Slide Show: Panic at the Disco at Time Warner Cable Amphitheater
Panic at the Disco: fine and dandy. The Honda Civic Tour drove into the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater on Friday, bringing Panic at the Disco, Motion City Soundtrack, the Hush Sound, and Phantom Planet. Scene photographer Wanda Santos-Bray was there with her camera. Check out her slide show. – Michael Gallucci
Tribunal of Fools: More expensive comedy from the Cuyahoga County commissioners
Is this a real plan? Or is Tim Hagan just scamming the Plain Dealer? In a Plain Dealer story this morning, Commissioner Tim Hagan announced that Cuyahoga County’s three wise men are now considering a site at East 55th and Chester for the new convention center/medical mart. Though Hagan concedes this isn’t the preferred site,…
Keeping up with the Kickdrums
“Lollipop,” by Li’l Wayne: In April, Scene followed Cleveland-based production duo The Kickdrums in their quest to burst into the national hip-hop scene. When I left them, Matt Penttila and Alex Fitts were banging on that door pretty loudly, forging a master-and-apprentice relationship with Cincinnati producer Hi-Tek, arranging with Houston rapper and mogul Scarface to…
Columbus’ Times New Viking has some free music for you
“We’re over here!” Columbus noisemakers Times New Viking recently cut some live tracks for the super-cool Daytrotter website. The trio’s latest album, Rip It Off , is a pretty awesome blast of indie-rock racket that has much in common with fellow Ohioans Guided By Voices — namely, songs are half-finished and sound like they were…
Slide Show: Kid Rock at the Q
Kid Rock recognizes a stripper in the cheap seats. Kid Rock returned to the Q on Saturday night and blessed a packed house with his Rock and Roll Revival Tour (which also included performances by J. Geils Band singer Peter Wolf and Run-DMC’s Reverend Run). Scene photographer Wanda Santos-Bray was there. Check out her slide…
Tribe: Is Asdrubal Cabrera’s triple-play ball gone forever?
After recording a historic triple play, Cabrera flipped the ball into the stands for some lucky fan to later lose in the backyard. When Asdrubal Cabrera made history last week by recording only the 14th unassisted triple play in big league history, he made one error. He tossed the ball into the stands without thinking…
This Just In: The Hold Steady leads the latest new concerts
Power rockers the Hold Steady lead this week’s list of 30 choice new shows, the rest of which range from a Monkee to Mushroomhead. Read on for a full rundown. – D.X. Ferris
Donatos: Easing your gas-price pain one pie at a time
Cynics may claim there’s a flaw in the reasoning – “Great news! Higher fuel costs mean more free pizza!” – but that doesn’t mean pie guys and gals shouldn’t cash in on Donatos’ pizza deal. Now through Memorial Day weekend, bring in a gas-pump receipt to your favorite NEO Donatos location, order a large pizza,…
Tribe: Against the Sox, lots of C.C. Ks mean lots of beers
Your pocketboot is a strong reason to root for C.C. Sabathia to strike out countless batters Tuesday night when the hefty lefty faces the White Sox in Chicago. No, we’re not telling you to bet on the game, although we know a guy who knows a guy if that’s your thing. Every K by Indians…
Rolling Stone (still) hearts Ohio
In the wake of the Black Keys new album, Attack and Release, the Akron music scene hasn’t received this much national play since Devo had a top-ten single. The new issue of Rolling Stone (#1053, May 29 2008, Eagles on cover) continues the magazine’s serial-gushing about the band. Varsity writer Austin Scaggs declares the disc…
To the uninvited hookers knocking on my door: thanks for not being Mormons
The author politely tries to help a wayward hooker discover the source of the mix-up. In January, First Punch speculated that Ohio’s right-wing “Stripper Bill” — which affected absolutely nothing, by the way — was acting as an inadvertent boon to the local escort industry. After an experience the other night, I’m inclined to agree.…
The horse slaughter auction continues at Sugarcreek
It cost $14,000 to save just 25 horses at a recent Sugarcreek auction. Three years ago, we brought you the tale of LeRoy Baker’s Sugarcreek horse auction – where unwanted steeds are bought up in the hundreds and sold off to the slaughterhouses every Friday. After our story ran, letters poured in from readers who…
Deadliest Catchers and drunk bull riders top our Picks of the Week
Guys from the Deadliest Catch sign their book at Legacy on Tuesday. Every Monday, Scene calendar editor Cris Glaser provides a random but reliable sampling of things to do in the week ahead. For more options, log onto entertainment.clevescene.com. And check back Friday for C-Notes’ Picks of the Weekend. Monday: Cleveland NAACP chief Stanley Miller…
Hello, Cleveland: This week’s concert cheat sheet
The reunited Stone Temple Pilots lead this week’s list of shows that are worth their pound-of-flesh ticket fees. Also don’t miss the Bellrays’ soul-punk, if you prefer small indie shows. And if you’d rather just laugh, check out actor Eddie Izzard’s one-man show. Read on for a full rundown with who’s playing, when, for how…
Last Night in Cleveland: Cleveland 100
Mobile Home Massacre This past weekend’s Cleveland 100 at Peabody’s featured performances by 100 local bands. Saturday night’s metal showcase attracted a wide range of fans of all ages. Long hair, band T-shirts, tattoos, and piercings were sported by most audience members, leaving little room for random emo kids. The brutal Obliterate kicked off their…
Dinner at Flying Fig, starring the wines of France
Karen Small’s applies her inventiveness to French wine on June 4. We dig French wines – the dark Syrahs from Crozes-Hermitage, the crisp Sauvignon Blancs from Sancerre, and the Syrah-based blends of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, in particular. And we adore the food at Flying Fig www.theflyingfig.com – chef-owner Karen Small’s always-appealing riffs on what’s seasonal, local, and…
The LeBron James Leave-o-Meter has overheated
The Latest Sign of Impending Doom: The Cavs got bounced in the Eastern Conference semi-finals by the Celtics after losing game seven 97-92. LeBron James scored 45 points while the rest of the team managed just 47. After the game, LeBron told reporters, “I think what we have is very good, but we need to…
STP rocks the range, preps fans for tomorrow’s Cleveland show
Going to tomorrow night’s Stone Temple Pilots reunion show at the State Theatre? Writer Matt Wardlaw caught the band’s performance at Columbus’ Rock the Range fest on Saturday. Here’s what you can expect. This past weekend’s second-annual Rock on the Range festival in Columbus served as a primer for the reunited Stone Temple Pilots’ show…
Beyond Rape: Joanna Connors raises the bar at The Plain Dealer
It’s not often that you open up The Plain Dealer and find a story so riveting, so fascinating, that you can’t put it down. But it does occasionally happen. Take, for instance, this month’s Beyond Rape: A Survivor’s Journey by Joanna Connors, a Plain Dealer writer who was raped in 1984 while on assignment as…
Cleveland Heights family to appear on Wife Swap
Wife Swap, the TV program where wives swap families for two weeks to live in each other’s homes, is one of ABC’s best performers. And it’s easy to see why: The children and husband usually end up pleading for their real mom/wife to come home. For the unappreciated women (read: pretty much everyone) the show…
Adrian Maldonado: More tales of corruption in Cuyahoga County government
In Cuyahoga County, no streak of weirdness or ineptitude is an accident. While government employees may plead ignorance to mistakes and corruption, odds are good that someone is greasing the wheel. This brings us to the tale of Adrian Maldonado, the county’s longtime director of procurement and diversity. He’s in charge of hiring construction companies…
Cavs lose. Let the calls for Mike Brown’s job begin
If it hasn’t already, the Fire Mike Brown Choir’s season-ending concert should be getting under way soon, first in living rooms across Cleveland, then on talk radio, and then in Bill Simmons’ recliner. Because in the aftermath of Cavalier losses in the LeBron James Era, there is no dissecting the superiority of the opponents’ roster;…
Cavs lose. Let the calls for Mike Brown’s job begin
If it hasn’t already, the Fire Mike Brown Choir’s season-ending concert should be getting under way soon, first in living rooms across Cleveland, then on talk radio, and then in Bill Simmons’ recliner. Because in the aftermath of Cavalier losses in the LeBron James Era, there is no dissecting the superiority of the opponents’ roster;…
The Patrick O’Malley Porn Mystery
Was our county recorder into child porn? As reporters and anchormen piled into the Federal Courthouse in Akron yesterday to watch Cuyahoga County Recorder Patrick O’Malley plead guilty to a federal charge of downloading obscene materials, everyone was dying to know – exactly what was obscene and how so? Unfortunately, after 45 minutes in court,…
Tribe: Now that the scoreless streak’s over, what to do about those bats?
Aaron Laffey gave up the run that ruined the Tribe’s scoreless streak. It had to come to an end eventually, but hot damn was it fun while it lasted. In completing a streak over the Oakland Elephants yesterday, Aaron Laffey also gave up a run — of the unearned variety, on an error of his…
Ohio City Home Tour tops C-Notes’ Picks of the Weekend
Check out strangers’ medicine cabinets during Sunday’s Ohio City Home Tour. Every Friday, Scene calendar editor Cris Glaser provides a random but reliable sampling of things to do this weekend. For more options, log onto entertainment.clevescene.com. And check back Monday for C-Notes’ Picks of the Week. Friday: We were starting to worry about Pickwick &…
Hello, Cleveland: This weekend’s concert cheat sheet
Kid Rock’s country-rock-rap-classic-rock extravaganza is the biggest show of the weekend. But if that mix somehow doesn’t push your buttons, read on, and you’ll find something you’ll like. — D.X. Ferris
This Just In: HOB announces Ashlee Simpson, other shows
Four new shows at House of Blues just went on sale, including platinum pop princess Ashlee Simpson. (We heard she’s been working on her live show since that whole Saturday Night Live thing.) Tickets are available via hob.com and all Ticketmaster outlets. Extreme/Kings X/Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp: Wednesday, August 6. Doors at 7:00 PM,…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: American Speedway
Philadelphia’s American Speedway said they’d share their free beer with us if we let them explain why you need to spend Friday night with them. The rawk quartet plays the kind of dirty- rusty-nasty that grows in Cleveland like so many wonderful weeds. In fact, the band and their fans are big PBR fans, so…
Brickhouse Bar spruces itself up, but keeps its beer prices peasant-friendly
We made a surprise stop to the recently rehabbed Brickhouse Bar & Grill, where owner Chuck Colletti was busy wiping down the oak bar during a happy hour full of Slavic Village regulars. He was quick to talk about the “thousands of dollars” he spent to overhaul the club. “We basically gutted the property. We…
Take it outside: The best bets for outdoor dining in Cleveland
We can’t guarantee blue skies and balmy breezes. But if fresh-air dining is on your to-do list, we can point you toward a few of our favorite patios, decks, and outdoor dining rooms. In no particular order, they include: The Baricelli Inn (2203 Cornell Rd., 216-791-6500). Short of a trip to the Italian countryside, this…
Joe Borowski to pitch Monday in Eastlake. It’s dollar-beer night. You with us so far?
Joe Borowski + dollar beers = The Best Night Ever. Seeing Joe Borowski make a rehab appearance for the Indians single-A affiliate Lake County Captains doesn’t really tingle the baseball bone on its own merit – even if, like me, you feel that single-A is really where JoeBlow belongs. Likewise, getting $1 beers, hot dogs,…
Patrick O’Malley resigns over porn scandal, but rampant patronage was fine
Politicians can be corrupt as they want in Ohio — as long as they avoid sex scandals It’s always fun to see what merits a crime in the political world. In Cuyahoga County, incompetence and patronage have never been enough to get someone booted from office. But computer porn? That’s a different story. Witness today’s…
Capitol Theatre: For Transylvanians and trannies alike, a welcome addition to Gordon Square
The rehabbed Capitol Theatre should open next April. (Photo: gordonsquare.org. Cleveland’s gay community got an ego boost from City Hall during yesterday afternoon’s ribbon-cutting for the Capitol Theatre on the West Side. Get this: Even trannies will be welcome in the once-glorious vaudeville and silent-movie house. Popcorn, RuPaul? In an hour-long dog-and-pony show, Mayor Frank…
This Just In: The Hold Steady come to the Beachland, will most likely get hammered
“You gonna drink that?” Woo-hoo! Our favorite boozin’ band, the Hold Steady, is playing the Beachland Ballroom on July 17! Their new album, Stay Positive, comes out two days before. When they played the Grog in December 2006, frontman Craig Finn was barely standing by show’s end. We’re hoping for the same in two months.…
R. Kelly gets busy in the place where you get your hair cut
R. Kelly, thinking about some other places where he’d like to have sex. You know how much we love R. Kelly. He’s gotten freaky in the kitchen, at the zoo, in the dentist’s office — even on planets we never heard of! Now everybody’s favorite R&B singer/ metaphor-maker/pedophile is taking his quest for booty to…
Mic Check: Kid Rock at the Q on Saturday
Kid Rock has pretty much covered every corner of popular music. Hip-hop, country, pop, southern rock – the dude’s done ’em all. Whether you’re a Confederate flag-waving hillbilly or a white kid in the suburbs looking for a little street cred with your homies, chances are pretty good that Rock at one time or another…
$13 at … Lago
In this weekly feature, C-Notes stretches your dollar at restaurants around the region, because you had to go and take the Celtics in five. Sucker. This week … Lago 2221 Professor Avenue, 216-344-0547, http://lagotremont.com/ For Scene’s full review, click here. What $13 got us: Split orders of quail parmesan ($8), veggie pizza ($4.50), two orders…
Last Night in Cleveland: The Mars Volta
Walking into the Mars Volta’s concert at House of Blues last night, one thing was certain: The band was going to kick your ass with one aural assault after another. Stick-thin singer/screecher Cedric Bixler-Zavala literally kicked off the show by getting down and jumping around as his bandmates churned out “Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)”…
‘Who’s Line’s’ Greg Proops leads the week in Cleveland comedy
Unless you recognize a comedian’s name as That Girl From that Movie or the Dude from That One HBO Special, it can be hard to tell whether a stand-up is worth seeing. Lucky you: C-Notes did the legwork, and the skinny on this week’s big comedy shows, video included, is just a click away. –…
Medina’s Dirty Cowboys: getting drunks to ride the bull every Thursday
Dirty Cowboys’ “Sexiest Bull Rider” Night. Proper attire required. Dirty Cowboys manager Jake Thomas is dead serious when you ask him about the type of babe who’ll compete tonight for the club’s esteemed “Sexiest Bull Rider” title. “Any and all,” he says. “The drunk one would be the one existing variable.” The rules go something…
Restaurant of the Weekend: Paladar Latin Kitchen and Rum Bar
<div A combo of plantain, yucca, and malanga jazzes up Paladar’s guacamole. I’ve had better experiences than Tuesday’s visit to Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar, in Woodmere. Right from the beginning, in fact, my lunch seemed cursed, marred by a perfect storm of errors and oversights. So then why am I telling you to…
Biking Cleveland: It sucks less than you think
An artist’s rendering of Cleveland, circa 2014, when an oil shortage has forced Cleveland commuters to pedal their Schwinns down the inner-belt. According to Bicycling Magazine, Cleveland is not one of the worst cities in the United State for bicycling. That’s a cause for celebration, for it gives Clevelanders one more reason to rock spandex…
Zachary Coleman shows his support for Obama — with a bounced check
Zachary Coleman discovers the difficulty of playing the rich man when you have to steal your money from one unsuspecting woman at a time. Last week, we introduced you to Zachary Coleman, an accomplished con man who hobnobbed his way into the good graces of Cleveland’s arts world. In his role as arts patron and…
Taking issue with Kim Crow on Cleveland’s Fashion Week
Cleveland’s Fashion Week still needs a lot of work. In yesterday’s Style section, The Plain Dealer’s resident fashion writer Kim Crow praises the “greatness” of Cleveland’s Fashion Week finale, deeming it the best ever. But it left us wondering if we were at the same event. For those not in the know, Cleveland Fashion Week…
Creepy Religious Mail of the Week
When we open a letter from a reader and two clipped-out ads from our rag fall out – you know, ads that prominently feature what goes under them apple bottomed jeans – we’re expecting a tirade about our “smut.” But apparently to some, a fine tail feather inspires religious devotion. Imagine our surprise and delight…
The Black Keys play Conan tonight
The Black Keys are on Late Night With Conan O’Brien tonight. Be sure to watch, because a year from now, when Jimmy Fallon takes over the spot, the show will totally suck. –Michael Gallucci
In Tremont, welcome back 806 wine bar
Jason Beudert’s restaurant-consulting business has a sort of stuffy name – Vista Hospitality and Logistics Group sounds more like something out of Clancy novel. But Beudert, it turns out, is a pretty down-to-earth dude. That’s good news for fans of upscale boozing, since Beudert and partner Greg Costa will soon reopen Tremont’s long-struggling 806 Wine…
Frank Jackson, ragtag crew to tour Paris on taxpayers’ dime; here’s hoping they stay there
“Le Mayor, Francois Jackson. Since the dawn of civilization, France has built its reputation as a safe haven for eccentrics and the occasional jackass. But even they’ll be unprepared for the crew of weirdos headed from Cleveland to Paris next Thursday. As reported by the Plain Dealer this morning, Mayor Frank Jackson and four city…
Mic Check: Panic at the Disco at Time Warner Cable Amphitheater on Friday
Just dandy. Yes, Panic at the Disco come off as prancing dandies, with all that guyliner and circus shit. But they also write some catchy tunes, despite burdening them with Oklahoma-sized titles like “There’s a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought of It Yet” and “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom…
At Lakewood’s West End, tonight’s the night to make beers — poof! — disappear
For our next trick, we’ll make this six-pack disappear and then drunk-dial our ex. I’m not sure what makes your head spin faster: Cleveland magician Paul Gallagher’s blink-or-you’ll-miss card tricks or the $3 Magic Hat #9 microbrews at West End Tavern’s Magic Wednesdays. So I consulted one of the bar’s regulars to give me his…
Tribe: Jhonny Peralta has no business playing shortstop
It’s no secret that Jhonny Peralta plays shortstop like he’s wearing a set of iron loafers. If the ball isn’t hit directly at him, Jhonny seems to miss every groundball by one step. (Even when it is hit at him, that only precedes an adventurous throw to the surprisingly limber Ryan Garko.) Either opposing hitters…
Brian Scalabrine diss track on LeBron? Oh, no he didn’t!
Plus, after the jump: Add Scalabrine to the list of guys you don’t want to see shirtless. Watching this Celtics-Cavs series on TV, you probably only noticed Brian Scalabrine if you have Godlike HD. That’s ‘cause the painfully redheaded center isn’t eligible to play. Instead, he prowls the bench area in an ill-fitting suit, Boston’s…
No gays allowed at the Brecksville prom: fact or fiction?
If these guys lived in Brecksville, could they attend the prom? On a recent sunny afternoon, C-Notes headed out to the real life Pleasantville that is Brecksville to find out if the rumors were true: Was Brecksville High really banning gay students from its prom? According to our spies – well planted at a certain…
The AT&T U-Verse box: Nothing that a sledgehammer couldn’t cure
The mark of the devil. Unsightly accoutrements have long been a part of TV viewing. The satellite dish. The cable box. Rabbit ears. But as technology has progressed, the eyesores have only gotten bigger. Enter the fourth-generation of cable TV’s aesthetic nightmare: the AT&T U-Verse box. “It’s like having an outhouse on your tree lawn,”…
Another creep at the Cleveland school district
Is it time to call an Amber alert or something? The coveted title of Creepiest Guy at the Cleveland Schools has long rested with Nick Jackson, the mayor’s brother and longtime patronage appointee. Two female employees — one at City Hall and one at the school district — have accused him of sexual harassment. It…
Swatting makes it debut on CSI Miami
Okay, so David Caruso is way cooler than us. Especially when he’s wearing sunglasses. But we knew about swatting before he did. So there. When we first reported in January about a new troubling phone prank known as “swatting,” the trend was so new it wasn’t even on Wikipedia yet. As we wrote back then,…
Home Improvements
Bernie Thiel claims he isn’t amazed that the annual Ohio City Home Tour attracts thousands of gawkers, who want to see firsthand the Victorian- and Italianate-style houses in his neighborhood. But to hear him talk about the “wow factor” on today’s nine-home tour, it’s clear even he’s in awe of the West 53rd Street digs…
Murray Saul 80th Birthday Party
Cleveland icon Murray Saul returns to the Beachland to celebrate his 80th birthday, which will mark his first public appearance and live Get Down in 30 years. Through the ’70s — back when radio was the lifeblood of youth culture — the former WMMS DJ whipped the city into a frenzy every Friday night with…
Pela
Pela’s story is at least as old as the American Dream — maybe older. Slowly but surely, the Brooklyn-based indie-rockers are inching their way toward that dream — each of the 160,000 hits on their MySpace page symbolically marking another notch in listeners’ hearts. So it was a real bummer when guitarist Billy McCarthy fell…
Catch & Bandit
To be a fisherman by trade, you have to be a natural gambler who sees your work through rose-colored Ray-Bans. Otherwise, you’d live in the fear of failure, injury, even death.That’s the message in Time Bandit: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World’s Deadliest Jobs by Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand. The brothers…
Royal Rush
Memories of March ice storms and April blizzards melt away today for summer’s unofficial kickoff and Put-in-Bay’s fifth annual Scavenger Hunt & Poker Run. In round one, contestants are given two hours to track down nine clues on the island to score points. “They may have to find a plaque in the park or collect…
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ups the action but loses some magic
“Things never happen the same way twice.” So booms Aslan the lion (Liam Neeson), popping his computer-generated head into The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian to pep-talk a bunch of discouraged Brits into fighting the good fight again. As in life, so in sequels. Aslan and other once-key figures — and by extension the Christian…
Stone Temple Pilots
Scott Weiland had barely wiped Slash’s boot print from his ass when he announced a reunion tour with his Stone Temple Pilots bandmates. Seriously: The singer was kicked out of Velvet Revolver, and then, in a matter of weeks, hooked up with his old group and set up a nationwide tour. Meanwhile, the other temperamental,…
The OH Chorale
More than 120 of Cleveland’s movers and shakers put politics aside to clear their pipes for tonight’s Sing Out benefit for the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. The 10th annual concert counts judges, lawyers, mayors, pastors, and CEOs among the talent in the choir, which has been rehearsing for three weeks for the program. Under the…
Class in Sessions
At today’s Rock Your World All-City Arts Festival, don’t be surprised if some of the Cleveland schoolkids onstage someday have their own place of honor in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. “It’s an important day to come out and support the city’s youth as they perform and aspire to achieve greatness…
Inspired by Stallone, kids discover joys of DIY filmmaking in Son of Rambow.
No adult has ever been able to codify what separates a good movie from a classic. In kid terms, though — those favored by Son of Rambow — a good movie merely sends you bounding home from the theater. A great movie demands some further physical response, like beaning your neighbor with a volleyball. And…
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie bassist Nick Harmer recently said he hoped that Narrow Stairs, the band’s eighth album, would be “a bit of a surprise for those out there that think they have us all figured out.” He’s joking, right? It’s gotta be a goof — like singer Ben Gibbard’s hilarious YouTube hit, Just Jazzin’.…
The Born Identity
Not all the art and music will be as intense as the placenta prints and belly casts at tonight’s production of re:Birth. But the videos, photos, and paintings, as well as a screening of Ricki Lake’s The Business of Being Born, will have a common theme about having babies. “These days, a lot of women…
Moving the port will cost $600 million, take 20 years, and leave broken promises in its wake
It was, like the Euclid Corridor before and the Medical Mart after, the Plan to Save Cleveland: In 2004, the city adopted a grandiose strategy to finally make use of the valuable yet murky shoreline that lies to the north. It was the culmination of a 32-month process, the city boasted, that brought 5,000 people…
Lyrics Born
The third album by Lyrics Born (half-Japanese rapper Tom Shimura) couldn’t have a more fitting title, considering the mercurial nature of the music. Lyrics Born launched his career alongside DJ Shadow, eventually co-founding the hipster-approved SoleSides and Quannum labels. Everywhere at Once could be his breakout disc, but instead of playing it safe, he stretches…
Hippie Hippie Shake
To outsiders, the Hessler Street Fair is an annual outing to check out the artists and musicians who live, work, and play in the area. But to those who live on the street, it’s a nostalgic walk to the ’60s, when life took on a turn-on-tune-in-and-drop-out vibe. And the fortysomething fair’s respite last year only…
Union: EMS is purposely delaying the Cleveland Fire Department’s response times
It used to be that when you called 911 for an ambulance in Cleveland, you were likely to get a fire truck as well. Firefighters played the role of heavy artillery, capable of cutting open a car or extracting the injured from tight situations. So in April, CFD purchased a paramedic pumper — a fire…
M83
M83’s Anthony Gonzalez has always pumped up his DIY techno fantasies with big slabs of ’80s-style synths, which gave his music the illusion of arena-size significance. But he’s never really had the songs to totally pull it off. On Saturdays=Youth, Gonzalez goes all out with a Brat Pack fetish that unreels over the course of…
Break out in Hives
Hundreds of years ago, Native Americans lamented the arrival of honeybees so fiercely that they dubbed them “the white man’s fly.” Summit County Metroparks naturalist Nicki Schneider, at today’s Bees, Bees, Bees workshop in Akron, simply thinks of them as “illegal immigrants.” “They were brought from Europe to produce honey,” she says. “The bees started…
Niko Bellic and Grand Theft Auto IV are great, but is that enough anymore?
If you read reviews the way I do, you’ve already started by checking out the score, and now you’re back here to see what the hell my problem is. Peace, brother. Grand Theft Auto IV is a fine game, with tons of content and all the great moments you’ve come to expect from the series,…
Ashton Shepherd
Unlike other barely-old-enough-to-drink country singers, 21-year-old Ashton Shepherd has bigger problems than what to wear on prom night. “I’ve got a cold beer in my right hand/In my left, I’ve got my wedding band,” she starts off her debut album, and that pretty much sets the tone for this booze-soaked stroll through domestic doubt. Shepherd…
Just the Acts, Ma’am
Give props to an Alfred Hitchcock thriller as the inspiration for Pickwick & Frolic’s new murder-mystery musical, debuting tonight. If it hadn’t been for a screening of Stage Fright, Michael Rogaliner would probably still be trolling for a storyline for Stage Struck. “I think of it as an homage, because I think I stole one…
A bizarre Bob Dylan pic tops this week’s pop-culture picks
TOP PICK — I’m Not There (Genius Products/Weinstein Company) Todd Haynes’ rambling, meditative Bob Dylan film (now out on DVD) sure ain’t no biopic. Six actors (including Heath Ledger and Oscar nominee Cate Blanchett) portray the reclusive singer-songwriter during different stages of his long and thorny career. It cuts to the mind of the artist…
Atmosphere
The characters populating Atmosphere’s fifth album are in unenviable situations. And not all of them are painting that shit gold. Vagrants, single parents, and dope-addled fiends live, work, fuck, and wallow in their misery, giving overemotional rapper Slug a chance to traffic in someone else’s self-righteousness and -loathing for a change. Yet their issues and…
Good for What Ales You
For a 20-spot, sample all the Guinness, Heineken, Dos Equis, and as much of the Sam Adams beer line as you can stomach for Brew Fest, to benefit Families With Food Allergies. To sop up the brew, Wild Bill’s BBQ will grill up Kobe burgers and brats just for the occasion. “It’s a different kind…
Letters published May 14, 2008
“King Cheapskate,” First Punch, May 7 Cavalier Conscience Stiffing the working stiff not a problem for LeBron: Thank you for your article exposing the real LeBron. My daughter works at another one of the tightwad’s favorite downtown places. The cheap-ass receives the same royal treatment there as well. He is showered with complementary meals, expensive…
No Age
The second album by the L.A.-based punk duo No Age is packed with songs that are short, loud, noisy, simple, exciting, and catchy. It also pushes all the right nostalgic buttons and uses electronic flourishes as their foundation. In other words, it’s an indie-rock hit. Yet for all of Nouns’ post-Pavement minimalism, there are genuine…
Their Ship Has Come In
The recent success of Philadelphia’s American Speedway is nothing short of a miracle, considering the riff-rock quartet is only a year old. In a little more than 12 months, the group has mounted a tour and dropped its debut album, Ship of Fools, which gets loads of airplay on Sirius radio channel 29. While the…
Panic at the Disco loses an exclamation point, discovers the Beatles
Contrary to all those rumors that surged across the internet a few months ago, there’s no conspiracy behind Panic at the Disco’s disappearing exclamation point. It’s all a matter of getting rid of something that didn’t belong there in the first place. Or so says drummer Spencer Smith. “We didn’t ever really see it as…
D. Roof
D. Roof is not on fire, but he’s pretty hot. The Cleveland rapper has his own playbook for the game, and it’s not based on drills other crews are running. “The Material Minded” runs down a familiar list of mainstream hip-hop beefs — from flashy Sucker Free videos to local rappers who talk like they’re…
Strike Three!
To lift the Tribe out of its MLB misery, the Post & Beam kitchen crew is grilling up a Triple Play of out-of-the-park sandwiches. The $5.75 Hippo is a triple-decker egg sandwich with cheese, bacon, and ham. For $6.25, order the Philly Steak, with cheese, green pepper, and grilled onion. And the $6.75 Beamer is…
Almost 30 years after its landmark records, L.A.’s best punk band X returns to the road
From her home in rural Missouri, punk-rock godmother, author, and artist Exene Cervenka sounds like any other midwestern housewife. “It’s still very old-fashioned here,” says Cervenka, who co-founded X in Los Angeles back in the late ’70s. “It’s a simple life, with a lot of land and a lot of cows.” Cervenka will soon leave…
Rogue
In Rogue’s world, merely making it through the day feels like surviving a cave-in. Sometimes the going is slow and grating; sometimes the band catches a break and plows on at full speed. The overlong lo-fi metallic rock of “Suffocate” is typical of the band’s second album, which finds the Brunswick duo crushed in the…
Junie B.’s Busing Out All Over
Everyone’s fave first-grader and her trusty chauffeur tool into Northeast Ohio today for the fifth annual Junie B. Jones Stupid Smelly Bus Tour. And the title character of the best-selling kiddie-lit series has brought a “big pink trunk of junk” from home to show her young readers. “The first few times we put Junie B.…
White Rabbits conquers the underground rock scene, one book at a time
Despite his lack of formal education, White Rabbits bass player Adam Russell has long led a literary lifestyle. He dropped out of high school when he was 16 — years before his band played Late Show With David Letterman and signed to the same record label as Radiohead — because he was frustrated with teachers…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations
Cagelove — In this hash of a script by Christopher Denham, Katie and Sam are a young couple teetering on the brink of matrimony. But their life is clouded by the fact that Katie was raped by her ex-boyfriend, a male model whom she’s photographed. Sam, meanwhile, is a successful white-collar computer dude with a…
Show Me the Prof
A few weeks after his 90th birthday, woodcutter Paul Arnold shows no signs of slowing down, especially for his latest exhibit. The former Oberlin College art professor and Oberlin City Council member handcrafted 25 color woodcuts in time for the seven-week run of Homages: Tributes to the Masters at the Firelands Association for the Visual…
Akron/Family
Once associated with the otherworldly Animal Collective, Brooklyn’s Akron/Family has moved to a world all its own — a planet that’s sometimes complex (the music), other times not so much (the lyrics). Its latest album, last year’s Love Is Simple, is a rich exploration of folk music, pushing song structures into a realm where the…
Tremont Trek home tour returns in June
Now in its seventh year, the popular Tremont Trek home tour will return on June 21, from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Part walking tour, part progressive-dinner party, the event lets you peek inside six private homes, with wine and food from some of the historic ‘hood’s best restaurants. This year’s tour steps off at Paul…
Stand Up and Be Discounted
Between stand-up comedy and improv theater, ex-Whose Line Is It Anyway? regular Greg Proops thinks scripted joke-telling is easier, hands down. Off-the-cuff improvising with the likes of Clevelander Drew Carey is proof enough. “The guys I do improv with are terrible. So it’s a lot of work — like dragging a giant block of ice…
Cinematic Sunrise
Craig Owens and Bradley Bell usually play post-hardcore music in their full-time band Chiodos. With Cinematic Sunrise, they get to make more pop-oriented and less-complex punk songs. This doesn’t mean the five-piece Sunrise is easy listening. Its new self-titled EP is jammed with clever keyboard and guitar riffs, and songs about one-sided love affairs (“Umbrellas…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions
NEW The Future of Heads — What to expect from a show with a title that conjures such bizarre and disparate associations? Haircutting? Lettuce? David Byrne? No — what local artist Mark Keffer displays here is a series of futuristic landscapes, painted on panel and populated with oblong shapes resembling heads, brains, and spinal cords.…
Cleveland clubs host two-day music festival showcasing 100 bands
The Peabody’s complex (2083 East 21st Street) will host the Cleveland 100 on Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, at Peabody’s, Pirate’s Cove, and Rockstar Cleveland. The festival showcases 100 unsigned bands that hope to score record deals from the execs who’ll be at the shows. All but one of the groups is local.…
Kid Rock
Kid Rock’s genre-jumping over the past few years signals a couple of things: Dude’s either restless or looking for a way to keep an audience that’s grown tired of his white-boy rap. We suspect it’s a little of both. The breakthrough Devil Without a Cause (which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year) set a high…
Welcome to St. Hyacinth, the noisiest neighborhood in Cleveland
It’s early on a spring morning in St. Hyacinth. An easterly glow, just breaking now over a row of oaks, illuminates a small block of homes. In most neighborhoods, mornings like these act as a concealer, covering up a neighborhood’s most unsightly warts. But it’s not that easy here. Two of the homes on East…
P.J. McIntyre’s Irish aura is a step-dance ahead
The suds are sloshing, the music’s thrumming, and the roar of the crowd bellied up to the bar could hardly be more boisterous. Aye, ’tis just another Thursday night at P. J. McIntyre’s, the handsome Irish pub that opened in September in Kamm’s Corners, near the Rocky River border. One part bar, one part casual…
O’Death
The five guys in O’Death may play banjo-fueled Appalachian mountain music, but their main inspiration comes from a completely different source: punk rock. We bet you’ve never seen bearded men jumping around onstage with such ferocity before. The band combines folk, goth, and Americana, coming on like a dirtier, sloppier version of Loon-era Tapes ‘n…
Lovable nerds take center stage in Playhouse Square’s 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
With recent movies about Scrabble champs, crossword addicts, and Donkey Kong whizzes, you’d think the nerds of the world had garnered all the face time possible. But here comes another bunch in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, now at Playhouse Square Center. And while it will never rank as a great musical, the…
Name That Tune
Jazz pianist Joe Hunter will bump up the name-dropping while he tickles the keys at today’s What’s in a Name? concert with drummer Roy King, bassist Martin Brock, and singers Susan Hesse and Evelyn Wright. “I started thinking how many songs had this theme, incorporating the massive influences in music, like ethnic patterns in the…
American Speedway
Simply put, American Speedway brings the rawk. The band is from Philadelphia, but their bloody-knuckle barroom anthems sound born and bred in Parma. Drummer Chris Callahan promises, “We’ll give you a much-needed dose of real rock and roll,” and says the group has what you need if you’re a fan of “Zeke, the Supersuckers, Motörhead,…
Opeth
There’s really no such thing as a casual Opeth fan. It takes a long attention span and an open mind to fully appreciate the brilliance of the world’s best death-metal and progressive rock band. These fearlessly original Swedish longhairs win diehards by catering to charismatic frontman Mikael Akerfeldt’s boundless vision. In an age when music…
The woes of Cleveland, on display in Dobama’s Migration
It’s been said that a committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. And that goes double for playwriting committees — the unfortunate authorial structure responsible for The Cleveland Plays: Part I: Migration, now being produced by Dobama Theatre. Three otherwise-talented local playwrights and theater artists — Eric Coble, Nina…
