Riverfront Times

Autumn, 1975: Bob Dylan, having recently returned to live performances after years of laying low, his every move scrutinized for signs of which way the times were a-changin', began a tour of smaller venues along the northeastern U.S. and Canada. The Rolling Thunder Revue was, as its name suggests, far from a typical rock concert.…

Senator Josh Hawley is making quite a name for himself. Missouri's junior senator has gotten national attention for crusading against social media giants.…

These days, things are looking pretty bright for Tom Pini, audio engineer and founding member of Drangus. Back when he started the project in 2013, not so much.…

Luke Reynolds has owned businesses in Soulard for fifteen years, sitting on the historically French district's Mardi Gras committee and its neighborhood and business associations, too. Even though he no longer lives in the neighborhood, he considers it his home.…

When John Harrington talks about the history of his rap-rock band Midwest Avengers, he doesn't just talk about the membership of the on-stage players.…

St. Louis music historians and armchair theorists will remind anyone in earshot of the city's contributions to the canon — as a birthplace of the blues, a cradle of jazz, even a crucible for alt-country. But amid the big names and major movements, St. Louis' contribution to the rise of ska's third wave (coming after its Jamaican roots and its British resurgence) is often overlooked.…

Alexis Tucci's approach to music can't fit neatly in the two-letter anagram — DJ — that usually precedes her.…

This weekend, the RFT once again presents ShowcaseSTL, our annual festival of St. Louis’ finest musical talent. With more than 100 bands performing across eleven venues in the Grove, the lineup for 2019 represents the best of the best, our very favorite St. Louis acts.…

Baby boomers may not be able to set the clocks on their own VCRs (yes, they still have VCRs), but they’re all about technology that feeds their insatiable nostalgia.

That’s why “Roy Orbison & Buddy Holly: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Dream Tour” is going to be a smashing success. It doesn’t even matter that the two performers have been dead for a combined 91 years.…

Ten days after announcing that uniformed cops were not welcome to march in the annual Pride Parade, Pride St. Louis has reversed course.

In a joint news conference today with Mayor Lyda Krewson, the board formally announced uniformed officers would be welcome to join the parade this year after all.

"We are dedicated to making sure all LGTBQ community feels safe and respected and are looking forward to building lasting relationships with Mayor Krewson, the city of St. Louis Public Safety and law enforcement," Jordan Braxton, Pride's director of diversity and inclusion, told reporters.

The original decision turned out to be wildly controversial. Krewson and Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards contacted the board and asked them to reconsider.…

If you want a peek at how Phil Lockett has straddled two alternate universes, all you have to do is listen to him talk about a recent exchange with his boss, Terry Oliver, at Frazer's Restaurant & Lounge (1811 Pestalozzi Street, 314-773-8646).

"I'd just come back from tour and was at Frazer's polishing some glassware when Terry just looked at me," Lockett recalls. "He said, 'Man, two days ago, you were in Ukraine playing in front of 25,000 people, and here you are polishing glasses.'…

After more than seventeen months of silence, a federal appellate court has ruled that Dorian Johnson cannot sue the Ferguson cop who confronted him and Michael Brown on August 9, 2014.

It was a confrontation that ended in Brown's death and months of protest.…

Jazz musician Terence Blanchard has become a frequent visitor to St. Louis in recent years as an in-demand composer for both Metro Theater Company (Bud Not Buddy) and Opera Theatre of St. Louis (Champion). Blanchard’s new “opera-in-jazz” for OTSL, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, features a libretto by screenwriter Kasi Lemmons and is inspired by New York Times’ columnist Charles Blow’s memoir of the same name.…

A pair of St. Louis police officers are facing criminal charges, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office announced today.

The first officer, 25-year-old Joseph Ermler, has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident, making a false report and driving while intoxicated, according to a probable cause statement released by prosecutors. The brief statement alleges that Ermler got in a car accident on January 3, 2019, at 2300 South Kingshighway, near the intersection with Southwest Avenue.…

Milton Green was shot by a fellow St. Louis cop after a police chase cut through his street in the city's North Pointe neighborhood.

Green, who was off duty and working on his neighbor's car in their shared driveway, identified himself as police.…

It's a bummer that the Missouri bill nicknamed the "Jedi Disposal Act" does not, as the name suggests, legally recognize the Jedi's right to live on after death as blue ghosts.

Instead, Senate Bill 455, which is awaiting the signature of Missouri Governor Parson, would legalize open-air cremations — that is, burning the deceased on some kind of funeral pyre.…

One hundred bands, eleven stages, one wild weekend. Jack Daniel's presents ShowcaseSTL, an event where local legends, longtime favorites and fresh faces all converge in the Grove for a marathon of live music.…

Thirty years ago, the Prapaisilp family took a chance and opened the King and I on south Grand, giving St. Louis one of its first tastes of Thai food. Three decades — and a string of successful business later — they are again offering local diners something new, this time with a new restaurant called Chao Baan (4089 Chouteau Avenue).

The restaurant, which will open sometime next week in the Grove's new mixed-use Chroma development, may be Thai through and through, but it significantly deviates from the standard playbook offered at other local Thai restaurants.…

Up-Down STL (405 North Euclid Avenue, 314-449-1742), the arcade bar opening this evening in the Central West End, says it has something for everyone.

"Groups can come here and all like the place,” general manager Joey Akers says.…