Winston-Salem, North Carolina, June 30-July 2: Heavy Rebel Weekend is a three-day-long festival featuring 70 of America's best rock & roll bands. Our good friends and labelmates the 7 Shot Screamers headlined, and the Vultures played the main stage on the second day. St. Louis shined in Winston-Salem. The 7 Shot Screamers played the most incredible sets I'd seen them play; everybody in the building was going crazy. The Vultures were no different. When they walked on for their set the next day, it was only us kids from St. Louis watching. By the end, everybody in the room was screaming with them. Chris from the 7 Shot Screamers won the upright bass slap-off competition, and Ryan from the Vultures finished second in the guitar contest, beating out at least fifteen other guitar players that were twice his age. People were talking about St. Louis all weekend long.
Asheville, North Carolina, July 4: Played a basement party tonight at a guy named Disco Dave's house to celebrate our nation's independence. The night started and ended with 40s and bottle rockets, and everything in between was great. We blew up mini sticks of dynamite while the Vultures played and sang Misfits songs with the local band, the Crimson Regrets. In between sets, our new buddy Pokey LaFarge picked some blues for everybody. We met Pokey while he was playing on the street the day before. This kid is incredible; he sounds like Robert Johnson. When he's not playing the streets of Asheville, he plays mandolin for the Hackensaw Boys, who had just played at the Pageant a couple of weeks before. He had taken us out to a lake, and we stayed up until the sun rose while talking about how he mastered time travel and how Ryan could shoot lasers out of his eyes.
Washington, D.C., July 6: We had just left the club when we got a phone call from Satan's Boys & Girls Club, the band that booked the show. They were apparently locked in the club because the owner and door guy thought one of our bands had stolen a microphone. When we showed up, they were threatening to call the police and everybody was screaming at everybody. The singer from Satan's Boys & Girls Club was about to fight the door guy before we all were finally able to drag him away and get everyone out of the club. A fight would have been bad; the door guy was about ten feet tall and looked like a catfish out of the extra-polluted end of the Mississippi River.
Knox, Indiana, and Seymour, Indiana, July 11 & 12: Not even Spielberg could have written a crappier way for these two shows to turn out. A kid from Indiana had heard we were coming through and wanted to book us a VFW show. When we showed up, he told us in near-tears that the bass player in the opening band died in a drunk driving accident and the singer was in prison for driving the car that killed him. The entire city was torn apart and we eventually just bought the kid a tank of gas and watched some Pee-Wee Herman with him to thank him for his efforts before we skipped out. The next day we arrived in Seymour and found that the club owner was missing. I got him on the phone and learned that he freaked out about something and skipped town. Don't ever trust the hometown of John Mellencamp.
— As told to Annie Zaleski
The Vultures at Magee's, 4500 Clayton Avenue. $7. 9 p.m. Wednesday, August 9. 314-535-8061.
Rock 'n' Scroll
The RDS (Radio Data System) scroll that's featured on newer car stereos is the best thing to happen to the radio since those wacky Morning Zoo guys: It identifies the artist, the name of the song on the air and often some promo slogan for the station. An increasing number of St. Louis stations now have this feature — and while it's great to see Mungo Jerry and Anthrax happily traipsing across the display, why stop there? On a recent Tuesday, we tracked what some local stations have on their RDS — and suggested some additions of our own, each tailored to fit the station's target audience.
Station: KEZK (102.5 FM)
Genre: Soft rock
Slogan: Your
stress-free zone
Scroll: The Stress Free Driving Zone/Family Friendly Music & Info
Add: Remember to schedule next gynecological exam
Station: KSHE (94.7 FM)
Genre: Hard rock
Slogan: Real rock radio
Scroll: Bob and Tom Mornings/KSHE 95 Rockin' 38 Years
Add: Clean tats, erect Sammy Hagar statue
Station: KPNT (105.7 FM)
Genre: New Rock
Slogan: Everything alternative
Scroll: Rover mornings/Thom & Jeff daily @ 2PM on 105-7 the POINT!
Add: No one cares that you met Faith No More at Pointfest 2
Station: KIHT (96.3 FM)
Genre: Classic Rock
Slogan:
Classic Hits
Scroll: JC & U-Man mornings/ Classic Rock All Day 96.3
Add: Find Little Feat T-shirt from '96 VP Fair, hand wash
Station: WARH (106.5)
Genre: Rock Variety
Slogan: '70s, '80s, and Whatever We Want
Scroll: TheArch/Whatever We Want
Add: Vacuum stairs, rearrange magnets on fridge, jump on trampoline, enroll in metalworking class, eat entire tub of chocolate ice cream, pick up ADD medicine at Schnucks.... — Kristie McClanahan
St. Louis Scene Trading Cards
Name: Shauna Kapica
Age: 26
High School: Collinsville High School, Collinsville, Illinois
Can Be Found: Kapica is a freelance audio engineer at area clubs. She also sells equipment at Swing City Music in Edwardsville and plays bass guitar in This Is the News and Fire of 1000 Suns.
Career Highlight: Cheer-Accident and US Maple have been her favorite bands to sound-mix.
Fun Fact: Shauna can fit her entire fist in her mouth — and does so proudly.
