Can You Feel the Love Tonight?
For tonight’s program, The Music of Elton John, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra will lend the Rocket Man’s career some class with violins, cellos, and other stringed instruments. The orchestra will be joined onstage by Canadian quartet Jeans ‘N Classics, a revolving rock band formed 12 years ago to back orchestras that feel like letting down…
Deep Blue
The sophisticated pop shared by Edith Frost and the Zincs makes them ideal tourmates. On her latest album, It’s a Game, Chicago singer-songwriter Frost plays delicate songs about a relationship gone bad. It’s a real downer, but Frost makes pain and confusion totally relatable. The Zincs, also from Chicago (although frontman Jim Elkington originally hails…
The Starting Line
The tour title “Screaming Is for Babies” pokes fun at the Starting Line’s contemporaries, who unleash temper-tantrum shrieks when they’re not crooning like lounge singers. It could be argued that whining, an essential element in vocalist Ken Vasoli’s arsenal, is also for infants, but at least the Starting Line is making an honest effort to…
Primal Fur
Penguins, shmenguins. If you want some new insight into the codes of animal behavior, have a look at Eight Below, an inspirational adventure in which a team of sled dogs marooned in Antarctica fights to survive winter without benefit of man or Milk-Bone. In the process, the intrepid furry heroes upstage the two-legged actors of…
Mr. Clean
Stand-up comedian Rickey Smiley has no problem being labeled a clean comic. Still, it’s not a conscious move. “What’s in you is gonna come out of you,” he says. “It all depends on where I am and where I’m performing. If I’m in a smoke-filled club late at night, I might do a dirty joke…
Running a Tab
Bottle after bottle of pricey liquor reflects off the mirror behind Krave’s expansive bar. They’re arranged on three shelves, the tallest probably too high for short bartenders to reach. But it doesn’t matter — it’s not the booze, it’s the vibe that counts at Krave. That’s what dazzled Ashu Howard from the start. “The impression…
Living Things
After being put through the major-label wringer with their debut, Black Skies in Broad Daylight — mergers and delayed releases plagued the process, and the CD is only available by import — the Missouri-bred brothers (noms de rock: Lillian, Eve, and Bosh Berlin) found a kindred soul with, oddly enough, Jive/Zomba — a label known…
Clothes Encounters
To many people, there’s no more boring store in the world than a fabric outlet. There’s nothing in it that you can buy and immediately put to use; no dresses, no curtains, no upholstered chairs. But for others, the virtually unlimited potential that resides in those bolts of silk, wool, and organza is endlessly enriching,…
Birds of a Feather
Inspiration came naturally to Dott Schneider for her latest exhibit, Nervous Bird, opening today at 1300 Gallery. “I was walking through the park and noticed this very old, very skinny lady feeding pigeons,” she says. “She had the same sort of nervous gestures as them. It just sort of grew from there.” Of course, if…
Starless Night
For weeks, society photographer Virgil Wilson had been hearing rumors that House of Blues’ Naughty Christmas party was going to be rather, well, naughty. Promoters promised a drunken Santa Claus, lingerie-clad “elves,” and lots of alcohol. Wilson pictured hot, scantily clad girls in Santa hats, rocking out to the Strokes. But when he arrived at…
Seether
Unless his girlfriend, Evanescence singer Amy Lee, finally gets around to finishing the follow-up to her band’s blockbuster 2003 debut, Seether frontman Shaun Morgan can expect to see quite a lot of the road this year. Even in a family populated by two rock stars, somebody’s got to bring home the bacon, a product Seether’s…
Deeply Veldt
Fortunately, few people in this country have ever had to face political exile, self-imposed or otherwise, since our government (up to the hour of this writing) hasn’t made the U.S.A. entirely unlivable for people with opposing views or alternative lifestyles. Of course, that could change in Ohio if legislators continue to harass the gay, lesbian,…
Point Match
Five nights a week, hundreds of local darts enthusiasts meet on the Tournament Trail for matches in games of Cricket and 501. There’s also Cork’s Choice, in which the player who hits closest to the bull’s-eye in a two-darter shootout chooses the next game. “It’s a sport that’s steeped in tradition, because it’s a tavern…
Fall of the Fourth Reich
After checking to make sure that lunch is on someone else’s dime, Erich and Erika Gliebe decide to go big. Popcorn shrimp is followed by meatloaf, salad, and blackened swordfish. To the waitress at the Boneyard Beer Farm in Broadview Heights, they must look like the average bickering suburban couple. It’s hard to believe this…
Scene Unsigned Band Series
It’s the return of Runt, 13 Faces singer Rob Runt’s formerly defunct nü-metal band, which featured material written by Mushroomhead guitarist Dave Felton. Ventana, ‘Head programmer Stitch’s electro-plated-metal side project, is also on the bill, with Garmonbozia (pictured), the art-damaged post-metal project from members of Integrity and Dead Even. From Christmas to cocktail parties, every…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — Not only does this Tennessee Williams classic feature perhaps the best character names in American theater — Maggie the Cat, Big Daddy, and Brick — it also echoes the rage of today’s Brokeback Mountain in its view of homosexual desire crippled by the surrounding stultifying culture. Director Martin…
Cool Like Dat
Joe Montana is known for his calm under pressure. The Super Bowl-winning quarterback wasn’t nicknamed Joe Cool for nothing. Ironically, Montana suffers from high blood pressure. To celebrate National Heart Month, the Football Hall of Famer talks tonight about his battles on and off the field and answers questions from the audience. Thu., Feb. 16,…
Bar Beatdown
Blood is thicker than water: I would like to say a few things about “Love and Hate” [February 1]. William “Bad Skin” Forrest is my stepfather. I was infuriated when I read this article and am writing because of how sick I am of watching someone I love very much be humiliated by fifth-grade insults.…
WJCU Radiothon Kick-Off Concert
Ah, radio listeners: The Federal Communications Commission is finally working for you. No, they haven’t given David Lee Roth a long list of on-air tips. The FCC has approved a major wattage increase for WJCU 88.7, John Carroll University’s student-run radio station. The station can nearly triple its wattage, preventing interference from the Canadian FM…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW This Is Everyday Shit, Man — The 50 candid, mostly urban photographs that appear here feature such motifs as junk heaps, rock concerts, parties, skylines, crosswalks, and graffiti. The best among them capture everyday people in action: a child at a gumball machine or a woman on a park bench, for instance. Pedro, a…
Now You’re Cooking
Vicki Dansby will stop you at the door if you walk out of tonight’s Celebrity Soul Food Cook-Off without tasting the red-and-navy-bean salad of former Browns player Reggie Langhorne. “Everything is so good,” says Dansby, who created the tasty event nine years ago to coincide with Black History Month. “But if I had to choose,…
When All Else Fails . . .
In an effort to drive out Ohio’s three remaining homos, House Republicans introduced a bill last week that would ban gays and bisexuals from adopting or fostering children. Although most gays fled when we took the rest of their rights away — can they even go to Dillard’s anymore? — the latest plan, hatched by…
Various Artists
John Fahey (1939-2001) was and remains one of America’s finest — if not the finest — acoustic guitarists ever. His style, which he called American Primitive, was an inspired, quirky amalgam of Delta blues, ragtime, hymns, early country music, and early 20th-century pop, with occasional overtones of Indian raga. Fahey’s influence extends to the more…
Grind It Out With Pam
Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson: Uncensored! (Paramount) This sucker’s vulgar — duh — but not shocking in the least bit; Sarah Silverman swears, and Courtney Love drinks and smokes . . . who knew? That said, this roast ranks among the meanest ever televised; why Bea Arthur shows up every year to have Jeff…
Show Girl
Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile’s eponymous debut CD is loaded with sad, sweeping songs that would sound perfect playing over the final scene of a weekly TV drama. In fact, one of the album’s best tracks, “What Can I Say?”, landed a coveted spot on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy recently, exposing the 23-year-old Washington native to a whole…
Letter From Leipzig
Though it’s an indie-rock band that favors a hands-on approach to its work, the Lovekill has never done things on a small scale. Its recent decision to sign with a major indie label came after a personal invite from the lead singer of one of the biggest post-punk bands. And four years into the Cleveland…
The Veronicas
The Veronicas are 20-year-old Australian twins who had the awesome idea of forming a band around the sound of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” (In further awesomeness, neither twin is named Veronica; they’re Jess and Lisa Origliasso.) The Secret Life of the Veronicas, the girls’ high-octane debut, arrives wrapped in sleekly scruffy packaging meant…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe.
CD — Sleepless in Seattle: The Birth of Grunge: Without Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or even Soundgarden representing, the grunge on this disc sure sounds muddy, murky, and noisy. But that’s pretty much the point of this 20-track compilation that dips back to the mid-’80s — long before record contracts were dangled in front of the…
Daydream Believers
Geeks, it’s time to come out of hiding! According to the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Julie Langsam, an occasional escape into a fantasy realm isn’t all that uncommon these days. To prove it, she’s put together From Real to Surreal, an art exhibit opening today at the school’s Reinberger Galleries. “As the world around us…
I Scream, You Scream
“Rooooowwwwwwrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrooowwwwrrr!” A guttural growl straight from the deepest pits of hell has just emanated from the throat of Melissa Cross, who follows it up with a giggle. “See, that didn’t hurt at all,” she says. “But you should see the looks I just got!” That’s because the chipper red-haired late-fortysomething voice instructor is screaming, er,…
Dilated Peoples
As song titles go, you could hardly pick one that sounds more banal than “Back Again.” But in the case of Dilated Peoples’ new single, it’d be hard to pick a more relevant phrase. That the L.A. trio is “back again for the very fourth time” on the same major label is one of the…
Torino It Off
Ah, the Winter Olympics. The nip of drama in the Alpine air. The purity of amateur competition. Swedish women in full-body spandex. These are all things we enjoy about the winter games. Now for some things we don’t: losing to Canada in hockey, male figure skaters in blouses, and of course, really bad videogames. Torino…
Declarations of Independence
The Cleveland Institute of Art’s Student Independent Exhibition celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, and it’s one of the few local juried gallery shows that’s entirely handled by students. The annual exhibit features paintings, sculptures, and other works designed, selected, and displayed by CIA pupils — free of their teachers’ input. It’s one of the…
Conceptually Speaking
Not since the escapist early ’70s has the concept album been so hip. In American Idiot’s vaguely political wake, Ryan Adams has released the autobiographical 29, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are hard at work on a musical essay about singer Karen O’s cat (no joke), and Velvet Revolver is reportedly planning a concept album that…
Witch
After a reunion tour with the infamously volatile Dinosaur Jr., guitarist J. Mascis was ready to hit some stuff. So the former Deep Wound drummer put down his six-string and found a drum kit to sit behind for Witch, a perfectly named doom-metal combo possessed of the increasingly common notion that Black Sabbath’s deep-album cuts…
Our top DVD picks for the week of February 14.
Disney Princess Sing Along Songs, Vol. Three: Perfectly Princess (Buena Vista) Emmanuel’s Gift (First Look) The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: The Complete First Three Seasons (Warner Bros.) The Frisco Kid (Warner Bros.) Gimme a Break!: Season One (MCA) Grey’s Anatomy: Season One (Buena Vista) He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Season One, Volume 2…
Harvest of Hate
In Protocols of Zion, documentary filmmaker Marc Levin sets out to uncover the origin of the new urban myth that no Jews were killed at the World Trade Center on September 11. Rumor had it that Jewish folks were tipped off about the imminent destruction by a conspiracy-minded book titled The Protocols of the Elders…
Critical Fatwa
All hail R.E.M.! It was the jingle-jangle morning of indie rock, and its latest albums are . . . not bad for a bunch of old farts. Because of all the great tunes, we have held our tongue concerning goofy frontman Michael Stipe. But no longer. For releasing yet another of these tiresome charity songs,…
Beaten Awake
Beaten Awake’s history winds through some of Kent’s finest groups of the last decade. Drummer Ryan Brannon and guitarist-singer Jon Finley played in Party of Helicopters. Guitarist Joel McAdams fronted Harriet the Spy. Goodmorning Valentine’s Joey Beltram recorded the trio’s self-titled debut, and Jamie Stillman (ex-Party/Spy/Houseguest) mastered it. Swept up in psychedelic-laced Americana, the trio…
Start Spreading the News
We’re pretty sure tonight’s Rat Pack Revue will make absolutely no mention of cavorting with mobsters, casual racism, or eating breakfast off of hookers’ chests. Still, this musical tribute to Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra oughta have you longing for the ring-a-ding days when fedora-wearing hipsters hung out with folks like Joey…
Sound Advice
Talent buyer Andrea Sweazy books shows at Cleveland’s legendary Agora Ballroom and Theater. What were your other music jobs? I started Caterpillar Productions, a booking and promotion company, in Chicago. It started as an internship credit, and before I knew it, I had about 50 bands that I was responsible for booking and marketing in…
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
Walk the Line’s smoldering duets reminded us that male-female pairings can be combustible chemistry experiments. Now former Belle and Sebastian chanteuse Isobel Campbell and erstwhile Screaming Trees singer (and established solo artist) Mark Lanegan take the Johnny Cash-June Carter dynamic to spectral extremes, with Campbell ascending to ethereality and Lanegan reveling in noir seediness. On…
The Boy From Brazil
Cavs fans could break a world record at tonight’s Brazilian Carnevale, when the team takes on the Orlando Magic. With samba bands playing and Brazilian flags flying throughout the arena, everyone will be given wigs that look like the out-of-control ‘fro worn by the Cavs’ 6-foot-10 forward (and Brazil native) Anderson Varejao. If more than…
Money Where Your Mouth Is
Band: The Science Fiction Idols (www.sciencefictionidols.com; www.myspace.com/thesciencefictionidols) Hometown: Pittsburgh Sounds like: “Buckcherry meets early Cheap Trick: gnarly guitars and sugar-sweet hooks!” Fun Fact: “[Bassist] Harrison’s two fingers were three-quarters ripped off during a street fight in West Virginia, and now he only has nine fingernails and an immobile thumb.” Playing: Friday, February 17, at the…
Injektion XL
Injektion XL’s debut full-length, Xtra Lethal, is 15 tracks of dark hip-hop beats underneath even darker flows from group masterminds Tkilla and ProVok. The programmed rhythms and melodies are simple, leaving room for comparatively complex lyrical flows that cover everything from the standard dissing of unnamed adversaries to the more thematic “Pick Ya Poison,” where…
Meow Mixer
When he was born eight months ago, Panja was a cuddly ball of fur. For today’s Snow Leopard Day at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, the 15-pound feline is frisky and in a fightin’ mood. “When Panja reached 10 pounds, he wasn’t approachable anymore,” says zoo spokeswoman Sue Allen. “The keepers don’t mess with the big…
Last Word
“David Lee Roth, because of his rock-and-roll attitude and showmanship. He set the standard for metal frontmen in the ’70s and early ’80s. However, Sammy was by far the better vocalist. Gary was one of those ‘What the fuck?’ things.” — Jon Epstein, Fast Chester “Only one man can hold that throne: David Lee Roth.…
Li’l Sumo
Don’t head to Sumo, the new Japanese restaurant in Beachwood, looking for sake, Sapporo, or hibachi dining just yet. According to manager Ada Tsang, the restaurant’s liquor license is still in limbo, and installation problems have put the kibosh on the hibachi tables for now. So what exactly does this place offer? There’s the well-stocked…
Big Mama’s House
Nearly two decades before comedian Martin Lawrence disguised himself as an old lady in Big Momma’s House, a real-life Big Mama was changing the landscape of Cleveland’s drag-queen scene with Harlem Nights: The Mr. & Ms. Gay Black Ohio Pageant. “She saw fit to create a contest where African American female impersonators could become positive…
Bloody Good!
Mike Kochan approaches today’s Bloody Valentine Music Massacre with the same mind-set he brings to his day job at the Cleveland Clinic. The Badd Intent guitarist — supervisor of the hospital’s blood bank — calls the 12-hour concert a “rock-and-roll bloodbath.” It includes his band’s bulldozed covers of songs like Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny.” “It’s as…
The Winner Is . . .
Cleveland record label Telarc International won a Grammy for best classical crossover album at the 48th annual awards ceremony on February 8. It took the honor for 4 + Four, a freewheeling collaboration between Turtle Island String Quartet and the Ying Quartet that dips briefly into bluegrass and ends with a Beatles cover. The Grammy…
For Love of Feijoada
Ask well-seasoned chef and restaurateur Sergio Abramof to classify his newest dining room, the svelte and sexy Saravá at Shaker Square, and he’s likely to call it “a neighborhood spot.” Pass along that analysis to a dinner guest, though, and don’t be surprised if he responds as a recent companion did, gazing around the room…
Sharpen Your Chopsticks!
Chinese New Year kicks off with a meal fit for a fat American. The Chinese New Year typically starts with the new moon and ends 15 days later, with the full moon. That’s one long party. Tonight’s bash — welcoming the Year of the Dog — crams tons of fun into six hours. And the…
Monster Smash
When the 2006 U.S. Hot Rod Monster Jam rolls into town tonight, puny Hondas and Volkswagens better take cover. The 10,000-pound monster trucks waste no time smashing anything in their paths. The more steel they crush, the better. And with returning favorites Grave Digger, Avenger, and Brutus leading the pack, you can count on some…
Bobby Bare Jr.
There’s a strong case for predestination in the story of Bobby Bare Jr. He was born the son of a country hit machine, who passed on both his name and his talent. At the tender age of five, Bare Jr. had a cameo on what’s been hailed as country music’s first “outlaw” album, Bear Sr.’s…
The Price Is Wrong
Freedomland manages a seemingly impossible feat: It’s both turgid and overwrought. A wholly dreary piece of work, it’s yet another dismal entry on the résumé of director Joe Roth, an only-in-Hollywood hack who’s allowed to make movies — among them America’s Sweethearts and Christmas With the Kranks — because he runs the production company (Revolution…
Fight Club
Tonight’s Caged Vengeance program features more than two dozen mixed martial-arts brawlers knocking fists, heads, and feet in 14 different bouts. Guys with names like Dynamite, the Disciple, and the Tyrant will contend in an imposing steel structure. And while the headlining fisticuff action between Jason “Dynamite” Dent and Clint Zeedyk is sure to be…
Any Color You Like
Ray Howlett’s prismlike glass sculptures absorb the light surrounding them, creating an effect that looks like a neon web spun by a mind-blown spider, or perhaps a rainbow painted by tripping leprechauns. The technical term for this high-tech medium is dichroism, and in Dichroism: Holographic Works by Ray Howlett, now on display at Cleveland State…
Robert Randolph & the Family Band
House of Blues is such a perfect setting for Robert Randolph & the Family Band’s mix of earthy African American styles — rollicking electric blues, gritty Sly Stone funk, exultant gospel, and warm Stevie Wonder soul — that you’d think the music inspired the club chain’s aesthetic. Except that just like the outsider artists whose…
Take This Woman
It happens so often these days. A comedy opens with clever jokes, endearing characters, and an enjoyably brisk pace, all of which put you at ease. This’ll be fun, you think, settling into your chair. Someone trustworthy is driving, so let’s enjoy the ride. And then, just when you thought you were safe, the love…
