This Saturday, the Pageant celebrates its tenth birthday with a concert by Chuck Berry. $35 general admission tickets are still available; balcony seats are sold out. The show starts at 8 p.m. with a set from Shooting With Annie.
In the venue's lengthy history (a PDF listing its shows is a whopping 125 pages), certain acts crop up again and again: Better Than Ezra, They Might Be Giants, Cowboy Mouth, Old 97's and Edwin McCain, to name a few.
Some shows are notorious for all the wrong reasons: The Human League's 2003 appearance suffered after Phil Oakey lost his voice, Scott Weiland's 2008 solo headlining date disappointed long-time STP fans and some people are still mad that Lenny Kravitz insisted on no air conditioning in 2005.
In hindsight, other shows are more poignant: Ike Turner & the Kings of Rhythm (with Oliver Sain & the St. Louis Allstars opening!) performed in 2001. Two months before he died, comedian Mitch Hedberg appeared with Stephen Lynch. And an April 2005 Johnnie Johnson Benefit Concert featured Chuck Berry, Henry Townsend, Bennie Smith and Barbara Carr. And of course, the Pageant's support for local acts -- everyone from the Urge and El Monstero to Gravity Kills and, of course, Nelly has performed there -- is also something worth noting and commending.
In the spirit of celebration, here are ten memorable shows in the Pageant's ten-year history. A word of warning, though: A few acts (Flaming Lips, the White Stripes, the Fray and the Roots, we're looking at you) have so many good Pageant shows, choosing one was too difficult, and so they're not on the list. In no particular order:
OutKast, March 19, 2001 Opening Act: Ludacris Barely five months after Stankonia launched OutKast into the mainstream stratosphere -- and a month after "Ms. Jackson" hit the top of the Billboard singles chart -- OutKast sold the venue out. While people always moan that popular acts skip over St. Louis, this show was a case of right place, right time.
