KCRag Forum

chrizow wrote: not really, but my fiancee and i have been talking a lot recently about how boring kansas city is.  we rack our brains trying to think of somewhere good to hang out - good food and/or good atmosphere and/or good music.  we don't even go out that much, but when we feel like it, we can't think of anywhere to go.  even places we tend to like aren't really cutting it.  

kc has plenty of half-assed "nice" places and more than enough VFW-hall esque dives, but there are woefully few places that just feel "good" to hang out in.  as far as i can tell, no place plays good music.  we've found ourselves wanting to go to lawrence (for shame!) just to go to a place with a nice feeling.  we spent three hours in a nearly-empty 8th st. taproom on a monday night just because it felt good to be in a lived-in place with some nice records being played (by the bartender no less).  

these feelings come and go, but we're definitely in a burned-out, "kc sucks" mentality right now.  the weather isn't helping.

dangerboy wrote: chrizow, your complaints are common among scenesters who have exhausted a scene.  like locusts, after consuming one field you have to move on and start fresh.

mean wrote: Can't disagree with that. Starting shows at 11 or 12 is kind of silly. Not sure why that is the standard.

trailerkid wrote: wow. i think lawrence is pretty depressing and beyond vanilla. there are the same people in the same bars playing the same music since 2001-- my idea of hell would be organizing around that lifestyle. do you think you'd be happy living in columbia? i doubt it.

trailerkid wrote: it sounds like you just want brooklyn. NOT authentic.

mean wrote: What's wrong with actual live music? KC has a wealth of great rock, indie, punk, pop, folk, jazz, blues, and country bands... but nobody goes to see them, apparently because they aren't in Pitchfork or NME or whatever.

chingon wrote: I have big long fits of kc sucks, punctuated by short, ecstatic (and frankly inexplicable) rapturous weeks when I really get it.

Strangely, (or not, given my proclivities) one of the things I like best about KC is its bars. For better, or worse, this is a drinker's town. It is the primary form of entertainment for young and old alike here, and I think the wealth of bars we have is a real stong suit in a town that kind of specializes in mediocrity. Especially our low key, drink drinkers bars. Places people don't go to hook up in, places people go to get drunk in. I dig that. Baker's/Twin Cities/Chez Charlie's (pre-art student days, RIP) type bars. I was at the Tap Room in Lawrence recently, a bar I dearly loved when I lived there, and I was reminded how FUCKING TERRIBLE the music there is and how terrible its always been. What sounded like the exact same bullshit lo-fi records, the same onanistic free jazz record and the same (admittedly awesome) obsure-but-accessibe (4/4 time) northern soul record played as the last time I was there, ca. 2005. Its one of those things my brain had sort of glossed over.

Reading your post, I was sort of struck by the fact that bad music is almost a feature of a good bar to me. It keeps out the people who ruin good bars. I can't imagine my life in bars without it. The Grassroots on the Lower East Side had some of the worst early-stage Williamsburg-revival music the last time I was there, my favorite bar in Philly - whose name I've never known - has had buttrock or progrock blasting unironically from its jukebox the 4 times in my life I've been there (last time, ELO, Rush and other unidentifiable aural abortions played for the five hours I spent there). But I once heard the barmaid begin a sentence with the phrase "Irregardless of no matter what..." They don't make music that good.

Baker's is my favorite bar in this city and I cringe every time some 30-something Waldo mom sidles up to it and begins laying down her favorite tracks while the babysitter lays her kids to sleep 3 blocks away. But really, bad music is like part of the other bad bar goodness to me, like the dust-covered kitschy knick-knacks or the little roll in the carpet that people trip over coming in or the bartender who opens your beerbottle with his prosthetic hook-hand (actually seen it).

But maybe I've just lived here too long and have to forgive this city and its little peccadillos in order to forgive myself for never leaving. A philosophy, by the by, that I would suggest is the better part lasting love, between people and between them and their places.

nota wrote: but....we've got the golf clubs packed and off to Hawaii in a few days. 

chrizow wrote:i'd love to know more about the local scene, as what i've seen i've been pretty meh about.  the only kc band whose music i actually seek out and purchase is Expo 70.  

LenexatoKCMO wrote: See you there - we leave first thing in the morning. 

LenexatoKCMO wrote: Ah west shore of Maui for us - looks to be 82 or so the whole time.  Nothing like going through an 80 degree temperature shift in a single day.   :lol:

So long suckas - enjoy your driveway shoveling.   :P 

mean wrote: Perhaps ironically, places like Davey's DO have matinee shows in the 8-9pm timeframe. They're just reserved for touring bands with a big draw. Local bands, regardless of how good they are, get stuck playing between 11 and 2 because nobody cares or comes to see them. It's not that people here don't have taste in music, it's that KC doesn't believe in its own scene, particularly the indie rock, pop, and punk scenes. It's like people who live here assume that if it's from KC it is crap, but man, if it's from Arkansas or Nebraska it is AWESOME! I don't get it.

AllThingsKC wrote: KCMO wouldn't be as boring if they would plow their streets!   If KCMO would plow its streets, it would be on par with Denver, MLPS, Chicago, or NYC.

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I have big long fits of kc sucks, punctuated by short, ecstatic (and frankly inexplicable) rapturous weeks when I really get it...