Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Beck and Cage the Elephant

Lydia won tickets via Riverfront Times' Instagram to see a couple of really solid bands that I listen to without prompting: Beck and Cage the Elephant.


Cage the Elephant's "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" in particular is one of my favorite songs.


The tickets were for Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre's lawn seating in the back but we turned lemons into lemonade by having a little preshow picnic. Hollywood will often pass out tickets to lawn people to fill in the bad seats to make everything look full. I think we actually snagged a couple of those but were having such a good time on the lawn that we didn't even bother using them.


Cage's frontman Matt Shultz fell over on stage at some point early on and was visibly bleeding out of his head the rest of the set. The show must go on.


I really wanted to see Beck but by the time Cage was finished I had done about as much rocking as 10pm on a Tuesday would allow. I had figured that Beck's set would be a bunch of new stuff I'd never heard of before finally getting to the hits, as is the custom.


But no! Beck came out swinging with the hits.






I soaked up some 90s deliciousness then we hit the road. Things worked out perfectly.


Saturday, July 27, 2019

Lawn Mower Mayhem at the St. Charles County Fair

A work friend of mine has some connections at the St. Charles County Fair and comped us some tickets. Our friends Viry and Lolo are new around these parts and we thought they would especially enjoy this double shot of Americana.
























This was country even for me. I've never seen a riding lawn mower demolition derby before. They were so serious about it here that there were multiple different rankings with... better lawn mowers before the game moved up to full sized cars smashing each other.




A lady passed out and had to be carried out from the stands. Some might say from heat stroke but I would say from freedom stroke.


Lolo had his first corndog.














The local fire department was on hand to extinguish the numerous fires. The fires burned hot like the United State's love of avoiding the metric system.





 




Friday, July 26, 2019

Going Savage in St. Louis

Every once in a while when there's a particular reason to celebrate we go to a fancy restaurant. This time we chose Savage.


The menu had a nice little blurb:

"The heart of Savage Restaurant is defined by the dramatic shift in culinary landscape that we've witnessed over the years. The biggest shift has been a look back into the past for ingredients and techniques to coax out flavors and textures with less manipulation and through more natural processes. The wine world has followed this movement with efforts to use less modern machinery in the vineyards and minimize intervention in the winemaking process. The results in both have brought excitement, challenges and purity to the dining experience. Flavors of savoriness, tartness, earthiness and a little bit of "funk": the offspring of natural, less temperature-controlled fermentations have expanded to what we consider normal flavors and textures. Much like the children from the original Willy Wonka film as they entered the gates to the chocolate factory, we gaze wide-eyed into the present and future possibilities of ingredients flavors and textures by the new vanguard of culinary and wine professionals. All of our beers, wines, and ingredients have been inspired and cultivated through years of travel, education, and personal experience.

"The strawberries taste like strawberries. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries! - Willy Wonka"


But none of this really matters unless you're having fun. So stop reading and start drinking."


I liked the layout of the place. All of the seating is in a big square around the kitchen where the chef and his helpers scurry around. I was excited because I'd read that chef-owner Logan Ely liked to cook with ants and other insects. I got there and asked my server what the bug courses would be and she said none. "Chef doesn't want to get pegged as a bug guy". Cool.


So you buy a set course menu without knowing what they are. Which is fine because I like surprises but then it's difficult to remember what the heck every was. It was fun anyway.






This was a beet chicharone.












I think this was yeast puree.












I thought the little Willy Wonka picture in the bathroom was a nice touch.