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Bluesweek 2012

By on May 17, 2012 in Events, Featured, Music Scene, St. Louis City

When you think music in St. Louis, you immediately think Blues. For the next 9 days we are going to celebrate that very music that makes our city, with the 3rd annual Bluesweek festivities, from May 19 through May 27.

Festivities kick off with the Crown Royal Soulard Blues Cruise on Saturday, May 19th from 9:00pm – 1:00am. This event includes 9 Soulard hot spots that are hosting some of the best musicians in the St. Louis area.  You can buy your $10 wristband (cash only) at any of the participating venues listed below.  You must be 21 and the shuttles will be running every 20 minutes between locations.

Soulard venues include: 1860′s Saloon, Hammerstone’s, The Old Rock House, Joanie’s Pizzeria, Great Grizzly Bear, Nadine’s Gin Joint, The Shanti, Johnny’s, and BB’s Jazz, Blues, & Soups. Check the link above for the great musicians performing.

 

All-star Blues Brunch

When: Sunday, May 20th

Location: The Great Grizzly Bear

Time: 10:00am – 2:00pm

Admission: $15 at the door includes brunch and an all-star jam session.  Make sure to come early and get your spot!

 

Pearl Vodka St. Louis Blues Awards – This event gives recognition to St. Louis musicians who have made an impact in St. Louis with their contribution to the Blues community.

Date: Thursday, May 24th

Location: BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups

Time: 7:30 Cocktails – 8:30 Awards – 9:30 Annie Raines, Rich McDonough, & Rough Grooves

Cost: $5 with 2 complimentary beverages and light appetizers

 

Now for another fun-filled Blues weekend!  The Mid America Chevy Dealers’ Bluesweek Festival.  The festival will host 40+ bands and tons of food and drink! Make sure to bring a chair and/or blanket, sunscreen, sunglasses, and a good attitude with a hunger for some great Blues, Brews, and BBQ! Click here for a full schedule of music.

Dates: May 25-27

Location; Soldiers Memorial (12th & Market)

Friday: 4:30pm – 11:00pm

Saturday: 11:00am – 11:00pm

Sunday: 11:00am – 11:00pm

Cost: Free for all ages!

Stages: 14th & Chestnut, Clear Showcase Stage (between Chestnut & Market), and 13th & Pine Stage – see site map below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also each day, the U.S. Cellular Kids Blues Shack will be hosting a fun area for kids from 11:00 – 6:00pm. All activities are free.

Click here for Metrolink schedules

What a great way to spend Memorial Day weekend – and good news, hopefully you get a day off on Monday for recovery :)

Brought to you by Mills Properties
When you get a chance also check out the National Blues Museum that will be right here in St. Louis!
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MayFest St. Louis

By on May 16, 2012 in Events, Music Scene, St. Louis City, The Weekender

Let the music festivals Begin!  This weekend kicks off the start of the awesome outdoor Summer festivals that St. Louis is well known for, with MayFest, a 3 day music festival in downtown’s BallPark Village next to Busch Stadium, including art exhibits, food trucks and….a crawfish and shrimp boil!

Oh, and by the way, tickets are only $5!

So here’s the low down:

When:  Friday, May 18 – Sunday, May 20

Times: 4 to 11:30pm on Friday

The festival kicks off with a special Friday Happy Hour starting at 4pm with Dr Zhivegas performing from 5 to 6:30pm. Additionally, there will be food trucks, and a cocktail station with mojitos, margaritas, sangria and other delicious adult beverages. You can also purchase tickets for the Electric Lot Party Tent for $15, where, from 6-11pm, you will experience performances from international DJs including: DJ Z-Trip, Matt Darey, Cypher and Mister Mac

11am to 11:30pm on Saturday: A whole day of music including some great classic rock legends, delicious festival food like turkey legs and brats along with a Louisiana style crawfish and shrimp boil, and other delicious Cajun food from Molly’s in Soulard, entertainment from Belle of the Ball Amy Palmer, and other fun vendor exhibits like: jewelry from Bellestyle Bijoux, vintage clothing from Miss Ohio Vintage and more!

Music Schedule:
12pm-1pm: Radio Rich & the Classics Band
1:30-2:30pm: Javier Mendoza
2:50-3:50pm: Superjam
4:15-5:15pm: Low Maintenance Folkies
5:45-6:45: Steve Ewing (from The Urge) Band

Foghat from 7:15-8:30pm

WAR from 9-10:30pm

12:00pm to 10:00pm on Sunday: A full day of rock tribute bands! along with all of the delicious foods, drinks and art exhibits.

Music Schedule:
1-2:15pm: 4 & 20, a Crosby, Still, Nash & Young tribute band
2:45-4pm: Seven Bridges Road, an Eagles tribute band
4:30-5:45pm: Silver Bullet Band, a Bob Seger tribute band
6:15-7:30pm: Houses of the Holy, a Led Zeppelin tribute band
8-9:30pm: Stone in Love, a Journey tribute band!

 

Cost: $5 for general admission or you can purchase a VIP Ticket for $60 which gets you unlimited beer and cocktails, unlimited Creole buffet, VIP parking and VIP seating in front of the main stage

What to bring: A blanket or lawn chair and cool, comfortable clothes (it’s supposed to be in the high 80s this weekend)

What not to bring: A cooler, outside food or drinks, pets, bicycles or skateboards, and anything that would generally not be accepted in a public venue.

If you’re like me and you don’t have any friends who are excited about going, but you want to go, join me while also supporting a great cause by volunteering to serve beer with What’s Up Magazine on Saturday from 10am to 5 pm or 5pm to 10pm. If they get enough volunteers, they can raise over $2,000 for their organization, which helps homeless and economically disadvantaged people by offering transitional employment. E-mail volunteer@whatsupstl.com or let them know on their Whats Up Magazine Facebook page.

 

Brought to you by Mills Properties

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Cinco de Mayo in St. Louis

By on May 2, 2012 in Events, Featured, Good Eats, Music Scene, St. Louis City, The Weekender

Yay! Another holiday! You know us St. Louisans love having an excuse to celebrate so I’ve put together a list of all the fun Cinco de Mayo celebrations happening this Saturday!

#1. Of course, is the Cinco de Mayo on Cherokee Street Festival. An all day festival (11am-9:30pm) that offers handmade art, live entertainment from over 10 bands with traditional Mexican performances as well as a variety of local St. Louis bands, plus fun street performers and 2 DJs, delicious food from local restaurants, drinks galore including the all favorite, margarrritas! and of course, it wouldn’t be a festival without a parade! The People’s Joy Parade will start at the corner of Minnesota and Cherokee at 1:11pm and end on Texas. It includes everything from floats to colorfully painted cars, Gigante puppeteers, Elvis impersonators, literally everything! It’s a must see!

#2. The street festival on Washington Ave in downtown St. Louis hosted by Rosalita’s. There will be delicious food (of course!), live music, and door prizes. The fiesta starts at 11am and goes until the bars close…if you make it that long.

#3. Wave Taco is hosting a Cinco de Mayo Beer Bash, basically an all day (11am-6pm) sand volleyball tournament/drinking marathon. You can join a team and the team cost is $180, which includes Bud Light draft beer all day and a buffet from 1-3pm. If you want to just come to watch the festivities, you can pay $25 to hang out, drink beer, and cheer on your favorite teams.

#4. Catch 22 Gastrolounge in downtown Belleville, IL is hosting a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta from 1pm to 10pm. They will be featuring a special Mexican cuisine including a Rum Chata Cheesecake! and Crown Valley Brewery will brew an exclusive Lobo Blanco craft beer just for the event, among others. If you register in advance, you will also receive a CrownValley souvenir glass to take home to remember the special occasion.

#5. Hacienda Mexican Restaurant in Maplewood will be hosting their traditional Mexican fiesta with live music from 3 different bands, their amazing Mexican cuisine, drink tents, a photo booth, prize giveaways, and they have the coolest outdoor patio I’ve ever seen! The party goes from 10am-11pm and they’re providing a free local shuttle.

#6. The Eagan Civic Center in Florissant will host the Cinco de Mayo Village celebration at the Valley of Flowers Festival this Friday and Saturday. Saturday, beginning at 10am, there will be crafts,  delicious Latin food and drinks, and live music and dancing including the merengue and salsa. And since the Valley of Flowers Festival will also be happening, there will be a parade, rides, activity booths, and much more.

#7. Diablito’s Cantina on Laclede Ave, home of the largest tequila selection in the city, is hosting their First Annual Cinco de Mayo Celebration. It’s a 2 day fiesta that begins at 11am on Friday and then again at 9am on Saturday, May 5th. Get there at 9am on Saturday for the tequila sunrise broadcast, breakfast tacos and morning tequila cocktails. The rest of the day will include drink specials, taco carts, games, contests, live music, and a special appearance by Lux from 105.7 The Point.

#8. Cinco de Mayo Tent party at The Babylon in Cottleville near Mid Rivers Mall. 6 bands for $5; Wyld Stallyns, Plastic, Bad Habit, Contagious, Bitter Pill, and Extremely Pointless. Party starts at 1:00pm.

#9: Cinco de Mayo Alton Block Party. From 4 to 10pm, there will be great Mexican food and drink specials, authentic Mexican music, and street performers in downtown Alton on 3rd Street, and then Whiskey Dixon plays at Mac’s Time Out at 6:30pm! This is a free event.

If by chance you live in or will be visiting Columbia, MO this weekend, here’s a great festival to attend: Cinco de Mayo at El Harpo’s. The first 200 people through the doors receive sweet prizes like shot glasses, sombreros and t-shirts. The party starts at 2pm so don’t be late. There will also be live music and great drink specials.

So much going on, only 2 more days to decide. Good luck! And enjoy the festivities (and margaritas) no matter what you decide!

 

Brought to you by Mills Properties
Photos courtesy of eastcountymagazine, wave-taco and rft
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Great Country Music Reality Show Performances

By on May 1, 2012 in Events, Movies, Music Scene, Pop Culture

I got a text yesterday that today was my day to post something intelligent that people outside my immediate family would be excited to read. I haven’t been in a store when it got held up at gunpoint lately, so unless I wanted to go looking for danger, I realized that I probably wasn’t going to come up with anything ground-breaking. When I get bored or want to procrastinate, I often get lost in watching old American Idol or Voice auditions and performances.

While I didn’t think a ton of people would really be excited to read that, I reckoned that it would be fun for me at least to get all these videos in one place so I could go back and click on the links the next time I wanted to impress a lady with my vast knowledge of singing competitions.

Then I saw a tweet coming back from work yesterday from a friend in Nashville, who runs ExperienceNash.com, linking to something Eric Church said that appeared to ruffle some feathers. Mr. Church went on a little rant to Rolling Stone that seemed to indicate he wasn’t a fan of reality singing competitions. Actually, it said pretty much exactly that and more.

I can understand where Eric is coming from on two fronts: 1) He is already positioning himself as a rebel. Might as well push that more and appeal to that audience. 2) I’d kinda be pissed too, like if I was Brantley Gilbert and lost to Scotty McCreery for ‘Best New Artist’ at the recent ACM Awards. Gilbert wrote “My Kinda Party” and “Dirt Road Anthem” for Jason Aldean and released “Country Must Be Country Wide” himself. McCreery did a great job on Idol, but really?

Eric issued an apology last night. It fit right in line with Point #2. Some artists that got their start in these competitions totally enjoy their fame. With that I mean folks like Miranda and Carrie. Artists that come out of these things shouldn’t just be ordained the next Garth, George or Reba right off the bat though.

Without further adeau, here are some of my favorite country performances from The Voice, American Idol and Nashville Star.

While we are already off the beaten path with that one, check out this amazing cover of ‘Rolling in the Deep” by David Cook, the Kansas City boy who won Season 7 of Idol

There have been some great country performances this season between Idol and The Voice too:

In doing research for this, I ran across video from Skylar Laine, who is on this season of Idol. This girl alone will get me to watch the show.  A great voice. It’s too bad she’s only 18 or I’d be more smitten with her than I was with Nicolle Gaylon after watching this. Check out her version of “Born This Way”.  It’s like Lady Miranda or something.

Also check her out on “Gunpowder and Lead” and “Tattoos on this Town”

This post really wouldn’t be complete without audition videos.  Check out Lauren Alaina, Scotty McCreery, Kellie Pickler and possibly the biggest success story from this genre, Carrie Underwood.

Did I miss some? Are these awful and I actually have no musical taste whatsoever?

Post brought to you by Mills Properties
Logo courtesy of RealityWanted.com
Cover photo courtesy of Wetpaint.com
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2012 St. Louis Concerts

By on April 20, 2012 in Events, Featured, Music Scene, The Weekender

Beginning this weekend, there are some amazing artists on tour, so start saving your money because it’s going to be an exciting year for music in St. Louis!

This weekend an exciting new artist who has really been blowing up the country music scene, Eric Church, will be here. He’ll be at the Chafeitz Arena tonight on his Blood, Sweat and Beers tour with special guests Brantley Gilbert and Blackberry Smoke. The show starts at 7:30pm.

That’s just the beginning. Our St. Louis concert venues will be overflowing with great musical talents this year, including:

Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

It seems to be the hotspot for country concerts this Summer. Bandana’s has put together a Country Megaticket, one ticket that gives you access to six country shows playing at the Verizon Amphitheater this season. The ticket starts at $125 for lawn seats and includes:

On Fire Tour-photo courtesy of my cousin

Friday, May 18 at 7:30pm – Brad Paisley w/ The Band Perry and Scotty McCreery
Saturday, June 16 at 7:30pm – The Miranda Lambert On Fire Tour w/ Chris Young and Jerrod Neimann
Friday, June 29 at 7:00pm – The Lady Antebellum Own The Night Tour w/ Darius Rucker and Thompson Square
Friday, July 27 at 7:00pm – Rascal Flatts w/ Little Big Town and the Eli Young Band
Saturday, September 1 – Toby Keith’s Live in Overdrive Tour w/ Brantley Gilbert
Friday, September 14 – Jason Aldean w/ Luke Bryan

 

Aside from the country concerts, the VWA will also host:

Friday, June 22 at 7:00pm – The Midwest Rock-n-Roll Express Tour w/ REO Speedwagon, Styx and Ted Nugent
Tuesday, July 10 at 6:30pm – 311 and Slightly Stoopid
Wednesday, July 11 at 7:00pm – The Dave Matthews Band
Wednesday, August 1 at 7:00pm – Zac Brown Band
Monday, August 27 at 7:00pm – Kiss and Motley Crue
Tuesday, September 11 at 7:30pm – The Tour is a Four Letter Word Jason Mraz Tour

 

Chafeitz Arena Concerts:
Friday, April 27 at 8:00pm – The Black Keys w/ Arctic Monkeys
Saturday, August 25 at 7:00pm – Def Leopard and Poison Rock of Ages Tour. Tickets go on sale today!
Tuesday, August 28 at 7:30pm – Phish. Tickets go on sale Saturday, April 28

 

Scottrade Center Concerts:
Sunday, April 29 at 7:30pm – Van Halen
Friday, May 25 at 8:00pm – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Tuesday, May 29 at 6:00pm – Nickelback w/ Bush, Seether and My Dakest Days
November 1 – Madonna

 

Other great concerts at: The Pageant, Peabody, Pop’s and The Fox
Thursday, May 10 at 8:00pm at The Pageant – Hunter Hayes
Saturday, May 12 at 8:00pm at The Pageant – Billy Currington
Wednesday, May 16 at 7:30pm at The Peabody – Daughtry
Friday, May 25 at 7:00pm at Pop’s – Snoop Dogg
Tuesday, June 5 at 8:00pm at The Fox – Sting
Sunday, June 24 at 7:00pm at The Peabody – Colbie Caillat and Gavin DeGraw
Sunday, July 29 at 7:oopm – Train
Tuesday, July 31 at 8:00pm at The Fox – Seal
Thursday, August 2 at 7:30pm at The Fox – Crosby, Stills and Nash

 

Of course you can’t see them all…unless of course you’re a recent lottery winner (in which case, I’d be happy to be your 2012 concert buddy).

 

Brought to you by Mills Properties
Photo courtesy of Reviewstl.com
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You Should Probably Be Watching “The Voice”

By on March 7, 2012 in Events, Featured, Music Scene, Pop Culture

I would say NBC’s “The Voice” is my guilty pleasure, but when you own both a “Rent” and “Footloose” poster, you can’t really have guilty pleasures anymore as a guy. I know pretty much nothing about music other than I like country. I could do a post about who I think will win season 2, but that would be like me writing a restaurant review and expecting you to see me as a food critic. Instead, I will just type words of praise and random knowledge while also embedding videos of people from this season.

Adley Stump: Cute sorority girl from Oklahoma State?  I was hooked.  It’s too bad she lost in the Battle Round to Rae Lynn.  I was hoping to see her knock out some Miranda Lambert later in the show, but here’s a video of her “gettin’ down”. Because I wish I was still at Mizzou and because I think this may have been the moment that encouraged her to try signing, here’s a sweet Adley video.  It’s a skit that her Pi Beta Phi girls performed with Alpha Gamma Rho at Oklahoma State.  She comes on at the 2:20 mark. She’s only singing for a minute or so, but if you have the time, the rest of the video was enjoyable for me also.

Angie Johnson: Local lady who first came to fame with her military band, Sidewinder, singing “Rolling In The Deep”. Also eliminated in the Battle Round unfortunately.

Nicolle Galyon: I think I am in love. Her audition was great and her little brother was even cooler in it. In doing sufficient internet stalking, I found out that she is a fairly successful song writer in Nashville.  She wrote two of the songs on the debut cd for Lauren Alaina, the American Idol runner-up from last year and Josh Kelley cut one of hers as well. Funny story is her and Raelynn, who I mentioned earlier, are great friends.  Here’s their story. . . in a rap:

Pip: I thought he looked familiar.  He tried out for “The Glee Project” on Oxygen last year which I got sucked into.  He made the Top 25, but got the boot in the first episode. Here he is a little awkward in a cover video he made:

Jamie Lono: The guy probably makes an excellent sandwich, but his rendition of Folsom Prison Blues was the bomb.com. Here he is playing the Garth Brooks’ classic from Hope Floats “To Make You Feel My Love”

Mathai: The first couple notes, I thought she reminded me of Xenia from last season. I think Mathai could have some really fun performances if she goes far. Check out this cover she did. Mainly notice the whistling dude.

Charlotte Sometimes wins for Best Name. Erin Martin has a crazy voice. It’ll be cool to see what she can do with other songs. James Massone has a cool story, but I don’t think he will get past the Battle Round.

What are your thoughts?

Remember to catch “The Voice” on Mondays at 7pm

Post brought to you by Mills Properties

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