07.21.2011– Kansas City, Kan.– Kanrocksas Music Festival presented by Samsung with Sprint officially announces the following set times for the first major music event in Kansas City that is transforming Kansas Speedway® as host of the inaugural large two-day festival. The schedule includes the only remaining North American opportunity to see Eminem in 2011 on day one, Friday, August 5, with recent news that the only other two venues the artist is playing are sold out. Day two brings MUSE as the headliner on Saturday, August...

The odds of someone using words like “low-energy,” “boring” or “unenthusiastic” when describing a Reel Big Fish concert seem about as likely Meryl Streep never getting an Oscar nomination again. After years of performing it would make sense for their routine to feel a bit lackluster or stale, but Monday night at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City was anything but. Celebrating their 20th anniversary on this current tour, they were as kinetic, entertaining, and upbeat as ever. A Reel Big Fish show is genuinely a group...

 Usually when I go to a show I find myself avidly observing. I’m always watching for the tiny moments. Moments like when two members of a band glance at one another before they do something tricky with a song. Or bashful winces as tiny errors are made that no one else notices but the musician himself. Even a brief dance that could only happen if the “dancer” is genuinely lost in the song make each concert-going experience a little bit richer for me. I like the inside jokes and smiles. I like catching the non-singing band...

A team of six players, called Quiet Corral, took the Riot Room stage on Friday night. While their first song was observed with a meager audience by their final number they had attracted a crowded bar focused intently on the stage. The audience swayed to every melody introduced and there were even a handful of over-enthusiasts who danced, sometimes interpretively, throughout the entirety of their set.  No small feat for an opening band hailing from Lawrence, Kansas. This enthusiasm from the audience could only be explained due...

Florence and the Machine is an act that I have been passionately following for a long time now, and was beginning to think I would never be able to see her live as she is from the UK. The opportunity finally came inside the beautiful theater, The Pageant in St. Louis. Opening for Florence was a young man named Hanni El Khatib from Los Angeles. He only brought drummer, Nicky Fleming-Yaryan with him, so the musical arrangement was vastly different than Florence. My first thought of Hanni was that this was the wrong place for him....

On the drive to Bonner Springs Ks, the weather seemed to be setting up for a perfect day. Cloudy gray sky, the chance for a few sprinkles, and a temperature around 85. The staff at Sandstone must have felt the same way as I was told to throw my sealed bottle of water away before entering the venue, being as a patron died at last year’s Warped Tour I was a little shocked. The weather situation quickly turned from chance of rain to the fiery pits of Hell, but it wouldn’t be Warped Tour if it was any other way. Sweaty...

Hanni El Khatib will be opening for Florence and the Machine tonight in St. Louis. El Khatib is of Palestinian and Filipino descent. He grew up in San Francisco, and now lives in Los Angeles. He has released two singles on Innovative Leisure, a subsidiary of Stones Throw Records. His debut album, Will the Guns Come Out, is scheduled to be released in 2011. El Khatib’s musical style includes elements of garage rock, blues, and doo-wop. He describes his songs as being for anyone who has been shot or hit by a train. During...

06.29.2011– Kansas City, Kan.– The inaugural Kanrocksas Music Festival is reaching out to local musicians and giving them the chance of a lifetime with Wild Bill’s Local Music Showcase, a music competition giving local bands and deejays the chance to compete for the opportunity to perform at the Kanrocksas Music Festival. Local bands and deejays will perform at Wild Bill’s Steakhouse and Saloon located in Legends Outlets Kansas City every Friday and Saturday in July for the opportunity to share the stage with...

What a great show at the Bottleneck. The place was packed and hot as hell! Foster the People has been well-known for their song, “Pumped Up Kicks” for more than a few months now, but I fell in love with them with their live performance in Austin for SXSW this year. Sure, “Pumped Up Kicks” is a kitschy, ironic fun song, but it didn’t have that special something to make me hit replay ten times in a row. The rest of their songs, however, are another story. As for The Chain Gang of 1974, well they were a surprise accident...

When I think about Panic! at the Disco I can’t help but be reminded of Matthew McConaughey and his role in Dazed and Confused. Because as the years go on, Panic! may get older but the girls stay the same age. Their enthusiasm for the band has remained the same as well, in fact I find it hard to remember the last time I encountered such an excited crowd. I have to admit it’s a little disheartening to see just how jaded some of shows in Kansas City have become. It’s nice to see that there is a crowd in Kansas City that...

The Sleigh Bells show was intended as a makeup show although by the end of the night, most wouldn’t have thought of it as any less than a full-size concert with music turned up to eleven, guaranteeing to leave your ears ringing. Opening for Sleigh Bells was Neon Indian, hailing from New York. The synth-pop band played a luxurious set to a nearly full Midland. I was impressed by their colorful set and how well they played off the gorgeous, indie-hipster crowd. I had been listening to their albums, Psychic Chasms and Mind...

When going to see a band that produces lyrics as pensive and contemplative as those found in “Sometime Around Midnight” or “All I Ever Wanted” one could expect to sit around for two hours listening to mid tempo songs about sadness and depression. Then at the shows’ conclusion all could leave the venue, ready to wallow in their own self pity for the remainder of the weekend. I mean, The Airborne Toxic Event’s name in itself evokes dismay and doom (its origins being from the Dom DeLillo’s novel White Noise only further...

The remaining acts for the two day Kanrocksas music festival have been announced and single day tickets are now available. All the information can be found in the press release below along with an image of the festival lay out. 05.24.2011– Kansas City, Kan. – Kanrocksas Music Festival organizers Brandmeyer Fritz Festivals (BFF), with Mammoth Productions announce the remaining acts for the inaugural two-day Kanrocksas Music Festival which include headliners Eminem and MUSE. Organizers anticipate more additions...

The sheer number of instruments that graced the undersized stage of The Record Bar, in Kansas City, on Sunday night was enough to fill the pit of a small orchestra. In fact, as the doors were opening, it was feasible that there were more instruments on stage than there were members of the audience. Luckily, this was a fleeting reality and the night commenced with a decent turnout for what ended up being a lovely, if somewhat somber evening with Other Lives. Influenced by innumerous genres and periods of music, this five piece...

According to urbandictionary.com the definition of punk is as follows, “A guy walks up to me and asks ‘What’s Punk?’. So I kick over a garbage can and say ‘That’s punk!’. So he kicks over the garbage can and says ‘That’s Punk?’, and I say ‘No that’s trendy!” While the definition will surely not be adopted by Webster anytime soon, it seems to be pretty dead on in its authenticity of what makes punk “punk”.  I’m still not entirely sure where Rise Against...