Thankfully, there are still two events this week. The first is at the Eastside Tavern at 8 tonight. The concert features Slugtrail, Thinline, The Rockatomics and DJ Pixie. Tomorrow’s show features The Tamaha Middle Eastern Dancers, event organizer DJ Dannyboy, The Passion, The Unfashionables and Fat Pocket, who call themselves “St. Louis Premier Funk Band” (the lack of the apostrophe  is part of their quote). Note that this second show is early; doors open at 6.

I’m going to level with you. Before hearing of this event, I had  never heard of any of these acts. Investigating the group’s myspace pages reveals that the Eastside bill is for stoner rock and metal fans. Both Slugtrail and Thinline trade in tuned-down guitars and hard-charging rock with plenty of growling and yelling. I tended to like Thinline a bit more because they seemed to incorporate a bit more melody into their songs and came across as a bit more focused. Slugtrail was far from bad though and should get your adrenaline flowing. I should warn you that I’m no metal expert though. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a website for the Rockatomics, but they bill themselves as a rockabilly group, which could add some welcome variety to the night. Should you wish to bang your head for the children, this would be a good show to go to.

The show at Sapphire Lounge is much different. The Passion plays in the style of ’80s new-wave and post-punk bands. They employ herky-jerky beats, shimmering guitars and occasionally, spacey synths to create a solid foundation for some catchy songs. The Unfashionables meanwhile are pretty much straightforward rock with a tinge of country in their guitars’ sound and chords. They give you 4/4 time signatures, logical but pleasing chord progressions and that good old rock ‘n roll attitude. They didn’t blow my mind but they sound pretty good and should put on a good show. Finally, Fat Pocket is a tight funk cover band. They play the usual hits (“Brick House” “Hollywood Swingin’”) with energy and an infectious enthusiasm (and this is just from their website’s media page!). If nothing else, hearing these tunes should get your body moving. All in all, this varied lineup should prove to be a good time for a worthy cause.

Box Elder centers around four MU students living out their last year of college who party their days away and deal with romantic turmoil. But while the film has a plot, its real strength lies in its funny dialog
and the zany situations its characters get involved in, many of which aren’t wholly related to the story. For instance, there is the scene where Rennie (the name of the character and actor) dresses up as a police officer, pulls over younger college kids and harasses them. Or there’s Rennie and Todd Sklar’s character’s constant adoption of pets; They get a dog and a cat despite the fact that they can’t take care of themselves. And then there’s supporting cast member Jon Turk who does a great job of capturing the essence of an egotistical, sex-driven jerk in his portrayal of Bills.

Simply put, if you haven’t seen this film by now, you need to catch this screening. It’s not scheduled any other time on Ragtag’s calendar right now, and Box Elder’s website is wrong about Ragtag continuing to screen it every first Saturday of the month. I doubt this will be the last time they play the film, but it might be a while. So check it out.

My pick for that week would go to veteran rapper Prince Po, who is headlining Mad Real Monday at Mojo’s on (surprise) Monday. Five bucks lets you see one half of the legendary hip-hop duo Organized Konfusion and his tourmates Edreys and Paulie Rhyme. Despite the fact that it’s being billed as “The Ice Bears Tour” (the hell?), this show is worth it for Po. He and former partner Pharoahe Monch blitzed listeners with dense, hard-hitting rhymes delivered in rapid-fire flows over sometimes energetic, sometimes laid-back but almost always menacing beats. OK also employed clever concepts such as rapping from the point of view of a bullet (“Stray Bullet”). Organized Konfusion released three albums from 1991 to 1997 and though they weren’t on everybody’s radar, most people in hip-hop circles now consider their first two albums to be classics. But Prince Po hasn’t rested on his former group’s accomplishments. He emerged back onto the scene in 2005 with the well-regarded The Slickness and has released two other records since then.

Then again, there are two big shows coming to town tomorrow. The Blue Note will host The Plain White T’s
(remember “Hey There, Delilah”?) while the Mizzou Arena will be taken over by Nine Inch Nails and their amazing light show (read about that and their new bass player in Vox and Move). The latter should be a fantastic way to send off school/those bratty college kids (temporarily, at least).

Well, how about a documentary about presidential impersonators? The Missouri Theatre is screening “First Impersonator,” a film that compares the experiences of a G.W. copycat those of famous J.F.K. imitator Vaughn Meader (we now only refer to presidents by their initials, by the way). Despite the subject matter, the film appears to be fairly serious. According to The Missouri Theatre’s website…

“First Impersonator is a feature-length documentary about Political Impersonators. Shot over the course of a year and a half, First Impersonator shadows a George W. Bush lookalike throughout the 2004 Presidential race while documenting the life and career of famed JFK mimic Vaughn Meader. Cutting between two stories, First Impersonator finds a poignant resonance in their combination. It is a story of timing and circumstance, of serendipity; of resemblance and identity; of one impersonator’s career decided by a national election and another’s haunted by the memory of a dead President.”

Alright, it may not be hard-hitting political coverage, but you’ll get to see how elections and assassinations affect people firsthand.

Columbia is sure attracting a lot interesting people these days. After Don Hertzfeldt and Obama guy, we are now being visited by the founder of Post Secret, Frank Warren. For those who don’t know, Warren has people mail him personal secrets on post cards and he scans the images to his website. If you spend five seconds there, you’ll get the idea. It’s actually neater than it sounds as people often choose pictures that go along with their secrets well. Check this one out for a good example:

I bet this duck leads a happy existence if he's in the tub.

The event has three parts. From 6 to 7, people can make their own postcards for Warren in the Jesse Rotunda. Then, Warren gives a lecture at Jesse. According to him, the lectures play out like this:

“I share the inspirational and funny stories behind some of the quarter million secrets I have received on postcards. I project images of the secrets that were banned from the four PostSecret books. I talk about my secret – an experience I never spoke of for more than three decades and eventually drove me to start collecting secrets from strangers. And I always save time to answer questions and listen to the soulful, humorous and sometime sexual secrets from the audience.”

Afterwards, Warren will sign books (if you don’t have one, the MU Bookstore will be there with copies). Tickets are $7 for MU students and $10 for everyone else. If you miss him, don’t fret. This isn’t the first time he’s been here and unless everyone stops caring about Post Secret (which doesn’t seem likely), I doubt it will be his last.

I followed up Monday’s Open Mic with another free show on Tuesday this week that featured local groups Wise Brothers, Ptarmigan and Penny Marvel with Austin combo Future Clouds and Radar thrown into the mix. I got to Mojo’s in the middle of the Wise Brother’s second-to-last song, a driving 50′s type traditional rocker. The group then said goodbye with an excellent cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Give me one reason to stay here” in which the quartet proved themselves tight and soulful. The guitar solos were especially impressive in how they showcased the player’s skill without being flashy to the point of distraction. I wish I had caught more of the group.

Up next was Ptarmigan. The three-piece trades in hazy indie rock and songs that don’t follow typical structures. From the bassist Peter’s strong solos to Evan’s ability to play independent parts at the same time, it was obvious that the group is talented (drummer Ted is also LEAGUES better than he was in high school percussion with me). However, the group seems more focused on creating musical moods than songs. That’s not to say that Ptarmigan is wholly devoid of good hooks, but I they could stand to write more of them and emphasize the ones they do have to a greater degree. Still, their friends in the audience loved them and they did play their material well. And it never hurts to throw a killer burst of noise in the song.

The crowd had mostly cleared out before Future Clouds and Radar took the stage. This turned out to be a real shame because the quartet was chock full of catchy twang-tinged rock that was executed beautifully. NPR and allmusic have compared FC&R to Guided by Voices and The Flaming Lips, which aren’t quite on the mark but are probably close enough for comparison’s sake. The group sometimes stretched out their songs or performances too long (some tunes faded into each other) but otherwise put on a compelling display of great riffs and frontman Robert Harrison’s pretty voice. The keyboards added a nice layer too. Overall, it was sad to see that most people missed this group, which by the way included ex-Spoon bassist Joshua Zarbo.

Finally, Penny Marvel closed the night. One of the bajillion projects of Wil Reeves, Penny Marvel specializes in
folky, sometimes country pop, though they still make room for more typical rock. Live, the group incorporates all sorts of instruments into the mix. This includes an accordion, a violin and sometimes a bangjo. The set started out brilliantly with wistful “Safe from Ourselves” and it intoxicating accordion hook (a change from the recorded version). Next, Penny Marvel delivered a pair of rock tunes with quirky rhythms and riffs that played off of each other to create a wonderful tension. The group then slowed down for some lovely, ornate countryish tunes.

Unfortunately, it was too good to be true. The group began playing more slow songs that simply relied on too many major chords. These songs meandered but never really got anywhere worth going. I kept holding out for a return to the greatness of the set’s start but I eventually gave up. Thankfully, the first half of Penny Marvel’s performance made their show worthwhile and hints at the project’s full potential.

Once again, it was another night of free music worth going to. Let’s hope this keeps up.

I got in as soon as a guy was finishing his solo acoustic guitar set with a decent cover of “Funky Monks” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The crowd was polite but fairly indifferent, though as affable host Anna D’Agostino noted, this is a tough time slot for getting the social audience to actually pay attention to people on stage. After this person, whose name I forgot to get, I took notes on a good number of performers afterwards. Given how many there were, I’ll keep the blurbs short:

Dylan McCord: You may recognize this burly fellow as the man who often does sound at The Blue Note or Mojo’s. After mixing other performer’s levels so well, it’s only appropriate that McCord knows how to sound good himself. He has a deep, rich voice and a smooth strumming style that form a nice combination. However, his good chops could’t help the fact that his first two songs were overly relied on a single progression each and not much else. His third and final song came off well though.

Taylor Dunn: Dunn took FOREVER to set up his electric guitar and amp rig but quickly made his presence felt by singing much louder than he meant to when he started playing. After adjusting, he revealed a knack for catchy pop/rock melodies that suited his clean guitar sound. Some of his stuff felt a tad predictable, and his wailing singing style could stand to be toned down a bit, but overall Dunn played a promising two songs (his long setup time cost him one).

Darren Cook: Although open mic night is carried out with musicians in mind, every once in a while they’ll get a comedian. Cook was unfortunately your typical blue comic with a sexist act. His idea of a punchline when riffing on who to tip was to say that men give their erotic masseuse a warm tip in their hand when it’s over. Occasionally, Cook would have a decent joke, such as the line about necrophiliacs using obituaries as a sort of personals page, but it wasn’t a good sign when the biggest applause Cook got was when he told a (likely friendly) heckler “Fuck you, bitch!”

Randi March, Brad Cunningham and ? : March and Cunningham played two originals and a Damien Rice cover on their acoustic guitars while a percussionist whose name I couldn’t find provided support on hand drums. March isn’t lying when she lists Jewel as an influence. The two share a folky, confessional style that frankly just doesn’t appeal to me. She played and sang well, but it just wasn’t my thing. Cunningham’s played his band‘s funky ditty “Neon Lights,” which I liked more, though it works better in its full-band arrangement. I’m not a Damien Rice fan, so the cover didn’t do it for me, but the crowd loved it and Anna described it as “angelic”. Different strokes, I guess.

Justus Lacewell: In full disclosure, Lacewell and I are the type of acquaintances where we sort of remember each others names but don’t know much at all about each other. Lacewell pulled out an electric guitar and started playing thin chords on the off-beats and singing in a fast, sing/rap style about “bumping reggae music”. My first thought was off that Andy Samberg digital short on SNL about the rasta dorm kid, but Justus actually had some catchy riffs and a bouncy flair that made his set work. In the next song, Lacewell busted out the wah-wah pedal and veered into blaxploitation-esque funk before getting back to the ska rhythms. Drummer about town Junior Garr backed him up for those last two songs and got the duo deservingly got the crowd dancing.

Del Alma: So these guys are latin experts and veterans of the scene. I think they were using the open mic to reintroduce themselves to the scene after a layoff of playing. The three obviously knew what they’re doing, playing a tight set of traditional latin tunes and the always pleasing “Oye Como Va.” The lineup has changed from when that article was published, but Alfredo held down the rhythm with a bassist (I believe, I was buzzed and could be off on what the third musician played) while Tom Williams tore up the electric in a way that would have made Santana proud.

The XYZ Affair: This Brooklyn band found themselves playing in Columbia while touring the country and delivered my favorite set of the night. The band played a tight set of power-pop and even threw in some barbershop-quartet harmonies. The drummer used atypical patterns but kept a steady beat, which greatly added to the four-piece’s already potent hooks. Despite their great set, I had to get to bed by the time they were finishing up because I had class to get to in the morning.

All in all, I had an enjoyable night at the Fugue. The XYZ Affair was the closest thing that came to blowing my mind, but the best acts were all fun and showed the potential to become good draws. The worst acts were at least tolerable (save for this one rapping, acoustic guitar guy I didn’t mention). Not bad for the price of nothing.

Anyway, the meeting was very informative, organized and thorough – and two hours long. Everyone in the group was friendly and involved with the proceedings, which after the introduction, announcements, and agenda review consisted of five sections. First, the group outlined the upcoming events needing planning and volunteers. This includes a November 5 rush-hour (4:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.) protest of the war at Broadway and Providence. The next day, the group will hold a post-election discussion about citizen activism at 6:30 p.m. in the Peace Nook. These events are just the tip of the iceberg for Peaceworks, which is planning events as far in advance as March.

Peaceworks also has a couple of subgroups/projects some of Peaceworks’ members work on, such as Missourains for Safe Energy, The Peace Front and the Center for Sustainable Living project. I’m not going to go into the details of these subgroup’s discussions because they merit more of an explanation than a blog post designed to give a quick overview of a meeting can give. The group also discussed sharing responsibilities to lighten the workload for its director Mark Haim. Finally, the group discussed lobbying, recruiting Peaceworks members, a donation drive and ways to promote the Peacenook store.

As I mentioned earlier, all the Peaceworks members were very enthusiastic in their discussions. They all seemed intelligent and brought up valid concerns about each issue they raised. For example, some members were concerned about the money needed to hold a fund-raising event at the Blue Note. As you would expect from a group that prides itself on being peaceful, all discourse was civil. Also, the meeting was very organized: Each member received a typed agenda for the meeting with written update for the Peace and Justice Front, the Center for Sustainable Living, Missourians for Safe Energy and Peace Nook.

I must say though, I am not likely to attend another Peaceworks meeting. For one, I have some political beliefs that differ from theirs. The group is a 501c3 something or other, which means they are non-electoral and do not endorse parties or politicians, they support typically liberal causes. I personally am in a state of political flux and need to be much more informed (from both sides) and decisive than I am, but have grown up a conservative and am usually resistant to the causes they support. That’s not to say I disagree with everything they espouse, but I generally do not feel the way they do. This could change soon, but I shall shamefully admit that right now I don’t care enough about many of the issues they support. I could especially tell this over the course of a two hour meeting that felt longer. However, I definitely admire Peaceworks for tackling these issues. Somebody has to do it, and they do a good job.

If you are interested in Peaceworks, feel free to attend one of their open meetings on 6:30 at the Peace Nook every fourth Monday of every month. Here’s the contact information:

804 C E. Broadway
Columbia, MO 65201
(573) 875-0539

Also, be sure to check out my Online Journalism classmate Elizabeth Schlee, uh, the Biffmeister’s take on this meeting here.

Living on the seventh floor of an apartment building, I’m not going to decorate for Halloween or anticipate any trick or treaters, but I know many of you enjoy this time of season and will relish not having to pay for a pumpkin to stab. Plus, this sort of activity is best done with people (especially if you accidentally carve more than your pumpkin) and makes for a great icebreaker if you’re trying to make friends. Besides, if you’re throwing a Halloween bash, you’d better have a pumpkin.

Another great musical option tonight is St. Louis soul-pop trio The Feed, who are playing at the Blue Fugue. The group draws comparissons to The Ben Folds Five for its keyboards, bass and drums setup and virtuosity (all three members are terrific musicians), but they owe a bit more to soul/funk than Folds. Bassist Ben Reece also plays a mean sax that adds some spice to bandleader Dave Grelle’s catchy songs. The Riverfront Times bestowed upon them the title of “Best Rock Band” in their annual Best of St. Louis feature this year. Go find out why.