Arts & Entertainment

Hot Time, Music in the City

A feast of sweet summer sounds awaits you

By Jess Minnen 

Whoever said the St. Louis music scene is dead has obviously never stayed here over the summer. We know it's hot, often miserably so, so we try to keep calm and keep cool. Staying awash in music is an easy way to forget about your sunburn -- and this summer is packed.

Summer just wouldn't be summer without the music festival. But, as evidenced here, the music fests, too, must evolve. The age-old tradition of crowds, lines, funnel cake, corn dogs, beer and stages -- all beat on by a merciless sun -- is no longer the only way to go.

Rib America Fest

Friday, May 27 through Monday, May 30
Soldiers Memorial
1315 Chestnut Street
314-622-4550

On Memorial Day the heart of downtown pulses with ribs, barbecue sauce, Wet-Naps and, oh, some live music. Appearing over the course of the weekend are Morris Day & the Time, Cameo, the Jimmie Van Zant Band, Head East, Montrose, Beatlemania Live!, Dickey Betts & Great Southern, Cowboy Mouth, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Modern Day Zero, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and George Thorogood & the Destroyers. Admission is free.

Twangfest

Wednesday, June 8 through Saturday, June 11

What began in 1998 as a two-night salute to great American music has grown into a four-night extravaganza of all music with twang. Bluegrass, old-time, folk, country, rock, Americana and alt-country will be represented during this multi-venue fest.

Wednesday, June 8
Schlafly Tap Room
2100 Locust Street
314-321-2337

Milton Mapes and Jon Dee Graham open for the not-to-be-missed Meat Purveyors. Tickets are $8.

Thursday, June 9 and Friday, June 10
Blueberry Hill's Duck Room
6504 Delmar Boulevard
University City
314-727-0880

Rough Shop and Richmond Fontaine open for the scorching Supersuckers. Friday kicks off the weekend with sets from Matt Grimm & the Red Smear, Nora O'Connor, Moot Davis & the Cool Deal, and Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys. Tickets are $18 each night.

Saturday, June 11
Pageant
6161 Delmar Boulevard
314-726-6161

The jewel in the Twangfest crown: The Townsmen, Brent Best (of Slobberbone) and local heroes the Bottle Rockets open for the fiery Neko Case. Tickets are $20.

PrideFest

Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26
Tower Grove Park
4256 Magnolia Avenue
314-772-8888

The theme of this year's PrideFest, which supports and celebrates the GLBTA community, is "Come Alive in 2005." That shouldn't be difficult, given the many stalls of art and food, the always-great parade (beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday) and plenty of local bands -- along with concert headliner Jen Foster -- providing entertainment. Admission is free.

US Bank Saint Louis Jazz Festival

Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25
Shaw Park (8025 Bonhomme Avenue)
Clayton
314-863-0278

Now in its fifth year, the Saint Louis Jazz Festival has quietly carved out a niche for itself amid the city's busy outdoor concert season. While the entirety of this year's lineup has not been finalized, Roy Hargrove and New Orleans favorites Los Hombres Calientes will be there -- reason enough to get advance tickets ($20).

Wildwood Folk Fest

Thursday, September 1 through Sunday, September 4
919 Grand Drive
Steelville
573-775-2400

This Labor Day weekend festival at the beautiful Wildwood Springs Lodge in Steelville is the perfect end to a busy summer. The venue at the lodge is intimate and homey, a place where performers sing, tell stories and mingle with the crowd before and after their shows. This year's lineup features finger-picking deity Leo Kottke (tickets are $59), along with Tom Rush, Guy Clark and John Cowan (all $39).

Big-Ass Tours
A true summer staple, Big-Ass Tours invade arenas and large venues with anywhere from five to thirty-five bands, countless buses, endless lines for port-a-loos, and $7 beer. God bless America.

Vans Warped Tour

Tuesday, June 21
UMB Bank Pavilion
1414 Riverport Drive, Maryland Heights
314-298-9944

Somewhere between a wet dream and your worst nightmare, Warped Tour is an all-day love affair between radio-friendly punk rock, scalding-hot weather and kids dressed in all black. Thirty-four bands (we are so not kidding) will somehow find their way onstage.

Contributions will be made by the All-American Rejects, Another Damn Diss, Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold, Bedouin Soundclash, Boys Night Out, Dropkick Murphys, Fall Out Boy, Fivespeed, From First to Last, Hidden in Plain View, Matchbook Romance, Mest, My Chemical Romance, MxPx, No Use for a Name, Plain White T's, Senses Fail, Silverstein, Strike Anywhere, Strung Out, Stutterfly, The Bled, The Explosion, The Matches, The Offspring, The Starting Line, The Twenty-twos, The Unseen, Thrice, Transplants, Tsunami Bomb, Underoath and Valient Thorr. Tickets are $27 to $29.

Big Summer Classic

Thursday, July 7
GMC Stadium
Sauget Industrial Park Drive at Goose Lake Road
Sauget, Illinois
314-337-3000

If the mountain will not come to Mohammed.... The String Cheese Incident takes the festival on the road with a little help from Keller Williams, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Umphrey's Magee, Yonder Mountain String Band and New Monsoon. Tickets are $39.50.

Sounds of the Underground

Saturday, July 9
Pop's
1403 Mississippi Avenue
Sauget, Illinois

"Back off, dudes." That's what the following seventeen bands have to say to everyone who sold out to the Man, otherwise known as the corporate behemoth that is Warped Tour. For your punk, hard-rock and metal pleasure: A Life Once Lost, All That Remains, Chimaira, Clutch, Devil Driver, Every Time I Die, Fear Before the March of Flames, From Autumn to Ashes, GWAR, High on Fire, Madball, Norma Jean, Opeth, Poison the Well, Strapping Young Lad, Throwdown and Unearth. And Pop's, unlike the UMB Bank Pavilion, is open 24 hours. Tickets are $29 to $34.

Strhess Tour

Saturday, July 16
Mississippi Nights
914 North First Street

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