Super Troupers
SUN 3/6 Alex Fendrich picks his words carefully. The Second City performer is tentative when discussing the ensemble’s place within the canon of comedy’s greatest troupes. After all, the Chicago-based Second City launched the careers of John Belushi, John Candy, Bill Murray, and dozens of others. “We’re all influenced by the work Second City has…
Whitey on the Mic
White rappers are the new black quarterbacks. Even after the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill became the first rap album to top the charts, after Vanilla Ice sold as many albums as a mere mortal can, pundits still argued whether a white boy (or girl) could have the skills and smarts to seriously compete in…
Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon are the sons of a southern evangelist, and they play music coated in the dirt of a backwoods beer bash and descended from Creedence and Blind Lemon Jefferson. It’s the sort of equation that cramps the feverish palms of the British press (seriously, what is the deal with the Brits and southern…
The Green Miles
SUN 3/6 With a maiden name of Daugherty, Sandi Scheiffer has enough Irish blood for both her and her husband to Catch a Leprechaun this weekend. It’s the first of 18 runs sponsored by NCN Racing between March and November. The course is divided into three sections in Avon Lake: a 5K jog from Spinnaker…
Some Other Monster
When the award-winning Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster was released on DVD late in January, it came bundled with a disc of bonus footage. Now fans could enjoy even more whimpering about how fucked-up it is being Metallica. More of the band members telling each other off. More of their resident Dr. Phil (Towle)…
Keratoma
We’re so used to seeing Marilyn Manson rub his pale ass against holy artifacts that it’s easy to forget how exciting his band’s music once was. The full-length debut from Cleveland’s Keratoma sparks with rage, nearly re-creating Manson’s band at its peak. But, with all respect to double-M’s work, he seldom came off as pissed…
Shaken or Stirred
WED 3/9 All the hoopla over the NCAA hoops tourney made Ilona Simon think: If fans can go nuts over March Madness, they’ll surely get fired up over her Martini Madness. Every March, the owner of Budapest Blonde hosts a two-hour taste-test of five martini samplers, from the lemony Blondetini to the velvety Chocolatini. The…
Hut No More
After 35 years, the last Quonset Hut closed this week, ending an era for one of Northeast Ohio’s most venerable independent music chains. At the Canton record store’s last Tuesday night, foot traffic was still brisk. For once, no new releases arrived, but DVDs, music, and plenty else were on sale for as much as…
Aesop Rock
Aesop Rock is the Jackson Pollock of hip-hop, spewing abstract syllables and phrases like color on a canvas. His style is overwhelming, with swirls of obscure references and interior rhymes that wash over you far faster than you can process them. So The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow, the comprehensive lyric booklet included with Rock’s newest…
Leaving Neverland
3/8-3/20 After nearly 20 years and 2,600 performances, Cathy Rigby is hanging up her tights. Once the tour winds down sometime next year, Rigby will be Peter Pan no more. “I wanted to leave at the top of my game,” she explains. “It’s been a very special role for me, and I wanted to make…
Arena of Pain
At a bit past 10 two Tuesdays ago, Cleveland was formally introduced to the Grandmaster of Pussy. More popularly known as Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, the gangly sticksman was bestowed with his new title by beaming Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx. Throughout the evening, Lee tried hard to live up to the prestigious designation. “I’ve…
Suave Goddi
Preaching the merits of Cleveland for close to two decades, Suave Goddi broke on the scene when hip-hop was first discovering its commercial potential. “There was no gangsta rap and no Death Row/Only Roxanne Roxanne and UTFO,” Goddi recalls of his mid-’80s origins. “That’s when I knew my destiny/To be the baddest rapper the world…
Shock Treatment
Come this time next year, The Jacket may well occupy the slot in movie discourse that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind does now — that of the film that coulda-shoulda-woulda gotten more Oscar nominations if only it hadn’t come out so early in the year and been forgotten by those with short-term memories. Like…
Take Action Tour
After a hiatus in 2004, one of the year’s most anticipated package tours is back and ready to mix in a little activism with its moshing. Presented by the non-profit label Sub City, the otherwise annual Take Action tour aims to educate audiences about suicide prevention and mental-health issues by arming them with valuable information…
Lt. Nanny
Based on the success of their TV work, beloved among those who swim in the deep end of bongwater, Lennon and Garant have done considerable rewrites on scripts considered not funny enough (Starsky & Hutch, among others). But their films suggest the duo are better suited to projects that don’t actually use scripts; Garant and…
Guitar Wolf
Everyone should see Guitar Wolf at least once, and you might only get one chance. Not only because Guitar Wolf has to trek all the way from Japan for its rare tours, but, unless you’re accustomed to the most over-the-top trash rock, your heart is likely to give out during the Wolf’s ridiculously explosive (explosively…
Get Lost
The novel Be Cool, written by Elmore Leonard in 1999 while the ink was still wet on the publisher’s advance, existed only because the beloved writer of seedy thrillers and westerns knew it was guaranteed gold — the sequel to the 1991 hit novel Get Shorty that, in 1995, became a hit movie starring John…
Alex Chilton
It’s 1987, and we’re booking a club just steps from the University of Alabama campus. All the really cool kids are cradling imported copies of Big Star’s Radio City and Sisters Lovers, because by then the word was out. This was the music their favorite bands — R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, the Replacements, the dB’s –…
The Camera’s Weeping Eye
Toward the end of Born Into Brothels, the piercing, Oscar-winning documentary by directors Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, a 12-year-old child examines a photograph. It’s beautiful, he says, because it shows us how its subjects live. Yes, they’re very poor, and the shot is hard to look at, because it asks us to witness their…
Les Georges Leningrad
This Montreal trio hasn’t exactly leapt aboard the bandwagon barreling through their hometown: Unlike the Arcade Fire or the Dears or any other of the 436 Montreal acts currently inspiring American curiosity, Les Georges Leningrad doesn’t trade in extravagantly arranged art pop with lots of swoony guitars and larger-than-life emotions. Instead, on Sur les Traces…
Roles to Die For
Capital punishment has one big drawback: There are no do-overs, in case somebody turns out to be not guilty. Fortunately, that never happened in Texas, back when our president was warming the governor’s seat. Even though he sent 152 Death Row convicts on to their great reward, George W.M.D. Bush has claimed that every single…
Clem Snide
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to make pop music that isn’t popular. Not that End of Love, the fifth full-length by Clem Snide, abandons itself to the conceptual outback of art pop; instead, it continues the group’s erratic, enthralling arc across old-school song wizardry and Costello-level wordplay. Clem’s leader,…
Do You Take This Lobbyist . . .?
Congressman Steve LaTourette has made it official: No man can put asunder what covetousness has joined together. On February 20, LaTourette (R-The Playa’s Ball) married Jennifer Laptook, his 33-year-old mistress. Eyebrows were raised when the happy couple omitted the “or poorer” portion of their vows. The whirlwind romance was exposed in 2003. LaTourette, papers revealed,…
Unsentimental Journey
In the annals of theater, there is probably no family so gloriously screwed up as the Tyrones in Eugene O’Neill’s brilliant and largely autobiographical Long Day’s Journey Into Night. With mom a passive-aggressive morphine addict, dad a quick-tempered miserly hack actor, elder son Jamie a drunken lout, and younger son Edmund racked with tuberculosis, you’ve…
Tesla
In 1986, a Sacramento band named City Kidd mercifully altered its moniker after its manager suggested that it pay tribute to Nikola Tesla. The American inventor championed an alternating-current motor, while his direct-current-touting rival Thomas Edison electrocuted animals to demonstrate the alleged instability of Tesla’s technology. (Edison’s propagandistic displays cemented the connection between AC/DC and…
Speed Demons
Chrome exhausts spit fire onto the track at Thompson Drag Raceway. The air smells of gasoline and menace. Looming over it all is a surreal amalgamation of metal and invention. Part semi truck, part Banshee fighter jet, it is an affront to both God and Chrysler. It inches toward the starting line without a challenger.…
On Stage
Menopause the Musical — Everybody enjoys musicals dealing with energetic young people on the brink of conquering the world. But what about the people in the audience: the nearsighted, overweight, and wrinkled denizens of middle age, who rarely see their own physiological mysteries put into song? For them, there is Menopause the Musical, a hoot…
Slipknot
The Slipknot/Lamb of God/Shadows Fall outing is one of two tours currently capitalizing on the success of MTV’s new Headbanger’s Ball, taking modern metal from big theaters to arenas. Unlike the emo-damaged Used/Killswitch Engage/Taste of Chaos bill, this lineup is capital-M Metal, but it has one disturbing similarity. Blinded by success, headbangers of all stripes…
Jane’s Triumphs
Greetings, esteemed members of the business community, fellow elected officials, and patronage workers forced to attend. I’d also like to give a shout out to the African American ministers. Or as I like to say when I’m communicating in fluent street, “Gosh, homeboys, holla at you mayor.” [Applause] It’s been three years since I stood…
On View
NEW Drawn With Light: Pioneering French Photography — Digital cameras are ubiquitous as cell phones, but in the 19th century, capturing an image on film was an advanced and highly technological art. This exhibit of 19th-century French photography lauds the accomplishments of those who were on its cutting edge. Eugène Atget’s photos exude the joy…
The Infamous Dark Wave
Saturdays at Thursday’s aren’t exactly ’80s Night. The Infamous Dark Wave is bigger than that — the music is important, but it’s the crowd that’s made the weekly dance party an Akron favorite. “It’s not unheard of for me to follow Michael Jackson with a Siouxsie and the Banshees song,” says DJ Mario Nemr. “We…
Here’s to Tradition
Anyone vaguely familiar with the history of banishment can put two and two together. Segregation = failure; prohibition = failure; gun control = failure (thank God for the first two). People simply don’t take kindly to being manipulated by overzealous councilpersons — or any authority figure, for that matter. It has been proved that if…
The Other India
Imagine packing up your possessions and setting off to a foreign land, where the only restaurants serving a taste of home are Ruth’s Chris knockoffs. “No problem,” you say, “I like steak.” Fast-forward through a couple years of New York strips and baked potatoes, though, and you’d be bartering your first-born for a good ol’…
The Kills
Despite the negative connotations of the word, bands depend on tension to function. For many, this just means that the natural push and pull of intragroup relations drives their muse. But as anyone in Fleetwood Mac or the White Stripes can attest to, chemistry — specifically, the romantic spark mingling with the musical one –…
Shamrock Stars
To this day, George Millar is mystified by the Irish Rovers’ lifespan. Three months shy of the sextet’s 40th anniversary, he can only guess at the reasons for its longevity. Perhaps it’s because their rousing “Wasn’t That a Party?” is a jukebox staple in nearly every shot-and-beer joint from Dublin to Duluth. Or that their…
Have Cake; Eat It Too
When it comes to cakes and gowns, brides aren’t known to tamper with tradition. So when the owners of Lelolai Bakery and Café (1889 W. 25th St.) began noticing a distinct shift in their wedding cake orders — away from the traditional multi-tiered edifices and toward simple, scrumptious tres leches cakes, they sensed a trend.…
Dub Is a Weapon
Dub Is a Weapon plays spaced-out, militant, club-shaking dub reggae with a low end that hits you like five minutes in a chiropractor’s chair. And they play long sets, so do the math. Very crucial.
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, March 3 The Museum of Contemporary Art’s two latest exhibitions feature everyday materials transformed into personal statements that reflect the artists’ places in nature. Jim Hodges’ self-titled show gathers 20 works from the past decade and incorporates glass, fabric, light bulbs, and colored pencils. They blend together to form complex, web-like pieces that serve…
Gang Green
It’s easy to consider Flogging Molly nothing more than the modern equivalent to traditional pint-hoisting Irish pub bands. Just listen to the high-kicking jigs, boisterous punk, and Guinness-soaked folk songs on last year’s Within a Mile of Home — or the album’s liberal use of customary Irish instruments like the tin whistle, fiddle, and bodhran.…
Solomon Burke
Soul titan Solomon Burke updates his roots with fresh and meaty authenticity on his follow-up to 2002’s Grammy-winning comeback LP Don’t Give Up on Me. Unlike Don’t, however, this hearty disc stresses Burke’s exceptional voice, a blend of grit and velvet that animates tunes spanning Dylan’s “What Good Am I?”, Dr. John’s power-reggae title track,…
Up in Smoke
This space was supposed to be filled with a preview of The Marijuana-Logues, a pot-laced stage show that’s equal parts The Vagina Monologues and Cheech & Chong. Tommy Chong was even supposed to star in it. But the (more) slacker half of the stoner comedy duo got busted a while back for selling pot pipes…
Dave on Draught
What’s the most memorable St. Patrick’s Day you’ve ever had? “Well, it certainly wasn’t in Ireland, because St. Patrick’s Day when I was a kid in Ireland was miserable: You had to go to Mass. It wasn’t fun at all. Actually, I didn’t start having fun on St. Patrick’s Day since I’ve come to America.…
Jennifer Lopez
If you’d been through the most high-profile breakup in recent memory and a movie whose title (Gigli) has become synonymous with “overhyped bomb,” you’d probably call your next project Rebirth too. Yet there’s more to the title of J. Lo’s fourth outing than just wishful thinking. This Is Me . . . Then, Lopez’s 2002…
