Riverfront Times - May, 4 2016

MAY 4–10, 2016 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 18

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With a preacher’s zeal and a street artist’s disregard for the rules, Phil Berwick is painting his way to a better St. Louis

BY THOMAS CRONE

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“These kids over here, I try and tell them, ‘I’m not trying to be your father; I’m just trying to help you. Because life is short. You can’t go around stealing things and think it’s going to be OK.’ One of the kids was taking things off my table and trying to hide it, and I said, ‘Young man, can you politely put that back on my table?’ I didn’t say ‘Can you put that shit back on the table?’ You carry yourself the best way with love. Love wins every time.”

—ANTWAUN ALEXANDER, PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE LOVE BANK PARK AT CHEROKEE AND NEBRASKA STREETS ON MAY 1.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE

11.

The Man Behind the Merferds

With a preacher’s zeal and a street artist’s disregard for the rules, Phil Berwick is painting his way to a better St. Louis Written by

THOMAS CRONE Cover by

KELLY GLUECK

NEWS

CULTURE

DINING

MUSIC

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17

27

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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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20

A Beginner’s Guide to the Blues Bandwagon

Paul Friswold explains how you, too, can say “let’s go Blues!” this week

Weekend Fun

Your guide to Cinco de Mayo specials around town

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Film

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Bars

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And the Nominees Are ...

Announcing the finalists for this year’s RFT Music Awards

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Homespun

Soulard Supper Club brings strip teases to Soulard

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Galleries

Art on display in St. Louis this week

MAY 4-10, 2016

Side Dish

Dale Beauchamp of Half & Half treasures the freedom to go crazy

Andrew Franklin finds healing in music

Nappy DJ Needles That Purple Stuff: A Royal Tribute to Prince

The Glass Menagerie feels as relevant as ever in a new Upstream Theater production

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No Time to Wing It

Robert Hunt reviews the new adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise

Stage

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Slurpin’, U.S.A.

Nami Ramen has big plans for the year’s biggest dish, but Cheryl Baehr is less than impressed

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First Look

Pint Size Bakery has new, not-so-tiny digs

Out Every Night

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

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This Just In

This week’s new concert announcements

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Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Sarah Fenske

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E D I T O R I A L Arts & Culture Editor Paul Friswold Music Editor Daniel Hill Digital Editor Elizabeth Semko Staff Writers Doyle Murphy, Danny Wicentowski Restaurant Critic Cheryl Baehr Film Critic Robert Hunt Editorial Interns Katelyn Mae Petrin, Emily Higginbotham, Harlan McCarthy Contributing Writers Mike Appelstein, Allison Babka, Thomas Crone, Jenn DeRose,Sara Graham, Joseph Hess, MaryAnn Johanson, Roy Kasten, Kevin Korinek, Tim Lane, Jaime Lees, Angela Malchionno, Bob McMahon, Lauren Milford, Nicholas Phillips, Tef Poe, Christian Schaeffer

A R T Art Director Kelly Glueck Contributing Photographers Abby Gillardi, Robert Rohe, Mabel Suen, Steve Truesdell, Eric Frazier Micah Usher, Theo Welling, Corey Woodruff P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Robert Westerholt Production Designer Brittani Schlager

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NEWS

The Beginner’s Guide to the Blues Bandwagon Written by

PAUL FRISWOLD

W

elcome to the 2016 St. Louis Blues Bandwagon. You are now a proud member of a community that has known only woe and heartbreak since 1967. Do not let that dissuade you from riding this thing until the wheels fall off and our collective asses are ground down to bone on the hard tarmac of reality. I apologize for that egregious sentence (and this one), but I’m drunk with delight at getting out of the first round of the playoffs.

But while I may get fancy, I won’t sugarcoat things: A firstround win does not mean the next round is a cake walk. The NHL’s playoffs are part Bataan Death March, part sporting event.

Winning the Stanley Cup requires skill, luck, team chemistry, confidence and a very full bandwagon.

Which is why we welcome you.

The Blues are everything great about St. Louis. The team’s past, like the city’s past, is full of ugly mistakes, heartbreak and misery, but the future? The future is nothing but glorious possibility right now.

Let’s get you up to speed.

The Blues are never going to be a sure thing. They went to the playoffs for 25 straight seasons (1980 to 2004) and always came up short. Other than their first two years in the NHL (when there were only twelve teams in the entire league), the Blues have only been to the conference finals twice. In 1986 they lost to Calgary in seven games, and in 8

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Hey, you: There’s room on this bandwagon, so get on board! | COURTESY ST. LOUIS BLUES 2001 they lost to Colorado in seven games. It’s not a record that inspires confidence, but the past doesn’t matter. Right now they’re the most dangerous team on the ice, a mix of young stars (Colton Parayko, Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko) and canny veterans (Blackhawk-killin’ Troy Brouwer, Alex Pietrangelo and David “Inglourious” Backes) who just knocked out the defending champs and got over a personal hump to do so. A weight, as they say, has been lifted.

These Blues don’t mind the rough stuff. Some teams peak too early, some can’t stop stepping on their own dicks, and some just aren’t prepared for the brutality of playoff hockey. This edition of the Blues knows what the playoffs require: a physical game and ruthless intensity. Hits aren’t officially measured by the NHL anymore, but the Blues are playing like ten hits can be traded in for a goal.

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The forecheck — it’s that thing where your team heads into the other team’s end and bumps guys around until the good guys gain possession of the puck, the better to score with — is a Ken Hitchcock specialty. (He’s the coach of the Blues. People claim he looks like Captain Kangaroo from certain angles, but I don’t see it. Speaking of look-alikes, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman looks like Count von Count. Boo him loudly whenever you see him, on TV or in person.)

The maneuver wears down your opponent physically and mentally.

The Blues forechecked the ‘Hawks into submission, generated goals and gave hope to a weary old man.

If they keep forechecking like this, good things will happen.

What’s the deal with Dallas? The Dallas Stars used to be the Minnesota North Stars, which is why they get to wear that sweet green sweater. Dallas is the No. 1 seed (which is bad), but the Blues beat

them in four out of five games in the regular season (which is good). The Blues and the Stars have a long history of knocking each other out of the playoffs, so anything could happen.

But perhaps what’s most interesting is the coaching match-up.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock won a Stanley Cup as the coach of the Stars in 1999, beating the Buffalo Sabres and their coach, Lindy Ruff — and Ruff now coaches the Stars. That championship was controversial, because Brett Hull’s game-winning goal was scored while he was in the goalie’s crease. Hitch and Hull are united again on the Blues (Hull’s an executive VP), which gives us wild thoughts about the possibilities.

Surely Hull won’t lace them up and buzz either of the Stars’ Finnish goalies, would he? Fuck it, he should. Hull should zip through the crease at the end of warm-ups just to freak Ruff out.

Continued on pg 9

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BLUES Continued from pg 8 What’s this I hear about bacon at the games?: The Blues official Instagram feed fell prey to autocorrect back in November, when the Blues came from behind to beat the Blackhawks. What was supposed to be “roar back” became “roar bacon,” which is so much better. Fans have embraced the #RoarBacon hashtag, and you should too. These sorts of accidental rallying cries are the stuff that makes a good team feel like a team of destiny. The Cardinals had the rally squirrel, the Phillies won a World Series on the back of “why can’t us?” and now the Blues are powered by #RoarBacon. It’s a portentous feeling.

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I want to get a jersey before the game. Whose should I get? Do you personally combine the flash of a sports car with the bulldozing power of a Russian tank? Vladimir Tarasenko is your man.

Are you all business at work, but devoted to helping family and friends when they need it most?

Alex Pietrangelo is the truth.

Are you the kind of guy who quietly does your job day in, day out, and is willing to get your hands dirty to succeed? Ryan Reaves it is.

Have you seen three potential replacements come along to take your job, but you’re still here and better than ever? Go for Brian Elliot.

Do you love dogs, cats and timely goals equally? David Backes is your spirit animal.

Are you a youngster who has exceeded everyone’s expectations in your first year on the job? Colton Parayko knows what you’re going through.

Hey, what about that Troy Brouwer guy who finished off the Blackhawks? Should I get his jersey, or no? Get two of his jerseys, one home and one away.

What if the Blues lose? Be disappointed, but don’t give up on them.

Even in a lost cause, the Blues can thrill you. Back in ‘86, the Blues pulled off a backs-to-the-wall win against Calgary in game six of the conference finals. They then lost game seven and dispersed to play golf. But nobody talks about game seven — what we talk about is The Monday Night Miracle.

That’s the beauty of hockey.

Even when it breaks your heart, it can also fill it up. n riverfronttimes.com

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The Man Behind the Merferds With a preacher’s zeal and a street artist’s disregard for the rules, Phil Berwick is painting his way to a better St. Louis

I

n the chaotic days following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Wendell Phillips “Phil” Berwick found himself drawn to St. Louis. A married father of four and owner of a tree service company in Jefferson County, Berwick spent 21 days praying, singing and otherwise spiritually engaging, crashing in a temporary tent in a shuttered KFC’s back parking lot.

Months later, the lack of indictment for officer Darren Wilson set off another round of protests. A small act brightened those devastated communities — Paint for Peace, an informal group of artists who covered shattered storefronts on Ferguson’s West Florissant Avenue with hand-painted plywood art. Berwick avidly signed on to the effort.

A sketcher and doodler since childhood, Berwick felt Paint for Peace light a fuse inside him.

BY THOMAS CRONE

“Hundreds of artists came together to paint boards…” is a riff he comes back to, frequently.

Last August, one year after Brown’s shooting, Berwick and his wife Theresa, whom he calls Tree, moved to Ferguson, into a handsome ranch house just across the street from Jeske Sculpture Park. And in the eight months since, Berwick has become a street artist. With his friend and employee Kevin “Kapp” Gary, he’s responsible for erecting plywood boards across St. Louis featuring the bearded half-man, halftree character he calls Merferd. The trees that accompany Merferd are his “treetoons.”

The boards aren’t legal. Berwick doesn’t get the permission of property owners before he nails them onto the walls of buildings or erects them by the side of the highway. Nor does he follow the accepted code of street art, in which artists respect each others’ handiwork –- Berwick

proudly paints over graffiti depicting vulgarity or violence, using Merferd to transform work he considers ugly. With a street preacher’s zeal, he’s convinced he’s making greater St. Louis a better, more beautiful place.

He has his fans — including, on one recent overcast morning, a city employee who admires his handiwork while stopped at a red light near the busy intersection of Gravois and Arsenal.

The man is a passenger in a city water truck.

He gives the boards a long, hard look and then calls out to the pair standing on the corner.

“Who does those?”

Gary points to Berwick, a wiry, tanned 60-year-old with a thick shock of black hair.

Berwick nods that, yes, the trio of boards affixed to the building are his creation.

These Merferds are more visible than the one Gary and Berwick Continued on pg 12

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MERFERD Continued from pg 11 added to the same building earlier in April — largely because Gary has just chainsawed down what Berwick calls “an unruly bush,” a Rose of Sharon that cropped up along the curb line and grew to a height taller than either man.

While other pieces Berwick installs are overtly faith-based, with small slogans or single words of encouragement, this group is simpler; the outer Merferds wave towards the one in the middle, whose bushy face looks out into the street.

They’re positive, but subtly so.

“I see these up all over the place,” the water worker says. “I like ‘em, man, I like ‘em.”

As the truck drives off, a young man in the next car shouts out a bit of similarly worded encouragement: “Keep it up, man, keep it up!”

T

he home of Operation Brightside is a low-level streetfront building just a few blocks from the Missouri Botanical Garden. Brightside’s little corner of the city is pleasant, quaint even, despite the hundreds of cars that pass nearby every hour along the bustling intersection of Vandeventer and Kingshighway.

Operation Brightside’s mission, in a sense, is to give the city of St. Louis a bit of this vibe, on a much larger scale: Brightside’s corner of the world is family-friendly, pleasant, charming. And, of course, the other part of the mission — and it’s a big one — is the eradication of street art that suggests very different qualities.

Heading up the non-profit is Mary Lou Green, who brings a sober, steady, no-nonsense tone to her graffiti eradication efforts.

She can describe the operations portion of the job with uncanny precision.

“In 2015, we removed graffiti from just under 4,000 vandalized properties,” she says. “Since the beginning of this year, we’ve removed graffiti from 700 homes, businesses and public structures.

One of the things that’s really driving your cost up at this point is that often there might [have been] a little tag here or there; now vandals are spreading graffiti across an entire wall. It can be hundreds of feet long. And that requires a lot more resources, time and materials to remove graffiti.”

About $300,000 in annual funding comes from a federal block 12

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Merferds adorn a building at Cherokee and California. | KELLY GLUECK grant; last year, the nonprofit raised an additional $26,000 from private sources. Green figures that Brightside will need about $4,000 more than that this year to support its five-man anti-graffiti crew.

Calls for paint removal can come from individuals directly reaching out to Brightside or referrals from the city’s Citizens’ Service Bureau.

Organizing all of those moving parts is what Green does, every workday year-round.

She doesn’t spend much time wondering about the motivation involved, how the graffiti crews are socially constructed. In a sense, she’s not even that curious about the motivations of the most prolific graf writer of recent years, Super.

On April 5, St. Louis Police arrested David Cox, 33, and identified him as Super. The pending legal case against Cox, represented by high-profile attorney Scott Rosenblum, involves a specific handful of Super tags, ones traced to Cox’s

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presence on-site through video or visual surveillance, according to court records.

The handiwork of Super, though, goes far beyond those handful of pieces; his tag is found everywhere in St. Louis from phone poles to highway underpasses, from alley garages to high-up warehouse windows. When Cox was arrested in a Cox Roofing Company shirt, the popular response among those who pay attention to graffiti in St. Louis was a collective “aha.” That job, after all, would afford someone tools of the trade (ladders, ropes), coupled with a comfort level with high-up spaces.

Berwick’s tree care service, Living Tree, offers him a degree of advantages to do street art, too: a bucket truck, ladders, climbing gear.

Green, while declining to discuss the reasons or motivations for Berwick’s public art binge, does say that she’s exchanged emails with

him, and that she’s tried to offer him some curbing guidance. (Ironically, his company once, years ago, won a tree-trimming account with Brightside.)

Even with the best of intentions, she says, guerrilla street art actions are what they are: illegal.

For her, it comes down to permission. “If a building owner has asked for a mural, Brightside will respect that,” Green says. Without permission, “any graffiti vandal can be arrested for breaking the city building code.”

And yet Berwick, who doesn’t have that permission and is operating in broad daylight, remains free from enforcement. John Harrington, who organizes Paint Louis, which brings together street artists on the Mississippi’s flood walls for an annual sanctioned event, has a theory as to the reason for that.

“My personal opinion is that Berwick is able to do what he does because he paints peaceful tree

characters and he’s a Christian,” Harrington writes in an email. “If he was doing swastikas and pentagrams, they would hunt him down.

I think as long as he stays positive they will let him keep going.”

F

or years, there was something of an unwritten code on where graffiti, and other forms of underground street art, like wheat-paste posters, stickers and stencils, might appear.

Occupied buildings were generally off-limits. Ditto certain types of buildings, including churches and schools. Hitting brick was frowned on, as removal efforts can damage tuckpointing.

These days, those notions seem hopelessly outdated. Neighborhoods in which graffiti writers live and play — l i ke C h e r o ke e Street and South Grand — have taken some particularly hard hits, and the city’s classic red bricks have not been spared. Industrial areas, such as the factory-and-warehouse districts south of downtown, are magnets, as are zones along major thoroughfares; a drive down I-70 from downtown to Berwick’s Ferguson, for example, offers an ever-changing, illegal gallery of today’s active graf writers.

Among the businesses that call for graffiti removal, says Brightside’s Green, many are repeat customers. She notes her nonprofit’s popular mandate, with money “raised through private funds, tax-deductible donations.

Individuals support us, large and small, as well as foundations,” she says. “Really, it comes down to the fact that the vandals are showing a great deal of disrespect for our community. The people who want to support Brightside want to make it a better place.”

In essence, how badly a city or region is touched by graffiti owes to the relative ethics of those doing the painting. Berwick, not surprisingly, has his personal code, even

though it differs from many other artists.

“Once a building’s roof has gone,” he says, “the building’s gone.” To him, that means it’s “open season” for painters to move in and add blasts of color and messaging.

And the city of St. Louis is still a place of plentiful broken building stock. While many, if not most, would look at cracked, crumbling brick buildings as hopeless, Berwick sees at least a chance at redemption.

“There’s power in words,” he says, closing his eyes. “There’s power in art.”

He pauses, as he’ll sometimes do when reaching for an idea. He can envision a city in which graf writers are given amnesty, solely on the condition that they work out in the open, on plywood attached to burn-outs and any other building with a half-decade of abandonment.

Discussing it, he recollects his time with the Paint for Peace effort.

He wants to see if the legion of current graf writers have more in their creative quiver than an ability to quickly write their handles.

Just last week, he petitioned St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green for this type of permission.

“We have an opportunity in St Louis to create an atmosphere of hope, peace, respect, and unity through live demonstrations of the arts,” he wrote. “To have an impact, this will have to be done outside artist’s studios, and in various selected places in the city where thousands walk past and drive past every day.”

Berwick is no hypocrite, refusing to play where he sleeps. Three Merferds also dangle from the trees in front of his home. (Not surprisingly, he’s already added his own, non-commissioned piece to the collection at the sculpture park across the street, including a book that dog-walkers can sign, housed

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Continued on pg 14

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MERFERD Continued from pg 13 in a lockbox, atop a tree trunk.) Two massive paintings of murdered St. Louisans sit propped up against his garage door, striking portraits of the deceased painted upon his preferred medium of plywood.

By enabling these types of projects and bringing street art out into the open, Berwick believes that graf writers, who often stick and move with fast, sloppy messages, will rise to the occasion and up their work.

He really believes this.

“The taggers are armed and ready to paint,” Berwick says.

“That is, armed with paint. This is why I’d love to see the city, rather than looking at them as antagonists and enemies, let them come into the Paint for Peace community. We want to get the city on board. Everyone who’s proud of their name and shows some real talent should paint some themes, love and forgiveness. Do it during the day, so we can watch you. I want to stress that if it’s a functional, livable building, then you have no business on it.

But if it’s a goner, let’s have painters add sensitive stuff: flowers, nature, names.

“You have these taggers coming out at night,” he surmises. “They’re doing what they’re doing at night, so they don’t get caught. I look at some of the art. It’s on buildings that are irreparable. The heights, man; I have admired some of the heights they’re working. I’m intrigued. They don’t have a bucket truck! How are they doing that? I’d love for us all to be able to view that during the day. It’d be exciting, as exciting as watching someone climb a mountain.”

On this point, Harrington, the Paint Louis organizer, agrees.

“Whether [Cox] is Super or not, the city needs a scapegoat,” Harrington says in an email. “Instead of reaching out to artists and doing city beautification projects by letting the artists paint community-based murals on all the abandoned buildings in the city, they vilify and write them off as criminals. Most of the artists just want notoriety, but most galleries don’t look at what they do as art, and regular people can’t read it or tell the difference between street/urban art or gang writing.” Thanks to those conditions, the artists have no choice, he says, but to paint outside the lines.

But there are, of course, places where time is taken for large-scale 14

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Phil Berwick and Kevin “Kapp” Gary at work on the streets of St. Louis. | THOMAS CRONE works. Places where graffiti exists in an almost-curated state. Places that few see.

S

ome months back, a group of friends including Washington University adjunct and architectural historian Michael Allen paid a visit to the old Central High School at Garrison and Natural Bridge, closed for about a dozen years now. Unlike some buildings that offer unusual viewpoints of urban exploration, this visit was somehow sadder, knowing that these empty hallways and classrooms were, for just over a century, a vital part of the city’s educational system. Today, few remnants of what was remain, despite the complex’s large northcity footprint.

“I think it’s got an overwhelming sense of the uncanny mundane,” says Allen. “The place has been stripped of all the vestiges of students. Other schools are full of display boards, borders made with construction paper.

At Central, there’s nothing to indicate the life of that building.

It’s all about beige-painted plaster walls. Lockers, collapsed ceilings, buckled floors. It’s all the same.

It really just makes you aware that abandonment can be kind of

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boring. It boils down to something that’s not visually striking.

“What gives the school such a rush,” he continues, “are the views from the windows and the roof, looking out across north St. Louis, over this tree canopy leading to the Arch. And then there’s the graffiti on the building. What the building lacks in other color has been brought back by these really large-scale pieces, impressive in their use of color and imagination.

I saw pieces that depicted Agent Cooper. Some animal pieces, like an intricate deer. There were some things that you don’t see on exterior walls. Here, they felt like delicate pieces of fine art, delicate works of art. It’s like they wanted to put them into spaces that won’t get immediately bombed. They’re safer there, like paintings put in a storage vault. I appreciated that. It was almost like going in a museum. These beige walls, all the pieces lined up.”

Wryly, he adds, “and like a lot of museums, the entrance is hard to find.”

Allen may see things differently than many of us. Graffiti, for example, is something we all see in the city, but we run the results through very different prisms.

Some people call the work of artists like Super “blight.” Allen

sees a city with significantly more paint than just a few years ago — and some of it he likes.

“When I started exploring, the world of graffiti was dominated by a handful of old-guard figures, by this point. Veks, Redd Foxx; you’d see their names in a lot of different places. Now, there’s too much to even know.” He references Merferd and the artist crew who reiterated the message “Free the Herb,” then adds, “There are a lot more brazen acts of graffiti on occupied buildings, along Cherokee especially. Graffiti used to follow vacancy. You don’t see it in the West End; in the Loop, there might be a Sharpie mark on a lamp-post. But on Cherokee, almost every building’s been tagged with entire-wall-sized pieces.”

With the arrest of Super, he says, the conversation’s taken on a new, mainstream conversation.

Before that, he says, “I can’t remember the last time I picked up a newspaper and saw the arrest of a tagger. It wasn’t in the press and wasn’t something that the police bragged about. That says something over how big a part of the city it’s become.”

He adds, “It almost used to be a game to find a good Ed Boxx piece.

Now you can get out and circulate

and there’s a lot more stuff; just not as high-quality.”

What’s driving the increase?

Allen speculates, “There seems to be more permissiveness. Or the fact that more young people flock to the city and feel more confident in wanting to express themselves.

He adds, “I think a lot of taggers are white males that grew up in the suburbs, and ten years ago were not as likely to have lived in the city. Now, I think there are a lot more of these taggers living in the city, tagging in the city. They’re here, rather than coming in from the county and doing a signature piece.”

D

riving out to Ferguson to meet with Berwick at his home, an amazing sight bursts off a weathered billboard near the Shreve exit of I-70: It’s unquestionably Merferd, in a simple blackon-white-on-distressed wood.

“Drive Nice,” he implores passing motorists.

The piece was stirred by an incident in which one of Berwick’s four daughters was the target of road rage near that exit. He took to the vacant billboard on a recent weekend, he says, to paint the message and stop something worse from happening.

Like some of Berwick’s other stories, there’s a sharp intensity in the way he tells it; at moments, his stories feel as if he believes that the city of St. Louis, the whole region, really, has been pushed to the brink by violence and decay. A portion of his work shouts of this sadness, like the major pieces sitting in his driveway: He imagines creating a painted piece of plywood for everyone murdered in the city, what he envisions could become an all-encompassing project.

Even though the first two pieces haven’t been cleared for a public display, he can imagine them going up everywhere that violence strikes, graphic reminders of those who’ve passed.

When he describes ideas like this, you can imagine the younger Berwick, who moved to the area from Chicagoland in 1988 to enter a seminary, the evangelical Christian Outreach School of Ministries. It was “torched by some Satanists,” he says, and he returned to the tree business, which his wife, in a dream, dubbed Living Tree.

(The seminary, which is based in Hillsboro, later reopened.)

Berwick’s eyes close, his voice trembles, he takes on the spirit of a

Gary nails a Merferd to a building. The two operate without permission from property owners. | THOMAS CRONE charismatic preacher at moments like this. There’s a mission in his voice.

“Over the years,” he says over dinner, “my passion was in saving trees. But both of us really feel that the hour has come to save our city…”

“From itself,” adds Gary.

“Without sounding ridiculous,” Berwick adds, “we feel a call to do our part to save the city.”

“Somebody’s gotta do it,” Gary interjects. “And I would like to be a small voice, even a large voice, in the city succeeding, in saving itself.

The people, the neighborhoods, the buildings… we should love everything in our community. It’s not being expressed.”

At Montrey’s Cigar Lounge, a comfortably desegregated, “salt and pepper” bar in the heart of Ferguson, Berwick and Gary discuss how they met. A work services company sent Gary to Berwick’s company last year. With

a decade of experience in the tree business and carpentry skills too, Gary, now 41, intended just to go to work for Berwick. Instead the two men became fast friends and true collaborators.

Though together every day for work (Gary is Berwick’s sole employee), they socialize, too — including a Saturday night Bible study that they both attend weekly.

“We encourage each other as men,” Gary says. “All men need encouragement from one another, for one another. A woman can’t encourage you to do what you love the way another man can. It takes another guy, or group of guys, to say, ‘That’s a good thing you’re doing. You should do that more.’

It’s about building each other up.”

Their families joke about the amount of time they spend together; each adds onto the other’s thoughts and ideas. While Berwick is the idea guy, Gary adds a sharp wisdom to things, filling riverfronttimes.com

in the gaps in Berwick’s original plans.

And Berwick’s plans … well, they come in bursts of enthusiasm that are hard to exactly describe.

One example: At River Gypsy, a wood-recycling facility on the edge of northern downtown, Berwick’s suddenly hit with the idea to capture video of a new, river-riding Merferd being cut out of plyboard. Pitching himself onto the street pavement, with the fluid movement of someone decades younger, Berwick not only gets the footage he needs, but does it while narrating the story about how his work’s popped in recent weeks.

“I put one of the Merferd videos on Facebook,” he says of a large graffiti touch-up at Grand and Gravois. “I bought $11 worth of Facebook promotion and we’ve gone viral.” His “Merford and the Treetoons” page on Facebook has jumped in popularity, with more than 1,000 likes, most gathered over the past few weeks.

Increasingly, Berwick captures the work he and Gary do on video, throwing himself to the pavement to line up a perfect shot on his iPhone.

And herein lies one of the mysteries of their mission and its future.

Berwick and Gary are doing their work in broad daylight, unabashedly showcasing the work on Facebook. They’re altering preexisting works, originally done by folks who don’t always take kindly to cover-ups; now some of their own are getting bombed in return. They’ve been told, directly or through back channels, that putting up boards on abandoned, but owned, properties drifts them outside of the center lane of law.

And, yet … when they’re talking about what’s next, it’s a “when” not “if” discussion. And they’re having this conversation on the record, with a reporter.

They believe too deeply in what they’re doing to slow down. Why even bother to question the rules?

They’d rather see things as they could be and question why not.

Of Gary, Berwick says, “It does have more impact because we’re a black-and-white team. He’s been a huge encouragement for me.

There’re times when he believes in Merferd more than me. He’s multiplied the success of it. When we’re talking about what’s next, we have this thing we say: ‘Really?’

‘Seriously?’

“We need to keep doing it. I can’t stop. We will change the city.” n

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W E E K O F M AY 5 - 1 1

THURSDAY 0505 Bullets Over Broadway That any play manages to be successfully performed is something of a minor miracle. There are so many people and variables involved behind the scenes that small problems can generate a chain reaction culminating in a monumental failure. David Shayne has a front-row seat for the impending destruction of his first play, Gods of Our Fathers. The producer convinced the gangster Nick Valenti to foot the production’s costs, which Valenti agreed to do only so his talentless girlfriend Olive can star in it. Helen, the established but fading star of the show, decides to seduce David to secure her position, while her costar Walter pursues Olive. The only bright spot in David’s life is Cheech, the goon assigned by Valenti to protect Olive. The gangster, it turns out, is an excellent script doctor. The musical version of Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway is a fastpaced comedy that incorporates the early jazz songs of its 1930s setting.

The touring production of the show is performed at 8 p.m. tonight at Peabody Opera House (1400 Market Street; www.peabodyoperahouse. org). Tickets are $30 to $82.

FRIDAY 0506 St. Louis Microfest The St. Louis Microfest has grown so large that this year the organizers had to cap the number of entrants in the homebrew competition at 300. That’s a lot of beer brewers in town, but they’re still outnumbered by the beer drinkers, who will swarm the lower Muny parking lot in Forest Park this weekend to sample beer, eat a bit, and then sample more beer. More than 70 commercial craft brewers participate in the fundraiser for Lift for Life Gym (www.stlmicrofest.org), with notable entrants Brouwerij

Bullets Over Broadway takes you back to the first golden age of musicals. | MATTHEW MURPHY

BY PAUL FRISWOLD De Ranke, Old Bakery Brewery and Riparian Ales joining the fray for the first time. Your ticket ($42 to $77) gets you in to one of three fourhour sessions, a two-ounce sample glass and unlimited beer tastings during your session. You’ll need money for food; dining options include Mission Taco Joint, Sugarfire Smokehouse and the Dam. Sessions take place from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, and 1 to 5 p.m. and 6:30 to 10 p.m.

Saturday (May 5 and 6).

St. Louis Dance Festival The St. Louis Dance Festival is your chance to see multiple dance techniques as performed by almost twenty local dance troupes. Almost every style of dance is represented, from contemporary belly dance to

classical ballet. Participating companies include Viva Flamenco, Final Veil and the Slaughter Project, as well Dances of India, which organizes the annual showcase. Performances take place at 5 and 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts (425 South Lindbergh Boulevard, Frontenac; www.dancesofindiastlouis.org).

Tickets are $15 to $20, but keep in mind that both programs star different companies. If you want to enjoy it all, you need the festival package, which only costs $25.

SATURDAY 0507 Cinco de Mayo Cherokee Street Despite the common misconception, Cinco De Mayo is not Mexriverfronttimes.com

ico’s independence day (that’s September 16). It’s not even that big a deal in Mexico, but that’s OK. Americans coming together to celebrate the culture and people of Mexico is a good thing regardless of the reason — we’re neighbors, so we should be nice to each other.

Cinco de Mayo Cherokee Street is a street festival dedicated to the spirit of neighbors getting outside to party together. The residents and business owners along Cherokee invite you to come down and join the fun — there ain’t no wall separating you from them. This year’s Cinco de Mayo is centered on on the intersection of Ohio Avenue and Cherokee Street (www. cincodemayostl.com), and festivities run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. today. You’ll eat well, drink even better and get to hear a ton of great music on three different stages.

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THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! SATURDAY MAY 14

Come get your free comics at Free Comic Book Day. | THEO WELLING And don’t forget the People’s Joy Parade, which starts at 1:11 p.m. and stars Mexican wrestlers, dancers, puppeteers, neighborhood kids, artists and pretty much everyone else who signs up before the May 6 deadline. Admission, like empathy, don’t cost nothing.

Gregory F.X. Daly Collector of Revenue

Public NOTICE Suits have been filed on the properties listed on the Collector of Revenue website.

www.StLouisCollector.com Collector of Revenue Office St. Louis City Hall Room 109 1200 Market Street St. Louis, MO 63103-2895 Phone: (314) 622-4105 | Fax: (314) 589-6731 Email: propertytaxdept@stlouis-mo.gov Hours of Operation: Mon. - Fri., 8:00am - 5:00pm Tax Sale: 181 Circuit Court Division No: 29

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Free Comic Book Day Do you love comic books, or are you perhaps comics-curious?

Conversely, do you enjoy all those superhero films and want to give comics a try? Free Comic Book Day is your easiest point of entry into the four-color world of comics. All you need to do is go to a participating comic shop on the first Saturday in May — that’s today — and collect the free books on offer. This year’s crop of gratis offerings include the highly-anticipated revamp of Rom, an issue of the long-running indie comic Love and Rockets, and Tumblr’s favorite hero, One Punch Man. Over at the new location of the Wizard’s Wagon (6388 Delmar Boulevard, University City), you’ll also enjoy a performance by Super Fun Yeah Yeah Rocketship and guest artists from the Ink & Drink Comics between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. Downtown, Star Clipper (1319 Washington Avenue) is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and it offers a “design a superhero contest” for

the kids, the Keya & Renee Trivia Challenge and, of course, free comics. If you line up before 10 a.m. you get a raffle ticket that allows you to pick up three extra freebies. One ticketholder will win a free comic every week until next year’s event. For the full list of this year’s free comics and other participating venues, visit www. freecomicbookday.com.

SUNDAY 0508 Laumeier Art Fair Finding a gift for Mother’s Day is difficult because of the nature of moms. They always tell you things like “I don’t need anything but you to be happy.” What’s a grateful kid to do with that? This year, give her everything she wants by escorting her to the Laumeier Art Fair.

You get to spend the day together (which is what she really wants), browsing the stalls of more than 150 artists and enjoying food and drinks from local vendors. And if you see her eyes light up when she tries on a certain pendant or handles a glass vase, you’ll know exactly what she’d like as a gift.

The art fair runs from 6 to 10 p.m.

Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday (May 6 to 8) at Laumeier Sculpture Park (12580 Rott Road, Sunset Hills; www.laumeier.org). Admission is $5 to $10.

Michelle Hand and Joe Hanrahan in The Two-Character Play. | TODD DAVIS

WEDNESDAY 0511 The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis Tennessee Williams wasn’t born in St. Louis, but he first started writing here. When his father pulled him out of college and put him to work at the International Shoe Company, Williams began writing in earnest at night. It was his escape from the drudgery of factory work, and a way for him to reclaim the part of himself that had to be subjugated in the factory. It’s not farfetched to state that those all-night writing sessions in a sleeping St. Louis are where Tom Williams became Tennessee Williams. And so the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis celebrates the work and life of this not-quite-native son. The festival includes lectures, films and performances of Williams’ work from Wednesday, May 11, through Sunday, May 15. The official kickPlanning an event, exhibiting your art or putting on a play? Let us know and we’ll include it in the Night & Day section or publish a listing in the online calendar — for free! Send details via e-mail (calendar@ riverfronttimes.com), fax (314-754-6416) or mail (6358 Delmar Boulevard, Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63130, attn: Calendar). Include the date, time, price, contact information and location (including ZIP code). Please submit information three weeks prior to the date of your event. No telephone submissions will be accepted. Find more events online at www.riverfronttimes.com.

off event is Jeremy Lawrence’s one-man show, What’s Next on the Agenda, Mr. Williams? at 7 p.m. at Curtain Call Lounge (521 North Grand Boulevard; www.twstl.org).

Tickets are $56.50 and include a post-show reception.

The Two-Character Play Felice and his sister Clare are both actors. They’re stuck in an unnamed theater, abandoned by the company they were traveling with because of their mental instability. Felice is trying to finish his latest script, The Two-Character Play, which is about a brother and sister trapped in a tumbledown Southern mansion after the murder-suicide of their parents.

As you might imagine, the lives of the two actors and their characters intersect and become entangled before the night is over. Tennessee Williams spent more than a decade writing The Two-Character Play, which is an experimental, metatextual exploration of his frequent themes of family and stage. The Midnight Company presents this later play as part of the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis.

Michelle Hand and Joe Hanrahan star in the production, which is performed at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (May 11 to 15) at the Mummers Theatre (4504 Westminster Avenue; www. twstl.org). Tickets are $23.50.

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[ H O L I D AY S & S E A S O N A L ]

Thursday, May 5

canyoncafe.com. Canyon Café, 1707 S. Lindbergh Blvd., Frontenac.

Cinco de Mayo at Cantina Laredo:

Saturday, May 7

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Clayton with Cantina Laredo’s limited-edition margarita, the Verde Infusion ‘Rita, or its classic Cinco ‘Rita. Live music by DJ Bogar Martinez will accompany a selection of tacos, flautas, empanadas and drink specials. Thu., May 5, 5-10 p.m. Cantina Laredo, 7710 Forsyth Blvd., Clayton, 314-725-2447.

Party on the actual Cinco de Mayo at Howl at the Moon with a Blue Megarita Bucket. What could be more fun than a bucket of booze with your friends, singing along to a live band on stage and dancing the night away? Thu., May 5, 3 p.m.-midnight, 314-736-4695, hubs. howlatthemoon.com/cinco-de-mayo.

Howl at the Moon, 601 Clark Ave Unit J, in Ballpark Village, St. Louis.

Cinco de Mayo Cherokee Street is a street festival dedicated to the spirit of neighbors getting outside to party together. This year’s Cinco de Mayo is centered on on the intersection of Ohio Avenue and Cherokee Street (www. cincodemayostl.com), and festivities run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. today. Music will be featured on three different stages. Don’t forget the People’s Joy Parade, which starts at 1:11 p.m. and stars Mexican wrestlers, dancers, puppeteers, neighborhood kids, artists and pretty much everyone else who signs up before the May 6 deadline. Sat., May 7, 11 a.m.-9 p.m., free admission. Cherokee Street (Iowa Ave. & Cherokee St.), Cherokee St. and Iowa Ave., St. Louis.

Rosalita’s Cinco de Mayo Festival:

Cinco de Mayo After Party:

Come party at Rosalita’s annual street festival! The Washington Avenue TexMex restaurant will have live entertainment, drinks and a mechanical bull.

Thu., May 5, 10-midnight. Rosalita’s Cantina, 1229 Washington Ave., St. Louis, 314-621-2700.

As the Cherokee Cinco de Mayo street festival shuts down, the Luminary will open its doors for an after-party with Chicago-based DJ collective Sonorama, DJ MAKossa and DJ Needles spinning vintage Latin sounds, artist-designed latin-themed cocktail specials and more. Sat., May 7, 9 p.m.-1 a.m., $5 cover, theluminaryarts.com/ events/cinco-after-party. The Luminary, 2701 Cherokee St, St. Louis.

Cinco de Mayo at Howl at the Moon:

Cinco de Mayo at Las Fuenetes: Enjoy authentic Mexican food, great drink prices and a family atmosphere.

This Affton restaurant promises face painting for the kids, $2 jello shots and other drink specials for adults and a photo booth. Thu., May 5, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Las Fuentes Mexican Restaurant, 8025 MacKenzie Rd, Affton, 314-9327552.

Westport Plaza Cinco de Mayo: Westport’s collection of restaurants and bars celebrate Cinco de Mayo with specials on food and drink. Thu., May 5, 8 a.m. Westport Plaza, I-270 & Page Ave, Maryland Heights, 314-576-7100.

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta: Frontenac’s Canyon Café will be featuring food and drink specials all day on Cinco de Mayo. Our signature limit-two margaritas will be only $10, with Coyote Margaritas just $4! There will be live music from noon to 8 p.m. from Nigel the Steel Drummer. Thu., May 5, 11 a.m.-10 p.m., 314-872-3443, www.

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Cinco de Mayo Cherokee Street:

Derby de Mayo Bar Crawl: Celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Derby Day with a Wash. Ave bar crawl. Tickets cost $10 and include two $5 gift cards, drink specials, a scavenger photo hunt and Uber credit. Participating venues include Lucas Park Grille, Hair of the Dog, Rosalita’s, Fallery’s, Bobby’s Place and more. Visit www.eventbrite. com/e/2016-derby-de-mayo-bar-crawlst-louis-tickets-24605441538 for tickets and information. Sat., May 7, 4 p.m.-2 a.m., Washington Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-7770.

Margarita Madness: Big Daddy’s on the Landing will offer specials on import and domestic beer buckets, premium tequila flights and tastings, and music by DJ Timmy Heat until 3 a.m. Sat., May 7. Big Daddy’s-The Landing, 118 Morgan St., St. Louis, 314-621-6700.

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[FILM REVIEW]

Killer Location Ben Wheatley brings J.G. Ballard’s capitalist critique to snarling, bloody life Written by

ROBERT HUNT High-Rise

Directed by Ben Wheatley. Written by Amy Jump. Based on the novel by J.G. Ballard. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller and Luke Evans. Now streaming on Amazon, iTunes and ondemand services.

I

n the first two minutes and forty seconds of High-Rise, Ben Wheatley’s brutal, messy adaptation of the 1975 J.G. Ballard novel, a flash-forward lets the viewer know how the film is going to end, its characters reduced to a level of savagery that the sudden appearance of a “three months earlier” title card doesn’t do much to erase. (Lest you think that Wheatley is overdoing the spoiler card, it should be noted that Ballard’s novel does the same thing in its first sentence.) As the viewer (or anyone familiar with Ballard’s work) has every reason to expect, things start out bad and get worse.

Other directors have brought Ballard’s work to the screen, the most notable being David Cronenberg’s Crash, but Wheatley, a director whose films seem to start out in one genre but inevitably creep into horror, may be uniquely qualified to draw out the nightmarish elements wrapped in the novel’s dark social comedy: His last film, A Field in England, began as a historical drama set in the 1640s and descended into violence and hallucinations, like a blurry mash-up of Cromwell and Psych-Out. High-Rise is a period piece as well, only it’s a different time and a different kind of war. Set right in the middle of the 1970s, cigarettes, facial hair, bad fashion choices and Abba are present, though the signifiers are subtle compared to

Laing (Tom Hiddleston) lives the high life, until the high life brings him down. | COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES the cartoonish nods to the past in recent films like Nixon & Elvis. It’s anti-nostalgic science fiction, an alternate technological history in which machinery separates rather than unites people.

And then it breaks down.

The film takes place almost entirely within an ultra-modern high-rise apartment building, a microcosmic world unto itself complete with shopping facilities, recreation centers and a strict but unstable class system based on how close a resident is to the top.

Laing (Tom Hiddleston) is a surgeon who moves into the respectfully positioned 25th floor. (He’s told that his apartment application was “very Byronic.”) His neighbors include a famous actress; a perpetual worrier who obsessively monitors the condition of the building trash chutes; Wilder (Luke Evans), a director of TV documentaries (strictly second-floor material); and, at the very top, the fittingly named Royal (Jeremy Irons), usually referred to as the Architect, who commands an enormous suite complete with a terrace of farm animals to satisfy the storybook fantasies of his somewhat spacey wife.

Within weeks, things fall apart.

Power failures, broken equipment and disputes over use of facilities escalate and the building becomes an apocalyptic battleground, complete with violence, political factions, struggles for territory and

an overall plunge into decadence that recalls one of the era’s other landmarks of bad taste, the 1979 film Caligula. Laing, caught very much in the center, clings to his impassivity as he’s pushed, pulled, seduced and threatened from all sides, from the increasingly ineffectual Royal and his playful assistant (Sienna Miller) to Wilder and his estranged, enormously pregnant wife (Elisabeth Moss). Hiddleston, who uses aloofness the way Fred Astaire used tap shoes, dominates the narrative and remains the closest thing to a moral guide that Wheatley will allow the viewer.

As a political allegory, High-Rise isn’t particularly subtle (but then, neither is Animal Farm). The film isn’t as much a metaphor for the excesses of late capitalism as it is a simulation of its extremes. It’s vicious, even hard to watch (surgical scenes and cruelty to animals, among other things), yet the shock tactics are the provocative balance to the director’s skill at staging a complex and multi-layered puzzle. Wheatley usually likes to watch things happen without much elaboration, and it probably requires at least a second viewing to follow all of the intricate political maneuvering running through the film.

As a director, Wheatley presents raw material with a sense of detachment that could almost be described as intellectual. He wants to capture the coarseness of violent riverfronttimes.com

action and horror films without embracing their superficiality. He’s like a George Miller if he’d never read The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Abel Ferrara without the New York hangups and street anarchy, or a brasher, cockier Cronenberg. He’s a filmmaker to watch — and one whose films can be hard to watch.

In its depiction of an English society that wears its brutality just a micro-layer under its skin, High-Rise recalls another recent British film, Steve Oram’s Aaaaaaaah!, in which middle-class couples growl, snarl, beat their chests and behave like apes. High-Rise lets its characters keep their language — and their no less telling accents — but matches if not surpasses the animalistic behavior. (Oram co-wrote and appeared in Wheatley’s Sightseers.)

Wheatley (like Oram) began in television comedy, and while an element of that genre remains in the film, he’s stretched the boundary of satire into something more savage, a kind of social critique carved with a scalpel. Just as Ballard’s novel refuses to settle into a comfortable level (my 38-year-old paperback copy describes it as “horror,” but also compares it to The Towering Inferno), Wheatley’s version of High-Rise is too raw to settle into any familiar comic form. It takes disturbing and bitter premises, pushes them to extremes, but never offers the saving grace of a punchline to let the viewer know it’s only a joke. n

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[ S TA G E ]

St. Louis Blues A sharp new production of The Glass Menagerie shows that Tennessee Williams’ first smash hit still resonates Written by

SARAH FENSKE The Glass Menagerie

Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Philip Boehm Starring Linda Kennedy, J. Samuel Davis, Sydney Frasure and Jason Contini Presented by Upstream Theater through May 14 at Kranzberg Arts Center as part of the inaugural Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, which takes place Wednesday through Sunday (May 11 to 15). Visit www. twstl.org for the full schedule.

I

t’s indicative of how much Tennessee Williams hated St. Louis that he dubbed it “St. Pollution.” He had his reasons: After an idyllic childhood in Mississippi, his family moved into a dim, crowded apartment in the Central West End, followed by one in University City, where he went to high school. Young Tom (this was before Williams adopted his theatrical nom de plume) went off to Mizzou for college, but returned without graduating to the dismal apartment on Enright Avenue, which was just a block north of where the Tivoli Theater is located today. His sister was sliding into neurosis and isolation; he worked as a sales clerk for a shoe company and hated it.

Years later, that difficult time inspired Williams’ first critically acclaimed play — the toast of 1945 Broadway, The Glass Menagerie. His younger brother Dakin would later describe the play as “a virtually literal rendering of our family life at 6254 Enright Avenue.”

He couldn’t have meant it as a good thing. The narrator, Tom, famously describes The Glass Menagerie as a memory play, but the

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St. Louis stage veteran Linda Kennedy (with Sydney Frasure, right, as Laura) makes a superb Amanda Wingfield. | PROPHOTOSTL memory that infuses his telling is guilt — guilt at having gotten away, at abandoning his mother and sister. Tom longs for adventure, but pursuing it means the electric bill goes unpaid and, ultimately, that his family loses its tenuous hold on financial stability. St. Louis, in this play, represents the nightmare Williams abandoned in his pursuit of bigger and better things.

And so it’s a bit ironic that a smart new production of The Glass Menagerie, now at Upstream Theater, kicks off the first inaugural Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. Hometown boosterism, this play is not. But it’s also a smart choice, and not just because of the local angle.

As directed by Philip Boehm, The Glass Menagerie feels just as sharp, and relevant, as ever.

Indeed, you might be tempted to dismiss Menagerie based on how popular it’s become with high schools, but this production shows just what a mistake that would be. Williams would go on to write pieces that were more

MAY 4-10, 2016

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sensational, more searing — but he never wrote anything that felt more true.

Staged in the Kranzberg’s large black box, Upstream’s production gets a kick from its colorblind casting and the bravura performance of Linda Kennedy as Amanda Wingfield. The part is, of course, the best in the play, and Kennedy is incredibly good in it — her Amanda is less silly, and more sympathetic, than others you may remember. The gentleman caller, Jason Contini, shines, while Sydney Frasure and J. Samuel Davis are also both quite good as the Wingfield siblings, if not fully believable as brother and sister. Davis is at his best going head to head with Kennedy; that you root for both of them only makes the ending even more devastating. They cannot both get what they want.

And as for that ending …

Has there ever been a better closing monologue than the one Williams gave his alter ego in The Glass Menagerie? You might have seen the play a half-dozen times

already; you might even know those closing lines by heart. But when Davis as a much older Tom, haunted still by his sister’s memory, begins the speech, you suddenly notice the beautifully evocative set by Michael Heil as if for the first time. You’re swept away by his words to St. Louis 1932, and the boy who would have done anything to escape it — not realizing until too late that true escape is impossible.

And what is Williams’ oeuvre if not proof of that? All of his compelling female characters owe something to the women he left behind in St. Louis and, in particular, the sister as odd and as impossible as blue roses.

Today the hated apartment on Enright has been torn down, but a bust of Williams commemorates his history in the Central West End. A few blocks away, you can rent his family’s old apartment on AirBnB — now fully remodeled, and apparently far from dim — for a premium.

This festival is a far better way n to honor his memory.

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Lyndon Barrois Jr., Nanette Boileau and Tate Foley are the winners of the 2016 Great Rivers Biennial, CAM’s ongoing program that recognizes local artists with a cash prize and a solo show in the museum. Barrois incorporates sculpture, installation and painting in Of Color, which comprises eight life-size assemblages and an asphalt basketball court. The pieces are all abstractions of human identities represented by shoes and clothing, challenging the viewer’s perceptions of race and socio-economic background. Boileau exhibits the three-channel video installation Dakota Territory, which documents the lives of Wyoming and South Dakota ranchers in the style of a biologist’s field notes. Her work strips away the mythology of the frontier from the reality of the contemporary American West. Printer and bookmaker Foley attacks the weighted value of language in his large-scale sculptures and videos. He uses printing technology from the 1980s to create phonetically spelled words out of wheat paste, which are then attached to

his free-standing sculptures. The accompanying videos use hand-painted words, also spelled phonetically, to further separate words from their accepted meanings.

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Kevin is not one, but many. He exists in the gallery’s crawlspace, an assemblage of objects and artifacts that prove someone was there. Kevin is as real as all the Twitter bots and online lurkers, a shadowy presence you can see proof of but never meet face-toface. Brandon Engstrom, however, is real, a Los Angeles-based artist who discovered he had unwanted collaborators. Engstrom had a series of female buttocks made from candy that he was storing in an apartment.

At night the rats consumed them, which he only discovered when he set up cameras in an effort to find out what was destroying his work. The resulting documentary shows the rats gobbling up the butts; it’s part Tina Belcher fantasy piece made real and part commentary on consumerism at its most ravenous.—Paul Friswold riverfronttimes.com

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A selection of bowls from Nami Ramen: the veggie ramen, signature tonkatsu, tempura rice bowl and braised pork belly bao. | MABEL SUEN

Slurpin’ U.S.A. Nami Ramen has big ambitions for the year’s trendiest dish — but it comes up short Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Nami Ramen

46 N Central Avenue, Clayton; 314-8336264. Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

T

wo years ago it was barbecue.

Last year, it was fried chicken.

This year, the food world is going gaga for ramen, even going so far as to christen 2016 “The Year of Ramen,” in publication after publication.

(Cue eye roll.)

It’s not that there is anything wrong with ramen per se, or even its increased popularity stateside.

When done well, the steaming hot noodle soup is a delightful mélange of nuanced flavors and layers of texture — luscious pork broth and funky miso surrounding vegetables, spongy noodles and soft-boiled eggs. It’s a meal in a bowl that has grown so popular outside of its native Japan that just about every self-described foodie in the country has jumped on the bandwagon.

Head to L.A. or New York and you’ll see ramen shops in every neighborhood, filled with diners clamoring to slurp up the trendy dish.

Judging from the number of ramen shops that have opened or are slated to open later this year, local restaurateurs are banking on the dish’s popularity to translate to St. Louis diners. Jason Jan is the latest person who hopes to capitalize on all of that buzz with his latest ven-

ture, Nami Ramen.

Jan, who made a name for himself as the founder of the frozen yogurt chain FroYo, opened his fast-casual noodle shop in Clayton this past January, with clear aspirations to do for ramen what Chipotle did for the burrito (or, maybe, what FroYo did for fro yo). Smartly packaged and accessible, Jan’s Clayton shop shows clear signs of a concept designed for franchising.

For Jan, however, Nami Ramen is about much more than just cashing in on a trend. It’s born out of a love affair that began when he started making ramen for himself as an international student at the University of Missouri St. Louis way back in 1997, well before slurping was the “it” way to eat. He studied the intricacies of the dish — the broth, the noodles, the accouterments — and learned to make everything himself from scratch.

The endeavor was little more than a labor of love turned family riverfronttimes.com

dinner favorite, but Jan could not shake the feeling that he should open a ramen shop of his own.

About two years ago, Jan saw an opening in the market. Determined to fill it, he began sketching out an idea for what would become Nami Ramen. He spent six weeks working in a ramen shop in Yokohama, Japan, so that he could hone his technique and get a clear picture of the type of place he wanted to recreate stateside.

The resulting restaurant is a sleek, modern eatery located on the corner of Maryland and Central in the old House of Wong. The space is much changed since its days of churning out General Tso’s chicken.

The room is painted charcoal grey with exposed brick accents.

Wooden communal tables of varying size provide seating for roughly 75 guests. An open kitchen that allows diners to witness their dishes being made sits off to the side, behind the Continued on pg 28

MAY 4-10, 2016

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27

NAMI RAMEN Continued from pg 27

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order counter. The light fixtures are the most striking aesthetic features: Exposed bulbs hang from a web of red cords that evoke ramen noodles.

The other thing that struck me about Nami Ramen is how wellbranded it is. From the logo to the packaging to a note about the “Nami Ramen Green Initiative” on the hand dryers in the bathroom, I was so convinced this was a national chain I had to check myself on multiple occasions. It’s clear that Jan is banking on this being the first of multiple locations.

For that to happen, though, Jan needs his flagship to be a big success, which was not fully in evidence on my visits. Of the ramen dishes on offer, the “Nami Signature Tonkatsu” is the strongest, rich with flavor from pork bones that have simmered with shio tare (salt and seasonings) for 24 hours.

Corn, wood-ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots and onions bob in the opaque broth with appropriately spongy noodles made locally, with Jan’s input, by Midwest Pasta. The highlights of the bowl are the thin discs of succulent braised pork that float atop the liquid. The fatty, ginger-scented belly is a welcome change from the often tough and lean loin served at other shops in town.

“Jigoku Ramen,” however, was less successful. The dish is referred to as a “bonfire in a bowl,” but the significant spice factor was drowned out by how fatty the dish was. The broth was so oily it had the texture of a meat-based soup that hadn’t been skimmed. Adding to the effect, the bowl was filled with minced pork — together, the meat and unctuous broth were as if someone had rendered a pack of fatty ground pork, then emulsified it with hot chili water. A few bites were tolerable; any more was too much.

The “Breakfast Ramen” did not fare much better. The base of the soup is tonkatsu broth, though it tastes like the chef dumped a can of corn into some chicken stock and didn’t bother to season it. The bland broth teemed with corn kernels, a poached egg, bean sprouts, spinach and onions — all fine enough, though the dish’s protein was problematic. Taking the breakfast schtick too literally, Nami Ramen uses actual strips of bacon in the dish. Pork belly would have been

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The veggie ramen bowl features tofu, roasted tomato and corn. | MABEL SUEN delightfully tongue-in-cheek; actual bacon had the texture of jerky and just seemed out of place.

Nami Ramen offers a few rice bowls, each served with assorted vegetables and meat options all dressed with a sweet and salty soy-based glaze. Chicken katsu is tender and coated in crisp, herbed breadcrumbs. Tempura shrimp is crunchy and fried golden brown.

Both get a little dry without additional soy or one of the other tableside condiments but are otherwise pleasant enough options.

The small appetizer menu consists of “Karaage Chicken,” a heaping bowl of white and dark meat nuggets that have been coated in perfumey breading. A creamy, mayonnaise based chili sauce works well for a dipping sauce, though the heaviness of the breading and mayo gets overwhelming a few nuggets in. The excellent gyoza, or pork dumplings, however, benefit from a crunchy, pan-fried exterior. They pair well with the accompanying ginger soy sauce.

Of the steam buns, the braised pork belly is far and away the best — the melt-in-the-mouth meat is

glazed with a sticky soy and ginger sauce that gets cut by strips of crisp cucumber. Shredded curry chicken was moist, but overwhelmed by lemongrass. Both are wrapped in soft, fluffy steam buns.

For a fast-casual restaurant in the middle of Clayton, I was surprised that Nami Ramen wasn’t packed on either of my visits in the heart of what should have been a lunch rush. The price point may be a factor. The ramen and rice bowls are massive — you could easily make two, if not three, meals out of one order. And this is the real stuff, not the packeted provenance of poor college students. Still, the $14 to $15 price tag makes this a pricey lunch for a meal without table service.

I also question whether the Clayton lawyers who comprise the city’s lunch crowd want to run the risk of splattering noodles and broth over their business suits before heading off to mediation. That’s never a great look — no matter how trendy it may be. n Nami Ramen

Gyoza ............................................. $7.50 Chicken katsu rice bowl .................. $12 ”Nami Signature Tonkatsu”........$13.80

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SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

Dale Beauchamp Loves “the Freedom to Go Crazy” Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

D

ale Beauchamp came to cooking through the process of elimination. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do and went to college for a little bit of everything,” says the chef de cuisine at Half & Half (8133 Maryland Ave., Clayton; 314-7250719). “I had a short list of things that I wanted to do for a career and worked my way down them.

I probably should’ve started with cooking, because that’s what ended up working out.”

From the outside, though, he appeared to have it together. He had a successful career in retail, working for Brown Shoe Company (now Caleres). For eight years, he managed one of their busiest local stores, all while feeling a pull toward something different. Culinary school was always in the back of his head, and he finally enrolled in Forest Park’s program with plans of leaving the shoe business behind.

Worried that he wouldn’t be able to get a job following school, Beauchamp stayed on with Brown and eased himself into the kitchen, working weekends at Kayak’s Coffee. There, a friend introduced him to Mike Randolph, who needed help with some pop-up dinners.

“I didn’t even know Mike at the time. I just showed up and started helping,” Beauchamp recalls.

“Eventually, he hired me on at MEDIAnoche as a line cook. He had someone quit and promoted

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Dale Beauchamp is a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos kind of guy. | SPENCER PERNIKOFF me to sous chef after about four or five months. I had to learn quickly — probably too quickly.”

Beauchamp stayed on with Randolph after MEDIAnoche changed to Little Country Gentleman and worked for him for three and a half years. That spot closed, but after a year and a half at Gringo, Chris Sommers’ late Mexican spot in the Central West End, Beauchamp has returned to Randolph’s empire with the task of refreshing the Half & Half menu. “I’m happy to be back because there is so much room for creativity here,” he says. “I have the freedom to go crazy.”

Beauchamp took a break from making Half & Half ’s S’mores French toast to share his thoughts on the St. Louis restaurant scene, his food crushes and why it doesn’t matter what’s served at his last meal.

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

MAY 4-10, 2016

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I’m pretty shy around new people so I’ll take a minute to open up.

Ask anyone who has known me for a while, though, and they know I can be pretty outgoing too.

What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you?

My morning coffee. When service starts at 7 a.m., you need that pick-me-up.

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

The ability to slow down time.

Time management is one of the most important parts of working in a kitchen, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a cook or chef who didn’t wish they had a few extra minutes every day.

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

Nobody in the industry ever rests! Everyone is constantly pushing to improve their restaurants, open new concepts and be more collaborative as an industry. And

it’s growing beyond our immediate borders, with a St. Louis brand of hospitality moving out to other regions like Kansas City, Chicago and Nashville.

Who is your St. Louis food crush?

Chef Brian Hardesty and Joel Crespo from Guerrilla Street Food.

Watching them create and grow a brand over the years while doing their own food has been pretty inspiring.

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

Corey Smale and Bob Brazell. I can’t see any scenario where [their new Central West End restaurant] Good Fortune won’t be a huge success. The food they’re talking about doing, that’s the type of food I’d like to eat every day.

Which ingredient is most representative of your personality?

Beer. You can drink it, cook with it. Sometimes it’s mellow, sometimes it’s a little more crazy.

If you weren’t working in the restaurant business, what would you be doing?

Anything where I can work with my hands and be creative. I love working with tools, so maybe some sort of contractor or architect.

Name an ingredient never allowed in your kitchen.

I honestly can’t name one. I’d be doing myself and the people I work with a disservice if I had that mentality.

What is your after-work hangout?

My house! My fiancé and two year-old son love that I work as a daytime chef now. I get to spend my evenings cooking for my family, playing in our backyard, doing bedtime stories. When we do get out, though, you’ll find us at Quincy Street Bistro. The kitchen consistently kills it over there.

What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure?

I’m totally a salty snack guy.

Give me a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and don’t expect to get it back.

What would be your last meal on earth?

The food is secondary to the people you share it with so as long as it’s with my family and friends.

I’d love a huge spread of classic Chinese and Vietnamese dishes.

Rice and noodles for all! n

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31

Yes, this used to be a library. Take that, knowledge. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI [BARS]

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A Strip Tease with Your Supper?

New Soulard Venue Has It Covered Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

T

he century-old library-turneddrag venue Woodies reopened last Thursday under new name and new ownership, and the old girl has never looked bet-

ter.

Her stage, for instance, is now flanked with two expanded VIP sections, and a renovated rear area now allows performers to sashay directly from the dressing room to center stage where they belong.

But the interior of the 6,500-squarefoot, two-story space is as evocative as ever: Brass horseheads line the main bartop, and wrought iron railings and vintage-style fixtures mingle with disco balls, throwing the neon stage lights across the room.

“It’s a beautiful venue,” says owner Shain Tooley, who partnered with his son, Quentin, to transform Woodies into Soulard Supper Club (706 Lafayette Avenue,

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MAY 4-10, 2016

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314-224-9002). Along with the stage renovations, Tooley has designed a revamped menu of casual lunch and dinner options.

The new menu features a slate of six sub-$10 burgers and $8 baskets of comfort food, such as pork kebabs served with pineapple-marinated chicken, catfish fritters and deep-fried tacos.

“And everything is fresh,” Tooley adds. “Other than the French fries, there isn’t going to be anything frozen. You’re not going to get a chicken breast taken out of the pack and served to you. It’s going to be hand-cut, hand-trimmed, breaded in our own breading, all the way to the old-style homemade onion rings.”

And Tooley isn’t skimping on the entertainment, either. He’s tapped longtime drag and burlesque showrunner Charlotte Sumtimes to helm the entertainment operations at both the Soulard Supper Club and the soon-to-be-opened Spectrum Nightclub, which is rising from the ashes of the venerable Complex Nighclub. (The latter closed in 2011.)

“I would have never done this without her,” Tooley says definitively during a recent afternoon visit. Sumtimes, who is decked out in a red corset and layers of feathers and lace, laughs and quips that she’s happy to take both the credit and blame.

The new partnership went big for its opening weekend. A soft opening Thursday was followed by two days of shows hosted by Sumtimes, featuring drag and burlesque acts of all manner of fierceness.

“It’s so rare, especially in St. Louis, for an investor to come forward and say ‘You’re the one and I believe in you,’” Sumtimes says. n

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33

[FIRST LOOK]

Pint Size Moves to a Grown-Up Space Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

L

et’s get the important news out of the way before we go any further: There will be more salted caramel croissants coming to Pint Size Bakery & Coffee (3133 Watson Road; 314-645-7142) soon.

They are still only available on Saturdays for now, and you’ll probably still have to stand in line to get them — but after the Lindenwood Park bakery opened its doors last week to a much-needed and much bigger new space, its owners hope they won’t be running out of the cult-favorite treats quite so early.

“Now we have the space for people to eat, to wait and for us to bake them,” promises co-owner Nancy Boehm. “We also got a sheeter — a piece of equipment that means we don’t have to roll them all out by hand. It makes the process go so much faster. That’s always been the problem. They are just so time-consuming.”

An increase in salted caramel croissants would be reason enough to seek out new digs, but it goes deeper for Boehm and co-owner Christy Augustin. Just six months after opening Pint Size in its original location, in 2012, Augustin realized the space was too, well, pint-sized.

“When we opened, I didn’t know if we were going to be a cake shop or a coffee shop or what people were going to want,” Augustin explains. “We were so lucky to be popular, but I just hit a wall. I didn’t know if I could continue to do it.”

The wall Augustin refers to is both literal and figurative. Originally located inside a former pizzeria, the bakery was not just small: It was so miniature there was barely room to work. Even worse, there was no place for patrons to congregate and she had to regularly turn away business because she lacked

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Inside Pint Size’s new space, the wallpaper has a vegetable pattern (above), but the treats are as tasty as ever (below). | CHERYL BAEHR

the space to prepare orders.

But a larger problem for Augustin was that she needed a partner.

“I just realized I couldn’t do this alone. My husband is very supportive, but he works a full-time job.

My staff is great, but they are here to do the job. I was so tired and knew that I needed someone here on my level or else we wouldn’t be able to keep going.”

That someone was Boehm, Augustin’s former colleague from Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. Augustin had tried to recruit Boehm when she opened Pint Size in 2012, but Boehm was not at a point at her career where she felt she could take that step. However, with Boehm’s mom pushing Augustin to ask again, Augustin made the offer a second time. This time, Boehm

MAY 4-10, 2016

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accepted.

“She lured me into her web,” Boehm laughs.

Boehm came into the Pint Size partnership in 2014 with the intention of moving the store in order to grow the business. On April 26, after fifteen months of back-breaking work, that vision was finally a reality.

“Big” Pint Size, as the pair refers to it, is located just a few blocks away from the original, at 3133 Watson Road near the corner of Watson and Arsenal. The new digs are palatial compared to “Little” Pint Size: There is a seating area with a handful of enamel-topped tables, an open area for guests to linger as they wait for fresh-baked goodies, and — most importantly to Augustin and Boehm — a signifi-

cantly larger kitchen.

“I don’t know how we did it before,” says Boehm. “At first we thought we would all be crowded around the same table because that is how we were so used to working.

It’s not like that at all. We’re all at our own tables. We even get to put two sheet trays right next to each other!”

The digs may be bigger, but the vintage-inspired feel of “Little” Pint Size remains. Boehm, Augustin, and Augustin’s husband Matt did the build-out entirely themselves (with the exception of plumbing, electrical work and HVAC). The space boasts white subway tiles, the bakery’s signature Mason jar pendant light fixtures, Tiffany blue walls in the kitchen, old-timey decor and striking vegetable-patterned wallpaper. The display case, hand-built nearly a century ago in south St. Louis, comes from an area pharmacy. Even the Amighetti family matriarch donated a diorama from her original bakery; it hangs on one of the walls at the new Pint Size.

“We’re excited about the bigger space because it allows us to serve more people, sure,” says Augustin.

“But really, what it comes down to is that we feel like we are finally able to show more of our true style and do what we want to do rather than just doing what the [old] building demanded. This gives us more of a creative outlet.” n

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5.26 BLOC PARTY

7.22 GLASS ANIMALS

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7.25 M83.

6.1 THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

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MAY 4-10, 2016

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MUSIC

37

No Time to Wing It Battling cancer, Andrew Franklin finds joy in the healing power of music Written by

THOMAS CRONE

A

ndrew Franklin estimates that he was sick for a full year before finally being diagnosed.

It was last May when doctors told him he had bile duct cancer; soon, more bad news arrived, as a less-advanced form of lung cancer was found as well. Since then, Franklin’s life has included regular doses of chemotherapy, painkillers and fatigue.

But that word, “fatigue,” shouldn’t be confused with “lethargy.” Creating and performing music has become a critical, energetic focus of his healing. Still, the effects of the drugs are there, always present in the background. For an interview, it takes about four days to line up schedules during a week of aggressive chemo. Some days have been more challenging than others for Franklin.

“Several times, I’ve wanted to give up,” he says. “Not to the point of calling someone. But music’s a healing force, the most positive weapon on the planet. And there’s a science we can’t see: the care we have for each other as humans. So I have to at least try.”

Since being diagnosed, Franklin, 29, has responded with a true recommitment to writing, playing and recording. Combining forces with collaborators new and old, he’s just live-debuted his new band the Sugar Kings at a recent, last-minute gig at 2720 Cherokee. He’s taking part in an upcoming James Brown tribute at the Demo, and he’s musical director of My Posse in Effect, the Beastie Boys tribute act that will play the WayBack version of Pointfest on July 9.

The funky-with-depth music of the Sugar Kings, though, is clearly his primary musical love. He says

“Music’s a healing force, the most positive weapon on the planet.” | THOMAS CRONE it’s “where I am now and where St. Louis is, too. This town needs more than a good time.”

The Sugar Kings lineup contains a crackerjack twenty-year-old guitarist in Zach Arias. Franklin is, as usual, on bass, and two friends join from his prior group, Big Brother Thunder & the MasterBlasters: sax player Jacob Johnson and Franklin’s musical twin and rhythm section partner, Gabe Bonfili.

“It’s kinda funny,” Bonfili says of his musical relationship with Franklin. “In everyone’s words, they say we’re locked in together, we’re part of the same unit. It’s kinda weird, how we can read each other’s minds. It was always like that. We’re vibrating on the same frequency.”

Despite the core of the group having played together before, Bonfili says, they’re collectively creating a set from scratch.

“All new stuff, to my ears,” he

says. “A lot of it is Drew reaching for Afro-Cuban and Latin-type sounds.

Funk from those parts of the world, in a ‘70s style. It’s a breath of fresh air, and there’s nothing like it going on in St. Louis.”

Unlike the MasterBlasters, with its eight players and host of influences and personalities, this smaller unit, to Bonfili, “makes it easier to hear and shape-shift when you want to go in a different direction. And everyone’s listening really well, which is super refreshing and important.”

Bonfili says that the sound they’re woodshedding allows “a freedom that’s nice to have. There’s an equal amount of freedom and structure.

It seems that we kinda want to create stuff that you can dance to, that you can feel in the groove. But there’s that other side, too, the jazzy instrumentals. We’re trying to figure out where to do both, at what times. Hopefully, as we get everyriverfronttimes.com

thing tighter, we’ll just know when to open up and improvise.”

The songs start with Franklin, who figures that he’s got “an album or two” of material tumbling around his handsome, busy head. Even as the group has just begun, Franklin’s been pushing for material to go down on tape. A couple weeks back, the group outfitted their rehearsal with mics, taking, as Franklin says, “an old jazz approach. The room has some sort of sound treatments, but it’s really a set-up from the ‘40s or ‘50s.” Committing songs live, he says, suggests that “everyone’s got to know the music.”

And while Bonfili is content in saying “there’s no need to rush it,” speaking of both the project and the recording process, Franklin feels greater urgency.

He says, “I can’t wing it anymore.

There’s no time to wing it.”

MAY 4-10, 2016

Continued on pg 38

RIVERFRONT TIMES

37

ANDREW FRANKLIN Continued from pg 37

F

Local and Regional

ATopTen Kentucky Spring Festival

Art, Music, Beer&Wine, Improv, Taste of Paducah, Children’s Activities

(Kentucky State Tourism Bureau)

with

Ben Sollee, Old Salt Union, and Diane Coffee

www.lowertownamf.com

7th & Madison St. Paducah, Kentucky

38

RIVERFRONT TIMES

MAY 4-10, 2016

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ranklin is sitting on a flight of steps outside of Soulard Market, joined by his “girlfriend and best friend,” Jessica Bellomo, on a picture-perfect Saturday afternoon. Over the course of an hour, he spins lengthy stories about music, health, work. On the latter, there’s been huge change in his life. The son of a fireman, Franklin himself spent ten years as a firefighter, most recently for the city. He admits that, right now, “I’m not healthy enough to to ride a firetruck.”

The time away from the work has allowed to him to reflect on a decade spent in one of the world’s most dangerous professions. He, and even his doctors, figure that “just a couple of calls” may have led to the basis of his cancers: smoke inhalation for his lungs, handling hazardous materials for his bile duct.

Franklin holds out the possibility that he’ll rejoin the fire department as an instructor, something he says, “I’d wanted to go into already.”

There’s a chance that this won’t happen, thought, and if so, “I’m dyeing my hair the day I’m officially cut loose.” Already, he’s found comfort in not shaving daily, in letting his hair grow out. These days, he doesn’t pack out of a gig at the Broadway Oyster Bar at 3:30 a.m. only to go to work a couple hours later.

“What I miss most,” he says, “is, simply put, the guys. It felt that we all grew up together in the firehouse. You can’t replace those kinds of relationships. And you know that you’ll have moments with them that you’ll never have again. There’s this knowledge that you’ll be safe. But some of that can transfer over to bands, too: the brotherhood and camaraderie, knowing that you can call someone at any time of the night, the checks and balances of humility.”

As he talks, a group of little rascals nearby, straight-up south city hoosier kids, are banging sticks on trash cans and tossing branches. Just as Franklin riffs on how they’re distracting him, one, a scrappy blond boy, walks up to him and hands him a handful of little yellow flowers yanked from the nearby garden.

As he comes back with more, Bellomo suggests he leave the rest for the bees.

Next to her, Franklin pops off his broad-brimmed brown hat, cinches the flowers into the hat-band and asks, “What was I just saying about hating kids?” n

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B-SIDES

Introducing the 2016 RFT Music Award Nominees

FOLK

The Aching Hearts Cara Louise Band Dubb Nubb Letter to Memphis Whsky Gngr

GARAGE ROCK

The Bobby Dazzlers The Brainstems Kenshiro’s Shitstorm Tiger Rider

Written by

RFT MUSIC STAFF

W

ho says music isn’t a competition? Joking aside, the RFT Music Awards are our way of celebrating St. Louis’ staggering wealth of talent.

The nominees you see below were carefully compiled by a panel of radio DJs, music writers, venue owners/employees, record store staff and other key figures from the music community. Very soon we will expect you, dear reader, to make some hard choices.

Polls are set to open in mid-May as we roll out a series of band profiles sorted by category at RFTMusic.com.

For now, take the time to comb through the list and become familiar with St. Louis’ exceptional scene. And don’t forget, many of the acts you see below are set to perform at this year’s RFT Music Showcase, taking place in the Grove on June 18. Stay tuned!

AMERICANA

Arson For Candy Beth Bombara Brothers Lazaroff Loot Rock Gang River Kittens

BLUES

4th City Rag Big Mike Aguirre & the Blu City All Stars The Green McDonough Band The Maness Brothers Rum Drum Ramblers

39

HARD ROCK Apex Shrine Boreal Hills Buttercup Fumer The R6 Implant

HARDCORE River Kittens, one of this year’s nominees. | STEVE TRUESDELL

The Bubbleheads Everything Went Black Lumpy and the Dumpers Q The Warden

COUNTRY

ELECTRONIC (DANCE)

COVER BAND

ELECTRONIC (ECLECTIC) HIP-HOP (SOLO)

Cree Rider Family Band Jack Grelle Southwest Watson Sweethearts Tortuga Trigger 5

Bullseye Womprats FatPocket The Town Drunks Warhorse We Bite

DJ

DJ MAKossa DJ Mahf DJ Uptown Mister Ben (NO HITS) Nappy DJ Needles

Adult Fur D-M-Y Giant Monsters On The Horizon Hylidae ICE (formerly known as Black James)

18andCounting Biggie Stardust Blank Thomas Eric Hall Hands and Feet

EXPERIMENTAL The Conformists Demonlover Hardbody Ish Yowie

HIP-HOP (GROUP) 3 Problems Blank Generation Illphonics MME Mathias and the Pirates

Arshad Goods Bates J’Demul Mvstermind Tef Poe

IMPROVISATIONAL/ NOISE MUSIC Beauty Pageant Brain Transplant Ghost Ice Raglani Vernacular String Trio

Continued on pg 40

riverfronttimes.com

MAY 4-10, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

39

RFT MUSIC SHOWCASE Continued from pg 39 Get in The Grove for exciting Drinking, Dining, Dancing, & Shopping!

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METAL

ROCK

NEW BAND

SINGER-SONGWRITER

POP

SOUL / FUNK

Endora Hope & Therapy Middle Class Fashion Scarlet Tanager Whoa Thunder

American Wrestlers CaveofswordS Foxing Sleepy Kitty Town Cars

Aaron Kamm and the One Drops Blastar The Driftaways Thunder Biscuit Orchestra Vandeventer

Animal Children Dave Stone The Gaslight Squares Sidney Street Shakers Tommy Halloran’s Guerrilla Swing

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MAY 4-10, 2016

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3 of 5 Dropkick the Robot The Educated Guess Golden Curls The Vanilla Beans

Blight Future Jr. Clooney LifeWithout Lobby Boxer Staghorn

Persh Rip Rap Summer Magic Sunwyrm Tone Rodent

Breakmouth Annie Little Big Bangs Skin Tags Trauma Harness Veil

Coultrain Little Rachel Love Jones “The Band” The Provels Roland Johnson & Soul Endeavor

Brother Lee & the Leather Jackals Bruiser Queen Bug Chaser Old Souls Revival Tok

Emily Wallace Miss Molly Simms Sharon Hazel Township Suzie Cue Zak Marmalefsky

Al Holliday and the East Side Rhythm Band Funky Butt Brass Band Hazard to Ya Booty Rhythm Section Road Show Southern Exposure

HOMESPUN NAPPY DJ NEEDLES That Purple Stuff: A Royal Tribute to Prince mixcloud.com/djneedles

P

rince’s sudden death at age 57 on April 21 was shocking and cosmically unjust, to be sure, but something about the Internet’s communal grief made it seem as if the Artist himself was getting the last laugh. Thanks to what I always assumed was a stable of lawyers in a bunker somewhere in Paisley Park, Prince’s online presence was nearly nil; YouTube was routinely scrubbed of any copyrighted material, and unless you bucked up for Tidal’s premium platform, streaming was a dead-end too. By and large, you had to own his records to grieve properly. For a musician who fiercely guarded his output, this felt a little like justice.

Of course, terrestrial DJs were there to help the mourners; on the afternoon of Prince’s passing, you could flip between (Old School) 95.5 FM and 100.3 FM (The Beat) to hear a lovingly crafted set of hits and rarities. DJs on the stations shared recollections and honored requests, and the moment typified the relationship between a DJ and its audience. No algorithm can compare.

Nappy DJ Needles is no stranger to the healing power of a well-curated mix. He’s been an active turntablist and mixtape-maker since 1998 and currently hosts shows on both KDHX (88.1 FM) and Hot 104.1 FM. While his style usually runs to what he calls “new rap alternative,” on the night of April 21 Needles posted a 70-minute, 20-odd song love letter to Prince in the form of That Purple Stuff. While the mix was initially created in 2012 and released as The Purple Tape, Needles re-christened it and put it on his Mixcloud page, where it was played over 1,200 times in its first week.

Needles, born James Gates Jr. in 1976, came of age right when Prince was in his cultural ascendency. He recalls getting down to “Controversy” and “Little Red Corvette,” though Needles recognizes the release of Purple Rain as the moment when “the powder keg blew,” he says.

“I was really impressionable, I was probably

way too young to listen to stuff like that — I was seven or eight,” remembers Gates.

“I remember being in third grade and all the kids saying that they had seen Purple Rain — my mom didn’t let us go see that as kids, and rightfully so. So I distinctly remember kids talking about and everyone loving the record.”

His father, Gentleman Jim Gates, is radio royalty in St. Louis, so the young Needles had access to all the records he could get his hands on.

That included the movie’s soundtrack, which included some R-rated material. “I remember playing the record on our floor-model record player,” Needles says. “I remember listening to ‘Darling Nikki.’”

Needles’ mix is a fluid, uptempo tour through Prince’s golden era (1978 through 1988), a cache of songs that, admittedly, is hard to screw up. But Needles finds ways to let these songs talk to each other; a four-song stretch that begins with the aggressive funk of “Alphabet Street” winds its way to the iconic SONAR-ping drum track of “Sign o’ the Times.” For Needles, Prince’s refusal to stay boxed in by genre was both an inspiration and a challenge for a mix-master.

“With “Kiss,” you couldn’t pinpoint what genre that is,” says Needles of the 1986 Billboard No. 1 single. “Lazily, pop is the best way to call it; it’s the melting pot of genres. I remember thinking this was some classic black type stuff with those guitar licks — but it was the ‘80s. I didn’t know the term throwback, but it had this distinct sound and I really dug.”

That Purple Stuff has its genesis in 2005, though thanks to a combination of what Nee-

41

dles calls “uber-perfectionism and procrastination,” the mix remained unfinished until 2012.

That was the year that Needles threw his first Prince-only party, an event that has become an annual highlight. This year’s celebration, planned well before Prince’s passing, will take place June 11 at Blank Space.

“Obviously this one is really heavy,” he says of the upcoming party. “I never wanted it to be a memorial party. I’m OK with memorial parties, but I definitely wanted to do a party for people that were still living, so that we didn’t have to wait until they died to celebrate them.

It happens a lot — people don’t get celebrated until they die.”

Prince, of course, was different. “When you’re that much of a genius, you have that right to do that,” says Needles.

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MAY 4-10, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

41

42

OUT EVERY NIGHT

THURSDAY 5

[CRITIC’S PICK]

w/ TRVPSQUVD, Break Night, Nettles, Captain, RollBro!, Midnight Marauders, Nova Freak, Max Well, Bass Ninja, Abra CollabBruh, Vanilla Gorilla 8 p.m., $5. 2720 Cherokee Performing Arts Center, 2720 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314276-2700.

BAYOU MAHARAJAH: w/ Al Holliday, Ethan Leinwand 7 p.m., $7. The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-925-7543, ext.

815.

BILLY BARNETT BAND: w/ Scarlett & the Harlots 7 p.m., $5-$10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

CHARLES BRADLEY AND HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES: 8 p.m., $15-$17. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

DAVY KNOWLES: 9 p.m., $7. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

FREE PARKING: 7 p.m., $8-$10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BACKWOODS MUSIC FESTIVAL DJ COMPETITION:

Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires 8 p.m. Thursday, May 5.

The Old Rock House, 1700 South Seventh Street. $15 to $17. 314-588-0505.

When Charles Bradley first saw James Brown perform at New York’s Apollo Theater in 1962, his life was forever changed. The young Bradley, then just a teenager, was blown away by the Godfather of Soul — the way he sang, the way he moved, the way the stage lights shone on him. Bradley was so transfixed, he soon formed a band and began

GOLDEN CURLS: w/ Slower, Fatal Flaws 9 p.m.,

singing the songs of his idol. By 1996 the singer was making a living as a James Brown impersonator under the name “Black Velvet,” only to be discovered by Daptone founder Gabriel Roth in 2002.

Since then Bradley has released three albums with the label, including April’s critically acclaimed Changes.

A Hell of a Show: “Every night, I try to perform like it’s my last day on earth,” Bradley told RFT in a 2013 interview.

“When I come to town I’m going to open my heart and give you all I got.”

– Daniel Hill

$7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

HAZARD TO YA BOOTY: 9 p.m., free. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

HED PE: w/ Veer Union 8 p.m., $15. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

JAKE’S LEG: 8 p.m., $7. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009.

LEROY JODIE PIERSON: w/ Brother Jefferson Blues Band 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

LOVE HZ: w/ Big Red, Task, Brian R, Cryptonix 10 p.m., free. The Crack Fox, 1114 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-621-6900.

SANTAH: 9 p.m., $8-$10. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.

HAYSEED DIXIE: 8 p.m., $16-$18. Off Broadway,

SEARCH PARTIES: w/ Bruiser Queen 9 p.m.,

3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.

$10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis,

MONTANA OF 300: 9 p.m., $20. Fubar, 3108

314-773-3363.

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

SPIN CYCLE: w/ Tvor, Jameson 9 p.m., free.

MONTEZ COLEMAN TRIO: w/ Anita Jackson 7:30

Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee St., St. Louis.

& 9:30 p.m., $16.50. Jazz At the Bistro, 634 N.

SUSTO: w/ Goodnight, Texas 8 p.m., $10-$12.

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-534-3663.

The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-

OLD SALT UNION: w/ The River Kittens, Foggy

0353.

Memory Boys 7 p.m., $10. The Bootleg, 4140

TANK TOPS & FLIP FLOPS: w/ Zeus Rebel Waters,

Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

Rinna Phoenix, Tono, Dat Deal, Treehouse Ent.

SAY ANYTHING: w/ mewithoutYou, Teen Suicide,

9 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis,

Museum Mouth 7 p.m., $18-$22. The Ready

314-289-9050.

Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-

TRIBAL SEEDS: w/ Anuhea, E.N. Young 8 p.m.,

833-3929.

$16-$18. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester

SLOW DOWN SCARLETT: w/ Hymns of the Repub-

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

lic, Pardon the Youth 7 p.m., $7. Cicero’s, 6691

THE VANILLA BEANS: w/ We Should Leave This

Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009.

Tree, Marie and the Americans 9 p.m., free.

SOULESTIAL SERIES: w/ NOAH, Trevor Matthew,

Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis,

Larry Lust 9 p.m., $5. Blank Space, 2847 Chero-

314-241-2337.

kee St., St. Louis.

SPACESHIP: w/ Spatula 9 p.m., free. Schlafly

SATURDAY 7

Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-

BENEFIT FOR GENOCIDE IN RWANDA: w/ Dylan

2337.

Brady 9 p.m., $5. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester

THE THERMALS: w/ Summer Cannibals 8 p.m.,

Aimee Mann. | SHERYL NEILDS

$12-$15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.

WHY NOT: 8 p.m., free. The Demo, 4191 Man-

Aimee Mann

chester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.

9 p.m. Friday, May 6.

FRIDAY 6

The Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Boulevard. $40 to $35. 314-533-9900.

AIMEE MANN: 9 p.m., $35-$40. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

BALLY TABLE KINGS PLAYING AS THE WHO: w/ Crazy XXX Girlfriend 9 p.m., $10. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

BRIAN OWENS CD RELEASE SHOW: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; May 7, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $21.50. Jazz At the Bistro, 634 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314534-3663.

DJ MAHF: 9 p.m., $5-$7. Thaxton Speakeasy, 1009 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-241-3279.

EASY STAR ALL STARS: w/ Tatanka 7 p.m., $20.

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

42

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Though she has never been especially prolific, the wily and wiry Aimee Mann has built up an extraordinary body of work that includes one of rock’s great solo debuts (Whatever, her first album after disbanding ‘Til Tuesday), one of the most satisfying concept albums (2005’s The Forgotten Arm), one of the strongest soundtracks (her suite of songs for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia) and one of the best

MAY 4-10, 2016

riverfronttimes.com

Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

BRIAN CURRAN: w/ Boo Boo Davis & the Bumblebee Trio 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

Christmas albums ever. She’s also an effortless collaborator, whether working with the rocker Ted Leo, the craftsman Jon Brion or the hubby Michael Penn. Her music jangles and swings and lilts and storms; her songs wed the head and the heart, and her voice always carries you away.

Comedy Gold: As if her résumé wasn’t deep enough, Mann gueststarred in one of Portlandia’s best skits, in which she played herself as a cleaning woman just trying to make ends meet.

– Roy Kasten

BRIAN OWENS CD RELEASE SHOW: May 6, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $21.50. Jazz At the Bistro, 634 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-5343663.

CINCO DE MAYO AFTERPARTY: w/ Sonorama, DJ MAKossa, DJ Needles 7 p.m., $5. The Luminary, 2701 Cherokee St, St. Louis.

CYRUS CHESTNUT: AFRICAN REFLECTIONS: 8 p.m., $40-$45. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

DEAF BY AUDIO: w/ Jeske Park, Phi 7 p.m., $8$10. Cicero’s, 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-862-0009.

FIESTA 76: w/ AJ & The Jiggawatts, Ronkat of the P-Funk All Stars, DJ Mahf, Break Night, Birthday Boy Mark Lewis, Hal Greens, DJ Needles, DJ Alexis 8 p.m., $10. 2720 Cherokee

FIND ANY SHOW IN TOWN...

[CRITIC’S PICK]

With our new and improved concert calendar! RFT’s online music listings are now sortable by artist, venue and price.

You can even buy tickets directly from our website—with more options on the way!

Tortoise. | ANDREW PAYNTER

Try to define the contours of longrunning instrumentalists Tortoise at your own peril. At this point, it’s easier to say that the Chicago-based quintet plays Tortoise Music rather than trying to cram in the wisps and wafts of dub, outré jazz, Kraut-rock and more that has marked the band’s discography.

On this year’s The Catastrophist, its

first album in seven years, the band scatters seeds far and wide while maintaining an indelible commitment to shifting rhythms and deep grooves.

Take a song like “The Tesseract” as an example; on the track the band employs a de-centered, math-rockian structure, but overlaid with creamy fusion guitar and zippy synth.

Arrive On Time: Underground music lifer Chris Brokaw, who has played with Come, Codeine and many others, will open the show. – Christian Schaeffer

Performing Arts Center, 2720 Cherokee St, St.

p.m., $40-$45. The Ritz-Carlton, 100 Carondelet

Louis, 314-276-2700.

Plaza, Clayton, 314-863-6300.

I ACTUALLY: w/ Tattooed The Dog, Tom Joad &

JAMIE KILSTEIN & THE AGENDA: 7 p.m., $8-$10.

The Ghosts, Iron For Iron 8 p.m., $8. Fubar,

The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis,

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

314-833-5532.

JEFF RADFORD: 9 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509

MATTHEW J & HIS WHEELS: w/ Francis, Double

Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.

Blinds, 4th City Rag Trio, The Barn Mice 8 p.m.,

KALEIDOSCOPE NETWORK BENEFIT SHOW: w/

$7. Foam Coffee & Beer, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St.

Weezer “Blue Album” cover set 9 p.m., $10.

Louis, 314-772-2100.

The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Lou-

THE SCANDALEROS: 2 p.m., free. Music Record

is, 314-352-5226.

Shop, 4191 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-272-

THE MERCS: w/ Molly Gene One Whoaman

4607.

Band, the Vigilettes 9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap

STORIES THROUGH STORMS: w/ From Myth and

Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337.

Legend 6 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St.

PARACHUTE: w/ Jon McLaughlin 7 p.m., $21.

Louis, 314-289-9050.

8 p.m. Monday, May 9.

PHOTOGRAPHER: TODD OWYOUNG BAND: SLEEPY KITTY

The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Avenue. $22 to $25. 314-833-3929.

Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314588-0505.

www.riverfronttimes.com/concerts/

FIND ANY SHOW IN TOWN...

MONDAY 9

RUSTY NAIL: w/ End Of The Show, Ali Ruby 9

EMO IS

p.m., $7. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis,

BACK TOUR: w/ Best Kept Secret, An Honest

314-535-0353.

Year, Take a Breath, This Is All Now, Beneath

UVEE HAYES: 1 p.m., $5. National Blues Muse-

The Spin Light 7 p.m., $15-$20. The Firebird,

um, 601 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353.

SUNDAY 8

R

With our new and improved concert calendar! RFT’s online music listings are now sortable by artist, venue and price. You can even buy tickets directly from our website—with more options on the way!

MRS. SKANNATO: w/ Snooty and The Ratfinks 8 p.m., $10-$12. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis,

BIG GEORGE BROCK: 6 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues

314-289-9050.

& Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-

NIGHT DEMON: w/ Visigoth 8 p.m., $10-$12.

5222.

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

DENISE THIMES & FRIENDS SPECIAL MOTHER’S

NO TIDE: / the Cinema Story 6:30 p.m., $12. The

DAY CONCERT: 5:30 p.m., $25-$45. Blanche M

Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-

Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr

833-5532.

at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-

SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway

4949.

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

DONELL JONES: w/ Arvin Mitchell, Rhoda G 7

8811.

Continued on pg 44

PHOTOGRAPHER: TODD OWYOUNG BAND: SLEEPY KITTY

Tortoise

R

www.riverfronttimes.com/concerts/

riverfronttimes.com

MAY 4-10, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

43

THIS JUST IN Continued from pg 43 SPACE SHIP JAZZ FUSION: 8 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz,

THIS JUST IN

Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-

BAD OMENS: Tue., May 31, 7 p.m., $13. The

436-5222.

Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-

SUFFOCATION: 6 p.m., $15. The Demo, 4191

0353.

Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.

BLINK-182: W/ A Day to Remember, All-Amer-

TORTOISE: 8 p.m., $22-$25. The Ready Room,

ican Rejects, Sun., Sept. 11, 7 p.m., TBA. Hol-

4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

lywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth

TUESDAY 10

9PM

Guitar Guru

Davy Knowles Band

fri. may 6

10PM

Trixie Delight

fri. may 13

10PM

Jake’s Leg

sat. may 14

10PM

Clusterpluck

with Special Guests Poor Dirty Astronauts

fri. May 20

10PM Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds with Special Guests Star and Micey

736 S Broadway St. Louis, MO 63102 (314) 621-8811 44

RIVERFRONT TIMES

MAY 4-10, 2016

riverfronttimes.com

CARTER HULSEY: W/ Ryan Reid, Gooding, Tue.,

“RAGTIME” JACK RADCLIFFE: 7 p.m., $5. Evange-

June 14, 8 p.m., $10. The Demo, 4191 Man-

line’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

chester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.

DEAN MINDERMAN & SOUL SUPPLIERS: 9:30 p.m.,

CHRIS STAPLETON: Thu., June 30, 7 p.m.,

$5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway,

$49.50-$79.50. The Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand

St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

Blvd., St. Louis, 314-534-1111.

ETHAN LEINWAND & FRIENDS: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s

CRYPTIC WISDOM: W/ Whiteout, Cartier

Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis,

Jones, John Boi, Travis Spade, Keylo Da Don,

314-436-5222.

MyKhaos, Thu., June 9, 8 p.m., $10-$12.

JAMAICA LIVE TUESDAYS: w/ Ital K, Mr. Roots, DJ

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

Witz, $5/$10. Elmo’s Love Lounge, 7828 Olive

9050.

Blvd, University City, 314-282-5561.

FOY VANCE: Thu., Oct. 27, 8 p.m., $15-$20. Off

MUST BE THE HOLY GHOST: 8:30 p.m., $8-$10.

Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-

The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis,

773-3363.

314-833-5532.

GARBAGE: Tue., July 12, 8 p.m., $40-$42.50.

QUETZAL SNAKES: w/ Sonic Panic, Black Body

The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis,

Heat 9 p.m., $7. Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee

314-726-6161.

St., St. Louis.

INTRONAUT: W/ Entheos, Moon Tooth, The

SCORPIONS: w/ Queensryche 7 p.m., $49.50-

Gorge, Quaere Verum, Fri., July 29, 8 p.m.,

$150. The Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., St.

$12. The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St.

Louis, 314-534-1111.

Louis, 314-833-5532.

SCRU: 7 p.m., $15-$20. Fubar, 3108 Locust St,

JLETLIVE.: W/ Seahaven, Night Verses, Wed.,

St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

July 20, 7 p.m., $16-$19. Fubar, 3108 Locust

SON LITTLE: 8 p.m., $12-$14. Blueberry Hill -

St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University

MARTIN LAWRENCE: Fri., July 29, 8 p.m.,

City, 314-727-4444.

$39.50-$99.50. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton

TIM SCHALL: 10 a.m., $12-$65. The Sheldon,

Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000.

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

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS: W/ The Church, Thu.,

WEDNESDAY 11

thur. may 5

City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

Aug. 4, 8 p.m., $35. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

AUDIOTOPSY: w/ Sozorox 7 p.m., $12-$15. Pop’s

RAMONA DEFLOWERED: W/ Johnny Saint And

Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis,

The Princes Of Hell, Acorns to Oaks, Mon.,

618-274-6720.

June 13, 9 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509

BIG RICH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $5.

Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-773-3363.

BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St.

SUMMER GRAS: W/ Funky Butt Brass Band, Al

Louis, 314-436-5222.

Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band, The

BOB “BUMBLE BEE” KAMOSKE: 8 p.m. Beale on

Grooveliner, The Provels, Hazard To Ya Boo-

Broadway, 701 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-

ty, Sat., June 11, 6 p.m., $10. Old Rock House,

7880.

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

ENTER SHIKARI: w/ Hands Like Houses, The

TEGAN AND SARA: Sat., Oct. 22, 8 p.m., $31-

White Noise 7 p.m., $18-$20. Fubar, 3108 Locust

$36. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St.

St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

Louis, 314-726-6161.

FRUITION: 8 p.m., $10-$12. The Demo, 4191 Man-

THE VANILLA BEANS: W/ We Should Leave This

chester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-5532.

Tree, Marie and the Americans, Fri., May 6,

KYLE KINANE: 8 p.m., $18-$20. The Ready Room,

9 p.m., free. Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust

4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337.

PAT MARTINO TRIO: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; May 12, 7:30

VIOLENT FEMMES: Thu., July 14, 7 p.m., $30-

& 9:30 p.m.; May 13, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; May 14,

$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St.

7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $35. Ferring Jazz Bistro, 3536

Louis, 314-726-6161.

Washington Ave, St. Louis, 314-571-6000.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT JAZZ CRAWL: Wed., May 11,

STICK MEN: 8 p.m., $18-$20. Old Rock House,

5 p.m., free. Grand Center, N. Grand Blvd. &

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

Lindell Blvd. 2, St. Louis, 314-533-1884.

THIRD SIGHT BAND: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues &

WILD ADRIATIC: Thu., June 9, 8 p.m., $10. Old

Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

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

TIM SCHALL: 10 a.m., $12-$65. The Sheldon, 3648

588-0505.

Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

YES YOU ARE: W/ CaveofswordS, Golden Curls,

WEDNESDAY NIGHT JAZZ CRAWL: 5 p.m., free.

Hope And Therapy, Fri., June 24, 8 p.m., $10.

Grand Center, N. Grand Blvd. & Lindell Blvd. 2,

The Demo, 4191 Manchester Ave, St. Louis,

St. Louis, 314-533-1884.

314-833-5532.

SAVAGE LOVE VIRGIN TERRITORY

BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m a 31-year-old straight woman. I have a good job, great friends and average attractiveness.

I’ve dated close to 30 men at this point, and I can’t wrap my head around this: I’ve never had a boyfriend or dated anyone for more than a couple months. It’s really starting to wear on my self-esteem. I don’t believe anything is wrong with me, but the more time goes on, the more I think I have to be doing something wrong. The guys ghost me or things fizzle out or we’re not at the same point in our lives. This is particularly true for one guy I’ve remained friends with (common social circle) who is struggling with his career, though things are still awkward because it’s clear there’s still something there. Another area of concern: I’m still a virgin. I don’t have unrealistic expectations that I’ll marry the first dick that sticks itself into me — but I’ve waited this long, so I’m not going to jump into the sack with just anyone without knowing that I can at least trust them. The only guy I really do trust is Somewhat Depressed Guy, but propositioning him could further complicate our already awkward friendship. Is something wrong with me, and what the hell should I do?

What’s Wrong With Me?

I get variations on the first half of your question—is something wrong with me? — all the time. But it’s not a question I’m in a position to answer, WWWM, as I would need to depose a random sampling of the guys you’ve dated, interrogate your friends and grill you under a bare lightbulb for a few days to figure out what’s wrong with you.

And you know what? Nothing could be wrong with you. You may have pulled the short straw 30 times in a row, and you just need to keep getting out there and eventually you’ll pull a guy who won’t ghost or fizzle on you.

As for the second half of your question …What the hell should you do?

Well, gee. What you’ve been doing hasn’t worked, WWWM, so maybe it’s time to do something else. Like fuck some dude on the first date.

Or if that’s too drastic, fuck some dude on the second date. Or better yet, go to Somewhat Depressed Guy and say: “I don’t think you want a relationship right now, and I’m not sure I do either. But I like you and trust you, and I could really use your help with something…”

While the commitment-and-monogamy-first approach has worked for some, WWWM, it hasn’t worked for you. And being a virgin at 31 isn’t boosting your self-esteem. There are lots of people out there who jumped in the sack and did a little dick-sticking with people they barely knew

but had a good feeling about. The jumping/sticking/dicking approach doesn’t always lead to committed and/or monogamous relationships, but it can and it has and it does.

Somewhat Depressed Guy might be somewhat less depressed if he was getting some, you might have higher self-esteem if you finally got some and dispensing with your virginity might make dating after you part ways — if you part ways with him (you never know) — seem a lot less fraught.

Hey, Dan: I’m a virgin in my late twenties. I’m not waiting until marriage, just for the right person. I’ve dated enough and had enough fun to continue being a happy, normal, socially competent guy, much to the disbelief of my various knuckle-dragging, vagina-blinded pals. I’ve been dating this gal for a few months.

She’s special — we have tons of chemistry and she cares about me. We had a brief conversation about my lack of sexperience when we first started dating, and she was very cool about it. I really like this girl, but I’m not sure yet if she’s the future Mrs. I am a worrier (thanks, Mom!), and I find myself thinking that if I share this with her and somewhere down the road we end up breaking up, she’s going to be even more devastated because I shared my first time with her.

Am I just having silly virgin worries?

Not only am I concerned about her

riverfronttimes.com

45

feelings if things don’t work out, but I’m also concerned that I might become vagina-blinded — that I might immediately tell this girl I want to spend my life with her just because she’s having sex with me only to find myself a few years down the road feeling trapped. What should I do?

Very Indecisive, Really Gettin’ Naughty You should fuck this girl already — provided, of course, that this girl wants to fuck you.

You could wind up saying things you come to regret or have to walk back — her vagina might be that bedazzling — but that’s an unavoidable risk, and not one that’s unique to virgins. The right vagina, ass, face, skill set, or bank balance can blind a fucker with decades of experience.

The only way to avoid vagina-blindness — or ass-blindness, etc. — is to never have sex with anyone. And I don’t think you’re interested in celibacy, so stop freaking out about the risk that you’ll imprint, duckling-like, on the first vagina your pee-pee sees the inside of.

You must also eliminate “sexperience” from your vocabulary, VIRGN, as it’s equal parts cloying and annoying.

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

MAY 4-10, 2016

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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105 Career/Training/Schools THE OCEAN CORP. 10840 Rockley Road, Houston, Texas 77099. Train for a new career. *Underwater Welder. Commercial Diver. *NDT/Weld Inspector. Job Placement Assistance.

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800 Health & Wellness 805 Registered Massage

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Call Cynthia today for your massage. M-F 7-5, Sat. 9-1.

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810 Health & Wellness General ARE YOU ADDICTED TO PAIN MEDICATIONS OR HEROIN? Suboxone can help. Covered by most insurance. Free & confidential assessments.

Outpatient Services. Center Pointe Hospital 314-292-7323 or 800-3455407 763 S. New Ballas Rd, Ste. 310

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600 Music 610 Musicians Services MUSICIANS Do you have a band? We have bookings. Call (314)781-6612 for information Mon-Fri, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS AVAILABLE Do you need musicians?

A Band? A String Quartet?

Call the Musicians Association of St. Louis (314)781-6612, M-F, 10:00-4:30

610 Musicians Services MUSICIANS Do you have a band? We have bookings. Call (314)781-6612 for information Mon-Fri, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS AVAILABLE Do you need musicians?

A Band? A String Quartet?

Call the Musicians Association of St. Louis (314)781-6612, M-F, 10:00-4:30 MUSICIANS Do you have a band? We have bookings. Call (314)781-6612 for information Mon-Fri, 10:00-4:30

$45-$50 thousand the 1st year, great benefits, call SMTDS, Financial assistance available if you qualify.

Free living quarters. 6 students max per class. 4 wks. 192 hours.

SOUTH-CITY OPEN-SUNDAY-2-4pm 314-518-4645 4919A Murdoch-Lovely 1 br w/enclosed sunporch, appl, no pets.

Immediate Occupancy.

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317 Apartments for Rent 7TH-&-RUSSELL! $625 314-309-2043 Custom 1 bedroom, loaded kitchen, redone hardwood floors, washer/dryer included, pets ok, recent upgrades, call today! rs-stl.com RHHA5 BATES-ST! $425 314-309-2043 All Utilities Paid! Cozy apartment w/ cold central air, appliances included, newer carpet, bad credit ok, available now! RHHA3 DOWNTOWN Cityside-Apts 314-231-6806 Bring in ad & application fee waived! Gated prkng, onsite laundry.

Controlled access bldgs, pool, fitness, business ctr. Pets welcome KINGSHIGHWAY-BLVD! $400 314-309-2043 No Lease! Bad credit OK! Large 1 bedroom, kitchen appliances, hardwood floors, w/d hookups, low deposit, easy move in! rs-stl.com RHHA9 LAFAYETTE-SQUARE $685 314-968-5035 2030 Lafayette: 2BR/1BA, appls, C/A, Hdwd Fl LOUGHBOROUGH-AVE! $650 314-309-2043 Remodeled 2 bedroom w/garage, cold central air, nice hardwood floors, fenced yard, kitchen appliances, w/d hookups! rs-stl.com RHHA6 MCCAUSLAND-AVE! $535 314-309-2043 Updated 1br duplex, appliances included, nice hardwoods, frosty central air, some utilities paid, recent updates! rs-stl.com RHHA4 MORGANFORD-RD! $385 314-309-2043 Recently redone 1 bedroom, all appliances, central air, pets ok, w/d hookups, extra storage! rs-stl.com RHHA2 NORTH-CITY

1-BEDROOM-APTS 314-921-9191 4008 Garfield $315/mo-$415/dep 5071 Ruskin $375/mo-$475/dep ~Credit Check Required~

OVERLAND/ST-ANN $535-$575-(SPECIAL) 314-995-1912 (1 MO FREE!) 1 & 2BRs-garage. Clean, safe, quiet. Great loc-near 170, 64, 70, 270 PAGE-AVE! $600 314-309-2043 All-electric 3 bedroom home, hardwood floors, frosty a/c, ceiling fans, some bills paid, lawn care included, recently updated! rs-stl.com RHHA8 RICHMOND-HEIGHTS $525-$565-(SPECIAL) 314-995-1912 1 MONTH FREE! 1BR, all elec off Big Bend, Metrolink, 40, 44, Clayton.

SKINKER-BLVD! 314-309-2043 Updated 2 bedroom, central heat/air, appliances included, basement storage, w/d hookups, utilities paid, ready now! rs-stl.com RHHA7 SOULARD $800 314-724-8842 Spacious 2nd flr 2BR, old world charm, hdwd flrs, yard, frplcs, off st prk, no C/A, nonsmoking bldg, storage. nprent@aol.com SOUTH CITY

$400-$850 314-7714222 Many different units www.stlrr.com 1-3 BR, no credit no problem SOUTH ST. LOUIS CITY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 1, 2 & 3 BR apts for rent. www.eatonproperties.com.

Sec. 8 welcome

SOUTH-CITY $400 314-707-9975 4321 Morganford: 1 BR, all electric, hdwd flrs, C/A. SOUTH-CITY $475-$525 314-223-8067 Spacious 1BRS, Hdwd floors, A/C, stove, fridge, W/D hookup, fenced yard, near bus and shopping. Clean, quiet.

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SOUTH-CITY $515 314-707-9975 Jamieson & Nottingham: 1 BR, all electric, hdwd flrs, C/A. SOUTH-CITY 314-504-6797 37XX Chippewa: 3 rms, 1BR. all elec exc. heat. C/A, appls, at bus stop

$495-$595 314-443-4478 8700 Crocus: Near 170 & St.Charles Rock Rd Special! 1BR.$495 & 2BR.$595.

ST. CHARLES COUNTY

314-579-1201 or 636-9393808 1 & 2 BR apts for rent. www.eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome

UNIVERSITY-CITY $795 314-727-1444 2BR, new kitch, bath & carpet, C/A & heat. No pets WASH-U-AREA $450 314-374-6366 Seeking 1 or 2 Wash U students for 2016-17 school year. 1-1/2 blks from campus. Hrdwd floors, appls, off street prkg. Utilities include heat & a/c. Call or e-mail omrqv@charter.net.

WESTPORT/LINDBERGH/PAGE $525-$575 314-995-1912 1 MO FREE!-1BR ($525) & 2BR ($575) SPECIALS! Clean, safe, quiet. Patio, laundry, great landlord!

Nice Area near I-64, 270, 170, 70 or Clayton

www.LiveInTheGrove.com 320 Houses for Rent Bates-St! $795 314-309-2043 Stylish 3 bedroom house, walk-out basement, central heat/ air, nice hardwood floors, fenced yard, loaded kitchen, recent upgrades! rs-stl.com RHHBG BENTON-PARK $750 314-223-8067 Beautiful, large 1 plus BR, original Wood fls, high ceilings, huge closet, new Electric CA/Furn, kitchen Appls, 1st Fl, W/D hookup.

CHIPPEWA-ST! $650 314-309-2043 Private 2 bedroom house, full basement, fenced yard, loaded kitchen w/all appliances, storage shed, ready to rent! rs-stl.com RHHBC DUTCHTOWN $980 314-223-8067 3 BR spacious home for rent. Natural wood floor (1st flr), new carpet (2nd flr). Lrg new kitchen w/double oven gas stove, 2 bath, dining rm, bsmnt, w/d hookup, fenced yard, a/c. Lots of Closets!

FLORISSANT! $550 314-309-2043 Budget 2-3 bedroom house, full finished basement, central air, plenty of storage, fenced yard, off street parking! rs-stl.com RHHBA NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY 314-579-1201 or 636-939-3808 2, 3 & 4BR homes for rent. eatonproperties.com. Sec. 8 welcome OLIVE-BLVD! 314-309-2043 Remodeled 3 bedroom house, central air, pets welcome, fresh paint, off street parking, nice treed lot, ready to rent! rs-stl.com RHHBF South-Broadway!! $950 314-309-2043 Recently redone 4 bed, 2 bath house, full finished basement, hardwood floors, fenced yard, custom kitchen, many extras!! rs-stl.com RHHBH SOUTH-CITY $795 636-230-0068 3659 Iowa-2BR, 1BA, all new appls, off street 2 car carport, storage shed, finished room in basement, fenced yard, ADT security included.

SOUTH-GRAND-BLVD! $675 314-309-2043 Newly updated 2 bed house, big basement, garage, fenced yard, central heat/air, appliances, covered porch, ready to rent! rs-stl.com RHHBD VANDEVENTER-AVE! $600 314-309-2043 2-Story 3 bed, 2 bath house, big basement, hardwood floors, fenced yard, pets welcome, flexible deposit! rs-stl.com RHHBB VANDEVENTER-AVE! $600 314-309-2043 2-Story 3 bed, 2 bath house, big basement, hardwood floors, fenced yard, pets welcome, flexible deposit! rs-stl.com RHHBB

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