Category Archives: Entertainment
Donnelly: The ACBs@ the Jackpot Saloon, Lawrence, Kansas, January 14, 2012
The first thing I thought as I watched the ACBs get ready to play their set at the Jackpot Saloon on Saturday night was, "Holy crap, how tall is that drummer?"
Turns out he’s about 6’9", and it’s a good thing he plays the kit so he can sit down, because he couldn’t stand up straight on the stage.
His name’s Kyle Rausch and he joined the band in 2010 after a couple of the original members split. I’m pretty sure he was a power forward at some point before.
After fiddling around with their instruments for a bit and running through a quick sound check, the ACBs nonchalantly started their set.
They looked fairly underwhelmed with the small crowd that was out.
But that wasn’t going to stop them.
"We’re all drunk and having fun, so this is fun," explained lead singer Konnor Ervin.
Leftridge: TV Time: Hell on Wheels Makes the Most of Racial Epithets, Violence & Whore Talk
If you’re easily offended by the gratuitous use of racial epithets, lots of hot whore talk, or violence perpetuated with frightful indifference, Hell on Wheels may not be the show for you. If, however, you’re cool with “injun,” and the occasional n-bomb, find nothing indecent about tattooed-faced ladies of the night sleeping with black men and you think it’s cool to watch dudes get shot in the mouth at close range (the smoke seeping out of his mouth as he lay dying was a particularly devilish touch), then climb aboard AMC’s gritty offering about burgeoning life in a brave new world.
Though Hell on Wheels is about the westward expansion of the Transcontinental railroad in 1865, that’s only a small part of the wide picture the program is meant to paint.
Sounds Good: Jason & the Scorchers@Knuckleheads, A Lull@Replay, ACB’s@Jackpot, The Civil Wars@Liberty Hall
Let’s knock the holiday crust off our pasty, shriveled and malnourished bodies…
Gone are the pseudo-memories from another disgusting New Year’s Eve. Do you really want to know what you said to that girl at the bar? Or what you said about your sister’s douche boyfriend?
No, you do not.
Were couches peed on? Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. Does it even matter anymore?
Packed away are the "great gifts" you received. And by "packed away" I mean either Goodwill or straight down the gullet. And by "great gifts" I basically mean booze.
Let’s put all that nonsense behind us and get back to our normal kick-ass lives – the ones where we pay a few bucks to get lost for a few hours…
Sounds Good: Making Movies@Jazzhaus, Fire in the Churchyard & La Guerre@Replay & Wakarusa
OK, so maybe I’m getting jaded… .jpg)
I’ve seen so many great shows over the past year, on an almost weekly basis, that I think I’ve gotten a little spoiled. Wilco, The Jayhawks, Bon Iver, Steely Dan, Muse, Bright Eyes, Roger Daltry, Zappa, Arcade Fire, St. Vincent, Mumford and Sons, Old 97’s, Ween, Willie Nelson, My Morning Jacket, the list goes on and on. Breakout local acts, too, like the ACBs, Fourth of July, and The Noise FM to name just a few.
I’ve gotten to the point where I simply demand to be entertained by interesting and talented performers night in and night out. So the last few weeks have been tough for me.
Some people blame their melancholy on the (normally) crappy, grey weather, the short days and long nights. I blame it on the doldrums – the period of time from the middle of December to the middle of January when it seems like the live music scene all but grinds to a halt.
Leftridge: The Dirty Dozen Top Malt Liquors for New Year’s Eve
Money’s tight. You just spent a shitload to fix your son’s cleft palette, your wife had her hours at TJ Maxx cutback so far she’s barely working at all and the student loans from your worthless animal husbandry degree are piling up faster than elephant shit at a circus.
Life sucks.
But New Year’s Eve waits for no man, and you need to get lubricated and loose. Champagne’s a little rich for your blood and wine makes you blackout and do unspeakable things to your life-sized poster of Bo Jackson. So what’s that leave?
Malt liquor.
But in this battered economy, malt liquors are a dime a dozen. How does one get the most bang for their buck? Simple. I’ve designed a complex formula that utilizes alcohol content by volume, divisible by cost per cubic cent, multiplied by incident of “punching a police-horse” in the snout. Here are the winners.
Sounds Good: Split Lip@Bottleneck, Minden@RecordBar
Some call it amateur night…
You know it as New Year’s Eve.
To the hardcore drinkers and scenesters it’s a night to make fun of those slobbering fools who can’t handle their shizz, getting totally, stupidly wrecked.
"Too many amateurs on the road tonight, I’m staying in," they say. "Those rookies really need to leave the drunk driving to us professionals."
They look disgusted and feel invaded, like they have somehow earned more of a right to party by paying their drunken dues all year in all the dark, dirty bars seven nights a week. Then their liver jumps out of their chest and strangles them to death…
Sounds Good: Blueprint Jazz@I-Bar, Dave Shelton’s Holiday Jam@8th Street TapRoom
I know most of you are probably nesting down this weekend, spending time at home with the family, or making that dreaded road trip to the relatives’ house that you spend the rest of the year largely ignoring.
But after all that small talk and pretending to care about your second cousin’s promotion in the HyVee meat department, you may need to cut loose with a stiff drink and some chill music to calm those frazzled nerves.
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Or maybe you’re just a hopeless barfly who can’t get away from the scene for just a moment, even on the one weekend that’s supposed to be all about friends, family, and counting your blessings.
Either way, here are a few things to distract you from the twisted train wreck that is the holidays…
Hearne: Mission Improbable, Taking It To The Imax
Let me begin by saying this is not a movie review…
However, I did see the new Tom Cruise movie Mission Impossible last night. In all its Imax glory. Jack had assured me it was top notch – and I won’t argue that – however I’ll pass along a few things worth noting.
Starting with the really intense, really loud opening scene.
Leftridge: Gift Giving Ideas for Just About Anyone
With Christmas only a stone’s throw away, I’ve decided to take the guess work out of gift-giving.
Nobody really knows what Grandpa wants and Dad has enough "executive" golf-themed items for his desk (exceptionally funny because Dad doesn’t work at a desk– he’s a ‘slicer’ on the hog-slaughtering assembly line… Get real).
Surprise them with a gift for the ages!
Have them talking for weeks afterwords! Whatever… Just buy one of these goddamned things and call it a day.
Edelman: Time for Disgruntled Musicians to Lay Down Arms & Return to Jardine’s
Remember when you were embarrassed to ask for something from, say, your old and sickly grandmother who barely had the energy to raise her hand and pat you on the head?
"I wish for world peace, Grammy," you’d respond, and leave it at that. I mean, the old gal couldn’t afford to get you a present. She was buying more drugs than Amy Winehouse on a tour of the Balkans.
Hanging out at Jardine’s Saturday night, I thought how nice a slice of that peace would be– peace between jazz musicians and club owners. It seems somebody told somebody something, and the next thing we jazz fans knew, part of the band at Jardine’s didn’t show up. The guys who did play worked their hands off; and Beena put a brave face on it.
But this was Saturday night at the best jazz club in town. We all deserved better (even without a cover).
This boycott Beena business is a dead end.
Donnelly: Need a Last Minute Gift Idea? Flip ’em a Bird (or Two)
It’s getting to be pretty hectic for down-to-the-wire Christmas shopping…
That is, for people like myself who inevitably wait until the absolute last second. If you’re like me, every year you tell yourself this holiday season will be different. This year you’ll get going early and get the shopping done by Thanksgiving so you can kick back and relax as the days inch closer to Christmas.
No jam-packed checkout aisles, no fighting for parking at the Legends, no swearing at soccer moms in minivans as you cut them off and slide into the space they’ve been waiting for with their blinker on for 5 minutes.
Sounds like a plan, right?
Leftridge: TV Time — The Walking Dead —
The first thing you need to know about The Walking Dead is that it’s a show about love.
We’ll let that sink in for a moment.
Are you adequately recovered from my claim? Good.
So yeah, it’s a show about love, first and foremost. It’s about love, and human nature, and the evil that men do, and familial relationships and sociological interactions. It’s basically a primetime soap opera about a group of people, and the way they treat life, and the way life treats them. It’s a soap opera about people thrust together unwittingly into less than desirable circumstances. And zombies.
Yes, zombies.
And to many, that’s what this show is, or what it means. It’s a tale of a bunch of people banded together by fate, shooting the shit out of zombies in order to procure themselves a better tomorrow.
And though the zombie brains may splatter, and their rotten faces be exploded under the cool blast of a 12 gauge, this show is still about the humans behind the gun, a poetic testament to those forced into a life of murderous indifference.
Sounds Good: Katlyn Conroy@RecordBar, Drakkar Sauna@Jackpot & Beena@ Jardine’s
All of the shows I’m recommending this week are at Jardine’s because, well, Beena threatened to stab me in the heart with a trident if I crossed her (again).
You guys all know how she can be, right?
I heard that one time she caught an employee taking a non-approved bathroom break and so to make an example, she murdered their whole family on stage in front of everyone.
Yeah.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, she locked the doors and made all the remaining employees listen to jazz for, like, an hour and a half…with no booze!!
Just be careful out there guys, you’ve been warned…
Leftridge: TV Talk: RFD for You and Me
What you choose to watch on a daily basis says a lot about your character. If you’re watching MTV in this day and age, you’re probably into debacles of human embarrassment, and you probably like to masturbate watching young, pregnant teenage girls scream at their ill-gotten infants.. If you’re into ESPN, you’re probably pretty boring, but you’re at least the kinda guy that can handle his own around the coffee machine (nobody has a water-cooler anymore, whatever the fuck that is). And if you’re into VH1, you probably like watching older quasi-celebrities make asses of themselves AND the early morning top-40 countdown ensures that your teenage daughter might raise an eyebrow over a plate of bacon when you offer an admittedly lousy critique of Gaga’s newest offering.
Keep trying, dad!
If you’re like me, however, you just realized that Time Warner Cable, that heathen of all metropolitan public cable monopolies, is now offering RFD, without demand, and as often or as little as you’d like it. If you’re like me—and God help you if you are—you fall on the “as often as you’d like" side of the fence.
For those left outside of the barb-wired, hay-strewn circle, allow me to explain what RFD is.
Matt & Katie: The Night The Buzz Stole Christmas & 311 at Midland by AMC 12/6/11
Night two of 96.5 the Buzz’s XXX-Mas bash at the Midland featured headliner 311…
When confronted with 311, most people fall into one of two groups; the people who absolutely love the band, love their evolution from alternative to rap-rock, to funk, to pop rock and own at least two 311 T-shirts, one of which is dark blue with the band’s logo in silver on the chest.
Then there’s the other group…
The people who kind of like some of 311’s more melodic songs, like a lot of the stuff off of Transistor, but feel like they will have to kill again if subjected to 311’s biggest commercial hit, 1995’s “Down.”
Matt & Katie: Matt & Kim @ The Buzz Christmas Show at The Midland 12/7/11
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Having just two people in their band has served Matt & Kim pretty well thus far…
There are lots of benefits if you think about it.
First off, you only have to split the gig check with one other person. Second, less is more. So the band’s stripped down dance punk doesn’t have to try and be complex or anything.
Which kinda takes the pressure off.
In fact, this band seems to eschew any delusions of grandeur. They’re simply two people, one named Matt and one named Kim. I know what you’re thinking, maybe their real names aren’t actually Matt and Kim. So their choice of moniker is actually an ironic hipster trick, ala Ben Folds Five (they only had three members, hahahahaha).
Sounds Good: The Noise FM, Cowboy Indian Bear, and Hawley @ Bottleneck
So I got invited to a porch warming party that’s going down this weekend. 
Not a house warming mind you, a porch warming.
And I think it might be a little chilly, but no matter, I’m going to rock it. I’m going to rock it in preparation for the wilding that is the KCC Christmas Party at Jardine’s on Monday.
What in the hell is a wilding you ask? Well… I don’t really know, but it will feature Glazer, Hearne, some controversy, some (a lot of) booze, and a live band. And me and Leftridge drinking quietly in a corner.
And despite all the venom and speculation that’s been circulating around here lately, trust me, it’ll be a good time that all of you should come out and experience. Don’t believe the hype, people.
So for this weekend, I’m putting all my stock into one show that’s happening in Lawrence Saturday night. It’s a Toys for Tots benefit. It’ll feature some truly kick ass performances from a couple local bands and a couple of former local bands that now take up shop in the Windy City and are likely about to bust through to the national scene.
If you’re a hipster (and I know that most of you reading this are) it’ll be a must see.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s some good local and smaller acts playing around this weekend, but if you have to focus your energies somewhere, focus them in Lawrence at the Bottleneck this Saturday, and bring your ugly holiday best…
Donnelly: Greaser Alert; Brian Setzer Rolling into the Uptown This Wednesday
Something wicked this way comes…
Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot! rolls into town this Wednesday night at the Uptown. 
The show is a general admission on the floor, seated balcony show.
Setzer is the guy, formerly of The Stray Cats of the rockabilly revival pompadour and everything, who converted to swing, and now is playing a mix of both, also with a bit of jazz thrown in. He’s just been nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Album for his solo album Setzer Goes instru-MENTAL! so you can expect some of that as well.
So if you have that leopard print sport coat that you can only wear like five times a year, now is your chance Hearne…
Hearne: Win Second Row Seats to Brian Setzer @ The Uptown Wednesday
Here’s the deal…
KC Confidential is looking for a few good stories about former Stray Cats front man Brian Setzer. And we’ve got a pair of second row seats to tomorrow night’s show at the Uptown Theater for the best one.
Hey, and it’s wide open.
From memories of the Stray Cats show at Memorial Hall from a million years ago to Setzer’s big band holiday blowout at the Uptown. It’s pretty murky now, but local entertainment sources remember Setzer being involved with former Westport watering hole / concert club Guitars & Cadillacs. And that he was married at one point to a Kansas City girl.
Weigh in with your Setzer flashback in the comments section or to hearne@kcconfidential and win a pair of second row seats to Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot at the Uptown tomorrow night!
Donnelly: Wilco @ The Uptown Theater, December 3, 2011
“Tonight we’ve got a little something for everyone,” declared Jeff Tweedy midway through Wilco’s sold out Saturday night show at the Uptown Theater. “Merry Christmas!”
He wasn’t kidding.
Wilco’s set list was probably the most unpredictable in all the dozen or so times I’ve seen this band over the years. No Jesus, Etc., no I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, and no Handshake Drugs.
Instead, the band hopped around their discography, with an emphasis, of course,on their newest effort, The Whole Love.
Pretty much everyone agrees that Wilco’s most recent three albums are not as good as the two that came before – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born.
