Riverfront Times, February 26, 2020 by Riverfront Times

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MARCH 6-12, 2019

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THE LEDE

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

“I loved the drag show! They taught me a lot of things about stage that I can do when I get on stage. It was a lovely show. They broke the record, baby!” YVETTE JAMES, PHOTOGRAPHED AT SOULARD MARDI GRAS ON FEBRUARY 22

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

COVER Higher Calling Trinity Episcopal Church blazed a trail from LGBTQ rights to the National Register of Historic Places Cover design by

EVAN SULT

M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Advertising Director Colin Bell Senior Account Executive Cathleen Criswell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Jackie Mundy

TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS

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

INSIDE The Lede Hartmann

MO’s own Jeff Jensen has been called to do the president’s bidding

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A Touch of Zen | Transluminate 2020 | Arch Rival Roller Derby | The 39 Steps | The Office! A Musical Parody

Film

Cafe

Short Orders

Music + Culture

Once Were Brothers Original J’s

A R T Art Director Evan Sult Contributing Photographers Virginia Harold, Monica Mileur, Zia Nizami, Andy Paulissen, Nick Schnelle, Mabel Suen, Theo Welling, Jen West P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Haimanti Germain

From a photo by

News Feature Calendar

E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor Liz Miller Arts & Culture Editor Paul Friswold Music Editor Daniel Hill Digital Editor Jaime Lees Staff Writer Danny Wicentowski Restaurant Critic Cheryl Baehr Film Critic Robert Hunt Columnist Ray Hartmann Contributing Writers Jeanette Cooperman, Thomas Crone, Mike Fitzgerald, Joseph Hess, Robert Hunt, MaryAnn Johanson, Roy Kasten, KE Luther, Bob McMahon, Christian Schaeffer, Ymani Wince Proofreader Evie Hemphill Editorial Interns Trenton Almgren-Davis, Kristen Farrah, Hanna Holthaus, Jenna Jones, Monica Obradovic

E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein Creative Director Tom Carlson www.euclidmediagroup.com 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 S U B S C R I P T I O N S Send address changes to Riverfront Times, 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $78/6 months (Missouri residents add $4.74 sales tax) and $156/year (Missouri residents 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 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103 www.riverfronttimes.com General information: 314-754-5966 Fax administrative: 314-754-5955 Fax editorial: 314-754-6416 Founded by Ray Hartmann in 1977

Dani Leiran of Juniper | 9 Mile Garden | Fuego’s Pizza | Wellspent Brewing Co.

Psychedelic Furs | Stax Records | Yvette

Out Every Night

Fitz and the Tantrums | Durand Jones and the Indications | 2 Chainz

Savage Love 6

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HARTMANN Joining the Barr U.S. Attorney General William Barr called in St. Louis’ top fed to fight Trump’s battle BY RAY HARTMANN

he most powerful law-enforcement o cial in St. ouis has been appointed by Attorney General illiam Barr to participate in resident Donald Trump’s relentless assault on democracy. I’m guessing you haven’t heard much about it. But you might want to grab some popcorn. The St. ouisan is effrey ensen, who holds the formidable position of .S. Attorney in the astern District of issouri. He was

appointed by Trump in . n February , Barr chose ensen to join a Department of ustice (D prosecutor in a review of the case of t. Gen ichael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI more than two years ago. Flynn should have long since been sentenced. ow, his saving grace might be the timing of Trump’s march to monarchy. Since Trump was unshackled from the chains of impeachment by his epublican Senate servants, he has deployed his Twitter account, million followers strong, to wreak havoc on perceived enemies. True to his lifelong mantra — I can do whatever I want — Trump is e ploring uncharted presidential territory by attacking judges, prosecutors, jurors and witnesses who dare cross him in the judicial system. Trump chastised and tried to intimidate .S. District udge Amy Berman ackson as she deliberated on the case of his slea y old

pal oger Stone. After she ignored Trump and gave the felon a richly deserved month prison sentence, the president pouted publicly, angry about how that inevitable pardon will look for him. It’s always about him. The ne t felon up for Trump’s grace would be Flynn, who has conveniently discovered, two years after the fact, that his guilty pleas were actually the work of FBI ventriloquists or some other Deep State plot. So, of course, Barr has decided to investigate his own department’s handling of the Flynn case. ven the ultra conservative Washington Times offered Internal ustice Department reviews of cases are e ceedingly rare and likely to raise a whole new round of questions about political interference by top o cials. That’s not so promising for ensen. hen Flynn confessed to lying to the FBI way back on December , , it wasn’t for parking violations. Flynn admitted he lied to

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cover up his conversations with ussian ambassador Sergey islyak on the subjects of .S. sanctions against ussia and a . . resolution condemning Israeli settlements that ared ushner was trying, hopelessly, to get ussia to oppose. .S. District udge mmet Sullivan thought this serious enough that he told Flynn in late 8 ou sold your country out, adding I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense. ow our hometown guy has been tasked by Barr to discover that it’s much ado about nothing. Getting linked with Barr cannot be good for ensen. Barr’s resignation was recently demanded in a scorching bipartisan letter from an astonishing , former federal prosecutors, who warned that governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies.

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HARTMANN

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They called Barr unfit. Two of the signers are prominent St. ouis attorneys former .S. Attorney d Dowd r. and Ambassador evin ’ alley. The service of each spanned four presidencies, across party lines. ’ alley, who also served as resident bama’s envoy to Ireland, doesn’t mince words. I see no reason on the record available to the public to re open Flynn’s guilty plea, ’ alley says. He has already told the judge twice under oath that he lied to the FBI, once at the guilty plea and again at sentencing. ’ alley adds, I’m not suspicious of eff, but I am suspicious of the mission. But he’s way beyond suspicion regarding Flynn In my view, if a star general is saying he was tricked into lying during a non custodial interview at his own o ce by two FBI agents — and then pressured by a federal district judge to again lie openly under oath — then the problem is not with the criminal justice system, but with our system of military training. From the hometown perch in St. ouis, it’s unclear why Barr put in a call to the bullpen for ensen. True, he had a ten year career as an FBI agent before becoming a lawyer and prosecutor, and in normal times that might have factored into his selection. But there’s nothing normal happening here. ensen’s selection has received surprisingly little coverage at home — just passing news items in the Business Journal and at SD .com — and there seems more curiosity nationally than in St. ouis about why Barr cast a good guy like ensen into such a bad movie as Flynn’s. The most e pansive look came from an Associated Press story picked up in the New York Times and other places nationally, but not in St. ouis. It cited three glowing character references for ensen former .S. Attorney atherine Hanaway, ashington niversity adjunct law professor David osen and, yes, colorful local attorney Al atkins. Hanaway, ensen’s former boss and (later a law partner, unsurprisingly said He’s fair and unbiased, and he’s going to do the right thing. osen, who worked with ensen as a prosecutor, assured that ensen would do his very best to keep his work independent of politics. And atkins called ensen a straight shooter.

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Ambassador Kevin O’Malley: “I’m not suspicious of Jeff, but I am suspicious of the mission.” His word is good. hen he says something, you can count on it. He’s rock solid. To be honest, I wouldn’t have seen that last one coming. atkins is better known for receiving briefcases than briefs in epublican circles lately, so his appearance on behalf of ensen was une pected. But fun. There’s plenty of irony to go around here. Trump’s world is nothing if it’s not about condoning and spreading corruption, and it was ensen’s o ce that sent St. ouis ounty ecutive Steve Stenger to prison for that very thing. any people who followed the Stenger case probably associate it with Hal Goldsmith, the prosecutor who ensen brought in for the job, rather than ensen himself. That speaks to another reason ensen seems an odd fit for the task at hand He doesn’t seem all that fond of the spotlight. ensen has taken some bows for restructuring his o ce to combat St. ouis violent crime in general, and gangs and drug dealers in particular. But he is also a man of relatively few press conferences. How’s that going to work on the big stage It’s hard to see how this ends well for ensen, although only time will tell. If he stays true to those testimonials about doing the right thing, resisting politics and shooting straight, can he really say nothing to see here with respect to the lying scoundrel Flynn n the other hand, anything less compliant won’t sit well with the Boss. eff ensen has built himself a fine reputation in St. ouis. But if he fulfills the mission for which Barr has tasked him, he might find himself coming home without it. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann@sbcglobal.net or catch him on St. Louis In the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

NEWS Missouri’s Private (and Free) Birth Control Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

en months into a six-year, $20 million effort to expand contraceptive access in Missouri, some 9,000 patients have obtained some form of birth control, totally free — and not a dime of it is government money. The initiative, called The Right Time, works to provide free or lowcost birth control through seven providers across the state, a number that organizers say will expand to 21 next year. While The Right Time touts a “full range” of birth control methods, it does not cover tubal ligation, vasectomies or emergency contraception like the Plan B “morning after” pill. But aside from those exceptions, The Right Time is aiming to give individuals a chance to make reproductive decisions that don’t begin and end with the price. Kathleen Holmes, the vice president of strategic initiatives for the Missouri Foundation for Health, which is funding the initiative, says the The Right Time is about leveling the playing field when it comes to access barriers. “This is not an initiative to tell women what they should be using, but rather to help them make the most informed decision based on their particular intention,” says Holmes, who explains that that the initiative’s funding covers more than just the price tag; the initiative will pay for training and outreach for clinic staff, as well as ensuring that clinics can maintain stocks of the expensive but highly effective longterm birth control methods like IUDs and implants. The seven health centers currently enrolled in the initiative represent a total of fourteen clinics across the state. The next class of participating clinics is scheduled to be announced in March. Right now, half of the participat-

A Trump administration gag rule has drastically affected funds for family planning.| SHUTTERSTOCK ing clinics are located in the St. Louis region, including Planned Parenthood’s Central West End and South Grand locations and the Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Center in Florissant. Outside the metro area, the initiative’s reach extends to multiple clinics in Jefferson County, Columbia, Springfield and oplin. So, why set up a privately funded, multi-year campaign to expand birth control access in Missouri? At issue is the rate of unintended pregnancies, which hovers around 50 percent of all pregnancies in the state. (In 2010, the Guttmacher Institute found 51 percent of that year’s pregnancies in Missouri were unintended. In the most recently available state survey, from 2016, 51 percent of respondents answered “No” to the question “When you got pregnant with your new baby, were you trying to get pregnant?”) By 2024, The Right Time aims to cut 10 percent from the current rate of unintended pregnancies, which currently costs the state millions in health care and increases the risk of premature birth and low birth weight, conditions which put babies at risk of dying the first year,” warns Holmes. Recent studies and programs also lend strong evidence that expanding contraception access can help reduce abortions. The privately funded Colorado Family Planning Initiative reported that

“Even with Title X funding, there still is not enough funding to really meet the need of all communities.” its efforts “drove a 50 percent reduction in teen births and abortions” between 2009 and 2015. In St. Louis, one of the largest studies of contraceptive use was conducted by Washington University: In 2007, researchers gave thousands of local women free birth control, and over the next two years St. Louis’ abortion rate declined by more than 20 percent. Of course, this isn’t just a matter for deep-pocketed philanthropies. The federal government’s Title program is specifically tasked with providing family planning services to low-income and uninsured individuals. That mission was recently adjusted by the Trump administration: In August the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services implemented a “domestic gag rule” that bans Title X funds from going to abortion clinics, including health centers

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that refer patients for abortion procedures. This had a drastic effect on Planned Parenthood clinics all over the country, including Missouri. A report by the Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, found that Missouri’s Planned Parenthood clinics served 40 percent of the 56,540 individuals who received Title X-funded health care in 2015. With the gag rule in play, Planned Parenthood left the Title X program in September — which had the effect of decreasing health care access nationwide and in some cases leading clinics to shut down entirely. Other states have pledged to replace the lost public funding for contraceptive care. Missouri is not one of those states. That leaves private interests, like The Right Time in Missouri, to pick up the slack. Notably, the initiative is being administered by the Missouri Family Health Council, the same nonprofit that also oversees the annual distribution of $5 million in Title X grants to Missouri health centers. However, The Right Time initiative “has been in the works for several years” and isn’t a reaction to the Trump gag rule, explains Michelle Trupiano, the health council’s executive director. “Even with Title X funding,” she adds, “there still is not enough funding to really meet the need of all communities.” Still, Trupiano points out that the lack of contraceptive access predates Trump. It’s not a political issue, but a practical one for Missouri residents who are either uninsured or limited by employerprovided insurance that doesn’t cover enough of the price. And while conservative policymakers often blast birth control because of a religious opposition to casual or “risky” sex, she says that most people see contraception for what it is: The best way for individuals to choose the right time to have a family. “In my experience, contraceptive access isn’t as controversial as people would think,” Trupiano says. “Yes, it can be politically fraught at times, but when we get down to real people living real lives, this has been well received. We’re hopeful that it’s making a difference.” n

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AG’s Priest Abuse Probe Yields First Charges Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

e was “Priest 80,” but after a issouri prosecutor filed criminal charges alleging sexual assault, that unnamed priest was revealed this week to be Frederick Lutz. Until now, the retired priest living in Springfield had been identified only by a number in a report issued last year by the Missouri Attorney General — just one among 163 cases of reported priest abuse. On Thursday, Lutz, 76, pleaded not guilty in the Circuit Court of Stoddard County. He’s currently in custody on a $125,000 bond, charged with two counts of statutory sodomy, one count of sexual abuse and one count of forcible sodomy. According to the probable cause statement, all four charges involve the same then-seventeenyear-old victim; he told investigators that the abuse occurred in 2000 while Lutz was a priest in a parish in southeast Missouri. The fact that Lutz is even facing charges is notable, considering the fact that the allegations against him were known for years to atholic o cials and recorded in the church’s personnel files. Churches in Missouri have now opened those files to investigators. In August 2018, just three weeks after the release of an explosive Pennsylvania grand jury report that identified priests linked to more than 1,000 victims, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson offered then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley “unfettered access” to the church’s records. But unlike Pennsylvania, the ensuing investigation in Missouri would not involve a grand jury or subpoenas. At the time, the same sort of “invitation” made to Hawley was being repeated in more than a do en states. hurch o cials moved to get in front investigations that threatened to put bishops on witness stands and under oath in depositions. Instead, churches opened their books — and in Missouri, investigators under newly appointed Attorney

Retired priest Frederick Lutz was arrested last week on charges of sexual abuse and sodomy. | COURTESY MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL General Eric Schmitt found yearsold allegations against Lutz. In its September 2019 report, the Attorney General’s ce e plained that it was not naming the priests because they had not been criminally charged. But when it came to “Priest 80,” the investigators wrote that they found “multiple reports of sexual misconduct with minors occurring in the 1960s and 1970s.” In addition, there was a a victim who claimed that in 2000, as “a high school aged child,” the then 56-year-old priest had sexually abused him. Out of the 163 abuse cases contained in church records, the case against “Priest 80” was only one of twelve cases which fell within Missouri’s statute of limitations. In January 2020, the Missouri Attorney General’s ce referred the case to the o ce of the Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney, which dispatched an investigator to interview the alleged victim about the 2000 incident. In the probable cause statement released last week, the investigator wrote that the alleged abuse occurred between January and February of 2000, and that the victim had met Lutz while taking public school religion classes and doing yard work around the rectory in the St. Joseph Parish. That day, Lutz allegedly called the victim to his room in his rectory; once there, the teen found the priest drinking alcohol and watching porn on a television. The victim declined a drink and tried to leave, but he told investigators the priest “blocked the door and would not let him out.” Then, he said, Lutz forced him to

The victim told investigators the priest “blocked the door and would not let him out.” Then, he said, Lutz forced him to perform and receive oral sex. perform and receive oral sex. The victim, who is identified only by initials in the charging document, alleged that Lutz allowed him to leave the room only after he agreed to return the next day with marijuana. The victim was seventeen at the time. It’s worth emphasizing that these details were already contained in the church’s personnel files when the issouri Attorney General began digging for abuse cases in 2018 — and those records for “Priest 80” included a second case of alleged abuse, dating to 1972. Echoing the later allegation, it involved a seventeen-year-old victim who claimed Lutz had gotten him drunk and abused him while he was incapacitated. According to the court documents, the victim in the 1972 case formally reported the abuse to the Springfield ape Girardeau Diocese, but not until 2006, when the statute of limitations for bring-

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ing criminal charges had already passed. And yet, even with that information in hand, church o cials seemingly did nothing. Lutz served as a pastor in the St. Mary Parish in Lamar until his retirement in 2011. Then, in October 2018, two months after the Missouri Attorney General’s ce launched its clergy abuse investigation, the Springfield ape Girardeau Diocese put out a press release announcing that Lutz had been accused of “sexual abuse of a minor.” However, the press release noted only that “The allegation pertains to a period in the early 1970s.” The diocese’s press release appeared to omit the fact that the victim had lodged a formal complaint with the diocese in 2006, when Lutz was still performing active service as a pastor. The press release also contained no mention of the 2000 incident, even though, according to the Stoddard County investigator, Lutz had directly approached the victim’s father and apologized for what he’d done. Indeed, in comments this week to a Cape Girardeau CBS station, Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver said he was disappointed by the church’s reaction to the pending charges. “They declined to have a sit down meeting with us about this,” Oliver told KFVS-TV (Channel 12) on Thursday. “I was really hopeful with the statements that the church has made in the past about being serious about priest abuse. In my experience that’s not what they followed through with this investigation.” As for the Springfield ape Girardeau Diocese, a spokeswoman released a statement on Wednesday, claiming “the Diocese had previously reported the allegations against Fr. Lutz in Stoddard County to the then-county prosecutor years ago when the allegations were initially made.” That was news to the Stoddard County prosecutor. Reached by phone last week, Oliver told Riverfront Times that he’s yet to see any evidence of church o cials reporting Lutz’s actions to a previous prosecutor. “I’ve heard the diocese say that,” Oliver said. “I’ve not seen anything in my o ce that documents that actually happening. liver also noted that his o ce is still seeking information on additional victims. Anyone with further details can contact the prosecutor’s o ce at 5 5 8 , extension 4. n

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Trinity Episcopal Church blazed a trail from LGBTQ rights to the National Register of Historic Places

WRITTEN BY DOYLE MURPHY

n a hot, loud night in September 2017, a small band of people protesting police abuse retreated from the tension of the past twelve hours and filed through the doors of Trinity Episcopal Church. An armored vehicle with helmeted St. Louis cops rolled past outside on Washington Boulevard. Dozens of other o cers in riot gear were still advancing on foot a few blocks south on uclid Avenue, occasionally firing rounds of pepper balls that burst as they hit buildings or the random protester, delivering a pop of an irritant that burns the eyes. The activists in the church were protesting the acquittal of ex-cop Jason Stockley in the killing of Anthony Lamar Smith, and they would return to the street soon, but the parish hall offered a brief, welcome oasis. “We had water and snacks,” recalls Trinity’s young pastor, the Rev. Jon Stratton, “and anti-tear gas supplies.” For decades, the old gray stone church on the northern edge of the Central West End has not only served its congregation, but has also frequently provided a refuge for revolutionaries, outcasts and political dissidents. Countless organizations, religious and decidedly not, that were not welcome anywhere else have held meetings and programs in the parish hall. Over the Continued on pg 13

Trinity Episcopal Church. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS riverfronttimes.com

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HIGHER CALLING Continued from pg 13

years, a succession of progressive priests and lay leadership have made it the church’s mission to welcome the stranger and attend to the community beyond Trinity’s walls. That has been especially true when it comes to matters of social justice and civil rights. Nowhere has that been more evident than in Trinity’s long-running contribution to the gay rights movement. In une, the diocese’s first openly gay bishop will visit the church to celebrate its dedication as the first site in Missouri and one of fewer than twenty in the United States to be added to the National Register of Historic Places based on its importance in LGBTQ history. It’s a history that rarely gets any attention outside of a small number of academics and historians who bother to look beyond New York City or San Francisco, Stonewall or Harvey Milk when telling the story of gay rights in the United States. But St. Louis, and especially Trinity, proves the Midwest played a crucial role, says Dr. Katie Batza, an associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Kansas, who helped write the application for the national register. And telling that story lets people who feel invisible in the country’s middle see their hometowns in a different way. “They don’t have to move to New York or San Francisco to be seen,” Batza says. “You can just walk down the street.”

s far back as the 1950s and maybe even earlier, Trinity was following a path of inclusion that would have been unthinkable in other mainstream religions. Church historians describe “house blessings,” an understated precursor to same-sex civil unions and, eventually, marriages. The church, located a block south of Delmar Boulevard on North Euclid Avenue, sat in the midst of a neighborhood in flu . Wealthy white people were selling their homes and fleeing to the suburbs as less a uent black people moved into the grand old homes, which were being subdivided into apartments. “Faced with plummeting attendance and uncertain prospects, Trinity’s remaining members and the leadership of the local Episcopal diocese considered disbanding the congregation,” wrote Ian Darnell, a curatorial assistant at

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Trinity Episcopal Church will be added to the National Register of Historic Places for its role in the gay rights movement. | DOYLE MURPHY

The Rev. Bill Chapman served at Trinity for two dozen years. | COURTESY ELLIE CHAPMAN

“Bill Chapman didn’t have the view that gay men with AIDS somehow brought it on themselves. Instead, he had the view that they had a disease and needed help.”

the Missouri History Museum who has extensively studied St. Louis’ LGBTQ history and Trinity’s role during the period. “They chose, however, not only to keep Trinity in operation, but also to rea rm its identity as a neighborhood parish.’” That meant reaching out to the newcomers in the Central West End. Within a decade, the church had integrated significantly — a third of the congregation was black. That welcoming attitude soon included gay members as well. Trinity was in what was known as St. Louis’ “gay ghetto,” a vaguely defined swath of central St. Louis that had become a cultural hub, with gay bars and

coffee shops. By the late 1960s, Sunday services were filled with blacks and whites, gay parishioners and straight ones, worshipping shoulder to shoulder. Longtime parishioner Jym Andris, 81, says that legacy of inclusion impressed him when he and his then-partner joined later. Other churches “sorted people into two piles — you were us, or you were them,” but he could see Trinity was different from the first service he attended. “They were all worshipping side by side,” Andris says, choking up at the memory, “and they didn’t really seem interested in how different you were.” The inclusion of black and

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LGBTQ people began growing organically as a result of the neighborhood’s shifting demographics, but a wild night in 1969 pushed Trinity further into the gay rights movement. Halloween had become one of the premier party nights for gay men in the Metro area, the costumed tradition lending itself naturally to raucous drag balls in the gay ghetto. That year, there were big celebrations in the city and across the river in East St. Louis. Shortly after midnight, a group of nine men were leaving a gay bar on Olive Street when police arrested them. According to the police report, o cers were responding to reports of a fight among the group. A detective sergeant claimed they were arguing over boyfriends and shoving one another when he and four o cers from the department’s vice division arrived. At this time the cers through their own observations thought that several of the subjects were possibly males dressed as females,” the sergeant wrote in his report. Until the 1980s, St. Louis had a law against masquerading — wearing clothing of the opposite sex in public. The law was written in the 1800s for reasons that slipped away over time, but police had begun wielding it in the arrests of gay men. That the nine were stopped at the end of Halloween night when untold thousands of costumed people — presum-

Trinity Episcopal Church members have openly supported the LGBTQ community, including marching in St. Louis’ Pride Parade over the years. | COURTESY TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH ably a number of them in clothes that tweaked gender norms — had been partying throughout the city didn’t seem to count as a defense. Technically, Halloween was over; it was 12:25 a.m. Police hauled them all to the jail, fingerprinted them and booked them into cells. As proof of the men’s criminal behavior, the sergeant catalogued their outfits #1. [Name redacted] Light brown female wig, purple mini skirt, female type shoes, and white bell bottom pants #2. [Name redacted] Blonde female wig, purple dress, and silver colored nylon hose, silver high heeled ladies shoes #3. [Name redacted] Blonde ladies wig, multi colored ladies blouse, black mini skirt, nylon hose, panty hose, black ladies high heeled shoes #4 [Name redacted] Blonde ladies wig, white ladies blouse, black sweater, black ladies skirt, nylon hose, ladies girdle, and black ladies high heeled shoes #5 [Name redacted] Blonde ladies wig, ladies full length green dress, yellow nylon hose, brown shoes #6 [Name redacted] Brown ladies wig, silver ladies mini dress with a fur ring around the bottom, ladies black nylon hose, ladies black high heeled shoes, wearing a ladies necklace around his neck #7 [Name redacted] Blonde ladies wig, ladies ankle length white evening gown type dress, ladies black nylon hose, ladies high heeled shoes #8 [Name redacted] Black ladies

wig, ladies full length evening gown blue in color, ladies full length gloves white, ladies black nylon hose, ladies white high heeled shoes #9 [Name redacted] Blonde ladies wig, ladies white fur stole, ladies full length green evening gown, ladies black nylon hose, ladies white high heeled shoes Most of the nine refused to speak to police after they were taken into custody. But at least one answered a few questions. According to the report, a detective asked him about that night and whether he and the others were gay, even though the masquerading ordinance said nothing about sexual preference. “I have been going to the places in that block of Olive,” the 24-year-old reportedly said, “because on Halloween we get to dress like women, which I love to dress like, and that in this part of the city all the fellows are gay and we can have fun without the police bothering us.”

aids on gay bars and arrests were nothing new in St. Louis, but the response this time was unlike any police had seen. A few months earlier in 1969, the city’s first gay rights group, the Mandrake Society, had formed with eight people in a small apartment in the Central West End. Noted sociologist and author Laud Humphreys was among the organizers, and he wrote about the early days as the group tried to recruit more members by handing out mimeographed flyers at gay bars throughout the Metro area. Slowly the group began to build, holding large picnics for support-

By the late 1960s, Sunday services were filled with blacks and whites, gay parishioners and straight ones, worshipping shoulder to shoulder. ers and potential members in public parks. “September’s picnic drew 50 men and women, some of them in drag,” Humphreys wrote in his 1972 book Out of the Closets: The Sociology of Homosexual Liberation. “One middle-aged couple spread linens and a sterling service, lit candles, and sipped French wine. A gang of motorcyclists, along with a few men in the public park made remarks and posed some threat, but the picnic was not disrupted.” As the membership increased, Trinity opened its parish hall to Mandrake’s monthly nighttime meetings. The telephone number the group printed on its flyers and newsletters went to Humphreys’ and his wife’s home. “By October, we were beginning to receive calls from distressed homosexuals, generally in need of legal advice or someone to talk to,” he wrote. And then came the Halloween arrests. Humphreys was awak-

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ened by an early morning phone call alerting him to the nine arrests in St. Louis and about a dozen in East St. Louis. Mandrake members had already created a phone tree to spread news in emergencies, and they immediately began dialing that morning. Humphreys headed to the East Side but learned when he arrived that everyone arrested there had already been released without charges. St. Louis, however, was different. City police were determined to hold all nine on the masquerading charges. In the following hours, Humphreys and about two dozen gay activists and supporters arrived at the station to protest the arrests. Stunned parents came for some of the men, and Mandrake members and other allies were able to raise bail money for others. It took until after 8 a.m., but police finally released the rumpled partygoers to a crowd of cheering supporters. Despite what police wrote in their report about responding to a fight, Humphreys wrote that he interviewed the men individually afterward and all gave a consistent version of events that conflicted with the o cial police narrative. They said o cers were waiting for them as they left a gay bar and targeted them for arrest. And they claimed cops manhandled them in the police van and mocked them during their hours in custody, parading fellow officers and other prisoners past their cells to gawk. “Now I know how the monkeys feel at the zoo,” one of the nine later told Humphreys. It was just months after a raid on a gay bar in New York City

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Continued on pg 16

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HIGHER CALLING Continued from pg 15

sparked the Stonewall riots. In St. Louis, the Halloween arrests would similarly become a rallying cry in the gay rights movement. Forty five years later, in , one of the men arrested, salon owner Gregory Smith, recounted the episode in an interview with St. Louis Public Radio. The group of friends had just left a bar called the Onyx Room on Olive Street and were walking toward the gayfriendly Golden Gate coffeehouse when police swooped in to arrest them. Smith remembers singing Gypsy show tunes in the jail cell, until police made it clear that he was in some serious trouble. And he remembers finally walking out of jail that morning. “So I get to the processing desk to leave, and the guy says to me, I want you to take that wig off and walk out of here like a man,’” Smith told the radio station. “I said, I don’t think so. I’m in a purple dress and gold heels.’ I said, I’m going to walk out the way I came in.’”

ather Bill Chapman arrived at Trinity a few months before the Halloween arrests. He and his wife, Ellie, bought a big, old house for $24,000 in a run-down block of Westminster Place, not far from the church. “This place was in terrible shape,” Ellie Chapman says. “We loved it.” At first, they were simply parishioners at Trinity. Bill Chapman had run a ministry in the low farmlands of the Bootheel, and he and his wife had moved to St. Louis in search of better schools for their children. He initially worked on housing issues for the Missouri diocese here but was soon hired by Trinity as an associate priest. He eventually became its rector, staying for more than twenty

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Father Jon Stratton in 2017 with people protesting police abuse in St. Louis. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI years until his retirement in 1993. Square-jawed with a head of thick, dark hair, Chapman had been born in Canada and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at age seventeen. He flew as a pilot in World War II and maintained a certain steeliness even after he moved to the United States and became a pastor. He often pushed Trinity forward in support of issues he considered moral imperatives, such as backing same-sex marriage, which put him at odds with bishops and the Episcopal Church at large. Bill was fighting the battles, Ellie Chapman says. “I won’t say they were real battles — he did things that didn’t make him popular, but that didn’t bother him much. He had pretty thick skin.” When AIDS hit St. Louis in the 1980s, Trinity’s support for the LGBTQ community quickly drew it into the crisis. As the church had done in the 1960s and 1970s, it offered space to fledgling gay rights groups. But its involvement deepened as its own parishioners contracted the disease. “It was a really sad time,” Ellie Chapman says.

s! e c i Pr

Fear of the illness, coupled with no small amount of homophobia, had led to widespread ostracization of people with HIV and AIDS. Trinity, however, continued to care for its sick congregants — at least four of whom died of the disease. It also became a refuge for people from outside the parish, including people from other churches, who were forced to leave their congregations when they were discovered to have HIV or AIDS. “When people came with that illness, they were given as much mercy as the congregation could and help to live their lives,” says Andris, who joined Trinity in the mid 8 s, near the time the first cases were reported in St. Louis. “Bill Chapman didn’t have the view that gay men with AIDS somehow brought it on themselves. Instead, he had the view that they had a disease and needed help.” One of the people who showed up at Trinity during that time was the Rev. Charles Bewick, a British-born Episcopalian pastor who was forced out of his church when he contracted HIV. Trinity welcomed him as an assistant pastor and tended to him as he devel-

When AIDS hit St. Louis in the 1980s, the church did as it had done in the late 1960s and 1970s, offering space to fledgling gay rights organization. But its involvement deepened as its own parishioners contracted the disease. oped AIDS, grew sicker and died in 1989. Congregants marched in the Pride Parade in his honor, and to this day there is a painting in the church’s entryway that is a remembrance of Bewick. It’s a depiction of the holy family in which the figures are modeled after Trinity parishioners. In the foreground is a co n painted with the red St. George’s cross adopted by England. Chapman spoke at public forums about AIDS and prodded St. Louis media to cover the crisis with greater sensitivity and less fear-mongering homophobia, wrote Batza, the University of Kansas associate professor. The epidemic never hit St. Louis as hard as it did larger cities with bigger gay populations. But Batza says that also meant there were fewer services available to those

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A painting in Trinity’s entryway remembers the Rev. Charles Bewick. | DOYLE MURPHY who did fall victim to the disease. That extended even into death. llie hapman says finding a funeral home to handle the burials was di cult. There was only one in St. Louis that did AIDS burials,” she says. “They would always call Bill to do the funeral.” It was not a popular thing to do, fear of the disease being what it was at the time. But Ellie Chapman says her husband considered the parish as wider than the physical church, more like a neighborhood. “Bill’s idea was that if you have a parish, then you minister to whatever goes on in your parish,” she says. “That’s your territory.”

ather Chapman was a heavy smoker for years and died of emphysema in 1998 at age 74. Ellie Chapman, who taught writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, remains a devoted member of Trinity. At 92, she still works a weekly shift at the church’s food pantry. She has seen a number of priests carry on Trinity’s work since her husband’s death, and she is impressed by the Rev. Jon Stratton, the current rector. “In some ways, he is like a young Bill Chapman,” she says. “His sermons are, in a lot of ways, revolutionary. I think his heart is in it

the same way Bill’s was.” The 35-year-old Stratton was hired five years ago after serving as the director of an Episcopalian service corps in St. Louis. On a recent morning, he arrives at the church by bike, despite frigid temperatures, and lights a candle in his wood paneled o ce. “We have kind of a sewage backup problem, so that helps,” he says, apologetically. He grew up in the Pentecostal church in Southern Illinois, and his father was an evangelist and pastor. Although Stratton came to disagree with the conservative beliefs, there are lessons that he carries forward. “I was always taught that your Christianity wasn’t just something you did on Sunday mornings,” he says. That ethos has pushed him into the streets to advocate for equality and to support protests against killings by police in Ferguson and the city of St. Louis. Others from the church often join him, and for those who can’t, he believes it is important that he goes to bear witness. “The people of Trinity realize that Jesus calls us to make our beliefs real in the world,” he says. Continued on pg 18

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HIGHER CALLING Continued from pg 17

In many ways, the church has changed significantly since Father Chapman arrived in St. Louis. The Central West End is once again among the city’s most popular and expensive places to live, eat and shop. As the neighborhood’s demographics have changed, Trinity’s racial diversity has waned. It is now about 85 percent white, compared with the 1960s, when about a third of the congregation was black. The issues of the day have also changed: The masquerading ordinance that police used to justify the 1969 Halloween arrests was finally killed in the late 8 s. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that same-sex marriage is a right. Chapman used to privately conduct unions for gay and lesbian couples in his o ce; now marriage is the law of the land. Even the Mandrake Society, the groundbreaking gay rights organization, has faded away. Now, Trinity opens its parish hall to weekly meetings of the Democratic Socialists of America. Still, Trinity’s practice of reaching out to the surrounding neighborhood remains. It’s still the church’s parish, its territory.

“The church has changed, but this kind of ecumenical outreach ... it seems like it’s a continuing thread,” says Andris, the longtime parishioner. Stratton says there is still a lot of work to do on gay rights, but Trinity also focuses on issues of racial and economic inequality. Delmar Boulevard, the uno cial but stubborn border between white and black St. Louis, is a block north with all the city’s glaring failures it represents. Stratton points to the “institutional poverty, institutional racism” on display just outside the church’s doors. “We believe Jesus’ presence is in the people we meet on the street,” he says.

or all of Trinity’s history with political activism and revolutionary commitment to human rights, it remains a small and, in many ways, typical neighborhood church. There are potluck dinners and Sunday school. All the practiced routines of the liturgy have been largely unchanged for more than a century. When Jym Andris and Stephen Nichols moved nearby in the mid1980s, they had been a couple for about a year. One day, they went for a walk near their new home to find a church. They were not look-

ing for a gay church or an activist church, just some place where they seemed to fit. The people they met at Trinity seemed warm and welcoming. Andris had not grown up with the structure of an Anglo-Catholic church service, and he soon found comfort in the order and traditions, knowing that they connected the broader church across the world. “I’m kind of a traditional person, really,” Andris says. He had kept his homosexuality as a dark secret into early adulthood and long assumed he would never be able to get married and settle down with a person he loved. But that began to change when he started dating Nichols. As they grew closer, they began to talk to Father Chapman about the possibility of getting married. The larger Episcopal Church still did not allow it in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the topic remained controversial with some of Trinity’s members. One parishioner wrote Chapman a letter in 1987, worried that same-sex unions would induce straight congregants to “leave in droves” and that the church’s blessing would be “license for any kind of sexual behavior,” according to church historians. Chapman, however, gradually moved forward. He had already

been performing private unions in his o ce, but in he decided to grant a lesbian couple’s request for a ceremony in the open church. That is what Andris and Nichols wanted as well. “It was a controversial topic,” Andris says. He remembers a fellow Trinity member asking why he and Nichols couldn’t just have a “holy union” instead of a wedding. “Well,” Andris replied, “when I got down on my knees and proposed to Stephen, I didn’t say, ill you holy union me ’ I said, ill you marry me ’ Legally, it would be two more decades before same-sex marriage was allowed in Missouri, but Andris and Nichols had their ceremony. On May 15, 1993, the two stood in front of 135 of their friends and family, holding hands as they exchanged vows at Trinity. “It was pretty much just a familyoriented affair in the church,” Andris says. “I never thought growing up I could have such a thing.” Trinity Episcopal Church will install a plaque recognizing its addition to the National Register of Historic Places during a formal ceremony June 13 at the church, 600 N. Euclid Ave. For more information, go to www.trinitycwe.org.

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

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314.772.980 3153 MORGANFORD RD. ST LOUIS, MO 63116 Under new ownership, Three Monkeys has transformed into one of the best neighborhood restaurants & whiskey pubs in the area. With an ever-growing list of over 60 whiskeys, 16 craft beers on draft, specialty cocktail & an exciting new menu of gastro pub favorites - they have something for everyone. The menu is ample with offerings, including some of St. Louis’s best hand-tossed pizza, great shareable appetizers, burgers, vegetarian options, pasta, steaks & more. Embracing the price point of other south city pubs, Three Monkeys offers a great happy hour! Come enjoy $6 select appetizers, including the best fried Brussels sprouts in town, $5 Manhattans, Sazeracs & Old Fashions, as well as discounts on wine & craft beer. Sunday features one of the most extensive brunch buffets in the city, loaded with your favorite breakfast items, an omelet & pasta station, plus seafood, appetizers, desserts, & many other goodies. Located in Tower Grove South, it’s the perfect place to have dinner, share a pizza with family, or just belly up to the bar with your favorite drink.

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314.310.3343 4168 JUNIATA STREET ST. LOUIS, MO 63116 What began in 2013 as a passion project in the founder’s kitchen has now grown into a retail and wholesale potsticker manufacturing facility located right in the heart of Tower Grove South. Crispy Edge believes that potstickers are the perfect vehicle to explore authentic global flavors from breakfast to dessert: handheld, wrapped in dough, and CRISPY! The restaurant features indoor and dog-friendly outdoor seating, private dining room, and a café lounge. The full bar and hot beverage program highlight local specialty coffee, cocktails, and beers. All products are made in-house and sourced from the finest ingredients. From Ordinary to Extraordinary - Crispy Edge is a global community for those who want something fun, tasty, social and exciting to eat.

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

CALENDAR

BY PAUL FRISWOLD

The cast of The Office! A Musical Parody. | JEREMY DANIELS this month, so with one e tra day in February courtesy of the eap ear, what team will the Blues play The Dallas Stars, of course. The teams are currently battling for first and second place in the entral Division and the estern onference, so this is a classic e ample of a four point game. And with only si teen games left in the regular season, every win counts. The Blues and Stars face off at p.m. Saturday, February , at the nterprise enter ( lark Avenue; www.stlblues.com . Tickets are 5 to .

THURSDAY 02/27 A Non-Martial Artist King Hu’s martial arts epic A Touch of Zen is not your standard Hong ong action film. It has an atypical protagonist in u ( hun Shih , a somewhat clumsy artist who gets caught up in the life of the beautiful fugitive ang (Feng Hsu . ang’s father tried to e pose the corruption of General Shih, the head of the secret police. ow he’s dead and ang’s on the run from General Shih and his men. A Touch of Zen has a strong spiritual element to it, with holy men and ghosts playing a part in the action. A newly restored version of the film, complete with original inemascope framing and saturated colors, is showing at p.m. Thursday, February , at ebster niversity’s oore Auditorium ( ast ockwood Avenue; www.webster.edu film series . Tickets are 5 to .

FRIDAY 02/28 Trans-Theatrical ith the success of last year’s Transluminate short play festival,

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King Hu’s A Touch of Zen screens Thursday at the Webster Film Series. | (C) JANUS FILMS the ollective looks to make the celebration of non binary transgender plays and people an annual event. The second edition, Transluminate 2020, features five new short plays. ach Barryte and achel Bowens ubin’s Another in is about a human who wants to transform into a different species but is undecided about which to choose; with the aid of a spaceship, the person travels the gala y in search of the ideal new species. Transcodicil, by eter Dakutis, is about transgender couple oe and Shawna. oe is carrying their baby, a fact that may stop him from receiving his inheritance because of a codicil added

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

to his aunt’s will at the behest of oe’s transphobic mother. Transluminate takes place at p.m. Thursday and Friday, and at and p.m. Saturday and Sunday (February to arch at the hapel ( 8 Ale ander Drive; www.theqcollective.theater . Tickets are to 5, but the Thursday night performance is pay what you can.

SATURDAY 02/29 Leap Day Battle The St. Louis Blues and the Dallas Stars have already met twice

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Undefeated The women of the Arch Rival Roller Derby teams are down to their final two games before the championship, and two of the teams remain unbeaten. The 8 s and the Smashinistas will face off at p.m. Saturday, February , at the idwest Sport Hockey omple in ueeny ark (5 eidman oad; www.archrivalrollerderby.com , and only one team will still be unbeaten when it’s all over. In the second bout of the night, the Stunt Devils will go against the ebel Skate Alliance. It’s also alumni night, with the league’s early stars coming home to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of St. ouis’ ladies flat track

WEEK WEEK OF OF FEBRUARY FEBRUARY 27-MARCH 27-MARCH 44

Two unbeaten roller derby teams clash on Saturday. | BOB DUNNELL roller derby. Tickets are 8 to

WEDNESDAY 03/04 Scranton Sings!

SUNDAY 03/01 The Best of China ore than 5, years of hinese culture are celebrated through the ancient art of hinese classical dance in the forever touring Shen Yun. A full orchestra, lavish costumes and high tech scenery combine to deliver a feast for your senses, while more than dancers recreate the tales of poets, philosophers, generals and supernatural beings. Shen un takes place at and p.m. Saturday and p.m. Sunday (February and arch at the Stifel Theatre ( arket Street; www. stifeltheatre.com . Tickets are 8 to 5 .

MONDAY 03/02 Positively Hitchcockian ichard Hannay goes out for some light entertainment one night, which is interrupted when shots ring out in the theater. He soon ends up with a mysterious woman in his arms, who reveals that she’s a spy trying to track down a cabal that’s going to sell

British military secrets. Before the night is out, she’s dead and Hannay is on the run. All he knows about his hunters is that they have something to do with the mysterious Steps and the group’s leader is missing the tip of a finger. Alfred Hitchcock’s 5 thriller The 39 Steps was ground ero for many of his most popular themes. There’s a acGu n (the une plained military secrets , the arrival of a beautiful blonde ( adeline arroll who wants nothing to do our hero (despite being handcuffed to him at one point and the everyday man ( obert Donat who is forced to flee for his life. The lassics in the oop film series presents The 39 Steps at and p.m. onday, arch , at the andmark Tivoli Theatre ( 5 Delmar Boulevard, niversity ity; www.landmarktheatres.com . Tickets are . 5.

David Perron leads the Blues in goals and total points. | COURTESY OF ST. LOUIS BLUES

The Office has been off the air for about seven years now, not that you can tell. eople (particularly younger people still religiously watch — and quote — B ’s fau documentary about the employees of a Scranton paper supplier and their ineffectual man child boss. Is it because the sitcom is essentially comfort food in a world with fewer comforts every year Is it because of the internet nostalgia machine, which constantly repackages clips, celebrates the anniversaries of major events within the show and offers new theories on the true identity of the Scranton Strangler (it was Bob ance, ance efrigeration hatever the reason, the show remains a touchstone for a couple generations. nter The Office! A Musical Parody. This two hour show recreates the biggest moments in the show through the magic of song, with winks and nods toward the later jobs of the various actors. The Office! A Musical Parody is performed at 8 p.m. ednesday through Friday, and 8 p.m. Saturday and p.m. Sunday ( arch to 8 at the Grandel ( Grandel Square; www.thegrandel.com . Tickets are to . n

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

FILM

[REVIEW]

Judas’ Backing Band In Once Were Brothers, Robert Robertson fondly remembers his years in The Band Written by

ROBERT HUNT Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band Written and directed by Daniel Roher. With Robbie Robertson, Martin Scorcese, Bob Dylan and Ronnie Hawkins. Opens Friday, February 28, at the Landmark Tivoli Theatre.

ock music — especially in its first few decades — has always carried a heavy collection of mythology, so much that the history of the music might be better told by a modern Homer or Joseph Campbell than a Jann Wenner. The legends were inseparable from the records. There were heroes and heroines, romances and tragedies, and legends: How King Elvis aroused the TV multitude (even though they could only see his face); Lord Jagger outwits the Censors at the Court of Ed Sullivan; Sir Jimi tames the Guitar of Flames; The Fab Four outwit the Elder at the Temple of Transcendental Meditation. If rock & roll may finally have reached its declining years — a death that critics have been predicting ever since the genre rode in on the wheels of Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88” — it may have less to do with the shifts of taste or culture than with the cold reality of time. Every single person who played at Woodstock and is still around to tell about it is (with the exception of two young members of ShaNaNa) older than 70 now. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band is the latest of several recent documentaries that function as rock & roll hagiographies, but the tale it tells almost lives up to the un-ironic heroicisms of its title. Based on Robbie Robertson’s autobiography Testimony, one of the best of the current flurry of memoirs from the

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Now 76, Robertson remembers The Band with melancholy. | (C) DON DIXON rock hierarchy, Once Were Brothers recounts one of rock music’s most erratic not-quite-success stories. It’s the history of a group of musicians who created a musical tradition entirely their own and rose to the top but managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at every turn. Raised in Canada by a First Nations mother (Cayuga and Mohawk), his biological father was a Jewish gangster. (Robertson’s book contains anecdotes of this side of his family worthy of a rock & roll Goodfellas.) He was still a teenager when he joined up with Ronnie Hawkins, a rockabilly performer known more for nonstop touring and frenetic live performances than for hit records. (Hawkins, now 85, is one the film’s interviewees, free of any resentment toward his young protégés.) Through Hawkins, he met Levon Helm, a multi-talented wild man from Arkansas; over a short period, the other members of what would eventually become The

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

It’s the history of a group of musicians who created a musical tradition entirely their own and rose to the top but managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at every turn. Band fell into place and they were ready to strike out on their own. Their lucky break — the first great stage of the myth — came when Bob Dylan hired them as his backup band. (In the film, he de-

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scribes them as “gallant knights.”) Dylan had decided that he liked the noise and energy of rock & roll; his fans didn’t. Once Were Brothers offers generous footage from Dylan’s 1965-1966 concerts, facing audiences who Robertson recalls were almost uniformly hostile. He and his partners were making exceptional music that was completely out of sync with current taste. It wouldn’t be the last time. In 1966 Dylan moved to Woodstock, New York, to recover from a motorcycle accident, immediately bestowing the small town (which was not, incidentally, the site of the ’69 festival) with a reputation as rock music’s Camelot. Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman dreamed of making the town an artistic outpost, opening a restaurant, building a recording studio and encouraging musicians to take up residence. Robertson and company found a house known as “Big Pink” where they hung out with Dylan, recorded several hours of demos (the famous “Basement Tapes”) and eventually produced their own album, adopting the simple descriptive name “The Band.” (Robertson explains that that’s what everyone called them anyway, so why not make it legitimate?) The Band’s first album, Music from Big Pink, was an instant classic, the originator of the musical genre now known as Americana, but with what would become characteristic bad luck, they were unable to truly embrace success. Alcohol, drugs and near-fatal auto accidents kept them from touring to promote the album. A second album, simply titled The Band, matched the first in musical innovation. Albums and tours followed, but the bond that connected them was eroding. The myth had become a tragedy. Any history of The Band must inevitably pay tribute to The Last Waltz, their 1976 farewell concert which Martin Scorsese turned into arguably — no, make that inarguably — the greatest concert film ever made. Sharing the stage with a string of guest performers — Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Muddy Waters — who represented both the music that influenced them and the stages of their history, Robertson saw the concert as both the climax of

Robbie Robertson and Bob Dylan in the good ol’ days. | (C) BARRY FEINSTEIN The Band’s brief and ill-fated run and the opening of a new door, an eventual reunion that would allow them to work together in the studio without facing the pressures of the road. It didn’t work that way. Director Daniel Roher follows the rock documentary rules — film clips, historical markers and talking-head interviewers (Clapton, Springsteen, Scorsese) — but Once Were Brothers isn’t just another dip into the pool of early ’70s nostalgia. (For one thing, The Band were so isolated and insular that they don’t even seem to be a part of their era.) Robertson, whose stories are the foundation of the film (Garth Hudson, the only other surviving

member, was reportedly interviewed for the film but doesn’t appear), adds a note of resigned melancholy, a sense that he’s let his affection for his fellow musicians outweigh his disappointment. One gets the sense of The Band as spectral figures, castaways oblivious to the outside world. They created their own world, an alternate history with an unearthly sound drawn from rural backwaters and out-of-the-way juke joints. They were unique figures, proud outsiders in a culture that treats music as just another item for sale. Fifty years later, the music remains ethereal, their talent unavoidable. They were never meant to fit in. How could we have failed to see that? n

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

THIS WEEK THE GROVE SELECTED HAPPENINGS

Day or night, there’s always something going on in The Grove: live bands, great food, beer tastings, shopping events, and so much more. Visit thegrovestl.com for a whole lot more of what makes this neighborhood great.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26

7 PM AT TROPICAL LIQUEURS

DO YOU LOVE US? YES OR NO?!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28

8:30 PM AT HANDLEBAR

40 OZ TO FREEDOM

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27

$10, 7 PM AT THE READY ROOM

JOE MANDE

RISING ROYALTY: A NIGHT OF POP PRINCES AND PRINCESSES

8 PM AT THE READY ROOM

OH NO! THEY’RE GONE!

$5, 7 PM AT ATTITUDES

10:30 PM AT THE IMPROV SHOP

TED DANGEROUS

TRIVIA

$10, 8 PM AT THE IMPROV SHOP

fri FEB 28 western states and cara louise

sat FEB 29 julian davis & the situation

w/ chain station & barbaro

fri mar 6 mom’s kitchen

sat mar 7 caroline kole w/ Paige Alyssa + Katie MAC

tue mar 10 vintage pistol w/ dr. slappenstein

sat mar 21

jake’s leg wed mar 25 rhett price hiphop violinist

WESTERN STATES AND CARA LOUISE

$10, 8 PM AT ATOMIC COWBOY

MONDAY, MARCH 2

MY FRIEND CHUCK

8 PM AT ATOMIC COWBOY

COMEDY SHOWCASE AT THE SHOP

THE LAB

$20, 7 PM AT THE READY ROOM

$12, 8:15 PM AT THE IMPROV SHOP

8 PM AT THE IMPROV SHOP

COLORS WORLDWIDE PRESENTS: R&B ONLY

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4

MIKE JUDY PRESENTS

VARIETY NIGHT FT. PHILLIP RUSSO

WE CAME AS ROMANS, THE DEVIL

8:30 PM AT THE READY ROOM

8:30 PM AT THE GRAMOPHONE

WEARS PRADA, GIDEON, DAYSEEKER

SUNDAY, MARCH 1

FRESH PRODUCE BEAT BATTLE

$25, 6 PM AT THE READY ROOM

OPEN MIC NIGHT

9 PM AT ATOMIC COWBOY

MOM'S KITCHEN

8 PM AT HANDLEBAR

THURSDAY, MARCH 5

$10, 10 PM AT ATOMIC COWBOY

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29

LEAP YEAR YOGA AND BEER $25, 10 AM AT GEZELLIG

ONCE IN A LIFETIME: A SHOW OF ONE HIT WONDERS $5, 7 PM AT ATTITUDES

JULIAN DAVIS & THE SITUATION W/ CHAIN STATION & BARBARO

FRIDAY, MARCH 6

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CAFE

[REVIEW]

Country Strong Masterful fine-dining touches make laidback Original J’s a destination for the whole family Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Original J’s Tex-Mex & Barbecue 7359 Forsyth Boulevard, University City; 314202-8355. Mon.-Sun. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

he moment you walk into Original J’s Tex-Mex & Barbecue, you wonder if you may have mistakenly stepped inside an annex of the adjacent dive bar, Krueger’s. The place is covered in wood paneling — the retro kind that lined the basement walls at your friend’s parents’ house where you’d spend hours listening to Mother Love Bone and exhaling cigarettes through a dryer sheet. Vintage stained-glass chandeliers that appear fogged from years of smoke hang from the ceiling, while framed pictures of waterfowl and Waylon Jennings decorate the dining room. In the corner, an old Catch a Duck machine beckons young’uns and an old-school sit-down-style Ms. Pac-Man game, complete with burgundy pleather chairs, appeals to the young and nostalgic alike. If you were to conjure a scene that is the polar opposite of Mike Randolph’s beloved South American inflected blico, it would be Original J’s. The former, an upscale restaurant that closed in December 2018, was positively sultry; the way the flames from the wood fired grill flickered across the stylish bar and dining room set a date-night mood. Original J’s, by contrast, is the place you take the kids to be loud and shovel down platters of barbecue and cheese-covered carbs. On its face, then, his latest venture, which he opened with his wife, Liz, this past November, appears to be a pivot from the world of fine dining toward a more casual, family-friendly concept.

RIVERFRONT TIMES

A selection of items from Original J’s: A two-meat combo platter, Texas-style hot links, Mom Tacos, brisket chili and chicken enchiladas. | MABEL SUEN Such a move conveniently fits the storyline of the couple’s small restaurant empire Their fine dining restaurants blico, andolfi’s and Privado have all closed; both locations of their casual breakfast and lunch spot Half & Half remain open. Randolph would admit as much himself, noting the di culties associated with sustaining a fine dining establishment over the long term and the industry trend toward more low-key spots. However, if you look beneath the surface, there is a distinct thread that connects Original J’s to these former fine dining restaurants. There’s the way Randolph uses smoke and coaxes flavors from different chiles, just as he and his team did at blico; there’s the science behind the equipment and the techniques he experimented with at Privado. Wood paneling aside, Original J’s should not be seen as a departure from his fine dining background; it’s an extension of it. Understanding this, you get your answer to the question posed

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

every time another barbecue spot opens in the St. Louis area: Do we really need another one? And the answer is that it depends. If you approach the question from a sheer numbers point of view, you see a barbecue scene that is mighty saturated. However, if you believe that there will always be space for a place that is not only delicious but offers an interesting approach to the art and science of smoked meats, then there is more than enough space for Original J’s. Randolph, of course, does not want to scare people away with talk of fancy cooking techniques and the quality of proteins he sources. These are foregone conclusions at Original J’s, while the forward-facing part of the business is pure Tex-Mex comfort. Out of the gate, dishes like J’s Famous Chili con Queso show the restaurant’s inclination toward fare that is both approachable and of high quality. The cheese sauce is the velvety consistency you get from ballpark nachos, but without any of the artificial flavor. Flecked

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with green chiles, the cheese is smothered in a rich brisket chili. When stirred together, the components meld into a decadent, mildly spiced concoction. Taquitos evoke the ease of bar food, but in place of bland ground beef, the miniature fried cigarshaped shells are filled with rib meat that has the velvety texture of pork rillettes. The dish would be overly rich, but Randolph smartly pairs the taquitos with a side of zesty guacamole that cuts through the fat. Chicken wings are like the sweet and spicy guilty pleasures you get from the grocery store hot-wing bar — only grown up and infinitely more refined. The plump flats and drummies have a gentle smoke that is amped up by fiery arbol peppers, but dialed down with a lime and agave glaze. It’s a beautiful balance. You can get guacamole at Original J’s, but the tomato and avocado salad is a more unique and bright way to enjoy the creamy green fruit. Huge hunks of avoca-

J’s Famous Chili con Queso with brisket chili, Chihuahua cheese and green onions. | MABEL SUEN do are tossed with tomatoes, red onions and cilantro in a mouthpuckering lime vinaigrette that is a refreshing contrast to the decadence that peppers other dishes. ike at blico, riginal ’s devotes a section of the menu to tacos such as a wonderful pulled pork that is so succulent the meat’s juices drip down your hands when you eat it. The rich meat is balanced with fresh guacamole and piquant salsa verde. I expected the pork to be juicy; I was shocked that a pulled chicken version was even more so. A riff on al pastor, the chicken is dressed with a pineapple-habanero salsa, its spiced juices infusing the meat with a vibrant tropical jus. In addition to the standard handheld tacos, Original J’s serves a knife-and-fork Tacos Norteno. Here, a corn tortilla is layered with shockingly succulent brisket, molten cheese, tomato salsa, onions and cilantro like a haute version of seven-layer dip. If this were served at Super Bowl parties, I’d start watching football. Randolph also uses brisket as the filling for his chimichanga, a massive, meat filled fried tortilla covered in molten queso, salsa crema and guacamole. It’s a heavy dish, and though I enjoyed a few bites of the decadence, it was a little bit like using Louis XIII cognac as your base liquor with Coke: The brisket is so good on its own, it needs no extra frills to shine. And shine it does as a simple

Texas-style brisket platter. Randolph coats the beef in nothing but salt and pepper, then lets it smoke for 21 hours. The result is a fallapart, fatty slab of meat so tender you could butter your bread with it. The portion is so hearty, the brisket looks like a small slab of prime rib, a likeness that’s underscored by the fact that he ladles smoky, seasoned drippings over the top like au jus. Whether doing so is by the book makes no difference — this is a damn good hunk of meat. If Original J’s chimichanga is a study in decadence, the chicken enchiladas succeed because of their restraint. Tender chicken and ricotta cheese are folded into tortillas and baked with verdant green chile sauce. Creamy, but not so much that it overtakes the lightly smoked meat, the dish is perfection of the form. There is nothing restrained about the Original J’s burger. The mammoth, eight-ounce patty is stacked onto a brioche bun with thick slices of griddled onions that capture the flavor of hite astle hamburgers. The meat and onions are then smothered in queso; the taste is wonderful, though it’s di cult to eat. Like the Tacos Norteno, this is a knife-and-fork endeavor. Chili Colorado is a dazzling dish of luscious pulled pork simmered with red chiles that are less spicy than they are warm, smoky and evocative of baking spices. The Continued on pg 28

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

ORIGINAL J’S

Continued from pg 27

meat itself is revelatory: sticky on the outside, marbled with fat and fork-tender on the inside, every inch of it soaks up the chile-seasoned jus. It rivals the brisket as Original J’s best dish. Randolph’s deft touch is evident on Original J’s side dishes as well. Much more thoughtful than the traditional barbecue-joint sides, the restaurant distinguishes itself with accompaniments like lemony-dressed kale that is sprinkled with cotija cheese. The bright greens are like a palate cleanser — a must-try side dish for some of the restaurant’s heavier offerings. Cheesy hominy is Randolph’s answer to mac ‘n’ cheese, and the rich beans have a hint of heat and wonderful texture that is halfway between refried and baked beans. I was especially impressed with the plantains; the sticky, caramelized little nuggets have a subtle sweetness that pairs well with some of the spicier dishes. The ribs are one of those offerings. The massive, fall-off-thebone-style Compart Family Farms spareribs are heavily spiced with coarsely ground black pepper and

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Vintage stained-glass chandeliers hang from the ceiling at Origiinal J’s, while framed pictures of waterfowl decorate the dining room. | MABEL SUEN chiles. The heat is intense, mitigated only by the layer of buttery fat that marbles the meat. Thankfully, Original J’s offers frozen margaritas to wash down this heat. Served out of a humble slushy machine, you wouldn’t think that the frosty cocktail is

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

made with high-end tequila and imported Italian liqueur. If you close your eyes and focus on the flavor, though, you’d think you were back at blico’s bar sipping a craft cocktail. The wood paneling and country-western soundtrack may signal otherwise,

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but Mike Randolph’s masterful fine dining touch can’t help but shine through.

Original J’s Pulled chicken tacos ............................. $9.25 Chicken enchiladas .............................$14.50 Texas brisket platter............................$16.75

SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

Juniper’s Dani Leiran Cooks Without Limits Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

or Dani Leiran, cooking was always her refuge. As a teenager, she’d find herself in the kitchen any time she was overwhelmed or stressed, and it always made her feel better. However, it wasn’t until her high school guidance counselor intervened that she realized it could provide her with an answer to a question she’d been struggling with for some time. “It was my senior year in high school, and I needed to decide on what I wanted to do with my life,” Leiran recalls. “It was April, and I was going to graduate in May, and I needed to come up with something, but nothing was catching me. My guidance counselor mentioned someone that was going to culinary school, and it just clicked. I was like, ‘Yes, that’s totally it. That’s what I want to do.’” Now sous chef at Juniper (4101 Laclede Avenue, 314-329-7696), Leiran’s career in the kitchen seems like it was always meant to be. However, as a kid growing up in northeast Iowa, cooking was never really a part of her upbringing, unless she was the one doing it. Still, when she looks back, she sees that although her mom was never really a big cook, she inspired Leiran with her work ethic. Leiran realized just how important this was the moment she began culinary school; though the work was hard and the days were long, she found herself thriving in the environment and living up to the pressure. Leiran’s culinary school, Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, provided a great

Dani Leiran is the sous chef at Juniper in the Central West End. | ANDY PAULISSEN education for her, and she was able to hone her hospitality skills by working at its a liated hotel and restaurant. After graduation, she worked at a New Americanstyle restaurant and then a country club, but no matter where she was, there was a common thread. “The moment I came to it, I realized that I love pastry,” Leiran says. “I love decorating and the artistic side of it — shaping them, making them look pretty. Plus, they are the last thing people taste, so if they are the best part of the meal, that’s what people take away from the experience.” Leiran was enjoying professional success in Cedar Rapids when a group of friends told her they were moving to St. Louis, and she decided to join them. She saw the move as a chance to live in a community that had a much larger independent restaurant scene, and she longed to be in a place where she could be more creative. She found both of those qualities in Juniper the moment she walked in the door as a diner. Instantly, she was charmed by the feel of the place, and her opinions were confirmed when the food began to arrive. It seemed like the perfect place not just for dinner, but for her to launch her career in

St. Louis; determined to land a job there, she inquired about staging and, following that, ended up being brought on full time. “I never thought of Southern food as my favorite or something like that, but the people there care so much about putting out good food,” she says. “Everything is homemade; it’s a labor of love. People care, and that’s what I love.” When Leiran started at Juniper three years ago, she was put in charge of the restaurant’s pastries and prides herself on expanding its offerings. Although she loved that side of the job, she had to give up the day-to-day pastry work when she was promoted to sous chef. Leiran admits it was hard to let it go, but like the restaurant, those changes are what keep things fresh. “I love working here because it’s not stagnant; it’s always pushing and growing,” Leiran says. “It’s ever-evolving, which is cool. I love that.” Leiran recently took a break from Juniper’s kitchen to share her thoughts on the St. Louis restaurant scene, her impressive hair-braiding skills and why in her kitchen, nothing is off limits. What is one thing people don’t know

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about you that you wish they did? I’m really good at braiding hair! Ha. And I can swim really well also. What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? Getting to the gym between four and five days a week. It gives me one hour a day to myself, helps me clear my mind and makes me feel alive, which helps me be the best version of myself at work and in life. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? To touch anything hot without towels and/or protection. It would be so cool to reach into an oven and grab a hot tray without any repercussions. What is the most positive thing in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year? The movement of N/A drinks. It’s more than just N/A Busch;, it’s craft cocktails that allow someone who is sober, taking the month off or unable to drink due to other reasons to not feel stuck or excluded. What is something missing in the local food, wine or cocktail scene that you’d like to see? I feel a little uncultured with this answer. I haven’t traveled to

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

Continued on pg 30

RIVERFRONT TIMES

DANI LEIRAN

Continued from pg 29

a coast recently to see what’s progressing and happening in that sense to know what I would like to see in St. Louis. I really enjoy the progress and passion I’ve seen happening in this city since moving here two and a half years ago. It’s full of potential. Who is your St. Louis food crush? Indo is my food crush — the place as a whole. Everyone behind Indo is so young and driven and making some serious noise with the amazing food being created, which is rightfully

deserved. Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene? Matt McGuire and the entire team at Louie, for me personally, is always on the watch. What they do at Louie seems to be timeless. It’s a place that has kept the same menu, for the most part, with seasonal changes since they’ve opened, and it’s consistently good every time. There’s something big to be said about that. Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? Salt! I love salt, especially when preparing desserts. It’s used in every cuisine, dish and has no limits.

I try to not limit myself to one specific kind of cooking and love learning about every kind of food and becoming more knowledgeable. If you weren’t working in the restaurant business, what would you be doing? I would be a barber. Working with a sharp-edged razor seems to be something of a dying art and easily forgotten in busy lifestyles. Name an ingredient never allowed in your restaurant. I can’t say I personally have an ingredient I hate and will never allow. There are things I don’t enjoy and love, but the goal is to make food for guests to enjoy and love that shouldn’t be limited by

me in that sense. What is your after-work hangout? I work late nights, so I generally hang out at Juniper and have a drink or go home, but I love going to Small Change on Sundays after working brunch. That place is the best. What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure? Domino’s. Damn, that pizza is good every single time! What would be your last meal on Earth? Kounter Kulture. Omu ramen for starters followed with a tofu bibimbap, but I will happily die after eating anything from there. n

[FOOD NEWS]

Affton Food-Truck Garden to Feature 30 Awesome Local Trucks Written by

LIZ MILLER

his spring, when the 9 Mile Garden (9375 Gravois Road, Affton) food-truck park debuts in Affton, it will feature some of the very best chefs working in the St. Louis area. In November, we learned of initial plans for 9 Mile Garden, including its intent to feature some of the area’s top food trucks for lunch and dinner six days a week. Last month came news that the food-truck garden would include the Canteen, a “modern drafthouse” that will “serve as an anchor for the outdoor entertainment district.” Earlier this month, the names of the 30 partnering food trucks were announced. Currently, the plan is for vendors to each be on-site two days a week as well as at special events in the evenings, according to a recent release. The press statement also notes that guest trucks will vend at the garden from time to time. The food-truck garden’s opening roster is set to include the following vendors: Balkan Treat Box, Farmtruk, Seoul Taco, Guerrilla Street Food, Doggie Mac’s, Sugarfire 64, Essentially Fries, Wok and Roll, The Saucy Iguana, Ukraft, Truckeria Del Valle, Burgers STL, Wayno’s, Blues Fired Pizza, Spud Shack, The Crooked Boot, Honest to Goodness, Sedara Sweets, Zia’s On The Hill, Super Smokers, CJ’s Deli, Tastebudz Express, Heavy Smoke BBQ, Fire & Ice Cream Truck, Truck Norris, Scoops & More, Poptimism, Graze, Smokey’s Q and Twisted Tacos. “We’re both excited and honored to have such a stellar lineup of trucks at 9 Mile Garden,” the venture’s manag-

RIVERFRONT TIMES

The food-truck garden will offer a rotating selection of food trucks for lunch and dinner six days a week. | COURTESY 9 MILE GARDEN ing partner Brian Hardesty said in the release. “We’re bringing the best of the local food truck scene to our visitors, as well as providing a dedicated place for trucks to serve their food and grow their businesses.” Located in Affton Plaza, a shopping center owned and operated by Seneca Commercial Real Estate, 9 Mile Garden will be the first permanent location in the area to assemble such a broad and impressive lineup of food trucks. Upcoming vendors such as Samantha Mitchell of Farmtruk and Bryan Scott of Doggie Mac’s shared their excitement and enthusiasm for the project in the release. “Farmtruk is proud to be part of this core group of trucks at 9 Mile Garden,” Mitchell said. “This is so exciting for our city because it will provide a stable place where people can go to find their favorite trucks. Major cities all have food truck parks like this; it’s a progressive move for St. Louis.” “This is the future of food trucks in St. Louis,” Scott said. “It’s the kind of thing I

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

“It’s the kind of thing I envisioned when I opened my truck, and it’s what will drive the popularity of food trucks over the top in St. Louis.” envisioned when I opened my truck, and it’s what will drive the popularity of food trucks over the top in St. Louis. We all enjoy having a variety of foods in one place, and when you add in the opportunity to socialize and gather as a community,

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it’s a game-changer for our city. There’s nothing like it here.” In addition to queuing up “a daily rotation of St. Louis’ best and most beloved food trucks,” 9 Mile Garden aims to be a hub for entertainment of all types, from livestreams of sporting events to live performances. In addition to public events, the park will be available to rent for private events including weddings, corporate gatherings and fundraisers. The garden’s name is inspired by “the days before streets had names or road markers, where landmarks were named for their distance from the courthouse or city center.” Located nine miles from the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis, 9 Mile Garden’s name is an homage to “a time in St. Louis history when farmers would drive their harvests to an open space and line up their trucks into a formation that allowed people to walk along and choose what items interested them most. These were called ‘truck gardens,’ and Affton was known for having a high concentration of them.” n

[FOOD NEWS]

Fuego’s Pizza Jumps into Feraro’s Old Space Written by

MONICA OBRADOVIC

t was a horror I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Last month, when I pulled up to my favorite pizza joint, Feraro’s Jersey Style Pizza, a sign hung in the window offering terrible news. “Sorry, we’re closed.” Perhaps on its own this wouldn’t have been such upsetting information, but judging by the environs inside the pizzeria, the sign meant that Feraro’s was closed for good. It may as well have been a knife to my Jersey-style-pizza-loving gut. During my early college years, Feraro’s was a haven for me and my friends. The restaurant’s inexpensive slices made me a Jerseystyle pizza fan before I even knew what Jersey-style pizza meant. I’d go after school with friends, get a delectably greasy slice with pineapple on top (haters gonna hate) and eat it folded in half like a true wannabe New Yorker. Fortunately for south-county ’za fans, a new pizza joint will

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Fuego’s Pizza will soon open at 11726 Baptist Church Road. | MONICA OBRADOVIC soon take its place. The new spot, Fuego’s Pizza (11726 Baptist Church Road, Concord; 314270-4100), plans to open in early March inside the hole-in-the-wall where Feraro’s once operated between a Baskin-Robbins and convenience store off of Baptist Church Road. As construction on the new concept began, Fuego’s co-owner Dominic Galaske says he frequently spotted hungry Feraro’s customers experiencing similar mixed emotions. “I get the pain and loss,” Galaske says, “but we’re hoping people will give us a shot, too.” Galaske and his business partner, Chris Barker, moved into the former Feraro’s space on January 2. The pizza place will serve St. Louisstyle pizza made with a mozzarella cheese blend instead of Provel. Fuego’s will also serve sandwich-

es with house-baked bread and preservative-free meat. The pizzeria’s menu will be rounded out with nontraditional dishes such as nachos and homemade beignets. “There’s a Southwestern hint to some of what we’re doing, but it’s not really a fusion,” Galaske says. Fuego’s will offer specialty pizzas as well, such as a street taco pizza topped with al pastor and poblano peppers. The shop will also offer signature sauces such as the Fuego made with Carolina Reaper peppers and an Asian barbecue-inspired sauce called Sweet Samma Jamma. The partners have both previously worked in the restaurant business — Galaske opened restaurants through NPC International, a Kansas-based franchisee of Pizza Hut and Wendy’s, while Barker worked at Imo’s Pizza — but Fuego’s is the first spot they’ve

opened themselves. They’ve both had their eyes on the Feraro’s south-county location for years, Galaske says. The space has housed pizzerias for more than 60 years, including the tenant before Feraro’s, That’sa Nice’a Pizza, which now operates an outpost in Arnold. When Galaske and Barker learned that the strip-mall space was available, they jumped at the chance to take over the lease. The Feraro’s on Baptist Church Road was the local chain’s last operating location. Two pizzerias — one in Soulard and another in the Patch neighborhood — closed in 2013 and 2017, respectively. Jon Feraro started the Jerseythemed pizza chain with his mother, Nancy, in 2005. “Fifteen years is a good run,” Feraro says. “I wouldn’t trade the years I was with Feraro’s for anything in the world.” He tells the Riverfront Times that he hasn’t owned the local pizza chain since 2016 when he sold it to the brand’s current owner, Ben Abel. After Feraro’s Patch location closed in 2017, Abel told the RFT that he planned on focusing on the south-county store and wanted to expand Feraro’s with additional locations west of Sappington. Feraro declined to comment about the future of Feraro’s and referred the RFT to speak with Abel, who is currently abroad and couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. In the meantime, I’ll be searching for my ne t fi of ew ersey style pizza in the St. Louis area and eager to try Fuego’s take on St. Louis-style ’za next month. n

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

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[FOOD NEWS]

After a Six-Month Hiatus, Wellspent Brewing Co. Reopens in Midtown Written by

KRISTEN FARRAH

n February 15, the doors at Wellspent Brewing Co. (2917 Olive Street, 314-328-0505) opened for the first time since early August. The brewery’s absence was certainly felt in the St. Louis beer community — and its return was just as heralded. In the weeks before it reopened, Wellspent’s Instagram posts were flooded with excited comments and questions about the reopening from loyal customers. Fans of the previous iteration will be happy to hear from Wellspent founder and head brewer Kyle Kohlmorgen that the brewery has retained the same laidback feel and core lineup of beers. “Any person should be able to walk in here and feel comfortable,” Kohlmorgen says. “That’s our number one thing.” For those familiar with the original brewpub, not much inside has changed: It still features an open concept with rows

of long, polished wooden tables in the center of the room. Baskets overflowing with board games are pressed against one wall, while corn-hole boards rest against the other. (Although Kohlmorgen might let you play the yard game inside if you ask nicely, the outdoor patio is the preferred option.) Just past the tables, you’ll spot the bar, which currently features fifteen beer taps flanked on either side by glasses hung upside down, waiting to report for duty. Wellspent currently features five of its signature house brews alongside five new ones. “We brew a lot of beer and we can always switch things up,” Kohlmorgen says. “Since we’re brewing more beers, we can refine the recipes and processes that we do.” Kohlmorgen said Wellspent brews around five to eight different beers each month; all the brewing takes place directly behind the bar. Literally. Take a stroll behind the draft beer pulls and you’ll bump into giant metal tanks. Beers are then transferred to wooden barrels stored just left of the taproom. Kohlmorgen’s beers are made with a special house culture he likens to a sourdough starter and acts as the base for most of his brews. One of Wellspent’s new beers on offer is a blackberry sour made by aging fresh blackberry puree in a wheat beer. (Yes, I definitely snuck a few sips of it after I took pictures, and as

Wellspent’s blackberry sour is part of the brewery’s “On the Bright Side” collection. | KRISTEN FARRAH someone who had never tried a sour ale before, wow, was it delicious. Super refreshing and bright, the blackberry sour was a welcome distraction from a rainy,

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cloudy day.) Although Kohlmorgen likes to keep the entire Wellspent experience under one roof, the brewery does sell a few beers by the bottle, which are all packaged and labeled by hand. Bottles of Baq 2 Baq, a dark Belgian-style ale aged in wine and brandy barrels, get a helping of purple melted wax poured over top for a dramatic and eye-catching seal. Kohlmorgen began brewing beer in college. What started out as a hobby bubbled into waiting for the right moment to transition it to a career. A lot of patience and ten years later, Kohlmorgen and his wife, Angela, opened Wellspent in 2018. The two ran the brewery until August 2019 when they were forced to shut it down due to financial troubles. Although the doors closed, ales kept aging in the dark, waiting for a new owner. Kohlmorgen found a former customer in late 2019 who believed in Wellspent and decided to invest in the company. Kohlmorgen says he loves the sense of community in the local beer scene, and to that end, Wellspent’s menu pays homage to the other area brewers by featuring guest pours from around town. “I couldn’t be happier with where we’re at and having the friends we do in St. Louis,” Kohlmorgen says. The brewery is open Wednesday through Sunday with hours that vary day to day; take a peek at Wellspent’s website to learn more. n

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

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MUSIC + CULTURE

[RECORDING]

Furs Things First How the Psychedelic Furs’ first album in 29 years, the forthcoming Made of Rain, came to be recorded in St. Louis Written by

THOMAS CRONE

ason McEntire, in discussing the time spent with the Psychedelic Furs at his Sawhorse Studios, moves through the multiple rooms of his complex, which is located in an unassuming storefront in south city’s Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. He points to the places where various members sat and smoked, or where they tucked away to get some peace, or where singer Richard Butler holed up with a laptop in order to sketch out lyrical ideas. At one point, McEntire notices a couch where Butler’s bass-playing brother Tim sat for a good chunk of their sessions, simply plugging in there rather than in the primary working studio. Today, the studio’s house dog, a remarkably relaxed weimaraner named Joey, is sound asleep on the space, which is normally his own homebase. oor oey had to find other hangs during the Furs’ stay at Sawhorse, a fascinating experience that speaks well to the modern music recording landscape. As first reported by the RFT, the members of the Psychedelic Furs came to Sawhorse to record their first album in years, the forthcoming Made of Rain, due to producer Richard Fortus wishing to spend time in his hometown of St. Louis after an extensive year of touring with his longtime band Guns N’ Roses. Encouraged by his wife Stephanie, Fortus called on his old friend McEntire and signed on with the studio, with McEntire initially slated to be the album’s second engineer. When the group’s members were eventually able to settle on studio dates

Made of Rain, due May 1, is the first album by the Psychedelic Furs since 1991’s World Outside. | MATTHEW REEVES

“[Fortus] has this crazy, encyclopedialike inventory in his head. He’d say something like, ‘Have you ever heard of the Klondike 4000? There were only twenty of these made and I have two of the twenty.’ ‘Well, no, I didn’t know about that. How would I know about that?’ And every day I’d walk in and there’d be a new row of pedals.” that would accommodate their own touring needs, the recording process began in earnest, with the Butlers, drummer Paul Garisto and guitarist Rich Wood assembling at Sawhorse, and the band’s other members — keyboardist Amanda Kramer and sax player Mars Williams — adding their digital fingerprints elsewhere. McEntire calls the experience “a real feather in the cap” for his studio. It was also a long-running situation, dating back years. “They’d reached out to Fortus and he wanted to stay in town,” c ntire recalls. The first email was just to make sure the equip-

ment list would su ce. ou want to have a good amount of proper gear. God forbid they get here and say, ‘This is all you have?’ Fortus and I got together in March of 8 and were talking as far back as ctober of ’ , or even earlier than that. The Furs were touring, in and out. They were kicking demos around with Fortus and he kept saying, ‘Don’t worry, it will happen.’” Along the way, McEntire became the first engineer, to boot. According to Fortus, that was a natural outgrowth of working at Sawhorse. “What I liked most about Sawhorse is Jason,” Fortus says during

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a hometown break from his G N’ R duties. “He’s the biggest asset. It’s a nice room, but not real fancy. He’s a very talented engineer and I liked working with him.” According to Fortus, the decision to lay the record down in St. Louis made more sense than one might think. Though the Psychedelic Furs is traditionally thought of as a U.K.-based band, its members live across the U.S., making St. Louis a good central location to set up camp. “It made sense for us to record in St. Louis,” Fortus says. “Everybody in that band is spread out. One guy’s in the desert in California, one’s in upstate ew ork. ou’ve got Tim in entucky, I believe, and Paul in D.C., Mars in Chicago. It made perfect sense. Not that hard of a sell.” Fortus’ time as a collaborator with the Furs dates back a ways. His band Pale Divine (nee The Eyes) parlayed their too-brief run on Atlantic Records into an opening slot with the group, before Fortus would eventually split from Pale Divine to form Love Spit Love with Butler. Eventually, as that act ceased, the Furs would come back together, and Fortus served a stint as guitarist in the band before leaving for Guns N’ Roses and an insane amount of session and

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PSYCHEDELIC FURS Continued from pg 35

touring work across every genre imaginable. Being sought out as a producer isn’t a completely new feeling for Fortus, and he’s been able to dabble in that successfully through the use of a high-quality home studio. “What we did with the Furs is having the basic tracking done at Sawhorse,” Fortus says. “Then I did overdubs and some vocals at Dreamland in ew ork with Richard and eventually redid most of those vocals at my place in St. Louis. Probably for nine out of ten things that I do for other people, I do at my house. I’ve got great mics and pre-amps and obviously all of my guitar gear there. The bottom

line is that, in this day and age, things have sort of leveled out. Because you can have great studios anywhere. But when it comes to drums, that’s the one thing I’m not capable of at my house.” At Sawhorse, the Furs’ seasoned drummer Garisto was able to play across two studios, with a larger and a smaller kit available in different rooms in order to gain different feels. Tim Butler found his home on the couch. And guitarist Wood was treated to something special, in the form of Fortus’ personal selection of vintage and modern guitar pedals, so many of which were brought in that Wood eventually wound up creating a small walking path into the corner of Sawhorse’s primary studio room. “It’s insane, the stuff Fortus would bring in here,” McEntire

jokes. “He’s got such a selection of gear that it was like Christmas for Wood. And he has this crazy, encyclopedia-like inventory in his head. He’d say something like, ‘Have you ever heard of the londike There were only twenty of these made and I have two of the twenty.’ ‘Well, no, I didn’t know about that. How would I know about that?’ But Rich Wood was in heaven, and every day I’d walk in and there’d be a new row of pedals.” A lot of this work took place well over a year ago, though there’s an end in sight. With sixteen tracks fully sketched out at Sawhorse and beyond, twelve cuts will make up the final version of Made of Rain, slated for a May release. emarkably, it’ll be the first record under the Furs name since ’s World Outside, with

[HOMESPUN]

True Blue Blue Lotus’ Stax Records tribute this weekend is a match made in soul heaven Written by

CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

n his dreams — where cost is no object, where making music is still a viable profession — Paul Niehaus IV would love to turn his Blue Lotus imprint into an honestto-God record label in the old-school tradition. He could keep a house band on the clock to back up the label’s roster; he could devote time and resources to artist development; he could take the operation from his well-appointed south-city basement to a full-fledged studio. But in 2020, where low- or no-cost streaming has become the listener’s apparent birthright, running a label looks a lot more like an act of passionate zealotry. While Blue Lotus puts out its fair share of original releases from the likes of soul singers Roland Johnson and Gene Jackson, this weekend the label will host a tribute to Stax Records, a multi-singer tribute to the Memphis-based label that brought us deathless hits by Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and more. Niehaus admits that paying tribute to the label’s forebears is fun for the artists as well as good for the label’s profile, and he hopes that showgoers this weekend will seek out the artists’ own material. “Man, it’s art versus commerce,” Niehaus says from behind the mixing desk of his basement studio. “People like something that’s familiar, I think. It’s something I think about a lot. That informs me a lot as an artist, to make

St. Louis soul mainstays Gene Jackson and Roland Johnson will lend their voices to this weekend’s Stax Records tribute. | VIA BLUE LOTUS RECORDINGS something that is both familiar and new.” The label has paid tribute to Stax in the past, as well as Motown and Chess Records. Niehaus notes that they tend to be successful shows that bring out a new audience, and the revue style of the concert gives each singer a few songs to put their stamp upon. “We get a chance to feature a ton of different artists out front, backed up by a house band,” he says. For this week’s show, the Stax songbook will be interpreted by a handful of local singers: Johnson, who has become Blue Lotus’ de facto marquee name, will be there. He and Gene Jackson will pay tribute to Sam & Dave, as well as perform solo sets. But it’s a few of the lesser-known names Niehaus is excited about: Tru Born, a guitarist and introspective singer-songwriter, will tackle the Staple Singers’ “Respect Yourself.” Ms. Hy-C, who leads the soul-blues sextet Fresh Start, will handle another Staple classic, “I’ll Take You There,” and Brother

Jefferson will interpret some of Albert King’s Stax sides. In keeping with the label’s tradition — where a house band would back up the singers on the roster — Niehaus has assembled his own wrecking crew: Niehaus will be on keyboards, along with guitarist Bob Kamoske, bassist Gus Thornton and Kevin O’Connor on drums. A two-piece horn section will support the singers as well. Many of those players have worked with Niehaus in the past; O’Connor wrote and arranged many of the tracks on Roland Johnson’s latest, Set Your Mind Free, and Blue Lotus released the last solo album by slide guitar virtuoso Kamoske. “If you can build a community of talented, inspired people, the sum is greater than the total of the parts,” Niehaus says. Even though singers like Jackson and Johnson have been performing almost as long as Niehaus has been alive, the partnership between singer and producer de-

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the single “Don’t Believe” released at the end of January. Fortus’ role, he says, is part of the new reality “of going to where the producers are,” which is what c ntire is finding, as well. “He’s a super nice guy and really, really bright,” says McEntire of Fortus, one of three Richards in the Furs’ camp. “I was almost more intimidated by the fact that he’s a St. Louis contemporary and I didn’t want to disappoint him. I wanted him to feel like this is as good as working with any ew ork cats. “I’m really happy that they felt content enough to come in for a second visit, and I’m happy to have pleased Fortus as much as the other guys,” he adds. “The producer is who you are trying to satisfy, while making sure that the band is content.” n mands some tutelage and collaboration. “Roland likes to say, in conversation and interviews, ‘Oh yeah, I just come in and it’s one take.’ It’s not; it’s, like, 30 takes maybe, in truth,” Niehaus says. More than any other element, he focuses on getting the best vocal performance to stand at the center of these recordings. When it’s a lyric and a melody, you’re really trying to get the best take, because all the instruments and parts are cool, but at the end of the day that’s the most important thing. “At the end of the day, the song is still the unit of measurement: How good is the song?” he continues. “How good is the lyric, how good is the harmony? When you press play, that’s the judge.” This weekend’s Stax tribute is a relative blip in what Niehaus has planned for 2020: The label will release albums by Miss Molly Simms and Jon Bonham, as well as an EP of sun-stroked psych-folk by David & the Same Mistakes, a winsome project from relative newcomer David Meyer. As a musician, Niehaus plays with Bonham, Simms, Falling Fences and others; he also has plans to release his own singer-songwriter material, though the pace he keeps as label head, studio owner and sideman often keeps that pushed to the back burner. Niehaus sees his role, and that of Blue Lotus, as part of a larger continuum of American music. Some projects like the Stax show pay direct tribute to the past; others use what he calls “archetypes of music” to expand on the established forms. “There’s only twelve notes in music; there are only 26 letters in the alphabet,” he says. “So it’s not like you’re gonna do something that is completely new. I think a lot about what is new and novel and what is timeless and traditional.”

Blue Lotus Tribute to Stax Records 8 p.m. Saturday, February 29. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $12. 314-773-3363.

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

[PROFILE]

A Social Sweetheart St. Louis rapper and entrepreneur Yvette’s viral internet fame is only the beginning Written by

YMANI WINCE

f you think you’re going to argue with a woman from St. Louis and win, think again. It’s almost certain you won’t outsmart, out name-call, or have a larger catalog of insults to choose from than an STL queen. But one person in particular comes to mind when it comes to defending her space online. Enter Diamond vette Smith, a local rap artist whose knack for using social media has cemented her place in the clapback hall of fame. ast month, vette uploaded a short video of herself to Twitter in which she participated in the “Practicing to ____” trend that was happening online. In her video, vette was pretending to practice throwing a drink on someone in the club. The video was hilarious and it instantly went viral, racking up more than , retweets and , likes. verwhelmingly, the internet enjoyed it. As for the haters vette took the time to respond to every single one. Of all the exchanges that took place during that glorious Twitter thread, there’s one that truly stood out. “Do some of you ever get tired of being ratchet?” one user wrote. “Ask ya mama, she taught me everything I know, vette responded with a smiling emoji. Her experience going viral provided the perfect opportunity for vette to promote herself. hich is good, because not only is she quick-witted, she’s also a budding entrepreneur and businesswoman. One user wanted to know about the jumpsuit vette was wearing in her video. Turns out, it came from the rapper’s online boutique. Others wanted to know about her lashes and hair. Those also come from vette’s businesses. And that’s to say nothing of the following of fans she’s amassed over the past few years with her music. hat makes vette’s rise to popularity most striking is that none

RIVERFRONT TIMES

St. Louis rapper Yvette didn’t expect to be an internet star, but now that she is, she’s taking full advantage. | MONARCH PHOTOGRAPHY of it was planned. She wasn’t an avid user of social media, nor did she have many followers on any platform. She never even truly planned on being a rapper; it manifested naturally. “I never really thought I’d be this big on social media,” she says. hen I first started, I was a regular person.” That all changed once vette started posting videos of her covers to popular songs. In , she freestyled over Dej Loaf’s “Try Me” and wasn’t expecting anything to happen once it was online. iterally overnight, vette’s video had gone viral. She woke up the next morning to more than , followers on Instagram, which continued to rapidly climb. By 8, vette was being booked for performances, began traveling and started to take her music more seriously. “I had that moment when I got my first booking, she says. I was like, hoa. ’all actually listen to my music ou’d actually pay me to come see my music?’” But transitioning into a rapper came with some hesitation. vette didn’t want to be seen as a rapper, mainly because of all the criticism women in hip-hop face. “I didn’t want to be considered a rapper because I didn’t want all the backlash,” she says. “I never really labeled myself as a rapper. I just started to take things seriously back in 8. vette has the talent. She’s amassed a following of listeners who enjoy her confident and alluring freestyles over instrumen-

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

“I never really thought I’d be this big on social media. When I first started, I was a regular person.” tals including Megan Thee Stallion’s “Sex Talk” and Soulja Boy’s “Donk.” ost notably, vette’s single “Ratchet Twerk Song” exploded onto the St. Louis scene and across the web. It’s a bold track, complete with direct instructions and the kind of sexual energy that makes one question their own zest for intimate relations. It’s a fun song that speaks to the kind of music vette does best. She raps with a clever intensity that feels like watching two best friends lovingly insult one another. And it’s hard not to like her, especially when vette uploads videos showcasing her smile while delivering venomous lyrics to fun instrumentals of your favorite throwback songs. “I get it from everywhere,” vette says of the inspiration behind her lyrics. “I could maybe be having a conversation with somebody, and I could say something funny that rhymes, and I’ll think, ‘Oh I could make that a song.’”

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As her popularity increased, vette admits that she fell victim to the pitfalls of getting deeper into the music industry. Last year, the rapper says she signed on to a deal that completely took advantage of her. She says she trusted management that insisted on getting her signed. “Blindly, I signed a contract, and I didn’t see it as a mistake then,” she says. “But when it was time for them to start booking shows, that’s when everything went downhill.” vette says that she e perienced a loss of control of her image. She was being prompted to post certain content on social media, or encouraged to present herself in ways that were inauthentic. At that point, she wanted out. She realized all of the legal jargon in her contract was strategically placed. To most people, legally binding agreements are not simple to understand in plainspeak. vette covered her bases by having multiple people read over her contract, so that she did not miss anything. Unfortunately, she was duped into believing her management paid a lawyer to help seal the deal. “The worst thing I ever did was sign a contract,” she says. “For any upcoming artist, I will always tell them, ‘Don’t sign anything, you can do it all yourself.’” And that’s the kind of attitude that has fueled her success. vette is an entrepreneur with dreams of living the sort of luxurious lifestyle she’s always imagined. She knows her audience and how to use social media to her advantage. More recently, she joined the website OnlyFans — but with a twist. vette decided to use the subscription-based platform as her personal vlog. She plans to create videos of herself giving inspirational chats, as well as teach her viewers how she started her businesses. “I would see people promoting it, but I’d only see it being promoted for porn, “ she says. “I don’t do that. But let’s see if I can push this out and make it something positive. It’s free money for people to just watch me be me and not have to be naked and sell my body. ou’re paying for knowledge. As a young woman with several talents, vette is also finally taking time to focus on putting out a proper music project. She hasn’t decided whether it will be a mixtape or an EP, but she says she’s excited to show her fans more of herself on her tracks. “It’s gonna be about my life, ratchetness, heartbreak — everything,” she says. “We’re gonna scramble everything into one.” n

OUT EVERY NIGHT

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Fitz and the Tantrums. | JOSEPH CULTICE

Fitz and the Tantrums 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 3. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $32.50. 314-726-6161. Fitz and the Tantrums’ 2019 LP All the Feels lived up to its name, at least the “all” part — across seventeen tracks, the band works through a collection of radioready, beat-forward pop songs. The band has always relied on a heavy dose of nostalgia for a rosier past — from the highoctane ’60s soul of its debut through

THURSDAY 27

ANITA JACKSON: w/ Eric Slaughter, Phil Graves 8 p.m., $15. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis. CASKEY: w/ 86Family, Peterillo, Spotlite, Hvrtboy, #Itsrep 7:30 p.m., $20-$25. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. DERVISH: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949. FANFARE FEATURING KITTIE MOLLER: 8 p.m., $10$15. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. THE FERBER BOYS: 8:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. GEORGIA ON MY MIND: A CELEBRATION OF THE MUSIC OF RAY CHARLES: 7:30 p.m., $32. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949. JESUS CHRIST SUPERCAR: w/ North by North, ’Ivy p.m., free. Schlafly Tap oom, Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337. JOE MANDE: 8 p.m., $16. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. JOSLYN & THE SWEET COMPRESSION: 8 p.m., $10$12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. THE LATE GREATS ALBUM RELEASE: w/ the Stars Go Out 8 p.m., $10. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. LUNASA: 7:30 p.m., $30-$35. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd, St. Louis, 314-560-2778.

FRIDAY 28

2 CHAINZ: w/ Sleepy Rose, Hott LockedN, SB Skooly, Worl 8 p.m., $40-$79. Pop’s Nightclub,

the ’80s synth-pop on previous releases — but on “OCD” Fitzpatrick yearns for a more recent past: His come-hither line relies on asking his paramour to come over and flip through his collection of old CDs, ensconced in a Case Logic valise. It’s a perfectly Gen X reference for a band that wants to make pop music across genres and decades. Three Twins: Twin XL, a new trio comprising members of the Summer Set and Weatherstar, will open the show. —Christian Schaeffer 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. BREWTOPIA: 8:30 p.m., free. Domain Street Wine Bar, 3253 Rue Royale #1, St. Charles, 636-916-2092. CELEBRATION DAY: A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN: 8 p.m., $25-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. COWBOY MOUTH: 8 p.m., $20-$35. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. DURAND JONES AND THE INDICATIONS: w/ Kaina 8 p.m., $15-$18. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THE FOGGY MEMORY BOYS: 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. JOHNNY HENRY: 7:30 p.m., free. Great Grizzly Bear, 1027 Geyer Ave., St. Louis, 314-231-0444. JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE: 8 p.m., $22-$35. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. PLASTIC KINGS: 7 p.m., $7. Ameristar CasinoBottleneck Blues Bar, 1 Ameristar Blvd., St. Charles, 636-940-4966. THE THROWBACK PARTY: 8 p.m., $7-$101. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. TRIBUTE TO THE CURE & R.E.M. BY 120 MINUTES: 8 p.m., $10. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. WESTERN STATES: w/ Cara Louise 8 p.m., $10. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

SATURDAY 29

BAND SCRAMBLE 2020: 7 p.m., $10. South Broadway Athletic Club, 2301 S. Seventh St., St. Louis, 314-776-4833. CELEBRATION DAY: A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN: 8

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HATS-N-STUFF HATS-N-STUFF

BALL CAPS STICKERS AND COOZIES

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[CRITIC’S PICK]

Durand Jones and the Indications. | ROSIE COHE

Durand Jones and the Indications 8 p.m. Friday, February 28. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Boulevard. $15 to $18. 314-726-6161. The origins of soul music, in Sam Cooke and Ray Charles’ secularization and sexualization of gospel music, only hinted at the revolutionary potential that both artists, and thousands to follow them, would find. Durand Jones and the Indications believe in the power of those origins and their implications. Last year’s sensual and politically pointed American Love Call proved that the Bloomington,

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 39

p.m., $25-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. COLORS WORLDWIDE PRESENTS: R&B ONLY: 8:30 p.m., $30-$60. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. COWBOY MOUTH: 8 p.m., $20-$35. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. DAWN WEBER AND THE ELEKTROFUNK ASSEMBLY: w Final eil p.m., free. Schlafly Tap oom, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337. THE GASLIGHT SQUARES: 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. JULIAN DAVIS & THE SITUATION: w/ Chain Station, Barbaro 8 p.m., $10-$13. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775. THE LAST NIGHT: 8 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. LOKEY: 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. THE MATCHING SHOE: 9 p.m., free. Red Fish Blue Fish, 7 Hawks Nest Plaza, St Charles, 636-947-4747. SHELF LIFE: 8 p.m., $5. Bobby’s Place, 108 Meramec Valley Plaza, Valley Park, 636-225-2627. SUPERJAM: 7 p.m., $7. Ameristar Casino-Bottleneck Blues Bar, 1 Ameristar Blvd., St. Charles, 636-940-4966. A TRIBUTE TO STAX RECORDS: w/ Roland Johnson, Gene Jackson, Brother Jefferson, Miss Molly Simms, Bob Kamoske, Thomas Ingram, Tru Born 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

Indiana-based band’s celebrated self-titled debut of 2016 wasn’t a fluke. Jones is a commanding performer and singer, and his falsetto-voiced foil and focused drummer Aaron Frazer co-leads a disciplined but never formulaic band through all the rhythmic and melodic richness of soul, replete with cosmopolitan strings, and all the social and political reckoning the music promises. This band makes the sweetest of liberation sounds, for the body and the body politic. Multicultural Moves: Kaina Castillo brings her Latin, hip-hop and ethereal urban contemporary grooves down from Chicago for a must-arrive-early opening set. —Roy Kasten

SUNDAY 1

DAVE MASON: 7:30 p.m., $29.50. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777. SAFARI ROOM: w/ Dead Format, the Slow Boys 7 p.m., $5. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. SLUMP: w/ Shitstorm 10 p.m., $7. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. STRAWBERRY BUCKSHOT: w/ K.G. Roberts Band, SimplyEsoteric, Bradtholemew, Casey Bazzell 5:30 p.m., $10. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

MONDAY 2

THE COMEDY SHIPWRECK OPEN MIC: 10 p.m., free. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. THE LAB: 8 p.m., $5. The Improv Shop, 3960 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, 314-652-2200. TOM HALL: 8 p.m., free. Yaqui’s on Cherokee, 2728 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-400-7712. THE YAWPERS: 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

TUESDAY 3

FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS: w/ Twin XL 8 p.m., $32.50-$37.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. FLOR: w/ Winnetka Bowling League 8 p.m., $15-$18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. FURTHEST POINT: w/ Wise Disguise, Big Tobacco 7:30 p.m., $7. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. HOT TUNA: 7:30 p.m., $20. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis,

Continued on pg 42

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

[CRITIC’S PICK]

2 Chainz. | VIA DEF JAM

2 Chainz 8 p.m. Friday, February 28. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Avenue, Sauget, Illinois. $40 to $79. 618-274-6720. What’s in a name? In the case of the College Park, Georgia-based rapper Tauheed Epps, it turns out the answer is a whole lot. Epps initially launched his career under the exceptionally cringeworthy moniker “Tity Boi,” laboring for more than a decade in relative obscurity as one half of Playaz Circle on Ludacris’ Disturbing Tha Peace imprint. In 2011 he left that label, and with it he left his stage name behind, adopting the more “family friendly” (his words) 2 Chainz. In just a year’s

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 41

314-388-7777. XAVIER WULF: w/ Minus Love 5:30 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

WEDNESDAY 4

Wednesday February 26 9PM

Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players Tribute To Johnny Cash’s B Day Thursday Feb. 27 9PM

Grassfed

Bluegrass from KC Friday February 28 10PM

Little Dylan Band Saturday February 29 10PM

One Way Traffic

with Special Guests Chicken Wire Empire Wednesday March 4 9PM

Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players Tribute To Bob Dylan

Thursday March 5 9PM

Tuttle, Pool and Greul Trio Progressive Bluegrass Super Group Saturday March 7 10PM

Cas Haley

with Special Guest Spillie Nelson

RIVERFRONT TIMES

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

BROTHER LEE AND THE LEATHER JACKALS: w/ Behold the Brave, Overnighter 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. FRESH PRODUCE BEAT BATTLE: 9 p.m., free. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775. REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT: w/ the Fuck Off & Dies 8 p.m., $13. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. THEO KATZMAN: w/ Rett Madison 8:30 p.m., $20-$25. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

THIS JUST IN ARMS AKIMBO: W/ Mike Mains & The Branches, Mon., April 20, 7:30 p.m., $15-$17. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. ARS ARCANUM: Sat., March 21, 5:30 p.m., $10. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. BACH FESTIVAL GALA: Fri., April 17, 6:30 p.m., $100-$325. Saint Louis Woman’s Club, 4600 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 314-367-0700. BACH IN THE GARDEN: Sun., May 3, noon, $30. Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd., St. Louis, 314-577-9400. BACH, BLUES AND BERNSTEIN: Tue., April 21, 6 p.m., $35. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000. BEACH BUNNY: W/ Miloe, Wed., April 29, 8 p.m.,

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time he released Based on a T.R.U. Story; it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 100, eventually earning the powerhouse rapper four BET Hip-Hop awards (ironically, including one for “Rookie of the Year”) and even a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album. Fast-forward to the present: Last year’s Rap or Go to the League is the rapper’s fifth consecutive album to debut in the top ten on the Billboard 200, with a veritable who’s who of fellow artists and super-producers counting themselves as collaborators. Alert the Bard — it turns out names are pretty important after all. Gang Up: Joining 2 Chainz will be Sleepy Rose, Hott Lockedn, SB Skooly and Worl. —Daniel Hill

$15-$18. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THE BLACK KEYS: W/ Gary Clark Jr. and the Marcus King Band, Tue., July 21, 7 p.m., TBA. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. THE BRIDGE CITY SINNERS: Sat., April 11, 7 p.m., $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. THE BUSINESS: W/ The Bar Stool Preachers, Mon., June 8, 8 p.m., $18-$20. Blueberry Hill The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. CHICANO BATMAN: W/ Le Butcherettes, Fri., May 8, 8 p.m., $18. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. CLANNAD: Thu., Sept. 10, 8 p.m., $45-$75. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. CLASH OF THE DICKHEADS: W/ Hell Night, the Lion’s Daughter, Fister, Fri., April 10, 8 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. COMMUNITY SPRING SING: Sat., April 25, 9 a.m., $10. Central Presbyterian Church, 7700 Davis Drive, Clayton, 314-727-2777. COMRADE CATBOX EP RELEASE: W/ Apex Shrine, Orphan Welles, Emptee, Sat., March 7, 9 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. DROPKICK MURPHYS, RANCID: W/ Gerry Cinnamon, Jesse Ahern, Sat., May 16, 7 p.m., $45-$99. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. DUSTBOWL REVIVAL: Wed., May 20, 8 p.m., $20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. EDIE CAREY: Thu., March 5, 7 p.m., $18. The Novel Neighbor, 7905 Big Bend Blvd, Webster Groves, 314-738-9384.

Continued on pg 43

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 42

EMO NITE: Sat., June 6, 9 p.m., $15. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: W/ Anna St. Louis, Fri., May 8, 8 p.m., $20-$22.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. HOUNDMOUTH: Fri., May 22, 8 p.m., $25-$28. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. IRISH TENOR EMMET CAHILL: Sun., March 22, 7 p.m., free. Manchester United Methodist Church, 129 Woods Mill Road, Manchester, 636-394-7506. JAMEY JOHNSON: W/ Whiskey Myers, Thu., July , p.m., 5. hesterfield Amphitheater, eterans lace Drive, hesterfield. JUDAS PRIEST: W/ Sabaton, Wed., Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m., $30.50-$175. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244. KENAN THOMPSON: Mon., April 13, 7 p.m., $20. Webster University Grant Gymnasium, 175 Edgar Road, St. Louis, 314-963-5000. KLOSE KUARTERS: Sat., March 28, 8 p.m., $5. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061. KRAFTWERK 3-D: Sun., July 26, 8 p.m., $49.50$79.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. LATE NIGHT WITH JOHANN: Thu., April 30, 8 p.m., free. Modern Brewery, 5231 Manchester Ave, St. Louis. LEWIS CAPALDI: Sun., July 26, 8 p.m., $29.50$75. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600. LOST DOG STREET BAND: W/ the Hill Country Devil, Wed., May 27, 8 p.m., $17. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. LUKE COMBS: W/ Ashley McBryde, Ray Fulcher, Sat., Nov. 7, 7 p.m., $22-$82. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. THE METHADONES: W/ Dan Vapid & the Cheats, Hospital Job, Cuban Missiles, Fri., May 29, 7 p.m., $20. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. MIDWEST MAIFEST: Sat., May 9, 3 p.m., free. Amphitheater at New Town, New Town Lake Drive & Civic Circle Drive, St. Charles. NICK LOWE’S QUALITY ROCK & ROLL REVUE STARRING LOS STRAITJACKETS: Fri., June 12, 8 p.m., $30-$35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. PATTY GRIFFIN, MAVIS STAPLES: Tue., May 5, 8 p.m., $45-$75. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. POI DOG PONDERING: Fri., April 3, 8 p.m., $25$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. PRIMUS TRIBUTE TO RUSH: W/ Wolfmother, Battles, Sat., July 11, 7 p.m., $30.50-$66. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244. RAINBOW KITTEN SURPRISE: W/ Briston Maroney, Fri., July 10, 8 p.m., $32.50-$45. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244. THE SADIES: Tue., March 31, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. SANTANA AND EARTH, WIND & FIRE: Tue., July 7, 6 p.m., $49-$149. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. SCHOOL OF ROCK END OF SEASON SHOW: Sun., May 31, noon, $8. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. SIBLING RIVALRY: THE TOUR STARRING BOB & MONET: Sat., Aug. 22, 8 p.m., $35-$169. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SKYLARK BROTHERS: Sat., March 21, 8 p.m., $5. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061. STEPHANIE STEWART WITH DON STEWART: Thu., March 19, 8:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. STORY OF THE YEAR: Fri., May 1, 8 p.m., $26. Sat., May 2, 8 p.m., $26. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE SWORD: Thu., July 2, 8 p.m., $18. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. THE HARD PROMISES: A TRIBUTE TO TOM PETTY: Sat., April 18, 8 p.m., $20-$27.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. TOOL: W/ The Acid Helps, Sat., June 13, 7:30 p.m., $56.50-$147. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. TRAILER PARK HERO: Sat., March 7, 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. VANDOLIERS: Wed., April 22, 7:30 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. THE WEEKND: W/ Sabrina Claudio, Don Toliver, Tue., Aug. 25, 7 p.m., $26.75-$422.75. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. YOUNG ARTIST SHOWCASE: Sun., April 26, 3 p.m., free. Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church, 9450 Clayton Road, Ladue, 314-993-4771.

UPCOMING

25 YEARS OF ALIEN LANES: W/ the Cyanides, Trauma Harness, the Astounds, Other Town Syndrome, Subtropolis, Matt F Basler, Sisser, Breakmouth Annie, 120 Minutes, Matt Harnish, Sat., April 11, 8 p.m., $8. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. ANDREW & THE DOLLS ALBUM RELEASE PARTY: W/ Boxcar, Sat., March 7, 8 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. ARCHERS OF LOAF: Thu., April 30, 8 p.m., $25$28. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. BETH BOMBARA: Thu., April 2, 8 p.m., $15. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis. BIG THIEF: Sat., July 18, 8 p.m., $29.50-$32.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. CALLOWAY CIRCUS CD RELEASE SHOW: W/ New Lingo, Ashland, Luxora, Sat., April 4, 6 p.m., $10. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. DAMO SUZUKI’S NETWORK: Sun., March 22, 8 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. GOODIE MOB: Sun., May 17, 9 p.m., $35-$50. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. JACK GRELLE ALBUM RELEASE SHOW: Fri., March 20, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. JOHN PIZZARELLI: A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF NAT KING COLE: Sat., April 18, 8 p.m., $40$50. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. KESHA: W/ Big Freedia, Mon., May 25, 7 p.m., $45-$135. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244. LES GRUFF AND THE BILLY GOAT RECORD RELEASE SHOW: W/ Rovie Raccoon, Fri., March 6, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. THE MANESS BROTHERS ALBUM RELEASE: Fri., May 1, 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. NEKO CASE: Fri., June 26, 8 p.m., $32-$55. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. NICK LOWE’S QUALITY ROCK & ROLL REVUE STARRING LOS STRAITJACKETS: Fri., June 12, 8 p.m., $30-$35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. OF MONTREAL: W/ Locate S,1, Fri., March 27, 8 p.m., $20-$23. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. POLICA: W/ Wilsen, Wed., April 1, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. THE QUEERS: W/ Handguns, Thu., March 19, 6:30 p.m., $15-$17. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. THE SADIES: Tue., March 31, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. SHEER MAG: W/ Young Guv, Wed., May 6, 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. n

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

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SAVAGE LOVE SPIT AND POLISH BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m a 31-year-old cis bisexual woman. I’m hetero-romantic and in a monogamish relationship with a man. We play with other people together. I’ve never liked giving blowjobs because I was taught that girls who give blowjobs are “sluts.” Phrases that are meant to be insulting like “You suck,” “Suck it,” “Go suck a dick,” etc. created a strong association in my mind between blowjobs and men degrading women. (Men take what they want, and women get used and called sluts.) As such, I never sucked much dick — and if I did, it was only briefly and never to completion. I also find spit and come kind of gross. Even when I get really wet during sex, it’s a bit of a turnoff, and I hate that it makes me feel gross and wish I could change my thinking around it. Early in our relationship, my husband noticed the lack of blowjobs and confronted me, saying they were really important to him. At first I felt a little insecure about being inadequate in this area, but then I decided to do some research, because I honestly thought it wasn’t just me and most women don’t like giving blowjobs. (Because how could they? It’s so demeaning!) But I learned lots of my female friends enjoy giving blowjobs — they like being in control, giving a partner pleasure, etc. — so I googled ways to start liking blowjobs and I’ve started to get into them! It’s great! Except I still don’t like when he comes in my mouth or if a blowjob gets super spitty. But my husband loves sloppy blowjobs; he says the lubrication feels good and he enjoys the “dirtiness” of it. If I know he’s getting close to coming or if it gets super wet and I have spit all over my face, my gag reflex activates and it’s hard to continue. I feel like I’m at an impasse. I want to give him the blowjobs he wants, but I don’t know how to get around (or hopefully start enjoying!) the super-sloppy-through-tocompletion blowjobs he likes. Do you have any advice? Sloppy Oral Always Keeps Erections Drenched

You play with other people together, SOAKED, but have you tried observing — by which I mean actively observing, by which I mean actually participating — while your husband gets a sloppy blowjob from someone who really enjoys giving them? If someone else was blowing your husband while you made out with him or sat on his face or played with his tits or whatever might enhance the experience for him … and you watched another woman choke that dick down … you might come to appreciate what’s in it for the person giving the sloppy blowjob. Most people who were taught that girls who give blowjobs are sluts were also taught that open relationships are wrong and women who have sex with other women are going to hell. You got over what you were taught about monogamish relationships and being bisexual years ago, SOAKED, and recently got over what you were taught about women who enjoy sucking cock. While some people have physical limitations they can’t overcome — some gag refle es are unconquerable — watching someone enjoy something you don’t can make you want to experience it yourself. But even if your observations don’t trigger a desire to get down there and get sloppy and swallow his load yourself, your husband would be getting the kind of blowjobs he enjoys most and you would be an intrinsic part of them. If you set up the date, you’d be making them happen, even if you weren’t doing them. And if you were into the scenario and/or the other woman — if the whole thing got you off, not just off the hook — then there would be something in it for you, too. And take it from me, SOAKED, to be kissed with both passion and gratitude by, say, a husband (ahem) who’s really enjoying something someone else is doing for/to him — whether or not that something is something you also enjoy doing for/to him from time to time — is really fucking hot. So even if you never come around — even if sloppy blowjobs are something you have to outsource permanently — you and your husband can enjoy years of sloppy blowjobs together, with the assistance of a series of very special (and very slutty) guest stars. And

Even if sloppy blowjobs are something you have to outsource permanently, you and your husband can enjoy years of sloppy blowjobs together. you can always get those blowjobs started — the non-sloppy, non-spitty initial phase — before passing the baton off to your guest star. Hey, Dan: Married 40-year-old gay guy here. I hate beards — the look, the feel, the smell — and I miss the good old days when the only beards gay dudes had were metaphorical. When I got back from a long business trip, my hot, sexy, previously smooth husband of many years was sporting a beard. Unsurprisingly, I hate it and find it to be a complete turnoff. However, he says this is controlling behavior on my part, it’s his body and his choice, and he’s hurt that I’m rejecting him. He also says I’ll get used to it and he doesn’t plan to keep it forever. I agree that it’s his body and his choice, but I think he should still take me into consideration, and that it’s actually him who’s rejecting me, by choosing the beard over me. What’s your take? Spouse’s Hairiness Averts Virile Erection I’m with you, SHAVE, but I’m also with him. It is his body, and growing a beard is something he can choose to do with the face section of his body. But that my body/my choice stuff cuts both ways: Your body is yours, and what you do with your body is your choice. And you can choose not to press your body against his — or press your face against his — while he’s got a beard. If long business trips are a regular part of your life, maybe he could grow his beard out in your absence and shave

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when you get home. (Full disclosure: I have a pronounced antibeard bias, which means I’m not exactly impartial.) Hey, Dan: I’m a 30-year-old queer cis woman and a late bloomer. My first relationship — with a hetero cis man — began when I was 28. He was my first sexual partner. I fell in love hard, but he broke up with me after almost two years. Months later, I know I’m not ready to fall in love again, but I have a high sex drive. I masturbate frequently, but when I think about playful/romantic sex, the only memories I have are with the ex, which makes me sad. So I watch rough porn, which keeps me from thinking about the ex. But watching bondage videos alone isn’t the sex life I want. Should I Tinder or Lex up some rough casual sex? Get drunk and get some more memories in the mix? (I don’t think I could get out of my head enough to do this sober.) Assuming I minimize the risks of pregnancy and STIs and partners that are bad at consent, what’s the risk of going for it? How does it compare to the risk of getting stuck in this nowhere land and never finding a new love/sex buddy? Or maybe I need to get drunk and jerk off alone without the porn and just feel all my feelings and avoid any risk of crying on some poor stranger? I Need A Plan Today Do it all, INAPT. Masturbate to kink porn and feel dirty, masturbate to your memories and feel sad, and put yourself out there on Tinder and Lex and see if there isn’t someone who intrigues you. But stop telling yourself you can’t find romance with a partner you first met up with for rough se . I know lots of people who first met up with someone for rough sex, clicked on a deeper level, started dating, and have since enjoyed years of sex that’s both rough and loving. Finally, booze has a way of intensifying feelings of sadness — so if you don’t want to wind up sobbing on the shoulder of some poor stranger, don’t get drunk before that hookup. Check out Dan’s podcast at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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