Satan’s Satellites
The members of Satan’s Satellites — singer-guitarist Tom Fallon, drummer Ant Petti, organist Mark Leddy, and bassist Jeff Curtis (who recently replaced Ricky Brom) — could write a book on the history of garage rock. One look at the records (and they really are vinyl 45s) in the old-time jukebox at the Beachland Ballroom, the…
Sure Portraiture
French photographers in the 19th century didn’t get much respect. In 1859, the year a salon of photography was held in the same building as the Salon des Beaux Arts, many influential officials saw the new art form as a threat to painting. In fact, some of them rigged things so that visitors who had…
Soundbites
Sitting in his living room wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts, Run Devil Run singer Don Foose looks like a guy who sings in a hardcore band — he’s skinny, his hair is shaved close to his head, and he’s got tattoos running up and down his arms. But the Hare Krishna chants…
Jejune Moon
Lyric Opera Cleveland opens its season with a rather squalid murder mystery: Bewildered audiences stagger up the aisle wondering who killed Gilbert and Sullivan. In a slot originally reserved for the lush Arabian Nights musical fantasy Kismet, the opera company, in a fit of budgetary caution, substituted Over the Moon With Gilbert and Sullivan, leaving…
‘N Sync
We don’t hate teen pop. Really. Actually, “I Want It That Way,” “Genie in a Bottle,” and “. . . Baby One More Time” were some of our favorite singles last year. But we gotta admit we really don’t get ‘N Sync. If any of these new teen pop sensations are headed for the Bay…
Brad Mehldau
Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau can come across as a dour guy. Anyone familiar with his liner notes, interviews, and the letters he writes to jazz magazines probably remembers his diatribes against critics and the acoustic renaissance in contemporary jazz or his lengthy philosophical discussions on the elegy, Romantic composers, and the role of the artist.…
Sunny Day Real Estate
God does not ordinarily break up emo bands, instead leaving this task to money, fame, the claustrophobic rigors of touring, or the ominous, omnipresent specter of “creative differences.” So why did the Almighty break up Sunny Day Real Estate? In the early ’90s, the Seattle quartet mesmerized sensitive guitar players everywhere, particularly with 1994’s Diary,…
Up in Smoke Tour
“Forgot About Dre?” Nah. But you may have forgotten about Warren G, the least significant member of this summer’s Up in Smoke Tour, which has Dr. Dre at its center. Each of the featured participants — the ubiquitous Snoop Dogg, the red-hot Eminem, and the increasingly irrelevant Ice Cube — can trace his start to…
The Shopping Bug
Old-fashioned country trading posts may have given way to big-city chain stores and homogenized retailers, but there is still somewhere in America to haggle over the price of a DVD, new sunglasses, or a Depression-era glass dish. Far from the bright lights of sprawling mall complexes are the remnants of America’s long fascination with bargain…
Patriot Games
Historical interpreter Dave Bescan of Grafton is used to playing war. He has “served” in the 9th Virginia Regiment — a Revolutionary War-era battalion that helped settle Ohio — since 1972, enduring wool uniforms in summer and close-range musket fire for the sake of history. It was thus natural that, as some of his college…
Sea Dog
The press kit for The Perfect Storm contains the damnedest thing I’ve ever read. Right at the top, there is a “special request to the press” that reads, in full: “Warner Bros. Pictures would appreciate the press’ cooperation in not revealing the ending of this film to their readers, viewers or listeners.” All due apologies,…
Hits, Runs, and Errors
There’s a lot to like about lunch at the handsome Terrace Club, our major league ballpark’s foremost room with a view. While the eight-tiered restaurant is open to members only during games, the upper-level bar serves lunch to the public every weekday as long as no day game is on the schedule. But just because…
Saving Private Mad Max
Despite what many believe, it doesn’t come down to explosions, star power, or millions of greenbacks thrown at the producers. The true indicator of success for a summer movie is The Moment, that one memorable scene that sticks in your head, the one that Billy Crystal parodies the following spring because he knows everyone will…
The Garden of Earthly Delights
No matter how hot it gets, a garden table at the Baricelli Inn (2203 Cornell Road, 216-791-6500) has got to be the coolest summer dining spot in Cleveland. While Paul Minnillo’s award-winning restaurant is widely recognized for its sophisticated and expensive year-round menu, the garden’s bistro-style offerings include petite portions of exquisitely prepared, robustly flavored,…
Before the War
For most Americans, the social and political issues underlying Jose Luis Cuerda’s Butterfly may seem remote at best. The tensions between republicans and fascists in Spain after the fall of that nation’s monarchy in 1931, and dictator Francisco Franco’s victory in the bloody Spanish Civil War, may have stirred strong feelings in Ernest Hemingway and…
Spin City
It’s a humid day in mid-June, and a serious thunderstorm is rumbling through Lorain and Medina counties. It’s on target to rip into Cleveland, and as the afternoon DJ on WNCX-FM/98.5, Michael Stanley has a responsibility to warn listeners. He immediately attends to the task after receiving the news of the impending storm. “We have…
Hough Huff
A tributary in the Hough neighborhood, trickling four blocks between East 79th Street and Addison, Redell Avenue is peacefully residential. It has postage-stamp lawns, geriatric rose bushes that smell like talcum powder, and a new mailman who makes his rounds later than the residents’ liking. You can see from one end to the other without…
The ‘Matli Crew
East Los Angeles is an amalgam of Latinos, African Americans, and a plethora of other nationalities who struggle to survive in the shadows of the cosmopolitan skyscrapers of downtown L.A. Ridden with gang fights, drug deals, and abject poverty, the city also boasts a growing number of people who, despite their cultural differences, are coming…
NIMBY, NIMBY, NIMBY
Linda Thompson and her 10-year-old daughter roll into the parking lot at the Health Museum of Cleveland, unfurl a banner, and begin chatting with three friends. For the past month, Thompson and a small but loyal group of activists have protested the Cuyahoga County commissioners’ efforts to build a new $50 million juvenile detention center…
Susie Ibarra
Well-traveled in traditional Eastern percussion groups and the downtown free jazz scene, drummer Susie Ibarra brings a unique sound to any ensemble. A textural, quiet dramatist who’s sometimes minimalist, Ibarra rarely keeps time in a conventional sense, but her drumming finds ways to insinuate itself into all kinds of settings with great purpose. Ibarra’s Flower…
Edge
It looks as if the crumbling Tower Press building on Superior Avenue will finally get rehabilitated, thanks to a loan approved last week by Cleveland City Council. Still in denial, however, are its occasional, unofficial tenants, a tatterdemalion team of homeless activists who christened the 93-year-old building “Rosewater,” after two gifts — fresh water and…
Busta Rhymes
It seems rapper Busta Rhymes was wrong about that Y2K apocalypse thing after all. He even sort of acknowledges it on his fourth album, which comes off as a variation on the end of the world theme that he’s been touting since his first album came out four years ago. Judgment day may not have…
The Final Frontier
Had Julian Glover not broken his leg at the beginning of January, it’s quite likely he would be off filming a movie. But, Glover reminds, having a broken leg in the movie business is like being pregnant in the movie business: “It lasts five years,” meaning casting agents don’t phone up damaged goods and offer…
Richard Ashcroft
The storyline is a familiar one — a tumultuous relationship between a visionary/poet singer and his guitar player results in a band’s breakup, and the singer, his ego still intact, embarks on a solo career. From the Smiths to the Stone Roses, more than one great band (in these cases, British) has found itself in…
Letters to the Editor
Peabody’s Heading DownUnderHey, new guys at Scene, I thought maybe you should know a rather historic club, Pirate’s Cove/Peabody’s, just closed. I know that nobody as good as that Spears broad or Ricky Martin ever played there. But I did see some incredible local and national acts there over the years. I could go into…
