Here we go, boys and girls…
This week’s options for what to check out and where – right here in the Cowtown.
Starting with…
You know it’s a big deal when KC Confidential political sparkplug David Scott Whinery, Esquire passes on a presidential debate to catch a concert – a retro romper stomper, no less.
Unlikely as it may seem, Whinery will be at the Midland tonight for ZZ Top at 8 p.m.
That’s right, the 43-year old blues rockers from Houston are still going – and not just going – they’re actually going strong.
Check out what Guardian reviewer Michael Hann said about the group’s new album, it’s first in ages:
“The first ZZ Top album for nine years opens with the most remarkable rock’n’roll song of the year. Gotsta Get Paid is an adaptation not of some old blues or boogie, but of the Houston hip-hop classic 25 Lighters by DJ DMD with Lil’ Keke and Fat Pat. It doesn’t sound like hip-hop, naturally – it’s reconfigured as a dirty, lazy, heavy groove, Billy Gibbons‘s growling guitar and voice front and centre. It’s simply brilliant.”
Nuff said?
Tickets are $55 to $95 and are available here.
Oh yeah, be sure to follow Whinery’s lead and DVR tonight’s debate. Then check back to KC Confidential for his, you know, unbiased review.
*******
Sex sells, right?
That’s a cliché of the first order, but even the high-minded types at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts know how to play that card when it’s appropriate. You know, and tasteful.
So it is that now through Sunday you can catch Carmina Burana, the Kansas City Ballet’s “bawdy tales of love, life, feasting and faith” production.
Notice that the words “bawdy” and “love” are mentioned in the show’s advertising up top.
With no fewer than 50 dancers and “200 artists,” it’s definitely a spectacle with main floor seating @ $49 and lesser tickets starting @ $29 here.
How sexy is it, you ask?
It even features a tavern scene, complete with drinking, gambling and a dancer reportedly “tethered to a spit by a harness.”
That sexy. It’s definitely not your grandfather’s Oldsmobile ballet.
*******
Fed up with politics as usual?
Take a number. Then think about checking out Johnson County Community College‘s production Friday and Saturday of The Capitol Steps; On the Record at Yardley Hall.
“They put the MOCK in Democracy,” reads the come on. “For 30 years The Capitol Steps have been playing politics and pulling their fare from daily headlines. Their banter crosses both sides of the political aisle and sets Washington’s conflict, scandal and mayhem to your favorite pop tunes.”
The musical fare ranges from “Desperate Housemembers” to “Fun Fun Fun ‘Til Obama Takes Our Tea Bags Away.”
You get the idea, now get your tickets here.
Did I mention it’s also a dinner show? Well, it’s a dinner show – bluehairs welcome!
However the $25 extra dinner show tix are sold out for Friday with a few remaining for Saturday. Non dinner ducats for the show only range from $80 for the first three rows to $32 for balcony seats.
*******
Diva Night, anyone?
Thought you’d say that, so head on down to Knuckleheads Saloon in the East Bottoms Friday for a triple header bill with reigning KC blues band sex symbol Samantha Fish at 8 p.m. Followed by Shemekia Copeland at 9:15 and headliner Marcia Ball at 11 p.m.
But wait!
Knucklehead’s web site says the event is sold out. My guess is that if the weather’s halfway nice (or not) there’ll be a handful of $26 tickets available at the door. So call ahead that night.
And maybe, just maybe, you’ll end up rubbing elbows with Kathleen Sebelius – the Secretary of Health and Human Services – on the dance floor. Sebelius and husband Gary are huge Ball fans and try and make her shows whenever she’s in town. It may be a longshot – two longshots, actually – but hey, it’s worth a try.
Perhaps Gov. Sebelius needs to be “sentenced” to sitting through a performance of The Capitol Steps for a recent violation of the Hatch Act. Sounds fair to me.