Live Music and St. Louis

We spend a lot of our time here at the St. Lou Jew trying to figure what to get into next. A lot of it is music, and while St. Louis has a great music legacy, St. Louis of today isn't known for being a thriving music community. Truth is, though, that if you are prepared to dive in, you'll find a rich subculture of accessible and talented musicians.

Our story starts at the Broadway Oyster Bar, a personal favorite of mine, and St. Louis Luminary Ron Gubitz. Located downtown on Broadway, the Oyster Bar prides itself on New Orleans music, food, and culture. It is home to Gumbohead and the Funky Butt Brass Band, two of the most fun NOLA style groups in the city, and Friday night, hosted a new band called Hot Carl and the Cleveland Steamers (they joked that if they add a horn section, they'll have to call it the Rusty Trombones).

Speaking with Bassist, and KDHX engineer Andy Coco after the show, I got an invite to his musicians' holiday pot-luck and jam session. A sort of mini-Mecca for a lot of the guys who 'really play music' in St. Louis, the event was a sort of dream-come-true for any fan like myself. Members of all of the aforementioned bands, plus the Dogtown Allstars, Team Relevance, and others were all present. The jam session was amazing, with every musician taking a turn, and others grabbing cowbells, shakers, and other odds and ends to fill out the sound.

The ambiance was amazing. To have so many talented and experienced musicians and their fans in one place was unbelievable. And it needs to happen more frequently.

But say you don't happen to know any of the local artists. . . where do you start?

There are a number of smaller local venues that host great music. A few to start with, other than the Oyster Bar, are (in no particular order): Beale on Broadway, BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, The Gramophone, The FireBird, The Old Rock House, Off Broadway, and The Wedge.

The Riverfront Times is a decent place to hear about local music, but what the city really needs is someone with the knowledge and passion to create a site that will keep shows up to date and help people find out more information about artists they might like. Any takers?
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Music This Weekend

This is crazy weekend indeed. With Yom Kippur falling on Sunday night, make sure the rest of your weekend is just as packed.

Friday night, catch Drummer and DJ Duo Autiomadic at the Gramophone. Opening up for them is acclaimed St. Louis band, the Northwoods.

Light the candles and get to the Gramophone around 9 or 10 for the show.

Saturday night, Papa Grows Funk, New Orleans' best funk band, will be at the Broadway Oyster Bar. This brand brings the funk like few others, and is pretty much a guaranteed good time.

So make it a musical weekend, live it up a bit in St. Louis, and Gmar Chatima Tovah. Read More......

Mid-week update

I never understood why people were so obsessed with hump day until I started working. Or happy hours, or TV dinners, or maids. . . wait, I get the maid thing, but seriously, the whole perspective shifts as you move from the magical world of college into the 'real' world. It is my personal mission to stem the flow of this transition as much as possible by trying to make something out of every night.

Ok, so I had received a hot tip from G, souteneur of good music, to check out the Funky Butt Brass band at the Broadway Oyster bar. Now the Oyster bar is one of my favorite places to go during the summer because the music is funky, the place reminds me of New Orleans, and people dance. The food I can't eat so much, but who needs to eat when you've got dope music?

We Rosh and I headed down to check it out with Wizzo and met up with a friend of hers down there. I didn't even have to walk into the bar to know that we had made the right decision. As navigated from the parking lot in the rear, up to the entrance, I could hear the sousaphone bumping out bass lines. I'll admit it, I started second lining in the middle of the street. Funky Butt is clearly a band I'm going to see at every opportunity. Check the Oyster bar's calender and get your funky butt down there.

Last night was going to be a chill one, cuz even I need to sleep every once in a while. I was going to grab a drink with Em at 33, this fantastic wine tasting bar which doubles as a retail spot down in Lafayette square on Park. Its pretty well hidden, right next to the Chocolate Bar and doesn't have any kind of sign noting the name. In fact, if not for the small open sign on the door, you wouldn't know it was a place of business at all.

Long story short, Em gets sick, Rosh and lady S decide they are in, we have Aim join us, and while we are siting there, enjoying a Moscato D'asti and a triple stout, we catch the menacing outline of T&R walking by. I do my best Jesse Owens to catch up with them and then convince them to join us.

This was not an early night, but at least it didn't end with a half hour discussion on the pros and cons of Walmart. . . which may make its way into the blog as a point counterpoint/battle royal between Rosh aka The Man and Y? aka the Romanticized Revolutionary.

Whatever...Karl Marx was a Heeb too after all. Read More......