Kansas City music fans got a rare treat when the recordBar hosted The Latenight Callers for the Lost Weekend Brunch, featuring the complete brunch menu and their famous (in certain circles, anyway) Bloody Mary bar and generous pours. If you aren’t familiar with either the recordBar (located at 1020 Westport Rd., on the northwest corner of Westport Rd. and Southwest Trafficway) nor The Latenight Callers, get acquainted with both. The bar has been around for just over eight years and is Kansas City’s premier live music venue, and the band pretty much invented the noir a go-go genre.
It was a rare free show—rare for both the band and the bar. The music got started about 12:30 pm and the band played two sets. It wasn’t too loud, so the folks who were there for brunch and conversation weren’t crushed by a wall of sound, but the people who were there for the music weren’t disappointed either, because the band brought their A-Game to a brunch show. Krysztof Nemeth never missed a note on lead guitar, Nick Combs was smooth as silk with the melody lines on the keyboards and percussion—don’t ask how he pulled it off, just accept the fact that he managed to do so and move on—Gavin Mac kept the groove on bass, and Julie Berndsen vamped it up like nobody’s business while belting out hypnotic vocals; and she looked divine, in a red sweater dress and black beret. She looked as if she had stepped off the page of a Neiman Marcus catalog, circa 1945—and as Martha Stewart would say, “that’s a good thing.”
All in all, it was a treat for all the senses. The food served at the recordBar is probably the best bar food in town, and in Kansas City, that is a pretty bold statement, but one I’m willing to go out on a limb and make. The atmosphere at recordBar is always cordial and pleasant, which is definitely a reflection on the owners Shawn Sherrill and Steve Tulipana, and the staff they have hired. Shawn and Steve deserve every bit of the success they’ve had, and more. Two nicer guys you’ll be hard-pressed to find anywhere, and when you consider that they are in the live music business, it approaches unicorn rarity.
The Lost Weekend Brunch was the first Saturday brunch the recordBar has hosted, and the only one the bar has ever hosted with live music, but based on the turnout, it was quite a success and something they ought to consider doing regularly… if not weekly, perhaps they will do it once a month. I know that every one they host, I will attend, and you should, too.
–Tammy Booth/Blue Girl
Tammy also blogs for They Gave Us A Republic and Show Me Progress.