Kansas City Music Blog

Myra Taylor -- there are none higher.

It was only by last-minute luck that the 92-year-old Kansas City blues and jazz matriarch ended up at the Pitch Music Awards at all. If, several days before Sunday night's awards, we hadn't stumbled across a recent Jazz Ambassador Magazine with her manager's phone number listed in the back, we might never have gotten in touch with the mighty Taylor. (With 126 nominees on this year's ballot, representing more than 500 musicians, it was hard enough getting the people we see practically every weekend to RSVP.)

And if that had been our sorry luck, then Taylor probably would not have rolled her wheelchair up to the edge of the stage at the Uptown, grabbed a microphone and delivered the most memorable impromptu performance at any recent PMA ceremony.

Forester Michael

Click on Myra and David for more awards show photos.

It happened as Taylor accepted the award for Best Jazz Ensemble on behalf of her group, the Wild Women of Kansas City. Once installed on the floor in front of the stage, with the spotlight on her and with the evening's host, David Wayne Reed, seated beside her, Taylor said, "This is a song I wrote -- it's just a little bit, not a lot."

She put her arm around Reed's shoulder and summoned up her sultry alto, a cappella: Hey, there, I like what I see/I keep sittin' here a' mopin'/Wishin and a' hopin'/For you to like me.

The crowd of 800 or so clapped to the beat as she sang the equally adorable second verse: Hey, hey, I says hey there, I like your smile/I like your purty white teeth, your green, green eyes/I like your style.

And then came the bridge: I may not be good-lookin'/I may not be built for speed/But I'm a lover, a sinner, a downtown money spender/I said, boy, what more do you need?/Hey, hey, hey.

Her ditty, combined with a pretty hilarious joke afterward (see the whole video here), made for a moment so classy, beautiful and authentic, my heart turned into melted frosting. Best of all, perhaps, were Taylor's parting words of advice for when you get old: "All you have to remember is, be breathing and have an income."

London Transit, the Pedaljets, Stik Figa and Making Movies performed two or three songs each last night at the Pitch Music Awards ceremony. The top video is a playlist combining all four. Separate clips after the jump.

It was a moment of pure bliss. Accepting the award for Best Jazz: Ensemble on behalf of her group, the Wild Women of Kansas City, 92-year-old jazz and blues queen Myra Taylor sang a song to ceremony emcee David Wayne Reed and told a joke. The audience collectively swooned.

Last night, US Air Guitar Championships finalist Eric "Mean" Melin performed his signature routine on stage at the Uptown. Later, by popular vote, his band, the Dead Girls, won best band in the Pop category.

We're still editing photos, videos and verbiage from last night's Pitch Music Awards Ceremony -- and wrestling with the inevitable hangover. In the meantime, join us in congratulating this year's winners. About 4,600 people voted this year, which is really cool. David Wayne Reed -- he of the hot pants-- was the evening's charming host. Inhale (and scroll down) slowly and see.

Forester Michael

Blues: Trampled Under Foot
Country/Bluegrass: the Last Call Girls
DJ: Dance: Nomathmatics
DJ:Hip-Hop: DJ Sku
Electronic/Dance: the Ssion
Folk/Americana: the Gaslights
Hip-Hop/Rap: Stik Figa
Indie Pop: the Republic Tigers
Indie Rock: the Appleseed Cast
Jazz: Ensemble: the Wild Women of Kansas City
Jazz: Solo: Megan Birdsall
Latin: Son Venezuela
Metal: Hammerlord
Pop: the Dead Girls
Punk: Fag Cop
Reggae: 77 Jefferson
Rock: the Architects
Singer-Songwriter: Sara Swenson
Frontman/Frontwoman: Abigail Henderson
Live Act: the Sex Police
New Act: Audiovox

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See you there. XOXO!!

As soon as I get it, I'll post the schedule for this Sunday's Pitch Music Awards Ceremony. In the meantime, here's a schedule for the VIP pre-party for the nominees and guests. (NOTE: All nominees must RSVP now if you haven't already. Like NOW now.)

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6 p.m. - Doors open.

6:07 p.m. - Doors still open.

6:11 p.m. - Cars pass, crickets chirp.

6:13 p.m. - The Hearts of Darkness drive up, Joad-family-style, piled in the back of a flatbed truck. Truck has no breaks; Hearts end up in a California peach orchard.

6:15 p.m. - Skatterman and Snug Brim roll up in wrapped Hummer. (However, since parting ways with Strange Music, they have been forced to scale down, so the Hummer is wrapped in a giant tortilla.)

6:18 p.m. - Mark Lowrey arrives, still drunk from his gig the night before, makes beeline for hot wings buffet.

6:22 p.m. - Brody Buster arrives, is not on guestlist because he didn't RSVP, cries into harmonica, which creates an entirely new, super-emo form of the blues.

6:24 p.m., NYC - Don Draper takes Which Mad Man Are You? Quiz on Internet; finds out that he's Don Draper.

6:27 p.m. - Darren from In the Pines receives a phone call informing him that he's Miley Cyrus' real dad.

6:35 p.m. - Pitch photographer Forester Michael arrives, smokes cigarette, takes a picture of David Wayne Reed's crotch, which is also somehow smoking a cigarette.

6:37 p.m. - Greg Enemy arrives, also is not on list, finds kitty door in back of Uptown and darts through in his magical Keds.

6:44 p.m. - Skatterman and Snug Brim eat Mitch Rich in a giant tortilla.

6:45 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. - Upstairs bar is slammed with two-fisted drunken scenesters.

7:50 p.m. - Hammerlord lays you.

7:59 p.m. - Gornography agrees to become the new backing band for the Wild Women of Kansas City.

Though local rapper Sephiroth's impromptu performance with Mark Lowrey got all the blog attention hither and yon, it wasn't the only genre-jumping hip-hop performance under the sponsor tent last Thursday at the 2009 Pitch Music Showcase.

photo by Rocky

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Catching up on my RSS feeds just now, I stopped by D/Will's blog, where, days ago (sigh), the hometown hip-hop producer and MC posted footage of himself rapping while fellow PMA nominee David Seume plucks a sparse fingerstyle riff and sings. It's an interesting counterpoint to the jazzy, bombastic Lowrey/Seph combo. And until today, I had no idea it even happened. D/Will: fire your publicist!

I've been watching all white-knuckled and nail-bitey the coverage of local air guitar superstar Eric "Mean" Melin.

Emily Henson

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I was bummed to learn yesterday that he didn't make it past the finals -- but glad to see that he's not giving up.

And now, the Wayward Blog is overjoyed to announce that Mean Melin is bringing his unstoppable airness to the Pitch Music Awards Ceremony this Sunday, August 16, at the Uptown Theater. For those who've only read about or seen videos of Melin's routine, this is your chance to the legend live and in the blood-splattering flesh.

Adding to an already killer lineup for the evening, Melin's 60-second air throwdown will share the bill with the Pedaljets, Stik Figa, Making Movies and London Transit. David Wayne Reed returns as this year's host. $5 tickets for the 8 p.m. ceremony can be purchased at the Uptown; call the theater box office at 816-753-8665 or us at 816-561-6061 for details. Tickets to the VIP pre-party are $20.

Now ... I knew that Mean Melin's airness ran deep, but I didn't know how deep. Until I checked out his Tumblr and found this.

"Years before he truly understood that air guitar actually meant playing the air and not just miming WITH a guitar, 2009 KC regional air guitar champ Mean Melin made this VHS demo (an air guitar instruction video) for a TV video production class in 1990..."

You gotta love how he rattles off detailed instructions for air guitaring like it's as normal as mowing the lawn or branding a pentagram onto a newborn child's palm while listening to Slayer. If more dudes (and chicks) like Mean Melin rise up, maybe one day it will be.

Our friend John Kreicbergs of Patchchord.com was kind enough to resume his role as showcase videographer. This year, he captured hot footage of six of the night's acts. Enjoy.

For most folks, the Pitch Music Showcase is kinda like a baby South by Southwest. You bounce around from bar to bar all night, trying to cram in as many musical acts as possible, and maybe taking advantage of the bit of free booze offered at the sponsor tent. The night is heady and frenetic. But that's never been my experience. As a show of support to the cause and my employer, I always volunteer to be the emcee at one venue all night. This year, I spent virtually my entire evening at McCoy's.

Emily Henson

Click on the Bear Fighters for showcase slide show.

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The night kicked off right on time with Country/Bluegrass nominees the Kansas City Bear Fighters at 8 p.m. The trio crammed onto the stage with a banjo, guitar, upright bass and lead singer Quinn McCue, who exhibits one of the most surprising body size to voice ratios in the city. At well over six feet tall with a broad chest and shoulders, McCue is one of the most imposing vegetarians I've ever met, in spite of his easy smile. (I once got mugged while in the company of his sister and then-fiance -- I'm convinced if he'd been there, the thugs wouldn't have struck.) However, something happens when McCue takes the mic. Instead of the bass or baritone you'd expect from a man of his stature -- and who doesn't sound a bit girly when speaking -- McCue sings in a sunny falsetto that you might think was coming from a woman if you weren't staring at him. 

It's safe to say that the night of the Showcase is one of the best nights of the year to go out... even better than New Year's Eve, Irish Fest, Rock Fest, the first First Friday of the summer or your cousin from Blue Springs' bachelor or bachelorette party at Toby Keith's. It's awesome. You don't even have to be a hipster to have fun.

It'll be hard to ever again find the energy I felt back in 2006 at the Showcase when onemilliontinytinyjesuses had a packed house at the Dark Horse standing in wide-eyed disbelief at their experimental robot rock, and I'll never get the fuzzies again the way I did last year when I heard the Roseline downstairs at Blayney's. It's kind of magical.

This time around, I opted to stay at the Beaumont from start to finish. I could perch above the stage on a Jim Beam barstool, get blasted with air conditioning and hear a diverse mix of bands I'd either not seen before or seen a hundred times.

First up, the Kings of KC Swing...

Ben Ruth toots his horn.

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I arrived to the location exactly at 8:20. There were less than 15 people there. Part of me wished at that moment, that I was the one who had booked the bands for the evening. I would have put the Grand Marquis on later in the evening. Maybe sometime soon I will see or hear about these guys play to a packed hometown crowd that's not at a private party or a restaurant gig. Who else is playing jump swing locally two or three nights a week? They travel all over the region (Manhattan, St. Louis, Omaha, Des Moines, to name a few) and play to tons of swing dancing couples all night long at those gigs, but I guess the swing scene isn't so huge here in Cowtown. Weird.

I'm not sure whether it was Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler arriving in their limo to a gaggle of paparazzi outside of the Riot Room or if it was seeing Kurt Loder interviewing T-Pain on the roof of McCoy's, but somewhere between those two sightings -- but two incidents within a major-media-filled, celebrity-packed evening -- I realized, Man, the Pitch Music Showcase has gotten sorta big.

Then I realized someone had slipped peyote into Hefeweizen.

Forester Michael

Click on piano cat for slide show.

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South By Southwest it ain't. And you'll see exponentially more concertgoers packed into the Sprint Center when New Jersey acts such as the Jonas Bros. or Bruce Springsteen come to town than you will over the course of our annual, night-long all-local fiesta in Westport. But for people who follow the Kansas City-Lawrence music scene it's a must-rock night.

This year's lineup boasted 28 acts from a lot of the 16 different genres represented on the 2009 Pitch Music Awards ballot. They played at the Beaumont Club, McCoy's, the Foundry and the inside and outside stages at the Riot Room. And I saw almost all of them.

​Though a friend told me early last night at the Pitch Music Showcase that Twitter had been hit with some kind of viral attack yesterday, that didn't stop me from tweeting doggedly and with great effort throughout the night. Of course, none of my WaywardTweets posted, so because it's easier than writing anything fresh with this massive hangover I'm contending with that is making it very hard to think, I have dug deep into the circuitry of my Sprint Katana II to bring you all of last night's tweets.

8:11 p.m. - Showcase has officially begun!

8:14 p.m. - KC Bear Fighters singing about killing zombies.

9:14 p.m. - Oriole Post brought quite a crowd. Schlafly gettin us tipsy!

9:19 p.m. - Mark Lowrey pulling out some Chick Corea shit!

10:28 - Kyle Akers of Antennas Up is a dead ringer for Mark Ruffalo.

10:41 p.m. - Rich Boys are killing it.

11:03 p.m. - Max Justus is officially Reach's new DJ. At least for tonight.

11:19 p.m. - Other local hip hop groups should take a serious live show howto from Christos.

12:08 a.m. - Hammerlord slays you.

12:48 a.m. - Nomath presiding over one hot, sweaty mess.

Well, I guess that's it. I was out until the last band, Pet Comfort, finished a fine set well after 2 a.m. (Thanks for going for the long haul, PC.) But I guess my mind turned to things other than tweeting. Oh well. Hopefully that gives you a teensy taste of the showcase. We'll be back on Monday with lots of pretty pics and thrilling tales.

Because this is the first thing I've written all day about last night's 279th annual Pitch Music Showcase, I feel compelled to tell you: It was great. A fucking awesome, enjoyable, rich night.

Tons of people came out to support local music, and I have a feeling the majority of them were seeing a lot of those bands for the first time. For me, the best thing about this whole showcase-awards process is seeing people rock out to homegrown acts they didn't even know existed. From the unstoppable charm of the Kansas City Bear Fighters early in the evening to Adam Lee and Johnny's end-of-the-night serenades and many, many stops in between, I witnessed plenty of I had no idea reactions from friends.

In fact, during the performance captured below, a coworker's date remarked that she didn't think she liked hip-hop until she'd seen this jazz-enhanced freestyle flow from Sephiroth, aka Kartoon. A little after 9, he jumped in on Mark Lowrey's revolving-door jam in our sponsor area outside McCoy's. In the video, Seph and Lowrey, with help from drummer Zach Albetta and percussionist Miguel "Mambo" DeLeon lay down some hip-hop skronk-funk-latin awesomeness. Enjoy. And check in here on Monday for tons of photos and reports from the big, wonderful, epic local music party.

Oh yeah, and here's the lineup. It's been up on our microsite for weeks, but I guess I never posted it on this blog. In redress for my failure, here, accompanying the complete schedule, is a picture of super-hottie Christie Brinkley. Hooiee! They don't make 'em like that anymore!​

1. The Riot Room (Outside DJ Stage)
9:00 p.m. - Max Justus
10:45 p.m. - Reach
12:30 a.m. - Nomathmatics

2. The Riot Room (Inside)
8:00 p.m. - Sailor Sequence
9:00 p.m. - Oriole Post
10:00 p.m. - The Rich Boys
11:00 p.m. - James Christos
12:00 a.m. - Waiting for Signal
1:00 a.m. - Thunder Eagle

3. The Beaumont Club
8:00 p.m. - The Grand Marquis
8:55 p.m. - SeedLove
9:50 p.m. - Antennas Up
10:45 p.m. - Be/Non
11:40 p.m. - Hammerlord
12:40 a.m. - Roman Numerals
1:40 a.m. - Pet Comfort

4. The Foundry @ McCoy's
9:30 p.m. - Andrew Northern
10:45 p.m. - Shaun Duval
12:00 a.m. - Tactic

5. McCoy's
8:00 p.m. - The Kansas City Bear Fighters
9:00 p.m. - Barclay Martin
10:00 p.m. - Softee
11:00 p.m. - Cowboy Indian Bear
12:00 a.m. - The Irietions
1:00 a.m. - Adam Lee and the Dead Horse Sound Co.

6. Pitch Sponsor Area (the parking lot south of McCoy's)
8:00 p.m. - Howard Iceberg
9:00 p.m. - Mark Lowrey [note: will be joined by friends, expect street party]
10:00 p.m. - David Seume

Go suck a reindeer, Christmas. The Pitch Music Showcase is the most wonderful night of the year. I'm super-excited for tonight's extravaganza in Westport -- 28 solid, sound, local musical acts across six stages ... I don't think I can even fully fathom how good we have it.​

And we wouldn't have jack without the efforts of a whole crop of great people. I would like to personally thank from the bottom of my KC-lovin' heart our insanely hardworking marketing pros and sales reps, all of tonight's venues and their employees and also our sponsors -- VitaminWater, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Tito's Handmade Vodka, LikeMe.net and Schlafly. Because of these fine companies, all of tonight's acts are getting paid, and, more important, you get to enjoy them for the ridiculously low price of $5.

And thanks to all the musicians, bands, DJs, MCs, their parents, significant others, high school band directors and everyone who taught 'em how to play it real.

I'll keep this short. I just wanted to post a little roundup of links, kinda consolidate the coverage we've done so far ...

The Lineup: for the latest version go here. There will be plenty of handy pocket guides strewn about midtown tonight, but they don't reflect the changes at the Foundry: Andrew Northern has taken the place of Kipsquared, and Tactic is spinning instead of Kiko. (By the way: Northern is opening later tonight for Lady Gaga's DJ, Space Cowboy, at Mint. FYI.)

The Awards. Our Official Showcase Guide contains profiles of all 126 Pitch Awards nominees. Pick it up in this week's Pitch or read it online.

The Voting. If you haven't voted yet, tonight's your last chance. Save a tree and vote online.

The Music. I've posted songs, the vast majority as free MP3 downloads, by every single act playing tonight's showcase. It's organized by venue. Follow the links for free music from the acts playing the Riot Room patio, the Riot Room inside, the Beaumont, McCoy's, the Foundry and our sponsor tent. Because so much of this music is new -- some of it's in various mastering/demo stages -- I'll be removing all of it tomorrow, so don't wait!

The Awards Ceremony. We're giving out trophies to the acts that got the most votes in each of the 21 categories on Sunday, August 16. Admission is $5. London Transit, the Pedaljets, Stik Figa and Making Movies are providing the night's entertainment. For more details, go here.

The Hangover. Yeah. Don't expect much coverage of tonight's action up here tomorrow. There might be a little something to tide you over until Monday, when we'll be posting gobs of photos, videos and thrilling tales. But don't count on much. Tonight is bigger than Jesus for us. If you're a Twitterer, look for intermittent dispatches at the Wayward Tweet.

Now go take a nap. It's gonna be massive.

In this entry: free MP3s from Howard Iceberg, Mark Lowrey and David Seume, who will be performing tonight outside in the parking lot between McCoy's and the Foundry, surrounded by goods and services courtesy of our fabulous sponsors.

The Pitch Music Showcase is TONIGHT! In the meantime, we've been giving you an audio-visual taste of the 28 bands, DJs, rappers and solo artists who are playing for your $5 (buy wristband here) by posting MP3s and photos for, hopefully, all of them. Many of the songs the artists contributed have never been released until now.

Remember, there are many more acts nominated in the awards than just the ones playing on showcase night. Read about all 126 nominees in our Official Showcase Guide.

Venue 6: The Pitch sponsor tent (south of McCoy's and the Foundry)

8 p.m. - Howard Iceberg
MP3: "Sentimental" from November Nights

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In this entry: free MP3s from the Kansas City Bear Fighters, Barclay Martin, Softee, Cowboy Indian Bear, the Irietions and Adam Lee and the Dead Horse Sound Company, playing in that order at showcase venue McCoy's.

The Pitch Music Showcase is this Thursday night. In the meantime, we'll be giving you an audio-visual taste of the 28 bands, DJs, rappers and solo artists who are playing for your $5 (buy wristband here) by posting MP3s and photos for, hopefully, all of them. Many of the songs the artists contributed have never been released until now.

Remember, there are many more acts nominated in the awards than just the ones playing on showcase night. Read about all 126 nominees in our Official Showcase Guide.

8 p.m. - The Kansas City Bear Fighters (country / bluegrass)
MP3: "Graveyard Boogie"

photo: Courtney Masterson

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Featuring mixes from Andrew Northern, Shaun Duval and Tactic, playing at the Foundry at McCoy's.

The Pitch Music Showcase is this Thursday night. In the meantime, we'll be giving you an audio-visual taste of the 28 bands, DJs, rappers and solo artists who are playing for your $5 (buy wristband here) by posting MP3s and photos for, hopefully, all of them.

Remember, there are many more acts nominated in the awards than just the ones playing on showcase night. Read about all 126 nominees in our Official Showcase Guide.

9:30 p.m. - Andrew Northern
MP3: Click here to download or stream Andrew Northern's U:Move mix.

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In this entry: free MP3s from Grand Marquis, SeedLove, Antennas Up, Be/Non, Hammerlord, Roman Numerals and Pet Comfort, playing at the Beaumont.

The Pitch Music Showcase is this Thursday night. In the meantime, we'll be giving you an audio-visual taste of the 28 bands, DJs, rappers and solo artists who are playing for your $5 (buy wristband here) by posting MP3s and photos for, hopefully, all of them. Many of the songs the artists contributed have never been released until now.

Remember, there are many more acts nominated in the awards than just the ones playing on showcase night. Read about all 126 nominees in our Official Showcase Guide.

8 p.m. - Grand Marquis (live act)
MP3: "Paseo Street Strut" from Grand Marquis

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Featuring all-new MP3s from Sailor Sequence, Oriole Post, the Rich Boys, James Christos and Waiting for Signal and classic jam from Thunder Eagle. These bands are playing at the Riot Room.

The Pitch Music Showcase is this Thursday night. In the meantime, we'll be giving you an audio-visual taste of the 28 bands, DJs, rappers and solo artists who are playing for your $5 (buy wristband here) by posting MP3s and photos for, hopefully, all of them today and tomorrow.

Many of the songs the artists contributed have never been released until right here, right now.

Remember, there are many more acts nominated in the awards than just the ones playing on showcase night. Read about all 126 nominees in our Official Showcase Guide.

8 p.m. - Sailor Sequence (indie pop)
MP3: "Salt"

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In this entry: brand-new MP3s from Max Justus and Nomathmatics and a classic from Reach. These acts are playing the Riot Room patio.

The Pitch Music Showcase is this Thursday night. In the meantime, we'll be giving you an audio-visual taste of the 28 bands, DJs, rappers and solo artists who are playing for your $5 (buy wristband here) by posting MP3s and photos for, hopefully, all of them. Many of the songs the artists contributed have never been released until now.

Remember, there are many more acts nominated in the awards than just the ones playing on showcase night. Read about all 126 nominees in our Official Showcase Guide.

9 p.m. - Max Justus (electronic/dance)
MP3: "Bending Space and Time" from No Mercy (Record Machine)

photo: Stack Up Media

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The rumors are true. The one and singular David Wayne Reed will return to the Podium of Power for the second year in a row as host of this year's Pitch Music Awards Ceremony on Sunday, August 16, at the Uptown! 

David Wayne will explicate sexyback. He will discourse upon the ontology of membrane insanity. He will interpret the Lacanian gaze through rose-colored glasses of metal fury. He will palpitate his shingaling and parse your rainbow in the dark. And when he asks Que Pasa, Morena? you will cry out Tu! Tu! (or possibly Hoy! Hoy! because I really don't know what that phrase means). In any case, DWR will. Blow. Your. Fucking. Mind. Comma. Dawg. And he will also give out the awards to the winners of all 21 categories of the music awards. (VOTE!)

As for the musical entertainment, taking the stage at various points throughout the evening will be local acts...
Stik Figa
London Transit
Making Movies
the Pedaljets!

Que Pasa, Morena?

Ticket pricing:
Come to the ceremony just to watch DWR and those bands kick it: $5
Come to the ceremony and hob-nob beforehand and eat and drink with the Kansas City rockerati (a.k.a. "VIP"): $20
Busk outside on the street because your band didn't get nominated: $7, plus we get to laugh and throw bags of leprosy at you.
Come to the VIP and the ceremony and go home with DWR: Unless your last name is Trump or Budweiser, you can't afford it, bitch!

Tickets for the first two items above can be purchased at the Uptown (816-753-8665) or the Pitch office (816-561-6061). The VIP party starts at 6 p.m.; ceremony begins at 8.

Tags: David, DAVID Wayne Reed, David WAYNE Reed, David Wayne REED, David Wayne Reed, DWR, hero worship, idolatry, London Transit, lust, Making Movies, Pedaljets, Reed, Stik Figa, Wayne