On the Beat at Wizard World St. Louis

I spent the last weekend in St. Louis, immersed in pop culture greatness at Wizard World. I have been a faithful attendee of Wizard World Chicago for many years, adding Columbus last year and St. Louis this year, to my calendar. With Wizard World Chicago being so much fun, I just had to add other cities.

The headliner this year was Gene Simmons, one of the founding members of Kiss, my first favorite rock band. Kiss “Rock And Roll Over” was the first album I ever bought and I was excited about meeting the rock legend.

As we waited for our moment to join Simmons for a photo, I saw him interacting with everyone as much as possible within the confines of the situation. He seemed to have a special rapport with the youngsters, too. When our time came, Simmons greeted and thanked us. He even made small talk about the weather. That is about as much as one could get in a photo op set up. Meeting Simmons was as cool and surreal as it gets. It wasn’t just nostalgia either. As Simmons would prove at Saturday’s concert, he is still rocking.

Simmons wasn’t the only celebrity musical guest with ties to my youth. Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork of the Monkees were also appearing. Both men were very fan-friendly and personable. Both also had a great assortment of merchandise available for purchase. Their booths were two of the best overall booths I have ever seen.

Other celebrity guests included Nichelle Nichols, Butch Patrick, Michael Rooker, Charisma Carpenter, Ian Somerhalder, James Marsters, Kevin Conroy, Randy Orton and more. It was a star-studded lineup and every guest was a pleasure to meet.

Artist Alley was full of the usual assortment of authors, artists and creators of all sorts. I met some of my old favorites, like Victor Dandridge, Dan Dougherty, Chris Ehnot and more. I also made some new friends, including Mike Czerwonka, Michael Calero, Nate Jones and others.

Continuing the musical theme, 97.5 FM The Rock was on site playing the best classic rock from the 1960’s through today. We met General Manager Elaine McNamara and on-air personality Jack Davis. The level of energy and great rock music from their booth provided a perfect backdrop to the convention.

On Saturday night, we enjoyed a Gene Simmons concert at the Pageant. Opened in 2000, the Pageant is a very cool concert venue seating up to 2,300 people. It was built for intimate concerts and has fantastic sightlines and awesome acoustics. It is one of those places that just feels cool.

As Simmons kicked off the show with “Deuce,” I was immediately that kid listening to my Kiss albums again. By the time he finished with a little Chuck Berry tribute, Simmons had once again proven why he is one of the greatest. He is still a master showman.

Simmons might be a bit older now, but he still has that awesome stage presence. His band is tight and they rocked for a solid two hours.

Wizard World is always so much fun that I never want to leave, even after I have done everything I wanted to do. I usually find some reason to make one more pass through the convention floor just to soak it in one more time. Of course, there’s always another Wizard World in another city on my calendar. I’m already looking forward to Chicago in August, but I just might have to pick another city in between. Philadelphia in June sounds pretty appealing.