Buked and Scorned at Open Spaces

Partly because an obscenely large portion of my 2019 budget is dedicated to musical tourism, I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the fallout from the Kansas City Jazz & Heritage Festival (2017) and the Open Spaces festival (2018).  Both city-sponsored, artistically-thrilling endeavors were financial debacles.  An otherwise fascinating new article in The Pitch buries the lede.  Emily Park reports that “only 4,000 tickets were collected” for the three concerts at Starlight Theatre promoted by Open Spaces as The Weekend.  Just 4,000 of the cumulative 24,000 tickets that were available for concerts at Starlight Theatre headlined by the Roots, Janelle Monaé and Vijay Iyer were sold.  Even if all three concerts were condensed into a single show, paying customers would have filled only half of the 8,000-capacity Starlight Theatre.  Sometimes I hate being right.  As I predicted at the time (including on a segment of KCUR’s Up To Date program dedicated to the topic), the attendance figures for the most recent area concerts by the Roots (1,200), Monaé (2,000) and Iyer (200) indicated that trouble was brewing.  I was roundly ‘buked and scorned for forecasting the easily calculable outcome.  In an ongoing effort to fill the artistic void in Kansas City caused by the disaster, I’m currently planning my third music-oriented trip of 2019.


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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I reviewed an appearance by Ryan Keberle & Catharsis at the National World War I Museum and Memorial at Plastic Sax.

(Original image of a woefully attended Open Spaces performances by There Stands the Glass.)

Here in BFE

Many of my friends and neighbors are committed to propagating the narrative that our town is an overlooked cosmopolitan utopia.  My social media feeds are regularly clogged with links to clickbait stories hyping Kansas City as a bastion of sophistication.  The desperate boosterism of my peers makes them look like self-conscious hayseeds. 

I don’t attempt to hide the dirt under my fingernails.  I’m just as comfortable in the empty plains of central Kansas as I am in a Kansas City jazz club.  That’s why I regret omitting an earworm that reflects my roots from my year-end list only because it was released in November of 2017.  Not only does Morgan Wallen’s “Up Down” hit home, it’s an indelible anthem for flyover country.  (Sadly, the video misses the point.) 

A pair of clips I posted to Instagram this year reflect the cold, hard facts about my town.  I was in the front row for a headlining concert by the Vijay Iyer Sextet at the Open Spaces festival.  Only a few dozen people were in the room.  Open Spaces presentations by Lonnie Holley and Bang On a Can also resembled private salon concerts.  The bacchanal atmosphere I documented amid a massive throng at a Kenny Chesney concert at Arrowhead Stadium demonstrates what actually flies in Kansas City. 

As Waller insists in “Up Down,” “we got what we got, we don't need the rest.”  And that’s good enough for me here in BFE.


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My most recent concert previews for The Kansas City Star are here and here.

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I reviewed a new album by Greg Carroll and Michael Pagán at Plastic Sax.

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Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks has died.  Singles Going Steady turned my world upside down in 1980.  I last saw the band perform at Warped Tour in 2006.

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The Memphis saxophonist Ace Cannon has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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The Chicago bluesman Jody Williams has died.

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The jazz musician and actor Roger Burton has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

They Wasn't Satisfied Unless I Picked the Cotton Myself

The ire directed at Kanye West following his loopy BBC interview annoys me.  West's eccentricities fuel his musical brilliance.  I've grown even more enamored of Yeezus since I raved about the album in June.  Besides, West's outlandish persona is nothing new.  I recently watched Soul Power, the fascinating documentary about the concert in Zaire that coincided with the so-called Rumble in the Jungle.  The film includes many provocative statements by Don King, Muhammad Ali and James Brown.  West is clearly in the same linage of great Americans.  "New Slaves" indeed.

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My favorite bands at Buzz Beach Ball were Kitten, Daughter and Hanni El Khatib.  Here's my review.

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The money line from Forbes' profile of the Strange Music empire- "merchandise, which totals roughly $6.1 million annually; music, which brings in about $6.5 million; and touring, which adds closer to $7 million."  (Link via Tony's Kansas City.)

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A promotional video for the lowercase kansas hip hop showcase is interesting.

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Here's the video for Ces Cru's "Seven Chakras"

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"Romance Dawn" is Radkey's latest video.

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Henry Gray and Barbara Carr are the artists I'd most like to see at the 16th Blues Masters at the Crossroads concerts in Salina.  (Link via BGO.)

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One-woman band Coldbeat one-ups bands like Best Coast in the dream/garage/pop sweepstakes.  I'm smitten by "Worms".

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Vijay Iyer was awarded a MacArthur genius grant.

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Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi's Tiny Desk Concert is extraordinary. RIYL: Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, grace, John Lee Hooker.

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I'm infatuated with Las Kellies. The Argentine trio may be a glorious mess live, but the new album Total Exposure recalls Fine Young Cannibals, the Human League and Culture Club.

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Moby openly confesses his love of Yes in his "What's In My Bag?" segment.  I appreciate his candor.

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This week's new releases of particular interest to There Stands the Glass include John Abercrombie, Blind Boys of Alabama, Blitzen Trapper, Anna Calvi, Deltron 3030, Jeremy Denk, Dr. Dog, Elf Power, Johnny Flynn, Haim, Hank 3, K-Ci & Jojo, Lorde, Moby, Nelly, Quasi, Charlie Robison, Justin Timberlake and Randy Travis.

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Christmas is coming. The goose is getting fat.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.  And here's a promising late booking- Krystle Warren will perform Sunday at the KC Live stage in the Power & Light district.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)