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| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
| cl clevescene.com lev eves esce ceene ne.ccom om | February Febr Fe brua uary ry 12 12 - 18 118,, 20 2020 20 20
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CONTENTS
&%"25!29 s 6/, .O 33 Upfront .......................................6 Feature ..................................... 11 Get Out! .................................... 19 Stage .........................................24 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993)
Film .......................................... 25 Eat ............................................ 27 Music ........................................30 Savage Love .............................. 45
REWIND: 1975
Euclid Media Group
and Scene founder Richard Kabat
Chief Executive OfďŹ cer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating OfďŹ cers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner
Publisher Andrew Zelman
VP Digital Services Stacy Volhein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon
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Cleveland Scene
Stage Editor Christine Howey
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Copy Editor Elaine Cicora Interns Claudia Ugbana
This week in Rewind, we dip back to Feb. 13, 1975, for Scene’s interview with Queen’s Brian May and Freddie Mercury. Check out our vintage chat from 45 years ago on page 42.
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UPFRONT SHERWIN-WILLIAMS ANNOUNCES NORTHEAST OHIO GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS Photo courtesy of Sherwin-Williams
IN A PRESS RELEASE LAST WEEK, the global paint and industrial coatings corporate giant Sherwin-Williams announced that it will build a new onemillion-square-foot corporate headquarters in downtown Cleveland, off Public Square, and that it will build a new research and development facility in Brecksville. “Our plans to continue investing in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio build on our 154year legacy as one of the region’s top employers and drivers of economic activity,” said SherwinWilliams chairman and CEO John G. Morikis, in a statement provided to the media. “Driven by our continued need to serve our customers at the highest level and retain and attract top talent, we intend to create a next-generation workplace environment that ignites creativity, collaboration and industry-leading innovation.” The two new facilities will house roughly 3,500 total employees, and Sherwin-Williams said it intends to grow by as many as 400 more. The $600 million construction projects will be “multi-year” processes, according to Sherwin-Williams corporate communications, and likely won’t get underway until 2023. The city, county and state will no doubt heap mountains
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of financial incentives on the company, though those are still being ironed out. At a press conference last week, Mayor Frank Jackson mentioned the typical suite of incentives for new development: non-school tax increment financing agreements (TIFs), construction loans and “job creation incentive grants.” Both the city and county have hired law firms to create unique incentive packages, which means that they can be counted upon to keep much of the material secret, shielded by so-called “attorney-client privilege.” When Cleveland.com asked the city and the county to make transparency pledges about forthcoming incentives, they declined to do so. “Sherwin Williams has been a part of the fabric of our community for 154 years. A new global headquarters in Cleveland lays the foundation for the next chapter for both Sherwin Williams and our city’s history,” said Mayor Jackson, in a statement provided to the media. The news follows months of speculation and anxiety from regional leaders. And it validates the reporting of local transit and infrastructure blogger Ken Prendergast, who broke every major development on the story of Sherwin’s search and has provided depth and nuance as he pieced together evidence that Sherwin was indeed staying put.
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
Prendergast used visual evidence, city records, inside sources and auxiliary information — like the fact that CEO Mokiris and his wife recently moved to a new, 22,000-square-foot mansion in Bay Village — to develop the huge regional story, even as Sherwin-Williams itself remained tight-lipped throughout. — Sam Allard
Nobody Knows What the Hell’s Going on with Cleveland City Council Reduction A group which had gathered signatures to place two city council reduction measures on the March ballot announced late last month that they’d be withdrawing their petitions after reaching an agreement with a coalition of clergy members. Monday, they submitted a signed withdrawal request to city council, and council promptly passed legislation repealing its authorization to place the charter amendments before voters. Word was that Clevelanders First, the grassroots council-reduction group backed financially by Westlake restaurateur Tony George, had been meeting or attempting to meet with city council for more than a month, but that council president Kevin Kelley hadn’t taken the process seriously.
“He was very cavalier about it,” Bill Ritter, one of the leaders of Clevelanders First, told Scene last week. “His whole attitude was, ‘bring it on.’” But it was the Cleveland Clergy Coalition, led by former assistant county prosecutor Aaron Phillips, that broached the subject of race with Clevelanders First and encouraged them to withdraw. Phillips and his coalition said they feared the ballot measures could potentially lead to an “East Side, West Side split.” Indeed, that was the message presented by Phillips at a press conference where the petition withdrawal was announced. Pastor E.T. Caviness echoed the sentiment in comments to Ideastream. He said the ballot measures would “cause harm to our city in terms of East and West, black and white, and we did not want that.” Ritter told Scene that he hadn’t personally seen evidence that this was the case — the “concern” was purely speculative, and in fact had been contradicted by anecdotal evidence in our own reporting. But there were indications, Ritter said, that council would be running its opposition campaign with explicitly racial overtones, i.e., that the council reduction campaign was racist because it would result in fewer total council members on the city’s overwhelmingly black east side. Scene had been shown anticouncil-reduction literature (such as that on the second page of this article) that emphasized Clevelanders First’s funding from Tony George, even blurbing Scene’s coverage and characterizing the measures as being orchestrated by a “millionaire fat cat.” Ritter said that whether council continued with the Tony George attacks or shifted to calling Clevelanders First racist — historically the trump card in local political battles, opportunistically wielded by no less than Carl Stokes, Dennis Kucinich and George Forbes — commissioning a study on the issue would give the council reduction measures more validity. “The study would be credible and unbiased,” Ritter said. Regardless of the theoretical benefits of a study, Ritter said the fact
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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UPFRONT is the Cleveland Clergy Coalition specifically asked them to pursue one. “They said it would make them more comfortable, and we didn’t want to push back,” Ritter said. “The last thing we wanted to do was create divisiveness.” He said that once the study is completed, Clevelanders First intends to present council with the results and ask them to follow its recommendations. Depending on council’s response, the group is prepared to launch another citizen initiative. “This issue is not going away,” Ritter said. In response to a Cleveland.com story about the ballot measures’ timeline, Ritter said that the delay in withdrawing the petitions was due in part to unforeseen personal circumstances. He said lawyers were “making sure it’s done properly.” “I know that with these things, until the last ‘I’ is dotted, there’s always speculation,” he said, “but we’re committed to doing what we said we would do.”
In the meantime, city council has ramped up its opposition, distributing literature across town. (WKYC reported that antiGeorge flyers were spotted in Ken Johnson’s Ward 4.) Tony George remarked that he didn’t
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| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
know why council would continue its campaign when he and Clevelanders First have agreed to pull the petitions, but the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is now unclear on whether the petitions may be legally withdrawn at all.
In previous weeks, they’d said that they would post signs at polling locations and simply would not tally the votes on measures Nos. 3 and 4, but they are now reportedly searching for legal precedent. The ballot measures
may legally be required to move forward, in which case council had better mount its defense in a hurry. — Allard
UCC Denison Temporary Shelter Will Operate Through April after City Grants Continuance The overflow homeless shelter operated by UCC Denison and the Metanoia Project will operate through the winter and into April after the city of Cleveland issued a continuance last week. After having already resolved some fire code violations (exit signs, fire extinguishers), the church will need to remedy the rest (fire alarms, sprinkler system) by spring. For now, it will continue the nightly fire watch with the help of volunteers who’ve come forward to physically inspect and tour the church at regular intervals each night so that it can house the needy. “I think the fact that we were granted the continuance was based on several factors, not the least of which was the existence of the fire
DIGIT WIDGET 5 Death sentences given out in Cuyahoga County in 2018-2019, the most of any county in the country during those two years. Prosecutor Mike O’Malley this month said he’ll also seek the death penalty in a triple-murder case from November 2019.
0 Executions carried out by the state of Ohio since July 2018 because it can’t find a pharmaceutical supplier to sell it drugs used in lethal injections. Bills introduced by Dems have gone nowhere in the past; and while Ohio House speaker Larry Householder recently voiced qualms about keeping capital punishment on the books, Householder said nothing is imminent and Gov. DeWine remains undecided.
5 Executions delayed by Gov. DeWine since 2018, as the state seeks drugs.
watch,” Pastor Nozomi Ikuta told Ideastream. Community support has been widespread in the face of code-based attacks by the city of Cleveland at the behest of departing councilwoman Dona Brady, which included a cease use notice delivered on Christmas Eve, a yuletide anti-homeless insult that led to an overwhelming and passionate showing by supporters at the next Cleveland city council meeting. Advocates have also clamored for the city to establish a long-term cold-weather plan. “We renew our request that the City of Cleveland work to put in place an effective and compassionate long-term cold weather plan that honors the safety, dignity, and value of every child of God,” the church said in a December statement. Discussions, councilman Matt Zone has said, began in early January on that front and continue.
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Apparently You Don’t Have to Pay Your Parking Tickets in Cleveland? A third of all parking tickets issued over the past three years by the city of Cleveland remain unpaid, an investigation by News 5 Cleveland has revealed. That means millions of owed dollars that should have gone directly to the city’s general fund (which helps pay for parks, streets, and police and fire stations) have yet to be collected. As the city no longer employs a third-party collection agency, something that many other major cities use, it’s far easier for people who have one or two parking tickets to simply ignore increased fines and not pay. Once a driver has racked up more than three tickets, the city seems to have some leverage by not allowing that person to renew their vehicle registration until the fine is paid. Five parking infractions or more also means there’s a chance your car will be towed when spotted downtown. Since 2000, News 5 found that the city has $45.6 million worth of uncollected fines. — Laura Morrison
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| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
“DRAG COMES IN AND OUT OF favor of the mainstream,” says Dr. Lady J Martinez, a performer with a decade of experience and a selfproclaimed Ph.D. in Drag Studies and History. Cleveland’s enjoying a bit of a boom period these days, the scene a melting pot of styles playing out across venues traditional and, increasingly, nontraditional. The evolution in styles, and the continued spread to venues outside of gay bars, are both reflections of and reactions to drag’s place in the mainstream in the past decade (which is very much in) and the changes the 2010s brought locally … for better, and from the perspective of some of the community, for worse. While RuPaul’s Drag Race, and then Dragula, a sort of anti-Drag Race show, and recently the campy Camp Wannakiki, all made the drag revolution a pop culture media force, local performers were dealing with the closure of Bounce, the beloved and legendary near-westside gay bar and club that served as ground zero for drag in Cleveland from 2000 to 2014, when it closed — and again from the summer of 2015, when it reopened under new ownership, until it closed again in 2017. “Simply put, Bounce was home,” says Donnie Waste, a former member of Cleveland Kings and Queens. “We formed friendships there with the queens we idolized like Kari Nickels, Kiarra Cartier Fontaine, Andria Michaels, Blossom, Athena Ghost and Mandy Merlot.” Merlot was the show director at Bounce from 2006 until 2015, and remembers the era fondly. “You know, it was kind of like a family,” Merlot says. “All the seasoned queens were taking younger ones under their wings. Back then, we were all really respectful about our history and culture. And Bounce was like the fucking place to be. It had so much energy and it was so exciting to have a place like that in Cleveland that included everyone. When it closed, it was the end of an era. There wasn’t another venue to hold the amount of people that were there, let alone the cast and budget we had.” It was also the first place that many future performers saw drag at all and inspired them.
Donnie Waste remembers going in the summer of 2016. “I remember thinking, ‘I can do that.’” Bounce was also focused on diverse programming, including shows from BPOC queens, kings, AFAB queens and burlesque all in the same room with people from all creeds, races, body types and backgrounds. It was also unique in that it was a showroom bar, and on Friday and Saturday nights it was the place to catch legendary Cleveland drag entertainers like Brionna Brooks, Danyel Vazquez, Madison Phillips, Terri Williams, Miko Chanel, Shari Turner, Akashia, Donnie Waste and Erica Martinez. Martinez says that the peak era from the late 1980s and into the 2000s started with Uncle Vinnie’s la Cabaret, which opened in 1970 and closed in 1993. Drag was an underground scene before then, and in some ways after, though it traced its origins back to Shakespeare and gender-bend parties in the 1920s. The internationally known Jewel Box Revue, starring Cleveland local Lynne Carter, who toured with the revue from the 1930s to 1960s, was an exception in many ways. Locally, progress was slower. “Vinnie’s paved the way for entertainment for the LGBTQ+ community with five days of shows a week,” she says. For those three decades or so after Vinnie’s opened, Cleveland was home to 25-plus bars that were part of the LGBTQ+ community. There was Twiggy’s, Traxx, The Grid, Legends in Lakewood, Club Visions on West Sixth, Deco (now Now That’s Class), Numbers Nightclub, Memoirs Lounge, Mean Bull and The Leather Stallion, to name just a few. It was in those venues you could find Big Mama, who started performing in 1964 along with Diana Soul, both of whom were instrumental in the creation of Miss Gay Black Ohio and the Living Color Award. Not every club was accessible to performers of color, so they created spaces for themselves and awards to uplift the community. Big Mama used to share with people the frequent discrimination she faced around the city from show directors who didn’t want to book black performers. Race is still very much central to the drag scene discussion today. While some point to the closure of Bounce and its inclusive booking as a seismic event in that regard, it would still be an issue even if Bounce were still around.
Photo by Bob Perkoski
“The Cleveland drag scene can be summed up as a big contradiction,” says Kimmy Katarja, who’s been performing for three years. “It wants nuance, it wants racially inclusive trans-affirming shows that are art based, but then contradicts itself by putting cis white queens to the front. The first people you saw on screen were cis white males/females. When it comes to entertainment, there needs to be more acceptance for performers of color on stage. You can see lineups with one black drag queen or a white-passing queen. Drag is definitely white-washed.” Other performers expressed similar feelings but said there’s been progress in recent years. “Although we still have a ways to go with acceptance, ‘diverse’ is the first word that comes to mind when you talk about the scene,” says Dakota Cox, who’s been performing for three years in Northeast Ohio. “I will say I hope I’ve helped shed more light on POC here — there’s not many of us. Visibility will help newcomers have confidence to step on the stage.” Since Bounce, there’s also been an evolution in queer representation on stage and in the audience across the scene.
Bounce farewell show
“Growing up in the LGBTQI community in the 1990s, you could either go to a gay bar or a lesbian bar and the two seldom mixed,” says Collin Lingus, who performed from 2005 to 2015. “When Bounce opened, it felt like the community came together and drag was the
center of it. I feel like I was able to bring awareness to drag kinging as a performance art during that era.” Carly Uninemclite has seen that evolution come to what the current scene looks like. “I think what’s changed the most is the amount of and the kind of queer
representation we are seeing. We are slowly getting to the point where more people of different queer identities are feeling safe to talk about their experiences and their identity and how that is tied to their performance. Before, in Cleveland, it was hard to openly talk about
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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FEATURE queerness beyond just being gay.” Rhett Corvette, a member of the Cleveland Kings Action Pack drag collective, agrees: “I’ve noticed that the drag scene is beginning to cater to all queer identities. Where audiences used to be made up of mostly gay men, I now notice the audiences are more diverse. The crowds for CKAP include lots of queer women and nonbinary folks. I’m glad that gender performance is becoming a more inclusive art form in Cleveland because people feel they are being represented.” As for the broadened audience spectrum, some of that can be attributed to the fact as gay bars have closed — a trend that tracks from Cleveland across the country — drag started popping up and being welcomed outside of those traditionally safe spaces. That, along with some well-known issues with management and operations, might have also helped spell the end for Bounce. When it closed, general manager Stephen Mayse told Scene, “I feel what with everybody being welcome at every bar, it opens up a world of other places to go. You no longer have to go to just the gay bars. Drag queens are performing at regular bars. I do feel like that was part of the problem.” Still, when Bounce closed, there was a time when the scene felt stalled. Performers took it upon themselves to find new venues and avenues. “Audiences don’t disappear overnight; people don’t stop caring about it overnight,” says Lady J Martinez, who’s been performing for 10 years. “They did not know where to follow us, so we needed to reinvent the wheel and we needed to move out of familiar venues and it was all about location, location, location. We became a full vaudeville show, we become chameleons from punk bars to fancy restaurants. We found a way to become resilient.” And resilient they were. “Having fewer LGBTQ+ spaces has impacted the frequency of drag performance; however, it has forced those still performing to find alternative spaces to house regular events highlighting drag,” says Donnie Waste. “This brings more mainstream appeal to the art of drag and offers greater accessibility to those who may not wander into one of our few remaining safe spaces.” Which is why Cleveland saw the
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| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
rise of events like the Cleveland Drag Showcase & Queens of the 9 crafted by Veranda L’Ni, who has been a generous and critical person in the scene for years, including running Drag Bingo to raise thousands of dollars for local nonprofits. Other events include Black Mass at the Five O’Clock Lounge, GlamGore at the Grog Shop, Drag Bingo at Music Box, Delusional Divas of Drag at Pickwick, the Gag and Drag Brunch at the Winchester, and Fembot at the Chamber. As Samantha Echo says of many of those venues, they “were never queer places until we all set out to make it so.” For former performers and those who have been around for decades, this is both invigorating and different. “It’s a double-edged sword,” says Mandy Merlot. “We want to be accepted and we are seeing more and more inclusion in regular bars, so the needs of a gay bar are not always there, but we also are not 100-percent accepted and we still have fear and it’s still nice to be in spaces where we don’t have to worry.” “ Now that drag has adjusted again and it’s now in straight bars is still shocking to me,” says Erica Martinez. “I enjoy it, and it’s amazing, but you have to understand that I came from a time when you were not accepted and being supported, so now that it’s accepted, it’s shocking. I had to even fight to buy wigs and dresses. We risked everything to be in drag and perform. The new kids don’t realize how lucky they are. We had to hide in an era where the AIDS epidemic was very much alive. And when I came out, there was a look and a standard. The drag scene today has variety and has so many things that there’s something for everybody.” That evolution in styles, and the freedom to try new things at new venues, kind of stemmed from the Bounce closure and gave performers the urgency and opportunity to experiment with artistic expression. “Before, the drag scene in Cleveland was predictable, you could say,” says Carly Uninemclite. “You could go to a show and see the unspoken standard of what you could and could not perform, but now you see more queens that are willing and eager to defy that standard and push the boundaries of what defines drag.” Rhett Corvette has noticed an emphasis on diversified brands. “It’s not enough to have good makeup or a good wardrobe, you
Photo by Argonia Photography
Drag-o-Ween
need to stand out as a performer and appeal to new audiences. We have punk rock shows, cabaret shows, comedy shows, club kid shows, theatrical shows … I think this helps the specific audiences feel seen and heard because the show has been curated just for
them. I love seeing a diverse cast — diversity of gender, race, ethnicity, expression and individual style. Audiences take note of shows that prioritize representation versus shows that do not.” Sassy Sasha puts it succinctly: “I’d say all the rules of old drag
are out the door and drag is now viewed as a true art form and the interpretation of the individual performing it.” RuPaul’s Drag Race, which has aired since 2009, is a common discussion topic. The show helped spread drag further into the
mainstream, but while it brought new audiences to drag brunches and bachelorette gatherings, it has also hardened some stereotypes and created new misconceptions. “Drag is way bigger than the entertainers you see on the show,” says Sassy Sasha. “Drag has so much more to it — males, females, queers, transgender, nonbinary, etc. We are a community showcasing our own art forms and unfortunately you don’t get to see how broad the spectrum has become on TV.” “There is still the need for education in our community,” says Collin Lingus. “As a drag king, and a transman, I have had to do my share of correcting people who would mis-gender me and my fellow troupe members both on stage and off. Most of these people were other members of the LGBT community, some even performers or DJs. Drag kings, although more recognized because of troupes such as CKG and CKAP in Cleveland, are still not seen as being on the same level as drag queens in popularity around Cleveland, or anywhere for that matter, but we’re making progress.” Jared Jameson of CKG agrees: “I think we’re seeing more acceptance for drag kings, and so many types
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FEATURE — I could name quite a few with completely different styles — and it’s compelling and awesome to see. On the other hand, I’ve seen bars get more and more tight-fisted about who/when/what shows they produce. It can be rough out here.” There’s also the issue of being compared to what people see on TV. “It’s a Drag Race world,” says Carly Uninemclite. “I find that a lot of the feedback I get in online circles goes back to Drag Race. I think we struggle the most in having others realize the identity we are trying to put on stage. While I admire those on Drag Race and that they started as local queens who wanted their own identity, the rest of us are struggling to establish ourselves as we are compared to queens or kings that are successful beyond the fathomable dreams of performers 20 years ago.” And there’s also the issue of money, and choices by some venues to cater to Drag Race audiences by booking Drag Race performers. “The post-Drag Race world is
both a blessing and a curse,” says Samantha Echo. “I am forever grateful to how Drag Race has made drag as a whole popular to a mainstream audience, but just like any art, Drag Race girls make thousands upon thousands while other entertainers are fighting for scraps.” “I really wish that venues would invest in specific drag artists,” says Rhett Corvette. “It’s reasonable to pay RuPaul queens thousands of dollars, but when it comes to local talent, you’re lucky to make $50. Whether those queens bring out 10 or 100 people, they are paid the same. This creates an industry supporting queens who can afford to do drag versus queens who bring in the most crowds. Our venues and audiences would benefit by learning our names and learning what each of us brings. The drag scene has potential to build local stars and celebrity status.” For Erica Martinez, there needs to be wider recognition, backed by increased pay, of how hard local performers of all styles work: “There are Drag Race fans and local drag fans. You can come out in a lavish gown and be dressed to the nines but people go crazy for a Drag Race gal in a stretch gown.
If you charge $20 for a RuPaul girl, it sells out. If you charge $20 for a local show, fewer will come, but these entertainers are working hard and deserve to be paid.” Many people simply aren’t aware of the slim payouts for performers and how much work they put into the shows — from booking to promotion. “We are not hobbyists; we pour our hearts into this,” says Kimmy Katarja. “When you are supporting local drag you are helping all of us as a whole and we are a tightknit community. We put money back into our local community and we are working to produce our own shows, make our own flyers, promoting our own events, paying the venue, paying the DJ along with the cast with less than $100 at times, or with a door split.” In other words, it’s a small business mis-perceived as something less. “Many people think it’s a hobby and can’t see it as a career,” says Dakota Cox. The word ‘family’ comes up a lot when talking to performers, and it has a deep history in the art form. In earlier eras, you would seek to be trained by a Drag Family, learning the ropes from costuming, hair
and makeup to lip-synching, with performers nurturing newcomers. While that mentorship still happens, Drag Families are few and far between as YouTube has made accessibility to drag and its how-tos available to anyone. But the word still means a lot in some of the same ways it used to when performers only felt safe in gay bars and drag was still underground. “The CKG troupe has always nurtured and highlighted Trans+ performers and offered a family when many of us were not afforded the ability to be out or had lost blood family due to living as our true selves,” says Donnie Waste. So as the drag scene continues to grow and evolve, it will continue to do so as a family. “We are a diverse, close-knit family of entertainers who have been working hard to do something fun, innovative and fierce,” says Samantha Echo. “We share a love for the art and there is no limit to what we can all do.”
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 7:30PM REGAL GREAT NORTHERN For your chance to download an admit-two pass to the advance screening, visit gofobo.com/ TIMCLESCENE225 NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. While supplies last. One entry per person. Seating at the screening is first-come, first-served and is not guaranteed. Please arrive early. Winners will be chosen at random. Winners within the past 30 days are ineligible.
IN THEATERS FEBRUARY 28 16
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January 20 through November 2020 A photographic celebration of everyday Cleveland in honor of CPL’s 150th anniversary. Cleveland Public Library, Main Library, Brett Hall • 325 Superior Avenue, Cleveland OH, 44114
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GET OUT everything you should do this week Photo courtesy of Tri-C
WED
02/12
FILM
Amazing Grace This documentary film features never-before-seen footage of Rock Hall inductee Aretha Franklin as she recorded a live gospel album in 1972 in Los Angeles. The movie shows tonight at 7 at the Rock Hall as part of the Rock Hall’s Black History Month celebration. Tickets cost $10 for non-members. It’s free for members. (Jeff Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com. THEATER
Anastasia Featuring a book by playwright Terrence McNally, a new score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens with direction by Tony Awardwinner Darko Tresnjak, Anastasia rolled into Conner Palace with plenty of hype. The show switches time periods and locations and takes place both in the twilight of the Russian Empire and the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s. It follows a young woman who’s pursued by a ruthless Soviet officer determined to silence her as she enlists the help of a con man and an ex-aristocrat. Tonight’s curtain is at 7:30; the show runs through Feb. 23. Tickets start at $39. (Niesel) 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. SPORTS
Cavaliers vs. Atlanta Hawks The Cavaliers didn’t win a game at home for the entire month of January, but tonight’s contest against another struggling team, the Atlanta Hawks, provides hope for a W. The Hawks have sat near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings for the entire year and haven’t played well despite a few good wins against Philadelphia and San Antonio. The game begins at 7 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Consult the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.
The French dance company Cie Hervé Koubi performs at the Ohio Theatre. See: Saturday.
of the Western Reserve Historical Society’s Cleveland History Center. The goal is to “bring to life some of the fun, interesting stories about Cleveland’s past — from sports, to rock ’n’ roll, to Millionaires’ Row,” as it’s put in a press release. Admission is free, with no cover charge, although a prix fixe dinner, designed to complement the night’s theme, is $20. Tonight, Patrick Conway, co-founder of Great Lakes Brewing Co., talks about his career and the history of beer in Cleveland. Doors open at 5 p.m., dinner is served at 6, and the storytelling starts at 7. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.
SPOKEN WORD
THEATER
Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties Cleveland Stories Dinner Party is a weekly series that pairs fine food with storytelling. Through it, the folks at Music Box Supper Club hope to raise awareness of the mission
Clue Based on the cult 1985 Paramount movie and inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, this theatrical production of Clue at the Cleveland Play House promises to be the
“ultimate whodunit that will leave you dying of laughter and keep you guessing until the final twist.” (Scene theater critic Christine Howey called the frothy farce “a tasty little fruit compote,” in her Feb. 5 review.) Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at the Allen Theatre, where performances continue through Feb. 23. Tickets start at $20. (Niesel) 1407 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, clevelandplayhouse.com.
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the piece along with Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony. Philippe Herreweghe conducts. Violinist Isabelle Faust joins the orchestra for the performance as well. An hour before the concert, Case Western Reserve University’s David Rothenberg gives the pre-concert talk, “Singular Works by Mozart and Beethoven.” The program repeats tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. Consult the orchestra website for times and ticket prices. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com. COMEDY
MUSIC
Beethoven and Mozart Once called “one of the most beautiful and beloved of all concertos,” Beethoven’s Violin Concerto contrasts with his usually stormier, more tempestuous works. Tonight at 7:30 at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra plays
Sarah Colonna In a skit she calls “boyfriends to avoid,” comedian Sarah Colonna lists the various types of men to walk away from, giving them names like “The Quick Draw” and “The Runaway.” Colonna, a regular on Chelsea Lately, also worked on the show’s spin-off scripted series | clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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GET OUT After Lately. A smart writer with a saucy sense of humor, she recently appeared in Diablo Cody’s latest movie, Paradise. Her first book, Life as I Blow It, also made The New York Times’ bestseller list. She performs at 8 tonight at Hilarities and has shows scheduled through Saturday. Tickets are $23 to $25. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com. FILM
Midnight Family This documentary film centers on a family that runs a private ambulance service in Mexico City, where only 45 ambulances serve a population of nine million. The film shows at 8:35 tonight and at 6:30 on Sunday night at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for Cinematheque members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu. MUSIC
Midwinter Blues and Other Tunes
Tonight is the final night for the Akron Art Museum’s winter concert series, dubbed Midwinter Blues and Other Tunes. The weekly evening of local music, art activities, live artist demos and additional musical performances in the galleries draws to a close this week, with King Buu as the headliner. Advance tickets are $8 for museum members and $10 for non-members. (Admission at the door is $9 for members and $12 for non-members.) However, admission to the museum galleries and lobby is free and open to all. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and King Buu takes the stage at 7 p.m. (Niesel) 1 South High St., Akron, 330-376-9185, akronartmuseum.org. FILM
Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man This documentary film profiles Jack Sim, the Singapore-born founder of the World Toilet Organization. He travels the globe campaigning for proper sanitation. The movie screens tonight at 6:45 at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for Cinematheque members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.
MUSIC
New Soft Shoe Nine years ago, on what local singer-songwriter Brent Kirby calls a drunken dare, a group of Cleveland friends and musicians showed up at the Happy Dog to play a couple sets of tunes by the late, great Gram Parsons. Dubbed the New Soft Shoe, the group has been at it ever since, spreading the gospel of what it refers to as “Gram’s Cosmic American Music.” Anything that Parsons played, the New Soft Shoe covers. As a result, the group plays tunes from the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. It also plays songs from Parsons’ solo album GP/ Grievous Angel. Tonight at 8, the band performs in the Waldorf Hall at Forest City Brewery. Admission is free, but a donation is requested. (Niesel) 2135 Columbus Rd., 216-228-9116, forestcitybrewery.com.
FRI THEATER
Flanagan’s Wake No one knows grief like a Catholic, especially an Irish Catholic. Flanagan’s
The Ultimate Whodunit! JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 23 ALLEN THEATRE based on the Paramount Pictures film written by JONATHAN LYNN written by SANDY RUSTIN | directed by CASEY HUSHION additional material by HUNTER FOSTER & ERIC PRICE adapted from the board game from Hasbro, Inc. produced in association with Work Light Productions, The Araca Group and Michael Barra/Lively McCabe Entertainment
216.241.6000 clevelandplayhouse.com TICKETS START AT $20! 20
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Wake transports the audience to an Irish wake where villagers tell tales and sing songs for their dearly departed Flanagan. Finding the humor in life and death, the wake acts as a dark backdrop to an otherwise hilarious show in which alcohol fuels the humorous reminiscing. Sort of like a tragic Tony ’n’ Tina’s Wedding, the interactive and improvised show engages the entire audience as the guests are treated as the friends and family of the deceased. Tonight’s show starts at 8 and repeats tomorrow night at 8 at Kennedy’s Theatre. Performances continue weekends through April 25. Tickets are $27. (Patrick Stoops) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. THEATER
Getting Near to Baby Tonight at 7:30 at the Helen Theatre on Playhouse Square, the Cleveland Play House presents Getting Near to Baby, a play that centers on 12-year-old Willa Jo Dean and 7-yearold Little Sister Dean, two kids struggling to cope with the death of their baby sister. Performed by the CPH Theatre Academy class, the play runs through Feb. 15. Admission is free, but a ticket is required; get it on
the website. (Niesel) 1407 Euclid Ave, 216-241-6000, clevelandplayhouse.com. THEATER
Sleuth Sleuth, which won the 1971 Tony for Best Play and was adapted to film on three separate occasions, offers “an inventive take on the country-house thriller.” A press release promises that suspense abounds throughout the “fiendishly cunning show” about a mystery writer fascinated by games. Tonight’s performance, put on by Great Lakes Theater company, takes place at 7:30 at the Hanna Theatre. Tickets cost $15 to $89. The show runs through March 8. (Niesel) 2067 East 14th St., 216-241-6000, greatlakestheater.org. FILM
Some Like It Hot Billy Wilder directs this movie that stars Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. It centers on two 1920s jazz musicians who witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and try to hide from the gangsters responsible for the crime. The film shows as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s “Marilyn X 4” series that serves as a tribute to the sexy star and connects to the exhibit Proof: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet. The movie screens at 6:45 p.m. today and at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. VALENTINE’S DAY
Valen-TIKI-tini Party As an alternative to the traditional Valentine’s Day celebrations, Prosperity Social Club will host a special Valen-TIKI-tini party between 5 and 11 p.m. today. In addition to its regular food menu, Prosperity will offer tiki-inspired food specials including teriyaki meatballs with mango/pineapple salsa, honey-ginger glazed blackened shrimp-andchicken kabobs with tropical slaw and toasted coconut rice, and citrusy Key lime pie tarts. Martini Five O will perform its brand of loungesurf-exotica from 8 to 11 p.m. There is no cover charge, but the food and drinks will cost you. (Niesel) 1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-937-1938, prosperitysocialclub.com.
galleries and shops, restaurant and bar specials, street performers, live music, pop-up vendors, neighborhood walking tours and much more. In honor of Valentine’s Day, this month’s theme is “Love: Jumpstart Your Heart.” See the Facebook page for more info. (Niesel) facebook.com/WalkaboutTremont.
SAT
Walkabout Tremont Walkabout Tremont, which takes place on the second Friday of every month from 5 to 10 p.m., showcases the best of this smart neighborhood, with art openings, extended hours at
Mozart’s
02/15
BURLESQUE
The 10th Annual Sweetheart Showcase: The Ziegfeld Follies Cleveland Burlesque/Ohio Burlesque brings the Ziegfeld Follies and pin-up dolls to life at its annual showcase. Candy Muldune, Scarlett Chaton, Bella Sin, Kimmy Katarja, Lady Slay and Jade Wildes will be on hand for the event along with the graduating class of the Cleveland Burlesque Academy. Ken Schneck hosts. It all goes down at 8:30 tonight at the Beachland Ballroom. Tickets cost $17 in advance or $20 at the door. (Niesel) 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.
In this story of a handsome lost prince, his comic sidekick, a beautiful princess in distress, a commanding high priest and a bitter, vengeful queen, complications and challenges abound, but everything sorts out happily in the end as two loving couples head to the altar.
Wed, Feb 26 & Fri, Feb 28 @ 7:30pm Sun, Mar 1 @ 2pm Kulas Hall TICKETS: cim.edu/magicflute or 216.795.3211
DANCE
Cie Hervé Koubi The all-male French dance company Cie Hervé Koubi will make its Ohio debut tonight in a performance copresented by Cuyahoga Community College and DANCECleveland. Part of the Tri-C Performing Arts season, the performance takes place at 7:30 at the Mimi Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square. The company will perform a piece inspired by founder Cie Hervé Koubi’s father’s deathbed revelation that Koubi’s family originated in Algeria rather than France (as Koubi had believed). It combines capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, and music), hiphop and contemporary dance with the movement and visual depictions of the Eastern world by European artists, and Islamic architecture. Tickets range from $25 to $50. The show includes moderated pre- and post-show talks with performers and producers. The pre-show chat begins at 6:45 p.m. (Niesel) 1511 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. MONSTER TRUCKS!
ART
OPERA THEATER
Monster Jam Triple Threat Series An annual event that comes into town at about this time each year, the Monster Jam Triple Threat series hits Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse at 1 and 7 p.m. today and at 1 p.m. tomorrow. There’ll be Monster Jam
SIT DOWN WITH YOUR GUESTS.
ADVERTISE WITH SCENE. Call 216-241-7550 for more information.
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Coming Attractions
GET OUT Speedsters, Monster Jam ATVs and the iconic Monster Jam trucks, all of which will compete in six events. Find ticket prices on the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse website. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.
CHOIR OF MAN February 16
MUSIC
SUN
The Choir of Man This concert, which includes the music of Paul Simon, Adele, Queen, Guns N Roses and Sia, features a multi-talented cast of nine “handsome blokes” who sing pub tunes, folk songs, Broadway show stoppers, and classic rock. According to the press materials, “it’s the best singing, dancing, stomping, pub crawl of a concert you’ll ever attend.” The performance takes place at 7 tonight at the Ohio Theatre. Tickets cost $29 to $49. (Niesel) 1511 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
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Gospel Brunch
February 19
CORAL KINGDOMS & EMPIRES OF ICE February 26
JOE BONAMASSA March 6 & 7
02/16
MUSIC
FOOD + MUSIC
THE TAP PACK An entertaining nod to Vegas’ Rat Pack)
© David Doubilet
Tri-C High School Rock Off Tonight from 6 to 10 at the Rock Hall, you can catch Round 3 of the 2020 High School Rock Off. All the participating bands in this year’s Rock Off will have access to the bookers and marketing directors at House of Blues Cleveland, the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, the Grog Shop, Mahall’s and Musica. This “incubator relationship” will give the bands the opportunity to book shows or have a CD release party at one of the sponsoring clubs. An additional round of performances is scheduled for Feb. 22. The “final exam” is Saturday, Feb. 29. All performers must be enrolled in 12th grade or lower, and at least half of the band members must be high school students. Finalists will get to record one original song at Tri-C’s Gill and Tommy LiPuma Center for Creative Arts, and the winning band will receive $1,000 cash and $250 for its high school music program. Tickets for tonight’s show are $10 on the website. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.
SEX N’ THE CITY: A (Super Unauthorized) Musical Parody March 12
THAT GOLDEN GIRLS SHOW: A PUPPET PARODY March 13-15
216-241-6000 Group Sales 216-640-8600 playhousesquare.org
FILM
The Souvenir The Souvenir, a talk-heavy new drama from British writer-director Joanna Hogg, centers on Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne, daughter of Tilda Swinton), a twenty-something film student who wants to make a movie about a teenage boy who lives in the working-class port town of Sunderland. After she meets Anthony (Tom Burke), a man who says he works at the “foreign office,” Julie begins spending more time talking about the movie than actually writing it or figuring out how to make it on the small budget that her school has allocated for it. The film shows tonight at 8:15 at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for Cinematheque members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.
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of jams from hip-hop to hard rock,” and are encouraged to “be as bad as you want.” Fueled by drink and shot specials, it all goes down tonight at 10 p.m. (Niesel) 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com.
TUE
02/18
2020
The monthly Gospel Brunch has been a spiritual Sunday staple for years at the House of Blues. The recently reinvigorated show puts a bit more emphasis on the music. As for the food, the all-you-can-eat musical extravaganza features Southern classics like chicken jambalaya, biscuits and gravy, and chicken and waffles. Seatings are available today at 11 a.m. Lafayette Carthon & Faith will perform. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased online, by phone or at the box office. (Niesel) 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.
THE ROAD TO THE ROCK HALL BEGINS WITH THE ROCK OFF
FILM
Bus Stop Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray and Arthur O’Connell star in this film about a rodeo cowboy who kidnaps a saloon singer. The film shows as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s “Marilyn X 4” series that serves as a tribute to the sexy star and connects to the exhibit Proof: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet. It screens at 1:45 p.m. today. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. MUSIC
Classical Revolution Cleveland Today, and the third Tuesday of every month, Classical Revolution Cleveland brings chamber music to the Happy Dog. Performers like the Trepanning Trio, students of Cleveland Institute of Music, and even Cleveland Orchestra members grace the stage in these exciting, free concerts. Tonight’s performance starts at 8. (Patrick Stoops) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com. MUSIC
FAMILY FUN
Movie Mondays Every Monday, Cleveland Cinemas hosts $5 Movie Mondays, where film fans can catch up on the latest Hollywood flicks for significantly reduced prices. Bring your friends and family and make Movie Mondays a weekly tradition — many theaters even offer discounted concession stand items. Participating theaters include Apollo Theatre, Capitol Theatre, Cedar Lee Theatre, Chagrin Cinemas and Tower City Cinemas. Unfortunately, additional charges apply for 3-D movies. (Alaina Nutile) clevelandcinemas.com. NIGHTLIFE
Shit Show Karaoke Local rapper/promoter Dirty Jones and Scene’s own Manny Wallace host Shit Show Karaoke, a weekly event at the B-Side Liquor Lounge wherein patrons choose from “an unlimited selection
Vinyl Night Jukebox owner Alex Budin has described his 1,350-squarefoot music-focused bar in the Hingetown ’hood as “a place where people can expect to hear and learn about music of multiple genres, all of which is concentrated in a constantly evolving jukebox.” The club hosts a vinyl night every Tuesday that serves as a listening party for new releases, partnering with Loop in Tremont, so patrons can hear a new album on vinyl. You can bring your own vinyl and spin it too. It all starts at 5 p.m. (Niesel) 1404 West 29th St., 216-206-7699, jukeboxcle.com.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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STAGE THROUGH A LENS SOFTLY Anastasia is soft and pretty and a bit too twee By Christine Howey ABOUT A CENTURY AGO THE Russian emperor Tsar Nicholas Romanov, along with his extensive family and retinue, had a really bad day. They were executed in an orgy of overkill — shot, bayonetted, doused with acid, buried in a mineshaft — by a revolutionary army led by Vladimir Lenin. Thus, the imperial autocracy ended, and the Bolsheviks rose to power. At the time, no one who heard about that mass murder stopped and said, “Hey, let’s do a musical about it!” But in the ensuing years, it was rumored that one of the tsar’s daughters, 18-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia, somehow escaped the carnage and lived to tell the tale. That quickly became an ofttold fantasy, surfacing in the 1956 flick starring Ingrid Bergman as Anastasia, followed by the 1997 animated film with Meg Ryan voicing the title role. And here it comes again, this time as a Broadway touring production at the Connor Palace Theater at Playhouse Square. In the prologue, we see the 7-year-old Anastasia being doted over by her grandma, the dowager empress, and other members of the royal household. But their peaceful reverie is about to end. In this play, the royalty on stage is matched by theatrical aristocracy among the creators, as the renowned Terrence McNally wrote the book and the fine composing team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens handled the music and lyrics. All three combined to fashion the wonderfully expressive 1997 musical Ragtime. But even with all that talent the result in this case is surprisingly underwhelming, due to a story that feels meandering when it should be propulsive and songs that are rarely more than mildly pleasant. In short, this tale of a gruesome assassination followed by the grand duchess’s race to freedom as she battles to reclaim her identity makes Anesthesia, sorry, Anastasia a borderline comatose exercise. There are more than 25 songs in this corpulent offering, but none that emit the enticing aroma of a well-stuffed Russian pirozhki.
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Photo by Matthew Murphy
Lila Coogan, left, is a constant bright spot in Anastasia, now at Connor Palace.
By not placing the play’s music authentically in the country of Anastasia’s origin, it all seems like a costume party in Gates Mills with a Romanov theme. This artificiality is also reflected in the characters who interact closely with the leading lady. We are quickly introduced to Dimitri and Vlad, con men who hear the scuttlebutt about Anastasia’s supposed escape. They quickly realize it’s a crock and decide to monetize the situation by auditioning teenage girls to impersonate Anastasia. The goal
being a hardass since he’s written cute and destined for better things with the “Duchess.” As Vlad, Edward Staudenmayer tries to be the endearingly goofy part of this duo, but he comes off as unfocused and largely unfunny. As occasionally happens in longrunning shows, especially touring ones, an actor sometimes stops playing the moments and starts playing the reactions to the moments The thinking is: It’s a humorous bit, I’ll play it humorously. And that instantly kills the humor.
ANASTASIA THROUGH FEB. 23 AT THE CONNOR PALACE 1615 EUCLID AVE., 216-241-6000 CLEVELANDPLAYHOUSE.COM
is to fool the dowager empress and get her to fork over some rubles and rubies. That’s when they find a street girl named Anya, the exact same age as Anastasia, who seems uniquely suited for the scam. The thing is, these two con men are about as threatening as Harry and Marv, the dufus criminals in the Home Alone series. Dimitri, as played by Jake Levy, can be excused for not
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
Staudenmayer does have one amusing interlude, when he puts the moves on Countess Lily and they end up in a limb-locked, face-crushing kiss. Based on the audible reaction from the audience, that wrestling move probably induced a fainting spell or two in the orchestra seats. The real baddie in this show is the Bolshevik general Gleb, who is chasing Anastasia and serves
as a replacement for the Rasputin character in the film. Channeling Inspector Javert from Les Miz, Jason Michael Evans scowls and sings with dread intent as Gleb, but we don’t fear him as we did the monomaniacal Javert. And as it turns out, he has a heart of gold. Aw. Indeed, all the conflicts in Anastasia are soft-focus. That extends to the high-tech projection backdrop that whisks the characters from an artful digital snowfall in St. Petersburg to a moving train to a view of Paris at night. Those images, meant to be transporting, actually seem like a cross between the gauzy, color-saturated postcards of the 1950s and the cloying paintings of Thomas Kinkade, replete with fuzzily glowing lights, lamps and moons. These pretty pictures are ultimately so achingly sweet they make you want to f’wo up. That said, the cast features uniformly excellent voices. And if you swoon over costumes, the period finery crafted by costume designer Linda Cho is sumptuous indeed. One constant bright spot is Lila Coogan in the title role. While her voice doesn’t have the flowery highlights that some might prefer, Coogan’s muscular vocalizations exhibit power and determination, necessary aspects of Anastasia’s conjured existence. One wishes that some of that spirit could be reflected in the concluding scenes when Anastasia finally sees her dreams coming true. Instead, the duchess goes all soft and marshmallow-y, like the show itself. This is a cream puff of a musical, ideal for tween girls and adults like them who are eager to be swept up in a princess fantasy. In Anastasia, director Darko Tresnjak and choreographer Peggy Hickey have baked a confection that will be swallowed happily. But there’s little here for those who prefer their musicals with a dash of bite.
Christine Howey, a former stage actor and director, is executive director of Literary Cleveland.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
MOVIES FORCE MANURE Downhill is breezy U.S. comedy that sullies European original By Sam Allard DOWNHILL , DIRECTED BY NAT Faxon and Jim Rash (The Way, Way Back) is a breezy 80-minute comedy starring Will Ferrell and Julia LouisDreyfus. It’s about an American family on a crazy ski vacation to the alps! With only minor alterations, it might have been a reboot to the National Lampoon Vacation franchise. It opens Friday in limited release. Both leads, plus Silicon Valley’s Zach Woods in a supporting role, are skilled comedic performers who revel in encounters of sublime awkwardness and humor. But the great disappointment of the film is what it has done to a stunning, nervy original. Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure was among the best films of 2014, a Hitchcockian thrill ride that didn’t play any of its dramatic moments for laughs and yet was wickedly funny throughout. It deployed a keening choral and orchestral score to maximize tension and, in capturing the unique settings and sounds of a European ski resort, presented a wholly original psychodramatic diorama. Scene breaks were often punctuated by the detonations of controlled explosions — creating the avalanches that played a key narrative and thematic role — and separated by long takes of the resort itself: empty ski lifts, dripping snow boots, etc. A silent, swarthy janitor observed intimate moments while smoking a cigarette. It was a cinematic experience! Downhill, on the other hand, just kind of wants to be a dark comedy, but can’t even get
Photo by Jaap Buitendijk
there. Take the opening scene. In Force Majeure, a mother and father and their two young children are invited to pose for pictures by a resort staff photographer. The family obediently poses and re-poses as the cameraman, off screen, shouts “Good one!” and continually asks his subjects to adjust their positions in broken English. It’s a moment of exquisite discomfort and annoyance. Downhill begins exactly the same way, but plays the scene for slapstick laughs as Pete (Ferrell) and Billie (Louis-Dreyfus) keep raising their ski poles and banging into their two sons. Downhill’s plot follows the same contours as its source material: On the second day of ski week, the family is eating lunch on a patio overlooking a glorious mountain
view. One of the controlled avalanches begins tumbling down a nearby slope. Everyone oohs and aahs until the snow gathers force and velocity as it heads directly for them. In a split-second decision, Pete grabs his phone and dashes for the exit, forsaking his family. Everyone is rattled, but perfectly safe, in the aftermath. The avalanche stopped just short of the restaurant. But Pete’s decision naturally has reverberations through the rest of the week. Tension in the family mounts as they all begin to question what sort of man their father is. Billie wants to confront Pete about it, but Pete keeps avoiding the issue, ultimately declaring that his “perception” of events is different than Billie’s. His work friend Zach (Woods) and his new girlfriend Rosie (Zoe Chao), traveling nearby,
pop in and witness the strife unfold. (Game of Thrones’ Kristofer Hivju, who played the friend role in Force Majeure, has a cameo in Downhill in a brief new subplot about resort safety.) Downhill succeeds when it veers substantively, not tonally, from its source. In the original, the main couple was in their late 30s or early 40s. The father’s pivotal decision made him come to terms with the fact that he was just a shitty guy. In Downhill, Pete and Billie are in their 50s. They had kids late, via artificial means, and Pete’s pivotal decision is interpreted as a referendum on that decision. He’s constantly on his phone and clearly has typical macho mid-life anxiety about aging, about no longer being sexually desirable and physically capable. He’s annoyed about having to wear a helmet, for example, doubly so when Billie puts stickers on it so that they can identify each other on the slopes. Billie, too, is confronted with a decision in the course of a private ski lesson with an Italian heartthrob. But so many of the scenes are cut and pasted word for the word, beat for beat, from Force Majeure, which is why it’s so remarkable that the edge has been so thoroughly blunted. The movie is fine. There are some really funny moments. But Ostlund’s film is the one to watch and savor. It’s streaming on Hulu.
sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard
SPOTLIGHT: FUNMILL FILMS FESTIVAL & COMPETITION KINSLEY FUNARI AND JOSH Miller of the locally based FunMill Films will present the FunMill Films Festival & Competition on Sunday at Atlas Cinemas Lakeshore. “We wanted to bring a festival to Cleveland that was all-inclusive and offered networking opportunities and more ways to get involved — almost like a mini-convention. This is why we also have vendors attending and a main event competition,” they say in a press
statement. “Yeah, festivals are very risky nowadays for a filmmaker to submit to. You never know if you’ll be selected, and you’re really gambling with your hard-earned funding. We want our Cleveland filmmaking peers to be guaranteed a screening to show off their hard work to their friends and family.” The festival portion of the event will consist of short film screenings, trailer previews and vendor booths featuring Ohio
filmmakers and entertainment professionals. The competition portion of the event will give 15 competitors the chance to produce a film in 30 days. The competition films will screen at the main event and are eligible for cash prizes and a free entry into the Cleveland International Film Festival. The first 15 teams that entered the festival had from Jan. 2 to Feb. 2 to write, shoot, edit and turn
their completed films. The films had to be under seven minutes long. Tickets for individual screening blocks and for the competition will be on sale on the Atlas Cinemas website. Passes to the entire event will also be available for $25. — Jeff Niesel
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel | clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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EAT THE REAL TEAM At Jonathon Sawyer’s Greenhouse Tavern, staff says it kept acclaimed restaurant afloat while the celebrity chef went AWOL By Douglas Trattner “I’VE BEEN TRYING TO PUT MY resignation in to Sawyer for the last week, but was not able to get ahold of him,” Ryan Boone, an employee of the Greenhouse Tavern, told Scene last Thursday. “And then he came in yesterday and said we were closing, so there’s really no point in officially resigning.” After initially announcing that Feb. 16 would be the last day of service, Greenhouse Tavern closed for good on Feb. 8. Staff members report that vendors were wary of getting paid for future deliveries, given what had been reported in the media. Boone, who worked his way up from back waiter to executive sous chef over the course of three and a half years, was frustrated at the lack of support he and his colleagues had been receiving for some time. He also saw the writing on the wall, as did most of his colleagues, that the restaurant was running on fumes. But the situation became unacceptable in recent weeks as the financial situation grew even more dire. Boone, and others I spoke to, were motivated to come forward in an effort to separate their actions from those of ownership. “At the end, what frustrated me the most — and why I wanted to reach out to Scene — is I saw a lot of these comments about Metal dinner tickets and cooking class tickets …,” he explains. “It seemed to me that we knew where we were headed when we chose to sell those tickets and that wasn’t the most ethical business practice, and it kind of put a bad taste in my mouth because I had friends buying tickets for these classes that I didn’t think we would be open for.” In the wake of the stunning news that Greenhouse Tavern would be closing its doors after a successful 11-year run, emotions are riding high. Sadness, disappointment and loss felt by Cleveland diners are, perhaps, the most visible reactions to the news. But those feelings likely pale in comparison to the ones currently being felt by the dedicated employees who managed to keep this boat afloat despite some very
Photo by Edsel Little
turbulent seas. These are not disgruntled staffers with an axe to grind, but rather loyal chefs and servers and managers who were proud of the work they were doing and simply wanted to keep doing it. But they were thwarted at every turn by an absent leader, inconsistent operations policies, mismanagement of financial resources, and lack of investment in staff, equipment and even food supplies. “It’s not that I want to slander Chef or beat his name into the ground, but I think, also, it’s kind of frustrating to see,” Boone adds. “I’ve been there three and a half years and watched less investment come back in until basically it’s whittled down to nothing.” Boone says that during his tenure
he watched as the number of chefs in the kitchen diminished, from six, to four, to three. Another chef reports that only two out of three ovens work, with the door to the third one drilled shut to prevent it from falling over and injuring more people. “We’re trying to sustain a kitchen staff by paying chef de cuisines and people like that $28,000 to $32,000 a year and they want raises and they want to be looked at and they want to be trained and working under this Jedi master,” adds another longtime employee who wishes to remain anonymous. Those accounts contrast with the presentation of the celebrity chef in the media, including in past Scene coverage. And those accounts of a restaurant struggling financially also contrast sharply with the
owners’ social media postings depicting new motorcycles, cars, trucks, houses, and frequent family vacations, say miffed employees. That’s all well and good, but not when the restaurant is suffering, employees felt as they watched it all unfold on social media while looking at an operation badly in need of basic investment. “He is consistently putting his needs above the needs of the restaurant,” Boone says. Sawyer, when reached for comment, responded, “For now we are going to try to respect the team at GHT and my family’s privacy,” adding that employees are understandably upset, but claiming they do not have the whole story. “They are allowed to be mad and vent. And tell whatever version of the | clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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EAT truth they believe. But I guarantee it is not even close to the truth or whole story.” Financial difficulties, reported in a recent Cleveland.com article, reveal substantial personal and professional debt, which Sawyer now cites as the main reason for the closure. The shutterings of Trentina and Noodlecat certainly contributed to those financial woes, but on its own, say workers, Greenhouse Tavern was more than viable. “As much as there were a lot of frustrations with the Greenhouse Tavern and the management system within it, or above it, I should say, it printed money in the summer,” reports Boone. “It was an absolute madhouse from April until October. As long as you chose to be responsible with those summer earnings, there was no reason you shouldn’t be able to make it through the January, February slow season.” As for the rent, the employee who wishes to remain anonymous stated that it was largely a fixed, predictable and manageable expense. “Yeah, the overhead came into play, but the overhead was what
it was for many years,” he says. “$20,000 to rent a space as big as the Greenhouse on that street — it’s been that much for a long time. We were very good at sustaining that for a long time, but after the banks said, ‘We’re taking our money back,’ there was no money to operate.” Desperate times called for desperate measures, such as selling buy-one, get-one gift cards, tickets to cooking classes that likely would never happen, and even liquidating bar inventory to meet payroll. (Some purchasers of cooking classes report receiving refunds. But many people holding gift cards with plans to use them before the originally announced Feb. 16 closing date were left without recourse.) What upsets employees the most, they say, is simply the lack of attention, leadership and, frankly, participation by Sawyer in the kitchen. He was, after all, the reason most of these people applied for the job to begin with. To work under a James Beard Award-winning chef not only is resume gold, but also an opportunity to learn and grow professionally, to acquire skills that will serve one well in future positions. Like the now-familiar chefs who preceded him, Dennis Veverka
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applied for a job at Greenhouse Tavern because he wanted to learn. He rattled off the names of chefs like Matt Danko, Brian Goodman, Vinnie Cimino, Jack Moore, Dave Kocab, Brett Sawyer and Matt Spinner, all of whom made their way through the proving ground that is the Greenhouse kitchen. If he could acquire even a fraction of their combined wisdom, Veverka would be happy. “Big hitters come through here because you do learn, you learn a lot,” says Veverka, the current chef de cuisine. “But I had to teach myself what I wanted to learn because there was nobody teaching me anymore because Chef wasn’t around. I still wanted to learn like the other chefs did, it just took me a little longer.” Boone and others felt the same way. “[He came in] almost never, unfortunately, which is disappointing because we all looked up to him as a sort of cornerstone of the Cleveland food community,” Boone says. “It was amazing when he was in the kitchen in 2015 and before winning James Beard awards, but not in the last five years. Sometimes, I think Cleveland thinks the guy is in the basement crying chicken wings and he’s not.”
In the end, the employees who reached out felt personally slighted, made to serve as scapegoats — whether intentionally or inadvertently — for failings that rest with others. For years, the team showed up and put in the work despite insufficient support and resources — and continued to make great food and offer great service in spite of it. All they wanted, when the house of cards did finally tumble, was for the blame to land where it belonged. “It’s easy to say that you’re not going to renew your lease,” said an employee. “It’s hard to say that we’ve made some serious errors and learned from our ways and hope to be better and do better and actually follow through with those actions. I don’t want them pointing fingers at their employees and management staffs and things like that. I would like to see them take some responsibility.” For now, Sawyer still is affiliated with Sawyer’s at Van Aken and SeeSaw in Columbus, restaurants that are owned and operated by Forward Hospitality.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
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BITES Dante Boccuzzi to open Goma in former Chinato space on East Fourth Street By Douglas Trattner IN THE WAKE OF ONE CELEBRITY chef’s departure from East Fourth Street, another has announced that he is staking a claim on a different high-profile location on that same street. Chef Dante Boccuzzi will open Goma in the former home of Chinato at the prominent corner of Prospect and East Fourth. It will be the prolific chef’s first downtown restaurant. Originally, Goma was bound for Pinecrest, but this opportunity was too good to pass up, Boccuzzi says. “Fourth has a lot more potential, I think,” he explains. “It’s a larger space, there’s more energy, and we’re going to open up the space on two sides with garage doors.” When it opens in June or July, Goma will be a high-energy Japanese fusion restaurant with a sushi bar and full kitchen. “The whole inspiration comes from my time spent with Nobu and the Mandarin hotels,” Boccuzzi explains. “It’s not full-on Japanese; there will be a lot of fusion that pulls from my experiences working around the world. I’m going to pattern it after a Nobu-like experience: high-energy with music, color, yelling, great food and table-sharing.” Plans call for removing the wall that separates the intimate bar from the main dining room to accommodate a 20-seat horseshoeshaped sushi bar, not unlike the one at Ginko, the chef’s Tremont sushi bar. Also on the menu will be shabushabu, fresh noodle entrees, tempura plates and hot clay pot dishes. Boccuzzi and his team will “open the whole place up” to unite the sushi bar and restaurant. New acoustic, lighting and design elements will rework the old warehouse space into an edgy and dramatic environment. Twin patios will activate the exteriors that front both Prospect and East Fourth. A large lower-level space also is in play, says Boccuzzi: That room will be home to Giappone, “a modern and edgy Japanese craft cocktail club” that will be open on weekends and to coincide with special events in the neighborhood.
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Owner of Citizen Pie to Open Roman Café in Home of Erie Island Coffee on E. Fourth St. According to chef Vytauras Sasnauskas, “the next big thing in pizza” is Roman-style. He should know: As the man behind a pair of Citizen Pie pizzerias, he was an early champion of the last “big thing in pizza”: wood-fired Neapolitan-style pie. When Citizen Pie Roman Cafe opens this spring in the current home of Erie Island Coffee (2057 East Fourth St.) it will, at least according to its owner, be the first of its kind in the state. Modeled after the popular Rome-based eatery Bonci, which now has multiple locations in Chicago and New Orleans, the cafe will specialize in Roman-style pizza al taglio. Lest you think that this is all just a bit of hair-splitting, Sasnauskas is here to set the record straight. “Roman-style pizza is a totally different animal,” he asserts. It starts with a super-hydrated dough that is cold-fermented for 48 to 96 hours. The pizza is baked in long rectangular pans in special dualtemperature ovens that result in a thin, crispy bottom. “It is focaccia-ish, but it’s not bready at all,” adds the chef. “It’s light as a cloud and you can eat a ton of it.” The plan is to offer about seven daily pizzas, which are replenished throughout the day. Those pies will range from traditional to creative and seasonal in terms of toppings. In preparation for the changeover, Erie Island Coffee will close on Feb. 9, but the neighborhood will not be without coffee for long. When Citizen Pie Roman Cafe opens sometime this spring, it will be in partnership with Six Shooter Coffee, so the espressos, Americanos, lattes and cappuccinos will continue to flow, along with a limited beer and wine selection. Other coffee shop-type food items like grab-and-go pastries, salads and sandwiches might also make an appearance.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
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Only at clevescene.com SCENE | clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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I
T’S NOT EASY BEING A SKINNY legend, but somebody’s gotta do it. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 3 winner Trixie Mattel (also known as Brian Michael Firkus when she’s de-dragged) has been doing the most in this industry for over a decade, and she’s only 30. A chart-topping queen, Mattel is not only a Billboard Heatseekers No. 1 recording artist, but she’s also a comedian, theater touring act, makeup business babe, and soon-to-be author. Her new album, Barbara, is set to drop on Friday, and the book she just finished writing with comedy partner and Drag Race alum Katya Zamolodchikova is slated to come out in early May. In Grown Up, her latest show, she playfully addresses the awkward adult
I do. They’re taking care of their kids, office jobs — you kind of second guess. It’s the age where you start to be like, “All right, I’m half-dead, in a way; do I have everything I thought I would have by now?” The great thing about Trixie is, I’ve always been very interested in using the building blocks of childhood toys, looks and persona to address adult anxieties. That’s sort of what the show’s about. The aesthetic I use this time is a little more ’60s, beach-y, surf rock, super mod, Austin Powers, Brady Bunch — that’s sort of the lens and the style. That’s why Barbara has such a strong 8-track beach sound. How are you feeling about Barbara? I’m dying. I love all my records. I don’t know … every time a record comes out, I’m excited because I think every one of
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anxieties elder millennials like herself are grappling with. Mattel’s deeply dark humor paired with her bright Barbie aesthetic makes her a raunchy therapist in a lot of ways. She performs at 8 p.m. on Friday at the Agora Theatre. Although she’s juggling so many projects at once, Mattel’s doing it solo. In a phone call ahead of her tour, she explains how she does it all without a team, all while serving the most massive hair and heels. Tell me about your vision for the Grown Up tour. I just turned 30, I just bought a house, I’m in a long relationship. I sort of have all the features and I’ve checked all the boxes where I’m supposed to be like a
them is the best one. But I really think this is the best one: the best songs, the best production. I love it. I love the concept. This record and this show, honestly, with just the place I’m at in life, have me really examining what I originally envisioned her [Trixie] to be. Over the years, she’s had a lot of incarnations, a lot of different decades, a lot of different types of Trixie. My original sketches, my original ideas for Trixie were sort of this glamorous beach bunny, Malibu Barbie with this dark, sort of like cackling, wit. This show and this record, I’ve kind of accidentally gone back to that original idea — this wisecracking beach bunny with a really sad sense of humor. Tell me about the book you have coming out.
real adult. This show is about realizing the truth of, like, you never really feel like you’re an adult and even when you do, you only feel that way because you feel like you’re an old kid who has adult responsibilities. I have multiple businesses now. I have a very grownup life, but also, I dress like a little girl for a living; I collect dolls. There’s a lot of back and forth like, am I a real grown-up? Being 30, this is the age where everybody has these anxieties about like, “Is this the life I wanted? Do I have the adult life I thought I would have? Is this my marriage? Is this where I’m supposed to be living? Is this the career I want?” Especially since, you know, everyone I went to high school with in Wisconsin, they all have a different type of social media life than
Oh my god. Well, last year, I didn’t tour because I was working on creative projects, one of them being Barbara, one of them being Grown Up, then another one being my makeup company and then on top of that, Katya and I finished a book. We decided to write a book that is basically a lifestyle and etiquette guide for young women called Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood. It’s basically half Redbook, half young girl’s home economics textbook. It sort of parodies the expectations of women, you know, talking about how you have to learn how to clean and cook but also — you want life advice? Katya and I are very good at “Do as we say, not as we do.” Take it from us, we’ve done everything. Whatever your deepest shame is, we’ve done it and we’ve done it in heels. We
PHOTO BY MAGNUS HASTINGS
PHOTO BY ALBERT SANCHEZ
PHOTO BY ALBERT SANCHEZ
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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cover everything from, “should you get bangs?” to “what type of heel is right for you?” to dressing for your body to “how to break up with someone” — important information. Believe me, as a 30and 37-year-old man, we know what’s best for teenaged girls. Out of all of these projects, is there one that is the most rewarding or you find that you are the proudest of so far? A lot of the projects that are big that take forever to put together, the night or the day they finally happen is, like, magical. Just the other night, I was testing some of the new material for Grown Up, I was at a standup show and some of these jokes I’ve been working on, on the road, hearing a laugh from them for the first time, it’s so affirming — especially for comedy. You’re like, “I think this is funny,” but the only way to find out is to do it. After the first night in Seattle, I’m probably gonna cry afterward or something. I get very invested in the success of things. We just did a huge Black Friday launch with my makeup company. We did our first blush palette — and I’ve always loved blush, always wanted to make blush. I was up late on Black Friday in my bathrobe, watching the sales come in, like crying. I was so excited. You know, I spend all my own money on these projects. I create and direct all these projects. So, I’m always hoping things work. Ultimately, if an album doesn’t sell, if a product doesn’t sell, tickets don’t sell, it’s my ass; there’s no one in charge of me. If you weren’t an entertainer, what do you think you’d be doing? Oh, that’s a great question. Well, I used to be a makeup artist. I think I’d probably still be doing something makeup related. Or, don’t laugh, I’ve always loved real estate. I think I would be really good at real estate. I excel at anything where you have to be a self-starter and you have to find a way to make your own money. I think I’d [also still] be doing some kind of standup. I have to ask you about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3. I know you’ve talked about it a million times by now, but what was it like to take the crown? So, you guys saw that on TV
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like a year and a half ago, but I competed maybe a good over two years ago; so to me, it feels like so long ago. [But] it was single-handedly the most magical night of my entire life. In Moving Parts — my documentary — there’s a great scene. It’s me watching TV and sitting to see what happens because I had no idea — I didn’t know if I was gonna win or not. In the movie, there’s a real-time shot of me, my face, realizing I won. If you’re a singer, it’s American Idoll, if you’re an athlete it’s the Olympics, if you’re an actor, it’s the Oscars … It’s the most important, highly celebrated, respected, like, don’t-even-dare-yourself-to-dreambecause-it’s-never-gonna-happenfor-you kind of thing. I started drag when I was 18 and now, I’m really standing here, like, 10 years later, winning the biggest drag competition in the world. I mean, that is crazy, crazy. I mean, it hasn’t really changed my career because, you know, a lot of this stuff — having records, TV show, my own makeup company — I was gonna do anyway. What I learned from my first time on Drag Race was you don’t have to wait for somebody to give you an award, you can do whatever you want.
vocalize that very much because I think it’s assumed. But lately, I’ve found that people really think I’m a real celebrity. You’d think I’m like Mariah Carey or something — that I have someone who does my hair and makeup and tells me what to do. No. Even on Grown Up, I pick out all the hair and the costumes. I wrote all those songs. I paid that entire band to tour p is gonna be with me. Grown Up like my biggest boss move to date because it’s such a big, crazy show. Everything successful about my last show, it’s like taller heels and taller hair. I’m really just going above and beyond. Do you have a favorite story about a fan encounter? Sure. I was in Boston one time and a girl fainted. She fell into a meet-and-greet backdrop. I would say that people cry every time. I do meet-and-greets all the time. There were 30 cities in Moving Parts, p tour. 30 cities in the Grown Up I’ll probably have a few criers in every city. Also, a number of people have tattoos of me. When I go on tour, I’ll probably see one or two a night. I’m probably one of the most tattooed drag queens only because my look is so severe — I think I just make a great tattoo.
TRIXIE MATT A EL: GROWN UP 8 P.M. FRIDAY, FEB. 14 AGORA THEAT A RE, 5000 EUCLID AVE., 216-881-2221 TICKETS: $39.50. AGORACLEVELAND.COM
Nobody has to say, “You’re good,” you can just do your own thing. But obviously I’m happy I won. Just winning that — there’s a crown in my house. If I quit drag one day or when I’m old, and I wanna stop, I’m gonna be like very proud that I did the biggest thing you can do with it at one point, you know? Hopefully, you don’t quit for a very long time. Is there something that would surprise people to learn about your life? Oh, yeah sure. I think most people think I have a posse or like help … I think people tend to think I’m, like, very famous and rich. People think I have a team. I have friends from college I meet up with and they’re like, “Just have one of your people do it,” and I’m like, “Who are my people? What people? I don’t have any people.” I’m the one at the makeup lab trying products; I’m the one writing the standup show — I wrote that whole album. It really is all me, and I don’t
| clevescene.com m | February 12 - 18, 2020
You’ve mentioned how you’ve modeled yourself after a specific era of dolls, but when did you originally get inspired with that vision? Did it come sooner than when you started drag at 18? The doll thing was because when I was a kid, I wasn’t encouraged to play with dolls. I loved Barbies and dolls. My mom just visited L.A. and we did a video together and I was like, “What was I like as a kid?” My mom was like, “I smoked a lot of weed, so I don’t really remember, but I just remember you loved Barbies so much.” To me, she [Barbie] just represented opportunity. She was a tall, beautiful, smiling person who is whatever you dress her as. You put her in doctor clothes, she’s a doctor. Put her in a dress, she’s going to an event. To me, she’s kind of the ultimate representation of drag because in drag, you are whatever you’re dressed as. Whatever you’re dressed as, people believe you are.
That’s what dolls are. They all come from the same mold, the same plastic, it’s just the little costumes that decide what they are. So, I’ve just always loved Barbie. When I was first learning drag, she was my inspiration for everything: for my proportions, for the colors I would use, the styles. Then as the years went on, I started to add in My Little Pony and Polly Pocket — girl toys, in general, are my No. 1 inspiration for drag. Since my sense of humor is a
dark, adult, sad, raunchy sort of approach — especially my standup is, like, really dark — being this smiling kid’s toy and having this really dark point of view is a really good combination. I can get the audience to go a little bit darker with me because I look a little more comforting, I guess; do you know what I mean? Absolutely. For those looking to start drag, what would you say it takes to do it successfully? You can’t do anything without making bold choices. It’s like acting or any sort of art form, you have to want to make a bold choice. You have to do something with a very clear intention and do it 110 percent, so everyone in the room can feel what you’re doing and knows the point of it. Every time I’ve ever regretted something in drag it’s because I second-guessed it and pulled back. And then, after the fact, I’m like, “I should have just went bigger. I should have just done it.” I never regret making a really big choice. Everything I’ve ever done that I love is because I just dared myself to do it bigger. You know, like, “Just do it. Do that. Do more.” That’s the most important thing. I think I spent too many years doing small things trying to test people’s reactions. Just come out swinging. You have nothing to lose.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
@hobcleveland
F E T T Y WA P
APRIL 29 ON SALE FRI. 10AM
MAY 7 ON SALE NOW
GE ID BR M M OO A R C
MAY 12 ON SALE NOW
ANGEL OLSON JULY 20 ON SALE FRI. 10AM
FEBRUARY 21
FEBRUARY 27
ALLEN STONE w/ SAMM HENSHAW
ULTIMATE TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON
FEBRUARY 28
GAELIC STORM FEBRUARY 29
MARCH 6
CHIPPENDALES
MR. SPEED
MARCH 11
TRIBUTE TO KISS w/ THEATRE OF CRÜE – TRIBUTE TO MOTLEY CRÜE
DEVIN TOWNSEND
MARCH 14
MARCH 15
w/ HAKEN, THE CONTORTIONIST
JAMES ARTHUR THE YOU TOUR w/ DELACEY
w/ The Agonist
COMING SOON
MARCH 26 Feb. 13 Feb. 14 Feb. 15 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 20 Feb. 25 Feb. 26 March 7 March 9
MARCH 28
JJ Grey & Mofro w/ Neal Francis Boy Band Review - Demin Valentine Formal Dance Paul Fayrewether Z107.9’s 216 Day Karaoke Cambridge Room Falling In Reverse w/ Escape The Fate, The Word Alive LOW TICKET ALERT Chris Lane LOW TICKET ALERT flor w/ Winnetka Bowling League, heyohwell Cambridge Room Nicole Bus w/ Tone Stith, Chanelle Kazadi CANCELLED SiriusXM Hip Hop Nation pres. Young Dolph and Key Glock: No Rules Tour Audrey Mika w/ Souly Had Cambridge Room
BUY TICKETS AT
APRIL 5 March 10 March 10 March 12
JAUZ w/ DREZO, HOUSELOADZ – In Association with Cumulus Elohim w/ Bahari, Mehro Cambridge Room DATE CHANGE Bad Omens w/ Bloodline, Betraying The Martyrs, Oh Sleeper Cambridge Room March 12 Fit For A King w/ Chelsea Grin, Crustal Lake, Alpha Wolf March 13 Mod Sun March 13 NEFFEX Cambridge Room March 15 Dayglow Cambridge Room SOLD OUT March 16 The Wonder Years w/ Free Throw, Spanish Love Songs, Pool Kids March 20 The Purple Madness – Tribute to Prince March 21 COLORS WORLDWIDE PRESENTS: R&B ONLY w/ Dauché and Jabari
March 21 March 24 March 27 March 28 March 31 April 1 April 4 April 4 April 6 April 7
Buy tickets at Ticketmaster.com or 216-523-BLUE
Social House w/ Colby O'Donis Cambridge Room Hippie Sabotage w/ ilo ilo COIN w/ Sure Sure – Presented by 91.3 The Summit Grieves + The Holdup w/ P. MO, Back Alley Sound Cambridge Room beabadoobee w/ Eliza & The Delusionals Cambridge Room Davido w/ Mick Jenkins, The Compozers Circa Survive: Blue Sky Noise 10 Year Anniversary Tour w/ Polyphia, Gouge Away Lauren Sanderson Cambridge Room Sepultura w/ Sacred Reich, Crowbar, Art of Shock G Herbo w/ King Von, Lil Loaded, Shaun Sloan, Pretty Savage DATE CHANGE
HOUSE OF BLUES: 308 Euclid Ave, Cleveland OH 44114 masoniccleveland.com / houseofblues.com
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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| clevescene.com m | February 12 - 18, 2020
MUSIC ALL IN THE FAMILY The siblings in Echosmith take a democratic approach to the songwriting process By Hale Weber ECHOSMITH JUST MIGHT HAVE been born in the wrong decade. The California indie pop trio known for its smash hit “Cool Kids” comes to the Beachland Ballroom on Tuesday on a tour in support of its hard-hitting sophomore album. Lonely Generation chronicles the plight of the youngest ’90s kids, walking the line between millennial and Generation Z, and trying to find their place in the dizzying social media age. “We’re part of this generation that kind of has had an understanding of a life before being able to connect through nine different social media platforms on your phone,” says bassist Noah Sierota in a recent phone interview. “I was able to go outside, play with my friends in the cul de sac, kick soccer balls around, and not even think about what people were liking on Instagram.” The 24-year-old mastermind behind the up-tempo title track wrestles with how quickly social media changed his childhood and the way we view ourselves and others. “I’m still part of the generation that got social media quite early. I was in middle school when I had Facebook,” says Sierota. “So, it’s like that weird transitional generation where we know what life was like before, but we don’t necessarily remember how to live that way.” The eldest member of the band of siblings finds solace in exploring whatever city Echosmith has set up camp in for the day, meeting new people face to face. In his free moments on tour, he bounces around from coffee shops to restaurants, looking for a nook that catches his eye. It’s his way of combatting the lack of tangible interactions his generation has grown accustomed to. “At least if we know that something’s wrong, then we know that we can at least try to solve it,” says Sierota. “Scared to be Alone” is the track that Sierota is most proud of on Lonely Generation. Much like the title track, it delves into how uncomfortable we have become with ourselves in the digital age. Lead singer Sydney Sierota brought the
Photo by Ariana Velazquez
chorus concept to the studio, and things took off from there. “[Sydney] and I started talking about what it’s like to experience loneliness, but also to experience a necessary side of being alone,” says Sierota. “Knowing that we can’t always be around people or always
rhythmic, but mid-tempo drums.” The tight-knit trio created nearly the entirety of Lonely Generation with only the aid of its father. “Shut Up and Kiss Me” is the only track with the stamp of an outside producer on it. “We keep it in the family,” says Sierota. “It’s really cool to be able to
ECHOSMITH, WEATHERS, JAYDEN BARTELS 8 P.M. TUESDAY, FEB. 18 BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124 TICKETS: $25-$79. BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM
be filling our minds with things. We need to be able to be alone and just sit with ourselves and that can be a very terrifying feeling.” Sierota worked with his father to produce the record and threw in some new techniques this time around. The signature sound on “Scared to be Alone” was achieved with a slide guitar line and “funky
self-position, and it’s a really great story for us, as a family.” In studio sessions, each band member brings in concepts, but ideas don’t progress without approval from all members. “We’re very democratic, which I think is a very smart way to go,” says Sierota. “Especially as a family. But I think in general for bands, if
there’s one ruling member you can get yourself in trouble.” The album’s most personal and simultaneously most optimistic track is a soft, stripped-down, acoustic ballad that Sydney Sierota drafted last year in the middle of the night for her and her husband’s first dance. “Follow You” finds Sydney Sierota so blissfully in love that nothing can take priority over her relationship. “I saw a glimmer of hope in it. And it’s really cool to have that story for the fans to get to hear,” says Sierota. The female perspective that Sydney gives the band is what sets Echosmith apart from other alternative acts, but it doesn’t come without obstacles. “When you have a girl leading the band, especially a band that leans more alternative like we do, the industry side has trouble knowing where you stand. Generally, the industry will think of a girl on stage being pop star, only pop star,” says Sierota. “It’s hard to break past that mold that’s expected of us. We are that weird in-between. We have that indie and alternative capability, but we still love pop punk.” As a brother, Sierota also finds himself wrestling with “creepy dudes” that message his sister on Instagram. “I’m watching out for that at all times. That’s what family does. Our family is very much ready to protect Sydney at all costs. And that’s good cause there are some terrifying people out there,” says Sierota. “A lot of bands that only have dudes in it don’t really know what that’s like.” But for all the negatives, the positives carry much more weight. One of the most fulfilling parts of his career, Sierota says, has been supporting Sydney and cheering on other female-led acts. “Most of the great music that is being put out now is being put out by girls,” says Sierota. “So, even to be a part of that, to be in a band led by a girl is a really cool deal.”
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
LIVEWIRE
all the live music you should see this week Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze
WED
02/12
Baddish/Tropidelic/The Quasi Kings: 8 p.m., $27 ADV, $32 DOS. House of Blues. Nicole Henry: 7 p.m., $30. Nighttown. John Doe, Kristin Hersh and Grant-Lee Phillips Present the Exile Follies: 7:30 p.m., $25 ADV, $30 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Route 6/Self Taught No Lessons/ Myth and Company: 8:30 p.m., $6. Grog Shop. Sunny Sweeney/Erin Enderlin: 7 p.m., $15-$75. Beachland Ballroom.
THU
02/13
Bluewater Kings: 8 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club. For Lovers Only Night Featuring Mixed Feelings: 9 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop. Nicole Henry: 8 p.m., $30. Nighttown. The High Divers/The Blue Collar Coalition: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern. JJ Grey & Mofro/Neal Francis: Initially, John “JJ Grey” Higginbotham and songwriting partner Daryl Hance, friends since high school, went to England because they had the chance to sign with a label there. By the time they got there, the label was defunct. Higginbotham managed to eke out a living overseas for about two years before he moved back to Jacksonville at the request of the Fog City Records label owner, who offered him a contract. With Jacksonville as his base, he’s recorded and toured steadily ever since. His 2015 album Ol’ Glory features soulful vocals and bluesy melodies. Higginbotham’s husky voice sounds more soulful than ever on album opener “Every Minute.” (Jeff Niesel) 8 p.m., $32.50 ADV, $37.50 DOS. House of Blues. Juice Krate Live: On Tour! with Kio Cyr/Mostlyluca/Zsmitty/ Jeremy Hutchins/Flamingoes: 7:30 p.m., $25-$100. Beachland Ballroom. Opeth/Graveyard: 7 p.m. Agora Theatre. Quinn & Custy: 7 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club.
Local rockers the Restless Habs play a release show at the Five O’Clock Lounge. See: Saturday
FRI
02/14
351 Cleveland/Eerie Invaders/Urban Cattle/Polka Maniacs: 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern. All Grateful Dead Show Featuring the JiMiller Band: 8 p.m. Akron Civic Theatre. Moises Borges Quartet: 8:30 p.m., $20. Nighttown. Boy Band Review: 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. House of Blues. Dark Water Rebellion/Bro Dylan/Bwak Dwagon/Burnin Loins: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV $12 DOS. Grog Shop. Gal-entine’s Day Prom featuring AJ & the Woods (with special duo set before)/Kid Tigrrr/Elizabeth Kelley (of the Village Bicycle)/ SexyPigDivas (with special solo set before)/Sarah Arafat: 8 p.m., $10. Beachland Ballroom. Horns and Things: 8 p.m., $20. Bop Stop. Trixie Mattel: 7 p.m. Agora Theatre. Motown Night with Nitebridge (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10. Music Box Supper Club. Perverts Again/Hawk Baby/DJ Chrysanthemum: 9 p.m., free. Now That’s Class. Queen Flash: 8 p.m. Music Box Supper Club. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown.
SAT
02/15
Eddie Baccus Sr. Quartet: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Sammy DeLeon Latin Jazz Sextet: 8:30 p.m., $15. Nighttown. Dirty Deeds (in the Neon Room): 8
p.m., $15-$20. MGM Northfield Park. Fayrewether: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. House of Blues. Fear of a Black Planet: J Dilla Edition Featuring Muamin Collective: Four years ago, MC Josiah “Zion” Quarles, a local guy who plays in the hip-hop group MuAmin Collective, launched a showcase for local acts that he dubbed Fear of a Black Planet. This year’s event features a tribute to the late hip-hop producer and rapper J Dilla and include performances by Muamin Collective and several other local musicians. (Niesel) 8 p.m., $7. Now That’s Class. Honeymoon/Method/deep sigh/Drag Daze: 8:30 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Grog Shop. Joan/Ralph: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Old School Saturday Night Featuring Slave and Get On Up: 9 p.m. Akron Civic Theatre. Oliver Hazard: Back in 2016, Mike Belazis had a “bucket list moment” and decided he wanted to play a show before the year was over. He secured a slot at a local bar and started writing material. He called his musician friends Griffin McCulloch and Devin East, and they rehearsed a few different songs and formed Oliver Hazard. That same week, the band won a Facebook raffle for one song’s worth of studio time, but instead of just cutting one song, it played 10 tracks straight through live, producing what one publication has described as “a folk-pop masterpiece.” Based in Waterville, Ohio, the band has toured and recorded steadily ever since. (Niesel) 8 p.m., $10. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Restless Habs/Harvey Pekar/
Airstream Futures: Ken Blaze and Peter Woodward (both of Cleveland pop-core legends the Unknown) formed the local punk band Restless Habs in 2009 and wrote a few songs but hit a hurdle when the group’s original drummer moved away. The band replaced him in 2010 and has been going strong ever since. Much like the Foo Fighters, the Restless Habs write hard-rocking songs with melodic sensibilities. Over the course of six EPs and shows with artists such as Mike Watt, Richie Ramone, and Iron Chic, the band has refined its sound. The addition of Chicagobased drummer Anthony Panico (exSleepwalker Defense) in 2018 paved the way to the band’s first full-length release, Taking the Fast Way Down. Recorded and co-produced by Jeff Dean (Airstream Futures, All Eyes West, the Bomb) at Chicago’s Million Yen Studios, the album contains 10 “relentlessly catchy” songs that bring to mind Husker Du, Pegboy, Dag Nasty and Samiam. Tonight’s show serves as a release party. (Niesel) 9 p.m. 5 O’Clock Lounge. Michael Stanley: 8 p.m. Music Box Supper Club. Steely Dan Tribute by The FM Project (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Trippie Redd/BlocBoy JB/Kodie Shane: With all the angst of a pop punk album, all the smoothness of an R&B record and all the static of a trap-rap record, Trippie Redd’s most recent full-length, A Love Letter to You 4, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The 20-year-old Canton native’s first No. 1 Billboard 200 album came on the heels of | clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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KentStage =HGÍM FBLL MA>L> @K>:M LAHPL MB<D>ML HG L:E> GHP
Hard Day’s Night
The High Kings
Shuicide Holla
Sat February 22
Mon February 24
Fri February 28
15-60-75 The Numbers Band
We Banjo 3
Judy Gold w/Ryley Nezballa
Sat February 29
Wed March 4
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Dave Mason
Carbon Leaf
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Sat March 7
Sun March 8
The Howard Jones Trio
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Eric Johnson Mon March 9
Tue March 10
\ cw y~ L © MPIF
Fish Grease 2: A Juke Joint Tour Thu March 12
DON’T MISS EVENT!
Janis Ian
&
Livingston Taylor FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020 [D`D j~ w f{ | } W ^w >k { | W ? w D{z E[`E{ {
ALL SHOWS AT THE KENT STAGE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED Tickets available at thekentstage.com or 877-987-6487 GMK [w cw i {{ © a{ B e~ JJHJF
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| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
LIVEWIRE four other Top 10 albums in just two years. At a time when singles, mixtapes and EPs rule the business and most major artists take a couple of years between albums, that’s a rare feat. Redd is constantly looking to the next project rather than basking in his present glory. He listens obsessively to his unreleased music before putting it out. Once an album is in his fans’ hands, he moves on to listening to his newest demos, starting the cycle over immediately. One of the projects currently on his mind is his feature on the upcoming Travis Barkerproduced Machine Gun Kelly album, Tickets to My Downfall. The record is Shaker Heights native MGK’s first stab at a full pop-punk album. On tour, Trippie derives his joy from comparing each city in his head, seeing who goes the craziest. Expect the Agora crowd to give other cities a run for their money. (Halle Weber) 7 p.m. Agora Theatre. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown.
SUN
02/16
The Family Crest/Poro: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern. NormFest (in the Supper Club): 4 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club. Rapsody: 8:30 p.m., $20 ADV, $25 DOS. Grog Shop. UFO/Damon Johnson: 7 p.m. Agora Theatre.
MON
02/17
Kyle Kidd/times10/Jaite/Nothing Major/unknownphrasez/draya jade: 7 p.m., $10. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.
TUE
02/18
Echosmith/Weathers/Jayden Bartels: 8 p.m., $25-$79. Beachland Ballroom. Falling in Reverse/Escape the Fate/Word Alive: 7 p.m., $27.75 ADV, $30 DOS. House of Blues. Outlab: Experiments In Improvised Music: 9 p.m., free. Bop Stop. Emily Wolfe/Tom West: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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30TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR
WED 3/25
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THU 2/27
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Happy Hour Every Day 7—9 PM
WEDNESDAY 2.12 B-SIDE MUG NITE (7pm) With TRIVIA at 8
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39
BAND OF THE WEEK TOM KURLANDER & PALE BLUE By Jeff Niesel
MURDER MYSTERY DINNERS
Photo courtesy of Tom Kurlander
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MEET THE BAND: Tom Kurlander
HIS FIRST LOVE IS MUSIC: While at
(vocals, guitar), Sean L. Spicer (guitar), David Harris (drums), Timothy Carr (keyboard), Jake Proto (bass)
Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Kurlander picked up the acoustic guitar and learned every Neil Young and Bob Dylan song he could. After college, he moved to Los Angeles where he had an acting career, appearing in such films as Kindergarten Cop, Young Guns II and Flatliners. He also starred in dozens of television shows and commercials. “That said, my first love has always been songwriting,” he says. “Right from the beginning, I started writing lyrics.” Kurlander has released two albums to date, Work and Sugar Burn Sessions.
THE CLEVELAND CONNECTION: While he
currently lives in L.A., Kurlander and his family moved from Chicago to Cleveland when he was 2, and Kurlander’s father, Donald Kurlander, still lives in Cleveland Heights. Many of Kurlander’s cousins live in Northeast Ohio as well. “I went to boarding schools, but I spent my entire childhood coming in and out of Cleveland, often hanging at an uncle’s antique shop on Coventry or visiting my grandmother, who was a killer cook, on Warrensville Center Road,” says Kurlander. “My connection to Cleveland is about family. I’m also a huge Browns fan. I’ve never stopped being a Browns fan except for the past 15 years.”
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BAND: Kurlander’s band includes six-time Gospel Music Association of Canada awardwinning guitarist Sean L. Spicer, who’s been featured in Guitar Player Magazine as “a player you should know.” “I’m blessed to have [Spicer] and other world-class musicians play with me because of the quality of
songs I write,” Kurlander says. “The template for my band is Tom Petty. I always have a great guitar player to my left. Sean is so good. We’ve been together for eight years now.” WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR HIM: The rootsy “You’ve Got My World” sounds like a cross between Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen and the Band. Kurlander even throws some horns into the mix, and the bursts of French horn really make the songs pop. WHERE YOU CAN HEAR HIM: https://www. facebook.com/TomKurlanderMusic/ WHERE YOU CAN SEE HIM: Tom Kurlander & Pale Blue perform at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15, at Stella’s Music Club.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
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| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
41
REWIND
45 YEA R S AG O O N T H IS DAT E THIS JULY, CLEVELAND SCENE will turn 50 years old, and in advance of the occasion, we’ve decided to dig into the archives on a weekly basis to republish something that appeared in the paper on that date (or thereabouts) during Scene’s first decade. This interview that writer Henry Keiluhn conducted with Queen’s Brian May and Freddie Mercury appeared in the Feb. 13 issue that came out in 1975. It featured the headline “QUEEN; Hymns and Heart Attacks.” It has been edited for length.
*** Take an astronomer, an ex-dental student, an electrical engineer and a graphic artist; put them together in a recording studio, and you have one of rock’s newest “sensations”—Queen. And though many bands lay claim to such a title, few have been as deserving as this English quartet. While singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Meddows-Taylor and bassist John Deacon established their basic hard rock sound on their first album, the next — QUEEN II — demonstrated that they were capable of much more. The band’s third and latest album, SHEER HEART ATTACK, proves the versatility of Queen beyond question with the polished performance of several musical styles, including ballads, hymns and even a dixieland rag tune. Queen’s artistic success is equalled financially, as is shown by the healthy sales of all three albums and two British hit singles. Following the release of SHEER HEART ATTACK, the band took to the road, headlining a tour of England and Europe. To say that their highenergy, extraordinarily staged shows drove the audiences wild would be an understatement. Everywhere they went, Queen left ecstatic critics and fans in their wake. Though their overwhelming successes give the impression of overnight stardom, Queen’s climb to rock ’n’ roll hierarchy was hardly that. While the band was formed in 1971, it wasn’t until well over two years later that their first album was released. With little promotional aid, Queen gained respectable followings on both sides of the Atlantic. QUEEN II solidified and increased the following, and the band started their conquest of America with a full tour as opening act for Mott The Hoople. However, Queen’s participation was cut short during
42
the first week in New York when May contracted hepatitis. Disappointed and frustrated, the band returned to England to await May’s recovery and begin work on their third album. Queen hadn’t even finished a week of recording when May was again laid low, this time by an ulcer, leaving him out of the studio and in the hospital for several weeks. Instead of giving up, the rest of the band carried on with the recording. Upon May’s return, the final songs were put on tape, the guitar parts dubbed in and a unique and surprisingly polished SHEER HEART ATTACK was ready for pressing. Following the album’s release and the aforementioned European tour, Queen was ready for a second try at America. And America was ready for them. Almost as quickly as dates were added, they sold out, making the tour a Freddie Mercury and Brian May triumph. SCENE spoke to Mercury and May two weeks ago in New York as they made final preparations for the tour. SCENE: When did you begin recording SHEER HEART ATTACK? MERCURY: It started when Brian was ill actually. But we sort of carried on without him for a couple of weeks. SCENE: What kind of effect did Brian’s illness have on the recording of the album? MERCURY: There wasn’t any real effect. We did have to replan the album. I mean on the first two albums we had sort of a method of doing things, but after that we had to reshuffle things. We had to sort of say, “Well, Brian’s not here; let’s go a little further without him.” We had to more or less leave gaps for him to fill in. Most of the overall work was done by the time he came out. SCENE: You just recently completed your third British tour, right? MERCURY: We finished that about three months ago. Then we went to Europe. The British tour was one of the best we’ve ever done. It’s quite staggering; we built up the rapport with the audience. I think you can more or less say Britain is conquered. It was very, very successful. We went straight in and headlined, which I think was the best thing to do. SCENE: What will your stage show be like this tour? MERCURY: The basis of the show is to put the three albums across, and to let people know what we’re all about. I think that one thing the people don’t
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
seem to realize is that though we do basically the same songs, we are different when we do them on stage. We don’t necessarily give the songs the same format. The songs have a different sort of structure just to suit the stage. We utilize the lights and the costumes, and up on stage there’s a lot of excitement. SCENE: Do you have any problem creating the various vocal and instrumental effects on stage? MERCURY: We have to cater to the stage. It’s not so much of a problem really; we just do it differently. We have four of us singing, which helps; and as far as Brian’s parts where there are multi-tracked guitars, he uses echo plexes, which work very well. We still make sure there is the entertainment value. We don’t want to just reproduce note for note what we have on the albums. The basics are there; it’s just that we put in more excitement. SCENE: Queen was formed about four years ago, yet the first album didn’t come out until 1973. What was the band doing in the meantime? MAY: Basically, persuading people that we were capable of doing the thing. That was a pretty depressing time for us because we were doing a stage show of sorts, but we didn’t have the money to get the equipment that we wanted. It was just trying to convince people that we could do the gigs even though we didn’t have the equipment. And trying to convince the record companies to take us on. You needed a record to get the gigs and you needed the gigs to get the record. We spent a lot of time doing private concerts. We used to hire small theatres for 100 people or so and invited all our friends and people we thought might be interested. People would always come up to us and say, “Yeah, amazing, we’ve got to do something.” But nothing ever got done. So in the end, we made some demo tapes and took them around to the record companies and that’s how we finally convinced them that we could do something. SCENE: While your first album was pretty straightforward rock ’n’ roll, QUEEN II was very complex, with many harmonies and interrelated tracks. MERCURY: That’s the other side of us. It’s all a phase we were going through after the first album, which was very immediate, sort of letting people know what Queen was about.
But we have a lot more to offer and we couldn’t really put it in the first album. I mean QUEEN II could have been the first album because that’s what we really wanted to do. But I think that it would have been far too much for people to take on a first album. And QUEEN II was just a way of showing that we can do different things. The new album, SHEER HEART ATTACK, is different enough. It’s more sophisticated, cleaner. On that album we were relying heavily on the quality of the songs while trying to put across the versatility of the band. I think it’s come across. SCENE: Though SHEER HEART ATTACK is quite different from anything the band has done before, “Stone Cold Crazy” sounds a lot like the stuff on the first album. MERCURY: That is, in fact, the first song Queen ever performed on stage. When Queen was formed about four years ago, we sort of wrote that together and for some odd reason we left it off of the first two albums, ’cause we just thought it was too raw. But we just thought to put that in to show another facet of Queen. The contrast of “Stone Cold Fever,” followed by the hymn-like “Dear Friends” seemed to work. The sheer velocity of the song made it worth it. In fact, on stage we do it even faster. I think it’s a good thing we kept it until the third album. But that was one of the first songs the band ever did on the road. SCENE: Freddie, you mentioned that Liza Minnelli is one of your influences. I’ve noticed that the way Queen and Liza perform on stage is sort of similar, except for the type of music. MERCURY: I remember I said that one time, but it’s basically just a fantasy. I simply enjoy watching her. But, if I ever got a chance to meet her or talk to her, it would be great. As for our stage show, you can probably pick out certain similarities to Liza’s show. Well, not similarities, but influences. Basically, we’re a hard, heavy rock sort of band. And when it comes to doing it on stage, the aggressiveness is there, and that’s what we want to get across and you can’t just do that standing still. You’ve got to give it all you’ve got. That’s the only way to get the velocity and stamina across.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
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SAVAGE LOVE THE GIRLS By Dan Savage My boyfriend and I were having relationship issues until we tried something new: pegging. He wanted to try it, but he was afraid and sometimes said the idea disgusted him. Then we tried it, and it was better than normal vanilla or even kinky bondage sex. It was the most emotionally connected sex we’ve ever had. I actually pegged him three times in 24 hours. He says now he wants to be “the girl” in our relationship. He doesn’t want to transition to become a girl, but to be more “the girl” sexually and emotionally. I see this as sexy and loving. I’ve always taken care of him in a nurturing way, but this adds so much more. I feel bad about sending this long story just to ask a simple question, but … how do I be more “the guy” for my boyfriend who wants to be more “the girl”? Not just sexually, but in everyday life? — The Boyfriend Experience “It’s amazing these two found each other,” said Key Barrett, a trained anthropologist. “They communicate and obviously create spaces to be vulnerable together and explore.” Barrett has studied female-led relationships (FLR) and written books — fiction and nonfiction — about them, TBE, and his first concern was your boyfriend succumbing to “sub-frenzy,” or a burning desire to realize all his fantasies at once. You guys aren’t new to kink — you mention bondage — but you’ve found something that taps into some deep-seated desires, and you don’t want to move too fast. “Pegging opened up a huge box of shiny new emotions and feelings,” said Barrett. “That’s great, but they should take it slow, especially if they want this dynamic to be a part of the day-today relationship.” You also need to bear in mind that pegging, while wonderful, won’t solve your underlying (and unspecified) “relationship issues.” Unless, of course, the issue was your boyfriend feeling anxious about asking you to peg him. If he was worried about walking back his previous comments, or worried you would judge, shame, or dump him over this, that could have been
the cause of your conflict, and the pegging — by some miracle — was the solution. But, hey, you didn’t ask about those other issues — you didn’t even name them — so let’s focus on your actual question: you being “the guy” and your boyfriend being “the girl.” “The boyfriend wants TBE to be ‘the guy’ in the relationship to reinforce his desire to be ‘the girl,’” said Barrett, “and she seems okay with this, although she does acknowledge that this would require more than the nurturing and caretaking she’s already showed toward him. That’s a valid concern. His desire to take the kink out of the bedroom and merge it with the day-to-day risks turning her into a kink dispenser. There’s also the aspect of the boyfriend’s gender stereotyping. Being dominant isn’t unique to men, and being submissive isn’t a ‘feminine’ trait. There are a lot of alpha men in FLRs who shine in support roles for the women they trust. Femaleled relationships don’t rely on stereotypes. Indeed, they often flout them by relying not on stereotypical behaviors but on what is a natural dynamic for the couple. In that sense, each FLR is unique.” While it’s possible that “I want to be the girl” are the only words your boyfriend has to describe the dynamic that turns him on, for some men, sacrificing their “male” power and privilege is an intrinsic part of the eroticism of submitting to a dominant woman. And that’s okay, too. “If he legitimately wants to take on a role of supporting her and being her adoring submissive partner while thinking of that role as ‘feminine,’ it could work for them,” said Barrett. “He might really enjoy supporting her decisions and being more of a domestic partner. She might enjoy the support and validation that comes from having a partner who revels in her successes and strength. This could fulfill the ‘caring for him as if I were the boyfriend’ portion (what a loving statement!) while still feeling natural for TBE.” So how can you get started as
“the guy” in this relationship? “They should, again, start small,” said Barrett. “Maybe delegate a few tasks that were ‘hers’ to him, and she can tell him how she wants them done,” whatever it is (dishes? laundry? cocksucking?), “as this will help ensure the outcome they both want. I would also recommend they both read about what FLRs are and aren’t. FLRs are often kinkfriendly, but kink is not required. And they need to remember the key word in ‘female-led relationship’ is ‘relationship.’” Follow Key Barrett on Twitter @ KeyBarrettMSc.
*** I’m a woman, and I was contacted on an app by someone claiming to be a “guydyke.” Based on their profile pictures, I was basically looking at a white, cis, masc-presenting man who’s said he is queer but only attracted to women. And by masc-presenting, I mean I could not pick him out of a lineup of the most average of averagelooking straight dudes: drab clothes, a week’s stubble, bad haircut. Granted, nobody is obliged to announce their gender identity through clothing or grooming choices, but how is this guy not straight? — Perplexed “I happen to be one of those ‘old-school’ lesbians, despite not actually being what most consider to be old,” said Arielle Scarcella, a popular lesbian YouTuber (youtube. com/Arielle) with more than 600,000 subscribers. “Back when I was coming out in 2005, if a male person who lived as a man — a male who lived in such a way that he was always perceived to be a man — claimed he was a lesbian or a dyke, we’d shut them down. But in 2020, it’s only acceptable to accept everyone for what they say they are. I disagree. Part of being a lesbian, being a woman, is also cultural and societal. It’s not simply an identity. Living in the world as a woman matters. A biological male who presents as a man and has sex only with women will never know what it’s like to be treated as a woman or a lesbian. He can identify however
he likes, of course, but he will be perceived as a straight man who’s fetishizing queer women.”
*** I’m in my late 20s and genderfluid. I have a male physique, but at times I feel more feminine. I suddenly can’t shake the desire to have more feminine breasts. I’ve been looking at women with C or D cups and wishing I had boobs that big. I’ve spent time looking into breast enhancement, but I live in the Midwest. It’s not as bad as the South, but there are still plenty of people who believe violating gender norms is a sin. I guess I don’t know what I’m trying to ask other than whether this is normal. — Bro Obsessed Over Bust Size It’s not normal — in the literal, non-pejorative sense — for an “assigned male at birth” person who presents as male to want to slap large boobs on his otherwise male-presenting physique. But so what? If you’re worried about how your boobs will be received there in the Midwest, perhaps you could get yourself a pair of what drag queens call “chicken cutlets,” i.e., silicone breasts enhancers that tuck into a bra, and try wearing them out. For the record, kids, I’m not equating being genderfluid with drag, even though many drag queens (but not all) identify as genderfluid and many genderfluid people (but not all) do drag. (I never get tired of tap-dancing my way through this minefield.) But back when I was doing drag, BOOBS, a pair of chicken cutlets artfully placed under my pecs created a pretty realistic looking set of big ol’ titties. Think of chicken cutlets as a temporary, nonsurgical breastenhancement option — to test the locals as well as your desire to have breasts.
On the Lovecast, spanking is for grown-ups! With Jillian Keenan: savagelovecast.com.
mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage
| clevescene.com | February 12 - 18, 2020
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