RFT 📰

Quick: What musical act was the American equivalent of the Beatles? The Byrds? Dylan?

This week brings multiple varieties of hardcore punk to St. Louis, with Better Lovers set to offer Off Broadway on Friday the mathy metalcore you'd expect from a group whose ranks include former members of Every Time I Die and the Dillinger Escape Plan; Modern Life Is War bringing its driving, anthemic hardcore and heart-on-sleeve lyricism to Off Broadway on Saturday; and Chicago upstarts Stress Positions serving up some relentlessly fast and chaotic powerviolence-adjacent fury at a DIY show at Rootwad Park on Monday. Elsewhere, Doyle of the Misfits brings some spooky Halloween music to Red Flag, indie-rock darlings the Mountain Goats come armed to their tin-can-crunching teeth with smartly crafted jams and unparalleled lyricism, and Dave Grohl's ex (and St. Louis native!) Louise Post of Veruca Salt fame makes a much-welcomed return to the city that raised her.

The Board of Estimate and Apportionment met today to present the fiscal year 2025 budget to City of St. Louis leaders. The budget included extra funding for the juvenile detention center to hire additional staff amid an influx of teen detainees. In 2021, long-awaited “Raise the Age” reforms went into effect in Missouri.

As Flo Rida once said, “Shawty had them Apple Bottoms jeans, boots with the fur, the whole club was looking at her.” But it's Nelly who is calling 2024 the year of Apple Bottoms jeans. Over the weekend, Nelly hinted on his Instagram that he’s bringing the jeans back by sharing a photo of some women sporting the clothing line with the caption, “2024 DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK..!!” Apple Bottoms, founded by Nelly back in 2003, is a nostalgic clothing brand designed to accentuate women’s natural curves, giving them, well, an apple bottom.

Thanks to St. Louis law enforcement obtaining text messages sent by a woman residing at a shelter for homeless mothers, an infant's life may have very well been saved. Police say that Emma Rigdon, 20, who was staying at a shelter in Old North St. Louis, filmed herself on her phone abusing the young male child. Rigdon allegedly pinched and slapped the baby's leg and then placed her hand over his nose and mouth, presumably to cause intentional difficulty breathing.

Thursday 04/18 Cue the Comedy The very funny Shannon Fiedler is coming to the Helium Comedy Club (1151 Saint Louis Galleria Street, Richmond Heights) as part of her nationwide tour, bringing with her the hilarious impressions and observational comedy that has made her a certified TikTok star with more than 200,000 followers to her name. Fiedler is perhaps best known for her send-ups of denizens of various cities across the country — with characters including "the brash Bostonian" and "the naive Minnesotan."

We are inured to the violence of our car-centric transportation system. Crashes are just part of the deal, right? As drivers we accept the inconvenience of a lane closure, perhaps the fleeting gratitude that we weren't involved this time, and we move on.

This story was commissioned by the River City Journalism Fund. In the some two decades since the St. Louis Cardinals reached an agreement to obtain public funding for a new stadium, team leaders have touted its economic benefits for the area and described the agreement as unique in professional sports because of how much of the stadium was privately financed. Local officials often then repeat those leaders’ assertions.

Ameristar Casino Resort Spa St. Charles at 1 Ameristar Boulevard has a new spot to get fast-casual Mexican cuisine. The Salted Lime is now open, serving an array of Mexican food favorites, including complimentary chips and salsa for the table, along with items like bean dip, guacamole, street tacos, build-your-own burritos, chimichangas, pork carnitas made with citrus- and cola-braised pork and more. They’ve also got plenty of margaritas, plus desserts like churro cheesecake and tres leches cake.

Social media influencer, advocate for transgender rights, and most recently pop star Dylan Mulvaney is set to speak at Saint Louis University on Monday.  Mulvaney gained popularity on TikTok as she documented her transition in her “Days of Girlhood” series. She now has 10 million followers on the platform, a success that led her to where most St. Louisans likely know her from — a collaboration with Bud Light.

A former staff member at a St. Louis juvenile detention facility has been charged with two felonies after two young people locked up in the facility got too high. Patrick Harris, 23, worked at the juvenile facility on Enright Avenue in the Covenant Blu-Grand Center neighborhood. According to police, Harris gave weed gummies to two individuals locked up there, both under the age of 17.

Early yesterday morning a group of activists returned to St. Charles’ Boeing campus as part of a national protest. Seven were arrested by St. Charles Police. Around 5:30 a.m.

In the moments before Terrence D. Mahone engaged in a two-hour standoff with police in a St. Charles parking garage, he lay in wait in his victim's vehicle. According to court documents filed this morning, Mahone, who is in his early 40s and lives in O’Fallon, Missouri, hid in the back of the car directly behind the driver's seat in a parking garage near several government buildings, including St. Charles’ City Hall and Courthouse. When the unidentified female victim got into her car, she started screaming, presumably upon realizing Mahone was in the vehicle.

An East St. Louis woman is in custody after her eight-year-old was stopped by police driving the wrong way in downtown St. Louis, with his mom passed out in the backseat. Police say that Latonya Mayes-Gale, 28, was driving with her child in the car yesterday, but at some point told her young child to take the wheel. When police stopped the vehicle near 4th and Walnut streets, Mayes-Gale was unconscious in the backseat.

Democrat Lucas Kunce outraised incumbent Senator Josh Hawley's campaign in the first three months of this year, though Hawley brought in more money overall when taking into consideration his allied fundraising operations.  Last week, Kunce announced that he had pulled in $2.25 million in the first quarter of 2024. Hawley disclosed his campaign's fundraising yesterday, with filings showing he’d brought in $1.9 million over that same period.

Inspired by the success of the most St. Louis-style pizza yet — Imo’s one-day-only offering of thin-crust pizza topped with Old Vienna’s Red Hot Riplets — the two beloved local brands have teamed up again to unveil Imo’s new Red Hot Riplets wings.  Back in March, Imo’s and Old Vienna created the ultimate 314 Day collaboration by giving away a bag of Red Hot Riplets with pizza orders. Guests were encouraged to sprinkle the crunchy, spicy chip on top of their crispy-crusted pizza to create the most STL-flavored packed bite imaginable. 

After 10 collective years of running Pizzeoli in Soulard and Pizza Head in Tower Grove East — though he’s since sold both of them — Pizza Via owner Scott Sandler comes to his new restaurant at 4501 Maryland Avenue in the Central West End with a few new ideas. He’s thinking artisan crusts, he’s thinking nuts. “I love nuts on pizza,” he says before going on to talk about a marriage of ingredients that isn’t on the menu yet, but possibly will be soon.

What most people might assume is a topic both sides of the political spectrum can agree on led to a lengthy debate on the floor of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen this morning. The topic in question? Whether to place a baby box at a north city fire station.

Just ahead of the international stoner holiday 4/20, local dispensary Swade Cannabis has announced it’s launching Best Buds, a series of infused dinners held in collaboration with some of St. Louis’ favorite local restaurants and chefs. Participating restaurants include Up Late, Pie Guy Pizza, El Molino del Sureste and Indo. Each meal will utilize a new product to the local cannabis market called “Stiribles,” an unflavored, water-soluble THC-infused powder from the High Five Edibles brand that’s manufactured by Teal Labs.

When St. Louis Police crashed an SUV into LGBTQ hotspot Bar:PM last December, it horrified many locals — but especially the leather group that has long considered the bar its home base: Rudis. The leather scene is believed to have grown in part out of World War II biker culture. Rudis President Nathan Shepard says leather clubs historically offered a safe place for men to wear leather, and they remain a way for the community to gather.