1. Art

Factory Ghoul: Cindy Tower's large-scale oil paintings illuminate local relics of the industrial age

By Malcolm Gay

Published: February 27, 2008

Like its East St. Louis location, the Armour meatpacking plant here has seen better days. Once a steam-powered marvel at the vanguard of assembly-line slaughterhouses, the abattoir...

2. Art

St. Louis Art Capsules

Malcolm Gay encapsulates the St. Louis art scene.

By Malcolm Gay

Published: February 27, 2008

Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection Bedding, you say. Yes, bedding. But these quilts, dating from the 1700s to 1850 and on loan from Delaware's Winterthur...

3. B-Sides

B-Sides marches to the beat of a 30-piece punk-rock marching band and explores the history of name-shifting

By Jason Toon and Dean C. Minderman

Published: February 27, 2008

Friends, we got trouble. Right here at the Bluebird. That's trouble with a capital T! And that rhymes with P! And that stands for "punk"! The Chicago-based "astounding circus punk...

4. Cafe

Feel a Draught?: Tigín opens an outpost in a Hampton Inn downtown? O'Really!

By Ian Froeb

Published: February 27, 2008

I've visited restaurants in some strange locations. I've logged probably thousands of miles driving through St. Louis' suburban sprawl, searching for strip-mall gems hidden amid the...

5. Critics' Picks

Ravi Coltrane

8:30 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, February 27 through Saturday, March 1. Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Boulevard.

By Dean C. Minderman

Published: February 27, 2008

If Albert Einstein's son had grown up to become a theoretical physicist, he might have faced a situation comparable to that of jazz saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. Like Einstein, Ravi's...

6. Critics' Picks

The Redwalls

9 p.m. Friday, February 29. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street. $10 advance, $12 day of show

By Shae Moseley

Published: February 27, 2008

In the early part of this decade, Chicago-based rock nostalgists the Redwalls were touted as likely candidates to carry the torch of garage-rock revivalism even further into the mainstream...

7. Critics' Picks

Bill Callahan/Jonathan Meiburg

9:30 p.m. Friday, February 29. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City

By Christian Schaeffer

Published: February 27, 2008

With an affectless baritone voice and sheaves of poignant, idiosyncratic songs, Bill Callahan cut a dashing figure as the man behind Smog, one of first and best one-man bands in the...

8. Critics' Picks

Pattern Is Movement

8:30 p.m. Saturday, March 1. The Gargoyle, on the campus of Washington University at Forsyth and Skinker boulevards

By Shae Moseley

Published: February 27, 2008

Considering the fact that virtually every band has access to or owns its own recording gear these days, it's surprising that adventurous and hypnotizing experiments such as Pattern...

9. Critics' Picks

Pelican

8 p.m. Sunday, March 2. The Gargoyle, on the campus of Washington University at Forsyth and Skinker boulevards

By Ryan Wasoba

Published: February 27, 2008

On paper, Chicago's Pelican is doing everything wrong. The instrumental group plays heavy riffs with clean guitars. It does doom metal in a major key. Lately, it's even traded in the...

10. Critics' Picks

Avenged Sevenfold

5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 5. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St. Charles

By Julie Seabaugh

Published: February 27, 2008

Avenged Sevenfold was just another slightly thuggish bunch of SoCal metalcore wannabes with overly dramatic aliases (M. Shadows, Zacky Vengeance, Synyster Gates) until the bombastic...

11. Critics' Picks

The Felice Brothers

8 p.m. Friday, February 29. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard

By Jaime Lees

Published: February 27, 2008

The Felice Brothers — which is actually three brothers and a non-relative named Christmas — embrace and transcend its Americana roots. On its self-titled debut (out this...

12. Drink of the Week

Achaia Clauss Demestica Red

Spiro's
3122 Watson Road
314-645-8383

By Kristie McClanahan

Published: February 27, 2008

This column was supposed to be about Spiro's Greek Margarita. We were all set to say how the drink was a tug-of-war of flavors between the ouzo and the tequila (two liquors we'd never...

13. DVDish

Move Along, Kids

Justice League: The New Frontier is released on DVD

By Robert Wilonsky and Jordan Harper

Published: February 27, 2008

Justice League: The New Frontier (Warner Bros.)Based on Darwyn Cooke's comic-book miniseries — a masterpiece starring all of DC Comics' major-leaguers at the dawn of their immortality...

14. Feature

Fist City: Rockwell Knuckles aims to punch through St. Louis hip-hop's glass ceiling

By Keegan Hamilton

Published: February 27, 2008

Editor's note: To download mp3 files of Rockwell Knuckles posted at the RFT music blog, A to Z, click here. To see a slideshow that accompanies this story, click here. Countless DVDs...

15. Film

True Story: Columbia's True/False Film Fest hits the half-decade mark

By Aimee Levitt, Ian Froeb, Annie Zaleski, Kristie McClanahan and Chad Garrison

Published: February 27, 2008

Last year's True/False Film Fest in Columbia attracted nearly 15,000 people to the quaint college town. Not bad at all for a five-year-old documentary film festival set in the middle...

16. Game On

Text Adventure: Words get in the way of an otherwise stellar Lost Odyssey

By Gary Hodges

Published: February 27, 2008

Lost Odyssey wants to be Microsoft's answer to Final Fantasy — not that that's such a good idea. Like Star Wars, Final Fantasy survives as a power brand thanks to the shining...

17. Gut Check

Coming, Going, Barking

More openings and closings — and Ian's a cat person, dammit!

By Ian Froeb

Published: February 27, 2008

Some unfinished business concerning last week's review of Three Monkeys ("Curious Gorge," February 21) and the previous week's review of the Original Pancake House ("Griddle Lock,"...

18. Homespun

The Haddonfields

...Get a Nightlife
(Knowhere Records)

By Christian Schaeffer

Published: February 27, 2008

The Haddonfields' Get a Nightlife is a no-muss, no-fuss affair: The Edwardsville band crams seven songs of streamlined pop-punk into a fourteen-minute EP. The four fellows in the band...

19. Keep It Down

Malcolm asks the question of the day: What goes down smoother than a campaign promise?

By Malcolm Gay

Published: February 27, 2008

How can you tell we're in the thick of the primary season? Simple: When a politician gets behind a microphone, he's going to talk about change. Guaranteed. What sort of change? Whatever...

20. Letters

Lighten Up, Dennis: Readers want Dennis Brown to rejoin the rank of the commoners

Published: February 27, 2008

Stage, February 21, 2008 Superior Being Dennis Brown is a smarty pants: It's always so much fun when Dennis Brown tells us how much smarter and more mature he is than the rest of...