Riverfront Times September 26, 2018

SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2, 2018 I VOLUME 42 I NUMBER 39

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THE LEDE

“ I come from New York, and it is hectic out there. It is so crazy. Over here, people still have family moments. Everybody’s not just rush, rush, rush, work, work, work, because they have to meet the monthly rent or insane mortgage. The cost of living here is pretty reasonable and I like that. I used to pay $2,500 for a two-bedroom apartment. With that money over here, you can pay your own mortgage on three acres!”

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PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

Natalia lopez, photographed with husbaNd ricardo aNd soN NathaN at the greater st. louis hispaNic Festival iN soulard park oN september 23 riverfronttimes.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE

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Proud and Prejudiced St. Louis’ Proud Boys idealize “Western chauvinism.” So does that make them fascist?

Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

Cover photo by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

NEWS

ARTS

DINING

CULTURE

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The Lede

Calendar

Your friend or neighbor, captured on camera

Seven days’ worth of great stuff to see and do

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Courts

A St. Louis alderwoman sues the city over its “indiscriminate” teargassing of protesters

Cafe

The Fade’s debut LP brings garage rock cool in a lo-fi package

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Film

MaryAnn Johanson finds herself taken by The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Side Dish

Police

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Immigration

Bands

George Fiorini is shaking things up at Element

Spacetrucker offers hard-hitting stoner rock

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Isaiah Hammett’s family is still looking for answers after the June 2017 SWAT raid that left him dead

Homespun

Five Bistro’s rebrand, J. Devoti Trattoria, is as Italian — and as good — as it gets

First Look

Preview

Hello has St. Louis waking up to juice, smoothies and more

Funk Fest is returning to Broadway’s Blues Triangle

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Food News

The Kitchen Sink is going back to where it all began

Alex Garcia’s sanctuary continues, one year after he took refuge in a Maplewood church

Out Every Night

The best concerts in St. Louis every night of the week

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This Just In

The best concerts in St. Louis

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NEWS

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SLMPD Teargas Draws Suit Written by

SARAH FENSKE

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n September 15, 2017, St. Louis Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green took to the streets to protest the city’s police department. That morning, former officer Jason Stockley had been acquitted on the charge of murder — and emotions were running high. Police had maced protesters downtown; as evening fell, an estimated crowd of 1,000 regrouped in the Central West End. Eventually, some of that crowd made their way to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house. Windows were smashed; red paint was thrown onto the home. Police declared the assembly unlawful and ordered people to disperse around 10 p.m. Ultimately, they did.

But even before that, things got ugly. And in a lawsuit filed this morning, Green details what she witnessed. She says she saw police “indiscriminately firing tear gas at peaceful protesters” as early as 9:30 p.m. When 100 or so of them took refuge in a synagogue, an officer pounded on the door.

“While inside, Ms. Green could hear SLMPD officers banging on the door and yelling. She could also see clouds of tear gas and that the synagogue entrance was surrounded by SLMPD officers,” her suit details. “Ms. Green and the others stayed inside the Central Reform Congregation for at least an hour because [St. Louis police] officers had surrounded the synagogue. The people inside felt threatened by the police who were lying in wait.

“The symbolism of citizens seeking refuge in a synagogue while out of control government actors pursued them was not lost on Ms. Green,” the lawsuit notes.

But that wasn’t the end.

Once the officers finally dispersed, the lawsuit says, Green left the synagogue. She walked a

Police repeatedly fired tear gas at protesters in the Central West End on September 15, 2017. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI few blocks, and officers gave her permission to cross the police line to get to her car, which was at Euclid and Laclede.

But some officers began to mock the group she was with, the suit alleges. And before they could reach their vehicles, Green saw an armored police truck, or MRAP, speed around the corner.

Green had seen police fire teargas from the very same trucks during a 2014 protest on South Grand. She says the incident had left her shaken for months. Three years later, in the Central West End, she was instantly taken back to the moment. “I realized I had seen the exact same thing before,” she says. “I told everyone, ‘Get out, get out! They’re going to start teargassing us!’”

She was right. As the lawsuit details, the truck made a U-turn and returned to the pedestrians, then began to fire tear gas. “Ms. Green heard no warning from the MRAP that tear gas was being deployed,” the suit notes. “Ms. Green was not committing a crime at the time tear gas was deployed. Ms. Green did not see any crimes committed nor any threat to an officer’s safety at the time tear gas was deployed.”

And that’s a problem, because under the March 2015 consent decree in federal court following Ferguson-related protests (including the one on South Grand that Green

remembered so vividly), St. Louis police agreed not to utilize tear gas or other chemical agents “for the purpose of dispersing groups of individuals who are engaged in noncriminal activity” without first issuing clear warnings and giving them a chance to leave.

Yet Green’s suit details ten incidents in which police deployed chemical agents on protesters without warning — seven of them in the Central West End on the evening on September 15.

The suit, filed by attorney Javad Khazaeli of Khazaeli Wyrsch LLC, alleges those actions were unlawful retaliation for protesters exercising their First Amendment rights. And the past consent decree could pose a real problem for the city, legally. “Not only did they do this before, and got sued for it before, but they wrote up an agreement saying, ‘We will not do this anymore,’” Khazaeli says.

He also notes that the ACLU obtained a temporary injunction against the city after the 2017 protests. Each side made their case, and a federal judge found for the ACLU. “There has been lots and lots of evidence that’s come out that the police narrative during these protests is not true,” he says.

The suits join with a dozen that Khazaeli Wyrsch, along with ArchCity Defenders, filed last week focused on police actions

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two nights after the Central West End teargassing. Those suits focus on the “kettle” that saw more than 100 citizens corralled downtown and given no chance to leave before being arrested and, in some cases, pepper sprayed and beaten.

Green is not asking for any money to be given to her personally. She’s vowing that she’ll donate any award from the litigation to the “25-Year Managed Racial Equity Fund” that the Ferguson Commission recommended the city create.

In addition to failing to follow its 2015 consent decree, the lawsuit notes, the city hasn’t done that either.

Green says the city’s recalcitrance is why she’s taking the step of suing it, even as she serves as an alderwoman. She simply sees no other way to get its attention.

Green notes that she introduced a board bill last year to attempt to codify rules for police response to protests, policies that would follow both the 2015 consent decree and the injunction arising from the ACLU’s more recent case. Other officials were unwilling to act.

“I think there’s overall a lack of political will,” she says. “There’s a concern amongst those in elected positions that if you put any regulations on the police, suddenly you are anti-police. And that is not true.” n

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A SWAT Team Killed Their Son. They Want Answers Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

W

hen Gina Torres woke up last Thursday, she was greeted by the bullet holes that still mark the south-city home where her son Isaiah Hammett was killed in a SWAT raid last year. This would have been his 23rd birthday.

“Every day I have to look at the bullets. It’s really hard,” she says, with tears in her eyes.

Her fiance grabs a colorful polkadotted napkin off a nearby table, which is situated outside the headquarters of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. On the table is a birthday cake.

Torres wipes the tears from her cheeks.

“When I wake up, I can feel my son there with me,” she says. “I keep wishing my son walked through that door.”

To his family, Hammett’s death on June 7, 2017, was a murder. According to police, though, Hammett had fired an AK-47 in the direction of eight officers who were raiding the family’s home that day. The officers claim they returned fire, striking Hammett, then 21. No officers

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were injured. The numerous rounds discharged in what police called a “firefight” left the home marked by death and unanswered questions.

At the time, acting police chief Lt. Col. Lawrence O’Toole told reporters that police suspected Hammett was selling drugs and weapons at the house. At 11:20 a.m., members of the SWAT team broke through the front door and tossed a flash bang inside; that’s when Hammett began firing on the officers with an AK-47, O’Toole said.

But in the year since the shooting, the family says it’s gained little clarity on the causes of the raid. Hammett’s criminal record consisted of a misdemeanor conviction for possession of less than 35 grams of marijuana, and his mother can’t fathom why he was the target of a heavily armed SWAT action.

Crucially, Hammett’s family has yet to see the department’s internal investigation, which was conducted by the Force Investigative Unit. In an email Thursday, police department spokeswoman Michelle Woodling revealed for the first time that the report has been completed.

She says it’s currently under review by the Circuit Attorney’s Office.

The city’s top prosecutor, Woodling wrote, “will make the determination if any charges will be issued.” It’s not clear if the reference to charges refers to the officers in the raid or to other parties; the RFT is seeking the report via a Sunshine

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

Gina Torres, center, with her fiance and children, lost her firstborn son. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI request.

In the meantime, Hammett’s family claims it hired an independent forensic investigator to evaluate the scene of the shooting. They say the expert found evidence that police fired more than 100 shots at Hammett, and that bullet holes indicate there was no return fire.

On Thursday, Hammett’s family was joined by about a dozen supporters to demand accountability for what they contend was a police-enabled execution.

The “birthday party” concluded with the protesters marching to the offices of the Civilian Oversight Board.

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Hammett’s family only learned Thursday that the police department’s investigation into the SWAT raid had been sent to prosecutors thanks to reporters on the scene of their press conference.

Still, the report’s completion brings little consolation to Torres. Sitting outside police headquarters, she recalls the 23-hour labor that birthed him, and that he chose to spend his last birthday, his 21st, with her.

“I had him today at 9:31 this morning,” she says. “He had a hard time coming into this world. He should never have left.” n

A Year of Hiding in Plain Sight Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

O

ne year ago Friday, 37-yearold Alex Garcia moved out of his Poplar Bluff home for what he hoped would be a brief absence.

He was under orders from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to report for deportation to his native Honduras.

Instead, he took sanctuary and has spent the past twelve months living in Christ Church in Maplewood.

“I’m still here,” he says last Thursday afternoon, his fouryear-old daughter perched on his lap in the church basement while they watch a cartoon on his phone. “It’s been a really long year.”

Garcia was the subject of an RFT cover story in November 2017. As we wrote back then, hundreds of people in conservative Poplar Bluff have signed petitions, vouching for his character and asking ICE to allow him to stay. So far, ICE has refused.

Garcia has lived in Missouri for fourteen years. He has five kids and a wife who are all American citizens. In 2015 and 2016, he was granted temporary stays of deportation that allowed him to remain legally in the country. But then Donald Trump was elected president, promising to build a border wall and crack down on illegal immigration.

In the year since, Trump has not

managed to get Congress — much less Mexico — to pay for his wall, but he has succeeded in targeting immigrants. His administration has infamously separated more than 2,500 families stopped at the border, and it was recently revealed that $200 million was siphoned from the budgets of other federal agencies, including FEMA, and funneled to ICE. That has left Garcia and his family in a position of asking for mercy from an administration that has made a practice of locking children away from their parents for months in detention centers.

“It’s terrifying,” Garcia’s wife, Carly Garcia, says. “It’s terrifying to me that my family is not going to matter enough to take action.”

She has just returned from a three-day trip to Washington to speak with the staffs of Missouri representatives. She was joined by the family’s attorney, Nicole Cortés of the MICA Project, as well as Sara John of the St. Louis InterFaith Committee on Latin America.

Rep. Lacy Clay, who had previously visited Garcia and publicly supported him, was the only lawmaker to speak with them in person during the trip. But the trio also met with staffers for Senator Claire McCaskill, Senator Roy Blunt and U.S. Representative Jason Smith, whose district includes Poplar Bluff, Carly Garcia says.

She wanted them to see her and understand the effect that immigration policy is having on her family — her “American family,” she emphasized in her meetings.

“This issue is big, and it’s affecting U.S. citizens,” she says.

Alex Garcia, a construction worker, helped get the family off public assistance after he and Carly got together a decade ago. If he was deported, he would have to spend ten years outside the coun-

Alex Garcia with his youngest, four-year-old AriannaLee. | DOYLE MURPHY

“It’s terrifying to me that my family is not going to matter enough to take action.” try before he would be considered for re-entry. Carly Garcia says the family has struggled financially these past twelve months. She recently made the painful decision to leave their house and move into her parents’ home with the couple’s children.

“It’s really hard on them, because they don’t understand why we can’t go home,” Carly Garcia says of the kids, ages four to twelve.

In Washington, she says Mc-

Caskill’s staff promised to make a formal inquiry to ICE to determine why Garcia’s request for a stay of deportation was denied. A Blunt staffer promised to review additional information so she could make a recommendation to the senator about whether or not he should get involved. Smith’s staffer seemed to listen earnestly.

That’s been one effect of the widespread backlash surrounding family separations: Even Trump allies like Blunt and Smith seem less willing to wave off someone like Carly Garcia.

“Family separation is wrong whether it happens at the border or if it happens here in St. Louis,” John says.

Asked if she is more or less hopeful than she was a year ago, Carly Garcia thinks for a long time before answering.

“I am hopeful, because I know I was able to reach them,” she finally says. “A year ago, they weren’t even listening.” n

STREAK’S CORNER • by Bob Stretch

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SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

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ST. LOUIS’ PROUD BOYS IDEALIZE “WESTERN CHAUVINISM.”

SO DOES THAT MAKE THEM FASCISTS?

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SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

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BY DANNY WICENTOWSKI

By reputation, the Proud Boys are fighters.

This past August, the far-right group gathered on the streets of Portland with its fellow travelers for a rally all but guaranteed to start a brawl. On one side were young men in MAGA hats wearing distinctive black polo shirts with yellow piping on the collars and sleeves. On the other, an assortment of avowed anti-fascist groups commonly lumped together as Antifa. The two sides circled, cat-called and then, inevitably, tried to knock the crap out of each other.

Sticks, shields, bricks, bottles and mace were deployed, as small groups and individual brawlers clashed amid the sound of police flash bangs and homemade mortars. Both sides came prepared with helmets and homemade body armor.

For the Proud Boys, fights like these are good for their image — a powerful advertisement to their ideal recruits. On the flip side of that

Mike Lasater is the founder of the St. Louis Proud Boys chapter. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

empowerment is bitterness. The group thrives on painting itself as a victim of left-wing persecution.

The Proud Boys organization is less than two years old, and has spent its entire existence fending off accusations that its members are part of a violent gang of white supremacists.

In 2017, the Southern Poverty Law Center classified it as a “general hate group,” a title the Proud Boys fiercely contest.

What is undeniable, though, is that some members of the Proud Boys have appeared uncomfortably close, figuratively and literally,

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to modern-day Nazis and white supremacists.

Jason Kessler, a Proud Boy who was since excommunicated, organized the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Other Proud Boys attended.

While the most active Proud Boy chapters operate on the coasts, smaller one have opened in cities across the country, including two in Missouri: in Kansas City and St. Louis.

One estimate places total membership across the U.S. at 6,000. Numbers are growing. But the attention has its costs.

This has been a generally terrible summer for the St. Louis Proud Boys. They’ve been hounded by local Antifa groups. On lampposts, signs appeared blaring the members’ names and photos beneath a warning: FASCIST ALERT. A placard in a storefront window proclaimed “Proud Boys Not Welcome.” And while in Portland the Proud Boys met street fighters, in St. Louis they were confronted with something much trickier: a social media onslaught directed at both them and any venue unfortunate enough to host them. They’ve been run out of two bars — and had their private Facebook groups infiltrated.

In July, Riverfront Times received an email from a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based “antifash collective” calling itself Right Wing Leaks.

Posing as a recruit via a fabricated Facebook account, the collective managed to pass the Proud Boy vetting process and gain access to a closed Facebook group for Missouri Proud

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PROUD AND PREJUDICED Continued from pg 15

Boys. Right Wing Leaks then captured screenshots of members’ Facebook profiles and about twodozen videos of the St. Louis chapter’s initiation rites.

In one video, the president of the St. Louis chapter, a guy with windblown black hair and aviator sunglasses, records himself taking the Proud Boy pledge.

“My name is Mike Lasater,” he says in the video. “I’m a Western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.”

Lasater flashes an “OK” gesture, his index-finger and thumb joined to make an O along with three raised fingers.

He finishes the pledge. “The West is the best,” he says.

O

n the first Friday in August, Mike Lasater and two other Proud Boys settle on stools in a south-city bar. They’re drinking the group’s preferred beverage combination: Budweiser and straight shots of Maker’s Mark.

The bar, Tuckers, is a rarity for St. Louis. Not to be confused with Tucker’s Place, the well-loved trio of local steakhouses, this Tuckers is located so far south in the Patch neighborhood, it’s practically St. Louis County.

It has a dive bar’s classic grungy charm — at 8:30 on this Friday night, karaoke night, the regulars are already blasted and teetering on their feet. But not many establishments in this deepblue city hang a sign above their front door stating, in giant red letters, “TRUMP.” Below that, the sign, a veritable jumble of messages, shouts “St. Louis needs jobs and I need customers!!!” and “Support Your Police.”

Tuckers is the closest thing to a safe space that the Proud Boys have in St. Louis.

On the TV above the bar, the Cardinals are playing the Pirates.

The Pittsburgh players’ black-andyellow jerseys bear an uncanny resemblance to the tightly fit, black-and-yellow Fred Perry polo shirts worn by the three Proud Boys huddled at the bar’s least crowded end.

These three identically clad young men, all in their late twenties, are talking about Portland.

“It actually proved one thing, and it’s that Antifa are the aggressors,” says Luke Rohlfing, a St. Louis native who travels the U.S.

Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes devised the group’s distinctive look (the shirts) and jargon (“Western chauvinism”). | SHUTTERSTOCK.COM while writing for the right-wing news site Big League Politics.

Rohlfing spent his morning tracking livestreams and Twitter feeds of the August 3 Portland action, which he then used to opine about how the leftists were to blame for the confrontation.

Next to Rohlfing, Lasater tips his beer in agreement. The Proud Boy chapter president wears two matching gold-leaf collar pins on his polo. His belt buckle spells out “candy,” and a gold medallion rests in a thicket of exposed chest hair.

By Proud Boy standards, he’s as

after (as he tells it) a business partner at the bar he co-owned, the Livery Company, decided to out him on Facebook as a Trump voter. The partnership broke down from there, and he says he was forced to abandon his role.

The bar’s co-owner, Emily Ebeling, says Lasater’s departure had nothing to do with his political views, but admits that she was the one who publicized his vote for Trump.

“I did call him out for voting for Trump,” she says. “I considered him a friend, a close friend, and

Proud Boy initiation — recording himself stating the pledge, “I am a Western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.”

The second degree, also filmed, involves a mock brawl that doesn’t stop until the initiate can recite the names of five breakfast cereals. According to Lasater, it’s meant to be a parody of gang culture, that age-old test of loyalty wherein a new member is beaten senseless by his soon-to-be brethren. In the Proud Boy version, the punches are usually thrown at low strength, and the only test is one of total cereal recall under physical duress. Also, everyone involved is drunk.

The filmed scenes of this ritual are exceedingly strange, clip after clip of a young drunk man declaring “The West is the best” before getting lightly pummeled by a circle of other drunk young men. At times, the initiate is laughing while gasping the names, “Cinnamon Toast Crunch! Cheerios! Frosted Flakes!”

“Our cereal beat-ins are our wackiest thing,” concedes Rohlfing.

Of those present, he’s the only Proud Boy who’s managed to attain the third degree, which simply requires getting a “Proud Boy” tattoo. The fourth degree is reserved for the fighters, those Proud Boys who have “endured a major conflict related to the cause.” Lasater says no one in St. Louis has attained that distinction.

As for “Western chauvinism,” Lasater claims the phase isn’t intended to evoke swashbuckling misogyny, but rather a kind of unapologetic patriotism.

“We are far right. Far right is an appropriate designation for us,” he insists.

Still, he maintains there’s a difference between the Proud Boys’ vision of Western culture and the ideas trafficked by the far far-right, those explicitly racist and neoNazi groups who utilize the term as a usefully neutered stand-in for concepts of white supremacy.

But on this Friday night, amid all the shifting semantics, the Proud Boys at times struggle to define their own terms. “Western civilization,” the object of their patriotic chauvinism, seems to cover America’s accomplishments and recede at the edges of its failures.

Capitalism? That’s Western civilization. So too is the moon landing.

Even enshrining a woman’s right to vote, they claim, is part of Western civilization. Lasater notes that the triumph of wom-

In Nov e m b er 2 0 1 7, Lasater un derwen t the f ir st d eg ree of the Proud B oy in itiation, r ec o r d ing himself statin g the pledg e,

“ I a m a W e st e r n c h au vin ist, an d I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world. ”

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flamboyantly proud as they come.

“Left to our devices, we’re not a violent organization,” he says.

In conversation, Lasater tends to downplay the role of violence in the group’s DNA, focusing instead on similarities to traditional fraternal organizations, men’s clubs, the Freemasons and Knights of Columbus.

“We’re a drinking club,” he says, gesturing at the bar around him.

“I mean, as the St. Louis Proud Boys, what have we done since we started? We’ve gone out for beers, and we’ve made friends.”

Perhaps. But they’ve made enemies, too. Lasater founded the local chapter in spring, not long

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

he had lots of friends who Trump wouldn’t protect. As a woman and a gay woman, I felt betrayed that he could vote for what Trump stands for.”

Lasater says his path to far right began rather far on the left.

He voted for Obama in 2008 as a “socialist-leaning Democrat,” but his politics shifted as he started watching Fox News. He says found himself agreeing with what he saw on the channel, and eventually came to understand that much of what he’d assumed about Republicans were lies woven by the real bullies: the left.

In November 2017, Lasater underwent the first degree of the

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The St. Louis Proud Boys shared a video on Facebook of a Proud Boy KOing an Antifa protester in Portland. | SCREENSHOT VIA FACEBOOK en’s suffrage (enacted more than a century after the signing of the Declaration of Independence) was an example of progress that wasn’t “forced,” but was rather ushered by “men that thought it was important, saw it as an injustice and made that correction.”

Above all, they seem most committed to the concept of not apologizing.

“You can move forward without having to sit back and whine about the past,” adds Rohlfing.

“It’s time to look forward and see that Western civilization is the best civilization.”

To the Proud Boys, perhaps, this rhetoric is compelling, but outside the bubble of the group, that sort of convoluted jargon — “No, see, what chauvinism really means ...”

— requires an audience willing to accept its definitions.

Lasater brings up an April Proud Boys meet-up at Keyper’s Piano Bar. “It was my first experience being recognized as a Proud Boy,” he says. “’This girl comes up to us, and she’s like, ‘You guys are fucking Nazis.’”

Nazis. Fascists. Racists. By April, the labels were following the Proud Boys around St. Louis.

Local Antifa groups mounted a campaign of public shaming, outing Proud Boys in widely shared Facebook posts. After they were

spotted at Keyper’s, Antifa shared a Facebook post targeting the gay bar. One flyer summarized the anti-fascist campaign in three succinct exclamations: “Boycott!

Downvote! Disrupt!”

Back at Tuckers, Friday night is winding down. Outside the bar, a third Proud Boy is talking about how the group is a brotherhood — the first time he put on the black polo, he says, “I felt like I became a man” — when the door from the inside opens.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but what organization are you guys?”

The question comes from a middle-aged man. He doesn’t sound drunk. He sounds serious, and somewhat wary.

Rohlfing launches into the Proud Boy spiel. “We’re a pro-West organization,” he says. “We love America. We love Trump mostly. When it comes to things like masculinity, just being men, we promote family values.”

Lasater adds, “We’re always looking for more people if you’re interested.”

But the man is not interested in taking the pledge as a chauvinist and reciting breakfast cereals. He says he’s a Trump supporter himself, but he’d only heard about the Proud Boys after they brought controversy to a nearby deli. The man tells the Proud Boys that the deli owners had received messag-

es threatening to burn down their restaurant, even death threats, after “anti-racists” discovered the far-right group was meeting there.

“I’ve been hearing a lot of bad things, and I’m not respectful to that,” the stranger says.

The three Proud Boys take turns responding over the next several minutes, explaining that the threats came from “crazy leftists” and communists who want to “destroy America and everything it stands for.”

Soon, the man seems less wary of the Proud Boys. His demeanor changes, less an interrogator than someone genuinely confused, or lost, like a motorist asking for directions on a strange country road.

“Tell me,” he asks the Proud Boys, “Who are these anti-racists?”

T

he River Des Peres Yacht Club is not an actual boating club, of course. The deli is located just north of its namesake, a waterway that once functioned as the city’s open sewer and now flows only when filled with storm water or runoff.

The name is a St. Louis inside joke, an ironic note for a blue-collar shop known for its sandwiches.

But in July, the place gained a wave of new attention not for its food, but for serving the Proud Boys.

After being outed at Keyper’s,

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the Proud Boys fled south, to what they’d hoped could be their new meeting place. (Among other reasons, a Proud Boy worked there as a bartender.) But word quickly got out, and on July 19, more than a dozen activists flooded into the sandwich shop.

Facing the owners behind the counter, the group demanded “physical follow-through” to reports that they had agreed to ban Proud Boys from holding meetings at the shop. The protesters delivered a statement, a copy of which was later posted to the Facebook group Community Power Network St. Louis.

“You have made it clear that because of a massive display of outrage from the community that you no longer wish to be affiliated with or host Proud Boys in your establishment,” the message began.

Previously, it continued, the owners had agreed to put a sign in their window to demonstrate that their former customers were now barred. The activists had brought just such a sign, printed out on separate sheets of paper and then taped together to make a glossy final product. “Proud Boys Not Welcome,” it proclaimed, followed by “Keep Our Communities Safe” and “No Fascists In Our Neighborhood.”

Up until that day, the campaign to drive the Proud Boys from the Yacht Club had been waged almost entirely online. The statement described the sign’s manifestation as a victory in “the ongoing war with the enemies of the working class.”

“We hope the River Des Peres Yacht Club keeps their word and continues to not allow fascists to organize under their watch,” the statement concluded. Then the protesters simply left, positioning the small black sign in the window. The next day, it was gone.

On a recent afternoon, Yacht Club co-owner Cindy Delgado rummages through some shelves in the break room behind the kitchen, finally finding the sign that the Antifa delegation pushed on her in July.

“It seemed like an ambush,” she says. “They didn’t call and ask for a moment of our time. They just showed up.”

By the time the protesters arrived at the deli in person, the Yacht Club had already been slammed with hundreds of comments and an army of one-star reviews accusing the owners of supporting the Proud Boys.

Delgado’s husband and fellow co-owner, Michael Sullivan, was working behind the counter with her on the day they showed up in

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person. “I felt like I was bullied,” he says. He is the one who took the sign out of the window.

In retrospect, he admits that he let his feelings get the better of him. In the sign’s place, he put up a postcard on which he’d written the words #WalkAway.

The hashtag has gained popularity with conservatives describing their “walk away moment” from the Democratic Party. Sullivan says he was acting out of frustration, and wanted to “ruffle the feathers” of the people he considered bullies, the leftists he felt had wronged him and his business.

“But that just affiliates me with some other thing that I don’t know nothing about,” he says now, chuckling. He regrets retorting with the hashtag; he soon took that sign down too.

The conflict continued online.

The River Des Peres Yacht Club eventually deleted its Facebook page entirely, but not before Delgado lashed out in the comments, arguing that the Proud Boys’ “cash was green” and that she didn’t want to mix politics with her business. Her retorts were quickly screen-grabbed and used as additional proof that the Yacht Club was defending a “fascist organization.”

Scrolling through the archived messages on the now-deleted Facebook page, Delgado finds a message sent to her inbox: “If the Proud Boys are allowed to meet at your establishment, they will be met with massive, violent resistance with no regard for your business.”

After getting that, as well as similar messages, Delgado says she called the cops and shut the store for a day. Before all this, she’d never even heard of the Proud Boys, and suddenly she was getting threatened for serving them sandwiches.

But the Antifa group got its way: Delgado and Sullivan asked the Proud Boys to stop coming by, and the Proud Boy on staff left his job there. The group soon moved to Tuckers.

The damage to the deli had already been done. “It really hurt our business bad,” Delgado says.

Regulars stopped coming by. A neighborhood group moved its meetings to a different restaurant, and Delgado says she had to cut a full-time position and shorten other shifts to compensate for the lack of business. No matter how good the sandwiches, few people want to be connected to a Proud Boysupporting deli. Delgado estimates

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that the Facebook posts and protests drove away half of the shop’s July and August sales.

For the loss of business, Delgado blames the anti-fascists and Facebook commenters more than the Proud Boys.

Still, she also doesn’t want to see any Proud Boys in her deli again.

These days, she gets nervous when a group of young guys enter the restaurant. Sometimes, she asks them: Are you a Proud Boy?

R

eached by email, the St. Louis Antifa coalition called the Community Power Network refuses to participate in an interview with “entities that give a voice to fascism.”

“A desire to see [the Proud Boys] as individuals with a story is a desire to present them as a non-threat,” the group says in a lengthy written response. “We will not work to humanize our people’s oppressors.”

Its message, basically, is don’t be fooled. To St. Louis’ anti-fascists, the Proud Boys’ insistence that they’re a harmless men’s club that drinks beer and shares right-wing memes is hardly credible.

“The Proud Boys are a violent fascist organization that masquerades as a drinking fraternity,” the Antifa group contends. “They are known nationally for harassing and attacking women, immigrants, Muslims and those that oppose their beliefs…. We believe it is not only important, but necessary, to take on fascism at the street level with highly organized and militant tactics.”

But as the statement continues, the manifesto slides into socialist theory: The Proud Boys, as a group, are “a cog” within global capitalism, and opposition to the right-wing fraternity is just one more fight to be taken up by the working class.

The statement ends on a revolutionary note: “We must collectively oppose all parasites in our neighborhoods, not just the Proud Boys.”

The Proud Boys’ opponents aren’t just groups with Marxist talking points. There’s the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, whose 2017 description of the Proud Boys as a “general hate group” follows them in every documentary and news article. Twitter also suspended numerous Proud Boy accounts prior to the first anniversary of Charlottesville’s Unite the Right rally, for what a spokesman claimed were violations of the company’s policy against “violent extremist groups.”

Keegan Hankes, a research analyst for the Southern Poverty Law

Center’s Intelligence Project, says the Proud Boys more than deserve their “hate group” label.

“They end up making comments targeted at immigrants, American Muslims,’ Hankes says. “And their founder, Gavin McInnes, openly admits he’s an Islamophobe.”

McInnes co-founded Vice Media before creating the Proud Boys out of whole cloth — taking the name from “Proud of Your Boy,” a saccharine show tune from Broadway’s adaption of Aladdin. His persona is a pillar of the SPLC’s case against the Proud Boys.

In fact, the organization’s report on the Proud Boys is largely a dossier of quotations taken from McInnes’ various shows, most recently Get Off My Lawn on the conservative online outlet CRTV. It was McInnes who invented the cereal beat-downs and the group’s more esoteric habits, such as the encouragement to stop masturbating, or “no wanks.”

Hankes acknowledges that the Proud Boys present a confounding image to outsiders, creating an intentional incoherency of internet memes and inside jokes.

But within far-right spheres, he warns, the Proud Boys occupy a unique gray area — giving them a membership ripe for recruitment and infiltration by hard-core supremacists.

“They serve as a gateway for so many people who have gone on to other extremism,” Hankes says. “The Proud Boys have kicked some of these extreme figures out, and they have let others stay, either out of ignorance or out of willful ignorance.”

Hankes mentions that Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler was a second-degree Proud Boy before his excommunication, and that the Proud Boys’ most revered text, Pat Buchanan’s Death of the West, is a thinly veiled treatise on danger posed by demographics shifting toward minorities rather than those of European descent.

“The basic argument of that book is that the decline of white birth rates is leading to the death of Western civilization,” Hankes says. Similarly, he says, the Proud Boys’ noble talk of defending “Western civilization” is both a simplification and a smoke screen.

Further muddying the waters is the Proud Boys’ tendency to borrow imagery from quasi-whitenationalist sources: The Fred Perry shirts favored by the Proud Boys were first adopted by mod

Protesters told the River Des Peres Yacht Club to hang up this sign. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI culture in the 1960s, then taken up by skinheads and later claimed by explicitly anti-Nazi punk bands.

(Last year, a Fred Perry spokesman told the Washington Post that the Proud Boys are “counter to our beliefs and the people we work with.”)

And then there’s the “OK” hand gesture Lasater flashed during his first-degree initiation. According to the fact-checking website

hood; they thrive off conflict and controversy,” Hankes points out.

Right Wing Leaks, the group that successfully infiltrated the Missouri Proud Boys Facebook group, has its own theory on what’s driving the Proud Boys. In a phone interview, a representative (who declines to give his name) argues that the group is offering something its angsty, Trump-supporting members thirst for.

of many cigarettes. (He spoke on the condition that he not be named in this story.)

“I just wanted to make a platform for people of a conservative mindset, a place where they felt welcome and not ostracized,” he says.

The St. Louis Proud Boys’ alienation is a frequent conversational topic, almost always in relation to their support of Trump.

“I thought this election was going to be like any other,” says Lasater.

“I thought everyone was going to be at each other’s throats until Election Day, and then somebody wins and we all just accept it.”

That didn’t happen. In St. Louis, being outspoken boosters of the Trump presidency damaged the Western chauvinists’ relationships and ended jobs. One Proud Boy remarks that he grew up liberal and voted for Obama, but claims his co-workers turned on him “the second I made an original thought for once in my life.”

“I wasn’t saying anything that’s racist, I wasn’t saying anything that’s bigotry, I’m just having my own opinion,” he says. “I lost a lot of friends, I lost a lot of people, just speaking up.”

To replace those lost relationships, the Proud Boys have turned to the profane approval of their Virgil, Gavin McInnes.

It’s McInnes’ ability to convey self-help lessons and elaborately offensive comedic riffs — jokes that often make Muslims, feminists and gay people the punch line — that seem to most captivate his fans. Somehow, the author of How to Piss in Public has become a compass for young men searching for a guide in the wilderness. (On McInnes, Lasater later attempts to distance himself, saying, “He’s our founder, not our leader.”)

For members, it’s easy to get swept up in Proud Boy self-righteousness, to let the frustration boil over. Last year, Lasater took to Facebook during the protests that followed the acquittal of exSt. Louis cop Jason Stockley.

Lasater wrote: “While you were protesting in the sweltering heat, I was enjoying air conditioning, a three-course meal and shaking Steve Bannon’s hand.”

Bannon, the strategist credited for encouraging Trump’s Muslim Ban and bringing the alt-right into the mainstream, is a widely reviled figure for supporting what many suspect is a quiet white na-

L as at e r w rote, “while you were protesti ng in t he s w e lterin g heat, I was en j oyin g a i r c o nd it io nin g, a three-course meal an d

sha ki ng st e ve ban n o n ’s h an d.”

One person comm ented, “congratulations on

be i ng a t u r d , I g u e s s ? ! ? ” Snopes, the gesture was intentionally appropriated in 2017 by trolls hoping to create a “hoax” whitesupremacist symbol to enrage liberals. Now the gesture has a life of its own, embraced by an assortment of right-wing personalities and Trump supporters. (Twitter erupted during Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing when an aide appeared to flash it.) A St. Louis trainer who marched with white supremacists in Charlottesville was captured in photos making the same gesture.

But even as their jumble of borrowed ideas and symbols brings them into conflict with the left, the Proud Boys’ ongoing battles with Antifa have led them to comity with hate groups on the right.

“The Proud Boys constantly look to seek out the sense of victim-

“They’re like lost boys,” he suggests. “The Proud Boys’ ideas don’t challenge these men to think critically about any of their behavior or choices. It’s just reassuring to be told, ‘You’ve been right all along.’”

F

our weeks after karaoke night at Tuckers, the St. Louis Proud Boys convene at a house in St. Louis County. They’ve got cans of Budweiser and an Imo’s Pizza, and a YouTube compilation of Trump’s 2016 electionnight win is streaming on the TV. It makes one Proud Boy nearly tear up.

“We saved the world, you guys, can you believe it?” one says. “We saved the fucking world.”

Outside, on a porch ringed by Tiki torches, the local chapter’s vice president is smoking the first

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PROUD AND PREJUDICED Continued from pg 21

tionalism masquerading as “civic nationalism” (a term Lasater himself uses when describing his own views).

Some of Lasater’s Facebook friends did not take well to the trollish Bannon-praising Facebook post, with one simply remarking, “Congrats on being a turd, I guess?!?”

But within the Proud Boys, nationalism doesn’t make you a turd, and there’s nothing wrong with voting for Trump or shaking the hand of Steve Bannon. Doing these things, the Proud Boys insist, is part of a proud American tradition.

“What’s wrong with nationalism?” the chapter’s vice president posits at one point during their gathering, his voice rising with exasperation. “What’s wrong with being a patriot? That’s what got us to the moon. It’s America. What’s wrong with that? Who does that hurt? Who does that hurt?”

“Nationalist,” though, isn’t the label the Proud Boys struggle to reject. It’s “Nazi.” It’s Jason Kessler and his Tiki torch-wielding crowd of young men chanting “Jews will not replace us.” It’s Gavin McInnes riffing on the idiocy of feminism or extolling the accomplishments of white people and “Western civilization.”

Again and again, Lasater, Rohlfing and other St. Louis Proud Boys wave off these associations. Their nationalism isn’t race-based, they insist. But there are open fascists out there, and some of them do find their way to the Proud Boys.

Lasater recalls one applicant to the St. Louis group who bought a Fred Perry polo and provided a first-degree initiation video before revealing that he represented the American Blackshirt Party, a group that seeks to create “the foundations of a Fascist America.”

He was summarily rejected, Lasater says. Same with a Missouri man with neo-Nazi tattoos who appeared in photos uncovered by Right Wing Leaks.

Anyone can make a video of themselves stating the Proud Boy oath. Anyone can buy a $90 shirt or show up to a rally. Rohlfing wonders aloud what would happen if the Proud Boys staged a gathering in St. Louis. What if white supremacists decided to attend?

“How do we know if they are white supremacists?” he asks.

“Are they going to show up wearing SS uniforms?”

For the Proud Boys, efforts at culling their ranks only seem to

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dig them deeper. On multiple occasions, McInnes has ordered the Proud Boys to avoid certain rallies (including 2017’s Unite the Right catastrophe), in an attempt to break the association with groups that vocally praise Western civilization in terms of race and superiority. Still, some Proud Boys show up. Or, if not Proud Boys themselves, then friends of Proud Boys, or former members, or Facebook acquaintances in right-wing groups with photos revealing neoNazi tattoos.

Of course, those are the associations that draw Antifa, who see only a battalion of black-clad fascists. Yet Rohlfing argues it’s Antifa that’s drawing out the real fascists.

“The main reason these [white supremacists] show up to these events is because Antifa is there,” he says. “If Antifa spent their time attacking actual fascists, white supremacists and Nazis, we’d —” Lasater cuts in. “We’d work together on it, for fuck’s sake,” he says.

After a couple hours at Lasater’s, the Proud Boys decide to finish their “boys night” in St. Charles. Their black polos are tucked in tight (they shrink in the wash, one explains) and they roll into a nightclub looking every bit the Western chauvinists. But outside their closed Facebook groups and Portland rallies, these prideful patriots seem out of place, even in the Trump country that is St. Charles. They sit at a circular table at the edge of a dance floor, looking like uniformed busboys at someone else’s prom. One Proud Boy attempts chatting up several women, to no avail.

So they gather at the edge of the dance floor, watching the action amid the lasers and smoke. They talk about an upcoming gala in Las Vegas, “West Fest.” It’s expected to attract hundreds of Proud Boys. “It’s going to be awesome,” says Rohlfing.

And for the St. Louis Proud Boys, it is. Lasater finally gets that third degree: a Proud Boy tattoo emblazoned on his forearm.

Rohlfing will later post photos from the gathering on Twitter, one showing dozens of Proud Boys in a group pose, many using one hand to flash an “OK” hand gesture while grasping a drink in the other.

There, finally away from Antifa, one imagines the Proud Boys are free to be themselves, to pursue happiness, even if all that means is not being criticized for being too chummy with Nazis. Just a men’s group. A drinking club. A fraternity. Anything, really, as long as it’s not an apology. n

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Synchronicity

The ladies of The Zombies of Penzance. | JILL RITTER LINDBERG

THURSDAY 09/27 The Singing Dead

to October 20) at the Marcelle Theater (3310 Samuel Shepard Drive; www.newlinetheatre.org). Tickets are $20 to $30.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Zombies of Penzance, or At Night Come the Flesh Eaters, never made it to stage during the duo’s lifetimes.

The musical was rejected by their publisher, so they reluctantly rewrote it as The Pirates of Penzance.

The original was lost to history — until, that is, St. Louis-based theater impresario Scott Miller found a few sections of the original score and libretto. With composer Scott Gerdes, he has reconstructed a version of The Zombies of Penzance.

Major-General Stanley is a retired zombie hunter, and when a coterie of zombies arrive in the neighborhood he forbids any of his many daughters from marrying even a single one. Is the old man going to be forced out of retirement and back into the head-crushing game?

Find out when New Line Theatre presents The Zombies of Penzance.

Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday (September 27

FRIDAY 09/28 Dinner Is Served

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For the protagonist of Sabrina Mahfouz’s drama Chef, food is not just a passion, it’s her entire being. She has no name other than “Chef” at this point, as she attempts to make the best possible meals for the diverse group sharing her cramped quarters.

She dreams of the fine-dining restaurant she hopes to helm when she gets out of here. But how did someone with her skills end up in such dire circumstances? That is the story Chef tells you as she works, a tale of the violent men in her life and of bad decisions, all leading her to plying her trade here. Upstream Theater opens its fourteenth season with the onewoman show. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Satur-

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

day and 7 p.m. Sunday (September 28 to October 13) at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 North Grand Boulevard; www.upstreamtheater.org). There’s one matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday, October 14. Tickets are $25 to $35.

How much do you know about what your parents do when you’re not around? Beth is certain her mother Scottie is a homebody.

Scottie’s in her 70s and not as spry as she once was; where’s she gonna go, Nepal? In fact, Scottie has been traveling around the world with paid companion Bernadette, a much younger woman who helps her when necessary. Meanwhile, Bernadette’s sister Rhonda will soon meet Beth’s brother Tim at work. All of these people are connected, or almost connected, just as they’re connected to everyone they meet in some way.

That’s the nature of the world: it feels big, but it’s jammed full of people who constantly and casually make contact with each other, if only to nod hello. Is it all chaos and sheer happenstance, or is the point of life to make those connections with people? Humans are social animals, but some are more so than others in Steven Dietz’s This Random World. West End Players Guild opens its 108th season with the comedy about the might-havebeens and coincidences we call life. Performances are at 8 p.m.

Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday (September 28 to October 7) at the Union Avenue Christian Church (733 North Union Boulevard; www.westendplayers. org). Tickets are $20 to $25.

SATURDAY 09/29 A Woman’s Scorn

Linda Kennedy stars in Chef. | COURTESY OF UPSTREAM THEATER

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Regina Giddens is not accustomed to being rebuked or circumvented. It happened to her once when her father’s fortune was divided between her two brothers Benjamin and Oscar, and she’s not willing to suffer that indignity again.

When those same brothers come to her in need of her browbeaten husband Horace’s money to build a cotton mill, she agrees to their plot. But Horace refuses to give her the money, and then rejects Regina and the brothers’ plan B — a marriage between Regina and Horace’s daughter, Alexandra, and Oscar’s son Leo. Horace and Alexandra think they’ve won, but

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 27–OCTOBER 3 underestimating Regina’s ability to ruin any life can be a fatal mistake.

St. Louis Actors’ Studio opens its new season with Lillian Hellman’s classic drama The Little Foxes.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m.

Sunday (September 28 to October 14) at the Gaslight Theater (358 North Boyle Avenue; www.stlas. org). Tickets are $30 to $35.

Oans, Zwoa, Drei, G’suffa!

Urban Chestnut has hosted seven successful Oktoberfests, but this year’s version will be the grandest one yet. Oktoberfest St. Louis runs three days, spanning Washington Avenue from Urban Chestnut’s Midtown Brewery down to Circus Flora’s newly permanent Big Top Tent. What’s going to fill in all that real estate? Oh, people, beer, food, a festival market featuring a different roster of artists selling handmade items each day and even some circus performances. Best of all, admission is free; you simply pay cash for your food and beer as you go. (No credit cards are accepted, though ATMs will be available on the festival site.)

The party starts at noon on Friday, September 28. At 6 p.m., Ken and Nancy Kranzberg tap the ceremonial keg, and the fun doesn’t stop until midnight. For the beer drinkers, Urban Chestnut will offer Oachkatzlschwoaf Lager, Zwickel Bavarian Lager, Schnickelfritz Bavarian Weissbier and a special-edition Dunkel based on the 1967 recipe UCBC brewmaster Florian Kuplent learned while serving his apprenticeship at Brauerei Erharting.

The fest continues from 11 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 29, and includes the popular steinholding competition, or Masskrugstemmen, if you’re traditional.

If you want the true Oktoberfest experience, reserve a VIP table under the Big Top Tent. You’ll received a commemorative one-liter stein with one free fill-up of beer and a dedicated beer server assigned to your table so you can enjoy performances by Sean Canan, Marquise Knox and Al Holliday and the East Side Band.

This year’s Oktoberfest St. Louis looks to be the biggest one in years. | COURTESY URBAN CHESTNUT BREWING COMPANY Sunday, September 30, is for families, with Circus Flora performers including roaming clowns, jugglers and stilt-walkers. A dedicated children’s tent will offer games, cookie decorating and activities for you and your dog under the supervision of Purina pet-care experts. The fest opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Strange Goings-on If you feel something unusual in the air this weekend, don’t panic.

It’s only the Strange Folk Festival unfolding and transforming itself into a living thing in Carondelet Park (Leona Avenue and Holly Hills Boulevard; www.strangefolkfestival.com). The theme this year is Wanderlove, and the fest showcases more than 100 artists and craftspeople selling their handmade goods and live music from Cherokee Moon, Dutch Courage and Hosteen and the Aztechs, among others. There will be crafters working on the sward and perhaps up in the trees, a special Craft Time Tent where you can try

your hand at making something of your own, yard games and other diversions. Dogs, drones, picnickers and shade tents are all allowed, so make yourself comfy.

Food will be sold on site by Urban Eats Cafe, the Stellar Hog and others, while Craft Beer Cellar and the Wandering Side Car Bar Co. handle the adult beverages.

Strange Folk Festival takes place from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday (September 28 to 30), and admission is free.

were terrorized and then actively denounced by his church got him in even hotter water with his own archbishop. Bonhoeffer remained undaunted, and joined the breakContinued on pg 26

MONDAY 10/01 Spy in the House of Hate Dietrich Bonhoeffer practiced what he preached. The Lutheran pastor spoke out against the rise of the Nazi party with sermons that denounced the growing cult around Hitler. This did him no favors in 1930s Germany, and his refusal to sit quietly while Jewish citizens

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away Lutheran church that preserved the traditional Christian beliefs — a huge risk that resulted in him being declared an enemy of the state. Forced to go into hiding, Bonhoeffer continued to preach the true gospel as an act of love and resistance. And if the resistance required martyrdom, so be it. St. Louis illustrator and author John Hendrix depicts the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his new book for young readers, The Faithful Spy. Hendrix reads from and signs the book at 6 p.m. Monday, October 1, at the University City Public Library (6710 Delmar Boulevard, University City; www.subbooks. com). Admission is free, and copies of The Faithful Spy will be sold on site by Subterranean Books.

WEDNESDAY 10/03 You Want A Toe?

Jeff Lebowski, better known as “The Dude.” | (C) WORKING TITLE FILMS

Joel and Ethan Coen gave the world a magnificent gift when they released their modern noir bowling adventure The Big Lebowski — but the world failed to

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the insanely wealthy Jeffrey Lebowski turns on the fact that the kidnappers approach Jeff “Dude” Lebowski for the ransom and the Dude is a hard-core, Zen-hippie, bowling guru. The Big Lebowski is the shaggiest shaggy dog story of all time, and it also has one of the most devoted cult followings.

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It’s only right and natural that the Strange Brew film series would present a screening of it — it’s part of their ethos, Dude. The film starts at 8 p.m. Wednesday, October 3, at the Urban Chestnut Midtown Brewery (3229 Washington Avenue; www.webster.edu/filmseries). Admission is $5. n

FILM

27

[REVIEW]

Clock-ADoodle-Doo! The House with a Clock in Its Walls is the rare kids film worth crowing about Written by

MARYANN JOHANSON The House with a Clock in Its Walls Directed by Eli Roth. Written by Eric Kripke.

Based on the novel by John Bellairs. Starring Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro and Kyle MacLachlan. Now showing at multiple theaters.

W

ait, the house with a what?

With a clock in its walls?

Don’t most houses have clocks in the walls? OK, maybe on their walls, but still … a house with a clock in its walls doesn’t sound terribly weird or frightening or anything that The House with a Clock in Its Walls would appear to want to be.

But this movie is based on the acclaimed-at-the-time 1973 youngadult novel by John Bellairs, and it’s very plain that someone in Hollywood demanded, “Get me the next Harry Potter!” Probably Hollywood figured that retaining the name of the book was a good idea.

But what sort of name recognition does this series — which (checks Wikipedia) runs to twelve books — have, anyway? Not much. And the title also kinda fails as movie marketing. A name change might have been a good idea.

And I say that because dang if an order to find the next Harry Potter for movies didn’t pretty much succeed. This charming little flick offers genuinely appropriate entry-level spookiness for budding fright fans and plenty of pleasingly fun Halloween-y scares. I mean, if you want to get kids into horror without freaking them out too much, this would be a good movie to show them. I fear the blah title will put people off, and it shouldn’t, because we really do need more good movies for kids these days. There are so few.

Anyway, in the grand tradition

Mrs. Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) and and Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) guide young Lewis (Owen Vaccaro). | © STORYTELLER DISTRIBUTION CO., LLC of these sorts of stories (including Harry Potter), tween Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) is an orphan who has newly lost his parents, and so he is shuffled off to live with the, um, unconventional uncle he has never even met before.

We are introduced to Lewis as he arrives by bus in 1950s Michigan for his very first encounter with Jonathan Barnavelt, who is Jack Black at his most disarmingly goofy (this is rare).

Uncle Jonathan lives in a haunted house, and has the most amazing neighbor/best friend in Mrs. Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), a good witch who lives next door.

And it turns out that Jonathan is himself a warlock! “Are you a good warlock or not?” Lewis wants to know, and by this he means “Are you nice or evil?”

Jonathan’s response of “Well, not that good” works as a reply to the better question of “Are you talented?” Jonathan is Jack Black–ishly rather inept. Because of course he is. (If this reminds you of the terrible 2015 Goosebumps movie, which also featured Black as the silly-eldritch center of ooky horrors, this is much better. Much.)

Gentle humor of this sort is what House sings with … and also

The film manages to blend some deeply unsettling (though still PGcreepy) imagery with nicely oldfashioned eerie: foggy cemeteries, esoteric books. a gentle uncanniness and a mild subversion. This is a steppingstone to counterculture notions of alt-fantasy. Lewis’ world is just the teensiest bit steampunk.

He favors goggles, of which I approve, and living your best life even if that means you’re gonna be an outcast eccentric. If there’s one overarching theme here, it’s “embrace your weirdness,” which Lewis is invited to do — and does! — via his new life with his uncle and his delightfully strange friends.

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The title of The House with a Clock in Its Walls refers to the clock ticking down to doomsday that was installed in the walls of Jonathan’s house by another warlock, a very bad-as-in-evil one.

But the most sublime aspect of the film is the fact that it was directed

by Eli Roth … horror schlockmeister Eli Roth, he of the appalling Hostel movies. Roth here hits an unexpected (for him) sweet spot between cloying and spooky, one that finds joy and acceptance for an oddball child in magic and mystery.

Roth manages to blend some deeply unsettling (though still PGcreepy) imagery with nicely oldfashioned eerie: foggy cemeteries, esoteric books. He crams a lot of stuff into this movie — the production design alone is bulging with giddy opulence — but somehow it all works together, particularly thanks to the terrific cast. While Blanchett vamps it up deliciously, Black tones down his mania, and they meet in a comic middle that is perfectly pitched. (Vaccaro is much better than many child actors, too.) Somehow, probably in spite of itself, The House with a Clock in Its Walls ends up totally enchanting. n

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CAFE

33

[REVIEW]

Something New Five Bistro was great, but its rebrand, J. Devoti Trattoria, is simply terrific Written by

CHERYL BAEHR J. Devoti Trattoria 5100 Daggett Avenue, 314-773-5553.

Wed.-Thurs. 5-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5-10 p.m.

(Closed Sun.-Tues.)

W

hen you walk into J. Devoti Trattoria, don’t be surprised to see sevenyear-old Luca Devoti diving across the floor, action figures in hand, as he pretends the dining-room tables are a fortress to guard against malevolent invaders. Granted, he only gets away with this early on in the evening’s service, and even then, Bonnie Devoti is never far behind, tsk-tsking her grandson to make way as she seats incoming guests.

The scene takes place in St. Louis, but it would feel right at home at a quaint family-run restaurant in the old country. And that feeling is exactly what chef Anthony Devoti wants to convey with his new concept — a place where the only thing more Italian than a grandma shooing her grandson is a fiercely farm-to-table culinary ethos.

For Devoti, the authenticity is not the new part: He has been running perhaps the most authentic Italian restaurant in town since opening his acclaimed Five Bistro twelve years ago (he moved it to the Hill in 2009). Heirloom tomatoes straight from the garden, basil plucked from the plants on his mom’s patio, nose-to-tail cooking where every last ingredient can be immediately traced to its source — if you wanted to know what it’s like to eat in his ancestral homeland, far off the tourist drag, there was no better example than Five.

The problem for Devoti, however, was that few diners seemed to realize it. Surrounded by the cheese-covered red-sauce joints

At J. Devoti Trattoria, you can get an heirloom tomato salad, a meatball or sourdough pizza with house-cured Westphalian ham. | MABEL SUEN that define St. Louis-style Italian, Five was considered an outlier, and by extension, not fully Italian. The perception initially didn’t bother Devoti, but as he became a father himself, he found himself waking up to the importance of family and heritage. Determined to reclaim what it means to be an Italian restaurant in St. Louis, he decided to close Five, shuttering it this past March only to reopen in the same location a month later as the explicitly Italian-influenced J. Devoti Trattoria.

The restaurant takes its name from the grocery store Devoti’s great-grandfather opened after immigrating to the U.S. more than a century ago. But the changes aren’t just about honoring the past. Now a father of two, Devoti recognizes the allure of restaurants that can maintain the dignity of fine dining while accommodating parents who want to eat out with their kids. Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have expected a place with a kids’ menu, crayons and coloring sheets to also have wine glasses on top of its white tablecloths. At J. Devoti, these touches are not mutually exclua-

sive — and represent a rebrand of fine dining as much as a rebrand of the restaurant.

Other changes are subtle, more like tweaks than total transformation. The striking wallpaper with its mustard-and-white chevron print remains in the small dining room off the bar, but it is now offset by a gunmetal blue paint.

That color carries through to the main dining room, where the walls have been painted the same blue-grey almost all the way to the ceiling. A small strip of white remains where the paint rollers ended, giving a whimsical effect.

Vintage family photographs and black-and-white photos of the old country are clustered atop the sea of blue.

Insisting that he has been cooking Italian food all along, Devoti did not dramatically change the menu for the rebrand. His point of view as a chef still shines brightly on offerings like the fried-greentomato appetizer, a dish that’s simple, yet stunning in its execution. The tomato is coated in a batter flecked with sea salt and black pepper that remains shockingly crunchy, even as it surrounds the

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juicy, ripe fruit. Lemon-scented aioli the luxurious texture of custard provides an elegant dipping sauce for this masterpiece. Somewhere, a Southern auntie is shedding a single, love-filled tear.

An Italian auntie, however, is giving Devoti an envious side-eye for his meatball — not because he’s done anything wrong, but because it’s so, so right. The fist-sized sphere of pork and beef is perfection of the form: firm yet tender, powerfully meaty yet delicate.

The meatball simmers in tomato sauce as it cooks, allowing the pork and beef drippings to infuse it with meaty richness. It’s the sort of sauce you see slowly bubbling on the stove, ruby red and slicked with pork and beef fat. And forget spaghetti; Devoti serves this revelation atop creamy polenta that soaks up every drop. If Devoti decides to rebrand again to focus on meatballs, he’d be set for life.

Considering his prowess with ground meat, it’s no surprise that Devoti’s burger is a thing of beauty.

Beef, pork and lamb are ground, generously flecked with pepper and formed into a thick, hearty

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

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J. DEVOTI TRATTORIA Continued from pg 33

patty that is cooked to a spot-on medium rare. The burger is succulent enough on its own, but Devoti pairs it with pecan-wood-smoked pork belly; its salty drippings drizzle the patty with a glistening glaze.

Funky cheese, a fried chicken egg and housemade mayonnaise add even more richness, but just when you’ve had enough, a pop of refreshment from dressed greens, a pickle and a slice of green tomato provides relief. My only quibble is that the wonderful sea-salt focaccia used as a bun is too delicate for such a monster. The bread crumbles in the hands, making it a messy endeavor. The burger is still worth it, though it might not be the best choice for a business dinner or first date.

The most notable change from Five to J. Devoti is the addition of pizza and pasta to the menu. Devoti’s pizza crust is impeccable, with the char, chew and fermented tang you get from the best Neapolitan pizzerias. His individualsized pie is heftier and thick all the way through the center, however, providing a substantial base for toppings. Devoti does not abuse

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this allowance, opting for simple tomato sauce, cheese and thin slices of cold smoked Westphalian ham, cured with rum, brown sugar and molasses. The result is flavor that gently enhances the ham’s natural sweetness.

Housemade ravioli shows why the trattoria is a class above its neighboring Italian restaurants.

Tender braised pork ribs and creamy ricotta are nestled into an al dente pillow. They’d be glorious enough on their own, but the chef then tops them with small cubes of fork-tender pork shoulder, kale from his garden and a dollop of ricotta cream. I dare anyone to question whether this is an Italian restaurant after eating this dish.

Vegetable risotto provides a master class in the form. Creamy, yet still retaining the texture of the rice grains, the dish is a luxurious canvas for a bounty of mushrooms and tomatoes. Even the kid’s pasta is terrific, the housemade, ribbon-like noodles slicked with fresh butter and cheese, redefining what is meant by “butter noodles.”

J. Devoti Trattoria may not be a smokehouse, but its braised pork belly entrée can stand shoulder to shoulder with the top barbecue spots in town. There is no

smoke on the meat, just pure, rich pork flavor magnificent in its unadorned state. No knife — or chewing, for that matter — is needed for this delicious meat.

The pork basically melts on the tongue, the only thing breaking up its decadent mouthfeel the acidity from the grain mustard potato salad it rests upon.

If the pork dazzles in its simplicity, the salmon tasting shows Devoti’s playful, more intricate side.

Cold smoked salmon, as bright orange as the midday autumn sun, was the texture of rose petals. Next to it lay a skin-on salmon filet, flawlessly cooked and brazenly (for the Midwest, at any rate) undressed. The fish finally appeared in the form of a fluffy pouf, akin to a pâte à choux. Bits of salmon were subtly layered into the cloud-like concoction, providing a backbeat of flavor rather than a thunderous roar.

All three forms were tied together with lemony-dressed greens and fresh herbs that brightened the fish’s oily flavor. The platter is the work of a master.

In keeping with Devoti’s style, desserts are well executed and not at all fussy. Apple cobbler is about as straightforward as it comes; thanks to the freshness of its in-

gredients, adorning it too much would be like throwing clown makeup on a natural beauty. The evening’s other sweet offering, an ice-cream cone filled with two different flavors (chocolate and fig, white peach and lemon basil) was made even more decadent by a caramelly sauce and crushed nuts that adorned its serving dish.

Quite the fixture around his dad’s restaurant, seven-year-old Luca has been known to hang out in the kitchen and help his dad with some of his pastry prep work. I can’t help but think that the ice-cream cone — a whimsical, almost childlike touch — was inspired by, or perhaps even suggested by, him.

It’s offerings like this that make J. Devoti Trattoria so much more than a great restaurant. But even more so, the fact that the restaurant is a family affair gives it heart, an unquantifiable feeling that makes you feel good about eating here. That feeling shows in every last detail. If that’s not authentically Italian, I don’t know what is.

J. Devoti Trattoria Meatball ..................................................... $8 Burger ...................................................... $17 Salmon tasting ........................................ $24

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Just steps away from Forest Park and the St. Louis Science Center, Bloom Café serves breakfast and lunch six days a week.

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With aims of being the best sandwich shop in the city, Snarf’s award-winning sandwich shops has carved out quite a delicious niche in St. Louis. Owners Jodi and Maty Aronson opened Snarf’s first successful St. Louis location after Jodi’s brother Jimmy Seidel founded the concept in Colorado. Currently at four locations, Snarf’s is readily feeding the Gateway City’s appetite for fast, flavorful, toasted sandwiches using only the finest ingredients. Choosing a favorite from more than 20 classic and specialty sandwich options is difficult, but try the New York Steak & Provolone, with juicy bits of premium meat cooked to perfection and accented with cheese and Snarf’s signature giardiniera pepper blend for a kick. All sandwiches are made with Fazio’s locally made fresh-baked bread and can be customized with a variety of fresh toppings. Don’t forget to check out the salads served with homemade dressings, rotating soups, sides such as Zapp’s gourmet potato chips, and desserts. Snarf’s also offers vegetarian options, a gluten-free menu, a full catering menu and delivery.

“Laissez les bons temps rouler” typically is what you’d hear in New Orleans, but thanks to the southerncomfort cooking at Highway 61 Roadhouse & Kitchen, there are plenty of good times rolling in St. Louis, too. The Webster Grove hotspot blends the voodoo of the bayou with hearty fare and drinks for a spicy experience. In a charming, funky space with colorful blues paraphernalia lining the walls and live music throughout the week, kick off the night with deep-fried wontons stuffed with shrimp, Cajun grits, bacon and a blend of pepperjack and ghost cheese. For a real taste of Louisiana, order the D.D.D. Sampler; named for the “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” episode that visited Hwy 61, the sampler includes the restaurant’s signature red beans and rice, BBQ Spaghetti and CajAsian potstickers. If you’re really hungry, opt for platters that feature the smothered catfish, stuffed chicken or blackened meat medallions served with a variety of kickin’ sides. Wash it all down with plenty of beers, wines and specialty cocktails.

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For a transcendent wine experience in St. Louis, Copia is the place to be. Named for the Roman goddess of abundance, wealth, pleasure and harvest, Copia pours plenty of vino alongside its classic New American fare. Experience the world through dozens of wines, available by the bottle or by the glass; for the adventurous, there are wine or spirit flights that offer tastes of Copia favorites. The wine doesn’t stand alone, though – at Copia, the food is as thoughtful as the drink. For dinner, feast on slow-roasted prime rib or slow-braised lamb shank, each succulent and served with delectable sides. From the sea, try jumbo jalapno and cilantro shrimp jambalaya, served with cajun-spiced andouille sausage and creole rice. And now there’s even more Copia to go around – 14 years after opening the flagship location downtown, Copia recently has added a location in Clayton and also soon will be in West County.

As one of the premier vegetarian restaurants in the St. Louis area, Frida’s has earned accolades for serving hearty meals that are as tasty as they are nourishing. Owners Natasha Kwan-Roloff (also the executive chef) and Rick Roloff elevate vegetarian cuisine by marrying high-quality, local ingredients with innovative flavors. All items are made from scratch, have no butter or sugar and use little to no oil – but with the flavors and creativity at Frida’s, you won’t miss anything. The University City restaurant’s newest hit is the Impossible Burger – a massive plant-based patty that has the texture and juiciness of meat and often fools carnivores. Frida’s award-winning signature namesake burger is no slouch, either, with its tahini-chipotle slaw topping and local bun. The menu also boasts decadent favorites like tacos, wraps, pizzas and desserts, and a new Sunday brunch that just launched in April. Beer and wine are available, and many of Frida’s menu items can be modified for vegan or gluten-free diners.

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37

[SIDE DISH]

Element’s Barman Wants to Get You Playing Corn Hole Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

G

eorge Fiorini has had many “aha!” moments in his bartending career, but the one that really sticks with him came courtesy of his first shift with talented St. Louis barman Tony Saputo. Saputo’s advice would come to define Fiorini’s bartending philosophy.

“I’ll never forget it. I was so excited and nervous for my first shift at Layla, and I went running up to the bar, trying to get behind it,” Fiorini recalls. “Before I could, Tony slammed his tree trunk of an arm down on the bar and stopped me. He said, ‘Before you work here, you need to know a few things. You’re going to be learning a lot of crazy things and ingredients, but if someone wants a vodka Red Bull, you are going to give them the best vodka Red Bull they’ve ever had.’”

Now the newly minted bar manager at Element Restaurant and Lounge (1419 Carroll Street, 314241-1674), Fiorini says it wasn’t all that long ago that he was an aspiring bartender trying to find his way. He was drawn to hospitality at an early age, working at jobs including the Golden Corral and Taco Bell as a teenager before moving on to the acclaimed Bogart’s Smokehouse.

There, he worked the cash register for three years, absorbing the way that owner Skip Steele interacted with his guests, greeting customers at the door every day with a smile on his face. Fiorini committed, then and there, to learning his regulars’ orders, memorizing names and engaging with them

George Fiorini is excited to change things up at Element. “I finally feel like I have an opportunity to make my mark on St. Louis.” | JEN WEST in a meaningful way, even if they were just passing through for a simple barbecue plate.

That experience stayed with Fiorini as he went on to work at the Old Rock House and then Atomic Cowboy. Though he admits he didn’t know how to pronounce Herradura, or even anejo, he called upon the hospitality skills he learned at Bogart’s to make up for his lack of spirits knowledge.

His demeanor and keen eye for hospitality made an impression on Saputo, who took Fiorini under his wing. Fiorini worked with Saputo at Layla for just four months, but during that time he learned enough to build a strong cocktail foundation, even if he didn’t take it all that seriously at the time.

“I had been there for two months, and someone ordered a negroni,” Fiorini laughs. “I had no idea how to make it, so I yelled across the bar to Tony. Needless to say, he blew up.”

Fiorini left Layla to move to Albany to be with his then-girlfriend. He found himself new to town, in the middle of the city’s worst blizzard in years, and in need of a job. He got one at a local restaurant and further developed his bartending skills. However, his real education began after his shift when he would head to the city’s best cocktail bar, Speakeasy, to soak up knowledge from the impressive bar staff. Eventually, they hired him.

Fiorini honed his cocktail chops at Speakeasy before leaving to open a new concept. Called Savoy, the new spot represented everything that Fiorini thought a bar should be.

“We were told by everyone that it wouldn’t work because the perception was that cocktails were pretentious,” Fiorini explains.

“But we ended up becoming one of the busiest bars in the region, and more important to me, we

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were super diverse. Everyone felt welcome there. It was fun and felt like home for people.”

Fiorini would have stayed in Albany, but when Saputo came calling with an opportunity to help him open the Benevolent King, he jumped at the chance to reunite with his mentor. As Saputo’s right-hand man, Fiorini had a front-row seat for the innovative libations being developed for Ben Poremba’s Maplewood hotspot.

He reveled in the opportunity to be Saputo’s taster.

However, something told him that it wasn’t where he was meant to be.

“On the one hand, I moved back to be humbled by Tony, and it was a blast. I cut my chops even more and learned a ton about food and service there,” Fiorini explains.

“However, I realized it just wasn’t the right fit for me or my style.

The Benevolent King is more

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Continued on pg 38

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GEORGE FIORINI Continued from pg 37

geared toward a restaurant style of service, but I am more comfortable at a bartender’s bar where I get to hang out and entertain.”

Fiorini would get that opportunity when the chef and general manager of Element reached out.

The restaurant and bar was trying to begin a new chapter, and they offered Fiorini a blank canvas to mix things up. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“They told me, ‘If you have an idea and you want to do it, don’t be scared of failure. Just do it,’” Fiorini says. “To be able to try out your craziest idea and know you have the support of your bosses — I realized right then and there that this was it.”

Fiorini’s first item of business at Element has been to reshape people’s perception of the bar from an elegant, special-occasion dress-up affair to a regular, everyday bar that just happens to be really beautiful. He wants prospective guests to know that they can dress up and experience all the trappings of an upscale experience, or they can come in jeans, order a Michelob Ultra and play

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corn hole (the game components are now on the patio). That hospitality-first vibe fits right in with what he’s been taught by Steele, Saputo and his mentors in Albany — and what inspires him to be in the business.

“I think the stars are aligning and that it’s the right time for me to take on this challenge,” Fiorini says. “I finally feel like I have an opportunity to make my mark on St. Louis.”

Fiorini took a break from the bar to share his thoughts about rediscovering the St. Louis foodand-beverage scene, the doughnut lady who will always have his heart, and why putting raspberry sauce on mozzarella sticks is actually a good idea.

What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did?

I thought long and hard and, honestly, I’ve got nothing. For better or worse, I wear my heart on my sleeve and am a pretty open book.

What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you?

Grabbing a coffee from Peggy, the sweet lady who works at World’s Fair Donuts. In fact, I’m walking out the door to do just that.

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If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Teleportation.

What is the most positive trend in food, beer, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year?

I’ve only been back for six months, but I would say frozen drinks straight out of a slushy machine. My hope is that, via this approachable way of delivering a drink, we will see more and more people being introduced to and drinking different cocktails.

What is one thing missing or that you’d like to see in the local food-and-beverage scene?

Mozzarella sticks and melba sauce. I’m looking at my chef, Tudor [Seserman], and chef Tom [Futrell] from Polite Society.

Who is your St. Louis food or drink crush?

Peggy from World’s Fair Donuts.

Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis food-andbeverage scene?

Can I just say the staff at Parlor?

I have a feeling they’re going to be doing big things in the coming years.

Which ingredient is most representative of your personality?

Green Chartreuse.

If someone asked you to describe

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the current state of St. Louis’ foodand-beverage climate, what would you say?

Exciting. I feel like I picked a great time to move back and really be a part of it. From what Tony, Ben and Juana are doing at the Benevolent King to Tim Wiggins and Yellowbelly and so on, St. Louis has some fun things going on.

If you were not tending bar, what would you be doing?

Playing music full time. Anybody looking for a part-time drummer?

Name an ingredient never allowed behind your bar.

Fireball.

What is your after-work hangout?

A few games of pool at Parlor followed by shenanigans at Ready Room.

What’s your edible or quaffable guilty pleasure?

Buffalo chicken roll from QT. On a hot dog bun. Piled with crispy onions and glazed with their “gourmet” ranch.

What would be your last meal on earth?

A full slab rib combo from Bogart’s with tri tip, beans and chips accompanied by a Four Roses “Al Young” old fashioned. n

[FIRST LOOK]

Hello Has STL Waking Up to Smoothies Written by

IAIN SHAW

I

t’s only been a month since Hello (1000 South Newstead Avenue, 618-509-2366) opened on the fringes of the Grove, but Jordan and Kayla Bauer’s juiceand-smoothie bar is already a hit.

Says Jordan Bauer, “Saturday is insane. There’s a line to the door at all times. I feel bad, because people are waiting a long time for their smoothies, but we’re trying to keep up with the demand.”

Weekday lunches have also been busy, probably because Hello’s location at the southwest corner of Chouteau Park puts it within easy reach for anyone living, working or studying in the Central West End, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Cortex or the Grove.

If you do find yourself waiting in line to place your order, take a moment to appreciate Hello’s stunning design. Although it’s not huge, seating around 40 customers, Hello benefits from high ceilings and large windows that create a bright, open ambiance.

Juicers whirr over a soundtrack of upbeat dance music. The space offers lots to look at, from woven rugs to macramé wall hangings.

There are a variety of seating options to suit your mood or preference: Lounge on the cozy leather sofa, observe the food prep action

Hello’s cherry cacao bowl is topped with homemade vegan chocolate. | IAIN SHAW from the bar stools or gather with friends around the rattan table in the corner. It all hangs together in a way that feels natural, sunny and uplifting.

Hello’s juice is pressed from fresh, quality produce, the daily selection varying depending on what’s in season. A recent example was a blend of fresh grapefruit, orange, lime and ginger, but expect a new cast of players to emerge as summer gives way to fall.

Inspired by a honeymoon trip to Hawaii, the Bauers originally intended for Hello to be primarily a juice bar. However, customer demand prompted a rethink, as Jordan Bauer explains: “The first few days we were open, we realized no one was ordering juice — everybody was ordering smoothies — so it was actually a quick change to make the menu more smoothie-bowl focused.”

The menu lists five smoothie options, with flavors being rotated regularly. Each smoothie is available in a cup ($7.50), ideal if you want to grab and go, but the

smoothie bowls ($9.50) are more complex and satisfying, with additional toppings lending extra texture and flavor. The toppings vary but involve ingredients like granola, berries, bananas, chia and hemp seeds, coconut and honey. You can also customize your bowl for flavor or a wellness boost with add-ins including spinach, avocado, activated charcoal, almond butter and collagen.

One current highlight is the cherry cacao smoothie, which includes cacao, banana, cherry, coconut milk and honey. The bowl version is topped with unblended portions of the above ingredients, as well as granola and a couple of sticks of homemade vegan chocolate. Another, the “Ocean” bowl, is a bright-blue blend of blue spirulina (a high-protein, nutrientpacked and anti-oxidant algae), strawberries, kiwi fruit, pineapple, granola and coconut.

A smoothie bowl is basically a meal in itself, but the menu also features a couple of salads ($9) and two types of toast ($5), made

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to great effect with thick sourdough from Knead Bakehouse.

The avocado toast is excellent, served on a wooden cutting board and satisfyingly garnished with extras including chile flakes, salt and pepper and pumpkin seeds.

As with the smoothies, you can add extras to the salads or toast for 50 cents to $2 per ingredient.

The Bauers are keen to work with local brands where possible — in addition to working with Knead Bakehouse, they’re currently using honey from Bee Simple City Farm, granola from Made Fare Co. and cold brew from Sump. Jordan Bauer also has plans for wellnessbased collaborations beyond the menu: YogaBuzz will be hosting occasional yoga classes, and the Bauers are exploring the possibility of teaming up again with climbing gym Climb So iLL, which was among the hosts of Hello’s initial pop-up series. If you need a meeting space, construction is underway on a conference room that will be available for reservation by customers.

Plans for winter are already underway, Jordan Bauer says. “We’re experimenting with a lot of bone broths. That’s huge right now in the health-and-wellness culture, so we’re going to play around with that. We’re talking to a few local butcher shops trying to get some good local grass-fed, GMOfree bones. We’re also experimenting with superfood lattes, which is also a pretty new concept for St. Louis. There are coffee alternatives like steamed nut milks with medicinal mushroom powders and superfoods instead of espresso.” Which all sounds great, but take advantage of these last weeks of warm weather to enjoy the more tropical flavors currently underpinning Hello’s smoothie selection.

Hello is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. n

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Anthony Ellerson Jr. will reopen in the former home of Atlas Restaurant. | JENNIFER SILVERBERG

[FOOD NEWS]

The Kitchen Sink Plans DeBaliviere Place Return Written by

DESI ISAACSON

T

he Kitchen Sink is set to make its return to the St. Louis food scene very soon. Owner Anthony Ellerson Jr. is bringing the Louisiana-inflected restaurant back to the neighborhood where it had the most success, with plans to open at 5513 Pershing.

Most recently home to Pig & Pickle, the DeBaliviere Place storefront is best known for housing Atlas Restaurant for its thirteen-year run. Ellerson says he is excited to be “coming back to the neighborhood that I’m born and raised in, where I started at.”

Because Pig & Pickle just moved out, there isn’t much about the space that needs to change, Ellerson says, and he should be able to open the doors soon.

He adds that he could be ready to serve food now but is waiting on the liquor license and wants everything in place before opening.

The Kitchen Sink originally opened in 2012 in a tiny, diner-style location near the Forest Park MetroLink station in the DeBaliviere Place neighborhood. It then moved to a new, larger spot near Union and Lindell in 2013. Two years later, Ellerson opened a downtown location on North Sixth Street. A year after that, in 2016, he closed the Forest Park location, followed by the downtown location in 2017.

Ellerson says he originally moved downtown because of a bad relationship with the landlord of the Union Avenue location, whose building he says needed a

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SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

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lot of work. He was offered the spot in the Grove where Sauce on the Side is now, he says, but he turned it down. “I didn’t want to open a Kitchen Sink across the street from Sweetie Pie’s,” he says, referring to the now-shuttered Sweetie Pie’s at the Mangrove on Manchester Avenue.

“I love the area, but I didn’t want to be across the street from another black restaurant and be in competition with them.”

As for the failure of the downtown location, Ellerson stresses his desire to get back his concept’s original vibe. “The Kitchen Sink thrived better when it was on Union because we were a ‘Cheers.’

We got to know our customers. Downtown it’s more of a business place where people go out for lunch and you have conventions.”

He adds, “We were better when we were a family business, and now that we’re a family business again we’re able to come back in the neighborhood, and we are really looking forward to it.”

Describing why he wanted to bring the Kitchen Sink back, Ellerson recalls an encounter with a fan. “Somebody comes up to me and is like, ‘Me and my husband, we met at your restaurant and now we’re married.’ That’s the reason why I’m coming back to the neighborhood. I walk around the neighborhood walking my dog and everybody asks about [the Kitchen Sink].”

The space is a little smaller than the restaurant’s last two locations, but with a big difference: There will be plenty of parking, as the Kitchen Sink will share a lot with PuraVegan.

Ellerson plans on doing a charity grand opening where those who volunteer time or give to charity will be able to eat for free. He describes the chalkboard at Salt + Smoke where they tally how much they have donated to local charities. “That’s the best thing in the world, that’s better than all of the awards some of these restaurants win,” he says. n

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4 ST. LOUIS LOCATIONS

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

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MUSIC & CULTURE

43

[HOMESPUN]

Dream On The Fade’s debut LP, Good Dream Gone, brings garage-rock cool in a lo-fi package Written by

CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

F

or all the good that community theater can offer — family-friendly entertainment, a chance for amateur thespians to tread the boards, Waiting for Guffman references — the medium isn’t usually the proving ground for rock & roll bands.

And yet the seeds of the smoky, moody quartet the Fade were sewn in the pit of a local musical.

A few years ago roommates Devon Kirsch and Christopher Bachmann were strings players who had begun teaching themselves bass and guitar, respectively, and they wanted to put their new talents to use. Percussionist Anne Stevenson was in the same production and agreed to play drums in their nascent group.

The band suffered many failed attempts with three or four different vocalists, Bachmann explains.

But it turns out their elusive lead singer was hiding in plain sight — Ryan Spriggs was, at the time, living in the same neighborhood as Kirsch and Bachmann.

“And it turns out Ryan was our neighbor — we would see him coming in and out of his house with a guitar case,” Bachmann continues. “We jammed in Ryan’s attic and it took off from there.”

Comprising four Metro East residents, the Fade released a debut EP in 2016 and just dropped a fulllength, Good Dream Gone. Like that first EP, the new album was recorded by the band at Kirsch’s basement studio. A number of the bandmates have taken recording and engineering classes — Spriggs says that he’s been tinkering with recording since before he was a teenager — and the lessons of trial and error led to a tighter product this time around.

“We started realizing how ex-

The band recorded the new album in its bass player’s basement. | JULIA VOGEL pensive going into a real studio was, so we started off buying a couple of cheap microphones and an interface to get us started,” says Bachmann. “We recorded it in Devon’s basement, and we saved a lot of time and money that way.

“Well, maybe not time, but we saved money,” he offers as a corrective, to the knowing laughter of his bandmates. That DIY ethos carried over into the overall sound of the record, which mines the barbed guitar interplay and detached cool of bands like Spoon and the Strokes.

“We wanted to go a little bit cleaner than the last one, but not go totally clean,” says Spriggs. “We want that kind of garage-band kind of sound.”

Bachmann agrees, noting that the lyrical content matches the feelings on the songs — feelings of frustration, anxiety and work-aday stagnation. It was up to Spriggs to sell that in his vocals, which are often captured on these tracks with a pleasing lo-fi distortion.

“The emotions on this record are a lot more raw, a lot more inyour-face in a lot of ways,” Bachmann says. “They’re about things

you don’t necessarily want to talk about. Catching that in the vocals really helped to get that across.”

“I think we felt like this was a darker record than the first goround,” says Stevenson, who contributes lead vocals on the spiraling track “So Many” as well as harmonies throughout. For Gone, all members shared in the songwriting, both in lyrics and composition. The band’s shared responsibility for its songcraft is one of the things Stevenson likes the most about playing with the Fade.

“This time I’m much more involved in the songwriting than I have been in the past, so it’s been interesting for me to learn to bring something and let it go,” she says. “It’s definitely not the kind of band where it’s a showpiece for one person and they’re directing everything.”

Stevenson says that one of her offerings, “All That for This,” started off as “literally a Casio keyboard recording.” It was up to her bandmates to give it shape.

“It almost sounded like a haunting Halloween tune. It was kind of dark, with an echoing organ, and it’s not at all like that now,” Bach-

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mann says, turning to Stevenson.

“I don’t want to say we destroyed your baby, but we took it and did something completely different with it.”

The resulting track opens the record, coating descending guitar arpeggios in an aqueous vibrato while Spriggs uses a stomping, glammy chorus to move from ennui to fervor. “All That for This” lays out much of what follows on the remaining nine tracks — darktinted guitar interplay, dynamic contrast, and Spriggs’ bruised and haunting vocals, which sound tailor-made to be sung into a cheap microphone in a darkened bar.

For Spriggs, the act of songwriting and performing remains a vital part of his identity, even as the band members juggle family obligations, day jobs and the rest of the weight of adulthood that runs counter to the promise of rock & roll.

“You’ve just got to do it, or you’ll die,” Spriggs says of playing music. “I know it’s just something I have to do. And I feel like if you don’t do something and let it go, it will always be haunting you, whatever you’re working on.” n

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[BANDS]

Spacetrucker Offers Hard-Hitting Stoner Rock Written by

THOMAS CRONE

R

ob Wagoner’s gig in the mailorder department of Euclid Records finds him spending his worklife in a corner of the shop’s sprawling basement, a magical space unseen by customers’ eyes and teeming with inventory. The rock & roll lifer is slowly working his way through one of Euclid’s biggest buys ever, a massive 125,000-piece collection of 45s. He pauses for an interview only after snagging a few punk EPs for a quick round of showand-tell, proving that even when surrounded by what looks to be all of the world’s recorded music, favorites can still be found.

Wagoner is also an active musician these days, and his instrument is bass. His band is Spacetrucker, a “stoner grunge” outfit with a newly released second album, Smooth Orbit, its first outing with Wagoner. As his bandmates arrive, they weave their way through the stacks and good-naturedly bust on Wagoner for his office space, calling him “the cryptkeeper” before settling into folding chairs to talk about getting to this point in their life as a band.

The band’s core had been guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Mike Owen and drummer Bryan “Del” Weitekemper. The pair have a tendency to finish each other’s thoughts, the kind of thing that happens when you share a creative outlet with a friend for years.

Sketching out the group’s history, Owen starts by saying, “Me and Del have been in and out of bands together since we were … shit, I was probably twenty.”

“And I was about 22,” Weitekemper adds.

Owen continues: “We’ve been in bands since. We’ve moved some places together. Lived in different cities for a while. Then Del moved back here after living in Chicago for a long stretch.”

The shortest version of what happened next flows kinda like

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The thunderous trio insists on playing at eleven, with “ball-rattling bass and huge drums.” | VIA THE BAND this: Owen’s previous band, Fumer, was winding down, even as Wagoner’s previous bands had moved into periods of inactivity.

Spacetrucker’s prior bassist wasn’t able to continue with the group.

And with a practice space just begging for noise to be made, the new lineup of Spacetrucker was born — and almost immediately jumped into live play.

“The newest record,” Owen says, “was 100 percent written with Rob. When we started playing together, we had the seven songs from the first EP. We had about three practices, then a show.”

Unlike a lot of bands that are coy about influences, Spacetrucker proudly wears more than a few on its sleeve, including Sleep, the Melvins, Kyuss, Red Fang, High on Fire, TAD, Nebula, Local H, Fu Manchu, Failure, Nirvana, Karma to Burn and Fatso Jetson.

Beyond that, descriptions of what the band aims for come in varied bursts: Owen: “It has to be loud.”

Weitekemper: “If it’s not at eleven, it’s too quiet.”

Wagoner: “We’re into everything from shoegaze to Black Sabbath.”

Owen: “And the MC5. Something that makes you wanna grit your teeth until they break.”

Weitekemper: “Bands like Barkmarket, Unsane, anything from the Man’s Ruin label.”

Owen: “We’re into a lot of the same stoner rock. I remember first hearing Queens of the Stone Age. When they started breaking out, we thought, ‘Oh, shit, we have to do something like this.’ It took us a few years to finally get there,

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

but we really loved those first few Queens records.”

Weitekemper: “We want ballrattling bass and huge drums.”

Pardon, you just said …

“Ball-rattling bass. And huge drums.”

The group went to its recording engineer, Gabe Usery, with some very specific, very simple instructions for how they wanted to achieve that sound.

“When we were making the record, we gave him the direction that we wanted the drums to sound like Unsane’s Visqueen album,” Owen says. “There wasn’t any question then. He said, ‘I know exactly what you want.’”

Vocals aren’t necessarily frontand-center on Space Orbit, an album that has its fair share of instrumental passages. But when lyrics are needed the job falls squarely on Owen, who says they come together piece by piece.

“A lot of the songs are about my frustrations with the world, or with myself,” he explains. “I don’t write too many story songs, but there’s one that stands out and that’s ‘Hotbox Airlock.’ It’s got my favorite lyrics, a story about how modern astronauts are visited by an astronaut from the future.

And he brings some killer weed, which he imparts on them, to help avoid the destruction of the human race. That one’s fun. The rest are angrier, I write them down scrawling, like I’m gonna punch through the piece of paper.

“I want every word to count,” Owen adds. “We can write a song in 40 minutes, but lyrics can take twelve weeks to finish. I’ll sit there

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with, like, four lines down.”

Instrumentally, Smooth Orbit has what Wagoner calls a few “bells and whistles,” but nothing that seems critical when the band takes the stage as a three-piece, fully electric rock & roll band.

Owen adds some acoustic guitar parts on a couple of tracks, while omnipresent St. Louis cellist Jake Brookman adds some flourishes.

The album, which was originally intended to come in at around eight tracks, wound up at ten thanks to a last-second burst of inspiration and new songs.

“Sparks flew. Emotions ran high,” Owen says with a touch of dry humor. “And all of a sudden, we thought, ‘We should put this one on the record.’ Usually, I have all of these snippets and riffs on my iPhone, after I used to use one of those interrogation-style tape recorders. I have these riffs, then I usually just bring them to Del first and we kinda have this back-andforth thing. It’s unspoken, really.

We’re rapidly like ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ Once we have that, Rob adds a bassline and puts in two cents with structure.”

Wagoner, for his part, is just happy to be in a writing, recording and gigging band again.

“The thing that’s been a lot different with this is that we practice twice a week,” he says. “I haven’t been used to that and it really is a pleasure. If I’m not progressing or creating, I kinda go nuts.”

“Playing in this band is our zen,” Weitekemper adds.

If you listen to Smooth Orbit in just the right head space, you’ll get there, too. n

[PREVIEW]

Funk Fest Returns to Broadway Written by

THOMAS CRONE

S

eated in one of KDHX’s production studios, Andy Coco seems remarkably at home.

The bulk of his workweek is spent in rooms like these, surrounded by microphones, soundboards, amps. As chief production officer of the community radio station, Coco’s work involves a variety of tasks, from cutting station interstitials to recording bands for broadcast to keeping the station’s volunteers sounding good on-air.

For two hours a week, on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m., Coco’s own show, The Rhythm Section, brings to life the music that excites him. It’s a mix of soul and funk, with regular appearances from acts as diverse as Orgone, Galactic, Lee Fields, Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, James Brown and Lettuce. You get the classic names from labels like Motown and Stax as well as young bands utilizing digital-only platforms. On this one afternoon a week, bands like the Meters are treated like the American classics they are.

There’s also an emphasis on bands with local and regional roots. But you won’t hear the many St. Louis groups that would qualify for his show, if not for Coco’s involvement in them.

“I always tell bands when I’m asked to join, that I might be a deficit,” he says. “It’s important to express that you might hear my music [on KDHX], but I’m as hands-off as I can possibly be. I follow the standard practices of being an outside player, and I’m aware of the potential conflicts of interest.”

That’s both simple and complex, as the music lifer has a hand in multiple aspects of the local music scene. Outside the walls of KDHX, Coco operates a small label (Dogtown Records), records groups and plays in a big batch of acts on his primary instrument of bass.

How many? Well…

“I think it’s always funny when people ask me how many bands I’m in,” he says. “It depends on which band is actively booking, which is making a record. It’s nice

to be wanted in a way. I’m a utility player, not a band leader.”

This weekend, on September 28 and 29, Coco will get to wear a few of his different hats, as Funk Fest 13 plays out over Friday and Saturday night in a three-venue stretch south of downtown: the Broadway Oyster Bar, BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups and Beale on Broadway. For someone who considers himself a utility player, Coco has put his stamp all over the event, from curating the talent to coordinating production components to playing in a good chunk of the weekend’s lineup.

He’ll be playing with the Service, Hip Grease, Big Mike Aguirre, Funkify Your Life: A Tribute to The Meters and Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players. The pace, he says, is “nice. I like the activity of three sets on one night and two on the other. And all of it’s different.”

trick lies in the coordination, the planning, the details.

“A lot of these share members,” Coco says, “so once somebody agrees to a specific set time, I need to build around that. That type of coordination can be a real bear.”

For example, a core of horn players will bounce between stages all weekend long, with Adam Hucke, Ben Reece, Aaron Chandler, Charlie Cerpa and Derick Tramel taking part in multiple sets. (This year, Coco says, the drummers don’t overlap as much, giving him just a touch of planning relief.)

That said, there’s a chance that early next week Coco will be in the mode of deep recovery.

“I sweat it off, then think I’m not ever doing this again,” he explains. The flipside is the gratitude he feels. “A lot of people will make a point to thank me, as they otherwise can’t all hang out with each

weekend. ‘These are kinds of bands you’ll see down here every night of the week.’ Their investment in live music is a big deal and facilitates these bands being able to grow and experiment. That goes for Art Dwyer’s Monday night jam at the Oyster to BB’s having something going after everything is closed.

Every concierge and booker in town knows where to send people.

They’re not sending people to the Landing, as much as I wish it was happening there.

“I try to avoid the term ‘Broadway Triangle,’” Coco says with a laugh. “You don’t want it to sound like the Bermuda Triangle, where musicians go to die. But people do call it that as much as anything.”

While Coco suggests that the next few days will mostly center on promotion, he does talk of how the district could improve longterm, with a stoplight here or bit

Al Holliday & the East Side Rhythm Band is just one of 24 acts performing this weekend at Funk Fest 13. | VIA THE BAND But just as he’s quick to point out that KDHX isn’t his personal jukebox, he notes that Funk Fest isn’t about creating a space for his music alone. A total of 24 bands will be featured across the three stages, with a roster that also includes Marquise Knox, Al Holliday and the East Side Rhythm Band, Illphonics, the Jeremiah Johnson Band, Love Jones, Roland Johnson, Torrey Casey and the Southside Hustle, the Provels, the Grooveliner, Scandaleros, Kingdom Brothers, Mz. Sha, Devil’s Elbow, Hazard To Ya Booty and Naked Rock Fight featuring Dawn Weber. Also included is Seattle funk project Pig War, featuring St. Louis expat Teddy Presberg.

Finding enough talent for the event is never the problem. The

other” on the same weekend.

“There’s a familiarity with the district that’s helpful for the musicians, a comfort level in knowing how to navigate the stages,” he adds.

So proximity is the key here, with the Broadway corridor providing the rooms for a multi-band fest like this to work. For Coco, the city’s so-called “Broadway Blues Triangle” is the one place that provides a year-round, central location for live music. He sees Funk Fest as a bit of a roadmap to what could be.

“That’s part of the point,” Coco says. “Cementing the district, recognizing that bands are playing there regularly, that they have live music every day of the week.

I’m hoping to beat that drum this

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of traffic calming there, maybe a bit of city-fueled push to refocus gametime activities south of the stadium. He sees the big picture of a crackling nightlife scene that could be reborn, taken back (at the very least) to the popularity of the pre-Ballpark Village days. With a couple of non-blues/funk bars in the mix, too, he reckons that the district is already on its way.

“There’s a bigger transformation going on there, too,” he says.

“A lot of good stuff is going on.”

Funk Fest 13 will take place from 7:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Friday, September 28 and Saturday, September 29 at Beale on Broadway, BB’s Jazz Blues & Soups and the Broadway Oyster Bar. For tickets and more information, visit dogtownrecords.co.

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[CRITIC’S PICK]

The Sword. | VIA RAZOR & TIE

The Sword 8 p.m. Saturday, September 29.

The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Avenue. $18 to $20. 314-833-3929.

Over the last fifteen years, the Sword has cemented its place among heavy metal’s finest Sabbath-inspired modern acts, releasing six full-length albums of fuzzedout, heavy-hitting bliss. But with the Austin band’s recent announcement that it will be going on an indefinite hiatus, that may be coming to an end. (“Indefinite hiatus” can mean a lot of things, but ask any long-suffering Fugazi fan and they’ll tell you: Shit’s grim.) The news comes on

THURSDAY 27

CAR SEAT HEADREST: 8 p.m., $22-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

LJ WHITE: 7:30 p.m., free. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600.

NATE LOWERY: 4 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

REGULUS: w/ Sound Division, Sixes High 8 p.m., $5. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SEPTEMBER MOURNING: w/ Kaleido, Charcoal Tongue 7 p.m., $10-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

FRIDAY 28

AARON GRIFFIN: 7 p.m., free. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061.

COFFEE BREAK COMEDY SHOWCASE: w/ Brendan Olson 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

DAVID LIEBE HART: w/ Chip the Black Boy 8 p.m., $12-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

the heels of the release of the band’s latest album, March’s Used Future, which saw the Sword pivot away from the stoner rock on which it cut its teeth to a more classic rock sound not unlike ZZ Top or Thin Lizzy, complete with synths and plenty of ’70s cool. Expect to hear songs from that as well as plenty from its deep back catalog at this show, one of the band’s final five bookings before it blasts off into the great unknown.

Birds of a Feather: Locals Thor Axe and Bone Roaster will open the show, bringing lightning-quick instrumental metal and balls-rattling stoner rock, respectively.

—Daniel Hill

FOXING: 8 p.m., $15-$18. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

HEAVY LIDS: w/ Benni 9 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

LES GRUFF AND THE BILLY GOAT: w/ Mayeux And Broussard, Garrett T. Capps 8 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

ROLAND JOHNSON & SOUL ENDEAVOR: 8 p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SLOW OCEAN: w/ the Underground Lemon Experience, Broken Kingdom, Send Me Home, New Day Pops 6 p.m., $10-$12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

START MARKING SENSE: TALKING HEADS TRIBUTE: 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

STEVE O’BRIEN: 8 p.m., $5-$8. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

SUMMER MAGIC RELEASE SHOW: w/ David Beeman, Golden Curls 9 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

ZOSO: THE ULTIMATE LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE: 6 p.m., $20-$25. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

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SHAKEY GRAVES: w/ The Wild Reeds 8 p.m., $25$28. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

A TRIBUTE TO JILL SCOTT: 6 p.m., $20. Voce, 212 S. Tucker Blvd., St. Louis, 314-435-3956.

[CRITIC’S PICK]

[WEEKEND]

BEST BETS

MONDAY 1

Five sure-fire shows to close out the week

MATT F BASLER: w/ Luna Honey, Lunar Fuse 7 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

SICK THOUGHTS: w/ Trampoline Team, Mom 9 p.m., $7. RKDE, 2847 Cherokee Street, St Louis.

STING, SHAGGY: 8 p.m., $104-$164. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THIRD SIGHT BAND: 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

VERA SOLA CD RELEASE SHOW: w/ Le’Ponds 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 Summer Magic Record Release w/ Golden Curls, David Beeman 9 p.m. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $10.

314-498-6989.

Many artists pump out songs for a living with little regard for enduring quality. By contrast, Kevin Bachmann and the rest of the Summer Magic crew took their time in writing the band’s debut, Sharks and Other Dangers. Recorded with David Beeman at Native Sound Studio, the album was carefully crafted over the course of two years, resulting in a polished gem of indie rock. Some of that wait was due to Beeman’s touring demands as a member of the Father John Misty road crew, but whether by virtue or circumstance, a heavy dose of patience helped to make this set of songs feel essential. Pick it up at this release show and you’ll agree it was worth the wait.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 Dino Merlin 9 p.m. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $67.

314-726-6161.

The air of glamour that surrounds Bosnian dynamo Dino Merlin is thick enough to cut with a knife. The singer-songwriter’s circular songs move slowly with a momentous build — indicative of the weight behind his words. He’s a product of the ’80s and one of the biggest pop artists to emerge from the former Yugoslavia. And while Merlin could ride the waves made from his seminal record Sredinom, dropped way back in 2000 and one of the most commercially successful albums ever to be released in southeast Europe, the man dubbed “The Wizard” continues to grind out excellent new music well into his 50s.

Idles w/ Bambara 8 p.m. Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City. $14 to $16. 314-727-4444.

Idles’ reputation as a posi-punk band has never been worn so prominently on its collective sleeve as now. The Bristol outfit’s latest foray, Joy As an Act of Resistance, lets its intentions be known right from the outset. Sure, some songs are burnt to a crisp, coming in with dark vibes underneath all the relentless repetition — Swans would be proud. Yet still, this couldn’t

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TUESDAY 2

Iron & Wine. | KIM BLACK

Iron & Wine 8 p.m. Wednesday, October 3.

The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $30.

314-726-6161.

From the voluminous beard to the lo-fi, acoustic incantations, Sam Beam of Iron & Wine is one of the unacknowledged inventors of contemporary folk. Without the guiding lamplight of his exemplary songs and fragile delivery, Fleet Foxes, Devendra Banhart, Bon Iver (one could go on) would not exist as we know them. Released sixteen years ago, The Creek Drank the Cradle, Iron & Wine’s first album for Sub Pop, essentially reinvented that vaunted indie/

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 47

SATURDAY 29

AUBURN KISS: w/ People Seen in Cars 9 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

BIG GEORGE JR. & THE NGK BAND: 9 p.m., $3.

Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

DINO MERLIN: 9 p.m., $67. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

FEED THE NEED CONCERT: w/ The Harman Family Blues Band 5 p.m., $48-$108. Liberty Bank Ampitheater, 1 Riverfront Drive, Alton Township.

IDLES: w/ Bambara 8 p.m., $14-$16. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

JAKE’S LEG: 9 p.m., $10-$12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

KARATE BIKINI: 7:30 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

MATTHEW PERRYMAN JONES: w/ Molly Parden 8 p.m., $12-$15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

PHILIP H ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS: 8 p.m., $20$25. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

SHIVER: 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill,

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

punk label and remains a touchstone for any kid who believes in the strange alchemy of a whispered voice over guitar or banjo. Since then, Beam has reimagined Iron & Wine against synth-speckled and flamenco-flecked canvases, without losing the soul-to-soul intimacy. Even in the expanse of a venue like the Pageant, Beam knows how to keep the mystery of his music alive.

Smoking Jacket Optional: Carl Broemel is best known as the fiery guitarist for My Morning Jacket, but he’s also quietly released a handful of low-key, psych-folk solo albums. Your attention for his opening set will be rewarded.

—Roy Kasten 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300.

SUBTROPOLIS ALBUM RELEASE: w/ R6 Implant, Buttercup 8:15 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

THE SWORD: 8 p.m., $18-$20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

THE SPILL CANVAS: 8 p.m., $16-$18. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.

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

VINTAGE VIBE: 7 p.m., free. Failoni’s, 6715 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-781-5221.

SUNDAY 30

BALLYHOO!: w/ Tree One Four, The Bad Haircuts 8 p.m., $14-$16. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

DUO KLAVITARRE: 3 p.m., $32. Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N Grand Blvd, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

MOON HOOCH: 9 p.m., $15-$17. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

PINK FUZZ: w/ Beau Diamond and the Collective Dream Band, Breath Fire 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

RIVER CITY OPRY: w/ Suzie Cue, Whiskey Raccoons, Tim Leavy 1 p.m., $5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW: 7 p.m., $5.

Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SCREAMING FEMALES: w/ Kitten Forever 8 p.m., $12-$14. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

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CHANTICLEER: 8 p.m., $19-$42. Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 4431 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 314-373-8200.

HENRY ROLLINS: 8 p.m., $29.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS: 8 p.m., $30-$33. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ST. LOUIS SOCIAL CLUB: 8 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

SWINGIN’ UTTERS: 8 p.m., $13-$15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

WEDNESDAY 3

BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

EAST SIDER REVIEW: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

THE FREEKS: w/ Sons of Vulcan, Murtaugh 7 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

FRESH PRODUCE: THE BEAT BATTLE: first Wednesday of every month, 9 p.m., free. The Monocle, 4510 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-935-7003.

IRON & WINE: 8 p.m., $30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MURDER BY DEATH: 8 p.m., $20-$25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

SHAWN MULLINS: 8 p.m., $25-$30. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE: 8 p.m., $28. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

THIS JUST IN 3 OF A PERFECT PAIR: Sat., Oct. 6, 7 p.m., free.

Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061.

AARON KAMM AND THE ONE DROPS: Sat., Oct. 27, 10 p.m., $10-$13. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

ARMY JAZZ AMBASSADORS: Sun., Nov. 11, 3 p.m., free. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949.

ASHES TO STARDUST: THE MUSIC OF DAVID BOWIE: Wed., Nov. 21, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

BAS: Thu., Feb. 7, 8 p.m., $13-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BENEFIT SHOW 3.0: W/ Ben Diesel as Weezer, Biff K’narly and the Reptilians, Lunar Fuse, The Fighting Side, The Stars Go Out, Sat., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: Wed., Oct. 3, 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

BILLY BARNETT BAND: Thu., Oct. 4, 7 p.m., $5.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

BLAC YOUNGSTA: Wed., Nov. 21, 8 p.m., $13-$15.

Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BRONZE RADIO RETURN: Sat., April 6, 8 p.m.,

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Vera Sola 8 p.m. Monday, October 1.

Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $10.

314-773-3363.

Making your formal debut with a collection of Misfits songs sung in a style more befitting Cat Power than Glenn Danzig is one way to make an introduction. For Vera Sola, the musical project of Danielle Aykroyd, tackling “Where Eagles Dare” and “Last Caress” on her 2017 EP with little more than layered vocals and rever-

$13-$15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

CAMERON ESPOSITO: Fri., Nov. 9, 8 p.m., $25. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

CRACKER, CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN: Mon., Dec. 31, 9 p.m., $40-$50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

DAVID CROSS: Sun., Nov. 4, 8 p.m., $37.50.

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

EAST SIDER REVIEW: Wed., Oct. 3, 10 p.m., $5.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

ELLIOTT PEARSON & THE PASSING LANE: Thu., Oct. 11, 9 p.m., $5. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

ERIC CHURCH: Fri., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $36-$126.

Sat., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., $36-$126. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

FALLING MARTINS: Sat., Oct. 13, 2 p.m., free.

Molly’s in Soulard, 816 Geyer Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-6200.

FRANK BANG & THE COOK COUNTY KINGS: Sat., Oct. 6, 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

GENESIS JAZZ PROJECT: Sun., Oct. 7, 5 p.m., $10.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

HARRY CONNICK JR.: Thu., Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m., $52-$147. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

THE IMPROVISED SHAKESPEARE COMPANY: Sat., Nov. 10, 7 p.m., $25. Sat., Nov. 10, 10 p.m., $25.

berant guitar was a taste of her forthcoming full-length debut album, Shades.

Aykroyd recorded the album at St. Louis’ Native Sound Studio and, though she planned to record with a host of other musicians, she ended up performing all the parts herself. Like the title implies, Shades is both haunted and haunting — even without Misfits-style pancake makeup and horror-core set dressing.

Dream Team: Le’Ponds, the dream-pop project of Lisa Houdei, continues its heavy gigging regime with an opening slot.

—Christian Schaeffer

The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

JAMES ARMSTRONG BLUES BAND: Fri., Oct. 5, 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

JAZZ FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Sun., Dec. 2, 3 p.m., free. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949.

KENT EHRHARDT & THE BLUE MOON BAND: Sat., Oct. 27, 8 p.m., $5. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061.

LARKIN POE: Sun., Dec. 9, 8 p.m., $18-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

LARRY GRIFFIN & ERIC MCSPADDEN: Sat., Oct. 6, 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

LOVE HZ: SELEKTA TAKEOVER: W/ Professor Hex, Bacon Beatz, Packie, Jon Dent b2b Stray, Fri., Oct. 5, 9 p.m., free. The Crack Fox, 1114 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-621-6900.

LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: Sun., Oct. 7, 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

MATT F BASLER: W/ Luna Honey, Lunar Fuse, Mon., Oct. 1, 7 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

MEG MYERS: W/ The Blue Stones, Fri., Dec. 7, 8 p.m., $25-$28. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MIKE FARRIS: Wed., Nov. 28, 8 p.m., $20.

Continued on pg 50

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THIS JUST IN Continued from pg 49 Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MISFITS TRIBUTE NIGHT BY WE BITE: W/ Somewhat Damaged, Gravitational Constant, Wed., Oct. 31, 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

A NIGHT IN MARGARITAVILLE: W/ The Landsharks, Thu., Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m., $100-$150. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NOTHING, NOWHERE: W/ Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, smrtdeath, St. Panther, Tue., Dec. 18, 7 p.m., $18. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

ORPHAN JON & THE ABANDONED: Thu., Oct. 4, 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

PALE DIVINE: Sat., Dec. 15, 8 p.m., $25-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

PINK FUZZ: W/ Beau Diamond and the Collective Dream Band, Breath Fire, Sun., Sept. 30, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

THE REVIVALISTS: Sat., Dec. 8, 8 p.m., $39.50$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

RIVER CITY OPRY: W/ Suzie Cue, Whiskey Raccoons, Tim Leavy, Sun., Sept. 30, 1 p.m., $5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

ROADDOGG’S GOING AWAY PARTY: W/ Brother Lee and the Leather Jackals, Thu., Oct. 18, 10 p.m., free. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

ROBYN ADELE: Thu., Nov. 15, 7 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

ROCK ‘N ROLL FOR REFUGE: W/ Arvell & Company, Sat., Nov. 3, 7 p.m., $75-$115. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

ROCKY MANTIA & KILLER COMBO: Fri., Oct. 5, 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

ROGERS & NIENHAUS: Sat., Oct. 6, 7 p.m., $5.

Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061.

RYAN KOENIG: Sun., Oct. 21, 1 p.m., free. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis,

BEST BETS

Continued from pg 48

Wednesday September 26 9:30PM Urban Chestnut Presents

the voodoo players Tribute To talking heads

Thursday September 27 9PM

mom’s kitchen

be considered anything other than punk, and that’s not for lack of a better term. The new record is pure energy in wax form. Simply put, you’ll find many people saying this is the best punk record of the year, and this is your chance to see it in the flesh. Don’t sleep.

Tribute To widespread panic

Friday September 28 8PM-2:30am funk fest featuring

the scandaleros, the provels funkify your life a meters tribute funk monster Saturday September 29 8PM-2:30am funk fest featuring

the grooveliner pig war, al holiday & the east side rhythm band, sean canan’s voodoo blues & soul band Wednesday october 3 9:30 PM Urban Chestnut Presents

the voodoo players marshall tucker vs lynyrd skynyrd 50

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SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2018

Subtropolis Record Release w/ The R6 Implant, Buttercup 8:15 p.m. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Avenue. $5. 314-772-2100.

Maybe it’s the musical nudity at play, where both players’ faults and strengths are laid bare, but duos playing some order of rock tend to just get weird. To wit, proggy psych-rock band Subtropolis creates density with a fullbodied tone and polyrhythm as a general rule. That’s not to say that Dave Todd and Sean Wilke won’t latch onto a riff, but those rare shots of repetition hit extra hard when they’re not expected.

The pair celebrates the release of Automatic Touchless alongside two equally brain-bending bands in Buttercup and

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314-498-6989.

S.M.A.S.H. FEST: W/ Tef Poe, Ace & Wan, Og Rach, CHE, Indiana Rome, The Knuckles, TDubb-O, Bo Dean, UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley, St. Louis Humanitarian Honoree Kayla Reed, Sat., Oct. 20, 8 p.m., $10-$15.

The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

SHADOW OF INTENT: W/ Depths of Hatred, Sat., Oct. 27, 7 p.m., $15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SMASHING PUMPKINS: Sat., Dec. 1, 7 p.m., $35.

Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR: Sat., Nov. 10, 8 p.m., $30-$60. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949.

ST. LOUIS SOCIAL CLUB: Tue., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $5.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET: W/ Argyle Goolsby, Nim Vind, Thu., Nov. 29, 8 p.m., $15-$18.

Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

THE PACK A.D.: Tue., Oct. 30, 8 p.m., $10-$13.

The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

THE STORY COLLIDER: UNCHARTED TERRITORY: Thu., Oct. 4, 7 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

THIRD SIGHT BAND: Mon., Oct. 1, 8 p.m., $10.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

THUNDERHEAD: THE RUSH EXPERIENCE: Sat., Dec. 1, 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

VINTAGE VIBE: Sat., Sept. 29, 7 p.m., free.

Failoni’s, 6715 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314781-5221. Sat., Dec. 1, 8 p.m., free. Debz Corner, 685 Big Bend Road, Ballwin, 636-394-0120.

YOUNG THE GIANT: W/ Grandson, Wed., Nov. 28, 8 p.m., $29.50. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

THIS WEEK

AARON GRIFFIN: Fri., Sept. 28, 7 p.m., free. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061.

AUBURN KISS: W/ People Seen in Cars, Sat., Sept. 29, 9 p.m., $10. W/ People Seen in Cars,

even the R6 Implant, which returns after a long hiatus.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 Shakey Graves 8 p.m. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $25-$28.

314-726-6161.

If you’re only hearing about Shakey Graves and not listening to the songs, you might notice how critics — and even the man himself — like to attach words like “eclectic” to his name. Fair enough, but his latest record, Can’t Wake Up, might be the smoothest concoction of Americana to date — one that somehow succeeds in checking off every item on the genre list while simultaneously expanding the definition. These are the kind of songs that inspire folks to take up instruments — simple enough for anyone to play, but too genius for anyone else but Shakey Graves to write.

—Joseph Hess Each week we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the weekend. To submit your show for consideration, visit riverfronttimes. com/stlouis/Events/AddEvent. All events subject to change; check with the venue for the most up-to-date information.

Sat., Sept. 29, 9 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

BALLYHOO!: W/ Tree One Four, The Bad Haircuts, Sun., Sept. 30, 8 p.m., $14-$16. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

BIG GEORGE JR. & THE NGK BAND: Sat., Sept. 29, 9 p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: Wed., Oct. 3, 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

CAR SEAT HEADREST: Thu., Sept. 27, 8 p.m., $22$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

CHANTICLEER: Tue., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $19-$42. Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 4431 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 314-373-8200.

COFFEE BREAK COMEDY SHOWCASE: W/ Brendan Olson, Fri., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

DAVID LIEBE HART: W/ Chip the Black Boy, Fri., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., $12-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

DINO MERLIN: Sat., Sept. 29, 9 p.m., $67. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

DUO KLAVITARRE: Sun., Sept. 30, 3 p.m., $32.

Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N Grand Blvd, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

EAST SIDER REVIEW: Wed., Oct. 3, 10 p.m., $5.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

FEED THE NEED CONCERT: W/ The Harman Family Blues Band, Sat., Sept. 29, 5 p.m., $48-$108.

Liberty Bank Ampitheater, 1 Riverfront Drive, Alton Township.

FOXING: Fri., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., $15-$18. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE FREEKS: W/ Sons of Vulcan, Murtaugh, Wed., Oct. 3, 7 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

FRESH PRODUCE: THE BEAT BATTLE: First Wednesday of every month, 9 p.m., free. The Monocle, 4510 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-935-7003.

HEAVY LIDS: W/ Benni, Fri., Sept. 28, 9 p.m., $7.

Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

HENRY ROLLINS: Tue., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $29.50.

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

IDLES: W/ Bambara, Sat., Sept. 29, 8 p.m., $14-$16. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

IRON & WINE: Wed., Oct. 3, 8 p.m., $30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

JAKE’S LEG: Sat., Sept. 29, 9 p.m., $10-$12.

Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

KARATE BIKINI: Sat., Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m., free.

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

LES GRUFF AND THE BILLY GOAT: W/ Mayeux And Broussard, Garrett T. Capps, Fri., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

LJ WHITE: Thu., Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m., free. The 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., University City, 314-421-3600.

MATT F BASLER: W/ Luna Honey, Lunar Fuse, Mon., Oct. 1, 7 p.m., $7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

MATTHEW PERRYMAN JONES: W/ Molly Parden, Sat., Sept. 29, 8 p.m., $12-$15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MOON HOOCH: Sun., Sept. 30, 9 p.m., $15-$17.

Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

MURDER BY DEATH: Wed., Oct. 3, 8 p.m., $20$25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

NATE LOWERY: Thu., Sept. 27, 4 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

PHILIP H ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS: Sat., Sept.

29, 8 p.m., $20-$25. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

PINK FUZZ: W/ Beau Diamond and the Collective Dream Band, Breath Fire, Sun., Sept. 30, 8 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

REGULUS: W/ Sound Division, Sixes High, Thu., Sept. 27, 8 p.m., $5. The Ready Room, 4195

Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: Thu., Sept. 27, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

RIVER CITY OPRY: W/ Suzie Cue, Whiskey Raccoons, Tim Leavy, Sun., Sept. 30, 1 p.m., $5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW: Sun., Sept.

30, 7 p.m., $5. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

ROLAND JOHNSON & SOUL ENDEAVOR: Fri., Sept.

28, 8 p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SCREAMING FEMALES: W/ Kitten Forever, Sun., Sept. 30, 8 p.m., $12-$14. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

SEPTEMBER MOURNING: W/ Kaleido, Charcoal Tongue, Thu., Sept. 27, 7 p.m., $10-$15. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SHAKEY GRAVES: W/ The Wild Reeds, Sun., Sept.

30, 8 p.m., $25-$28. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SHAWN MULLINS: Wed., Oct. 3, 8 p.m., $25-$30.

Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

SHIVER: Sat., Sept. 29, 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300.

SICK THOUGHTS: W/ Trampoline Team, Mom, Mon., Oct. 1, 9 p.m., $7. RKDE, 2847 Cherokee Street, St Louis.

SLOW OCEAN: W/ the Underground Lemon Experience, Broken Kingdom, Send Me Home, New Day Pops, Fri., Sept. 28, 6 p.m., $10-$12.

Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS: Tue., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $30$33. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ST. LOUIS SOCIAL CLUB: Tue., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $5.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

START MARKING SENSE: TALKING HEADS TRIBUTE: Fri., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., $10-$12. Fri., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

STEVE O’BRIEN: Fri., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., $5-$8.

Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

STING, SHAGGY: Mon., Oct. 1, 8 p.m., $104-$164.

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

SUBTROPOLIS ALBUM RELEASE: W/ R6 Implant, Buttercup, Sat., Sept. 29, 8:15 p.m., $5. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

SUMMER MAGIC RELEASE SHOW: W/ David Beeman, Golden Curls, Fri., Sept. 28, 9 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

SWINGIN’ UTTERS: Tue., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $13-$15.

Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

THE SWORD: Sat., Sept. 29, 8 p.m., $18-$20. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

THE SPILL CANVAS: Sat., Sept. 29, 8 p.m., $16$18. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.

THIRD SIGHT BAND: Mon., Oct. 1, 8 p.m., $10.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

TIM & LISA ALBERT: Sat., Sept. 29, 3 p.m., free.

Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

A TRIBUTE TO JILL SCOTT: Sun., Sept. 30, 6 p.m., $20. Voce, 212 S. Tucker Blvd., St. Louis, 314-435-3956.

VERA SOLA CD RELEASE SHOW: W/ Le’Ponds, Mon., Oct. 1, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

VINTAGE VIBE: Sat., Sept. 29, 7 p.m., free.

Failoni’s, 6715 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-781-5221.

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE: Wed., Oct. 3, 8 p.m., $28. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

ZOSO: THE ULTIMATE LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE: Fri., Sept. 28, 6 p.m., $20-$25. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775. n

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SAVAGE LOVE NEEDS & DEEDS

BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m a 62-year-old woman. I was married for 33 years and left five years ago. We hadn’t gotten along for years, but he never stopped wanting or valuing me for sex — in spite of treating me like a household appliance and cheating on me regularly. Not long after the marriage ended, I met a guy online (my same age) who ticked nearly every box on my partner checklist — one of which was an ongoing interest in maintaining sexual relations. In the beginning, things were hot and crazy — but they cooled after a few months (going from once or twice a day to maybe once a month). Other than that, the relationship continued to grow and we enjoyed being together.

I tried to carefully broach the subject, but he was not forthcoming.

I’m not proud of it, but I checked his internet history. Big surprise: LOTS OF PORN. No animals or children, but pretty much everything else, with an accent on trans. Eventually, I admitted my sleuthing and asked if his viewing habits were an indicator of his interests or the reason he had turned away from me. After the anger subsided, he explained that he had been single most of his life and had more or less gotten used to taking care of business solo. Also that the women he had been with who floated his boat sexually had been bad (crazy/unstable) in the partner department, and the good partners (me) had been less than satisfying for him in bed. The bottom line is that we are compatible in most every other area and have built a comfortable life together. We have intercourse every four to six weeks, and maybe once in between he will pleasure me. I enjoy both, and also take care of myself once a week. The struggle for me is more ego-driven. I’m no raving beauty, but I am reasonably fit and attractive for my age, and (used to) enjoy feeling desired and valued sexually.

Can I get to the place of letting go of that and enjoy the rare occasions of physical congress?

Sex Advice Please “Good for her for getting out of a marriage where she was treated

like a ‘household appliance’ and getting back in the dating game,” said Joan Price, author of the books Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud About Senior Sex and The Ultimate Guide to Sex After 50. “But her new relationship, while it sounds comfortable and affectionate, doesn’t sound sexually fulfilling.”

This relationship doesn’t just sound unfulfilling sexually, SAP, it sounds infuriating generally. You entered into this relationship under false pretenses. You let your partner know that “an ongoing interest in maintaining sexual relations” was a priority for you, and he allowed you to believe it was a priority for him. In fairness to him, SAP, he may not have known himself to be incapable of sustaining a strong sexual connection, seeing as he’s been single for most of his life. But even if he wasn’t aware he couldn’t meet your needs then, that doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t valued/ fucked the way you want to be valued/fucked now.

“I think her best option is to stay friends with this guy but start dating and having sex with others,” said Price. “She could continue to have occasional sex with this man if they both agree to a nonexclusive, friends-with-benefits arrangement. Or they could become platonic pals, if that’s better for them. But it’s imperative that she talk candidly with him.”

You write that you tried to “carefully broach the subject, but he was not forthcoming,” but Price wonders whether you were forthcoming yourself. “‘Carefully broach’ usually means ‘I was vague,’” said Price. “Suppose, instead, she said, ‘I really value you, but I don’t think we’re well-matched sexually. How can we adjust our relationship so we’re not putting sexual pressure on each other and we’re both free to find other sexual outlets?’”

Your partner has an outlet that works for him and pretty much meets all his needs — porn and his own hand — but you don’t have an outlet that provides you with the feeling of being desired and valued sexually. Watching porn and/or “taking care of yourself” isn’t going to meet your needs. So the question is this: Do you have to exit this loving relationship to get your needs met, or can you stay with your current partner, a man who meets your emotional

“If she looks for new partners and he returns to his solo pleasure with the porn he prefers and the hand that knows him best, they might both be happier.” and social needs, while getting your sexual needs met elsewhere?

“SAP deserves a partner who matches her sexually,” said Price.

And I agree.

If you’re telling yourself that you’ll have to settle for someone who claims he can’t perform for you because you’re not unstable enough to turn him on — you do realize that compliment he paid you (you’re so good!) was actually a dishonest bit of blame-shifting/ responsibility-dodging, right? — then you’re selling yourself short.

“I know from personal experience and from the swelling of my inbox that many of us find hot, fabulous sexual partners in our 60s, 70s and beyond,” said Price.

“It’s never too late. She shouldn’t settle for sex that’s less than satisfying, and neither should he.

If that means she looks for new partners and he returns to his solo pleasure with the porn he prefers and the hand that knows him best, they might both be happier.”

Follow Joan Price on Twitter @ JoanPrice. She blogs about sex and aging at NakedAtOurAge.com.

Hey, Dan: I’m a transgender woman married to a cis woman. Is cuckolding strictly a male-being-humiliated-by-his-woman-partner thing?

Or does it apply to all couples?

Cuckolding Holds Erotic Allure That Satisfies A man can cuckold a woman, CHEATS, and a man can cuckold a man, and a woman can cuckold a woman, and an enby can cuckold

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an enby. But women who are into being subs in a cuckold relationship — women who get off on being cheated on and erotically humiliated by their partners — are called cuckqueans, not cuckolds.

Hey, Dan: When I was younger and more stupid, I let my husband have intercourse with me or have me blow him or jack him off while I was on the phone with my sister. It was not something that I wanted to do, but I wasn’t strong enough then to resist his pressure. For the last five years, I’ve asked him to respect me and not do this. He was good about it for a while, and I thought that we were on the same page.

Now he has resumed pressuring me to do this. When I am on the phone with my sister, he will come in and harass me, grope me and attempt to remove my clothes. So I get off the phone. This makes him mad. If I say no, he emotionally withdraws, stops conversation about it and tells me “no sex, no marriage.” We do have a sex life that does include some of his kinks. What is your opinion about using unwitting people on the other end of the phone for sexual satisfaction?

Persistent Husband’s Obnoxious Needs Enrage Spouse The imperfect, doesn’t-always-apply adage “What you don’t know can’t hurt you” applies where your unwitting sister is concerned — so long as she doesn’t know you’re multitasking during your phone conversation, PHONES, no harm is done to your sister. But you know it’s happening and you don’t like it, and your husband knows you don’t like it but insists on doing it anyway. And when you shut him down — which is your absolute right — he gets angry, engages in emotional blackmail and threatens to leave you (“no sex, no marriage”). But you are having sex with your husband — sex that includes some of his other kinks — so what he’s really saying is, “All the sex I want, however I want it, whenever I want it, regardless of how you feel about it, or I’ll divorce you.” My advice: Divorce him yourself.

Listen to Dan’s podcast at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

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HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS INTO THE LATE NIGHT

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The Original Crusoe’s has become of one south city’s busiest and most sought-out late-night destinations, drawing a crowd every night but Monday, when it’s closed.

And though the kitchen goes dark at 9 p.m. (10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays), its connected sister bar, Patrick McKeane’s Pub, keeps clientele fed from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., with a menu of pizza and appetizers that hits the spot.

Second-generation owner Stevie LaChance says both venues are known “for the food, the late-night food. We have a lot of repeat customers. And honestly, I think we’re really fairly priced for being a 3 o’clock bar, with a lot of items at $4. We try to price on margins and be really fair to our clients.” She extends the savings with a “lost island” ten percent discount, so that frequent diners earn $1 back on every dollar spent.

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“Our staff doesn’t really change and you know you’re going to see a lot of the same, repeat customers,” she says.

Crusoe’s also offers a variety of happyhour specials, though longtimers keep going back to the restaurant’s classics: Southern fried chicken, burgers and the famed baked potato soup.

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