School yourself a little bit on the life and exploits of Molly Hatchet, often deemed "the South's most infamous prostitute," and it becomes obvious why five men in Jacksonville, Florida would decide to name their band after her.
Legend has it that Hatchet worked the streets of Virginia and the Carolinas, leaving a trail of headless men in her wake. As irresistible as a siren straight out of Greek mythology, she would lure lonely men into her lair, wow them with her wiles and then lop their heads off. For fun? As punishment for taking part in the Civil War? For simply being alive durin... Read more

Blood Brothers is a dark, grown-up fairy tale about poverty, class division and mental illness. Written by British writer Willy Russell (who also wrote Shirley Valentine and Educating Rita), the plot follows twin brothers (Ennis Brown and Kibwe Cooper) separated at birth. Fate repeatedly brings them together, and the horrible pact made by the boys' biological mother and her employer results in tragedy.
Jake Wilhelm assembled an incredibly talented cast for this production. Debbie Moore exudes warmth and maternal love as Mrs. Johnstone, the impoverished single mother of seven in... Read more

"Twist and Shout." "It's Your Thing." "Fight the Power." "For the Love of You."
These are just a few of the hits the Isley Brothers have contributed to America's rich and varied rock n' roll canon, and they'll be at MacMillan Park Saturday, August 19 at 7:30 p.m. for a free show. You read that right. Free show. MacMillen Park. The Isley Brothers will be in our own backyard, reminding audiences why they are one of the country's most beloved and popular acts.
The Brothers started performing in the 50s at their church in the suburbs of Cincinnati. Originally a quartet made of up Ve... Read more

Imagine it's 1969 and a 7-year-old girl is on the cusp of discovering pop music and becoming a somewhat rabid record collector. Too young to be able to buy a record herself, she is forced to take her first possession of the No. 1 hit of the day, "Sugar Sugar," however she can get it. And she can get it on the back of a sugary cereal box. It may not be high fidelity, but if you put it on a turntable, it will play.
This is the brilliant and insidious way that the Archies came to be in many households throughout the country.
Of course, Archie was a household fixture long before th... Read more

The Soul Lounge, who will take the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory stage Friday, August 18 as part of the venue's Botanical Roots concert series, got their start in Fort Wayne thanks to founder Brian Kelly.
The dudes from the Lounge now call Indianapolis home, and they jam there each week, sometimes covering their favorite acts (Prince; Earth, Wind, and Fire), other times working their way through some blistering originals.
Adding to the funky ambiance is the band's brand spanking horn section. They're currently working on their debut album.
In the meantime, t... Read more

Fort Wayne's annual Taste of the Arts, now entering it's ninth year, has become a popular centerpiece to the growing arts campus downtown. With a wide variety of free arts experiences and a multiple culinary offerings available for just a few $1 tickets, it's easy to see why Fort Wayne folks love to gather downtown the last weekend of August.
Despite their success over the past eight years, Taste of the Arts organizers haven't stood pat, content to maintain the same experience each year. In fact last year the organizers at Arts United decided to try something a little different, and it... Read more

Comedian Doug Stanhope almost always performs drunk, or "well into his cups," as they say in places where alcohol is served in cups, apparently.
That's because he said he needs to numb himself to an essential fraudulence that he sees in stand-up comedy - the idea that every audience wants to think the evening's jokes were written specifically for them and that the comedian's routine is closer to an off-the-cuff conversation than a well-rehearsed speech.
"That's why, except for very rare occasions, I'll never do two shows in a row or two shows back to back," Stanhope said in a ... Read more

Omaha, Alaska dropped their debut self-titled LP a mere nine months ago. It was a pop-inflected, singer/songwriter confessional affair about endings and new beginnings. C. Ray Harvey's new musical project seemed to be the baroque musical adventure we knew (or at least hoped) he'd follow up his Heaven's Gateway Drugs tenure with.
With not even a year under that debut album's belt and Omaha, Alaska have returned with a follow-up called Visitor Center & Gift Shop. Where that debut sounded like Harvey laying out some pretty heavy personal stuff with talented friends helping him bring those... Read more

Recently, I said goodbye to the neighborhood near downtown where I had lived for 15 years and moved to the north side of Fort Wayne off Carroll Road. With this move comes a lot of change, both good and bad: a longer commute, but a bigger and newer house; fewer trees, but nicer roads and sidewalks; it's farther from downtown, but a quieter atmosphere and friendly neighbors. Perhaps the biggest change is the local restaurant scene. I had to say goodbye to my usual haunts, but I get to search for new ones. First on my list was pizza. Everyone needs a go-to pizza joint, and we found ours!
... Read more

After a yearlong stage hiatus, Debbie Moore is back in the spotlight.
A lifelong Fort Wayne resident, Moore says her parents, Anthony and Deborah Kirkland, "had their hands full when it came to me as a child."
Not only was she energetic and inquisitive, she says, "I came into this world ready to be heard. I wanted to be the spotlight everywhere I went."
To give her a more formal outlet for her energies as well as her musical interest, her mother signed her up for piano and voice lessons when she was five years old. She soon was on to the Fort Wayne Children's Choir wit... Read more

Many musicians will tell you that choosing a band name is hard. Among them would be Jerry Albright, singer and leader of Rain Kings. So did they choose their name from the Counting Crows song or from the Saul Bellow novel, Henderson the Rain King, which inspired the song?
"Both really," says Albright.
Choosing a name may have been tricky, but by the time the Rain Kings reached that point, they had already spent a fair amount of time figuring out what they wanted to play and why. In fact, choosing a set of songs was their focus for the first year or so they played together.
... Read more

Not often do you find yourself standing in front of someone who you can instantly feel would a be good person to know, a "one piece of advice from them and it changes your whole outlook on life" kind of person.
When that someone is in a basement full of friends, belting out songs that are familiar yet yearningly original with everyone around you singing along, that feeling intensifies. And when you get so caught up in the moment that you don't realize the person isn't using a microphone or an amp to fill the dingy, dirt-floor room with modern folk music that makes you long for a time d... Read more

For Jon Durnell, music as a vocation came later than it does for some. Focusing on athletics as a kid and playing baseball in college, he knew a sports career wasn't in the offing. Looking for something to do when his free time was no longer filled with practices and games, he decided to learn to play the guitar.
While many before him have picked up an instrument as a hobby in adulthood, few have parlayed that into a professional career. In fact, Durnell now devotes all his time to music, performing solo, in a few duos and in two bands. The Jon Durnell Band plays with some frequency an... Read more

Art has a way of sweeping us up as children, letting us ride its wave as far as we are willing to go.
For some, the wave never becomes more than an assignment or rainy day activity. Some of us are intrigued but hop off the wave at different spots during elementary, middle or high school.
Others of us ride it our whole lives.
For John Hrehov, the wave came early. Now an avid painter and illustrator, Hrehov's use of color, symmetry and perfectionism is inspired by the world around him.
The wave caught up with Hrehov while growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. His interes... Read more

Is there such a thing as too much sushi? If there is, I haven't reached that threshold. I could eat it every day, I love it that much.
So, it's good news for me - and sushi lovers like me - that so many new Asian restaurants have opened in the past few years. A few weeks ago I finally had a chance to make it to Shoccu after drooling over pictures posted by friends on social media.
Shoccu is tucked into a strip mall at the corner of Illinois and Scott roads. Despite this, I was surprised by how small the place is; there are just a few standalone tables and some tables with benc... Read more

With downtown Fort Wayne bustling, it's easy to forget that Jefferson Pointe once served as a sort of surrogate for a vibrant downtown.
When the innovative shopping center opened in the summer of 2001, downtown Fort Wayne was not characterized by an excess of foot traffic.
The refurbished Grand Wayne Center would not open until 2005, and baseball wouldn't be played at Parkview Field until 2009.
Jefferson Pointe debuted as one of about five dozen "lifestyle centers" in the United States. It was an open-air mall designed to mimic a quaint yet peppy town where one could sau... Read more

Melissa Junkin Shaw was a child of many contradictions. She loved to read and made good grades in school but was a "frequent flyer in detention" due to her talkative nature and class-clown tendencies. She was girly, but not a tomboy, "digging for worms in a sequined Lisa Frank ensemble and purple Reebok pumps." Although she was taller than all the boys in school and seemed "destined for a future in athletics," she lacked the required coordination and love of sports ("My first C in school was in gym class, but I was cheerleading captain in 8th grade," she recalls).
But even as a child,... Read more

Those who remember and frequented Mitchell's Sports Bar when it was located in the Marketplace of Canterbury would agree that it was the best sports bar in town. With its amazing atmosphere, food and service, it quickly became the new hot spot to go cheer on your favorite teams or gather and dine with family and friends. Sadly, in March of 2013 it came to an end in an unimaginable fire that engulfed the entire sports bar and also caused major damage to Piere's Entertainment Center, just one month after the passing of Piere's owner Stan Liddell, Todd Smith's longtime business partner, mentor a... Read more

Theatre professionals and amateurs alike often find it hard to balance their lives and their passion. Kat Hickey has found a way to make it work.
Hickey grew up in Akron, Ohio as the oldest of three children and the only daughter. Hers was a close-knit family. Between the car-ride duets with her mom and her dad's collection of Motown, Beatles and R&B records, her parents instilled a love of music in her from an early age, although she is a first-generation performer.
She grew up as Kathy Rapp, a serious, bookish perfectionist with plenty of acquaintances but few close friends.... Read more

Ian Skeans and Kiah Gerig are the two members of Shade, a local "grumble rock" band who you can find playing frequently at the Brass Rail, Skeletunes Lounge, CS3 and a variety of house shows.
When Gerig started posting on social media shortly after his band Wickerwolves went on indefinite hiatus, Skeans responded, not even knowing if Gerig would be interested. After writing a song during their first practice, the two decided it sounded good enough as it was.
"At first we didn't even want it to be a two-piece," said Gerig. "We talked about the project with a couple of other peo... Read more

As band names go, Oferle is a great one. It evokes the word "offer" but with an enigmatic twist suggesting, perhaps, an offer with unspecified strings attached.
As it turns out, Oferle is the last name (minus an "f") of two of the band's three members: siblings Annette and Luke Offerle.
A third member, Jonah Baker, is a cousin.
"I am half-Offerle," he said.
And it's pronounced "Oh-feerle" not "Off-erle."
Oferle have been accumulating fans and accolades of late. The band took first place in an Indianapolis singer-songwriter competition, and it was named o... Read more

This is a bit of a departure from my typical restaurant reviews, but there's a new rising star in our midst that I simply have to write about. Late last year a new ice cream shop, Yummi Bunni, opened a few doors down from Fort Wayne's Famous Coney Island on Main Street, and it has had a line out the door, literally, ever since. I have visited several times and have always had to wait - once for over an hour on a Saturday night. The line was out the door and wrapped halfway around the building! So what's all the fuss about?
This hip little ice cream shop offers an array of interesting f... Read more

If you want to celebrate some achievement in your life or curse some setback in Irish wake fashion, your best bet would be to get a bunch of friends together and go see the Fort Wayne Funk Orchestra.
Calling them one of Fort Wayne's best party bands doesn't really do justice to the excellence of their playing and the synergy among players.
But the band sure does know how to throw a party.
The Fort Wayne Funk Orchestra are releasing their first CD, Funk Band for the Common Man, and are commemorating this occasion with a party on February 4 at Columbia Street West.
... Read more

In late 2016, a new restaurant opened in Coliseum Plaza, which houses Jungle George's and a handful of other small businesses, on Parnell Avenue. Nella's Coffee & Grill is a Bosnian restaurant with a small but tasty menu.
Bosnia is located in southeastern Europe and bordered by Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Its cuisine is influenced by the former Yugloslavia and other Middle Eastern countries. Several years ago, I traveled to Greece, and many of the items on Nella's menu remind me of dishes I enjoyed there: savory and comforting, with special attention paid to the seasonings and sau... Read more

Fort Wayne, Marion and Lafayette. These are the three cities that comprise Three Cities, a quartet of musicians and friends from different parts of Indiana who name Led Zeppelin, Queen, Rush and Deep Purple as some of their many inspirations. Three Cities are dedicated to not only represent the classic rock era of the 70s, but are also helping to keep the hard rock spirit of those bands alive and well in a musical climate where EDM, rap and pop enjoy wide commercial popularity.
Originating in late 2013, Three Cities came together when guitarist Patrick Brown contacted a longtime frien... Read more

Ruins Of The Oybin Monastery (Caspar David Friedrich)

The monastery, a home of belief --
It doesn't matter which -- slowly decays.
The roof beams go first, nothing wooden stays.
Moss paints the stone arches in bas-relief,
Images of dead and forgotten grief.
We live in roofless rooms with a sly thief,
Who steals, first our parents and eldest friends,
Then our useless youth, which he quickly spends.
Our music and books are replaced with fakes,
Our mirrors with odd faces, double takes.
Though I could not kill the thi... Read more

Fort Wayne is fortunate to have several beautiful and historic homes and buildings in all corners of the city. Preserving them has been an ongoing endeavor, and many have become cornerstones to the improvements and growth the community has seen in the last decade or two. Of all of the city's notable structures, perhaps none are more magical and majestic than the building once occupied by the Mossman family at 1202 West Wayne Street. Built in 1905, the home was donated by the family almost half a century later to be used as the home for Fort Wayne's Museum of Art. When the museum moved to the ... Read more

When I listen to Slow Dakota's The Ascension of Slow Dakota, I imagine some room hidden off in an endless, storied estate. It's a room with hints of light seeping through the pulled blinds, and within the stained wood walls it feels as if you've stumbled across square footage time forgot. The musty smell of aged book pages, withered leather chairs and maybe pipe tobacco lingers in the air. A spotless grand piano sits in the corner, along with fading composition pages with poems attempted but abandoned long ago.
Fort Wayne-born and -bred PJ Sauerteig's Slow Dakota is a passion project t... Read more