November 2003 Journal
by Todd Comer

So, I ended up getting addicted all over again to an old CD that I have this month. It never even left the CD changer since my trip to Springfield last month and I've listened to it at least two or three times a week since. I have no idea why, but it's good and I like it. I have no idea where I got it, but it's called Street Parade. Apparently the Official Street Parade '99 Live Mix called "more than words", mixed by DJ Nonsdrome, it's one of those that gets you moving and well.. you just don't hear stuff like that any more. Oh well. Between that and the mix CD that Brent Crampton sent me, which was really good by the way, that's been about it. What can I say, sometimes I get stuck in a rut.

Speaking of music.. I got a great piece of vinyl from the Phreakz! II party. In fact, I've already found a use for Slater Hogan's track on there, Acid Brats, though I might be able to squeeze in the track that's right after that by Pat Nice, Swingtime. I dunno. The other two tracks on the other side are good too (Tim Shumaker - On and Off & Andrew Emil - Free), but not really anything I can use at this point.

Phreakz!! II was a good ending for the month. Even with a lot of other things going on in KC and other nearby MidWest towns, they still pulled a pretty good attendance. The venue was definitely cool, especially upstairs. The music was good and I think everyone that was there had a really good time. Of course, I took lots of photos and everyone got a glimpse of things to come in the West Bottoms! There were several things going on after Phreakz! II, but since my ultimate destination was north, I took up the invitation to a small chill party not too far from my house.

It does seem that the West Bottoms are coming somewhat back to life these days. I started off the month down there, pulling double-duty with a trip to the Fahrenheit for a special gallery opening featuring some really great works by some of Kansas City's best Graffiti artists at Depth / Funnel. Immediately after that closed, I ran over to the loft to hear some tunes by local band "I" at one of their rehearsal parties. I really didn't stay all that late because I had to be up early so I could go see my daughter and her band at the GladFest Parade the next morning. You know how early 10 am comes sometimes.. ugh. I really had planned on just chillin on the curb and watching the parade, but.. well.. sometimes my shutter finger gets the itch and I end up with a gallery.

Later that same day, I found out that Pat Nice was back in town and would be playing that evening down Kabal, so I made a trip down there to have a listen and take a few shots. It was a good party. He definitely had the whole dance floor movin, but then.. I've rarely seen anything less from him.

After a good night's sleep that lasted half of the morning, I embarked on a mission to Bonner Springs. I had been invited by a member of the RenFest cast to come and photograph "a day at the Renaissance". Needless to say, I had really fun time and met all kinds of interesting people and photographed just as many. One comedy troupe scared the hell out of me by stopping their performance, turning to me and screaming "PICTURE!". At first I thought they were going to chase me down and beat me with my own camera, but as I watched they quickly organized themselves to a pose. This happened again later in the day with the same group at a different performance, but I was prepared for them and instead panicking and preparing to run, I just took the picture. While I was there, I was also lucky enough to catch one of my favorite acts, Djembe Kaan. I had no idea they were playing out at RenFest. I was walking along and heard that familiar beat and was pleasantly surprised to find them beating out one fantastic rhythm after another right near the front gate. It was a good day. My favorite part of the entire day though, was what I think is the closing ceremony. Most of the musicians and performers had assembled near the inside of the front gate for song and dance and finally migrated to outside the front gate for even more intense dancing and whatnot, while the King and Queen looked on from the gates. Skirts whirling, drums beating, cast and patrons limboing. Is that a word? It is now. Anyhow...it was pretty cool.

After a trip home a quick re-charge and gathering my records up, I headed down to the Westport Beach Club for the finals of Madnights DJ Battle. Honestly, I don't remember who won, but it was fun. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to play at the very last, at 2 am, behind Steve Thorell, and had just a few too many cocktails by that time to do much of anything except stumble around on the decks and trainwreck a couple of tunes. The 10 or so that were left that late must have liked what I was playing though, because they were dancing.

The following week was rather ugly. It seems that I had somehow ended up with the Flu. It sucked. It always does and all that I remember was that I slept a lot and when I was awake, wished I were dead. By the end of the week though, all was well again, mostly. So that Saturday, acting on a special invitation to a Burning Man style experience that was to be held near Lawrence, I jumped in the car and ran out there to see what there was to see. It was definitely a Burning Man, Rural Kansas Style and I had a really great time. Djembe Kaan was there, as well as 3rd Degree Burn. We sipped from the Great Chai BrewPot, and Clandestine and AC played some really fine PsyTrance tunes that even had a few cowboys fascinated. Meanwhile, Kourtney was up north of St Jospeh covering the party Field of Dreams which, from the look of the photos, seemed to have turned out quite well.

That Monday I stopped in at Davey's Uptown to have a listen to Solaris' set and chill and talk to a few friends after having spent most of the day preparing to hang my art work that Tuesday for the showing on Wednesday at Undaground Illastrations 4, put on by ActionJackson Ent down at Kabal. Overall I think it went pretty well. There was a lot of great work that was shown by other local artists too.

While I was there that Tuesday evening hanging my stuff, I got the pleasure of hearing some really fine Jazz by the Scamps. I was downstairs and they were upstairs. If they could only seen me trying to quietly hammer nails in to the wall to the beat of whatever they were playing, they probably would have laughed themselves silly. After I finished hanging my stuff, I decided that since I was there anyway I might just as well hang on and get a few photos of the weekly DnB/Jungle night called Ritmo.

I really didn't do much else until the weekend rolled around. Saturday morning I went to the American Royal Parade, but really didn't feel any urge to take any photos, except of my daughter. :) It kind of happens that way sometimes, especially if I'm going to be taking photos that same night. Which.. I was. That evening I was booked for what I thought was going to be quite a spectacular event and it was. The Impure Circus Sideshow Extravaganza featured everything the flier promised and mo re... fire eating, the anti-gravity girl, the bug-eater, midget-wrestling, etc., etc.. Kourtney helped me out with this show and captured some of the stuff that I had no way of getting to or might have missed. The Palladium was pretty crowded that night and there was so much wacky stuff going on. They even had two live bands, Audio Kombat Arsenal and The Deathray Angels, though I didn't really get to hear that much of either because I was mostly covering the inside and they were playing outside. My favorite part was definitely the glass dancers even if the photos did turn out like crap.

Thursday (23rd) started off a 5 day week of events beginning with Steve Thorell kicking off a new night of House called Rehab at SegaFredo so I dropped in to have a look and listen to that. They've got a fairly nice arrangement upstairs that is a little more upscale, though the furniture could be moved around a little. But it was a nice chill place and I decided to go have another look the next Thursday was well.

Friday found me over at Amanda's place for her birthday party, which was quite a lot of fun, except I forgot my damn batteries and the ones that were with me were insufficient for the task at hand. I did however bring a few records and play a few later on in the evening. Then, after a good night and day's sleep I wandered down to XO to have a drink with RJ and discuss his upcoming column for phocas in January. While I was there I ran into a group of people representing Smirnoff Vodka, who invited me down to their party that they were going to be having that Monday night, which was quite a bit of Free Vodka fun. And since I was already out and it was already late, the very same night, I decided to drop by Davey's Uptown to check out the band E-Craft.

Saturday though, before that.. after the trip to XO to talk to RJ, while Kourtney was in St Louis covering Booty Halloween, I was back down at Studio 13 for Videodrome 2.0. As luck would have it, I got a chance to talk more with DJ Spiral from Springfield. DJ Sprial will be coming onboard phocas as the Springfield correspondent. He's been up to much the same thing as I have and has really good photographs too. In fact, he took some pretty cool shots at Videodrome, as well as Snoopy's Ghostly Halloween. Here's a direct link to the photos. Any how... I think he's going to be providing us with a Springfield report with photos and whatnot kind of like this column.

O! I almost forgot. I also stopped by The Beaumont last week. Steve Thorell is starting a DJ Spin Off there. I think it officially starts next week or something and it seems like I remember somebody telling me that it may be at The Wesport Beach Club too. Also, there's a few photos in the misc section from a side trip that made to Davey's Uptown when E-Craft was playing. That was the same night as the Smirnoff thing, which is still kind of blurry. Luckily, the photos aren't.

Well, until next month, keep checking the calendar. You never know what's gonna happen next!

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Or read last month's issue here - > October 2003