The United States was founded by violent revolutionaries, so there’s a certain karmic logic in its enduring attempted uprisings from time to time. That’s the (perhaps unintended) subtext of The Enemy Within: Terror in America 1776 to Today, a new exhibit at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage (on loan from the International Spy Museum in D.C.). Using images, artifacts and a few videos, the exhibit lays out the history of our reactions — and overreactions — to real and perceived threats posed by some living among us: German operatives blowing up a New Jersey munitions depot in 1916; Japanese Americans interred in camps during World War II; white nationalists plotting race wars; communists; white supremacists and militias; and of course, Muslims after 9/11. Also examined is the government’s tendency to overreach its authority, investigating and sometimes persecuting citizens with varying degrees of probable cause. One highlight is a brief video on the Weather Underground, whose history was dredged up and distorted for political reasons during the recent presidential campaign. The lone disappointment is the surprisingly alarmist video Under Siege, which takes on the threat of terrorism with all the subtly and nuance of the color-coded threat chart that the Bush administration was so fond of goosing whenever it needed to change the subject. Someday it will seem as amusingly overwrought as the ’50s anti-commie film shown elsewhere in the exhibit, in which Jack Webb solemnly intones, “Freedom has a price, and its price is vigilance.” The Enemy Within runs through August 16 at the Maltz Museum (2929 Richmond Rd., Beachwood, 216.593.0575, maltzjewishmuseum.org). — Frank Lewis
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8
A State of the State’s
Birds Address
Who doesn’t love birds? They greet you every morning with their
chirps, they rid your lawn of pesky bugs and they really don’t eat much
(like, say, a big-ass dog or cow). But how are Ohio’s birds doing in
the 21st century? Is the avian flu affecting any of them? Will any be
extinct 25 years from now? And what the hell is that red-beaked thing I
see on my way to work every day? Harvey Webster, director of the
Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Wildlife Resource Center,
addresses these questions and many others at the clumsily named “A
State of the State’s Birds Address.” Webster will also fill in visitors
on the many species of birds that are found in the area and what you
can do to help keep them alive. It starts at 7 p.m. at the museum (1
Wade Oval Dr., 216.231.4600, cmnh.org).
Tickets are $7, but students get in free with a valid ID.
— Michael Gallucci
THURSDAY, APRIL 9
CSU Spring Dance Concert
Antaeus Dance director Joan Meggitt continues to toil on her
evening-length piece, Molt, which will premiere at Cleveland
Public Theater’s DanceWorks series later this month. A work in five
sections, it uses the process of molting as a metaphor for shedding bad
habits and getting on with life. After videotaping her company’s
improvisations for two months, Meggitt began building the dance one
section at a time, from the inside out. This week, Antaeus performs an
excerpt — the first completed part — as part of Cleveland
State University’s Spring Dance Concert. CSU’s director of dance Lynn
Deering stages it with two Antaeus members, Amy Compton-Schultz and
Marisa Glorioso, who are also part of CSU’s dance company. Also on the
program: “Red Ribbon Dance,” based on a tradition that dates to the
Chinese Han dynasty and spearheaded by guest artist Cha Lee Chan (of
New York’s Yangtze Repertory Theatre); a solo piece choreographed by
Dianne McIntyre, based on poetry by Ntozake Shange and performed by
Lisa Hunt; and Deering’s “Barefeet in the Park,” an ensemble work
featuring members of the CSU Dance Company, with music by DeVotchKa,
Yann Tiersen and Gogol Bordello. The performance starts at 7:30 p.m. at
CSU’s Drinko Recital Hall (2100 Euclid Ave., 216.687.4883, csuohio.edu). Tickets: $5. — Michael Gill
No Child
The concept of a play within a play is older than Hamlet, but
Nilaja Sun uses it to virtuosic effect in No Child, her
one-woman look at life at a Bronx school. A teaching artist in the New
York Public School system, Sun worked with students at Malcolm X High a
few years ago, producing a play in an environment where merely getting
to school can be challenging. She received rave reviews when she
starred in the New York premiere, largely because of her ability to
portray dozens of characters — from students, teachers and
parents to administrators, janitors and even the guys who operate the
metal detector at the front door. Nina Domingue stars in Cleveland
Public Theatre’s production, which makes its Ohio premiere tonight. It
opens at 7:30 at Cleveland Public Theatre’s Bookstore Theatre (6415
Detroit Ave., 216. 631.2727, cptonline.org). Performances run through
April 25. Tickets: $10-$20.
— Gill
Radio Mystery
Theater Social
CBS Radio Mystery Theater began with the foreboding sound of
a creaking door opening and then a creepily genteel voice intoning,
“Come in. Welcome. I am E.G. Marshall.” For eight years, starting in
1974, the series revived old-time radio and maintained an audience of
young and old, captivating listeners with its macabre stories. Some of
the shows adapted gothic novels (like Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of
Dorian Gray) and Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. Most, however,
were original works, and that’s what attracted Robert Carillo, who
hosts a listening series at Visible Voice Books tonight (and every
second Thursday of the month). Carillo chooses from a library of 1,500
episodes recorded from the radio, complete with old-school commercials.
He’ll make some introductory comments before dimming the lights to set
the mood. He’ll play three programs during each outing, with breaks for
browsing or filling up your wine glass. “It’s like getting together to
listen to records,” he says. “The reason I like these is that the
writing had to be very descriptive, very conversational, because the
script is the picture in your mind. That in itself made the writing
very good.” It starts at 7 p.m. at Visible Voice Books (1023 Kenilworth
Rd., 216.961.0084, visiblevoicebooks.com). It’s free.
— Gill
Southeast Engine
Athens is an Ohio college town with a secret. When you remove the
obvious parts of the scenery — brick-lined streets, North
Face/Ugg-wearing college kids, an air of academia — you stumble
upon an intricate music scene hidden in the hills of Appalachia. And
the kings of the Athens music scene are Southeast Engine. They’ve
packed hometown shows for years, but the band is finally gaining
national recognition. Its second album, From the Forest to the
Sea, highlights everything that Athenians love about “the Engine.”
Singer Adam Remnant’s gravely, world-weary voice, Leo DeLuca’s
rip-roaring drumming, Michael Lachman’s innovative organ and piano, and
Jesse Remnant’s complementary bass all contribute to a sound that’s
half rock, half folk. The Dreadful Yawns, and the Lighthouse and the
Whaler open at 9 p.m. at the Beachland Ballroom (15711 Waterloo Rd.,
216.383.1124, beachlandballroom.com). Tickets:
$7. — Danielle Sills
FRIDAY, APRIL 10
The Riot Before
Despite the number of merchandise-hocking, neon-clad bands that
spend more time on their hair than their lyrics that are currently
repping pop-punk, the genre is still packed with credible artists. You
don’t need to look any further than Virginia’s the Riot Before (who
manage to combine the spirit of the Clash with contemporary folk-punk)
and Oregon’s Broadway Calls, who are carrying the torch for the
sun-saturated, speedy SoCal sound. Both bands have been through the
underground ringer, only to emerge as well-honed groups with the sort
of smart, anthemic numbers kids are dying to raise their fists to.
These two bands offer the sort of pop-punk that’ll quell your inner
cynic. Echoes of Harpers Ferry and Two Hand Fools open at 6 p.m. at Now
That’s Class (11213 Detroit Ave., 216.221.8576, myspace.com/nowthatsclass).
Tickets: $8. — Matt Whelihan
Amps for Christ
Instrument builder and noisemaker Henry Barnes (of Man Is the
Bastard and Bastard Noise) calls his latest project Amps for Christ.
It’s another experimental outfit in which the California-based musician
builds his own instruments. Amps for Christ is the most palatable of
Barnes’ groups, drawing from his folk background (his mother was a
ballad singer). The multi-instrumentalist switches instruments
throughout, but he plays a lot of sitar and is often accompanied by a
tabla player. No matter what the setup is for tonight’s show, you can
bet it’ll include some homemade instruments and unconventional
manipulation of sound. Sikhara, Channels and Harms Way Fayre open at 10
p.m. at Now That’s Class (11213 Detroit Ave., 216.221.8576, myspace.com/nowthatsclass).
Tickets: $5.
— Jeff Niesel
Image and Object
That eerie feeling you sometimes get looking at a doll (after all,
it’s an inanimate object designed to resemble a person) is amplified in
Mark Slankard’s dollhouse tableaux. “The scenes evoke sublimated fears
and desires, and explore tensions between childhood innocence and
sadism,” says the artist. The question is whether to respond to a work
of art as a representation of something else — say, an image
— or to consider it a self-referential object unto itself. He and
his Cleveland State University colleague Irina Koukhanova explore
different perspectives on that art-historical dichotomy in their show
Image and Object, which opens with a free reception at 6 p.m. at
Asterisk Gallery (2393 Professor Ave., 330.304.8528, asteriskgallery.com) as part of
April’s Tremont Art Walk. The show hangs through May 2. — Gill
Mariza
Mozambique-born singer Mariza is often credited with the revival of
fado, the traditional African-influenced Portuguese genre championed by
the late Amália Rodrigues, the queen of fado. The dramatic,
bluesy style has recently been gaining a younger audience, both in its
native Portugal and abroad — thanks to a new generation that
longs for its nation’s roots in the wake of Western Europe
globalization. On her new album, Terra (“Earth”), Mariza takes
the genre in a new direction by adding diverse instruments and
influences. “This has to do with the fact that I have been touring
internationally for about eight years, and I have traveled all over the
world,” she says. “This has influenced me in a very positive manner. I
saw different cultures, and all this affected me as a person, as a
woman and as an artist.” Continuing her love affair with Brazil (two of
her previous CDs were produced by Jacques Morelembaum, who’s worked
with Brazilian masters Antonio Carlos Jobim and Caetano Veloso), she
teams with pianist Ivan Lins, who assists Mariza on the
English-language “Smile,” where the singer reveals a softer side rarely
heard in fado. “He was jamming around [in the studio], and the tapes
somehow kept rolling,” explains Mariza. “So I said, ‘Ivan, do you know
that song “Smile”?’ And he said, ‘I’ve never played it, but let’s give
it a try.’ When we finished, everyone was staring at us so seriously
that I thought that we had done something really silly, like we’d
broken a cable or something.” Mariza performs at 8 p.m. at the Ohio
Theatre (1501 Euclid Ave., 216.241.6000, playhousesquare.com). Tickets: $41.
— Ernest Barteldes
MONDAY, APRIL 13
Chris Cornell
With the release of Chris Cornell’s third solo album, Scream — a rump-bumping, hip-hop/R&B sweatfest — the most
pertinent question surrounding his live appearance is this: Which
Cornell is coming to Cleveland? The scrappy grungemeister of
Soundgarden? The heir to Robert Plant’s hard-rock throne through the
Audioslave fiefdom? Or the rock-hop chameleon who recently teamed up
with Timbaland on Scream? Or maybe Cornell will reinvent his
stage persona with the same bold stroke that defines the album,
incorporating all three creative directions. Try to imagine a set that
can contain the raw, howling beauty of “Black Hole Sun,” the Led Zep
juniorism of “The Worm” and the smooth-as-Justin
Timberlake’s-nine-month-old-butt croon of “Ground Zero.” It may well be
unimaginable, but past history indicates that Cornell is well equipped
to find the connecting thread between his past and present, and make it
work going forward. Look for the disco ball all the same. Outernational
opens at 8 p.m. at House of Blues (308 Euclid Ave., 216.523.2583,
hob.com/cleveland). Tickets:
$39.50. — Brian Baker
Carlton Vickers
If you care at all about the flute — and an awful lot of young
girls do — you probably know about Carlton Vickers. A longtime
player with the Utah Symphony, he’s best known for his contemporary
forays with the instrument, where he extends the flute’s technique by
mixing acoustic sounds with tapes and other effects. Vickers has worked
with some of the biggest names in avant-garde composition, including
John Cage, John Corigliano and Steve Reich. He presents a workshop at 4
p.m. at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Recital Hall (2001 Euclid
Ave., 216.687.2033, csuohio.edu).
It’s free. — Gill
Kreator
To hell with the thrash revival — the former emissaries of the
genre aren’t done slaying audiences yet. Exhibits A and B: Germany’s
Kreator and San Francisco’s Exodus. They have much in common. They were
both pioneer members of the metal militia, had numerous lineup changes,
experimented with their sound (for which they’ve been simultaneously
praised and ridiculed) and went back to their roots (for which they’ve
been simultaneously praised and ridiculed). Kreator’s new album,
Hordes of Chaos, is a testament to their old lo-fi sound, while
Exodus’ 2008 release, Let There Be Blood, is a homage to 1985’s
Bonded by Blood. Sure, they’ve slowed down a bit; sure, there
are more melodies now. And yeah, there are lots of throwaway metalcore
parts, but the guitars still shred. While critics lament the death of
guitar-oriented music, heavy-metal aficionados are looking back to
their old idols and reasonable facsimiles of them. The reason fans are
hypercritical of production value, vocals and stylistic changes is
because they genuinely care about the music. Even Kreator and Exodus’
harshest critics gotta admit that both bands have cranked out more than
a handful of memorable tunes over the years. Accept no substitutions
— these guys are the original thrashers. The Hordes of Chaos 2009
tour also includes Belphagor, Warbringer and Epicurean. The show begins
at 7 p.m. at Peabody’s (2045 E. 21st St., 216.776.9999, peabodys.com). Tickets: $20 advance, $23 day
of show. — Nick DeMarino
TUESDAY, APRIL 14
Jeff Beck
Along with turning American kids on to their own musical roots, the
British Invasion provided a breeding ground for that most durable of
rock deities: the guitar god. First in line for worship was the
Yardbirds’ Jeff Beck. Prior to the ascent of Jimi Hendrix or fellow
Yardbirds alums Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, the four-time Grammy
winner and 2009 Rock Hall inductee was generating adulation by way of
Yardbirds tracks like “Over Under Sideways Down.” Beck’s tricks of the
guitar trade have been taken for granted ever since distortion,
feedback and note-bending first jarred the ears of rock fans, via his
sinewy, supercharged solos. And his prowess has always been laced with
rebellious rock attitude — like taking on a blues tune with
little apparent concern for imitating tradition but with gobs of
enthusiasm for unbridled self-expression. Beck himself has proven quite
durable, reincarnating periodically with the times — as a
post-Yardbirds blues-rocker with a young Rod Stewart, partnering with
fusion keyboardist Jan Hammer and even flirting with electronica. Most
recently, Beck draws from all across his career on Performing This
Week … Live At Ronnie Scott’s, now coupled with a just-out DVD.
Davy Knowles opens at 8 p.m. at House of Blues (308 Euclid Ave.,
216.523.2583, hob.com/Cleveland). The show is sold
out. — Duane Verh
Beck Café Open Mic
The Kid With the Hair in His Face, a.k.a. Jeremy Koteles, has cut an
iconic figure in the Cleveland music scene for years. Immediately
recognizable for the long shock of locks that hangs straight down the
front of his face, Koteles has intermittently published the old-school
Starvation Army ‘zine since 2002. He says he took up promoting
bands after paying club cover charges and learning that the people he
came to hear weren’t getting much of that (most of them were being paid
in drinks). So now he promotes a diverse collection of local bands (the
crashing and noisy Green Escalators, political rappers like D Roof and
Vigatron, and the electro-acoustic group Audibel). He’s also pushing an
open-mic hosted by Tim Fry (who plays with psych-rockers the Formula)
at the new Beck Café, an independent coffee shop operated by the
Beck Center for the Arts. Koteles says folks from the Beck play the
open-mic once in a while, but it’s mostly a collection of java-shop
denizens who fill the outings with singer-songwriter material, improv,
poetry and other sonic experiments. It runs from 7-10 p.m. on the first
and third Wednesdays of the month at the Beck Café (17823
Detroit Ave., Lakewood, 216.712.4746, beckcafe.com.) It’s free. — Gill
The Bronx
Known for their thrashing live shows, the Bronx — who are from
Los Angeles, not the New York City borough — have come a long way
since their inception in 2002. The band’s raucous third album was
released late last year, bearing the same self-titled moniker as its
previous two albums. The Bronx’s hardcore punk-rock has shifted since
its 2003 debut, even if the name of their albums remains the same (they
plan to release El Bronx, a mariachi-themed record, later this
year). The most recent addition to their catalogue is raw, heavy and
ear-pounding, perhaps even more so than their second album, which came
out in 2006. But singer Matt Caughthran offers an onslaught of witty
lyrical turns and shouted, thoughtful choruses. Somehow, the sound’s
harshness is likeable and congruent with the band’s intelligence. Trash
Talk and This Moment in Black History open at 8 p.m. at the Grog Shop
(2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Hts., 216.321.5588, grogshop.gs). Tickets: $8.
— Emily Zemler
Rocco DeLuca and the Burden
The controversy that surrounds Rocco DeLuca and the Burden has
nothing to do with their music. Based in the blues and filtered through
an indie-rock perspective, the group’s first two albums — 2006’s
I Trust You to Kill Me and the new Daniel Lanois-produced
Mercy — exhibit the Americana verve of Ryan Adams, the
spellbinding subtlety of Jeff Buckley, the rock swagger of Robert Plant
and the Delta bite of Chris Whitley. Tongues began wagging after DeLuca
signed to Ironworks, a microscopic indie label co-owned by Kiefer
Sutherland, who took on the role of tour manager and was excoriated for
touting the band. Geez, Kiefer, what were you thinking? Promoting a
band you’ve invested in — whoever heard of such a thing? Give
Rocco and the boys a listen so Kiefer won’t be the only one talking
them up. The Break and Repair Method open at 8:30 p.m. at the Beachland
Ballroom (15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124, beachlandballroom.com). Tickets:
$15. — Baker
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2009.
