s impeccable food that truly gives you the backof-the-neck tingling inspired by a sacred space. Perhaps no dish is more evocative of this — and everything that Bognar has wanted to achieve since returning to town — than the bluefin akami, which is less a simple piece of fish than it is a meditation on what sashimi should be. Deep garnet and glistening like a raspberry popsicle, the tuna is dry-aged (as are all of Sado’s fish) for roughly one week so it becomes denser and fattier and develops a more luxurious mouthfeel. It’s like marrying the most beautiful fruit of the sea with a gorgeous rare filet mignon — a specimen of absolute perfection. Sado’s salmon aguachile makes you feel as if you have been eating the ubiquitous fish in black and white your entire life, and someone finally turned on the color. Here, Bognar gilds the rich, fatty fish with apple and jalapeñoinfused cucumber aguachile that balances heat with fresh, subtle sweetness. Contrast this with the funky curry vibe present in the issan hamachi; the melt-in-themouth fish is a magnificent canvas for Bognar’s deftness with complex Thai flavors. But it is not just raw fish where Bognar and Sado excel. Hamachi belly, kissed with deep smoke from a Japanese charcoal grill, is so buttery, it melts into its sticky rice canvas. Scallops, also cooked over charcoal, are enriched with gently bitter smoke, flavored with just a hint of bulgogi-inflected marinade and wrapped into crisp lettuce for a wonderful handheld dish. Sado’s Branzino is a masterclass in texture thanks to the juxtaposition between its succulent flesh and crisp skin. Mouth-puckering capers and crispy prosciutto give the dish an Italian inflection that nods to the space’s former incarnation. Similarly, the broccolini tempura winks at the surrounding neighborhood; it’s a mindblowing umami bomb of aioli and aged Parmesan funkier than a James

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Chawanmushi is a dashi custard loaded with seafood and one of critic Cheryl Baehr’s favorite bites of the year. | MABEL SUEN

Nick Bognar works his magic behind the sushi bar. | MABEL SUEN Brown-Parliament shared bill. As delicious as the broccolini is, the acorn squash is the tempura showstopper; its light-as-air coating yields to the creamy squash — alone it’s delicious, but when paired with the accompanying miso caramel, it’s one of the best things you will eat all year. Across the menu, Sado is a case study in culinary luxury. Wagyu tartare is rich and silken not only from the meat’s fat but from a quail egg that soaks into the raw beef. Umami aioli underscores

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the richness while candied garlic cuts through it. The accompanying seaweed chips add a layer of complexity, bringing a subtle ocean essence. It’s as if the restaurant’s former iteration and its current one exist in perfect harmony. It’s also an embarrassment of riches. Makimono rolls, an approachable callback to Nippon Tei, are flawlessly executed and push diners beyond what is traditionally expected of the form in the heart of the Midwest. Wagyu, seared over a hot rock, is beef dis-

tilled in its purest form. However, the restaurant’s most haunting offering — a distinction difficult to achieve when everything is magnificent — is the chawanmushi, a custard-like egg dish that falls somewhere between crème brulée and a French omelet in texture while also distilling the glories of shellfish thanks to the generous portion of sweet, buttery crab, lobster and shrimp that adorn this egg concoction. This is a contender for the best bite I’ve eaten all year. Five years ago, the chawanmushi was nothing more than a glimmer in Bognar’s eye. That he was able to bring such magnificence to fruition is the result of trust — trust in him on the part of his parents and staff. Trust that Nippon Tei diners extended to him to take a restaurant they loved and reconfigure it into something exciting and substantially different. And, most importantly, trust in himself — no matter how difficult the road or how much he doubted his actions — and his product. Not only did it give him the strength he needed to persevere; it gave us a world-class restaurant that will be setting the tone for dining in St. Louis for years to come. n

Sado Chawanmushi ��$16 Salmon aguachile ��$20 Old yokai maki ��$22

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SHORT ORDERS

Alex Pifer owns Baked & Boiled Bagels in Soulard. | JESSICA ROGEN

[FIRST LOOK]

The Real Deal Once voted “most likely to show up with bagels,” Baked & Boiled Bagels owner Alex Pifer is living the dream Written by

JESSICA ROGEN

ot so long ago, St. Louis was, undeniably, a bagel desert. Sure, there were a handful of bread-roll-adjacent options in town, but while those were delicious in their own right, they weren’t really bagels — real bagels that were boiled and then baked to produce a snappy crust and delightfully chewy interior. How things have changed. In the last year or so, bagels have been the word when it comes to St. Louis restaurant openings. First there was Union Loafers’ sophomore effort, Bagel Union, in Webster Groves. Then C & B Boiled Bagels opened in Wood River, Illinois. We got Lefty’s Bagels in Chesterfield, and direct-to-consumer efforts such as Benny’s Bagels.

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The latest opening to join this bagel revolution is Baked & Boiled Bagels (1801 South Ninth Street, 314-571-9017). It had its soft opening on September 23 in Soulard. It seems like we can officially call this a movement. “I had no idea when we started anything was happening at all,” says Baked & Boiled Bagels owner Alex Pifer. “I guess it was just a weird little freak accident or everyone just realized at once we need more bread.” Baked & Boiled takes over the storefront formerly home to the Sweet Divine. It’s a corner location with large windows and a few tables inside and out. Visitors will be met by a bakery case full of the goods and a large chalkboard menu of bagels, cream cheese flavors and drip coffees. There’s a clear view into the shop’s production space, where Pifer and a small crew can be spotted rolling bagels throughout the morning. Those bagels have mostly classic flavors such as everything, plain, poppy seed, honey wheat and pumpernickel rye. There are also cream cheeses such as plain, scallion and smoked salmon. “As a chef, I don’t want to get bored,” Pifer says. “We’re trying to get into some other stuff that’s a little bit more exciting. So we have our seasonal stuff like the jalape-

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Baked & Boiled Bagels takes up the corner spot that used to house Sweet Divine. | JESSICA ROGEN ño cheddar, and there was a sea salt, and we’re moving into the white chocolate pumpkin right now, which tastes like a doughnut. It’s absolutely fantastic.” Pifer’s favorite is the pumpernickel rye (“it’s a little denser, and it is 75 percent whole grain”) or maybe the chocolate chip (“really nostalgic”). Baked & Boiled is now open from 6:30 a.m. until it sells out (usually about 1:30 p.m.) Thursday through Saturday, with hours starting at 7 a.m. on Sundays. Pifer wants to add a day every week, with the goal of being open every day except Wednesday. “We’re kind of also trying to add a new cream cheese every week,” she says, teasing a “nice veggie” to be added soon. She’d also like to add some meats, possibly in collaboration with area restaurants. Though the shop has only been in the works only since Pifer landed on the space in April, Baked & Boiled has been around for a bit longer than that. Pifer, who is from Clearwater, Florida, is a trained chef who has been working in the industry in one capacity or another since she was 14. She moved to St. Louis in 2020 after the restaurant she was working at, Iron Hen Cafe in Greensboro, North Carolina, shuttered during the pandemic. She noticed that while restau-

rants were suffering, bakeries that normally provided wholesale goods were opening their doors to customers and doing well. “I’ve always loved bagels,” Pifer says, noting that she worked at the bagel shop next to her high school. “My senior superlative in high school was ‘most likely to show up with bagels.’ Then we moved to St. Louis, and I realized that there were no good bagels at the time. So I started baking them, and people started buying them, just making them for friends and baking for myself, and we just haven’t stopped rolling bagels since then.” In May last year, Pifer made her casual bagel thing a real business and started providing bagels to Wild Olive Provisions in Shaw, and then added a stall at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market. She began thinking that it was time to move to a physical location as she outgrew the limitations of working in her home kitchen and then in a shared commissary space. When her realtor suggested the Soulard space, Pifer knew she had her spot, the perfect place to add more real bagels to the St. Louis scene. That devotion to the form also explains the name Pifer picked for her business. “Real bagels are boiled first,” she says. “I want to make it very clear.” n

[FIRST SIP]

Pour Me Another Amid a St. Louis wine bar Renaissance, the new Videira Wine Bar knows its mind Written by

THOMAS CRONE

usiness growth along the Locust corridor in Midtown’s not exactly new news, as the zone between Jefferson and North Grand has gained traction with restaurants, bars and services over the past decade, with varying fits and starts of momentum. Of late, the opening season of the St. Louis City SC has provided some of those newer businesses a welcome infusion of cash and customers, though Videira Wine Bar (2702 Locust Street, 314-3779463, videirawineshopandbar.net) might not be a business that’s directly going to see its fortunes rise and fall with the popularity of St. Louis’ pro soccer squad, no matter how near it might play. Instead, Videira seems primed to tie into a larger growth pattern of the neighborhood, including the large, multi-storefront building it inhabits. Already, Filipino restaurant Kain Tayo has opened up next door, while other adjacent businesses — such as the soonto-arrive Blue Jay Brewing Co. — are shooting for late 2023 openings. Together, they may provide that needed push to make this li’l pocket of Midtown a destination within a destination. Already, some have found what Videira’s offering. Unsurprisingly, industry workers visited within the first couple of weeks, classic trendsetters when it comes to nightlife. What they’re finding is a wine bar with a small food program that’s had a good while to plan, to think about exactly what it does and doesn’t want to be. The owners had hoped to open Videira nearly a year earlier than its actual arrival on the scene, with the first night of service com-

Videira is carving out its own unique spot in the burgeoning St. Louis wine bar scene. | RYAN KRULL ing with a soft opening on September 20. Co-owner Mykel McIntosh says that she’s plenty aware that “so many wine bars have opened at the same time” within the city limits and that “what’s so weird is that we’re behind everyone else.” As one opened, then another, McIntosh thought, “‘Oh, my god, another wine bar’s opening.’ But there’s no wine bar in Midtown, so we feel that we’re helping out the community over here in a way.” That delay came through the usual construction slowdowns that afflict many a new business, principally those in the food-andbeverage industry. And this was a full-on rehab. McIntosh says that she’s a bit unsure of the history of this property, though some have pegged it as a long-ago automotive factory. Whatever purposes it may have been used for, it was an empty shell when she and partner/co-owner Marshall Darwish took on the challenge. With the chance to create their ideal business from this open floor plan, they’ve developed a space that highlights the original architecture, exposing the original brick, stone and wood. On

arrival from Beaumont Street, you’re greeted by a bar with seating and a selection of wine, beers and spirits displayed on the back bar, while a room dedicated to a small bottle shop opens up on the left. To the end of the bar, there is a second, large seating room, with low tables that bring the overall count to about 45 patrons, if all seats are taken. Tucked behind the back wall is a small, prep-sized kitchen where Darwish performs his magic. Due to the diminutive size of his workspace, he’s been putting out a smaller selection of foods than originally envisioned, though all of the menu items are extremely complementary to a wine bar’s programming. That includes offerings such as mixed nuts, mixed olives and (the biggest hit so far) a burrata and tomato jam dish featuring breads by Union Loafers. In addition to those smaller shareables, a blend of charcuterie and cheese boards is available at varied sizes. A smaller Sweet Tooth section of the food menu highlights offerings from Clementine’s Creamery. Despite being a wine bar, Vi-

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deira pours more than just wine. Its beer selection tilts heavily toward local brands, with 4 Hands, Earthbound, Civil Life and nearby Schlafly all represented, along with Brick River Cider. The bar also serves a handful of house cocktails, with the potential for more, while about as many N/A mocktails are highlighted, too. McIntosh says, “We offer a little bit of everything. We’re not a place that just has wine. We have craft cocktails, a range of different spirits, a few local beers.” With “wine bar” in the business’ title, the ultimate success of Videira will lie in that programming, and there’s a blend of white, reds, rose and sparkling options, with by-the-glass pricing falling into the $10 to 15 range and bottles enjoyed in-house running between the low-$30s and high-$40s. There’s a potential, McIntosh feels, of a real neighborhood “pop” ahead, and she feels that the businesses’ growth curves will neatly reflect that “as we’ll all be feeding off of one another. Once everyone’s open, it’s going to work.” Already, she says, “the word is getting out.” n

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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[BEST NEWS]

St. Louis Perfection An Imo’s-themed line of merch makes its debut Written by

SARAH FENSKE

These are Honey Bee’s amazing biscuits — not the Biscuit Joint’s. But both are now heading to Midtown St. Louis, and we say you can never have too many biscuits. | MABEL SUEN

[FOOD NEWS]

To-Be Biscuit Mecca The new Biscuit Joint joins Honey Bee’s in Midtown Written by

JESSICA ROGEN

idtown is about to become a biscuit nexus. Earlier this month, Webster Groves darling Honey Bee’s Biscuits announced that it was launching a new location in what used to be Beffa’s Restaurant at 2700 Olive Street. Now a second biscuit spot is coming to Midtown. The Biscuit Joint (2649 Washington Avenue) will open October 21 and serve “biscuit perfection” and other quick-service breakfast fare. Chef-owner Elliott Brown announced the opening on Instagram this week. Though the concept seemingly came out of nowhere, a Kickstarter page that Brown posted (and then cancelled) in May reveals that it’s been in the works for a little while. Brown is no stranger to the St. Louis food scene, according to that Kickstarter bio. A Midwestern native, he cut his teeth cooking at the Lambs Club in New York before moving back to his birthplace, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a three-year stint at Cobble Hill. After that, he moved to St. Louis, where he cooked at various Niche Food Group restaurants and be-

came part of the team opening the Last Hotel, also serving as a butcher at BEAST Craft BBQ and a baker at Winslow’s Table. During the pandemic, Brown launched Dinner at the Loft, a business cooking dinner parties for customers in their homes and then his own home. But still, he dreamed of having his own physical restaurant. When he found a space in Midtown, on an under-utilized block of Washington just west of Jefferson, the idea for the Biscuit Joint was born. According to his Kickstarter, the fast-casual breakfast spot’s menu will include a smash patty breakfast sandwich, biscuits and gravy, and biscuit French toast. “While I’m very excited about

CHERYL BAEHR’S

AVOCADO TOAST PICKS Once prime fodder for millennial bashing, avocado toast is now firmly established as a staple of daytime dining — and at the following five places, it’s much more than smashed green fruit on bread. Instead, it’s a canvas for culinary creativity so delicious, it justifies putting your home ownership dreams on hold.

ow you can wear your Imo’s and eat it, too. St. Louis’ most iconic pizza chain debuted its line of apparel last week. The new Imo’s-branded clothing is a collaboration with locally owned apparel company Series Six (26 The Boulevard, Richmond Heights, 314-769-9048). Imo’s is promising a 17-piece collection that includes drinkware, koozies, sweatshirts, T-shirts and more. The graphics take their inspiration from Imo’s original 1964 signage. “Creating Imo’s-branded merchandise is something we’ve wanted to do for quite some time, and it’s something fans of the brand have been asking for as well,” says Nichole Carpenter, director of marketing for Imo’s. “We always knew we wanted to work with a local company to make sure we do it the right way, and we found that partner in Series Six.”

Since opening in the city’s Shaw neighborhood in 1964, Imo’s has grown to 99 locations across Missouri, Illinois and Kansas. Its PR rep tells us this is the pizzeria’s first real foray into clothing, beyond super-basic T-shirts with the logo at Rally House. You can get your Imo’s wear at the Series Six store in Richmond Heights and online at seriessixcompany.com. n

the concept itself, I’m most excited to learn the ropes of running a brick and mortar business,” he wrote. “I want to continue to keep myself in a position where I’m learning new things and continuing to grow what already is. This

space couldn’t be more perfect for the place I’m at with my business. I cannot wait for the day we are operating inside of it.” Biscuit lovers, too, may have trouble waiting. But their day is coming soon. n

Colleen’s A stunning display of small details — chili flakes, Maldon salt, a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil, piquant pickled onions, peppery arugula, a perfectly cooked over-easy egg — the avocado toast at Colleen’s (7337 Forsyth Boulevard, University City; 314-727-8427) is the embodiment of the form.

exciting purveyors of avocado toast, thanks to its eye to seasonality. Its current version is made with vegan herb butter, roasted kale, pickled red cabbage, hemp seeds and maple syrup.

Milque Toast Bar Milque Toast Bar (2212 South Jefferson Avenue, 314-833-0085) has been doing daytime toasts since well before daytime toasts were a thing, so it makes sense it has perfected its version — a mouthwatering concoction of smashed avocado on rustic wheat toast topped with a zesty crunch mix that’s like a savory granola. Fiddlehead Fern Cafe Much more than a Shaw neighborhood gathering place, Fiddlehead Fern Cafe (4066 Russell Boulevard, 314-3008111) is also one of the area’s most

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What could be more St. Louis than an Imo’s sweatshirt? | COURTESY PHOTO

Anita Cafe Anita Cafe (2700 Locust Street, 314669-7700) owner Anita Abdul-Karim draws upon both her Lebanese heritage and background in nutrition to create outstanding dishes, including dazzling avocado toast topped with beets, feta and fresh herbs and accented with zesty garlic dressing. Ivy Cafe Ivy Cafe (14 North Meramec Avenue, Clayton; 314-776-9377) is an embarrassment of toast riches thanks to its tartine-focused menu, but its avocado toast, called the Buckingham, stands out from the crowd thanks to its sweet and savory combination of feta, pomegranate arils, sunflower seeds, fresh dill and a drizzle of honey.

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

REEFERFRONT TIMES

[PEOPLE]

A Growing Profile Sean Garrison has forged a career in Missouri’s cannabis industry by growing for patients and throwing pot-themed parties Written by

JESSICA ROGEN

hen Sean Garrison first started growing weed, he swore that one day he’d be on the cover of High Times. Today, he chuckles a little when he thinks about that early cockiness, but it’s a laugh filled with good humor. “I [had] early success in it when I didn’t put too much effort into it, like, things are a lot more fun and more relaxed,” he says. “When I really started to [dig] into it, it started getting a little more complicated. There’s a lot of different growing styles and nutrients and mediums and all kinds of stuff.” For all his modesty, Garrison, 50, has undeniably had a lot of success since Missouri legalized medical marijuana in 2018. But he’s found that success in a relatively quiet corner — that of a medical marijuana caretaker — even as he’s also begun to move into larger-scale cannabis events since recreational use became an option last year. “It just keeps snowballing into something [new],” he says. Like many who eventually moved into the industry, Garrison started as a casual smoker as he worked at the Pageant and then as a tattoo artist. Over time, though, he realized he was using the plant to self-medicate. “I’ve got all the things that everybody does, you know, depression and anxiety,” Garrison says. “A lot of early trauma happened, too, so that was a nice way to get over some of that. Alcohol was a bad problem in my life.” He realized that different strains of marijuana had powerful effects

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Sean Garrison, a.k.a. Captain Mo Green, at his Friday the 13th-themed cannabis event at .Zack. Now that recreational use is legal, events have become part of his oeuvre. | COURTESY PHOTO that could bring him up when he was depressed or help others come down from their anxiety. “It blew me away as a kid that it was something natural, something you could grow, and it was something so beneficial,” he says. So when Missouri legalized medical cannabis, it was natural for Garrison to want to step into the field as a caregiver. Unlike a dispensary or a commercial grower, he does not technically make

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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his money from selling cannabis, but from tending plants for medical marijuana patients. Missouri allows every patient to grow six plants, but it’s not necessarily the easiest crop to grow, Garrison says. So some patients choose to outsource that to caregivers like Garrison. Right now, he’s tending plants for two patients and himself; the state limits the number of people that any one caregiver can grow for to six,

according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Garrison says a big part of the appeal of getting a caregiver’s license was legality. “Also, it was kind of a nice feeling to know that people can trust you and your growing ability,” he adds. “That was a lot of trust. I didn’t take it too lightly.” While the state allocates six plants per patient, it doesn’t mean that every patient literally has a specific plant that is for them and only them. Instead, Garrison grows a variety that have different effects so that patients can pick and choose based on how they are feeling. “People are impulsive,” he says. “They want to try something new, new flavors, new strains. It’s evolving so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with everything out there. So as soon as you think you’ve found your favorite terpene profile or you know what you really like to smoke, there’s probably 10 others right behind it that are super close. … Everyone’s just looking for that sweet spot of medicine for themselves.” A lot of that advancement has picked up with the legalization of recreational marijuana, Garrison says. It’s also opened new avenues for him as he’s met new people in the industry and brands have expanded their offerings. In order to get more involved, he began creating small meetup sessions that became bigger and bigger until they became fullon events and parties under the brand name Captain Mo Green, a nod to Captain Morgan, Missouri and weed. Planning the events is fairly involved, so Garrison is aiming to have about two a year, each benefiting an area animal rescue. His latest was a Halloween-adjacent affair on Friday the 13th this month at the .Zack building in Midtown. “We raised like $8,500 for different shelters around the area, which we’re super proud of,” he says. Planning events on top of growing is a lot, but Garrison says that he is not going to limit himself to just those two efforts in the future. “I’m never settled,” he says. “I’m never happy, so I keep trying harder and harder each time. I don’t think I’ll ever stop growing. I love that part of it.” n

CULTURE [INK]

Body of Work It was a long road to Azra Tattoos for Azra and Seldin Selimovic — but it feels like destiny Written by

MONICA OBRADOVIC

or Azra Selimovic, the opening of Azra Tattoos (8005 MacKenzie Road, Affton; 314755-0176) last month feels like nothing short of a miracle. She knows the shop wouldn’t exist, much less in a strip mall in Affton, without escapes from concentration camps, close calls with hostile officers in the war-torn Balkans and stops in multiple foreign countries. “It was a huge deal for us,” Selimovic says of the shop’s September 3 opening. Azra Tattoos is one of very few Bosnian-owned tattoo parlors in the U.S. Selimovic, who co-owns the shop with her husband, can name just one other — a parlor in New York. The Selimovics spent months transforming the space from a TV repair shop to a tattoo parlor. They worried their investment could be for nothing as an older group of residents spoke against the parlor’s opening to county officials. The St. Louis County Council was supportive, however, and the council approved the zoning for Azra Tattoos in May. That was big. But what makes Azra Tattoos’ existence truly an astonishing feat are the decades of struggle that led up to it. Selimovic’s parents left Bosnia as war ravaged the country in the early 1990s. Ethnic tensions were at a height, with indiscriminate shellings, mass rapes and genocide of Bosnian Muslims carried out mostly by Serbian forces. The war started in 1992. Selimovic, now 30, was born in 1993. While Selimovic’s mother was pregnant with her, Serbs took her and used her as a human shield on the front lines. Her father, a tall, fit man in the National Guard, was twice taken to concentration

Azra Selimovic says tattoos are a huge part of Bosnian culture. | MONICA OBRADOVIC camps to build trenches and do other physical work for the Serbian army. He managed to escape both times. When Selimovic’s family decided to escape, she was three months old. The friends they traveled with, most in their late teens or early twenties, didn’t make it; their friends decided to veer off through the woods where soldiers and landmines awaited. Azra’s family kept to the main roads. With Azra in their arms, her parents walked on foot and waded through rivers. At a Serbian checkpoint, an officer asked for the family’s papers. Their names on the documents would have been a dead giveaway that they were Bosnian. “They knew when they’d show it to them, they would be sent back to be killed,” Selimovic says. Azra’s parents slowly pulled out their papers. But right when Azra’s father handed the papers to the officer, a bee stung the officer near his eye. The officer reacted with fury. He threw the papers down and yelled at the family to pass through. Now each of Selimovic’s family members has a tattoo of a bee. The insect is also used in Azra Tattoos’ logo, and bees are displayed throughout the tattoo parlor. “I think my parents taking that risk and going through that fight fueled me to fight for something even more,” Selimovic says. “They came to a country where they didn’t know the language, didn’t

know anybody, and boom, made something out of nothing.” Like many refugees of the war, Selimovic’s family fled to Germany. When she was seven, her parents moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in search of the American dream, to try to make “something out of nothing,” Selimovic says. The family moved to St. Louis a few years later to live among more Bosnians. St. Louis has the largest population of Bosnians other than Bosnia. “We wanted to stick together,” Selimovic says. Yet all the moving made Selimovic feel like “the new kid” for much of her childhood. Language barriers didn’t help. But there was always art. “It was a way to express myself when no one else understood me,” Selimovic says. As she grew up, she says she had a reputation for being an artist. People in high school would ask her to draw them tattoos. Even so, becoming a tattoo artist never seemed like a possibility. Not everyone in Selimovic’s culture is so positive toward tattoos. She doesn’t like to overgeneralize, but many Bosnians tend to have an old-fashioned way of viewing tattoos — meaning they don’t like them. It’s a bit ironic, Selimovic says, given the long history of the art in the Balkans. When the Ottoman Empire invaded Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1300s, mothers in Bosnia tattooed symbols on their daughters to “tarnish” them so they

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wouldn’t be taken as wives. They did the same on their boys so they wouldn’t be taken as soldiers — a show of resistance to the Ottomans and a way to preserve Bosnian culture. The tattoos included religious symbols such as crosses pricked into skin using a varying mix of water, saliva, gunpowder, soot and honey. Other tattoos symbolized protection and family or represented certain villages or tribes. The practice is called “sicanje” or “bocanje.” Both mean “to prick.” The origins of the practice have been traced to long before the Ottomans. “Going back to our deep roots, tattoos are actually a huge part of our culture,” Selimovic says. “Now, our parents’ generation is a little against it. I don’t know if that’s because of religion or what.” She says her husband, Seldin, believed in her before anyone else. He saw her drawing one day and asked her to draw something on his body. “We ended up buying a cheap little tattoo machine from Amazon and some ink, and that’s pretty much how everything started,” Seldin says. Selimovic has tattooed “sicanje” designs on clients before, but her parlor offers a wide variety of tattoos. Azra Tattoos’ slogan is, “You think it, we ink it.” Inside Azra Tattoos, natural light filters in through the front windows. The space has an almost Gothic feel; a red curtain separates the entrance from the rest of the space. Pictures of skulls and bees hang throughout. Selimovic’s vision is evident everywhere — everything seems placed with thought and intention. When Selimovic describes her process, it’s the conceptual stage of manifesting what a client wants in a design that she speaks most passionately about. In a way, she’s been doing this all her life — even as a young girl with a marker, she’d “tattoo” small drawings on her classmates for 25 cents. She says she’ll stay up until 2 a.m. drawing a tattoo for someone because she loves it so much. “You build a bond with everybody, and you learn about their life and their story,” Selimovic says. “Creating something that will last forever on someone is quite an honor.” n

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

MUSIC

Now a quartet, Clusterpluck is looking at a future that feels brighter than ever. | TYLER GUSTAFSON

[STRINGS]

Best of Pluck Based in the Metro East, Clusterpluck has won a national following for its eclectic jams and shape-shifting successes Written by

STEVE LEFTRIDGE

ustin Torres, the 43-year-old bassist for the Illinois-based Clusterpluck, cuts a cool figure on stage. He’s lanky and expressive, breaking into broad smiles and dancy seesaws, an even split between jamgrass hippie and rock & roll bad boy. His fluid bass playing gives the band’s eclectic roots-rock songs an elastic bounce and makes crowds gyrate. When Torres is not cooking up tasty grooves on stage, he’s helping cook meals in the kitchen at Reifschneider’s Grill, the restaurant he has managed in Colum-

RIVERFRONT TIMES

bia, Illinois, for the last 13 years. That’s home base for Clusterpluck, an eclectic band that has been lighting up stages in Missouri, Illinois and beyond for more than a decade. Clusterpluck formed back in 2010 when Torres met guitarists Chris Rader and Derek Rutter, two childhood buddies who had been playing rock music in bars together since they were 15. Torres, originally from California, was playing solo electronic-looping shows in the Mount Vernon, Illinois, area when he started jamming with Rader and Rutter at afterparties once the local bars closed down. “That’s when the acoustic instruments would come out,” Torres says, referring to the jam circles the three would form, sharing mutual influences in bluegrassadjacent artists such as Nickel Creek and the Avett Brothers. “That’s how we all came together with the idea of having an acoustic string band.” It’s an idea that’s stuck for a decade, as Rutter’s guitar prowess and Rader’s ability to switch from guitar to dobro to mandolin pairs with the rhythmic propulsion of Torres’ bass. That formula,

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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strengthened by the trio’s songwriting, jam-ability, genre shifting and giant repertoire of covers made the band a festival favorite around the country, sent them on tours of Canada and both coasts and had them playing and partying with the top jamgrass bands in the country. When asked about the band name, Torres laughs. “People either love it or hate it,” he says. However, Clusterpluck is a perfect fit for the band’s stylistic attack, one that suggests picking, country idioms and the unpredictability of its sprawling musical thrill-seeking. Despite the band name’s twangy connotation, Torres stresses that Clusterpluck doesn’t play traditional bluegrass. Still, the band fits right in with the Coloradostyle jamgrass scene and helped anchor this summer’s Back Alley Grass Fest in Columbia, which featured a lineup of bluegrass in both traditional and progressive forms. “We can be jamgrass for sure,” Torres says. “The early songs we wrote were on the grassy edge, and we still like to break out the dobro and mandolin.” The ’pluck got even twangier

when they expanded to a quartet back in 2012, when Torres crossed paths with washboardist and singer Leah Osborne, now bestknown to St. Louis audiences as a member of new-grassers One Way Traffic. Torres had met Osborne through culinary school and invited her to jam with Clusterpluck, leading to Osborne officially joining the band and giving Torres a percussion instrument to lock in with as a rhythm section. Osborne’s addition was just one of a few changes the band has seen in its 13 years. Clusterpluck grew again when violinist/mandolinist Matt Gadeken came on board, expanding to a five-piece lineup that allowed the band to experiment further, as Osborne added baritone ukulele to the mix and the band was booked to play hippie-friendly festivals from Wakarusa to Harvest Festival to Summer Camp. Osborne left the band in 2015 to focus full-time on cooking, and the remaining quartet cut a full-length album, 2016’s Thousand Miles to Go, a largely acoustic string-band album filled with banjos, dobros and fiddles. The album established the band as not

only deft pickers but also received acclaim for its strong, distinctive songwriting. However, Torres tells a familiar story common to so many bands of late: They were on a hot streak of writing and performing just when COVID-19 brought things to a screeching halt. “We were catching a lot of speed right before everything happened,” Torres says. “We had a tour booked in Europe when the pandemic hit.” About that time, Gadeken left the band, and Clusterpluck was back to the original trio. Embracing their roots, in 2021 the band cut a new album, appropriately titled Clusterpluck, that represented a further maturation of their writing and musicianship. While still grassy in parts, the self-titled album also found the band plugging in their instruments and experimenting with more roots-rock and Americana styles. All three original members of Clusterpluck write, and Torres feels honored to add his own contributions. “Chris and Derek have been writing songs forever,” he says. “They are some of the best songwriters I know.” These days, Torres says he has never been more excited about all things Clusterpluck. First, the band welcomed drummer and mandolinist Britton Liefer, finally adding a full drum kit to the band, thereby giving them the rock wallop they’d long been missing. “I like to think [Britton] kind of saved us,” Torres says. “He’s given us a versatility because we can do acoustic sets with him on mandolin, and he’s a fucking awesome drummer.” The result is a louder, more rocking, wilder Clusterpluck. “It’s a little bit more electric, like the Bob Dylan thing,” Torres jokes. “We’ve had some people who are, like, ‘Eh, I don’t know about this.’” But Torres is confident that Clusterpluck fans will come along with them on this new evolutionary ride. Those fans will get to hear the evolution for themselves on the new Clusterpluck album, Hometown, their first record to be released on vinyl, which is due out next spring. “Overall, we have stepped up to a new level,” he says. “I feel like now we’re the best band we’ve ever been. We’re playing better than ever. Our fans can expect some cool surprises.”

“[Britton] kind of saved us. He’s given us a versatility because we can do acoustic sets with him on mandolin, and he’s a fucking awesome drummer.” Before the album comes out, fans will get a chance to hear the new material at the upcoming Pluckin’ to Feed shows, which the band has been staging since 2016 as a benefit for the St. Louis Area Food Bank. The first Pluckin’ to Feed show, held at Broadway Oyster Bar, collected 200 pounds of food for hunger relief. Last year’s show at Vintage Wine Bar in Waterloo, Illinois, topped 1,100 pounds of food. “The community really comes together, and we’re able to meet our goals every year,” Torres says. Clusterpluck now stages two Pluckin’ to Feed shows around the holidays each year, one on each side of the river. This year’s shows will be held November 18 at Broadway Oyster Bar and December 9 at Vintage Wine Bar. Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable food and hygiene products, and everyone will get free event posters in exchange for their donations. So with a busy 2024 on the way, including a new album, what does Torres see as his goals for Clusterpluck’s current era? “To me success is being able to get together with the band, bounce ideas off each other, play music, whether it’s in a garage or a theater, and be able to stay friends and be creative together,” Torres says. “Ultimately, we love to be able to share our music and are grateful that people enjoy it as well. That’s the ultimate success.” n

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OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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FILM

[REVIEW]

It’s All Taylor’s Version Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie knows its audience all too well — and gives them just what they want Written by

EILEEN G’SELL Taylor Swift: The Eras Directed by Sam Wrench. Opened October 13.

ere’s to Champagne problems!” a 20-something brunette in a ball gown cheers, her voice as bubbly as her lifted flute. It’s opening night at Alamo Drafthouse for what bodes to be one of the biggest movies this fall — not a Spielberg thriller, Halloween horror flick or Oscar-baiting period piece, but a film version of the highest-grossing concert tour of all time, starring none other than planet Earth’s favorite blonde American. The megastar’s mane may be more a golden brown these days as she approaches her 34th year, but her iconic bangs and red lips remain. Sitting through the film’s opening credits (a loop of Taylor YouTube deep cuts and quirky parodies), I’m a little disappointed that I’m one of few in the audience who attempted to emulate her signature style (the Alamo hostess kicking things off with a toast, while glam indeed, seemed more prepped for prom). Outside a few parents and straggler geriatrics (tonight, anyone 40+), the vibe is distinctly Gen Z. Clusters of tweens, teens and college-age women raise lavender light-up “Alamo’s Version” sabers as Swift takes the stage on-screen. Despite my lack of abiding ardor and encroaching middle age, I do the same. I’m a sucker for spectacles of light, especially of the hyperfemme variety. I am also a fan of ebullient fandom in public spaces, even when it’s aimed at someone I don’t personally worship. Besides, my 40-something partner, an eminent professor of applied mathematics, has tagged along and knows all the words. Over the next 168 minutes celebrating Swift’s eponymous “eras,” I come to realize that critiquing a movie version of a concert tour poses a number of challenges, chief among them distinguishing between the film adaptation of the stadium spectacle (this one entirely recorded at a show outside Los Angeles, at the end

It’s Taylor’s world; the rest of us are just living in it. | FLICKR/PAOLO VILLANUEVA of the tour’s first leg) and the strengths and weaknesses of the concert itself. Directed by Sam Wrench, the movie would seem to do justice to Swift’s epic nightlong performance and the accompanying audiovisual extravaganza (the set design alone is of Broadway proportions). The cinematography takes us from the front row to the mezzanine to the stage itself; from an aerial view, the SoFi Stadium resembles a diamond of glittering smartphones. The movie’s sound is tremendous, and on more than one occasion at tonight’s screening, groups of women take to the space in front of the screen to shake their Taylor sabers and shimmy. One giggly group of grade school girls runs from one end of the theatre and back again, barely looking up at the screen above them. All of this feels good. It often feels like we’re at a live show. Thanks to huge demand and the bustling resale market, the Eras tour led to some of the most expensive — if not the most expensive — concert tickets in all of modern history, and the movie version arguably extends the quasi-religious experience for anyone who can fork over $15 (an extra $8 for pastel swag). In a time when movie houses are struggling to stay open, it’s refreshing — even moving — to share a film experience with a full, exhilarated house. That said, the concert itself felt uneven — a surprise given Swift’s 19 years in the music industry and extensive touring. At the beginning, she saunters down the stage like a runway model, sparkling in a rhinestone leotard and knee-high boots. But a millennial Heidi Klum she is

Forget that she’s one the richest, most influential performers and businesswomen alive today. Somehow Swift is “relatable.” not (no matter the resemblance from the nosebleeds). Swift seems a bit awkward, honestly, in front of so many adoring fans. This, of course, is crucial to her appeal. What can be hard to grasp for those raised on Madonna or Michael Jackson is how Swift’s patent lack of effortless stage presence (from hackneyed gestures and stilted direct address to the crowd) is part of what makes her so powerful. Forget that she’s one the richest, most influential performers and businesswomen alive today. Forget the fact that she’s tall, white, thin and resembles a Classic Disney princess. Somehow Swift is “relatable,” or, at least, her audience is desperate for her to be. Even more awkward in the show’s first hour are her interactions with backup dancers and singers, the vast majority of whom are Black or Brown women. As Swift play-acts camaraderie with them onstage, it’s as though she

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has a new “Black bestie” with each new refrain. The unintended effect is that she somehow comes across as even whiter than she already is. So, too, is it cringey to see her play-act a romantic spat with a Black man seated at the end of a dining room table so long it mimics an early scene from Citizen Kane. Are we supposed to feel bad that Swift’s Black boyfriend is silently hydrating while she divulges her insecurities? These extras better be getting paid, I whispered to my rapt companion. The show picks up about halfway through with the Reputation set, and suddenly the stage explodes as the dancers — and Swift, to the extent that she can — start to really get down. Another set of backup performers and singers — across a variety of ages and body sizes, in addition to race — jump in during the concert’s latter half, and their energy is contagious. Swift too seems buoyed, even as she starts to look less pristine. Sweat glistens from the tip of her nose. Her long hair gets messy. She extemporizes before a ballad at a moss-covered piano. She swaps her stiletto boots for ballet flats. By the time the show culminates in Swift’s most recent Midnights era, with two rows of giant pastel clouds held aloft around her (each in the likeness of a Godsized Today Sponge), I’m both ready for the movie to end and feel like I’ve gone on a very real journey. Is this movie going to thrill the unconverted? I doubt it. But it’s not a bad excuse to sing along and dance with glittery strangers — something I think we all could do more of for the good of our ailing species. n

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

STAGE

BEN RECTOR THU, OCT 19

HEATHER MCMAHAN FRI, OCT 20

SEVENDUST & STATIC-X SUN, OCT 22 KSHE 95 PRESENTS

YES

MON, OCT 23

R&B ONLY LIVE SAT, OCT 28

HEILUNG WED, NOV 1

LSDREAM PLUS BLACK CARL!

THU, NOV 2

The dance scenes in Stray Dog’s Saturday Night Fever shine above all else. | JOHN LAMB

[REVIEW]

All the Right Moves Stray Dog Theatre brings out the disco ball for a fun, nostalgic Saturday Night Fever Written by

CELEBRATING BILLY JOEL PIANO MAN 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

FRI, NOV 3

JOHNNY CASH

THE OFFICIAL CONCERT EXPERIENCE

SUN, NOV 5

CRAIG FERGUSON THE FANCY RASCAL TOUR

WED, NOV 8

RIVERFRONT TIMES

TINA FARMER Saturday Night Fever Music by the Bee Gees, with arrangements and additional music by David Abbinanti. Directed by Justin Been. Presented by Stray Dog Theatre through October 28. Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, with an additional performance 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25 to $30.

tray Dog Theatre invites audiences to put on their dancing shoes and boogie on over to the Tower Grove Abbey for Saturday Night Fever. The seminal disco movie and its inimitable soundtrack are transformed into a light-hearted pop musical that’s teeming with ’70s nostalgia, a little romance, infectious beats and signature dance moves. Director Justin Been and the talented cast place their emphasis on capturing the spirit of the era and its memorable choreography, and

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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the result is an entertaining trip back in time. Nineteen-year-old Tony Manero works a dead-end job in a blue-collar Brooklyn neighborhood challenged by tough financial times. When he’s not working, Tony hangs out with his lifelong friends, tries to keep his parents from getting too fed up with him and practices for Saturday nights at the club. When the club announces a dance contest with a $1,000 prize, Tony knows this could be his big chance to prove himself, but who should be his partner? The musical puts the focus on dancing and Tony’s commitment to improving his skills, with multiple scenes in the neighborhood dance studio in addition to the club. This emphasis is smart, as the story is burdened by multiple subplots delivered in short, dialogue-heavy scenes. With the exception of two or three key moments, there are just too many unfinished thoughts and loose threads, such as a subplot with Tony’s brother and a neighborhood feud. Even Tony’s existential brooding over his future and whether to seriously pursue dancing gets lost in a half-baked nod to acceptance that feels more like the setup for the romantic conclusion than a bold statement. Thankfully, Drew Mizell as Tony and Sara Rae Womack as Stephanie make us care about that budding romance and anticipate the

big dance scenes, which choreographer Michael Hodges has filled with familiar disco steps and turns. Mizell and Womack move and sing well together, creating good chemistry. They stand out even in the all-company numbers, with Mizell leaning into John Travolta’s original moves without becoming a caricature. Justin Bouckaert, Maggie Nold, Lindsey Grojean and Sean Seifert have spotlight moments as Tony’s friends and brother, respectively, while Jade Anaiis Hillery and Chris Moore hit all the right notes as Candy and DJ Monty. “Boogie Shoes,” “Disco Inferno,” “If I Can’t Have You” and “Night Fever” are particularly effective in the first act. “Nights on Broadway,” “More Than a Woman” and “How Deep Is Your Love” deliver the passion and emotion of the second. The tight stage causes some clustering and songs occasionally drag, perhaps because synchronicity is key and even a slight misstep is instantly noticed. Luckily, the enthusiasm and commitment to the disco vibe is stronger than the errors, and I expect the choreography and pace will continue to improve over the run. While the story arc is a little flat and forced, the ’70s pop hits are well delivered and the infectious finale is illuminated with a light-up floor and sparkling disco ball, ensuring Saturday Night Fever is nostalgic, booty-shaking fun. n

OUT EVERY NIGHT

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. Happy showgoing!

JAVIER MENDOZA & HOBO CANE ALBUM RELEASE: 7 p.m., $30. Kirkwood Performing Arts Center (KPAC), 210 E Monroe Ave, Kirkwood, 314-759-1455. JON PARDI: 7 p.m., $39.75-$99.75. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000. KAT KING: w/ Rea, Armories 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. KINGDOM BROTHERS: 7 p.m., $25-$35. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis. LITTLE RIVER BAND: 8 p.m., $49.50-$79.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500. MASTER BLASTER: A TRIBUTE TO STEVIE WONDER: 8 p.m., $20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. MIKE MATTINGLY: 7 p.m., $6-$15. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313. PAIGE ALYSSA: 8 p.m., $25. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. SHAWN DAVID: 8 p.m., free. Tin Roof St. Louis, 1000 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-240-5400. SPELLBOUND IN DUTCHTOWN: noon, free. The Wink! Annex, 4209 Virginia, St. Louis, 314-337-1288. TESSERACT: 8 p.m., $27.50-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

[CRITIC’S PICK]

THURSDAY 19

6LACK: 8 p.m., $45-$49.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. ADEEM THE ARTIST: 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE: 7 p.m., $55$132. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St. Charles, 636-896-4200. BEN RECTOR: 8 p.m., $59.59-$79.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500. THE BUTTERY BISCUIT BAND: 9 p.m., $9. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. CECE WINANS: 7 p.m., $29-$150. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000. EMILY WALLACE: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. HARM’S WAY: 7 p.m., $22.50. Blueberry Hill The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. JOHNNY VALENTINE WITH PETAH WILLIAMS: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. OLD FRIENDS ACOUSTIC TOUR: w/ Ben Rector 8 p.m., $59.50-$79.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500. PAUL BONN AND THE BLUESMEN: 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. PAUL NEIHAUS: 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. TOMMY EMMANUEL, CGP: 8 p.m., TBA. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

FRIDAY 20

120 MINUTES: 9 p.m., free. BS Sports Bar & Grill, 10471 St. Charles Rock Road, St. Ann, 314-423-4111. 5-STAR ROSCOE: 7 p.m., $6-$15. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313. AGENT ORANGE: 8 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. BLITZEN TRAPPER: 8 p.m., $25. Blueberry Hill The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. BOXCAR: 5:30 p.m., free. The Gramophone, 4243 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-531-5700. BRENT COBB: 8 p.m., $25-$30. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. BROTHER FRANCIS AND THE SOULTONES: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. CHERRY AND JERRY: 6 p.m., free. Alpha Brewing Company, 4310 Fyler Ave., St. Louis, 314-621-2337. COLT BALL: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. GHOST CITY: w/ Luxury Elite, FrankJavCee, Yung Shiro, Scythe Heaven 9 p.m., $15-$20. Platypus, 4501 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-359-2293. JEREMIAH JOHNSON: 7 p.m., $25-$35. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis. JOHN MICHAEL MONTGOMERY: 7 p.m., $40-$95. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St Charles, 636-896-4200. RUMOURS OF FLEETWOOD MAC: 7 p.m., $31-$61.

SUNDAY 22

Harm’s Way. | AARON ROSS

Harm’s Way w/ Fleshwater, Ingrown, Jivebomb 7 p.m. Thursday, October 19. The Duck Room at Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City. $22.50. 314-727-4444. Why should any music writer bother attempting to capture the sound of Harm’s Way in words when Bandcamp user A Fools Journey already summed it up perfectly in a comment on the group’s page? “Music to bench press a dump truck to,” wrote the wise wordsmith in reference to the band’s latest album, September’s Common Suffering. “To punch the Hulk in the face. To start a pit in a den of snakes.” Yes, that’s just about the long and short of it. That album, the band’s second LP for the venerated Metal Blade Records, is the latest proof of just how far Harm’s Way has come since its humble beginnings. The Chicago act was founded as a side project to the straightChaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000.

SATURDAY 21

ALL ROOSTERED UP: noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. BEYOND FM SHOWCASE #3: 7:30 p.m., $8. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. CHARLIE KING CONVERT: 7 p.m., $20. Eden Theological Seminary, 475 E. Lockwood at Bompart, St. Louis, 314-961-3627. DEAR GENRE: 4 p.m., free. The Wink! Annex, 4209 Virginia, St. Louis, 314-337-1288.

edge punk band the Few and the Proud, and in its early days, it served mostly as an excuse for its members to play short, fast powerviolence songs while its enormously musclebound singer James Pligge wore a mask and scared the shit out of everyone. (Case in point: The band’s first St. Louis performance, at Lemp Arts Center for Hardcore Halloween in 2007, featured multiple Infest covers and a jack-o’-lantern pulled over Pligge’s head.) Harm’s Way has since matured far past those early antics, slowing its sound and incorporating elements of death metal and even industrial music into its heavier-than-uranium songs. One thing remains the same, though: Pligge is a giant monster who will crush you and eat your bones. First Things First: Joining Harm’s way on this run is the shoegaze-damaged Massachusetts rock band Fleshwater, the Boise, Idaho-based heavy powerviolence group Ingrown and the hardcore punk of Baltimore’s Jivebomb. —Daniel Hill DOOBIE: 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THE FAB FOUR: THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE: 7 p.m., $27-$73. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St Charles, 636-896-4200. FUSIA FEST 2023: 3 p.m., $15-$75. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. HUNTER PEEBLES BAND: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. IRINA KULIKOVA: 7:30 p.m., $20-$35. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600.

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BUTCH MOORE: 2 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. EMAROSA: 8 p.m., $25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. ERIC LYSAGHT: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. MISTER BLACKCAT: 10 a.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. RA KALAAM BOB MOSES: w/ Jaap Blonk, K. Curtis Lyle, Damon Smith, Josh Weinstein 7 p.m., $20. Joe’s Cafe Gallery, 6010 Kingsbury Ave., St. Louis, 314-862-2541. SARAH LEE GUTHRIE: 7 p.m., $20-$30. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. STATIC-X AND SEVENDUST: 6:15 p.m., $39.50$49.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500. TROUSDALE: 8 p.m., $17. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. VOLORES: w/ Lousy with Coyotes 7 p.m., $12$15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

MONDAY 23

THE 1975: 7:30 p.m., $39-$99. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. ABBY HAMILTON: 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. J.D. HUGHES: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. MISSOURI EXECUTIVE ORDER 44: w/ Joust, Iron Linings, Harmon Dobson 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW: w/ Tim, Danny and Randy 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $8. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. YES: 7:30 p.m., $49.50-$114.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

TUESDAY 24

BRANDY CLARK: 8 p.m., $25-$45. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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OUT EVERY NIGHT

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Continued from pg 37

EMBLEM3: 8 p.m., $20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. ETHAN JONES: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. GANSER: w/ Condiments 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. NAKED MIKE: 6 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

WEDNESDAY 25

AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS: 8 p.m., $30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. CRADLE OF FILTH AND DEVILDRIVER: 7 p.m., $32$59.50. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. DALE WATSON: 8 p.m., $22. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. DREW LANCE: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. JOHN MCVEY BAND: 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. JOHNNYSWIM: 8 p.m., $33-$107. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. KISS: 7:30 p.m., $36.50-$997. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. MARGARET & FRIENDS: 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. RACHEL DESCHAINE: w/ Michael Marciano 7 p.m., $6-$15. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 South Kingshighway Blvd., 2nd Floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313. RHETT MILLER: 7:30 p.m., $38-$45. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. SNAILMATE: w/ Superfun Yeah Yeah Rocketship, Home&Office, 3 of 5, Farout 8 p.m., $10. Platypus, 4501 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-359-2293. UNIFORM: w/ Body Void 8 p.m., $16-$18. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. VOODOO BILLY VS ELTON: 9 p.m., $14. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THIS JUST IN

ADAM GAFFNEY: Fri., Oct. 27, 4 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. ALL ROOSTERED UP: Sat., Oct. 28, noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. THE ARCADIAN WILD: $18. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314678-5060. ARKANGELA: W/ Scuzz, the Rose Court, Tue., Oct. 31, 8 p.m., $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. BEN OTTEWELL AND IAN BALL: Fri., Oct. 27, 8 p.m., $28. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060. BOOGIEFOOT.COM: Sat., Oct. 28, 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314367-3644. CEMETERY GATEZ: THE PANTERA TRIBUTE: W/ Conquest, Sat., Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m., $15-$25. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. CONTRACHARGE: W/ Mindclot, Kato, Man With Rope, Fri., Nov. 3, 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. CREE RIDER: Sun., Oct. 29, 2 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. EMILY WALLACE: Fri., Oct. 27, 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. ERIC LYSAGHT: Sun., Oct. 29, 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. ERIK BROOKS: Sun., Oct. 29, 8 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. EUGENE FRIESEN: Fri., Nov. 10, 7 p.m., $20. First Congregational Church of Webster Groves, 10 W. Lockwood Ave, Webster Groves, 314-9620475.

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Kiss. | VIA TICKETMASTER

Kiss

It’s a testament to the indelible nature of Kiss’ music that the band can be so beloved as to command ticket prices as high as nearly $1,000 even as its most visible member, Gene Simmons, has spent his whole public life being a complete fucking asshole. From his infamous womanizing ways to his history of Islamaphobic comments to his remarks encouraging those with depression to go ahead and kill themselves to his harassment of NPR host Terry Gross during what should have been a straightforward interview, Simmons has been a holy terror for just about as many decades as his band has been an ongoing concern. Hell, even founding Kiss member and longtime collaborator Ace Frehley isn’t exactly a fan, having taken to social media in 2019 to blast his former bandmate, calling him an “asshole and a sex addict” in a blistering post. It’s all pretty shitty. But on the other hand there’s Destroyer, and

Love Gun, and Hotter Than Hell, and the countless other albums and songs that have long seen the Detroit band sit at the top of the heap in the eyes of the KSHE Klassics set. This is a group that gave us “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Detroit Rock City,” for goodness sake! So while this week’s Enterprise Center show is sure to be a packed affair, it’s probably for the best that it’s to be one of the group’s last. After more than 50 years in the game, Kiss is promoting its current outing as the End of the Road Tour, with December 2’s performance at Madison Square Garden set to be the group’s final show. Whether that’s all to be believed is another matter — the band has claimed to be hanging it up before, after all — but in any case, the sooner Simmons fades out of the spotlight the better for us all. Lick It Up: For those keeping score, Kiss’ St. Louis stop is set to be one of the last 21 shows the veteran group will play. Diehard fans should therefore not miss out, but if you’re seated close enough, please do us all a favor and flip Simmons the bird. He certainly deserves it. —Daniel Hill

EXPERIMENTAL OPEN MIC 11: Sat., Oct. 28, 7 p.m., free. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. FREAKFEST: W/ Inzo, Hayden James, Sun., Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m., $49.50-$74.50. City Museum, 750 N. 16th St., St. Louis, 314-231-2489. HAARPER: W/ Sxmpra, Sinizter, Sat., Oct. 28, 7 p.m., $25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. THE HAMILTON BAND: Thu., Oct. 26, 9 p.m., $9. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. HERE COME THE MUMMIES: W/ Perpetual Groove, Sun., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., $30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. HUNTER: Thu., Oct. 26, 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. HUSBANDS: W/ Plastic Picnic, Sun., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. J.D. HUGHES: Mon., Oct. 30, 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

JOE SERAFINI: Sat., Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m., $20-$65. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. JOHN CLAYTON & BENNY BENACK III: Sat., Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m., $40-$45. Jazz St. Louis, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, (314) 571-6000. JOHN HOLLIER: Sat., Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m., free. Tin Roof St. Louis, 1000 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-240-5400. JOHN MCVEY BAND: Sat., Oct. 28, 8 p.m., $5. Wed., Nov. 1, 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. JONNY CRAIG: W/ Sunsleep, Keepmysecrets, A Foreign Affair, Sun., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., $25-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. JOSH TURNER: Fri., April 5, 8 p.m., $40-$75. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777. KEVIN GRUEN: Thu., Oct. 26, 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. LOBBY BOXER: W/ Maxi Glamour, Cadaver

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 25. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Avenue. $36.50 to $997. 314-241-1888.

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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Daddy-O, Wise Disguise, Babyface Chanel, Paige Alyssa, Sun., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. LUSID AND UMAMI: Tue., Oct. 31, 9 p.m., $22.99. Tim’s Chrome Bar, 4736 Gravois, St. Louis, 314-353-8138. MADISON BEER: Sat., April 27, 8 p.m., $42.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. MARGARET & FRIENDS: Wed., Nov. 1, 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. MARTY ABDULLAH & THE EXPRESSIONS: Fri., Oct. 27, 8 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. MISERY: AN ELECTRO BALL: W/ Kontravoid, Buzz Kull, Nuxx Vomica, Jeff in Leather, The Mall, Thu., Oct. 26, 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Golden Record, 2720 Cherokee Street, St. Louis, N/A. MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW: W/ Tim, Danny and Randy, Mon., Oct. 30, 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. MR. WENDELL: Tue., Oct. 31, 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. NAKED MIKE: Tue., Oct. 31, 6 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. NIGHTSWIM: W/ Armories, Osmotic Gradient, Fri., Dec. 15, 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. NO GUARD: W/ Volition, Unseen Forces, Sun., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. NOPOINT: W/ Throat Piss, Thu., Dec. 14, 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. PARKER MCCOLLUM: Sat., Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m., $24.50-$84.50. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000. PAUL BONN AND THE BLUESMEN: Sun., Oct. 29, 3 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. PETEY: Wed., Feb. 28, 8 p.m., $24. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. PHONEBOY: Tue., Dec. 5, 8 p.m., $18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. POWERPLANT: W/ Abi Ooze, Pineapple Rnr, Wed., Nov. 1, 8 p.m., $10. Platypus, 4501 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-359-2293. RAE FITZGERALD: W/ Mold Gold, Dee Bird, Thu., Oct. 26, 8 p.m., $10-$14. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: Sat., Oct. 28, 2 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. SAWED OFF: W/ Primitive Rage, Necrotic Altar, Maladjust, Fri., Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. SHARON BEAR & THE CUBS: Thu., Oct. 26, 7 p.m., $5. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. SIMON JOYNER: W/ Jessee Rose Crane, Zak M, Carmen Ribaudo, Maureen Keaveny, Mon., Oct. 30, 7 p.m., $7-$17. William A. Kerr Foundation, 21 O’Fallon St., St. Louis, 314-436-3325. A SKY FULL OF STARS: THE DEFINITIVE COLDPLAY TRIBUTE: Sat., Oct. 28, 8 p.m., $20-$25. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. SOULARD BLUES BAND: Mon., Oct. 30, 9 p.m., $8. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. SYNOPTIC FREQUENCIES 7: W/ Claire Rousay, Aria Thomé, Sun Castle, Sat., Nov. 4, 7 p.m., $12. Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 3600 Hampton Avenue, St Louis, (314) 352-8050. TREATY OAK REVIVAL: Sat., Feb. 3, 8 p.m., $23. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. TYLER RAMSEY: Tue., April 9, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. VOODOO WEEN: Wed., Nov. 8, 8:30 p.m., $14. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. WATERPARKS: Tue., March 5, 7 p.m., $39. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. n

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OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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SAVAGE LOVE Animal Urges BY DAN SAVAGE Hey Dan: I’ve been carrying a lot of guilt and shame for a long time. (I’m going to drop a quick content warning here for sexual abuse: Some of your readers might want to skip my question.) I am a victim of childhood sexual abuse. My abuser forced me to watch horrible zoophilia porn while they abused me again and again. This left me with an addiction to this kind of porn. I really don’t want to watch it anymore. I hate it, and I hate myself for watching it. I want to know how to stop watching it as it physically hurts me every time I do, but I was conditioned to enjoy it by an evil person. This porn goes against all of my values, and I am so scared of anyone ever finding out. I’m still very young — not even 25 — and I want to know if there is any hope for breaking this habit and healing from this. Any advice is appreciated. I’m sorry if this question is upsetting, but I had to ask someone. I’m sick of feeling like a horrible person. Abuse Wounds Fucking Up Life I shared your question with someone who works with survivors of childhood sexual abuse — a recognized expert in the field — and they were happy to answer your question, AWFUL. This expert wished to remain anonymous here, in my column, to avoid having their No. 1 return on Google be their appearance in my sex column. “It’s not uncommon for child sexual abuse survivors to have some sort of additional exposure related to abuse or harm,” our highly credentialed expert (HCE) says. “Whether nonconsensual pornographic content or environmental exposures (like substances) or zoophilia, people who harm children often use conditioning techniques such as the ones AWFUL describes, especially taboo or shameful things, as that makes it even more difficult for the victim to disclose the abuse.” It is not uncommon for someone who is being sexually abused or assaulted to become physically aroused. This kind of arousal is an involuntary bodily response; it is not a sign the victim has consented or is experiencing pleasure. The body is acting in self-defense to prevent additional injuries. Even though this response is involuntary and not a sign of pleasure, repeated acts of abuse can create a powerful association. “Exposures to content AWFUL describes can get linked with not only the abuse but also the experience of arousal,” says HCE. “Which means, for people like AWFUL, sexual arousal can come with

compulsive sexual experiences linked to these contents and exposures — and quite a bit of shame. Those feelings of shame, anxiety and depression keep people isolated and away from people that can support them and help them heal.” And with support, AWFUL, you can heal. “There are several evidence-based therapeutic approaches that use cognitive and trauma-based approaches that can not only reduce feelings of shame, but also help to process emotions and trauma experiences,” says HCE. “These approaches help the brain process information and make new pathways for healthier intimacy experiences.” A good therapist can help you unearth your own authentic desires. Your own erotic imagination — your own erotic persona — is in there somewhere, AWFUL, waiting to be freed. Bear in mind that many people who weren’t subjected to sexual abuse are sometimes aroused by things that can seem, well, pretty fucked up to people who don’t share their sexual interests. If you break the hold your abuser still has over you, AWFUL, there’s a chance you’ll find some mildly fucked up shit lurking underneath it. But it’ll be your shit, AWFUL, not the shit that was imposed on you. It might not be hearts and flowers, it might not be the stuff of romance novels, but it will be yours. (And it could be hearts and flowers and romance novels — it sometimes is — but if it isn’t, don’t dismiss it as somehow or definitely tied to your trauma.) “I want to assure AWFUL that both trauma and sex therapists are knowledgeable about the behaviors of people who commit harm against children, such as unwanted sexual content exposure — and trauma and sex therapists understand the impact conditioning and exposure might have on arousal responses and compulsive/addictive behaviors,” says HCE. “AWFUL should look for a therapist that has experience in both trauma and sex therapy modalities. Someone trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) would be a good place to start.” You are not a terrible person — something terrible was done to you. You deserve help and sympathy, and if you reach out to the right professionals, you’ll find it. AASECT is a good place to start your search: aasect.org/referral-directory. Good luck. Hey Dan: I’ve met a boy who seemed so sweet. We’re both gay and out; he’s in his mid-20s, I’m in my late 20s. It’s been a year, we have a great and mostly vanilla sex life, and we successfully transitioned from FWBs to boyfriends. So far, so good. He told me ear-

He’ll be looking for younger men to treat him the way he used to treat older me. It’s the circle jerk of life. ly on that he sometimes hooks up with older men. (Guys in their 50s and up.) He says he doesn’t want to be with an older guy romantically and only wants a loving relationship with a guy close to his own age. I ultimately want an open relationship (and I think older guys are hot), so this wasn’t a dealbreaker for me. But at the time we talked, we weren’t hooking up with anyone else, and we agreed to check in before either of us took that step. He checked in with me over the weekend. This older guy he’s hooked up with a few times before is coming to town. I asked if I could see the guy, and he opened their chat and handed me his phone. The first shocker was how unattractive the guy was. He’s not some hot daddy. He’s a schlub. But the real shock was the way my boyfriend talks to this guy (actual quote): “u are OLD AF and UGLY AF but good dick u can breed me but u will have to BEG faggot.” My boyfriend said the “hotness gap” turns him on, and it was a power trip for him. I looked through some other chats (with his OK) and the other older guys he’s hooked up with were just as unattractive and his “flirting” was consistently cruel and demeaning. There’s no other way to describe it. The videos are even worse. He’s very sweet to me, Dan, and he’s very hot (and he’s already met my mom!), so I don’t want to end things. But I find myself obsessing about whether the sweetness is just an act. Is this cruel side the real him? He says he’s never been sexually abused by an older man, so this isn’t some sort of fucked up revenge fantasy. Is he harming these men? And is he going to treat me like this when I get older? Boyfriend’s Uncharacteristic Meanness Motivates Evaluating Relationship You’re worried the boyfriend’s sweetness is a performance — just an act — and the cruel person he is with these older men is the real him. But couldn’t it just as easily be the opposite? Your boyfriend is a sweet and loving guy who, like a lot of people, gets off on pretending to be someone he’s not every once in a while. In your boyfriend’s case, he gets off on pretending to be a pretty little asshole.

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Look, I’m a gay guy who made it to his 50s — to and nearly through his 50s — and I know a lot of gay guys around my age, BUMMER, and we’re a pretty resilient bunch. Most of us have faced a lot worse than some trash-talking little twink who wants to sit on our dicks. It’s sweet that you want to protect us from your boyfriend, BUMMER, but rest assured: We can take care of ourselves. And, as you’re a reader of my column, you have to know that there are guys out there who enjoy being degraded. Is there a chance some older man who wasn’t into being trash-talked by a hot twink put up with your boyfriend’s verbal abuse to get at his ass? Sure, that’s a possibility, BUMMER, but I’m guessing it was a learning experience for him — and maybe a sign he should hire next time — and not an emotionally devastating event he never recovered from. And this particular older guy — the fugly-ass dude who’s coming to town — is a repeat customer. So I think it’s safe to assume he likes it. Or maybe he’s decided that enduring your boyfriend’s abuse, which turns your boyfriend on, is a price of admission he’s willing to pay to get at (and in) your boyfriend’s ass. If it makes you feel better, you could ask your boyfriend if this guy likes being treated this way. If the question stumps him — if it’s not a question your boyfriend ever thought to ask himself or any of the guys he treats like this — then your boyfriend might be a monster. (A lot of people thought Ted Bundy was a sweet guy.) But I’ll betcha dildos to donuts that your boyfriend will respond with something like, “OMG, they love it!” I’m also willing to betcha that if you scrolled all the way to the start of one of his chats with some old and ugly fuck, BUMMER, you’ll discover it opens with an exchange of “heys,” with the dialed-up-to-11 degrading dirty talk coming much later. Finally, BUMMER, I don’t think your boyfriend is gonna start verbally abusing you when you get older. It’s far likelier that — when he’s an old and ugly fuck himself — he’ll be looking for younger men to treat him the way he used to treat older men. It’s the circle jerk of life. P.S. I’m happy to get a group of my 50-something friends together to discuss this directly with your boyfriend, BUMMER, to make absolutely certain this is an act and that it’s all consensual. Give him my email address and tell him to put “hey u OLD AF and UGLY AF faggots” in the subject line. K, thanks, bye. Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love Podcasts, columns and more at savage.love

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

RIVERFRONT TIMES

OCTOBER 18-24, 2023

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