Cover Story
Restaurant noise: Please turn down the volume!
Bourbons Bistro on Frankfort Avenue has a small, but very comfortable covered porch featuring a wood-burning fireplace that makes it especially welcoming on crisp spring or fall evenings. The space is wonderfully conducive to civilized conversation accompanied by a flight of bourbon, no matter that every once in a while, a freight train rumbles by…
10 under $5 – What To Do This Week In Louisville (6/11)
MONDAY Book Discussions at LFPL Louisville Free Public Library, Downtown and Middletown Free | 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. If you’re into comic books, head to the downtown library at 6 p.m. for a group discussion of the crime comics of Ed Brubaker, who is known for his modern-noir comics. Or, if you are more…
Photos and a review of Shilpa Ray’s wide-ranging Zanzabar concert
The first thing I asked Shilpa Ray on Thursday night, when I saw her outside Zanzabar, was whether she found the hot chicken she’d been looking for on the Southern leg of her tour. In Nashville, she said. Being from Brooklyn, she must have found this Southern standby exotic, and she seemed surprised when I’d…
Kitchen Rant: Anthony Bourdain, unabashed, unfiltered… regular
9:06 a.m. That’s what time I wake up every day. I don’t know why that’s a thing. I haven’t set an alarm in years. I have a routine. I wake up, stretch, groan. I move my body in ways it isn’t supposed to move — a fruitless attempt to crack the parts that hurt. Once…
Chew On This: 8 Burgers To Try This Summer
This week, 80/20 at Kaelin’s opened where the original Kaelin’s did business for 70 years. Kaelin’s claim to fame had been as the self-proclaimed inventor of the cheeseburger. We know LEO food critic Robin Garr will hit the new Kaelin’s soon. Until then, we thought it would be worth looking at his previous recommendations. Whiskey Dry Fourth…
5 Things To Do This Weekend In Louisville (6/8)
FRIDAY Coat Check Pool Party American-Turners-Louisville $12 | 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Coat Check Pool Party is the self-proclaimed “undisputed heavyweight champ of tight vibe parties.” It’s a pool party with live music by Sam Sneed, McKinley Moore, DJ HI-Definition and Travis and Lisa of Guestroom Records. No outside beverages are allowed, but plenty of drinks…
Local Restaurants?: a sounds sampling
Please note that sometimes a room’s design can mean that even when the decibel reading is fairly high, conversation at a table can still be relatively quiet. This may have to do with the height of the ceiling and other factors. And even usually-quiet restaurants can get loud if boisterous customers sit nearby. A reading…
Statue report due by June 30
As the Public Arts and Monuments Advisory Committee winds down its public comment meetings, its members are preparing to release a report by the end of the month that will help decide the fate of current and future pieces. The report is not expected to recommend a fate for the statue memorializing John B. Castleman,…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best & Most Absurd
Alas, Poor Alley Theater… | Rose If we had a sad rose, we would give it to The Alley Theater, which announced this week it is closing after 25 years. “We simply aren’t selling enough tickets to pay our bills these days, and the couple of us that have supplemented the bottom line with our…
Sex Juice’s ‘70s funk-inspired fake soundtrack
Martial arts-instructing extraterrestrials. A gold-hearted, pseudo pimp. Revenge against a crew that took out a family member. These are all plot points in Tammy, a ’70s funk-inspired soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist by the band Sex Juice. The brainchild of Jeremy Perry (The Deloreans) and Zach Driscoll (Maximon), Sex Juice started as a…
Shilpa Ray’s songwriting is distinct and direct
When I phoned Shilpa Ray, she was at a Valvoline in Iowa, the temperature 100 degrees, getting the oil changed on the band’s day off. “Touring is so glamorous, isn’t it?” she laughed. But this disregard of glamour ultimately defines her music. The title of her newest album, Door Girl, is ultimately eponymous: Shilpa Ray,…
Record Review: Touch AC x Filthy Rich – ‘Doomsday Sun’
It’s remarkable that Doomsday Sun, Touch AC’s recent EP with producer Filthy Rich is darker than Death, the full length he released with Dr. Dundiff earlier this year, but such is the case. There is a grittiness soaked into the bones of the music, from the beats and samples to Touch’s apocalyptic rhymes. There are…
Record Review: Roadie – ‘Unfamiliar Skies’
When singer Ray Rizzo sings, “I find comfort in the stillness of the night,” there is a quiet calm, a musing not only on the ever-shifting landscape that serves as the album’s dominant theme, but also as a meditation on living in the moment. Roadie is polished and smooth, but never safe, with the soft…
Record Review: Hot Wires – ‘Dark Energy’
Through hazy, psychedelic garage rock, The Hot Wires have constructed a straightforward rock-and-roll machine that is capable of clever twists and turns. There are songs that crank the throttle all the way through, and there are others that breathe a little more, building and falling, but whichever route they take, the big, driving riffs are…
Record Review: Bret Berry – ‘Gestures’
Gestures is a series of sonic vignettes that explores a variety of themes through composer Bret Berry’s expansive range, including found sounds, piano interludes and maximalist leanings. Berry evokes artists ranging from John Cage to Oneohtrix Point Never, creating a conceptual safe space with no real boundaries. While there are a whooping 55 tracks in…
‘Comedy of Errors’ invites trouble,? Alley Theater to close after 25 years
America would be a different — and arguably better — place if high school English classes studied “The Comedy of Errors,” instead of cautionary tragedies such as “Julius Caesar” (which still afflicts my wife, Mary, with academic delayed stress syndrome) and “Romeo and Juliet.” Of course, studying “Errors” would entail discussions of bawdy humor, easy…
Artesano bounces back from Spring flood
Certainly, no one expected the monsoon-like rain storm and hail that smashed across Westport Road in February, dealing the restaurant a damaged roof and flooded dining room. The repair job took about two months and the occasion for a reboot prompted a new look, some new dishes and a new executive chef, Brian Curry, who…
Brunch dance party at The Butchertown Social
When brunch comes to mind, most of us picture something between hastily pouring ourselves out of bed to consume nourishment that will soak up some of last night’s poor decisions (“please, god, no one speak of Fernet,”) and dutifully meeting up with friends around a pitcher of mimosas and that trendy eatery’s newest take on…
Turkeys still can’t fly, but the turkey wings at Garage Bar are massive
When someone says the word, “turkey,” chances are you think of Thanksgiving. Hey, this is America and that’s a very American holiday. Next to my mind, however, is the quote, “As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.” That’s for you “WKRP in Cincinnati” fans. And it’s true, they can’t. (Well, at least…
Why We Ride: Bicyclist Profile — Barry Zalph, Commuter
“The bicycle is a vehicle for revolution. It can destroy the tyranny of the automobile as effectively as the printing press brought down despots of flesh and blood.” —Daniel Behrman, “The Man Who Loved Bicycles” If you are keeping your eyes open for cyclists, as you should be, then hopefully you have seen Barry Zalph…
Savage Love: Shameful
Q: I’ve been married to my husband for two years. Five months into our relationship (before we got married), he confessed that he was an adult baby. I was so grossed out, I was literally ill. (Why would this great guy want to be like this?) I told him he would have to choose: diapers…
Is Louisville a police city or compassionate city? It is up to you
When Louisville Metro Council votes on the city budget on June 28, it will show whether we are a compassionate city, or a police state. As it stands, 39.6 percent of the proposed budget, $256,166,000, is going to law enforcement including Louisville Metro Police Department, Youth Detention Services, the Department of Corrections and the Criminal…
West of Ninth: People, in their own words… (6/6)
April 28, 2018 Al, director of the River City Drum Corp Park DuValle “I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. My dad is from Louisville. His family was one of the first families to move in Cotter Homes, when they first opened it up. My grandfather was a veteran, and they was setting up Cotter Homes…
LEO — not always first,? always more interesting.
Interesting. Provocative. Informative. Useful. Confrontational. Funny. Irreverent… These have been hallmarks of LEO Weekly through almost all of its 28 years, especially in the beginning. While other news media spend their time trying to catch each other — or be each other — LEO has watched from the stands, throwing bon mots, brickbats, backstories, bombs…
