Excitement over Cleveland’s brewery explosion has given way to questions of a brewery bubble By Sam allard
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F EBRUA RY 1 - 7, 2017 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Chris Keating Editor Vince Grzegorek
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Excitement over Cleveland’s brewery explosion has given way to questions of a brewery bubble
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President’s travel ban order inspires Cleveland action (although the mayor is silent), and more
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75 REASONS TO LOVE CLEVELAND For this year’s City Guide we opted for a major change. This guide will include personal recommendations, essays and explorations of 75 reasons to love Cleveland from our writers, editor and even members of the community. From an essay paying homage to a great local entertainer to a reported piece about downtown’s art movement to our restaurant critic’s tribute to the eatery that’s changed how we’ll eat in 2017. One of only two glossy guides printed and distributed by SCENE Magazine each year. The City Guide provides complete coverage of what makes Cleveland great beyond just our food.
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UPFRONT
Photos by Paula Kampf
ALL IN Cleveland comes out strong against Trump travel ban, immigration policies PRESIDENT TRUMP SIGNED AN executive order Friday that instituted a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. The order suspends the U.S. refugee program for 120 days and blocks Syrian refugees indefinitely. It was the most immediately impactful (that is, enforced) executive order that Trump signed during his freewheeling first week in office. This action was met with what has become a familiar strain of opposition. In Cleveland, hundreds of protesters — by some counts, more than 1,000 — convened at Hopkins International Airport Sunday afternoon to stand in solidarity with immigrant communities and to condemn the actions of the president, whom they regard (almost to a person) as a xenophobe and a fascist. City councilman Brian Cummins represents the Clark-Fulton and Brooklyn-Centre neighborhoods. He attended Sunday’s rally, he said, due in part to a personal connection. Not only has Cummins been instrumental in the creation of the International Village neighborhood in Clark-Fulton, he has also
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been helping a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo since he moved to Cummins’ street a few years ago. “Refugees’ stories, they’re incredible,” Cummins told Scene by phone on Monday. “It takes these families a tremendous amount of time to get here. These are sometimes five, seven-year odysseys.” Cummins was joined at Hopkins by councilmen Zack Reed and Kerry McCormack. He said the protest was “really rocking” by 2:30 p.m., and that it weaved through multiple airport areas, from arrivals to baggage to departures. “I’ve been to a lot of events like this,” Cummins said, “and given the lack of advance timing, it was incredible how many people showed up. I think that speaks to how important this issue is.” Paula Kampf, who helped coordinate the event as part of The Cleveland Resistance Community Against the Trump Administration, a Facebook group, said she is encouraged by the hunger she sees in people wanting to organize and engage. Leaping at those opportunities will be ever more
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
crucial after what she called Trump’s “tragic” first week in office. “Xenophobia must not go unchallenged. The fear-based mischaracterization of what it means to be a refugee or immigrant to our country — our city — seeks to make all of us complicit in an agenda completely contrary to American values,” Kampf wrote in a statement to Scene. “Our local battle cries of ‘All in’ and ‘Rally together’ are taking on new significance as we stand together for each other’s basic humanity here in Cleveland. I want the world to see that it’s no longer ‘Cleveland against the world’; it’s ‘Cleveland with the world.’” City and state elected leaders — with the striking absence of Mayor Frank Jackson — have roundly condemned Trump’s order. Both Ohio senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman came out in opposition to the ban when a 26-year-old Cleveland Clinic resident and Sudanese citizen Suha Abushamma was sent to Saudi Arabia after landing in the U.S., due to the ban. Sherrod Brown, on Twitter, called the decision to block Abushamma’s entry “cruel, foolish and out of step
with American values.” “Turning away doctors here to learn and help people does not make America safer,” he said. Gov. John Kasich, too, called out Trump’s ban on Sunday. He said it was neither well-thought-out nor well-constructed. “Proper coordination with implementing agencies and our allies was missing,” Kasich said, in a statement. “This order should be replaced with a more thoughtful approach consistent with our values.” Closer to home, County Executive Armond Budish issued a statement saying that Trump’s executive order “must be stopped.” He echoed the chosen metaphor of New York senator Chuck Schumer, who, in a statement Friday, said that there were tears in the eyes of the Statue of Liberty. “Lady Liberty is crying,” Budish said in his own statement Monday morning. “I call upon President Trump to immediately lift this shameful ban and to work on stronger vetting ... as appropriate.” As of Monday afternoon, City Council attorneys were drafting legislation to be introduced at
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Monday evening’s meeting to officially denounce the ban. Cummins told Scene that public statements in opposition might seem sort of toothless and ineffectual, but that there’s not much more municipalities can do. “This is primarily a federal matter,” Cummins said. “I think I might talk to the new airport director about making the international arrivals area more accommodating at Hopkins, but relative to the ban, I’m encouraging people to reach out to our congressional leaders to let them know we oppose this, that refugees and immigrants are vitally important to our cities.” Cummins said he’d explored the idea of introducing sanctuary city legislation in Cleveland, but wasn’t
being met with what he called “ardent support.” “It doesn’t look like we’re being aggressive at all on that,” he said. — Sam Allard
CLEVELAND CLINIC BEGINS JUGGLING ACT IN FIRST WEEK OF TRUMP PRESIDENCY To take that a step further, the Cleveland Clinic indeed finds itself busier than a one-armed paper hanger following Trump’s executive orders. The health care giant has had to publicly address the measure while working to bring a first-year medical resident back to the U.S. — and at the same time plan for its annual fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-aLago resort in Florida. On Monday, a Clinic spokesperson
SAYONARA The Metropolitan at the 9 awarded Four Star recognition by AAA. Judges noted spectacular accommodations, restaurants, bars, and recent departure of one Johnny Manziel in review.
told Scene that the event will go on. The fundraiser has been held yearly at Mar-a-Lago since 2011. This year’s esoteric moniker: “Reflections of Versailles: A Night in the Hall of Mirrors.” Tickets range from $1,250 to $100,000. Scene’s request for press credentials was heartily laughed at. “We have held our event there for several years,” the spokesperson told us. “This year’s event was committed to long before Mr. Trump was elected. Many other non-profits also hold fundraisers there. We have not made any further commitments at this time.” To be clear on that last sentence, the Clinic may or may not hold its fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago next year. But never mind all that, really; Suha Abushamma, the Sudanese
medical resident at the Clinic with a U.S. work visa (mentioned earlier), remains in Saudi Arabia. She had landed at JFK International Airport on Saturday, only to be held for hours and forced to leave the country — or face deportation and the very real threat of not being allowed to return to the U.S. for five years. Her experience crystallized the chaos that unfolded around the country last weekend. (She is presently with family in Saudi Arabia until everyone in the federal government can get on the same page, according to reports.) Furthermore, the Clinic reported that nine international patients have been left on the sidelines, awaiting treatment, due to the travel ban. Along with Johns Hopkins Medicine, major health care centers around
DOG & PHONY SHOW MORE OF THE SAME Disciplinary hearings begin for noted “weepy” Cleveland officer Timothy Loehmann, who killed Tamir Rice in 2014. Safety director Michael McGrath expected to drool languidly on the desk before letting Loehmann walk.
Gov. John Kasich releases two-year budget proposal, urging another sales tax hike. Weird line item includes revenue from “literally just punching poor people and stealing their wallets.”
QUALITY OF LIFE Pitchers and catchers soon, right?
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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UPFRONT the U.S. are left with little recourse in the face of an unhinged president giving new depth to the phrase “unilateral decision-making.� “These are very, very ill patients,� Pamela Paulk, president of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, told STAT. “In most cases, these are not cases to be postponed.� Further cementing the Trump administration’s machinations as a backdrop of the Clinic’s executivelevel headaches is CEO Toby Cosgrove’s interactions with the president. As of press time, the CEO, very much like the Cleveland mayor, has still resisted the call to condemn Trump’s anti-refugee policies. (Cosgrove’s Twitter account was hounded by American residents urging him to speak out on his very visible platform.) Cosgrove remains a member of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, a federal council that will help shape economic policy and all sorts of “Make America Great Again�related posturing. — Eric Sandy
CLEVELAND JUDGE HEARS RNC FLAG BURNERS’ CASE As of press time, a group of defendants was still seeking a response from a Cleveland municipal judge who is mulling motions to dismiss the charges against them in relation to a ag-burning protest during the Republican National Convention last year. A response was expected as early as Monday, so do check in with our coverage at clevescene.com. On Jan. 11, a judge dismissed charges against two defendants. Greg “Joeyâ€? Johnson, the named defendant in the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that established agburning as a protected right, was one of those defendants whose charges were dropped. Police Chief Calvin Williams was subpoenaed to testify during last week’s hearing. Scene was at the ag burning protest on July 20, 2016, and we reported a few hours later that the whole thing had the zeal of sensationalized news coverage around it. Cameras and police badges outnumbered the protesters by about a bajillion to one, and it was the crush of video cameras that prompted the police to intervene and pull the rug out from under the protesters (and then arrest them immediately). Reporters were
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| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
prevented from gathering any information worth a damn, and the scene was cleared. (RNC attendees and delegates were the only ones allowed through the intersection of East Fourth and Prospect in the wake of the protest.) “There was an out of control crowd and ofďŹ cers were being assaulted and they were calling for assistance,â€? Williams said in court Friday. As one of their attorneys points out: “[This] hearing is the ďŹ rst of its kind following Donald Trump’s inauguration and his notorious tweets that protesters who burn the American ag should be punished with loss of citizenship or a year in jail. “This content-based policing is unconstitutional and utterly unacceptable. The Ohio Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild stands in solidarity with progressive and leftist protesters who attempted — and were prevented from — the exercise of their free speech rights,â€? Jacqueline Greene said in a public statement. She’s the co-coordinator of the Ohio Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and a partner at Friedman & Gilbert; she was one of the lawyers who ďŹ led the motions to dismiss. “The city is frivolously spending tax dollars to prosecute these cases in an attempt to cover up the unconstitutional actions of the police.â€? — Sandy
CONSERVATION GROUPS WILL SUE FEDERAL AGENCIES WHO SOLD OFF PUBLIC LAND IN OHIO The Center for Biological Diversity, Ohio Environmental Council, Heartwood and Sierra Club plan on ďŹ ling a lawsuit against the federal agencies that arranged and oversaw the auction of public lands within the Wayne National Forest in December. The groups are challenging the approval process behind the auction, insisting that the federal agencies looked the other way on the easily studied and veriďŹ able effects of fracking on the surrounding environmental and ecosystems. The Dec. 13, 2016, auction marked the ďŹ rst time that the federal government had sold off public land in Ohio. Recent Congressional moves have environmental advocates concerned that the precedent is very real and that more public lands will be sold off for a nickel and a handshake in the future. “Pipelines, well pads, and wastewater pits destroy habitat and harm people and wildlife,â€? Nathan
land is being drilled, the groups say, the consequences were willfully ignored. “When you look at these [parcels], it’s like, ‘What makes sense about this?’” Bern Township Trustee Roxanne Groff told Scene over coffee at the Village Bakery in Athens in January. (Groff works with the Athens County Fracking Action Network and is not associated with the lawsuit.) “These are all very steep slopes, [and] they all have some kind of stipulation on them from the forest service. So everyone you look at, it’s like, well, there are all kinds of places they could actually put pads that aren’t in the Wayne itself, and then they bypass the Forest Service approval and review process.” In those cases, permits will need to be filed with the county. Scene will keep an eye on that. “Fracking the Wayne National Forest in Ohio is like kicking someone when they’re down,” said Tabitha Tripp of Heartwood in a public statement. “This land has been overworked for the last 200 years. Are we not rich and wise enough now to let a tiny percentage go wild? Declining species need that. We need that. Instead, we are witness to the betrayal of the public trust and we
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I will do everything lawful within my power to protect our immigrant neighbors, documented or not. If necessary, I will use City Hall itself to shelter and protect them from persecution.
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Johnson, an attorney with the Ohio Environmental Council, said in a public statement. “These impacts are real. In 2014, a frack pad fire and chemical spill near the Wayne forced the evacuation of local residents and killed tens of thousands of fish and mussels.” Philadelphia-based Eclipse Resources spent $927,537 to get at the minerals on 11 parcels of land in the Wayne. Three other companies purchased the rest of the acreage. The main idea, Scene learned in a recent trip to the Wayne, is that private companies have been leasing mineral rights on adjacent private lands, and it is on those properties that companies will set up drilling operations (in many cases). Underground, remember, fracking is a horizontal operation; companies will be able to direct the high-pressure drills into the subsurface Wayne National Forest land and siphon natural gas from lands formerly owned and enjoyed by the public. There has been no environmental impact study on the effects of fracking in the Wayne, which is one of the primary contentions of the conservation groups. Whether auctioned land or contiguous private
— Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Jan. 28, 2017. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has remained silent on the matter. Multiple requests for comment from Scene went unanswered between Jan. 25 and Jan. 30.
have no recourse but to sue.” Among the impending lawsuit’s many angles, the Center for Biological Diversity has specifically addressed those declining species, like the endangered Indiana bat, inextricably threatened by imminent drilling operations. (Remember: Companies were only allowed to bid on public land if they committed to extracting minerals from it. Peaceful conservationists have been fined millions of dollars for bidding in these public land auctions.) The Indiana bat is not alone in its predicament, though it’s not like bats can argue the matter. Another auction of Wayne National Forest land is set for March 23, involving more than 1,100 acres.
The Bureau of Land Management is currently accepting formal “protests” via its website. — Sandy
OHIO’S LETHAL INJECTION POLICY SHOT DOWN Magistrate Judge Michael Merz ruled last week that Ohio’s new three-drug lethal injection process is unconstitutional, the AP reports, capping a week of hearings on a method that’s garnered plenty of doubt and concern across the state. The execution for Ronald Phillips, scheduled for Feb. 15, has been delayed. This is not the first time for that. Two other executions have been
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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UPFRONT delayed, as well. Merz’ multifaceted ruling most signiďŹ cantly addresses the use of Midazolam, a sedative that has been publicly criticized and questioned since Ohio’s last execution in 2014, when inmate Dennis McGuire sputtered and snorted his way through a lengthy death at the state’s hands. Merz also targeted the other two drugs used in the lethal injection process. Andrew Welsh-Huggins wrote for the AP: “Using those drugs is ‘completely inconsistent with the position’ the state previously took when it announced it would no longer use them in executions, the judge said.â€? In November, we reported on the lengthy and strange path that Ohio has taken to its three-drug “cocktail,â€? now ruled illegal for use in lethal injection. It’s worth revisiting and, as we wrote at that time, it’s worth pointing out a sort
DIGIT WIDGET 26 Breweries within the city of Cleveland’s boundaries operating in 1910.
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$1,100,000,000 The value of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, expected to rise again this year, as estimated by Forbes.
6 Ohio locales that the Cleveland.com politics team will be visiting regularly throughout the year to more intimately understand the views of diverse Ohioans during the Trump presidency.
of moral framing device: The debate over various execution drugs and the secrecy with which states surround them is an important Eighth Amendment issue and one that requires that taxpayers cast aside the personal histories of inmates for a moment. (Phillips was sentenced to death for the 1993 rape and murder of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter, of course.) Inmates derive rights from the Constitution, as well. That’s where Merz comes in, and that’s where the next round of debate will take us. — Sandy
RTA BUS DRIVER INVOLVED IN FATAL COLLISION HAS BEEN FIRED The RTA bus driver who was behind the wheel during a December collision on Public Square that killed a pedestrian has been ďŹ red. The driver was initially suspended, but was terminated on Jan. 23, according to an RTA spokesperson. An RTA accident review committee determined that the collision on Dec. 7, which resulted in the death of 69-year-old Joan Kuendig, was preventable. The driver slowed, but did not come to a complete stop before turning onto Rockwell Avenue from East Roadway. Police have previously reported that Kuendig was legally crossing the street. The driver has not yet faced criminal charges. Mayor Frank Jackson has insisted that Superior Avenue through Public Square remain closed to buses. He initially closed the Square in November and has cited the Square’s popularity and safety concerns as his chief reasons for keeping it closed, despite the increase in dangerous turns, the delays caused by rerouting, and a looming $12 million debt, triggered by the closure, that the Federal Transit Administration intends to collect by Feb. 21. At a Dec. 30 press conference, the day after Ms. Kuendig’s death, Jackson said he would not try to mitigate the family’s grief. “What I will say, however,â€? he said, “is that we’re reviewing that to see whether or not there were some other circumstances that caused that to happen, as opposed to just making a left-hand turn.â€? RTA told Scene that the city will now conduct its own investigation into the accident. — Allard
scene@clevescene.com t @clevelandscene
FEATURE
Excitement over Cleveland’s brewery explosion has given way to questions of a brewery bubble By Sam allard OUTSIDE AND ATOP THE 35,000-square-foot Market Garden Brewery production facility, a blinking sign greets motorists as they enter the West Side Market parking lot: “Beer!” its bulbs exclaim. Inside, tanks gleam, brews ferment and souvenirs shine for tourists. This is the nerve center of MGB’s operation. As such, it’s got a biolab. Labs like Market Garden’s are common at bigger breweries, but they’re generally regarded as last lines of defense. They’re important because they help brewer-chemists (yes, a significant subset of modern brewmasters are just as comfortable in lab coats as they are in Dickies and flannel) monitor things like
International Bittering Units (IBU), oxygenation levels and yeast. But they’re all about assuring the quality of the product, and brewers say that quality assurance should be baked into every aspect of beer production: from the sourcing of the ingredients to the cleanliness of the brewhouse to the qualifications of the brewers themselves. McNulty is the mayor and maestro of West 25th Street’s second wave. He owns or co-owns Bier Markt, Bar Cento, Speakeasy, Market Garden and Nano Brew, all on West 25th, not to mention the production facility, completed in 2015, with the capacity to produce 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of beer per year. That’s roughly half the
output of Great Lakes. Great Lakes Brewing Co. is of course the grandpappy of the local scene. It’s the state of Ohio’s oldest and largest brewery, and a company that McNulty reveres as having been on Ohio City’s “bleeding edge,” back in 1988, long before it looked anything like a “destination neighborhood.” These days, of course, Ohio City is as much a destination for microbrews as it is for the West Side Market’s trail bologna and fresh veggies. And the “brewery district” has expanded beyond the gullet of West 25th: Platform Brewery opened in 2014 on Lorain and West 41st Street. Forest City Brewery in Duck Island and
Brick & Barrel in the Flats both opened in 2015. In 2016, Hansa House opened its doors on Lorain and West 29th after a lengthy renovation. And the local openings continue apace. On the near west side alone, Saucy Brew Works on Detroit and West 29th is expected to open in 2017. The small Cincinnati Brewery Bad Tom Smith hopes to be open and pouring in the former WeenieA-Go-Go location on West 25th by St. Patrick’s Day. In Battery Park, Terrestrial Brewing Company is slated for a 2017 opening as well. These announcements have been frequent enough to result in some concern among consumers about a potentially crowded market. | clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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FEATURE
Photo by Sam Allard
The local conversation about the brewery explosion, the so-called “brewery bubble,” has become a conversation about brewery survival. Will all these new operations make it? The prognosis on a brewery bubble was mixed in a recent Crain’s Cleveland Business special report, but the Ohio Craft Brewers Association did say that the rapid pace of brewery growth in Ohio, about 40 new breweries per year statewide, would surely slow down soon. Local brewers all said versions of the same thing when Scene came asking about the “brewery explosion.” For breweries with aspirations beyond neighborhood brewpub status, those that intend to bottle and distribute and expand their brand’s reach — think Great Lakes, Fat Head’s, Market Garden — quality control is critical. Industry experts agreed: Quality is the single most important factor in determining a new brewery’s success. Marketing, location, ancillary offerings, unique and abiding connections with the local community: Those are all valuable assets, and new breweries shouldn’t overlook them. But if the beer’s no good, the brewery won’t survive. In terms of capacity, though, there’s consensus in the brewing community that Cleveland is
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nowhere near a critical mass. “I think there will always be room for the neighborhood brewpub,” McNulty told Scene in a recent interview at Nano Brew. In a recent episode of the CLEcast podcast, recorded live at the Market Garden production facility, McNulty reiterated that idea when co-host Dan Huszai asked him how he felt about the breweries mushrooming up all over town, and on the near west side in particular. “I love it,” McNulty said, right away. “I know there’s a lot of talk about the restaurant, bar, brewery bubble, and there’s definitely a restaurant bubble, if you look at the multiple thousands of seats that have been added across the city. But in the brewery world, all we’re doing is going back to what was happening in Cleveland prior to Prohibition, where every neighborhood had its own pub.” But that’s not the whole story: “The distribution world, that’s also a bubble,” McNulty said. “There’s defi nitely going to be some Darwinian culling of the herd.” Shaun Yasaki agrees. He’s the former Platform brewmaster and original part-owner who set out on his own in late 2015. He’s eyeing a spring opening for Noble Beast, his new brewery on Lakeside and East 14th Street, just a hop, skip and
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
a jump from Masthead Brewing Company, the new brewery that opened on Superior in January. Alongside Hofbräuhaus, those two ventures will form the core of a new brewery district on downtown’s northeastern flange. Yasaki told Scene that Noble Beast would operate almost exclusively as a taproom with little to no distribution. “The idea is to sell as much as possible right here,” he said. “One of the biggest struggles of the so-called bubble is distribution, getting shelf space. Opening up a $3-, $4- or $5-million dollar brewery when you don’t have a brand and you’re trying to find shelf space. You’re competing with the rest of the country — the rest of the world — on that scale.” Among brewers, this is dogmatic. “Fine wine and imported beer” used to be the calling card of most convenience stores — you can still see the old signs — but now, craft beer is king. Local upstarts like Platform and Sibling Revelry must compete with other in-state options (Akron’s Thirsty Dog, Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist); big craft players (Lagunitas, Bells, Stone, New Belgium, Deschutes); plus all the low-cost, heavily marketed domestic swill. The competition is fierce. Not so much, brewers say, for a
brew-and-pour operation. “I think the bubble is a little overblown [in that regard],” Yasaki said. “If you’re a smaller brewpub bar, you’re just another bar. Has anyone ever said, ‘Oh, my god, there’s another bar opening in Cleveland’? And if you’re a brewpub, you’re probably at the top of the pecking order.” Still, a culling may loom. Fat Head’s founder and brewer-savant Matt Cole, for one, says that in as few as two or three years, the brewery landscape in Northeast Ohio might look drastically different. “I think we’re headed for a shake-out,” he told Scene. “I’m glad to see former brewers of mine moving forward [Yasaki, for example, worked under Cole at Fat Head’s]. But I’ll be honest, not everybody coming out of this [brewery explosion] is making great beer. You see some breweries just kind of throwing their beer up at the wall to see if it sticks.” WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO THE BEER LAB: Sam McNulty, in the spirit of collaboration, has encouraged local brewers to make use of the Market Garden’s lab equipment. And one day this fall, the guys from Platform took him up on it — more than once in a single day.
They were allegedly having some issues. While the Market Garden crew thought they were dealing with an infection, the Platform crew said that brewmaster Andy Tveekrem (formerly of Great Lakes and Dogfish Head) was showing them how to use a new piece of equipment that they were in the process of buying. But for whatever reason, they wanted to test beer fresh off their production line. The rumor was, something in the Platform plant was corrupting the product’s taste. And Tveekrem and the Market Garden staff counseled them to dump the batches. Anxiety about bad batches is natural because they can sully a brand’s reputation. To illustrate, Fat Head’s Matt Cole referenced two enormous mishaps in 2016 by breweries in Chicago. After a wild yeast infection, Revolution Brewing Company was forced to recall 10,000 barrels (about 3.3 million cans) of six of their most popular brews. And twice last year, Goose Island Brewing Company recalled bottles of beers in their barrel-aged stout line. The company theorized that a bacteria “lurked in the
tanks” used to transport the beer from the barrel-aging warehouse to the bottling facility. Neither of the infections were harmful, but the beer tasted funky, plasticky, rotten. “With all the competition out there,” said Matt Cole, “sometimes you only get one chance. And if the one time a consumer picks up your six-pack from a convenience store, it’s an infected batch? That’s all it takes to ruin your reputation, man. And it’s a hell of an economic impact. [For Fat Head’s], consistency is a huge priority. Any time we even suspect something’s off, the beer will not leave our brewery. You work too hard to build up a reputation. And the consumer is a little more educated now. They’re able to weed through what’s good and what’s bad.” Sam McNulty said he remembered, back in his Cleveland State University days, trying a six-pack of Crooked River Brewing Co. — a brewery that closed in 2002 due to financial hardship — and the beer being so inconsistent that it tasted different from bottle to bottle. “They were cranking out beer down there,” McNulty said of
“If you’re a smaller brewpub bar, you’re just another bar. Has anyone ever said, ‘Oh, my god, there’s another bar opening in Cleveland’? And if you’re a brewpub, you’re probably at the top of the pecking order.”
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Sat., Feb 11
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Geoff Tate The Whole Story “Ryche” Acoustic Tour Fri., Feb. 24
Del McCoury Band Fri., Mar. 3
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Beth Hart
Hard Day’s Night
Sat., Mar. 4
Fri., Mar. 10
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13
FEATURE Crooked River. “You could open up a beer and it would not be the same as you had yesterday. That’s part of what gave craft a bad name. It was like, ‘You wanna charge me more, for a beer that tastes like this?’” Shaun Yasaki left Platform in late 2015. Shortly thereafter, Platform sued Yasaki for damages stemming from an alleged breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. Basically, Platform didn’t want him to start a competing brewery while he still owned a stake in the company, even though such an arrangement was permitted in the company’s charter. According to court documents, Yasaki was “sincerely open” to the idea of selling his ownership units, but wanted to review the company’s books to determine a fair price. Platform’s other two owners, Justin Carson and Paul Benner, objected, arguing that Yasaki was attempting to acquire “trade secrets” which would be used against Platform when he began his new venture. The case was settled in 2016, but Yasaki declined
to discuss terms. After leaving Platform, Yasaki worked part-time at Market Garden. “Shaun applied for a job while [Noble Beast] was in the works,” McNulty told Scene. “I felt bad, but we just needed cellar work — you know, cleaning and sanitation.” So the former brewmaster at Platform was scrubbing tanks for the competition. There was an obvious takeaway for one local brewer, who asked that his name not be used because of the sensitive situation. “You’ve gotta spend more time on this — what your former brewer is doing,” he said, of Platform, “and less time and money on marketing or whatever.”
PLATFORM BREWERY ARRIVED IN MAY, 2014, just before the return of LeBron James and just after Positively Cleveland had rebranded as Destination Cleveland. The visitors bureau was heavily promoting its gritty, millennial-centered #thisiscleveland campaign, and tourism was soaring — or at least it would be soon. Platform was the sudsy crest of the Cleveland Renaissance wave. It
instantly became a representative beer, a representative brand, of the New Cleveland. This was memorialized in an early branding partnership with the Cleveland Clothing Company; remember those New Cleveland Palesner cans? Platform’s industrial tastingroom was modeled after those on the West Coast. And indeed, its founders embraced with zest the rhetoric and corporate ethos of Silicon Valley. “We are young entrepreneurs,” Platform’s Paul Benner, who is 34, told Scene over coffee at Jack Flaps. “We’re hungry, we’re aggressive, we’re doing things completely different than what’s been standard in the Cleveland market.” Platform’s business model and its branding were intentionally oppositional. Not confrontational, exactly, but radically different. And as Benner noted, it had been six years since Fat Head’s had hit shelves. The market seemed ready, if not randy, for a new local product produced and sold “at a decent scale.” (Both Market Garden and Westlake’s Sibling Revelry Brewing Co. have moved into distribution since.) “We positioned ourselves as
this very collaborative, home-brew inspired, experimental brewery,” Benner said. “We just were looking at what was there, filling those niches, and knowing that the market was ready to embrace us.” And yet, local brewers look upon Platform with curiosity. Without saying that they’re worried about its prospects — given the question of brewery survival — some brewers question Platform’s methods more than the other new breweries in town. “I think it’s fair that people are gonna have eyes on us,” Benner said. “We’re younger and have grown at a substantial rate. We understand that, which is why we make investments in quality control, in the type of equipment that we use, in all of these processes so people know that if people are paying attention to us, we’re giving them a consistent product they’re gonna have a good experience with.” In three key areas, Platform has been plumbing new and risky depths: 1) Distribution: Platform expanded to its current distribution model just six months after opening, an interval that some
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local brewers regarded not only as aggressive, but insane. This looked to them like a rapid growth strategy that called into question the primacy of product quality. Market Garden, by contrast, brewed beer on-site-only for four years before expanding into bottling and distribution. This is, in some respects, an unfair comparison. Benner said that distribution was Platform’s goal “from day 1” because they knew it wouldn’t be generating revenue from a “massive restaurant.” Platform’s biggest twist, though, was keeping everything inhouse. The “typical arrangement,” said Benner, is that breweries hire third-party distributing companies to pick up their product, store it, sell it and deliver it. The brewery’s job begins and ends with production. “What Platform does is we brew our own beer, we warehouse our own beer in cold storage, we sell our own beer with our own sales team, and then we deliver that beer with our own fleet of trucks.” You’ve seen them: the White Ford Transits that look like Platform cans. This allows them to be “nimble,” Benner said; they’re not beholden to brewing schedules or distributor approval. “A lot of times, we will can a product and deliver it on the same day,” he said. “One of the obvious benefits is that it allows us to have personal relationships with buyers.” 2) Beer styles: The standard brewery model is to invest time and energy in building up core brands: Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s longtime year-round quartet of Dortmunder, Edmund FitzGerald, Eliot Ness, and Burning River, and the fiendishly sought-after Christmas Ale, are the best examples. Fat Head’s awardwinning Head Hunter IPA and its distinctive Bumble Berry Blueberry Ale are others. They’re the ones you see most often on tap at local bars. They’ve become popular for readily identifiable reasons: They’re good, they’re consistent, and they’re recognizable. You might not know much about the Brew Kettle in Strongsville, for
instance, but you’ve probably heard of (and probably love) White Rajah. (That beer was voted No. 1 in a blind taste test of 116 IPAs in the country by Paste Magazine.) Platform isn’t interested in that. “We always said, we were never just gonna pump two beers into the market as far as we can,” Benner said. “In our opinion, we’re where the market is going. The craft beer buyer would rather buy something that they’ve never tried than their favorite beer. We very rarely make the same beer over again. We’ve got 12 tanks, 22 beers on draft, and probably 20 of those we’ve never made [before] and we’ll never make again. We’ve been training our customers to expect variety.” Among brewers, this is Platform’s most striking philosophical departure. “That’s one way to do it,” said Joel Warger, a Great Lakes alum who is now the head brewer at the new Goldhorn Brewery on East 55th Street. “But it’s not how I would do it.” Ben Keene, the editor of BeerAdvocate magazine, said he’s heard of Platform, but like others in the national beer community, Keene confirmed that Fat Head’s is the local brewery with the hottest reputation across the country. Hoof Hearted Brewing, north of Columbus, he says, has the hottest name. (Say it.) Keene also said that while Ohio has been “under the radar” as a state with a vibrant beer culture, Cincinnati (for what it’s worth) is “on fire.” He unintentionally echoed Warger when asked about Platform’s business model: “I’m not sure if I personally think it’s a great long-term strategy,” he said. “But it’s certainly a strategy. I’ve seen this same approach more than a few times around the country and people are making headway with it. If you’re aiming for that younger demographic — the under-30 group — they really do seem to want something new every time. There isn’t a lot of brand loyalty. And there is something fun, I guess, about being able to talk about a
“I think it’s fair that people are gonna have eyes on us, we’re younger and have grown at a substantial rate.”
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Photo by Sam Allard
FEATURE
Fresh kegs at Goldhorn
beer that you’ve never had before and share it on social media. “This type of brewery is often run by younger brewers and business people and they’re attracted to the hype and the popularity. It can bring in local traffic for sure, and it can get people to come back, but if Platform wants to have cans in grocery stores or on liquor store shelves … those people don’t want to deal with inventory that is never, ever the same. It’s much harder to communicate whatever wacky fruit extract you’ve got in your beer this week under the fluorescent lights of Kroger.” This is an important caveat, but its impact seems to have been diminished in the Cleveland market because of Platform’s third disruptive maneuver: 3) “Marketing or whatever”: More than any other local brewery, Platform has blitzed Cleveland with its branding — trucker hats, T-shirts, decals. Even the can design is the product of an oppositional marketing approach. “There was this trend of crazy cans,” Benner said, “very artistic cans. So we said, let’s do the opposite. Let’s be very minimalistic.
16
And let’s use white. White is bare, so it stands out because of the absence of all that.” And while it may seem like Platform wants it both ways, the experimentation optimized for a wacky local brewpub and the revenue generated from an aggressive regional distribution model — Platform set up a tasting room in Columbus in December, by the way — Benner told Scene that in the fi nal analysis, the beer Platform makes or has made does not exclusively constitute the brand. “Our connection with our end user — our logo, our branding — is not necessarily about creating consumers who are loyal to a beer style,” Benner said. “We want them to love Platform. We want consumers that, because they love us and trust our brand, whatever we put out, they’re willing to give it a try. [Justin Carson and I] have both run businesses before this. We wouldn’t go into this saying we’re just gonna focus on production and not care about marketing. But we don’t just care about marketing without caring about production either. Production is always gonna be important to what we do, but we want to be cool. We want people to
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
love us. It’s not one or the other.” Benner suggested that the next batch of Cleveland breweries are more likely to succeed if they share some of these attributes. “It’s a cool opportunity for this new wave who think differently, who haven’t been trained in a production setting or haven’t learned to brew only in a certain way, who are pushing the envelope of experimentation. Those are gonna be the most interesting breweries, not the places with a guy that’s been working at a brewery for 15 years and opening his own place.” So what about Great Lakes? Are they just your grandfather’s beer? “I didn’t say that,” said Benner, smiling.
“IT’S INTERESTING,” GREAT LAKES’ BREWMASTER MARK HUNGER said, with the same caution and restraint demonstrated by his former Great Lakes colleagues, when asked about Platform’s novel approach. “But it’s defi nitely not the route Great Lakes has taken or would ever take. It actually sounds pretty volatile.” Still, Hunger professed optimism about the brewery explosion writ
large. Having new breweries around is good for the industry, and good for Great Lakes, he said, because it adds variety and encourages innovation. He, like other local brewers, tends to subscribe to the “rising tides raise all ships” school. He also rejected the idea that Great Lakes was a hidebound company pumping out the same old brews year after year. Just because Great Lakes values its core beers, he said, doesn’t mean they don’t dabble outside the lines. “We do a ton of experimentation with our seasonals,” he told Scene. “But that experimentation happens in the pub,” Marissa DeSantis, of GLBC’s marketing department, chimed in whilst sipping on an Oatmeal Stout. “We’re not going to put anything out [in distribution] that doesn’t represent Great Lakes well. If that’s the first beer someone tries, we want them to know that it’s part of a larger portfolio of beers they can trust.” When asked about whether the number of breweries — the increased competition — might hurt the chances of survival for a new place, Hunger said that in Ohio City, it’s only been a good thing.
| clevescene.com m | February 1 - 7, 2017
17
FEATURE
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“It brings more people down here,� he said. “The only change from an operations standpoint is that we’ve added more tours.� The “brewery district� has helped all the breweries in the neighborhood, DeSantis added. “In the past, people may have come to visit Great Lakes. Now, they come to visit all the breweries.� It begs the question of how breweries in less trafficked districts will fare. Shaun Yasaki said he’s not worried about his location on Lakeside and East 14th. Like others, he’s convinced that if he makes a good product, consumers will come. Joel Warger, at Goldhorn, feels similarly, but said it might take a year or more before the new brewery at East 55th becomes a success. People still need convincing, Warger said, that a 10-minute car ride (a $6 to $8 Uber fare from downtown or inner-ring neighborhoods) isn’t a huge commitment. Despite location questions, Hunger agreed that quality was paramount in the question of brewery survival. And he knows a thing or two about quality control. He was brought on in 1997 — hired, in fact, by Market Garden’s Andy Tveekrem — when Great Lakes was a wee 15,000-barrel system. He’d graduated from college with a science background, and Great Lakes was looking for someone to lead their quality control division. Hunger said they were investing in instruments to conduct microbiological tests earlier in their development than most other breweries, but he also said that investments in quality control infrastructure are variable. At any rate, he remembered that era fondly. “Back then, it’s not like we had titles,� Hunger said. “I’d maybe spend the morning getting something going in the lab, and then spend the afternoon on the production line, and then a couple hours with a brew. We were all doing a little bit of everything.� Great Lakes is likely the brewery to which Paul Benner referred when he spoke of brewers setting out on their own after working “at a brewery� for 15 years. And it’s true that GLBC has functioned more or less as a farm system for regional brewing talent. In October, on the Thursday of Cleveland Beer Week, Great
Lakes hosted an alumni dinner at Hofbrauhaus where some of the company’s most distinguished former brewers were honored by the brewery that gave them their start. Andy Tveekrem was there. Goldhorn’s Joel Warger was too, as were GLBC’s Luke Purcell (who will soon begin a new venture with Zack Bruell in the Flats) and Mark Hunger, Thirsty Dog’s Tim Rastetter and Hofbraushaus’ Josh Jones. “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that kind of camaraderie,� said Marissa DeSantis. “It’s not just lip service.� But the kumbaya and collaboration of the industry isn’t necessarily shared by consumers. Throughout interviews for this piece, brewers often wondered why the local impulse is to roll eyes or get annoyed at the number of openings. Many pointed to other cities and states with vastly more breweries; Cleveland’s about a decade behind, one brewer guessed. Statewide, with 1.7 breweries per 100,000 people, and a grand total of 143, Ohio ranks 27th in the nation for brewery density. Vermont, with 9.4 breweries per 100,000 (total of 44), is No. 1. There’s still a long way to go before Northeast Ohio again approaches McNulty’s “brewery on every corner� utopia — in 1910, for example, Cleveland had 26 breweries operating within its boundaries — but the brewpub business model is becoming more attractive to restaurateurs in Cleveland and in the suburbs. In Cleveland Heights, the former Lemon Grass on Lee will soon be occupied by Boss Dog brewery. In Willoughby, the Willoughby Brewing Co. founder is set to open Brim Kitchen & Brewery this week. In Lakewood, Birdtown Brewery has been receiving equipment shipments and could open as early as this fall. They all contribute to a tapestry of local beer that is served well by diverse geographic and stylistic offerings. “This is an exciting time,� said Paul Benner. “Out west, there really are breweries on every corner. In Cleveland, there’s a bar on every corner. There’s no reason in my mind that even a small percentage of those couldn’t be converted into brewpubs.�
sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard
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| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
everything you should do this week
GET OUT
Photo by Jorge Rios
WED
02/01
SPORTS
Cavs vs. Minnesota Timberwolves The young stars on the Minnesota Timberwolves — forward Andrew Wiggins and center Karl-Anthony Towns — represent some of the best new talent that’s come into the NBA in the past couple of years. While their team’s losing record might not reflect it, Wiggins and Towns make the Timberwolves a tough team to beat. The Cavs will have their hands full when they take them on tonight at 7 at the Q. Tickets start at $14. (Jeff Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, theqarena.com.
COMEDY
Michael Kosta A former tennis player who made an attempt to go pro, comedian Michael Kosta likes to joke that he was once ranked No. 864 in the world of professional tennis. We’re guessing that still means he was pretty damn good. Kosta, who has a long list of TV and late-night talk show credits on his resume, generally takes a cordial tone in his routines. But he also likes to get in fans’ faces, especially if they spend too much time texting during his set. He performs tonight at 8 at Hilarities, where he has shows scheduled through Saturday. Tickets are $23 to $28. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.
Comedian Steven Wright brings his deadpan humor back to Playhouse Square. See: Friday.
MUSIC
CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program For nearly all of its 100-year history, the Cleveland Museum of Art has presented music from around the world, making its annual Performing Arts series part of a long tradition. Tonight’s performance features a CIM/ CWRU Joint Music Program with artists from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University’s early and baroque music programs. The musicians will present a mixed program of chamber music; the concerts regularly feature instruments from the museum’s keyboard collection. Tonight’s concert takes place in the museum’s galleries beginning at 6 p.m.; the series continues on the first Wednesday of the month through May. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. FILM
Groundhog Day Bill Murray portrays a TV reporter who finds himself reliving the same day over and over in the comedy classic Groundhog Day. The film screens tonight at 7 at the Capitol Theatre as part of the Cleveland Cinemas’ Reel Science series. Michelle Leighty, a wildlife resources manager, will introduce the film and lead a discussion. Tickets are $7.50, or $5 for Cleveland Cinemas Marquee Rewards members. (Niesel) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com. SPOKEN WORD
Keep Talking Keep Talking is an exciting storytellers program where locals can share their real-life experiences on
FRI
02/03
HOME AND GARDEN
a theme. The series offers attendees the chance to grab a drink and a dog while listening to some of their Cleveland neighbors tell tall tales. The theme for tonight’s event is “Dating.” It starts at 8 p.m. at the Happy Dog. Admission is $5. (Niesel) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com. ART
The Sauroktonos from Praxiteles to Charles Ray In 2004, the Cleveland Museum of Art acquired an ancient bronze statue that’s been swamped in controversy throughout its existence. From contending governmental ownership claims and disagreements over its Greco-Roman origin to an evolving understanding of its message, the statue — known as “Apollo the LizardSlayer” — now includes Cleveland as a chapter in its complex history. Dr. Jenifer Neils, a distinguished professor of classics at CWRU and former member of the CMA’s curatorial staff, brings its story to life in a lecture today at 4:30 p.m. at Tinkham Veale University Center Ballroom on the CWRU campus. Admission is free, and a reception will follow. Registration is recommended; you can do that on the website. (Lawrence Neil) 11038 Bellflower Rd., 216-368-5681, humanities.case.edu. FILM
Wondrous Boccaccio Set in Italy in the 1300s, Wondrous
Boccaccio centers on 10 young Italians who leave Florence in the attempt to escape a plague. They head to the countryside where they entertain each other with funny stories. The movie makes its Cleveland theatrical debut tonight at 6:45 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it also shows at the same time on Friday night. Tickets are $9, or $7 for CMA members, seniors and students. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
THU
02/02
ART
Art Therapy Thursday Come to Spaces tonight for Art Therapy Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. During these monthly gettogethers, Spaces invites the public to get inspired by the experimental art projects currently on view in its galleries, create original artwork and connect with the wider community. A $5 admission fee covers the cost of supplies, and all materials are provided. At least five reservations are required for the class to be held. So interested parties are asked to please RSVP by calling 216-791-9303 or emailing mepps@spacesgallery.org. Additional Art Therapy Thursdays happen on the first Thursday of every month though Jan. 4, 2018. (Josh Usmani) 2900 Detroit Ave., 216-621-2314, spacesgallery.org.
The 2017 Great Big Home + Garden Show The 2017 Great Big Home + Garden Show that kicks off today at the I-X Center features more than 600 exhibits. Something like 1,000 experts will be on hand to discuss the various ways you can improve your living space as springtime arrives. The show includes a fully constructed 6,200-square-foot Ultimate Smart Home and a private dock that comes complete with a space for a kayak. Kortney Wilson, the co-host and lead designer of HGTV’s hit TV show, “Masters of Flip,” will be on hand as will “Income Property” host Scott McGillivray, fashion icon Kathy Ireland and “Room by Room” co-host Matt Fox. The Garden Showcase will feature movie-themed gardens created by some of Northeast Ohio’s top landscapers. The event continues through Feb. 12; today’s hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets are $15. (Niesel) 1 I-X Center Dr., 216-676-6000, greatbighomeandgarden.com. MUSIC
Lucas Debargue in Recital Deciding that French pianist Lucas Debargue gave the best performance at the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition, the Moscow Music Critics Association awarded him their prize as a way of compensating for Debargue’s fourthplace finish. The association described him as “the pianist … whose incredible gift, artistic vision and creative freedom have impressed the critics as well as the audience.” Tonight, the | clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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GET OUT pianist makes his Cleveland debut at 8 p.m. in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall. Tickets start at $39. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com. ART
Lunch on Fridays Spend your lunch hour today being inspired by internationally renowned photographer David Hilliard. A finearts photographer, Hilliard earned his MFA from Yale University in 1994, after receiving his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1992. His work has been exhibited extensively, with solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. and around the world. Known for his large-scale, panoramic, multi-paneled imagery, Hilliard guides the viewer’s eye across his sprawling compositions. Learn more about Hilliard, his work, career and life at 12:15 p.m. today at Lunch on Fridays, a free public program at the Cleveland Institute of Art. As always, free pizza and beverages are available on a first-come, first-served basis. (Josh Usmani) 11141 East Blvd., 216-421-7000, cia.edu.
Hockey Rocks Night, and the Monsters celebrate their 10th anniversary. The first 10,000 fans receive an exclusive T-shirt. Tickets to both games start at $10. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, theqarena.com. SPOKEN WORD
Open Projector Night You’ve heard of “open mic night,” right? But how about “open projector night”? MOCA’s ongoing series
OPEN NOW through MARCH 9th
New at thE RocK hAll
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus Live! Based on The New York Times No. 1 best-selling book of the past decade, the Off-Broadway hit comedy Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus offers light-hearted comedy as it explores the gender differences that emerge when men and women try to have relationships. A one-man, 90-minute fusion of theater and standup, tonight’s touring performance takes place at 8 at the Hanna Theatre in Playhouse Square, where additional performances take place tomorrow at 4 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $59. (Niesel) 2067 East 14th St., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
Showing JAnuary 30th – July 4th
Two New Exhibitions This week, BAYarts presents two new exhibitions in its galleries. The Diane Boldman Education Gallery hosts an exhibition of student work by longtime BAYarts’ instructor Susan Gray Be. Meanwhile, the Sullivan Family Gallery hosts Interiors, a group exhibition of 10 women artists exploring both the physical interior spaces we create, as well as the psychological interiors of ourselves. Inspired by Woody Allen’s film, Interiors, the exhibit includes work in a variety of media. Both exhibitions open with a reception from 7 to 9 tonight and remain on view through March 1. Admission is free. (Usmani) 28795 Lake Rd., Bay Village, 440-871-6543, bayarts.net. COMEDY
Sheryl Underwood Since becoming the first female finalist in the Miller Lite Comedy Search in 1989, Sheryl Underwood’s comedy career has taken off. Underwood’s language is colorful yet not overly vulgar. She covers plenty of racy material and likes to crack jokes about how screwed up relations between men and women can be. Since 2011, she’s been a host on the daytime TV show The Talk. She performs tonight at 7:30 and 10 and tomorrow night at 7 and 9:30 at the Improv. Tickets are $30. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com. NIGHTLIFE
Northeast Ohio! Get almost 20% off of a Rock Hall general admission ticket at the box office. Must show a valid ID with ZIP code beginning with 440, 441, 442 or 443.
SPORTS
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life and observations of the world — like how he thinks state troopers are in fact ninjas. He likes to keep things upbeat and fast paced while he is on stage, never letting up with jokes and always keeping the crowd laughing. Sanders performs tonight at 7:30 and 9:30 and tomorrow night at 7 and 9:30 at Hard Rock Rocksino’s Club Velvet. Tickets are $10 to $15. (Martin Harp) 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7771, hrrocksinonorthfieldpark.com. ART
THEATER
Monsters vs. Iowa Wild The Monsters, our beloved minor league hockey team, had a rough couple of weeks in January. In the month’s first week, the team lost three of four; its one win came in a shootout. Tonight at 7, the team aims to get back on track against the Iowa Wild. The two teams face off again at 7 p.m. tomorrow. Tonight is 3-21 Fridays, so there will be $1 Pepsi products, $2 Sugardale hot dogs and $3 beers. Saturday’s game is Cleveland
to the night’s lineup on a firstcome, first-served basis until the 60-minute limit is reached. (See the website for details on submissions.) Admission is “pay what you can,” with a $5 suggested donation. (It’s free for MOCA Cleveland members.) Film screenings begin at 8 p.m. The films are uncensored and not pre-screened, so viewer discretion is advised. (Usmani) 11400 Euclid Ave., 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org.
1100 Rock and Roll Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44114 | rockhall.com | 216.781.ROCK
encourages local filmmakers to bring their short films to the museum for a screening, providing an opportunity for experts and novices to gather and review new shorts in an open mic-style setting. Films must be no longer than 10 minutes and provided on a flash drive. Films will be added
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
COMEDY
Darren “DS” Sanders Known as the “the man with many faces” because his facial expressions are just as descriptive as his words, comedian Darren “DS” Sanders is one fun act to watch. Sanders has a routine that mainly centers around his daily
Winter Wines & Chocolate Part of the Adult Swim series, tonight’s Winter Wines & Chocolate event at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium will provide patrons with the opportunity to sample 28 “wintery” wines. Attendees can also sample seven chocolate treats, which will be paired with a wine. Confirmed vendors include Lilly’s Handmade Chocolates, Sweet Bean and Sugar Bomb Confections. The event, which takes place from 7 to 10 p.m., will benefit the Splash Fund and feature the Spotted Turtle program. Tickets are $40, $30 for pass holders
and $20 for designated drivers. (Niesel) 2000 Sycamore St., 216-862-8803, greaterclevelandaquarium.com. COMEDY
Steven Wright Few comics can deliver a deadpan line like Steven Wright can. A veteran comic whose career stretches back decades, the frizzy-haired Wright relies on observational humor. “Some people are afraid of heights. I’m afraid of widths,” he likes to joke. And when the restaurant sign reads “Breakfast Anytime,” he jokes he would order “eggs, during the French Renaissance.” Half the time, his laconic delivery makes the simple-minded jokes work. He performs tonight at 8 at the Ohio Theatre. Tickets are $45 to $65. (Niesel) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
SAT
02/04
COMEDY
Amateur Comedy Contest Comedy Shit Show, the promoter of tonight’s Amateur Comedy Contest at Now That’s Class, promises a night of “heckling, hilarity, heavy drinking and some good old rivalry.” Comedy Shit Show ringmaster Mike Strenk hosts and Cleveland comedians Mike Polk Jr., Sam Klima (of Hilarities) and Tony Erba will judge. Each contestant gets three to four minutes to “wow” the crowd and impress the judges. The winner will recieve $100 cash, and the runnerup gets $25 cash. All contestants must sign up prior to the event. Tickets for the general public cost $5. The contest begins at 9. (Niesel) 11213 Detroit Ave., 216-221-8576, nowthatsclass.net. FILM
The Dark Knight A fixture at the Cedar Lee Theatre since 2006, Cleveland Cinemas’ Late Shift series features screenings of the nostalgic cult and camp cinema that we love and cherish even though it’s certainly not Oscar-worthy material. The series continues tonight with a screening of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the Batman comic. The late Heath Ledger turns in a fabulous performance as the Joker, and actor Christian Bale brings an intensity to the role of Batman. The movie screens at 9:30 and midnight tonight and at 7 tomorrow night at the Cedar Lee Theatre. Tickets are $6. (Niesel) 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5411, clevelandcinemas.com.
ART
Free First Saturday Thanks to a gift from PNC, admission to MOCA Cleveland is free on the first Saturday of each month. Stop by from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today to view MOCA’s new winter/spring 2017 exhibitions, including Adam Pendleton’s largest solo museum show to date, Lisa Oppenheim’s first solo show in the United States, and a site-specific sound installation, Transport Empty, by artists Zarouhie Abdalian and Joseph Rosenzweig. These exhibitions remain on view through May 14. Today you can see them for free. (Usmani) 11400 Euclid Ave., 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org. MARKET
Frostville Winter Farmer’s Market Finding a good farmer’s market in the dead of winter ain’t easy. That’s why we find Frostville’s Farmers Market so appealing. Located in North Olmsted, at the Frostville Museum in the Rocky River Metroparks’ Reservation, the lineup includes local farmers, artisans and speciality food vendors. Expect to find seasonal vegetables, honey, eggs, organic cheese, tea, wine, soaps, jewelry and assorted crafts. It takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today in the museum’s barn. (Niesel) 24101 Cedar Point Rd., North Olmsted, 330-592-6518, frostvillefarmersmarket.com. FUNDRAISER
Hot Chocolate Fundraiser Founded by motivated neighbors more than 45 years ago, Chagrin Falls’ Valley Art Center offers 400 classes annually to more than 1,400 students, as well as presenting group and individual exhibitions of local artists in its gallery. Celebrate the organization and its efforts this weekend by attending its annual Hot Chocolate fundraiser. The event includes dinner, drinks, dessert (including a specialty dessert drink), dancing and a silent art auction. Emceed by the Chagrin Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Molly Gebler, the event also honors longtime Valley Art Center supporters Jan Mettee, Lois Salmon Toole and David Toole. Tickets are $100 per person ($50 tax deductible) on the website. Cocktail attire is suggested, and complimentary valet parking is available. The Hot Chocolate benefit takes place from 6 to 10 tonight at the Chagrin Valley Athletic Club. (Usmani) 17260 Snyder Rd., Chagrin Falls, 440-247-7507, valleyartcenter.org. FILM
Rocky Horror Picture Show It’s the first Saturday of the month, so tonight the Cedar Lee Theatre will host
WJW.CLEVELAND
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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GET OUT a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the 1975 film that still draws an exuberant, costumed crowd that likes to throw rice and dry toast and sing along to the songs in the movie. Tickets are $9.50. (Niesel) 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5411, clevelandcinemas.com. DANCE
Shen Yun The visually dazzling Shen Yun is a truly unique performance troupe that brings to life 5,000 years of Chinese civilization through classical Chinese, folk and story-based dance. Shen Yun was founded in 2006 to revive ancient Chinese culture, which had been nearly destroyed by the Chinese communist government. Now with four companies, Shen Yun has given more than 400 performances in more than 100 cities around the world. (Ironically, the dance troupe has yet to perform in China or Hong Kong.) Expect beautiful, vibrant costumes and exotic music you won’t hear anywhere else. Performances take place at 2 and 7 p.m. today and at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the State Theatre. Tickets are $70 to $150. (Kaitlin Siegel) 1519 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000,
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playhousesquare.org. ART
Make Your Own Sketchbook Why buy a new journal or sketchbook when you can create your own? This weekend, the Morgan Conservatory hosts a workshop teaching attendees how to create their own softcover journals and sketchbooks. Taught by Cleveland-based artist Kyle Holland, the workshop introduces the fundamentals of bookbinding and the tools and techniques to make highquality softcover books. Learn how to fold paper, punch holes and sew with the proper tension to make both pamphlets and multi-section books. Beyond the basics, Holland will discuss how to embellish the books with enhancements such as exposed sewing and decorative spine reinforcement. At the end of the two-day workshop, participants will leave with at least three books and the knowledge to create many more. Holland studied printmaking, papermaking and book arts at Memphis College of Art and supplemented his studies through a scholarship for advanced studies in book arts at the New York Center for Book Arts. The workshop takes place today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The cost is $150, and no prior experience is required. For a
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
complete supply list, visit the Morgan Conservatory website. (Usmani) 1754 East 47th St., 216-361-9255, morganconservatory.org. SPOKEN WORD
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Deconstructing the Early Beatles A composer and producer who started putting together Beatles lectures in 2011 to entertain his musician friends, Scott Freiman started listening to the Fab Four when he was 11 years old. The Beatles provided Freiman, a classically trained pianist, his first exposure to rock ’n’ roll, and he immediately shifted his focus. Today at 1:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Freiman presents Yeah! Yeah! Deconstructing the Early Beatles, a multi-media event about how the Fab Four first formed. Tickts are $20, or $15 for CMA members, seniors and students. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
SUN
02/05
COMEDY
Cleveland Improv Jam The Angry Ladies of Improv has hosted the Cleveland Improv Jam for four years now. A few years back,
Scene described the show as “fierce, formidable and very funny.” The event begins with a shortform set of improv games, followed by a longform improv set. It begins at 5 p.m. at Coffee Phix. Arrive early if you want to sign up and perform. Admission is free. (Niesel) 4485 Mayfield Rd., South Euclid, 216-381-5706, coffeephixcafe.com. FILM
Portrait of a Garden Rosie Stapel directs Portrait of a Garden, a 2015 film about a Dutch gardener and his pruning master. The two discuss everything from the weather to fruits and vegetables in this documentary that chronicles their work and their team of gardeners during a period of four seasons. The movie makes its Cleveland premiere today at 1:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets are $9, or $7 for CMA members, students and seniors. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. SPOKEN WORD
Roll Up! Deconstructing the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour Beatles fanatic Scott Freiman returns to the Cleveland Museum of Art today to present yet another Beatlesthemed multi-media presentation. This
Presented by SCENE & THE 9
VODKA VODKA Presented by Scene Magazine and The 9, Vodka Vodka returns for its fourth year as Cleveland’s premier vodka tasting party. Enjoy local cuisine, inventive cocktails and dance the night away. Vodka enthusiasts and vodka-curious will join us on March 11th at The 9 from 7-10p (VIP 6p) to taste an assortment of both local and international vodkas. This annual party will be hotter than ever before, and now includes an exciting hair and fashion element and even more vodkas to sample from! Also enjoy the sweet musical stylings of Cleveland's hottest DJs. Mix it up! Saturday, March 11, 2017 AT THE 9
MARK YOUR CALENDARS March 11 .....................................................................Vodka Vodka March 11 ........................................................ Shamrock Bar Crawl May 13..................................................... Best of Cleveland Party May 20-21 .................................................................. Rib Burn Off May 27-28 .......................................................... Taste of Summer July 29................................................................................Ale Fest September 29-October 1............. THE Downtown Oktoberfest October 14-15 .......................................................................MAIZE November 10 ................................................... Whiskey Business December 1 ........................................................Holiday Bar Blast December 14 .................................................................... FLAVOR *Dates and events subject to change F I N D O U T A B O U T T H E S E E V E N T S A N D M O R E AT C L E V E S C E N E T I C K E T S . C O M | clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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time, he turns his attention to the Fab Four’s later years with Roll Up! Deconstructing the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. He’ll closely examine the making of the band’s 1967 album, Magical Mystery Tour, and dissect songs such as “I Am the Walrus” and “The Fool on the Hill.” The presentation begins at 1:30 p.m., and tickets are $20, or $15 for CMA members, seniors and students. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
MON
02/06
BRUNCH
MARDI GRAS CRAWL Saturday, February 25th 12 pm - 5pm
[
Event Check-in: 12 pm - 2 pm After Party: 5 pm - 7pm
[
Tickets $10
(plus processing fees)
TICKETS ON SALE NOW! Proceeds benefit H.E.L.P.
flatseastbank.com Presented by :
Alley Cat Oyster Bar / Aloft Hotel–WXYZ / Beerhead Big Bang Dueling Pianos / Bold Food and Drink / Coastal Taco Flip Side / Lago / Magnolia / Punch Bowl Social
Partners:
*Must be 21 or older with ID for entry. Tickets are non-refundable; event will occur regardless of weather conditions. Portions of the event will be held outside, so please plan appropriately. While supplies last. Trip rules and regulations available at event check-in.
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| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
Industry Brunch Brunch isn’t just a Saturday/Sunday thing. Over at Mahall’s, you can grab a great brunch on Mondays as the club caters to industry folks who have the day off. Not that you have to work in the restaurant industry to indulge. The menu features items such as Chicken and Donuts, a dish that features three pieces of fried chicken along with two Old Hushers doughnuts. Other staples include the Everything Pretzel and the Creamy Egg Sandwich. A live DJ from WCSB will be on hand to spin cool tunes too. It runs from noon to 4. (Niesel) 13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-521-3280, mahalls20lanes.com. NIGHTLIFE
Wing Ding Doodle Blues icon Howlin’ Wolf famously covered “Wang Dang Doodle,” the old blues tune penned by Willie Dixon. Prosperity Social Club in Tremont has adopted that slogan, calling its wing night Wing Ding Doodle. The weekly event features specials on Buffalo wings and cold brews. Prosperity will not only serve up substantial, $1 whole wings, but it’ll also offering meatless Monday “wing” baskets for vegans. Wing Ding Doodle takes place from 6 p.m. to midnight. (Niesel) 1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-9371938, prosperitysocialclub.com.
TUE
02/07
MUSIC
Classical Revolution Cleveland Today, and the first Tuesday of every month, Classical Revolution Cleveland brings its wide array of chamber music to Happy Dog. Performers like the Trepanning Trio, Anime Duo, students of Cleveland Institute of Music and even Cleveland Orchestra members grace the stage in these exciting
concerts. Tonight’s free, all-ages performance starts at 8. (Patrick Stoops) 11625 Euclid Ave., 216-231-5400, Saturday FILM
Ghost in the Shell Ghost in the Shell, a 1995 anime science fiction film, follows a cyborg policewoman and her partner in 2029 as they try to catch a powerful hacker named the Puppet Master. The subtitled version of the film shows at 7:30 tonight at the Cedar Lee Theater. Regular admission rates apply. (Elizabeth Manno) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com. SPOKEN WORD
Happy Dog Takes on the World Happy Dog Takes on the World features local experts talking about issues of national and international significance. Tonight’s talk centers on the rise of populism, both in the States and throughout the globe. Richard M. Perloff, a communication professor at Cleveland State, will lead the discussion and WCPN’s Tony Ganzer will moderate. The event is presented in partnership with the City Club of Cleveland, the Cleveland Council on World Affairs, International Partners in Mission and the Northeast Ohio Consortium of Middle East Studies. It starts at 7:30 p.m.; admission is free. (Niesel) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com. FILM
Wayne’s World Based on the Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, the 1992 movie Wayne’s World centers on Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey), two metalheads who broadcast a talk show on local public access television. Directed by Penelope Spheeris (The Decline of Western Civilization), the movie grossed $183 million, making it the 10th highest-grossing film of year and the highest-grossing of the 11 films based on SNL skits. To celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary, SpectiCast and Paramount Pictures will host events tonight at 7 at area theaters, including a screening, an exclusive introduction by film critic Peter Travers and a videotaped chat with the director and cast members. Consult the website for ticket prices and times. (Niesel) waynesworld25.com.
Find more events @clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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ART LOVE STINKS Artifacts from young love serve as fodder for I Can’t Believe How Much I’ve Forgotten About You exhibit By Josh Usmani WITH VALENTINE’S DAY comes the annual onslaught from both those celebrating and those protesting everything to do with the holiday. Though the holiday as it currently exists is a cheap marketing ploy, the emotions can be very real. No matter whether we’re happily in love, freshly heartbroken or awesomely single, this time of year has a way of getting us to celebrate the relationships we have and reflect upon the ones we’ve left behind. Many people have that shoebox full of memories in their closet, filled with old photos, ticket stubs, and handwritten notes. These items become relics of our most important moments, and they’re now the inspiration for a special group art exhibition. A free, one-night-only event at the Magalen art space in Slavic Village, I Can’t Believe How Much I’ve Forgotten About You is a collection of artwork and artifacts remembering, celebrating and mourning young love. The show opens with a reception Saturday, Feb. 4, from 8 to 11 p.m. Local artist and musician Emma Shepard is the curator. Remembering her initial inspiration, Shepard says, “I was reading an old diary from my first three years of high school. I found a lot of cringeworthy journal entries about secret crushes and dates, as well as some emo breakup poetry. I realized I had shoeboxes full of old souvenirs left over from past friendships and love interests. I think when I was younger I anticipated doing a lot more scrapbooking or something, but the joke is on me because I have never touched a scrapbook in my life; and now I have a lot of embarrassing things that I’m going to put on display in a very public setting. I thought that many people probably still have that shoebox that they don’t know why they’ve held onto, so I started thinking it would be interesting to make a pop-up museum of adolescent heartbreak. I guess maybe you hold onto those things for a reason.” Shepard found inspiration for
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the show’s title from a particularly rough journal entry, which came to represent the show’s overall theme. “I was talking about my first boyfriend, who I had only dated for two weeks,” says Shepard. “I wrote, ‘Two weeks ago, you meant so much to me. I can’t believe how much can change in two weeks. I can’t believe how much I have forgotten about you.’ It was a very serious journal entry at the time but it makes me roll my eyes super hard now. That line sort of captured what I wanted from the show: moments where you look back and simultaneously want to tell yourself it’s all going to be okay and kick yourself.” Contributing artists include Molly
among others. “My goal is for anyone attending to feel a twinge of nostalgia mixed with, ‘I’m really glad that time in my life is over,’” Shepard says. “Visitors can expect a variety of artwork that will either make them laugh or sob in recognition. What surprised me is that this started off as light-hearted, but a lot of the pieces are deeply sad. I love the range of emotions in the show and I think every person participating did a great job submitting pieces that are very relatable, whether it captures how you felt at 16 or how you feel now. I also really want people to get out to the Magalen because it’s such a beautiful space!”
I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW MUCH I’VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU The Magalen, 5203 Fleet Ave., 216-302-8621
Soda, KC Green, Katy Kosman, Emma Pavlik, Arfil Pajarillaga, Emily Poor, Christine Petersilge, Maggie Duff, Nicole Yim, Evan Fusco, Phoebe Thomas, Alec Schumann and Willow Hawks,
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
The Magalen opened last May as a 12,000-square-foot, multi-purpose arts venue. Built more than 100 years ago, the two-story building once housed Magalen Furniture. “We acquired the building in 2013
and it lay dormant for three years until we began refurbishing the front show room in March of 2016,” says Benjamin Domzalski, who runs the business in the building his father and business partner, Jeff Domzalski and Chester Cuiksa, respectively, both own. “The Magalen opened coinciding with Rooms to Let in May 2016, and it has since hosted multiple gallery shows, community events and live music.” Shepard comes from a musical family in Kent. Her father owns Time Traveler, an independent record shop in Akron, her mother fronted Akron’s Unit 5 punk band, and her brother is blues guitarist Stompdown Smith. She skipped classes during her junior year of high school to write more than 200 songs. In 2013, she released her first album, Public Displays of Affection. Following this weekend’s event at the Magalen, Shepard plans to shift her focus back to her band Small Wood House.
jusmani@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
STAGE RELEASE THE HOUND! Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles get a comical spin at the Cleveland Play House IT’S ALWAYS HARD TO TELL when a clever idea becomes a genre. But it appears there is a theatrical genre budding that is built around plays where multiple (and often wacky) secondary roles are played by just a couple performers, as they swirl around the “lead” actors. Let’s call it “The Revenge of the Bit Player” genre. Indeed, those playing “supporting roles” in the laboriously titled Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, now at the Cleveland Play House, are pretty much the entire reason to see this show. A trio of talented folks plays all the ancillary characters, as they interact with either Dr. Watson or Sherlock Holmes himself. Their characterizations are at times derivative and not always fully realized, but their antics soar above the frequently pedestrian Ludwig script. This play follows the trail trod by The 39 Steps, a stage parody of the Hitchcock film in which actors playing supporting characters change roles at the flip of a hat or the half-turn of a body. When done energetically and riskily, as it was in The 39 Steps last year at Blank Canvas Theatre, the result is hilarious and at times almost levitating. There are fewer of those moments in this CPH show, due to the fact that director Brendon Fox keeps tight control of the proceedings, sacrificing inspired improvisation for clockwork timing. But for those who haven’t seen this kind of exercise, it serves as a pleasant introduction to a genre that is sure to see more entries in the future. As for Baskerville, it stays quite true to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s source material, The Hound of the Baskervilles. But if you happen to be a devotee of in-depth characterizations of Sherlock Holmes himself, and are fond of renditions by actors such as Basil Rathbone and Benedict Cumberbatch, you may be a bit disappointed, since this is not a Holmes-focused piece. The first scene is delightful as Holmes (a properly stiff and egocentric Rafael Untalan) wields his famous deductive reasoning to identify the owner of a cane that has been left on the premises. Taken to extremes and played for laughs, this scene nicely sets up the tone of proceedings. But
Photo by Roger Mastroianni
By Christine Howey From left to right: Evan Alexander Smith (Actor Two) and Jacob James (Dr. Watson)
after this, Holmes virtually disappears until the end. During most of this show, Sherlock’s trusty aide Dr. Watson (an earnest Jacob James) prowls Baskerville Hall and the adjacent Scottish moors with a gaggle of folks who make up the bulk of the story. Thanks to the quick-change costumes designed by Lex Liang and several hard-working dressers (who get a much-deserved curtain call), it’s easy to keep all the multiple characters straight. It begins when Dr. Mortimer visits 211B Baker Street and informs our intrepid detective duo that Sir Charles Baskerville was found dead, the
they say — is afoot. While Holmes trots off to attend to business elsewhere, Dr. Watson hauls himself off to the casa in question, where he is greeted by the mansion’s servants, who bear a curious resemblance to Igor and Frau Blucher from Young Frankenstein. And this offers a bit of insight as to the playwright’s habits and talents. Setting aside Ludwig’s rather needy insistence on infusing his name into the titles of his shows, he does display skill at weaving 19th century-style language into volleys of ear-pleasing riffs. But his jokes are often predictable or just fall a bit flat. Moreover, Ludwig often lifts comedy ideas from other sources
KEN LUDWIG’S BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY THROUGH FEB. 12 AT THE ALLEN THEATRE, PLAYHOUSE SQUARE, 1407 EUCLID AVE., 216-241-6000. CLEVELANDPLAYHOUSE.COM
victim of a family curse involving a sociopathic pooch. This echoes the death of a forebear, Hugo Baskerville, who met a similar fate. As a result, Mortimer is worried about the safety of Henry Baskerville, Sir Charles’ heir, who is arriving from his home in Texas. At that point the game — as
and weaves them into his core story, which is also borrowed. This leaves to the performers the responsibility of keeping this potentially ponderous theatrical effort airborne. And this they do quite reliably. Tall and lanky Evan Alexander Smith plays numerous
roles including good ol’ boy Henry Baskerville and Inspector Lestrade. Playing some of the female roles, and one young boy, is Nisi Sturgis, and she crafts wonderfully different and distinct characters. Whether she is Beryl Stapleton who is love-struck by Henry or a young London street tough who is helping Holmes and Watson ferret out information, she triggers laughter with her sharp timing. Probably the hardest working actor on stage is Brian Owen, who generates giggles in a galaxy of guises including the sedate Dr. Mortimer; the daft and buxom wife of a hotel owner; the hotel’s fey front desk clerk; the butterfly hunter Jack Stapleton, who is also Beryl’s brother; and others too numerous to mention. Owen often seems on the verge of taking his characters to another, and even funnier, level. But he rarely does, and that’s too bad since plays such as this benefit enormously from skilled actors being given the latitude, and the stage time, to improvise boldly on the characters they create.
scene@clevescene.com t@christinehowey
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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MOVIES A STANDUP STRUGGLES Robert De Niro fails to generate laughs in The Comedian By Jeff Niesel OVER TIME, VETERAN ACTOR Robert De Niro has starred in a slew of comedies. Most recently, he hammed it up with pretty boy Zac Efron in last year’s embarrassingly horrible Bad Grandpa. Now he gives it another go in writer-director Taylor Hackford’s (An Officer and a Gentleman) latest effort, The Comedian. Another misfire for De Niro, the flimsy comedy-drama comes off as a bad Judd Apatow flick. The movie, which opens on Friday at Chagrin Cinemas, seldom generates any good laughs before it becomes incredibly serious in its somber second half. In the opening scene, Jackie Burke (De Niro) and his manager Miller (Edie Falco) show up at some dingy comedy club where Miller has gotten Jackie a gig. A former sitcom star, Jackie takes whatever crappy jobs he can just to make a buck. When a couple of hecklers gets under his skin and begins videotaping his response, he lets them have it and gives the guy making the film a good smack to the nose. The couple presses charges and after pissing off the judge and creating a scene in the courtroom, Jackie has to do some hard time. Thankfully, Hackford doesn’t bore
us with scenes of Jackie interacting with the other prisoners. Rather, Jackie quickly emerges from jail and immediately hits up his brother (Danny DeVito) for a few thousand bucks to hold him over until he gets back on his feet. While doing the community service that’s part of his sentence, Jackie meets Harmony (Leslie Mann), a hothead who has her own anger management issues. The two become friends and have a one-night stand. Again, credit goes to Hackford for not making us endure the tryst. Harmony moves to Florida after her father (Harvey Keitel) convinces her to come work at the retirement center he runs. She stops returning Jackie’s texts and calls. Though he’s been married several times in the past, he doesn’t take it well. So when Jackie winds up in Florida for a gig, he makes an unannounced appearance at her workplace and even puts on an R-rated impromptu show for the old folks there, pissing off Harmony’s father, who isn’t a fan, but helping his comedy career as one bit from the routine goes viral. While Hackford tries to mix comedy and drama, the movie winds up feeling like two different films.
In the one, an older comic’s bad luck reflects the way in which comedy has become a young person’s game. In one satirical scene, Jackie pitches a program to a trendy new channel run by hipster twentysomethings who don’t know much about the entertainment business. In the other film, an old man desperate to find romance toward the end of his life tries to start a relationship with a younger woman. Neither storyline works
particularly well, and De Niro, who delivers his jokes with all the subtlety of Andrew Dice Clay, doesn’t play the part particularly well. Cameos by Hannibal Buress, Jim Norton, Billy Crystal and Gilbert Gottfried give the film an air of authenticity but ultimately fail to redeem it.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
SPOTLIGHT: SCOTT FREIMAN DECONSTRUCTS THE BEATLES A COMPOSER AND PRODUCER WHO STARTED putting together Beatles lectures in 2011 as a way to entertain his musician friends, Scott Freiman started listening to the Fab Four when he was 11 years old. The Beatles provided Freiman, a classically trained pianist, his first exposure to rock ’n’ roll, and he immediately shifted his focus. This week, Freiman makes his fourth visit in six years to the Cleveland Museum of Art. He’ll give two multimedia presentations in which he “examines and analyzes the many innovative songwriting and production techniques used by the Fab Four.” Over the years, his lectures here have drawn a few thousand fans, and the first four talks have recently been videotaped for showings in movie theaters across the country. At 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Freiman will reprise 2013’s Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Deconstructing the Early Beatles. “Everyone knows the Beatles and the Beatles music,” he explains. “This lecture will show how
four teenagers with no musical training become the Beatles. It’s about their early meetings and their first steps into the studio. We go through 1963, ending when they go to America.” Freiman will discuss the birth of songs such as “Please Please Me” and “Love Me Do.” He’ll also talk about what “sponges” the Beatles became. “They soaked up everything and had a tremendous work ethic,” he says. “They had no idea what they were in for when they went to Germany to play in Hamburg. They were essentially just a garage band. They would have to play for hours. They added scores and scores of songs to their sets because they didn’t have enough material. And they were forced to put on a show. In the process, they soak up whatever they can. That seeps into their songwriting. When they got back from Germany, no one recognized them.” Then, at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, he’ll present Roll Up! Deconstructing the Beatles’ Magical
Mystery Tour, a program that skips ahead seven years to the band’s “psychedelic period.” “The Magical Mystery Tour film is actually one of their failures,” says Freiman. “The Beatles felt they could do the movie themselves and rather than hire people who knew what they were doing, the whole thing was poorly planned. It was filmed in color and shown in black and white. People weren’t expecting it. The Beatles had seen avant garde stuff and tried to do something like that and put it on TV. People weren’t prepared. They then gave up touring so that they could reproduce songs in the studio.” Freiman says he’ll deconstruct a song like “I Am the Walrus.” “One of the interesting things about it is the beginning of the song was inspired by the police sirens in England,” he says. “The introduction is a copy of the siren and [John Lennon’s] phrasing even mimics the siren. It’s really fascinating.” Neither of the lectures has been previously recorded or filmed. — Niesel | clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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13603 MADISON AVE. LAKEWOOD
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| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
m-sat 12pm-2am
EAT FRESH CASUAL Munch and Greedy Girl are two small eateries doing things their way By Douglas Trattner
Munch
hummus and summery tabbouleh. Simpler tastes are satisfied by classics like farm fresh egg salad, white tuna salad, house-roasted turkey, and meaty Romanian pastrami on rye. Being in the shadows of Miles Farmers Market has its plusses: The owners shop there daily for the fruits and veggies that go into the smoothies and yogurt parfaits. Of course, since your meal was so healthy, there’s no shame in ordering the strawberry milkshake. Greedy Girl (2158 South Taylor Rd., 216-465-9877), which opened this fall in Cleveland Heights, is a little harder to describe, but no less satisfying. A second career for owner Eustathea Kavouras, the small, colorful shop blends Greek and Indian cuisines under one roof, but not into single, fusion-style items. Those cuisines are divided into separate menu categories, each filled with interesting takes on classic Greek and Indian street foods. Some dishes come across as faithful renditions, like the gyro sandwich ($9.95), which piles flavorful meat (made from ground lamb and pork), onions and tomato into a soft flatbread and douses it with a garlicy yogurt sauce with dill. In the souvlaki ($9.95), marinated and skewered pork is grilled to order and served simply on a pita with fresh veggies and lemon vinaigrette. For her pastitsio meatballs ($8.95), Kavouras packs all the flavors and components of that traditional Greek-style lasagna into spherical form. The deep-fried orbs have it all: pasta, cinnamon-spiced meat
Photos by Emanuel Wallace
AGAINST ALL ODDS, MUNCH managed to survive for close to two decades despite the fact that it was located on the second floor of a fitness complex on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, which enforced a strict prohibition against advertising. The “simple kitchen” began life as Shticks, but eventually changed its name because “only Jewish people could pronounce it,” jokes owner Jamie Hersch. Last year, Munch relocated after 17 years on campus to another clandestine location, this one in the back of the Shoppes of Solon (28500 Miles Rd., Solon, 216-231-0922, munch216.com), near the intersection of Brainard and Miles. They filled the spot left vacant by Organic Energy. “We decided to leave the law school because we were tired of the academic schedule and tired of going broke every summer,” Hersch notes, who runs the place with husband Scott. Despite serving meat, the small independent operation has earned a reputation as one of the best places to go for vegans, vegetarians, or anybody who prefers healthy, freshly prepared foods. Soups ($5), made daily, are always vegetarian, with daily favorites like black bean chili and minestrone (served with toasted pita chips) joining seasonal options like gazpacho. Thanks to a larger footprint and kitchen, Munch has been able to greatly expand its salad offerings, which is great news considering their quality. The Cobb ($9.75) is loaded with romaine, hard-cooked eggs, red onion, avocado, bacon and off-the-bone turkey. The Falafel ($8.75) is a Middle Eastern mashup of baba, tabbouleh, falafel and tahini on the side. The bulk of Munch’s menu is devoted to over-stuffed wraps, melts and sandwiches. That moist and delicious housemade falafel is available in a half-dozen pita sandwiches, all of which include copious amounts of sprouts, tomatoes, peppers and tahini. Julie’s Tabbouleh ($8.50) adds
Munch
and bechamel. They get a garnish of kefalotiri, a firm, salty Greek cheese. On the Indian side, there are handhelds like the Frankie ($7.95) that look familiar but taste anything but. Stuffed into a flaky whole wheat paratha (Indian flatbread) is chicken sauteed with onion, chiles, Indian spices and fresh herbs. If there was a Bombay-style burrito, this would be it. On the side is a small cup of cool, refreshing raita. A take on another Parsi favorite, the sali boti ($7.95) is a sweet, sour and spicy chicken (or tofu or paneer) curry that gets rolled into paratha for easy on-the-go eating. There are surprises all over the menu, like the breakfast-all-day section with Greek omelets rolled in flatbread, Belgian baklava waffles
made with yeast dough, and French toast-style challah sliders. For snacks, there are flash-fried okra fries dusted in spice, Indian-style corn and even the ubiquitous streetfood snack chana chaat, a savory, crunchy nosh of chickpeas, peas, potatoes, crispy noodles, chutney and yogurt. Greedy Girl is “fast” casual, meaning you order, pay and grab a seat. If you’re in a hurry, it’s best to call ahead. If not, grab a flaky spinach-filled spanakopita from the display to snack on while you wait. The operation is open for breakfast and lunch only Wednesday through Sunday.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner | clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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EAT
17070 Pearl Rd. Strongsville, OH 44136 440-878-3868 | ShintoExperience.com
CLEVELAND’S LITTLEST LANDMARK Big love for tiny Charlie’s Dog House Diner by Rachel Hunt
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| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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TAKE A RIGHT WHERE THE Jennings Freeway deadends and it won’t be long until you spot Charlie’s Dog House Diner (2102 Brookpark Rd., 216-661-4873), which marks the border between Cleveland and Parma. The kitschy roadside attraction has been in the exact same spot since 1952, when it began life as the Dog House, part of a national chain of shops that offered walk-up service to customers who ordered hot dogs and hamburgers through a window. Bobbi Malek has owned the establishment for the past 10 years, expanding the menu to include breakfast and lunch. These days you can walk right in and grab a seat atop a red-topped stool at the L-shaped counter. Built by Valentine Manufacturing in Kansas, these pre-fabricated diners were no more than a few hundred square feet, yet still large enough for folks to start their own business venture during the Great Depression. After an early fire, the building was remodeled and a second trailer-size space was added to accommodate dine-in customers. Diner aficionados travel from near and far to take photos of the building, which features a doghouse-like façade that has been impeccably maintained since the early days. Two painted hound dogs look out in either direction from the front door, just beneath a classic Coca-Cola sign and marquee that reads “Charlie’s Restaurant.” “Whoever Charlie was — second or third owner — bought it and changed it,” Malek says. “I think I’m the fourth.” The diner is a family affair, with Malek’s daughter helping out as needed. Prior to owning Charlie’s, she worked for 15 years in the Chevy
plant’s cafeteria. “I bought it sight unseen,” she adds. “I’ve lived in Parma and Cleveland on and off my whole life. My son found it and he called and asked me if I would be interested. I told him, ‘Do what you have to do.’” These days, the clientele still is solidly working class, the burgers still sizzle on the flat top and, though heavily remodeled throughout the decades, the space still is bedecked with numerous retro adornments. Children’s artwork is taped to the white brick walls, illustrating just how many generations truly adore Charlie’s Dog House Diner. The operation still runs much like it would have back in the 1950s, with Malek on the grill and one of her employees tending the counter. You can still get full for less than $10. Neon lights promising Chicagostyle Vienna hot dogs and Charlie’s original waffles attract the early morning crowd before work. Every day of the week, Malek is there cooking from 6:30 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. The eggs Benedict and breakfast burritos are well loved. A list of skillets and omelets, pancakes, burgers, sandwiches and, of course, those famous hot dogs are also on the menu; however most people here are regulars and just ask for “the usual.” Big Jim comes to Charlie’s so often that they’ve dedicated a seat to him, as denoted by a silver plaque affixed to the counter where he resides daily between 6 and 7:30 a.m. He lives nearby, a common distinction among the crowd, pretty much all of whom the owner knows by name.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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EAT MORE NOODLES, PLEASE Japanese-style ramen shop to open in Ohio City this spring
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| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
SCENE
THE INDEPENDENT BAR AND restaurant boom along Lorain Avenue in Ohio City just keeps on going. Soon, a Japanese-style noodle shop will join Platform Beer, The Grocery, Herb’n Twine, the Plum, Jack Flaps and Ohio City Provisions in that part of the neighborhood. Owner Shuxin Liu, a cook of two years at Momocho, will open Xinji Noodle Bar (4211 Lorain Ave.), an ambitious farm-to-bowl eatery in a building being renovated by Doug Perkowski of Cleveland Lofts. When it opens in late March or April, the restaurant will specialize in Japanesestyle ramen, Korean-style fried chicken, smoked chicken wings and steamed buns. “Noodles are my favorite thing,” says Liu. “I’ve wanted to do a noodle bar for six years.” Liu says that each week, he’ll bring in whole pigs to use for the meat, broth and side dishes. The fat-and-gelatinrich pork broth will be supplemented with meat from the belly, shoulder and neck, noodles, and traditional accompaniments like soy egg, scallions, bamboo shoots and wood ear mushrooms. What’s not used for the ramen will be crafted into charcuteriestyle appetizers. In the beginning, the broths will be limited to pork, chicken and vegetarian, but Liu says he intends to expand into broths made with beef and lamb, as well as growing the noodle selection. “In the beginning, we will be highly focused on ramen, but will branch out to Southeast Asian style noodle and Northern Chinese style noodle,” he says. Also, he intends to expand the menu from just ramen, Korean-style fried chicken and steamed buns to include small entree dishes as he grows the business. The 100-seat restaurant will feature an open kitchen and seating in a small dining room, at the bar, and at window seats facing Lorain. The bar will focus mainly on beer and sake, but will offer a few wines as well. Xinji, Liu explains, means “new opportunity,” and it’s one that the
neighborhood likely can get behind. Future opportunities include a garage in the rear of the property that Liu intends to convert into a separate small eatery down the road.
BIRDTOWN BREWERY TAKES DELIVERY OF BREWING EQUIPMENT, EYES FALL OPENING It’s been two years since we last reported on the Birdtown Brewery (2035 Quail St.) project taking form in the old St. Gregory Catholic Church in Lakewood’s Birdtown neighborhood. Well, there’s good reason finally to give an update. “The brewing equipment is getting delivered,” says Sean Fairbairn, who along with Barrio Restaurant Group partner Tom Leneghan is behind the project. “It’s exciting because we’ve had this project on hold for several years.” Conservative estimates peg opening day in the fall of 2017. Since announcing the project, the team has been busy expanding the Barrio brand. They hired executive chef Pete Joyce to oversee culinary operations, they built a large new commissary in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood, they added a third food truck, and they currently are wrapping up construction on a Cleveland Heights location, set to open this spring in the former Mad Greek space. Meanwhile, the brewery project now has a brewer attached, and the size of the brewhouse has doubled. “When we bought an old church, we were initially thinking a three-a-halfbarrel system,” Fairbairn explains. “But after talking to all these guys from Platform and Market Garden, we thought that we wouldn’t be able to keep up with that kind of system. We decided to do it right from the start.” Still modest at seven and a half barrels and four fermenters, the brewery will focus almost exclusively on beer for onsite consumption. Down the road, as the brand hopefully gains traction, expanded production and distribution is a possibility. Brewer Wyatt Routson will be working on a system from Deutsche
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Beverage Technology out of North Carolina, which is being delivered as we “speak.” For three years, Routson worked alongside Rick Seibt at Willoughby Brewing, where he learned the ins and outs of running a brewpub. He’s looking forward to having complete creative control over beer styles and recipes, he says. “I like to drink hoppy saisons, IPAs and double IPAs, but I want to keep things interesting,” Routson notes. “If you consistently put out a good product and it’s something different, I think that’s something beer consumers like. Having a seven-barrel system, we’ll be able to go through a fair amount of styles of beer.” The beer will complement a roster of casual foods built around pizzas. As for the space, it has to be one of the most impressive sites for a small brewery this side of Pittsburgh. The brewhouse will be prominently displayed on what was the altar, flanked by fermenters. A number of serving tanks will be visible in a lowerlevel space. For Routson, who has been patiently awaiting this day for months, the opportunity to brew for a living really is a blessing from on high. “I’ve always wanted to be creative, always wanted to be good at drawing, at music or something like that, but never really made it in that regard,” Routson confesses. “I’ve always been interested in science and physical labor, and that’s what drew me into brewing; I found that you can be creative through food and beer and that inspired me.”
OHIO CITY’S CROP BISTRO BEGINS SECOND ACT UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT Since Steve Schimoler abruptly shuttered Crop Kitchen, Crop Rocks and Crop Sticks over the course of three months this fall, the question on everybody’s mind has been: What’s the fate of Crop Bistro (2537 Lorain Ave., 216-696-2767), the flagship restaurant in Ohio City? Now we know. Marcelo Fadul, along with partner Tony George, is the official owner as of this week, despite being the de facto operator since September, when Schimoler departed on his sabbatical in Italy. Fadul, the operating partner, is the former owner of Brasa Grill Brazilian Steakhouse in the Warehouse District, which he opened 13 years ago. He also was a partner in Mallorca. He is in the process of divesting himself from both
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| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
businesses, he says. “I will focus 100-percent here,” he says. Fadul assures loyal diners that they will see only modest changes with the food. “It is basically the same style food, but we will change the menu four times a year,” Fadul reports. “Steve Schimoler is one of the best chefs, and he had a very good philosophy at this restaurant. It is a very established restaurant with customers.” Favorites like the truffle popcorn, cherry bomb and braised pork belly are going nowhere. The prices will remain the same as well, he adds. Former sous chef Caesar Eceverria has been promoted to the position of executive chef. The biggest change, already in operation, is the new all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch. The high-end affair ($39) features a carving station with house-roasted prime rib and ham. A chilled seafood section displays shrimp cocktail, snow crab, whole salmon, mussels and lobster salad. Omelets are made to order. A dozen hot dishes offer egg dishes, bacon, maple sausage, waffles, pancakes and more. A cold antipasto section is loaded with domestic and imported cheeses, charcuterie, smoked fish, fresh fruit and salads. “We’ve been doing 250 to 270 people per brunch,” Fadul reports of the brunch’s first two weeks. Soon diners will begin to see capital improvements to the space. The bar area will be modified into more of a lounge setting, complete with a gas fireplace and soft seating. All 200 chairs and every table will be swapped out for sound-dampening fabriccovered chairs and tables (bottoms, anyway). Downstairs, the vault private dining area will undergo similar upgrades. Reached for comment, Schimoler responded, “I have decided to extend my sabbatical in Tuscany at Villa Valentina Vorno for an additional six months and continue to work on refining my culinary foundation and hopefully finish writing my second book. I am thankful and excited that the relationship with Tony George and his team has allowed me to enjoy this opportunity to step away and have his team focus on the operations and grow the Crop Bistro business. Tony’s passion and commitment for excellence will help insure that Crop continues to be one of Cleveland’s top restaurants for many years to come. I look forward to continue working with Tony and his team.”
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
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Tribute to Yes, Genesis, etc.
Feb. 2 Feb. 14 Feb. 19 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 25 Feb. 26 Feb. 28 March 1
DNCE w/ The Skins Pop Evil w/ Badflower, Leav/e/arth Chippendales Dorothy w/ The Georgia Flood Cambridge Room Jake Miller w/ MAX, Spencer Sutherland Local Brew Local Grooves Whitechapel w/ Cattle Decapitation, Goatwhore, Allegaeon, Necromancing The Stone The Lox w/ Unc le Murda The Menzingers w/ Rozwell Kid, Jeff Rosenstock
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Gaelic Storm Excision ‘The Paradox Tour’ with Cookie Monsta, Barely Alive, Dion Timmer Ro James w/ Kevin Ross, MAJOR Cambridge Room Secondhand Serenade w/ Hawthorne Heights, Ronnie Winter of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Juicy J w/ Belly Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes Tropidelic w/ Broccoli Samurai, Carlos Jones & the PLUS Band, Drunken Sunday Ethan Bortnick Senses Fail w/ Counterparts, Movements, Like Pacific
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MUSIC
Photo by Danny Clinch
THE AWAKENING A spiritual journey inspired singer-guitarist Doyle Bramhall II’s latest album By Jeff Niesel EVEN BY MUSICIANS’ STANDARDS, Texas-born blues singer-guitarist Doyle Bramhall II received a tremendous amount of exposure to music while growing up. “It was constant music in the house, not only with all the musicians who lived in the house,” says Bramhall via phone from a Fort Lauderdale tour stop. “We lived in a communal band house for the first five or six years of my life. I was living the rock ’n’ roll life as a 4-year-old.” He says the ’60s, in particular, had a strong influence. “My mom listened to soul and my dad listened to soul and blues and music from the U.K. at that time, the British Invasion,” he says. “My life felt like it was scored by Al Green and Sly Stone and Albert King and Bobby Bland and Jimmy Reed. We listened to Blind Faith and Traffic and Jimi Hendrix as well. I used to say I was like a tape recorder, and
I recorded everything. As soon as I was ready to start playing, it all just flowed out of me, and I had to just press play.” Bramhall started on drums and switched to bass before taking up the guitar at age 14. Bramhall, who’s ambidextrous, learned to play in a peculiar manner. He plays lefthanded with the instrument strung for a righthander and flipped backwards. “It’s a very un-mysterious thing,” he says when asked about his technique. “I picked up the right-handed guitars at my house and always held things that
way. I held a baseball bat that way, and I always thought if you hold it that way, it should be right-handed because the most dexterous part of your playing is in your hand on the fretboard.” Playing with both Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan proved to be a formative experience. Sitting in with Stevie Ray Vaughan, a friend of his father’s, helped Bramhall get the gig with Jimmie Vaughan’s blues band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds. “Stevie Ray Vaughan had recommended me to Jimmie because the Thunderbirds were doing a tour for the album Powerful Stuff,
“We lived in a communal band house for the first five or six years of my life. I was living the rock ’n’ roll life as a 4-year-old.”
and Jimmie had done overdubs which he hadn’t done on previous records,” says Bramhall. “He needed someone to cover those parts. Stevie recommended me. I got that call, and it felt like going to my four years of college and learning how to accompany and be a support member of a band. It gave me time to work on myself as a rhythm and a parts player and as a member and knowing how to play with others and be in a support role.” After playing with another blues guitar hero, Charlie Sexton, in ARC Angels, Bramhall launched a solo career with his 1996 self-titled debut. He made a smooth transition from sideman to frontman. “I had been ready and was writing so much,” he says of embarking on his solo career. “It was a prolific time. I came to the table with 35 songs just in demos that I had made. I was recording songs every day. I was ready to bust | clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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away from what I was known as in the ARC Angels, which was just a guitar player. I think I was seen as the Texas guitar hero. I didn’t care too much for that. I always felt like the songs were ďŹ rst. The guitar is a way to express things and get it out there but when it just becomes about being a guitar player, that doesn’t interest me very much. I love unique expressions and it doesn’t matter to hear someone who is just technically good.â€? Bramhall’s latest effort, Rich Man, draws from his travels to India and Northern Africa and includes the North Indian classical bowed string instrument sarangi, which virtuoso Ustad Surjeet Singh plays, and the bowl-shaped Arabic oud lute, which Bramhall’s own oud teacher Yuval Ron, a renowned Israeli composerplayer-arranger, plays. Though it’d been a few years since his last solo effort, Bramhall didn’t have a stockpile of songs. He did, however, want to draw on the experience of traveling. With its nasty guitar licks and howling vocals, a song such as “Hands Upâ€? will please blues purists, but tracks such as “Saharan Crossingâ€? suggest Bramhall’s widening musical interests. “I only had three song ideas at that time I went to start on the album,â€? he says. “One was ‘The Veil’ and the other was ‘November’ and the next was ‘The Samanas.’ I wanted to start from scratch and capture this particular time of my life. I try to keep everything relevant to me and what’s going on in my life and the sounds coming out of me at this time. It’s different than 15 years ago.
“I guess you could say that since I was born I was on a spiritual journey,â€? he says. “I just wasn’t open to it. I didn’t know what I was doing until six years ago. I had a shift in my life, and I don’t know why or how it happened. It just sort of changed me, and I got things that I never really got before. I connected to people and to myself as a performer and to audiences and all the experiences of life. I would say that the journey that is documented on this album is really something that started back in 2008. That’s the big opening for me.â€? Bramhall says his interest in world music began even prior to 2008. “I’ve tinkered around on the Mohan veena,â€? he says. “I’ve played around with sitars, and my friend Derek Trucks has an oud. On this record, I didn’t play the Indian instruments. I had proper musicians from India playing them. I do play the oud. It’s the Turkish and Arabic version of the lute. When I was 18, I heard some Egyptian music and before then I had been into amenco and gypsy music. It was a singer called Umm Kulthum. She was one of the greatest singers who sang in Arabic. There was something about the sound of the oud that accompanied Egyptian and Turkish singers.â€? For the tender ballad “New Faith,â€? he teams up with jazz/folk singer Norah Jones, whose voice blends seamlessly with his. “I recorded it live,â€? he says of the track. “It’s one of the last songs we recorded. We just went in with a makeshift band that was put together in just a few hours. I thought it would be nice to have that song as a duet. I didn’t have anything else on the record like it. She lived close to the
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I had so much life experience and musical experience and time to live with myself and all of the growth and maturity that’s come over the years. That’s one of the perks about getting older. You can let go of things that aren’t really that important in your life and really know what is. That plays out personally and musically.â€? While press materials state the songs reect his “intensive spiritual and musical journeyâ€? that took place following the death of his father in 2011, Bramhall says that his inner journey began well before that.
studio and is a friend of the engineer. I had been friends with her since I had played on the same bill with her at a festival for the past few years. We would hang out, and she’s a sweet person and super talented. I thought if she’d be into it, it would be great. She said, ‘I’ll be there in a hour.’ We sang live over the track. It’s a cool experience to add to my list of cool experiences.�
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
| clevescene.com m | February 1 - 7, 2017
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MUSIC
WHEN THE A/V CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN Local jam trio Vibe & Direct cuts first LP, brings third festival to Beachland By Eric Sandy ON THE RIGHT NIGHT AND in the right state of mind, if you wander deep enough into the woods surrounding the quarry at Nelson Ledges, you’ll stumble on the guys in Vibe & Direct and Wanyama throwing down a 3 a.m. heater for those who aren’t yet done for the night and those who simply can’t find where they pitched their tent. However you end up there, it’s a testament to the community that surrounds a long-active music scene in Northeast Ohio, and Vibe is riding the main nerve right now. With a big show at Beachland set for this weekend, guitarist Michael Miller spoke with Scene about the exciting crossroads the band is at these days. The show, which serves as the band’s third Vibe In Color festival, will act as the official release for their first full-length album, Chrysanthemum. Originally, this was just going to be an EP. But there’s an insatiability to the guys in Vibe, and they forged onward as a self-imposed production deadline loomed. “In the last two months we went on a writing binge and wrote three new songs together,” Miller says, “which, in my opinion, are the best three on the album.” Those tunes would be “Wishing Well,” “Queens and Kings” and kaleidoscopic album opener “Bull and the Minx.” They fit in well with the album, and each brings yet another element to the band’s array of influences and moods. For “Bull,” drummer Danny
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Giannetto came up with the chord progression. It’s a free-wheeling ride across a number of danceable melodies and more open-ended “jam-friendly” landscapes. When Miller says that the band takes a great deal of time to meticulously arrange these songs for the stage, it’s clear that the band is intent on preserving its studio structure while allowing room to insert a healthy amount of improvisation. “Wishing Well,” meanwhile, was shepherded by bassist Doug Rab, and “Queens and Kings” was led into reality by Miller. “You get the hues of all of our personalities in those songs,” he says. The challenge of arranging those tunes for the live setting is something that the band has enjoyed. That’s because the band’s main goal has been to “marry electronic music with live instrumentation,” employing a nearinfinite spectrum of sounds in a very immediate and intimate setting like the stage at your local club or tucked into a Portage County forest.
and say, ‘Yeah, we gotta make that into a song.’” More often than not, though, the band sets its sights clearly on that goal of blending the two worlds and ends up “working the crap out of these songs.” Giannetto and Miller have been playing music together since their early teens; they formed Vibe & Direct about four years ago. Miller says it’s sort of an extension of an earlier alt-rock band that they had, but that it took a few revelations for them to move in this funk-laden, jam-friendly direction. Between bands, he stumbled across Ohio natives Papadosio. “It was the first nerve that struck me musically in years,” he says. Soon thereafter, he convinced Giannetto to return to Cleveland after a brief move out of state. For a while the band included singer Marty Calkins, but these days the trio splits vocal duties. Early on, Vibe worked sort of as a Rebelution-style reggae band. Then came frequent trips to Nelson Ledges and a heavier lean on
VIBE IN COLOR FEATURING VIBE & DIRECT, ELECTRIC LOVE MACHINE, LESPECIAL, BROKEN KEYS AKAFUNK 8 P.M. SATURDAY, FEB. 4, BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124. TICKETS: $12 ADV, $15 DOS, BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM
“On this one, we did a way better job of mixing those two philosophies together,” Miller says. “Every once in a while we’ll get lucky and we’ll take an improv section that we made up on stage
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
bands like Lotus and STS9 (and, of course, Papadosio), and that natural evolution brought Vibe to bassist Doug Rab. “He ended up being the missing piece for us to solidify that smooth jazz electronica sound,”
Miller says. Now, Vibe keeps a prolific presence in a very active scene here in Northeast Ohio. Whether it’s opening for the tiers of jam bands that roll through town or heating up the sand at Nelson Ledges, the band’s enlivened the symbiotic relationship between listeners and performers here. “From the get-go, it’s really cool in Cleveland; as long as you’re decent and genuine, people will come out and see you,” Miller says. “It’s supportive both ways; the bands support the community as much as the community supports the band.” (Miller’s father, to be clear, is Jim Miller of The JiMiller Band renown.) And with the summer looming, Vibe’s gearing up for a number of excellent festival bills. (Keep your eyes peeled; it’s still a bit too early for us to spill the beans on all that.) But more immediately, Vibe & Direct is looking ahead to its third Vibe In Color festival, held this Saturday at Beachland Ballroom. “It’s a show that’s just as much about the artists as it is about the people that are there and the musicians onstage,” Miller says. He promises a few special surprises in the setlist, including the live debut of those three newest tunes on the LP. “It’s a party for everybody,” Miller says.
esandy@clevescene.com t@EricSandy
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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MUSIC ALL FUNKED UP Singer Joe Jonas explores new musical territory with his synth-pop band DNCE By Jeff Niesel A FEW YEARS AGO, SINGER JOE Jonas and drummer Jack Lawless, both of whom played together in the pop/rock boy band the Jonas Brothers, talked about forming a side project that would focus more on funk and dance music than pop. Both were too busy, however, to pursue the concept. But when the Jonas Brothers split up in 2013, they revisited the idea and put together DNCE with bassist and keyboardist Cole Whittle and guitarist JinJoo. “We had the idea for this project for a while,” says Jonas in a recent phone interview as the band drove from Denver to San Antonio. “He was in the band and with the traveling and touring, we couldn’t do it. Once that changed, we really wanted to get the show on the road. It was good that he was really into it.” The band began by playing a few secret shows in New York. Jonas says they provided a good opportunity for the band to hone its musical chops. “They were awesome,” he says. “They were pop-up gigs. We didn’t know what to expect. We were supposed to do two or three, but we did six or seven gigs in these small clubs. It was so awesome to see so many people come out and support us.” Released in 2015, the band’s debut EP, Swaay, signified a shift for Jonas, who had previously embraced pop and rock with both the Jonas Brothers and with his short-lived solo career that yielded the 2011 album Fastlife. The band has since followed up the EP with last year’s self-titled full-length. It includes three of the EP’s four songs. “Making the EP, we were just trying to get something out because we wanted to hit the road and had an opportunity to tour,” says Jonas. “Doing that was educational. It made me realize I wanted to be in a band. I wanted to play with people that I really appreciate and like on stage. At this point, I also feel like I’ve been able to understand my voice better. So far I can find a good balance for the setlist and have learned to make sure it doesn’t get too much or difficult to sing live.” Swaay’s infectious first single, “Cake by the Ocean” features jittery
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guitars and funky bass riffs. With its falsetto lyrics and nonsensical, falsetto lyrics, the song recalls the Talking Heads side project Tom Tom Club. “When we started writing it, it was kind of a joke song,” says Jonas when asked about the track. “It was a misunderstanding of the drink Sex on the Beach. I thought it was hilarious, and I needed to write a song about it. Quickly, it formulated into a full-length song, and I knew we
a cover of the Crickets’ “Maybe Baby” alongside the Grease songs “Born to Hand Jive” and “Rock & Roll is Here to Stay.” Jonas says performing live on TV was a nerve-wracking experience. “It was really special,” says Jonas. “It was scary at first because we walked into the studio, and we were something like three months behind everyone because they had been rehearsing before we came into the picture. We were overwhelmed and
DNCE, THE SKINS 8 P.M. THURSDAY, FEB. 2, HOUSE OF BLUES, 308 EUCLID AVE., 216-523-2583. TICKETS: $29.50-$39.50, HOUSEOFBLUES.COM
had something special with it.” Last year, the band played on Grease: Live, a live production of the Broadway musical Grease that aired on TV. The band performed as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers during a high school dance scene, delivering “Cake by the Ocean” and
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
didn’t think we could get it done in time. I’m happy it turned out the way it did. It had so much life. It was a challenge. I don’t know if we’ll run back to do anything like that soon, but musical theater is something I really love, and I’d like to do more of it down the road. I don’t know if that
will happen anytime soon.” Another highlight on DNCE, “Blown,” emphasizes its call-andreponse vocals and a hip-hop segment featuring rapper Kent Jones. “As simple as it may be, it’s kind of a party tune,” he says of “Blown.” “There are different levels to it. You can go the sexual route or it could be about your mind is blown by someone in your life. Cole raps the rap part live, and it works out really well.” While Jonas Brothers might have petered to an end after an unremarkable tour, Jonas has successfully built some momentum for DNCE. “I would love to see more of the same for the band,” he says. “As the group grows and grows and the venues get bigger, we enjoy every day and every minute. Our fan base, Team DNCE, grows by the minute, and that’s a beautiful thing.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jeffniesel
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MUSIC A JERSEY BOY Indie rocker Delicate Steve prefers to let his instruments do the talking By Jeff Niesel STEVE MARION WAS STILL IN high school when he signed his first record deal. When that group dissolved, Marion turned to producing other bands and playing on other people’s records. “I was producing records in New Jersey and recording my friends and playing guitar for my friends who are singers and making their records,” he says in a recent phone interview from his Brooklyn home. “I started a record label to release all this music I was in charge of. I became influenced by these up-and-coming bands in New York in 2007, 2008 and 2009 — [indie rock act] the Dirty Projectors and Ponytail and Deerhoof. They were really inspiring to me.” One day, he saw the Dirty Projectors play for the first time. After the show, he went up to the bass player who asked him if he had his own band. He didn’t have anything to talk about because he was producing songs for his friends. “The next day, I started making the first album,” he says. “It just happened in this DIY manner. I wanted to go back to my favorite musicians and show them how much I had internalized their own music.” Recorded at his apartment under the moniker Delicate Steve, that album, 2009’s Wondervisions, found a home on Luaka Bop, the imprint run by former Talking Heads singer David Byrne. “One of the guys from the label saw me play at this basement in New York, and it just happened out of that,” says Marion when asked about the record deal. “For the first two records [on Luaka Bop], I did everything in my bedroom. It’s how I grew up, and it was natural for me to do that.” His manager enlisted cultural critic and renowned author Chuck Klosterman, a former Akronite, who hadn’t heard the album and didn’t interview Marion, to write a fake bio for the debut album. The publicity stunt generated some press for the release. Klosterman included strange descriptions like the following: “[Delicate Steve sounds] like a hydroelectric Mothra rising from the ashes of an African village burned to the ground by post-rock minotaurs.” Several publications took the fictitious
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DELICATE STEVE, CEREAL BANTER 8:30 P.M. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8, BEACHLAND TAVERN, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124. TICKETS: $12, BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM
bio at face value. “It was the label and manager behind that idea, but I fully supported it,” says Marion. For his new album, This is Steve, Marion did even less prep work than he did for previous releases.
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
“I made this whole album in 11 days in a recording studio,” he says. “I didn’t have any songs before I walked in the door. I walked in and started playing drums and playing guitars. I just wanted something fresh and immediate. It was pretty easy actually.
It doesn’t have to be difficult.” Did he think about putting vocals on the songs? “No,” he says rather tersely. “I just didn’t feel inspired to do that.” On the twangy tune “Winners,” his guitar sounds like some kind of electric kazoo as the song features a fun, Tom Petty-like vibe. “That’s just electric guitar plugged right into a computer, and it’s also plugged into a preamp,” he says. “I’m just playing slide guitar. I’m happy it doesn’t sound like a guitar.” He says he titled the tune “Winners” to reflect that things aren’t always what they seem. “The song is very bright on the surface and upbeat and classic-y, and I wanted to create a song like that that had an underbelly to it as well,” he says. “I played with the idea of who are the real winners and what does it mean to be a winner. This is all just my interpretation. I wanted a song that was catchy and fun and happy with a darker underbelly if you listen to it closer. Sometimes, if you look closer at the people or things that seem to be doing really well, you might find that’s not the case.” The video, set on the Jersey shore boardwalk, reflects the song’s concept as well. “That’s my childhood friend Bobby who directed it,” he says. “We grew up together and had many different experiences over the years. My aunt has a beach house in New Jersey that we would always go to in the summer. We went to make the music video. I brought my hover board. We went to the boardwalk and didn’t have a plan because the boardwalk is already so magical. He did a great job.” Marion says he started thinking about his next album a couple of months ago when he finished This is Steve. But he reconsidered and decided to simply focus on the upcoming headlining tour in support of the new album. “All my creative energy is spent,” he says. “It will take me a while to start working on the next album. But I’m really excited about playing the songs from This is Steve. That’s where my head is at now.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
| clevescene.com m | February 1 - 7, 2017
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LIVEWIRE WED
02/01
Badfish, A Tribute to Sublime — Slowride Tour 2017/Shrub/Fayuca: They culled together a career performing the music of Sublime — on-point and faithful to the source material, always — and spreading the good word on the road. The setlists vary, sure; but, by and large, you’re getting the same heavy dose of Sublime classics: “Waiting for my Ruca,” “Garden Grove,” “Pawn Shop,” “Caress Me Down,” etc. It’s great, and the crowd is always 100-percent enthusiastic. Each Badfish show begins with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” pumped in over the speakers. Without missing a beat, everyone in the room goes all in — belting the lyrics, headbanging, with smiles lighting across faces. Then the curtain rises, and we begin. (Eric Sandy) 8 p.m., $20. House of Blues. 10 X 3 Singer Songwriter Showcase: Hosted by Brent Kirby (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Bad Bad Hats/Rainbow Emergency: 8:30 p.m., $10. Beachland Tavern. Bobby Selvaggaio’s Red Rhinoceros: 7 p.m., $15. Bop Stop.
THU
02/02
T-Rextasy/Leggy/Half An Animal/ Thee Hundos (in the Locker Room): Like Weird Al colliding with DIY feminist pop punk, T-Rextasy blends driving guitars, an almost cartoonishly accented, hilarious vocalist, and background yells into a tremendously energetic and danceable concoction. The five-piece band (drummer Ebun Nazon-Power, guitarists Lena Abraham and Vera Kahn, and Oberlin students Annie Fidoten on the bass and Lyris Faron on lead vocals) have been buzzing since last year’s debut album, Jurassic Punk. The record has been buoyed by their rollicking standout track, “Gap Yr Boiz,” an anti-ode to voluntourist high-school grads described by NPR as “anthem for anyone who finds joy in hatereading travel blogs and punching up at privilege.” Specific perhaps, but wildly enjoyable nonetheless. With biting, playful lyrics (“Don’t call me ‘cupcake’ or ‘honey pie’ / Pet names make me want to fucking die”) and a bright, catchy sound, T-Rextasy is a politically poignant band that seems to be having a shit ton of
50
all the live music you should see this week
DIY feminist pop punk T-Rextasy will be at Mahalls. See: Thursday
fun fighting the man. Catch them at Mahall’s 20 Lanes in Lakewood, co-headlining with Cincinnati punk rockers Leggy and supported by Half An Animal and Thee Hundos. (Lawrence Neil) 9 p.m., $5. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. DNCE/The Skins: 7 p.m., $29.50$39.50. House of Blues. Chris Hatton’s Musical Circus (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Hollow Earth: 9 p.m., free. Happy Dog. Jam Night with the Bad Boys of Blues: 9 p.m., free. Brothers Lounge. Theresa Kloos: Reasons To Be Unsuccessful: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Northeast Ohio Drum & Music Jam: 9 p.m., free. Beachland Ballroom. Quality Time Records Presents Groundhog’s Day with Shagg and Pig Flayer: 9 p.m., $6. Grog Shop. Rags to Riches Rockabilly Blowout with Johnny Fay & the Bel Aires/ David Loy & the Ramrods (in the Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club. Taj Weeks/Adowa/The Ark Band: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Tavern.
FRI
02/03
Toronzo Cannon (in the Supper Club): Born in Chicago, blues singer-guitarist Toronzo Cannon grew up on the city’s notorious Southside. He says he didn’t initially know it had such a rich blues history. Because his uncles would patronize Theresa’s Lounge, Cannon used to go there as a child before he was even of legal age. Cannon would buy his first guitar at age 22; he hasn’t looked back. On his latest album, The Chicago Way, he sings
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
about how “real life” often gets in the way of his dreams. In the song, he describes himself as a “broken man” who can’t look at himself in the mirror. It’s heavy, emotional stuff, and the riveting guitar solos possess a real weight too. Expect to hear it tonight when he returns to the Music Box. (Jeff Niesel) 8 p.m., $15. Music Box Supper Club. Ex-Astronaut/Key to the Mint: Known for a while as Field Trip (and thus securing two of Cleveland’s best band names in the last decade), Ex-Astronaut blazed across the music scene last fall with its last album, No More Bad Dreams, a sublime and chilledout seven-song rocker. “With the current lineup, we have shifted away from the fuzzed out Dino Jr. stuff and started playing the shoegazer stuff we play now,” guitarist Pete Jennings told us, describing the past few years’ path that led to this album. “We want the guitars to not sound like guitars.” With tonight’s show at Happy Dog, get ready for a trippy and head-nodding experience that will remind you of the power of shoe-gaze. Oh, and a quick note: The awesome, local Panza Foundation helped finish off the funding for the album. (Sandy) 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Driftwood/The Gage Brothers: With that forested Upstate New York sound, Driftwood has been delivering upbeat bluegrass and Americana for more than a decade. This is highly danceable stuff that borders on Paul McCartneyesque melody at times. (We’ve written many times about how much we enjoy bluegrass with a drummer, and Driftwood brings that deftly.) Claire Byrne’s violin holds down the lead work in many of Driftwood’s tunes, especially on their last
album, City Lights, which, if you need refuge from the winter blues, you should check out immediately. Their show tonight will also work wonders. (Sandy) 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Gary Allan: 8 p.m., $50-$69.50. Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park. Bonzai Bash/Craig Martini/Sunless Sky/Sparrow Milk/Destructor: 7 p.m., free. Agora Ballroom. Doyle Bramhall II/Emily Gimble: 8 p.m., $25. The Kent Stage. The Club@the Civic Presents An Evening with Neil Zaza: 7 p.m., $25. Akron Civic Theatre. Disco Inferno: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge. DJ Lawrence Daniel Caswell’s Soul Music & Other Music for the Soul: 6 p.m., free. Happy Dog. GTS Presents: Winter Wreck with the Outer Waves/Groundstate/ Parking Lot Seagulls/Gorilla Defenders/Lies Behind Us/ Robotrip: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop. Ben Geyer Trio: 8 p.m., $12. Bop Stop. Heaven is In You Presents Basement Party with DJ Eso/Hamadi Rose/ NicNacc: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class. The Moxies/Samfox/Merl Fly/ Heavyheds: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Moss Stanley: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Travelin’ Johnsons (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Vanishing Apollo/Uptowne Buddha/ Anchor the Moon: 9 p.m., free. The Euclid Tavern.
SAT
02/04
Electronic Music Series: Christopher Bissonnette, a Canadian musician, sound artist and designer who lives and works in Detroit/Windsor, has released four full-length albums for the Chicago-based label Kranky. A founding member of Thinkbox, a “project-based collective that has explored art, sound and video in a variety of contexts ranging from art galleries to music venues,” he makes use of elements of concrete, field recording and modular synthesis. Tonight, he’ll kick off a new electronic music series with a performance at Coda. Local musicians Stephan Haluska + Matthew Ryals and Unikove will also perform. (Niesel) 9 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Coda. Black Dog Octet: 8 p.m., $12 ADV,
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Bar sales directly support The Music Settlement and its many programs. Food provided by Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen!
$15 DOS. Bop Stop. Paul Fayrewether: 8 p.m., $12-$30. House of Blues. God Save the Kinks!: 7:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Taylor Hicks: 8 p.m., $25-$30. The Kent Stage. Horns & Things: 8:30 p.m., $20. Nighttown. Maui Ski Club: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern. School of Rock Grad School: 5:30 p.m., free. Brothers Lounge. Shady Drive: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge. Sinatra Night with Michael Sonata (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10. Music Box Supper Club. Sister Smirk/Long Odds/Matteo Manic: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Jeff Varga (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Vibe in Color Featuring Vibe & Direct/Electric Love Machine/ Lespecial/Broken Keys/AKA: 9 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. The Dorian Walker Experience/ Broken Keys/Satele/Unknown Phrases: 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Welshly Arms/Nick D and the Believers: 8 p.m., $10. Musica. Wesley Who/The Venus Flytraps/ FloorVVeed/The Scientific Affair: 9 p.m., $7. Grog Shop. Window Dogs/Hough Crowd/ Wrecking Crew Red Panda Bears/ Suitcase Runaway/Seth Hasan: 7 p.m., $10. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Zoso: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Experience: 8 p.m., $22.50. Akron Civic Theatre.
SUN
02/05
Tim Presley/Cate Le Bon: Though they come from different parts of the globe — Cate Le Bon is Welsh, Tim Presley is from California — both of these L.A.-based artists make music that seems to come from the same influences. Presley, originally the White Fence bandleader, has roots in garage rock and psych rock. His solo work uses the same blueprint, but with broader instrumentation and arrangement. Le Bon takes cues from general pop and indie rock, but she adds interlocking guitar work and complex lyrics. The jaunty bounce and frantic guitar
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| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
of “Long Bow,” a standout from Presley’s solo debut, demonstrate the wide mix of his influences. Le Bon has a more natural singing voice, and her music is generally more melodic. The two artists made a collaborative album a few years back; they will play separate sets tonight. (Johnny Cook) 9 p.m., $12. Happy Dog. February Noise Lunch: 4 p.m., free. Now That’s Class. Night Terrors: 7 p.m., $7. Bop Stop. Mike Petrone (in the Wine Bar): 5:30 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Taking Meds/My Mouth is the Speaker/Dark Spring/Walk Slow/ Left & Leaving (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $5. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.
MON
02/06
Skatch Anderssen Orchestra: 8 p.m., $7. Brothers Lounge. Velvet Voyage (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. That 1 Guy: That 1 Guy (real name Mike Silverman) is a classically trained double bass player. At one point, he felt that the instrument restricted his musical creativity. Instead of trying to switch to a new instrument, he decided to design his own. Silverman then handcrafted a series of what he calls “magic” instruments, including a giant steel pipe, a cowboy boot and a hand saw. Silverman’s solo act weaves in and out of jazz, funk, progressive, and experimental rock. On stage, he provides percussion, plays his inventive instruments, sings and cues up samples to fill in the rest. The end result is a very unique, bizarre, virtuosic version of a one-man show. (Cook) 9 p.m., $15. Beachland Tavern.
TUE
02/07
Benny Golson Quartet: 7 p.m., $25 ADV, $30 DOS. Bop Stop. Nicki Parrott Trio Featuring Bobby Floyd: 7 p.m., $20. Nighttown. Lacey Sturm/Palisades/Stitched Up Heart/Letters From the Fire: 6 p.m., $18. House of Blues. Two-Set Tuesday Featuring Sean Benjamin (in the Wine Bar): 7 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Steve Wright EP Release Show/Not on the Daily/Fresh Bucket: 8 p.m., free. Beachland Tavern.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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By Jeff Niesel MEET THE BAND: Steve Wright (vocals, guitar, drums, keyboards, laptop) A ONE-MAN BAND: Throughout high school and college, Wright, a Northeast Ohio native, played in a few different bands. He started performing as a “one-man bandâ€? in August after moving to Cleveland from Youngstown. “To me, it was out of necessity,â€? he says when asked about the decision to become a one-man band. “I didn’t know anyone up here and just wanted to do it by myself. It’s been working out so far.â€? A RANGE OF INFLUENCES: Wright plays what he calls “a heavy interpretation of modern rock with a progressive and cinematic feel incorporating pop melodies.â€? He cites Jesu, M83, David Bowie, Russian Circles, Tool, Sigur Ros, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Black Sabbath and Coldplay as inuences. “I’m all over the place,â€? he says. “Recently, I’ve been listening to M83 and Jesu and Russian Circles more than the other bands. Russian Circles does a Pink Floyd-meetsMetallica thing, and M83 has all that texture. I want the music to have that cinematic feel and I try to think of what would sound good in a movie.â€? WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR HIM: His new EP, IndeďŹ nite, represents his ďŹ rst ofďŹ cial release. He worked with producer Jim Wirt at the locally
based Crushtone Studios. “It was great,� he says of the recording experience. “He’s great to work with and even provides some backing vocals on the tracks.� The EP opens with the epic rocker “Forever Again,� a tune that starts slow but builds as the distorted guitars kick in; Wright practically has to scream to be heard above the din. The song’s second half is mellower as bits of bells and piano give it a real tenderness. “I recently did a major career shift, and I now work in menswear, but before that I was in the accounting corporate world,� he says. “The song is about how I was wasting my time in that world. I don’t write too many lines. When I’m done, I just stop. I view it as a pop song inside of a heavy song.� For his upcoming Beachland show, he’ll have Ashley Close from Old Brooklyn, Frank Maraldo from Nights and Brett Weir join him for his set. Since the EP’s completion, he’s written three new songs, which he’ll play at the show.
WHERE YOU CAN HEAR HIM: stevewright.bandcamp.com/ releases WHERE YOU CAN SEE HIM: Steve Wright performs with Not on the Daily and Fresh Bucket at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the Beachland Tavern.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
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Dear Dan, I am a 26-year-old heterosexual European man. I have been for four years in a monogamous relationship with my girlfriend. Recently she cheated on me. When she told me what she did, I felt a very strong pain, even stronger than I expected. After a few days of pain, however, I found that the sexual attraction for my girlfriend, instead of decreasing, increased after her adventure. In particular, I am now having a cuckold fantasy. I would like that she tell me everything she did, without sparing any detail, while we have sex, or that we try to play an actual cuckold game where she has sex with someone else in front of me while I give her instructions and tell her exactly what to do. My problem is that I am not sure what her reaction would be if I ask her to play out these fantasies. She feels very guilty and witnessed my pain when she told me she cheated. I fear that talking to her about these fantasies would scare her. I also fear that, as she is feeling guilty, she would say yes, but without really wanting to do this. I also don’t want her to think I liked what she did when she cheated on me. I did not like it, but I would like to relive it in a playful way, in which I have complete control. How do you think I should approach this talk? Which reactions should I expect? How can I make sure that she is really into this if she says yes? — Feeling Obsessed Replicating Treason & Dominating Adulterer Cuckolding, like all fetishes and/or fantasies, is unique to the person and adaptable within particular relationships. But it’s erotic humiliation — of the person being cheated on — that distinguishes cuckolding from hot wifing/husbanding or swinging. The cuck’s partner, aka “the cheater,” is in control, and the cuck gets off on having his nose rubbed — sometimes literally — in the evidence of his
partner’s cheating. (That’s the theory, anyway; I’ve gotten lots of letters from women — and some men — who are married to very controlling cucks.) Zooming out: Your reaction to learning you’d been cheated on — pain and shock, quickly followed by increased feelings of lust for your girlfriend — is not uncommon. It’s less common for the cheatee to eroticize the betrayal; a couple may reconnect sexually in the wake of an affair, but rarely does a couple wind up incorporating eroticized infidelity into their sexual repertoire. But in your fantasy, FORTDA, you would be calling the shots, giving instructions, and telling your girlfriend what to do. That’s defi nitely not a cuckold fantasy, FORTDA, and it may be a revenge fantasy. But a cheating crisis presents a good opportunity for both parties to be completely honest with each other about what they want going forward. And that’s what you should do, FORTDA: Be completely honest. First, make sure your fantasy is an authentic impulse, i.e., it’s a genuine turnon, unearthed by this revelation, not an excuse to punish your girlfriend for cheating. Make sure this isn’t a revenge fantasy. If it’s a genuine turn-on, FORTDA, share everything: this surprising new turn-on, your own confusion, and your legit concerns (you don’t want her to agree to do it out of guilt, it’s not a license to cheat). She might freak out. She might be into it. She might freak out and then later be into it. (That’s the origin story of most cuckold couples: Husband/BF proposes it; wife/GF freaks out; weeks, months, or years later the wife/ GF asks if cuckolding is still on the table.) You can figure out the parameters later, if you decide to explore this at all, but it starts with a conversation. Good luck.
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440.342.7355 (SELL)
216.626.0320
| clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017
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TRANSFORMERS & HE-MAN ★
FREE MONEY!!! DOWN PAYMENT PROGRAM*
SUPER 50% OFF SALE
One Day Only! $50.00/50% Off Saturday Jan. 21st, 11am - 10pm
Nothing held back. Cleveland souvenirs, T-shirts, Rock-books,collectibles, video games, joke & gags, greeting cards, baby gifts, Star Wars, Transformers, * , -RH¡V 0\ /LWWOH 3RQ\ &DUH %HDUV 6WUDZEHUU\ Shortcake & so much more!
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WE BUY & SELL OLD TOYS 1814 Coventry Road | Cleveland Heights (216) 371-4386 Facebook: bigfunfans | www.bigfuntoystore.com
LEGO ★ STAR WARS ★ GI JOE
★ LEGO ★ ROCK CONCERT T-SHIRTS
HOME BUYERS!!!
Se erving Ohio for 15 Yearss and Cou unting!
Satya, Sat Sa aty tya ya, W Wild ild illd Be Ber Berry, err r y, Go Gon Gonesh one ne esh BATS PIPE POUCH HES MULTI T PIPE E TOO T TOOL O POLLE EN BO OXES
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Sale!
BUTANE & TORCHES
BOOM WATER PIPES 30% OFF! ALL HOOKAHS 40% OFF!
NEW & UNIQU UE CO OLLECTABLES S!
Coals, hoses, mouth pieces, bowls, etc... (EXCLUDES JEDI HOOKAHS) WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!
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53 36 W. Tusca araw was 330.753.0 050 00
832 Broadway 440.2 242.4 4080
1004 Kenmore Blvd. 330.753.3600
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STRON NGS SVILLE
32888 8 Vine St. 440.942.8668
1909 97 Drrake Rd. 44 40.57 72-8287
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A e. West 16 N. State St. 532 Park Ave 41 19.5 522.1 1695 330.545.8131
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MUST SEE
At Least Once in Your Lifetime
Timeless Legends Exquisite Costumes Animated Backdrops Unique East-West Orchestra Top Classical Chinese Dancers
“performance Superb… Every was stunning!” – WNYC
“A visually dazzling tour of 5,000 years of Chinese history and culture.” San Francisco Chronicle
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February 4-5, 2017 216-241-6000 ShenYun.com Playhouse Square | clevescene.com | February 1 - 7, 2017