Season to Risk

Talk about influence. For a time there in the '90s, it seemed that people in the Midwest were even sneezing differently — louder, more dissonant, more staccato — because of bands like the Jesus Lizard, Shiner and Molly McGuire. One of the weirdest and most jagged of these first-wave acts, Season to Risk, arose in Kansas City in 1989, converting primal backbeats, metal-shearing guitar and grinding, distorted bass into a bed of shattered musical glass for manic singer Steve Tulipana to prance upon barefoot. Touring for the better part of nine years, releasing two albums on Columbia Records, a couple more on Thick and appearing as a demented house band in the post-apocalyptic movie Strange Days, S2R had an intense run that flamed out after 2001's The Shattering. Though its members have gone on to other projects (Tulipana co-owns KC venue the Record Bar and plays in Roman Numerals with S2R bassist Billy Smith), the band has reunited for one show every year since the breakup. Because 2009 marks its twentieth anniversary, Season is risking a five-city tour across the Midwest. Bring your own Kleenex.