Record Store Day @ Vintage Vinyl, St. Louis, MO

Words and pictures by Duane Clawson

I'll be the first to admit the fact that I have not bought an album in a long, long time but nonetheless, I still love music in all forms and that is what Record Store Day should be considered: a celebration of music. I found myself running late but still caught some great music. I made it just in time to catch the last couple of songs from a heavy duty set by St. Louis' own Bruiser Queen. A crowd began to gather at the corner of Delmar and Leland for the afternoon's next performer, Josh Ritter. Josh along with Zach Hickman, performed a quick 30-minute set on a small stage in front of Vintage Vinyl. This was a warm up set for Mr. Ritter who was playing later that evening at Plush and promoting his latest effort, The Beast In Its Tracks. Ritter seemed overwhelmed by the response of the Vintage audience's knowledge of his musical repertoire.

Unfortunately, I had to take a short break but would return in roughly an hour to catch Mathias & The Pirates' entertaining set of rapping goodness. Following Mathias, I finally got witness a set from the homegrown duo, Brothers Lazaroff. Brothers reminded everyone that the St. Louis music scene is alive well with their inventive song-writing abilities and a melding of various musical genres. Rounding out this cool but beautiful afternoon of music for me was the hip hop artist Black Spade, named as a St. Louis hip hop artist to watch in 2103. I gotta tip my hat to Spade who performed like a champ through microphone issues and weak 5 o'clock audience. Thanks to Vintage Vinyl for hosting a great event and lining up a diverse group of musicians. Photos of the event are below:

Bruiser Queen