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Recent Articles By Dean C. Minderman

  • B.B. King
    7:30 p.m. Wednesday February 13. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St. Charles.
  • Chris Botti
    8 p.m. Friday January 18 and Saturday January 19. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, One University Boulevard.
  • Smooth Operators
    Schoolhouse Rock's songwriter celebrates a few special birthdays in St. Louis while we pit Kenny G vs. Trans-Siberian Orchestra in a fight to the holiday death.
  • Preservation Blues

    Local niche labels keep the music coming.

  • Backstoppers Benefit
    7 p.m. Sunday November 4. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.

Recent Articles By Jess Minnen

  • Matisyahu
    Thursday, March 16, at 8 p.m. The Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard)
  • Owen
    Monday, March 6. Doors at 7 p.m. Creepy Crawl, (412 North Tucker Boulevard)
  • Les Claypool
    Tuesday, October 11; Mississippi Nights (914 North First Street)
  • Umphrey's McGee
    Friday, September 30; the Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard)
  • Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon
    Friday, September 16; Mississippi Nights (914 North First Street)

Recent Articles By Kristyn Pomranz

National Features

  • Phoenix New Times
    Canine Crusaders

    That drug-sniffing dog up ahead? He may not be your best friend.

    By Ray Stern
  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times
    The Muscle Men

    Thanks to a string of Florida "anti-aging clinics," baseball's steroid scandal isn't limited to superstars.

    By Michael J. Mooney
  • Miami New Times
    Picked On

    Farm workers earn nada in America's green-bean capital.

    By Janine Zeitlin
  • Village Voice
    "Why I'm No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal"

    An election-season essay from one of America's greatest playwrights.

    By David Mamet

Josh Caterer: I was looking at my situation and thinking how the things that had been important to me were meaningless. I was going to die, and it was all going to go away. I didn't believe that there was anything after death, I just thought we ceased to exist — which is pretty depressing. I wanted to find evidence that there is something after death. The real moment it all turned around was when I read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

Why did you disband?

I needed to separate myself from the rock scene. One of the things I felt passionately about was expressing my faith through music. If I thought Smoking Popes would work as an evangelism platform, I would have stayed in the band. But it was like oil and water. I wanted to give my time to a musical expression that was specifically Christian. So I quit the band and got Duvall together as a Christian version of the Smoking Popes.

So Popes songs never had religious undertones?

Singing about being in love with someone is easy to interpret in a spiritual way, but no, they were general. Except for "I Know You Love Me" — I realized that if nobody knew I was a Christian, it would be taken as a romantic love song. I was hoping it would become a single, and then I would go public with my faith. Then people would realize what the song was about, and then my label would get mad. And then I would laugh at them.

What now allows your faith and the Popes to coexist?

My understanding of how to live as a Christian has matured. At the beginning, I had to extract myself from the rock scene, but eventually I realized that my faith didn't depend on my perpetual renunciation of rock. I now know what I believe and why I believe it, and that isn't going to be shaken. I just want to live in a way that is honoring to God. I can do that now and still be in a rock band. — Kristyn Pomranz

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 22. Creepy Crawl, 412 North Tucker Boulevard. $12 21+, $14 under. Call 314-621-9333.

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