Scene april 12, 2017

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AT&T has historically excluded Cleveland’s poorest neighborhoods from improved internet service, and thanks to Ohio law, those areas are now frozen in digital time.

By Eric Sandy

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

| clev clevescene.com e escene.com m | April Apr prilil 122 - 18 18,, 20 2017 17

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!02), s 6/,5-% . O Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Group Publisher Chris Keating Publisher Andrew Zelman

CONTENTS 5PFRONT

Associate Publisher Angela Lott Editor Vince Grzegorek

Opiate crisis collides with medical marijuana law, Q deal numbers are misrepresented, and more

Editorial Managing Editor Eric Sandy Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Writer-at-large Kyle Swenson Web Editor Laura Morrison Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Contributing Dining Editor Rachel Hunt Stage Editor Christine Howey Visual Arts Editor Josh Usmani Copy Editor Elaine Cicora Interns Johnny Cook, Lawrence Neil

&EATURE

'ET /UT

How Ohio allowed AT&T and others to exclude Cleveland’s poorest neighborhoods from improved internet access, and why those neighborhoods are now stuck in digital time

Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Multimedia Account Executive Kiara Hunter-Davis Creative Services Production Manager Steve Miluch Layout Editor/Graphic Designer Christine Hahn Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace

Hiram-Maxim

All the events you should check out this week

Business Sales Assistant/Receptionist Megan Stimac Controller Kristy Dotson Staff Accountant Margaret Manzo

!RT

Circulation Circulation Director Don Kriss Euclid Media Group Chief Executive Offi cer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Offi cers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Human Resources Director Lisa Beilstein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-800-278-9866, voicemediagroup.com

Garrett Weider had a revelation and brought a new artistic focus to Cleveland

3TAGE

&ILM

Cleveland Scene Magazine is published every week by Euclid Media Group.

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Young German actress wows in Francois Ozon beauty

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Swensons is coming to Cleveland this year

-USIC

Jayhawks frontman discusses the band’s new collaboration with Ray Davies of the Kinks

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UPFRONT

THIS WEEK

IN A MULTI-PRONGED CAMPAIGN, Cuyahoga County has launched a massive opioid awareness project, including as its centerpiece a broad ad campaign that will spotlight the dangers of painkiller addiction and, inherently, the heroin overdose public health crisis unfolding here at home. As heroin overdose deaths spike at record levels locally, county leaders hope to erase the stigma that binds this public health crisis.

The move happens to coincide with Gov. John Kasich’s decision to restrict painkiller prescription caps, another loosely related facet of the state’s all-in struggle.

Know The Risks, signified in printed materials and on social media as “@KnowTheRx,” brings together a broad spectrum of Cuyahoga County leaders (one might even say “influencers”) to underscore how immediate this problem is. As representatives from MetroHealth Medical Center have pointed out, the network includes voices from the county’s media, including Scene; marketing; health care; government and sports sectors.

Last week, during a press conference announcing the project, Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson reiterated his office’s stark claim that February 2017 brought the most heroin overdose deaths of any single month in county history: 60.

As we and other news outlets in Cleveland have reported, the trends of this crisis are growing worse before any reversal or solution becomes clear. Cuyahoga County leaders hope that the present moment and the Know The Risks campaign can jump-start that turning point.

“Far too many of us are in need of

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Photo courtesy of @KnowTheRx

WITH OVERDOSE DEATHS STILL UP, KASICH DISAVOWS MEDICAL MARIJUANA’S ROLE

Cuyahoga County rolls out ‘all in’ ad campaign in heroin fight treatment now,” St. Vincent Charity Medical Center CEO David Perse said, adding that one in 10 county residents are currently seeking treatment. He said that St. Vincent will expand its partial hospitalization program and its transportation outreach to area sober living centers, helping an “additional 300 patients each year.”

“I wish we weren’t here. I wish we didn’t have to do this. ... What this group has done in a matter of months is utterly remarkable,” MetroHealth CEO Akram Boutros said today. “With virtually no budget, they’ll be saving lives.”

Indeed, with more than $500,000 in pro-bono assistance, the project will feature a full ad campaign that will be visible across the county.

Keep an eye out. (One of the principle images of the campaign involves a person wrapped in a fetal position inside a prescription medication bottle.)

That said, we reported last week

HOLDIN’ OPPORTUNITIES Ohio’s plywood ban on vacant homes goes into effect this month.

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

that Kasich had delivered to the state a new set of rules governing painkiller prescriptions — capping stuff like morphine at seven-day prescription supplies for adults and five-day supplies for children. The idea was to keep patients tethered as closely to the hospital as possible, pulling them away from the cheaper supplies of heroin on the streets.

“We’re paying the price now for a lot of the neglect we had in the past,” Kasich said, referring to prescription-happy “pill mills” and lack of real oversight on the pharmaceutical side of health care.

In that same press conference, though, Kasich also dismissed a reporter’s question about the state’s imminent medical marijuana program. (Pick up next week’s issue of Scene for an indepth feature on the state law.) “I know it’s not recreational marijuana — not recreational use — but I don’t see a role for it in this at all,” Kasich said about marijuana taking the place

of opiate prescriptions for many patients.

That line of thinking flies in the face of recent peer-reviewed medical studies and only deadens the conversation that, one supposes, Cuyahoga County leaders are trying to stoke with the Know The Risks program. A 2014 JAMA Internal Medicine report, for instance, showed that “[s]tates with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8-percent lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate … compared with states without medical cannabis laws.” — Eric Sandy

Q DEAL’S ADMISSION TAX NUMBERS ARE OFF, BUT CITY COUNCIL SIGNALS APPROVAL ANYWAY City council met Monday night with the apparent intent to approve the Quicken Loans Arena renovation plan with a majority vote. We ran

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Arnold Schwarzenegger is already supporting Gov. John Kasich as 2020 presidential contender. Failing that, he urged Kasich to “consider” the mobile gaming ad market.

QUALITY OF LIFE Quit playing with your Dyngus!

DIGIT WIDGET 61 34 Number of homicides in Cleveland so far in 2017, more than we’ve seen by mid-April in previous years.

106,504 Reported attendance at CIFF41, up from last year’s reported recordbreaking attendance of 102,255.

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The Q deal, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re told, was hashed out over two-plus years of negotiations. But Mayor Frank Jackson, per his chief of staff Ken Silliman, began participating only in November 2016, one month before the glitzy announcement of the completed deal, a â&#x20AC;&#x153;creativeâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;excitingâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;collaborativeâ&#x20AC;? package that elected leaders were pleased to say created no new taxes.

As far as the city is concerned, the deal proposes an extension of the current admissions tax structure.

Beginning in 2023, when the Gateway bonds are (hopefully) paid off, and until 2034, the portion that now goes to Gateway debt service will then be applied to the arena renovation debt service. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest on the $140 million in bonds that the county voted to greenlight last week. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to make this town great again,â&#x20AC;? trumpeted County Council President Dan Brady at the time, in remarks that sure didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t scan as ironic.

There are two immediate problems with (or at least criticisms of) the arrangement, and both serve as answers to City Council President Kevin Kelleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fundamental question about the deal: â&#x20AC;&#x153;How would the city of Cleveland be better off by doing nothing?â&#x20AC;?

The ďŹ rst, as noted bluntly by councilman and mayoral candidate Jeff Johnson, is the following: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s our money.â&#x20AC;? The roughly $5.5 million in Q tax revenue that went toward debt service in 2016 would, in the absence of debt, be applied to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s general fund.

That money could help prop up any number of ailing city departments: Parks & Recreation, Health, Safety, etc. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be a vital source of income from an arena on which its tenants pay no taxes.

This dynamic has been noted repeatedly by councilman Mike Polensek. It has also been noted by residents. Two council members have told Scene that their constituents are angered that the Q deal was never mentioned in conversations about Issue 32, the citywide income tax increase that narrowly passed in 2016.

The annual revenue generated by the admissions tax is of course nowhere near the revenue generated by the income tax increase, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a mark of local leadershipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lack of transparency and disrespect for voters, in the view of many, that the dire proclamations about imperiled city services and guaranteed layoffs failed to include disclaimers about the millions soon to be signed

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into our print deadline prior to the meeting, so do check clevescene.com for the details.

That said, all signs pointed to imminent passage of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portion of the deal this week.

Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ nance committee met Monday afternoon to conďŹ rm the logistics, which have been hazy and prone to amendment throughout the proceedings.

But the $88 million that the city would contribute comes from its eight-percent admissions tax on ticketed events (for venues that hold more than 750 people), which is, as council president Kevin Kelley has rightly noted, an extension of an existing arrangement.

Currently, the city of Cleveland receives, in its general fund, threeeighths of that tax revenue for Cavs games and six-eigths of the revenue for other events. The balance â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ďŹ veeighths for Cavs games, two-eighths for everything else â&#x20AC;&#x201D; goes to pay down debt on Gateway bonds.

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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UPFRONT away to the Q. (Greater Cleveland Congregations has also noted this discrepancy.) Beginning in 2023, if the deal were to be voted down, that tax revenue would flow directly to the city’s coffers. The city would be “better off” then, in very basic financial terms.

The other criticism, as we noted recently, is that the Cavs’ projections related to the admissions tax seem way too high. Cavs’ president Len Komoroski has said that with the upgrade, the arena can expect 200 events per year. Without the upgrade, Komoroski estimated, the number would fall to 160.

Scene counted the events from 2016. Not including the RNC, and accounting for the multiple performances on single days, that number is 177. An additional note, though, if we’re going to get technical: Seven out of that 177 total belong to the Ringling Bros. Circus, which has been discontinued.

At any rate, the 200-per-year projection still seems high. Even though there were no “events” in July because of the RNC, 2016

included championship runs by both the Cavaliers and the Monsters. It was a banner year for the Q. But the admissions tax revenues that went to Gateway bonds ($5.5 million) are drastically below the Cavs’ projections — $8 million per year from 2023 to 2034. Shortfalls in these projections will be paid out of a county reserve.

City councilmembers, quite rightly, are foremost concerned with the financial encumbrances of the city, but they would do well to remember that their constituents are residents of both Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. As such, in the event of lost or lessened services due to impacts on the general funds of both, city residents pay twice as much, even though they are the least likely to attend events at the Q. — Sam Allard

STATE LAWMAKERS WILL DEBATE FIRSTENERGY’S NUCLEAR ‘BAILOUT’ PLAN For years now, FirstEnergy has lobbied the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and, invariably, state legislators in support of what many have called a nuclear power plant “bailout”: increased rates for

customers, who will ostensibly foot the bill of FirstEnergy’s competition with newer, cleaner energy production sources in the state.

Rates would increase by at least five percent across the company’s customer base.

Senate Bill 128 would generate some $300 million in annual revenue for the Akron-based energy company.

That windfall would come through rate hikes forced onto electricity customers across Northeast Ohio.

As FirstEnergy itself and plenty of energy stakeholders in Ohio have noted, the company really needs the money to stay afloat — hence critics’ use of the word “bailout.” It’s been argued time and time again that the state, even now by introducing SB 128, is actively interrupting freemarket forces and acting on behalf of the private company.

FirstEnergy runs Perry Nuclear Power Plant and Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, though the company has signaled intent to sell both facilities by mid-2018. According to the company, “approximately 90 percent of Ohio’s carbon-free electricity and 11 percent of the power consumed in Ohio” is produced at Perry and Davis-Besse each year.

Encased in the bill is a provision that would force a closer look at those “zero-emissions credits” in the event that FirstEnergy sells the plants and would likely reduce them based on whatever revenue has been generated by that point. (The bill allows for the increased rates to stand for at least 16 years, and it’s unclear how dramatically the rates would change if FirstEnergy does sell.)

The company, giddy over the news that the state senate had taken up this bill, has its supporters, of course. State Sen. John Eklund (R-Munson Township), who introduced SB 128, says that the financial viability of FirstEnergy is intrinsically tied to the region’s well being. “Closing them would impact thousands of families, result in painful job losses and jeopardize tax dollars that help fund local governments, schools and vital community services,” he said. “We can’t stand by and let that happen in Ohio.”

Elsewhere, opponents deride the bill and the years-long debate as a step in the wrong direction. The Ohio Manufacturers Association, for example, took a stand against the bill: “FirstEnergy should not be

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allowed to prop up its business on the backs of Ohio consumers. While manufacturers support nuclear power as part of an all-of-the-above energy portfolio, Senate Bill 128 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. We will actively work to oppose this misguided bill.”

It’s likely that the SB 128 debate will serve as another proxy for the state’s back-and-forth stances on clean energy standards. Gov. John Kasich last year vetoed a renewal of the state’s freeze on those renewable energy standards. Not long after, State Rep. Bill Seitz, long a champion of the free market ideology, ushered a bill into the House Public Utilities Committee, a bill that would totally get rid of renewable energy mandates and allow the state to press its thumb on the scales of the energy production market. — Sandy

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

John Stahl, owner and cofounder of the Erie-bobbing software company LeanDog, made a presentation to the Cleveland Planning Commission last week, reintroducing his infamous “Skylift” proposal.

Stahl told Scene last year that he was “fine-tuning” his project, a shoreline cable-car transit pipe dream that emerged a few years back as a one of several wacky hotbutton Cleveland development ideas that, at least once, was alleged to be “financially viable.” Stahl told the Planning Commission Friday that he’s invested years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early conceptual work.

Despite tweaks, the Skylift remains a novelty project that would put ski-lift-style cable cars on the shores of Lake Erie. In its current conception, the route would feature nine stations stretching from Edgewater Park on the west side to the East Ninth Street pier on the east. Stahl said that he envisioned naming rights being a large part of the project’s fundraising and ballparked baseline fares at about $2.50 per ride. According to the PD’s Steve Litt, Stahl is not seeking public subsidies, though he will need “longterm leases from public entities to make the project work.”

Despite a “polite” response from the planning commission, the project has reached something of an impasse. According to the Plain

Dealer’s account of the meeting, Stahl reportedly needs $700,000 for a “feasibility study” — perhaps Stahl ought to commission an additional feasibility study to determine the feasibility of the feasibility study — but can’t secure funding until he gets some form of go-ahead from the city. Mayor Frank Jackson and planning director Fred Collier won’t give any sort of green light until they see more details: “The kind that would be described in Stahl’s feasibility analysis,” wrote Litt.

The response to Stahl’s project has been overwhelmingly negative, if not outright derisive. Many consider the project a stupid and inefficient fantasy. Others are concerned about its year-round appeal. For others, safety is the primary concern. (Stahl has said that the Skylift would be built for Alpine conditions, operable in winds up to 60 mph.)

But in the face of devastating budget and service cuts to RTA, it’s easy to understand why conversations about an enormously expensive, imaginary aerial tram may seem insulting or sad to those who can’t even count on frequent, safe, regular bus service.

WAYNE NATIONAL FOREST EARTHQUAKE (SORT OF) PROMPTS FRACKING QUESTIONS The eyes of the seismological and environmental worlds have focused on Wayne National Forest this week, the site of a 3.0-magnitude earthquake. For now, fracking operations in the forest have stopped.

The earthquake’s epicenter was not within any of the forest’s recently leased parcels, but it was located in and near parcels that have been requested for future lease opportunities by private drilling companies.

Within 20 miles of the epicenter, four wastewater injection wells thrust high-pressure fracking wastewater into the ground. In 2016, those wells injected 350 million gallons of fracking wastewater — most coming from out of state.

Multiple fracking sites are set up within five miles of the April 3 earthquake’s epicenter.

In all, some 40,000 acres of the forest have been earmarked for private natural gas drilling — some of which was formerly federal land sold off by the Federal Bureau of Land Management.

“This earthquake is a clear example of the risks involved in fracking,” said Melanie Houston, the director of the Ohio Environmental

Courtesy of FracTracker

Council’s oil and gas team, in a public statement.

Highly fracked eastern Ohio counties, like the Wayne’s Monroe County, are increasingly affected by earthquakes — in alarming contrast to the rest of the state. FracTracker maps seismological data, and the correlation is hard to ignore. See map at right for a vivid illustration.

— Sandy

FAMILY OF LUKE STEWART STILL PLEADING FOR ANSWERS THREE WEEKS AFTER OFFICER SHOT AND KILLED HIM The family of Luke Stewart still doesn’t know what happened on March 13, save for the fact that Officer Matthew Rhodes shot and killed him. The Euclid Police Department has neither reached out for a conversation nor responded to numerous public records requests, according to the family and attorneys.

Rhodes, who has been with the department since August 2016, reportedly returned to active onstreet duty three days after the shooting.

But the facts beyond the baseline sequence of events — Stewart

Earthquakes in Ohio cluster around the Utica shale play.

was sitting in his car on South Lakeshore, Rhodes responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle, a chase ensued, Rhodes somehow got into Stewart’s car and shot him — are unclear.

Stewart’s cousin, Jocelyn Smith, said that Stewart’s sister found out

that he had been shot only when she happened to see his car on the news.

The state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations is running the investigation and will send its report to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office in the future.

Until then, the circumstances

surrounding Stewart’s death remain as murky as many other policeinvolved shootings in Northeast Ohio. This afternoon, Stewart’s family pleaded for answers — and, at the very least, they said, a sitdown meeting with Chief Scott Meyer.

“Our family is in need of answers just to get into the grieving process,” Jocelyn Smith said last week at her family attorneys’ offices downtown. “Death is one thing in itself. But to have our cousin shot five times — that’s not about trying to stop a threat. ... There’s got to be some accountability on Euclid, on Officer Rhodes and on the other officer that was involved to come forward and be honest about the events that happened.”

Stewart leaves behind two children, and his family says that they have been longtime residents along Euclid’s border with Cleveland.

“Please give us answers,” Stewart’s brother, Cleander Stewart, said amid tears. — Sandy

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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FEATURE

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AT&T has historically excluded Cleveland's poorest neighborhoods from improved internet service. And thanks to Ohio law, those areas are now frozen in digital time.

By Eric Sandy

IT’S FRIDAY MORNING, AND HOWARD BARKSDALE IS running late. He drives in from Bedford to Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood twice weekly to attend classes at Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center, and today he got caught up in the slow service of the BMV. Slow service is everywhere these days.

Internet download speeds are glacial once you get into neighborhoods like Glenville, where AT&T willfully avoided rolling out its U-Verse service a few years back.

The company has been accused of “digital redlining,” specifically of leaving the poorest neighborhoods out of its infrastructure improvements in cities like Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, Louisville, Detroit and Milwaukee.

High-speed internet — “VDSL,” carrying download speeds of at least 18 megabits per second — just doesn’t exist in Glenville. Ashbury offers a high-speed internet oasis via

its Sprint Wi-Fi hotspot, and people come here to play catch-up and get the hang of things like email and search.

“I don’t like not knowing,” Barksdale says. “I refuse to be blindsided or afraid of anything like this. The only way to attack it is to attack it head-on, and I’m not going to let go until I tear it up.” At 66, he has dipped his toes into the digital world only to wind up on the wrong end of a computer virus. You’ve got to learn how to navigate these waters. Fast, or at least serviceable, internet speeds make the education process not only easier but feasible.

Ashbury sits quietly among a row of three-story homes in Glenville, a mostly impoverished neighborhood that squats in the crook of glitzy University Circle and even-moreimpoverished East Cleveland. It sits quietly on Ashbury Avenue, in fact.

Across two rooms, 30 computer stations beckon eager students who work through tiers of classes before graduating in the summer.

On some days, the center offers open lab hours. People come from all over to log in and look up their MyChart progress at MetroHealth or help their children through an online homework assignment. At home, for most of the people who live in Glenville or Hough or East Cleveland, functioning internet speeds simply don’t exist.

Wanda Davis runs Ashbury with her family, and she knows these problems well; her neighborhood has a long history of being targeted by real estate developers and City Hall for redlining purposes. When she

and her family were looking for a new business opportunity in 2001, they surveyed neighbors and landed on a clear-cut demand: People were going to need to keep up with the fast pace of 21st century life.

“At that time, the awareness of the Big Wave and the revolution of the computer industry was just under way,” Davis says. That was back when internet speeds were mostly uniform across the city, before state legislators turned their backs on the market. “We saw the need back then, and here we are now, first believing way back then that that need would shrink, but the need has actually increased. Technology has moved so rapidly. Now, there’s a real true saying: ‘living online.’”

Anymore, it’s nearly impossible to live in the real world — finding and keeping a job, paying bills, handling the ins and outs of health care and aging — without also living online. At Ashbury, Davis and her fellow instructors make sure that | clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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the seniors of Northeast Ohio not only keep up with the constantly shifting sands of the internet but get a grasp on the very basics: In a video produced for the center last year, one woman says, “I’ve heard people talk about being able to stream from the computer with the Wi-Fi.” Ashbury works closely with Connect Your Community, a local organization that last year began a comprehensive investigation into the real story behind Cleveland’s incongruous internet access — the digital divide. The group ended up uncovering a web of discriminatory practices authorized in full by the state of Ohio.

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

Photo by Eric Sandy

The problem became apparent last summer.

In 2016, AT&T, one of two major cable internet providers in the Cleveland area, began a new “Access” program imposed by the FCC that offered $5- or $10-per-month internet service for customers enrolled in the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The $10 threshold was for customers who had access to 6 mbps (megabits per second) download speeds, and the $5 threshold was for 3 mbps.

Connect Your Community wanted to raise awareness of this issue, because access to low-cost internet services is part of its mission.

Bill Callahan, director of Connect Your Community, acknowledges that not everyone speaks fluent DSL. For illustration purposes, 6 mbps is hell on YouTube or Netflix. Three mbps is even worse, turning your average PDF download into a chore. At 25 mbps and up, the new AT&T standard

in Northeast Ohio’s more affluent suburbs, it feels like gliding on ice.

In 2017, the FCC assumes 25 mbps as a legitimate level of broadband service that ought to be everywhere.

“In general, we try to figure out a way to make the fact that 50 percent of Cleveland low-income households don’t have internet access — and a similar number in Detroit — an actionable issue,” Callahan says.

He and his partner organizations initially wanted to help get 5,000 people signed up for the AT&T program.

The organizations began looking at FCC Census block data to determine which households would be eligible for which tier of the new AT&T program and soon found out that most customers simply weren’t eligible at all. Throughout the city of Cleveland, households and businesses languish on internet speeds of 1.5 mbps or .768 kbps — and they were often paying more than the $5 per month that AT&T was offering customers at higher speeds. Callahan was surprised. “What we realized when we did the map was, hey, that’s a fifth of the city,” he tells Scene.

“Obviously what the FCC thought was that everybody has 3 mbps service.”

Scattered news coverage at the time, including a story by CNN, forced AT&T’s hand; the company extended its $5-per-month offer to users who were operating at sluggish speeds. The central problem, though — Cleveland neighborhoods’ lack of high-speed internet access — was not addressed. The big picture demonstrates that this was always the plan. And those homes aren’t getting upgrades anytime soon.

Through the AT&T Access experience last summer, a window to the company’s history of broadband

Photo by Eric Sandy

FEATURE

Howard Barksdale, 66, works through a class at Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center.

deployment was opened. If wide swaths of low-income families were stuck with low-speed internet in spite of clear-cut demand — if more than 20 percent of a major American city was being left behind on the digital superhighway — then something must have gone wrong.

Surely the market would have course-corrected by now, right?

L O A DIN G...

Most at-home internet users in Cuyahoga County know that the two major service providers around here are AT&T, which offers its U-Verse package, and Spectrum, which was born recently out of Charter Communications’ acquisition of Time Warner Cable. In many neighborhoods in Cleveland, Spectrum is the sole option. There’s a simple reason for that.

Let’s roll the tape.

Before Spectrum, there was Time Warner Cable. Before Time Warner, there was Adelphia, which purchased CableVision for $1.5 billion in 2000.

At that time, Adelphia went to city

council for approval of its franchise and agreed to do a citywide upgrade to CableVision’s digital services on every block. Back then, ISPs had to negotiate terms with municipalities; it’s what’s called “home rule.” The public, in theory, has the upper hand.

Within two years there was a cable system passing through every address in the city. To date, under Spectrum, you can get internet speeds of 50 mbps anywhere in

Cleveland. You may not be able to afford anything close to that, but it’s there.

The marketplace theory goes like this: Cable competition would naturally lower prices and, on a long enough timeline, produce the highest quality product for the broadest customer base.

As internet technology evolved and companies like AT&T sought to expand in cities like Cleveland, home rule was seen more and

more as an obstacle to innovation.

Let the companies do their work unburdened, the thinking in the Statehouse went, and we’ll see real competition. The end users will reap the bounty of the marketplace.

Anyone reading the headlines in states like Ohio and Michigan 10 years ago would have gotten that impression. Senate Bill 117 was working its way through the state legislature, proposing to eliminate the municipal franchising of cable television providers, to eliminate home rule with respect to cable and internet providers. AT&T lobbied vigorously in support of the bill.

But the bill, which postured to open up the marketplace, inherently allowed providers to pick and choose which parts of a municipality they wanted to serve. Mayor Frank Jackson, a career proponent of home rule, and city council naturally opposed the bill. Never mind the fact that city council would go on to appoint then-State Rep. Eugene Miller, who voted yea on SB 117, to a council seat within a few years.

Miller is not alone among proSB 117 politicians with deep ties to the Cleveland area: State legislators who approved the elimination of municipal cable franchising include Cuyahoga County Executive

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

15

Courtesy of National Digital Inclusion Alliance

FEATURE

Armond Budish, Cuyahoga County Councilman Dale Miller, Cuyahoga County Sustainability Director Mike Foley, State Sen. Mike Skindell (a one-time candidate for Lakewood mayor), former State Sen. Shirley Smith (a one-time candidate for the Cuyahoga County executive) and so on.

In fact, every Democrat and nearly every Republican in the General Assembly in 2007 approved the bill. Only State Rep. Thomas Brinkman (R-Mt. Lookout) and former State Rep. Jeff Wagner (R-Sycamore) opposed.

Budish, in fact, co-sponsored the final legislation, opening the gates for internet service providers to call the shots.

“In other words,” Callahan tells Scene, “SB 117 was an open invitation to Ohio telcos and cable providers building the next generation of IP — internet as well as TV — services to cherry-pick some communities and redline others.”

As part of the SB 117 passage, the Ohio Revised Code now reads: “Ohio’s economy will be enhanced by investment in new communications and video programming infrastructure, including fiber optic and internet protocol technologies. … Increased competition in the provision of video service will provide new and more video programming choices for consumers in this state, and new providers have stated their desire to supply that

16

service.”

A decade later, that has not panned out.

In 2010, the situation concretized when the Statehouse declared that the internet was not a public utility. The Public Utility Commission of Ohio was stripped of its oversight, as well.

Local governments were even further removed from the supposed market.

An AT&T spokesperson confirmed to Scene that the company has invested “nearly $1.5 billion in our Ohio wireless and wired networks during 2013-2015, with more than $325 million of that in Cleveland.”

But from 2007 to 2009, the company had invested a greater amount: $1.6 billion statewide.

A 2013 presentation to the Select Committee on Telecommunications Regulatory Reform demonstrated how the negative effects of the PUCO bill took hold almost immediately: Private investment decreased, telecom employment decreased in Ohio more than any other Great Lakes state, service rates increased and service complaints received

by PUCO increased (especially for AT&T services). Despite all of that, home broadband adoption increased 16 percent from 2008 to 2012. The demand is always there, not unlike the market for utilities like electricity, but the regulation of resources was gone.

“The whole point of 2007 was to eliminate the monopoly,” Callahan says. “Classic utility thing. You

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

either have regulation or you have competition, right? It turns out that regulation is the way you get competition.”

L O A DIN G...

With the long history of Ohio’s “cable competition” legislation as its backbone, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance released a report this past winter that shows how AT&T willfully expanded its high-speed internet services in Cleveland and left the city’s poorest neighborhoods to languish with sluggish technologies. The organization uses the term “digital redlining,” and a series of maps reinforces the point.

Using records and data provided to the FCC, the NDIA designed several maps that show where AT&T’s highest and lowest internet speeds are offered. As AT&T developed its technology and rolled out improved services, neighborhoods like Hough, Glenville, Central and Fairfax — where the poverty rate runs higher than elsewhere in the city — were excluded.

Between 2008 and 2013, according to NDIA, AT&T outfitted Cleveland with optical fiber extensions and VRAD cabinets — the infrastructure that would support its new U-Verse technology.

Here’s how it works: The U-Verse system has fiber cables traveling

from all but four wire centers in Cleveland to central cabinets located in neighborhoods around the city.

The wire center at West 65th and Madison, for instance, has never been outfitted with this “fiber to the node” technology; if you live in Detroit Shoreway, which was a differentlooking neighborhood during the U-Verse roll-out, AT&T’s high-speed internet isn’t an option.

The four wire centers that AT&T excluded from its U-Verse infrastructure aren’t located anywhere near wealthier suburban customer bases: West 65th Street and Madison Avenue, 5400 Prospect Ave., 2130 East 107th St. and 12223 St. Clair Ave. Indeed, not all of Cleveland or Cuyahoga County is served equally by this fiber-based U-Verse infrastructure, flying in the face of SB 117 hopes and wishes — and despite a state provision that prohibits cable companies from discriminating against a particular customer base: “[N]o video service provider shall deny access to video service to any group of potential residential subscribers in its video service area because of the race or income of the residents in the local area in which the group resides.”

Homes with access to internet download speeds of 18 mbps or more are found in the outlying areas of the county, and most of Cleveland is left with significantly slower access. This discrepancy hampers

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FEATURE

AT&T is not alone in the benefits it reaps from a lack of municipal franchise competition. Time Warner, which has since been acquired by any number of quality-of-life issues Charter Communications, canceled relating to employment opportunities, long-standing agreements forged homework, job training and state between predecessor Adelphia and bureaucratic activities. (“You’re either the city of Cleveland to maintain its employed or you’re trying to be,” institutional network. When Charter Callahan said.) The “digital divide” is bought Time Warner and created a real thing.

Spectrum, the city of Cleveland could “There’s going to be all these do nothing but watch. people who are applying for In April 2017, the FCC terminated unemployment in your districts, the acquisition clause that mandated and you’re going to be telling them that Charter build out its internet to drive to a library,” Callahan says. service (inherited from Time Warner “Good luck, right?” here in Cleveland) to 1 million Since 2013, though, AT&T has customers who already had access to moved on to different types of a competing service (like AT&T). internet access There is no technology, and competition by all accounts between Spectrum is no longer and AT&T, since deploying AT&T has simply that sort of decided not to U-Verse “fiber outfit particular to the node” neighborhoods infrastructure, with its internet meaning that services. there are no That’s the point, improvements Callahan argues, in sight for of SB 117. Get the Cleveland’s city out of the — Bill Callahan poorest way, and private neighborhoods. companies can The areas that were not built out with do as they please. It’s “a feature, not fiber infrastructure will be unable a bug” of Ohio’s telecommunications to join a future theoretical 5G data laws, he says. FCC trends show that, system or, say, the mostly abandoned soon enough, oversight will become Google Fiber project. completely consolidated at the federal “The national context of this level. is that AT&T basically gave up on Logan Martinez, writing for The this deployment and changed its Columbus Institute for Contemporary business model,” Callahan says.

Journalism in May 2007, called the “There’s nothing random about shot: “SB 117 allows cable companies this. The decision to [build out to redline, targeting wealthy and fiber infrastructure] in some wire middle class neighborhoods for centers and not others is a deliberate service, avoiding low income and planning decision. This has nothing working class neighborhoods.” to do with customer demand; they had no idea what the customer L O A DIN G... demand was going to be when they did this. It’s a decision built on the If one were to take a brief detour characteristics of the neighborhoods. south on I-75, one would arrive in In general, I would say that means Chattanooga, Tennessee (population poverty.”

173,000), where 58 percent of the A spokesperson from AT&T population is white and 35 percent of responded to Scene in March, shortly after the NDIA report was the population is black. released: “Access to the internet In 2010, the southern Tennessee is essential, which is why we’ve city became the first area in the U.S. continuously invested in expanding to be wired by a municipality for 1 service and enhancing speeds. The gbps fiber-optic internet service. In report does not accurately reflect the 2015, the city began offering 10 gbps investment we’ve made in bringing service. This is the absolute cream faster internet to urban and rural of ISP technology. (For comparison, areas across the U.S. While we are Spectrum maxes out at 300 mbps, investing in broadband, we’re also less than 25 percent of the rate that investing in technologies that will Chattanooga residents experience. mitigate some of the infrastructure Returning to Glenville, internet users limitations.” there trudge along at less than 1

“This has nothing to do with customer demand. It’s a decision built on the characteristics of the neighborhood. In general, I would say that means poverty.”

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FEATURE percent of Chattanoogaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rate.)

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;the fastest, cheapest and most pervasive internet infrastructure in the country,â&#x20AC;? according to Digital Câ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lev Gonick here in Cleveland.

In upgrading Chattanoogaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s electrical grid in 2009, municipal power company EPB laid ďŹ ber optic cable to each consumerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home simultaneously. This was the groundwork for Chattanoogaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s revelatory move. The logistics are almost too simple in hindsight; EPB already had access to the right-of-way needed to run ďŹ ber. At the time, most Chattanooga consumers were using Comcastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s internet access, which came at a drastically slower speed and a much higher price.

After working to set up the ďŹ ber infrastructure, Chattanooga sought out companies like Google and Apple and various capital venture ďŹ rms. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We tried a lot of things, and it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work,â&#x20AC;?

Chattanooga mayor Andy Berke said at a recent City Club of Cleveland event.

(As an aside, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Logan almost, to Gonick in the audience, Berke audibly said â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ughâ&#x20AC;? when considering speeds of 15 mbps in the Cleveland area, one one-hundredth of his cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s speed.)

Chattanooga is a ďŹ ne example, but there are now almost 500 communities in the U.S. offering publicly owned internet services. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even in places where private companies provide high-speed service, a public internet option may prove increasingly vital to lowincome residents,â&#x20AC;? The Nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Peter Moskowitz wrote last year.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing stopping Cleveland from heading down that path. Callahan even wrote in 2007 on his blog: â&#x20AC;&#x153;If there was ever a good reason for Cleveland to hesitate to build our own community-owned, multi-user network infrastructure, that reason is now history.â&#x20AC;? Cleveland Public Power, the successor of Muny Light â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that public utility that former mayor Dennis Kucinich so vigorously fought for in the 1970s â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is here already. (Callahan told Scene last fall: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The other obvious option is itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s another argument for the city to build its own. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really the only thing cities can do anymore. Right now, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no prohibition on this

city building an internet system.â&#x20AC;?)

Because of the structure of Ohioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s laws (and the laws passed elsewhere), digital giants like AT&T and Comcast have little incentive to upgrade their infrastructure in low-income neighborhoods â&#x20AC;&#x201D; never mind the demand and feasible affordability.

The fact remains, and telecom giants donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like when people point out the demand curve.

Comcast has sued the city of Chattanooga twice in an effort to stop the municipally owned infrastructure development. The public won. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s possible.

L O A DIN G...

The NDIA headlines â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which may have made the rounds on suburban Facebook pages this winter, inspiring ďŹ ts of outrage and sad and red-face emojis â&#x20AC;&#x201D; werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t your classic frontpage revelations in neighborhoods like Glenville. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People have been saying, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Oh, did you read the redlining report?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Oh, well, we knew that,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? Wanda Davis says, describing the conversations that have taken place since NDIA revealed Martinez its ďŹ ndings. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sort of taken for granted in Glenville. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been redlined before between ďŹ nancial institutions and insurance institutions and reinvestment portfolios ... . All of the older seniors kinda know from the years of redlining by other companies; they say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Well, Ms. Davis, we could have told you that.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;When we started doing it, the internet was not a thing; email was barely a thing in general culture.

This was basically about how to use a word processor or you couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t function economically,â&#x20AC;? Callahan says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the fact that you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t apply for a job.â&#x20AC;?

Neighborhoods like Glenville are stuck in digital time now. Because thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no ďŹ ber infrastructure in place, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no way for future technologies to access these places without rolling out a near-total overhaul of the system â&#x20AC;&#x201D; something that telecom companies can avoid, because thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no government compelling them to do so.

The poor stay poor; the rich binge Stranger Things.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;S.B. 117 allows cable companies to redline ... avoiding low income and working class neighborhoods.â&#x20AC;?

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THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2017 GLAMJAMCLE.COM

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

everything you should do this week

GET OUT WED

04/12

SPORTS

Cavaliers vs. Toronto Raptors The Cavaliers conclude the regular season tonight at the Q with a game against Eastern Conference rivals, the Toronto Raptors. If all goes according to plan, the Cavs and Raptors might meet again in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Cavs have had the Raptors’ number this season and haven’t lost to them yet.

Expect tonight’s game to bring out the best in both teams. The action begins at 8. Tickets start at $133.

(Jeff Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, theqarena.com.

SPOKEN WORD

Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties Cleveland Stories Dinner Party, a weekly series at the Music Box Supper Club, pairs fine food with storytelling and helps raise awareness of the mission of the Western Reserve Historical Society’s new Cleveland History Center.

The club’s owners consider the Cleveland History Center to be “one of the most interesting museums in Cleveland” and “an unknown gem that Clevelanders should know more about and support.” The goal is to bring to life some of the fun, interesting stories about Cleveland’s past — from sports, to rock ’n’ roll, to Millionaires’ Row. Each week features a free guest speaker; add a custom prix fixe dinner — a full three course meal — for only $20.

Dinner is served at 6, and the storytelling begins at 7. Tonight, Cleveland-based recording engineer and producer Tom Anderson talks about working with Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, Supertramp, America, Hoyt Axton and others.

The featured three-course dinner includes cream of (Wings) soup, a Grateful Dead burrito bowl and Blue Moon(dance) ice cream. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.

SPOKEN WORD

The Color of Creation, the Creation of Color For the ancient Egyptians, in the beginning there was nothing except a dark expanse of endless water.

And then, with creation, there was color! Today at 5:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s recital

Dyngus Day returns to Ohio City and Tremont: See Monday.

hall, CWRU’s Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities and the CMA co-sponsor a talk by Gay Robins, professor of art history at Emory University. Robins, a noted scholar in ancient Egyptian art, delivers a talk exploring the complex artistic intermingling of color, mythology and politics in the Egyptian culture.

Robins is the author of The Art of Ancient Egypt and has served on Emory’s faculty for almost 30 years.

The event is free, but registration is recommended at the website below.

(Lawrence Neil) 11150 East Blvd., 216-368-2242, humanities.case.edu.

MUSIC

FILM

Zakir Hussain and Rahul Sharma The preeminent tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain teams up with santoor player Rahul Sharma for a program of Indian classical music at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Part of the museum’s Performing Art series, the concert will feature music from the duo’s extensive catalog — Sharma alone has released more than 60 albums.

It begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $48 to $62. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

A Stray A homeless Somali refugee living in Minneapolis adopts a stray dog and subsequently struggles to find anyone who will provide him with a place to stay. And yet, he becomes fiercely attached to the animal.

That’s the storyline of A Stray, an acclaimed indie drama from director Musa Syeed (Valley of Saints). The movie makes its Cleveland premiere tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it shows again at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $9, or $7 for CMA members, seniors and students. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

SPORTS FILM

Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3-D The cult classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon centers on the discovery of a mysterious half-man, half-fish creature on an expedition deep into a remote jungle. The film screens tonight at 7 at the Capitol Theatre as part of the Cleveland Cinemas’ Reel Science series. Michael Ryan, curator and head of vertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, will introduce the film and lead a discussion. Tickets are $7.50, or $5 for Cleveland Cinemas Marquee Rewards members. (Jeff Niesel) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com.

Indians vs. Chicago White Sox The Cleveland Indians resumed their quest to return to the World Series last week as they opened the regular season on the road against the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Today at 6:10 p.m., at Progressive Field, the team goes up against division rivals, the Chicago White Sox. If anything, the Tribe has only improved with the addition of slugger Edwin Encarnacion and a healthy Michael Brantley. Tickets start at $13; the two teams go at again tomorrow night at 6:10. Those tickets also start at $13. (Niesel) 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com.

THU

04/13

ART

A Community Workshop In preparation for Ingenuity Cleveland’s upcoming annual benefit, Bal: Aquatique, the organization is hosting a series of four community workshops to help create items centered around this year’s underwater theme. Tonight from 6 to 8:30 you can help turn part of Ingenuity’s campus into an aquaticthemed maze. And from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, you can create shower cap jellyfish. No experience is necessary, and all materials will be | clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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GET OUT provided. To sign up, email annie@ ingenuitycleveland.org. Details are on the website. (Josh Usmani) 5401 Hamilton Ave., 216-589-9444, ingenuitycleveland.org.

piano at age 4 and was, at the time, the youngest person taking classes in Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, appears at 7:30 tonight at Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall for a solo recital

a.m. to 5 p.m. today and tomorrow, the Akron Art Museum hosts an art book sale that includes brand-new exhibition catalogs and art-related texts, as well as collectible books, some signed by the authors. While

COMEDY

Cool TLC A veteran comic, local hero Cool TLC has worked the Cleveland scene for years now. During that time, he’s shared the stage with national acts such as Eddie Griffin, Bruce Bruce, Snoop Dogg and Patti Labelle. The rowdy, fast-talking comedian regularly punctuates his live show with singing and dancing as he brings an excessive amount of energy to the stage. He performs tonight at 7:30 at the Improv. Tickets are $15. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

FILM

SCHEDULE ALL FILMS START AT 7 PM | ROCK HALL’S FOSTER THEATER

WED.

SPOKEN WORD

History on Tap From 5 to 8 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month, the Cleveland History Center features History on Tap, complete with happy hour refreshments, light hors d’oeuvres and hands-on activities.

Each event focuses on a special theme inspired by the city’s history.

Tonight’s edition is Comics & Comedy, a fun-filled frolic through Cleveland’s comedic past. Enjoy interactive games and activities, and laugh-inducing tours of the Bingham-Hanna Mansion. Tickets are $7 in advance, or $10 at the door.

Tickets for WRHS members and students with ID are only $5. (Niesel) 10825 East Blvd., 216-721-5722, wrhs.org.

MUSIC

Zak Piano Recital Pianist Albert Zak, a virtuoso performer who began to play the

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WED.

Thur.

Tupac Live at the House of Blues & see the new 2017 Inductee exhibit

Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove Celebrating the Summer of Love 50th anniversary

A Hard Day’s Night Beatles. Classic.

CASH BAR available at each film

FREE for Members • Non-Members $5.50

SPORTS

Monsters vs. Manitoba Moose For Thursday games at the Q, the Cleveland Monsters offer a special deal for college students. Students with a proper ID can buy tickets for just six bucks, and score a $6 College Meal Deal with a hot dog, chips and a soda. Tonight’s opponent: the Manitoba Moose. The game begins at 7 p.m. and tickets start at $10.

The two teams face each other again tomorrow night at 7. Those tickets also start at $10. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, theqarena.com.

on all the usual late-night talk shows and toured his ass off. Though his delivery is much more manic, the thirtysomething comic comes off a bit like Jerry Seinfeld as he jokes about the trials and tribulations of getting through everyday life.

Cummins performs tonight at 7:30 at Hilarities, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday. Tickets start at $20. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

1100 Rock and Roll Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44114 | rockhall.com | 216.781.ROCK

that includes works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Debussy. Tickets are $20 to $50. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

FRI

04/14

you’re at the museum, don’t forget to check out the current exhibitions, including Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose. Museum admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, and free for children 17 and under. (Usmani) 1 South High St., Akron, 330-376-9185, akronartmuseum.org.

SHOPPING

Art Book Sale Anyone who has taken an art history class in college, or visited a museum gift shop, knows how expensive art books can be. From 11

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

ART

Dan Cummins In the past several years, comic Dan Cummins has been extremely busy.

He’s released three albums, appeared

Downtown 81 Artist Jean Michel Basquiat plays a role in Downtown 81, a film about the ultra-hip subculture of post-punk era Manhattan. Shot in the early ’80s but left unfinished until the early 2000s, the movie screens tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art in conjunction with the museum’s current Basquiat exhibition. Tickets are $11, $8 for CMA members, students and seniors. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

THEATER

Flanagan’s Wake Now in its fifth year running in Cleveland, Flanagan’s Wake transports the audience to a wake in Ireland where villagers tell tales and sing songs for their dearly departed Flanagan. Finding the humor in life and death, the wake acts as a dark backdrop to an otherwise hilarious show in which alcohol fuels the humorous reminiscing. A sort of tragic Tony ’n’ Tina’s Wedding, the interactive and improvised show engages the entire audience as the guests are treated as the friends and family of the deceased. The show starts at 8 tonight and plays again tomorrow night at 8 at Kennedy’s Theatre. Tickets are $26. (Patrick Stoops) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

SPORTS

Indians vs. Detroit Tigers Last year, the Cleveland Indians matched up well against the Detroit Tigers and rarely lost to the division foe. The Tigers just missed the playoffs, and the Tribe not only won the division but even advanced all the way to the World Series. Expect last year’s poor showing against the Tribe to weigh heavily on the Tigers’ minds as the two teams renew their rivalry tonight at 7:10 at Progressive Field as they begin a three-game series. Tickets start at $13. (Niesel) 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com.

COMEDY

SPORTS

Norm MacDonald It’s easy to appreciate comedian Norm MacDonald’s dry, deadpan humor on TV, but he’s even better in his live performances. Nothing is off limits to him, and topics range from death and defibrillators to what it’s like having a gay son in Harvard. His twisted, yet highly logical, observations on the most mundane occurrences are what make him so funny. He appears at Hard Rock Live tonight at 8. Tickets are $25 to $45. (Liz Trenholme) 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7771, hrrocksinonorthfieldpark.com.

Gladiators vs. Baltimore Brigade The Cleveland Gladiators, part of the struggling Arena Football League, go up against the Baltimore Brigade tonight at 7 at the Q. The league has diminished over the past couple of years and only a few teams remain, the Gladiators being one of them.

The high-scoring games can be good fun, and tonight’s game features concession specials that include $1 sodas and $2 draft beers. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, theqarena.com.

BURLESQUE

Twirly Whirly Burly-Q A burlesque extravaganza that aspires to capture the glory days of vintage New York striptease, Twirly Whirly Burly-Q embarked on two successful tours in 2016. Now the troupe is back on the road with performers Ula Uberbusen, Rosie Cheeks and Boo Bess. “Working as a team of strong and talented women means that we empower each other to create entertaining and thought-provoking theater,” says Ula Uberbusen in a press release.

Tonight’s show starts at 8:30 at the Beachland Ballroom. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, $15 for reserved seating and $25 for VIP. (Niesel) 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.

SAT

04/15

SPOKEN WORD

A Panel Discussion In conjunction with the exhibition From San Juan to the Cuyahoga: Artist Books from Ediciones Vigia (Cuba), Waterloo Arts hosts a panel discussion with exhibit organizer Laura Ruiz Montes, Cleveland collaborator Damaris Punales Alpizar, CAN Journal editor, publisher and executive director Michael Gill, and others from Cleveland’s small press literary and artist book publishing community.

The panel discussion takes place at 3 p.m. today. Montes, the exhibit organizer and editor of Ediciones Vigia, is in Cleveland as part of the Cleveland Foundation’s Creative Fusion international artist residency program. Hosted by CAN Journal, Montes will spend her residency interviewing Latino artists in Cleveland, and her writings will appear bilingually on CAN’s blog and in future issues. The exhibition remains on view through May 19.

Admission is free. (Usmani) 15605 Waterloo Rd., 216-692-9500, waterlooarts.org.

MUSIC

FILM

Behind Glass The second edition of Behind Glass, a new series devoted to “forward-thinking electronic and electroacoustic music,” takes place tonight at 9 at Coda in Tremont.

Quicksails’ Ben Billington, an electronic musician originally from the Cleveland area who has spent the past decade of his life in Chicago, headlines. A percussionist and synthesizer wiz, he’s touring behind Mortal, his first LP for Chicago label Hausu Mountain.

Oberlin composer/sound artist/ visual artist Sarah Snider and experimental musician/instrument builder/sound artist Fluxmonkey open. Doors open at 9. Tickets are $12 at the door, $10 in advance.

(Niesel) 2247 Professor Ave., 216-274-1200, coda.danteboccuzzi.com.

Repo Man Cleveland Cinemas’ Late Shift series, a program dedicated to the nostalgic cult and camp cinema that we love and cherish even though it’s certainly not Oscar-worthy material, has been a fixture at the local chain of theaters since 2006. The 2017 schedule continues tonight with Repo Man, a caper about a car thief (Emilio Esteves) who becomes a repo man at the behest of a man named Bud (Harry Dean Stanton). It screens at midnight tonight at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets are $6. (Niesel) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com.

APR IL 21, 20 1 7

FREE LIVE MUSIC AT 14 DOWNTOWN KENT, OH VENUES! ONE NIGHT ONLY!

SCHEDULE 101 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL (115 N. WILLOW ST.) 7:30 to 9:30 PM: Xela 157 LOUNGE (157 S. WATER ST.) 8 to 10 PM: Danny Jah BENT TREE COFFEE ROASTERS (313 N. WATER ST.) 4 to 7 PM: G.S. Schray BUFFALO WILD WINGS (176 E. MAIN ST.) 7 to 10 PM: Gypsies In The Palace

RAY’S PLACE (135 FRANKLIN AVE.) 9:30 PM to 12:30 AM: The Cliftones

DAVE'S COSMIC SUBS (215 S. WATER ST.) 5 to 7 PM: Dreadlock Dave of Waterband

TREE CITY COFFEE & PASTRY (135 E. ERIE ST.) 7 to 10 PM: Rhodes St Rude Boys

DOMINICK’S PUB (147 FRANKLIN AVE.) 9 PM to 1 AM: Outlaws I & I FRANKLIN HOTEL BAR (176 E. MAIN ST.) 6:30 to 9:30 PM: Erynn Krebs Steel Drum Duo

VENICE CAFÉ (163 W. ERIE ST.) 8 to 11 PM: JiMiller Band

THE LOFT (112 W. MAIN ST.) 8 PM to MIDNIGHT: Raymon & The Ganjauthorities

WATER STREET TAVERN (132 S. WATER ST.) 7 to 9 PM: Joel Colvendar 9:30 PM to 12 AM: 40oz to Freedom

THE PUB (401 FRANKLIN AVE.) 6 to 8 PM: Raw Sugar

ZEPHYR PUB (106 W. MAIN ST.) 8 to 10:30 PM: Human Nature

FILM

The Void The Void, a new horror film from directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski, comes off as much | clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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10.00HalOf FF the Marathon

more ambitious in scope than a standard horror flick; unfortunately, those high ambitions cause the film to miss a few of the targets it aims at. The film uses a familiar horror setup: After police officer Carter (Aaron Poole) finds a bloodied man on a deserted road, Carter transports him to a run-down hospital. Soon thereafter, creepy hooded figures surround the hospital, locking the strangers inside together. They have two choices: Work together to survive the night, or die. Once the film moves past the cliches it has set up, it begins to build tension and becomes engaging on its own terms.

It screens tonight at midnight at the Capitol Theatre. Regular admission rates apply. (Johnny Cook) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com.

Soul, featured rare soul and R&B music that came out in the ’70s on the Columbus-based Capsoul label.

Now Numero owners have just announced a series of pop-up stores.

The “traveling record roadshow” will consist of “two guys, a box truck and seven pallets teeming with Numero LPs, CDs, 45s, T-shirts, books and other additional miscellany your local record store isn’t carrying.”

In addition to offering an array of “crispy, low cost” Numero titles and “slightly damaged remainders (at blowout prices),” they’ll hawk their as-yet-unannounced Record Store Day titles, a tour-only tape and four city-specific singles. The pop-up shop comes to Space: Rock Gallery today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Niesel) 15721 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.

MON

04/17

CELEBRATION

SUN

04/16

FOOD

Gospel Brunch The monthly Gospel Brunch has been a spiritual Sunday staple for years at the House of Blues.

Curated by famed gospel singer Kirk Franklin, the recently reinvigorated show puts a bit more emphasis on the music. This week, the local artist Lafayette Carthon and Faith performs. The all-you-caneat musical extravaganza features Southern classics like chicken jambalaya, biscuits and gravy, and chicken and waffles. It takes place at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tickets are $40.

(Niesel) 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.

SHOPPING

Pop-Up Shop Founded in 2003, the Chicago-based Numero Group aims to research and preserve obscure releases by artists who had little commercial success. The mission statement: “To dig deep into the recesses of our record collections with the goal of finding the dustiest gems begging to be released from their exile on geek street. No longer would $500 singles sit in a temperature-controlled room dying for a chance to be played.

No more would the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who made these records happen go unknown and unappreciated.” Over the years, the label has reissued several albums by artists with ties to Ohio. In fact, the label’s first release, Eccentric

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

Dyngus Day Easter Monday in Cleveland has come to mean Dyngus Day, a Polish celebration also known as lany poniedziałek. The festivities begin today at 10 a.m. and continue until 2 a.m. in Ohio City, Hingetown and Tremont. At 4:30 p.m. at Kishka’s Beer Heaven Tent at West 58th Street and Detroit, a Miss Dyngus pageant will take place. An accordion parade follows at 6 p.m. This year, Tremont will offer even more ethnic food specials to celebrate the event.

Prosperity Social Club will offer up a special menu that includes cabbage rolls, ethnic platters and kielbaski corn dogs. Other Dyngus Day specials include sauteed pierogi from Sokolowski’s University Inn and bigos (a Polish hunter’s stew) at Tremont Tap House. The easy listening trio Malphonia and legendary accordionist Stan Mejac will perform at Prosperity, the five-piece polka ensemble Visinata and DJ Kishka will perform at South Side and the Jimmy Daye & Ethnic Jazz Ensemble will perform at Sokolowski’s. Also this year, Tremont will offer its own free in-neighborhood shuttle. The Cleveland Brew Bus will run continuously between 1 and 8 p.m., stopping at Tremont Tap House, Prosperity Social Club, Roosevelt Veterans’ Post 58, the South Side and Sokolowski’s University Inn. (Niesel) clevelanddyngus.com.

FOOD

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

Best of Cleveland is our chance to recognize the people and businesses that drive the renaissance of this amazing city. And when we asked you to help us pick the best of the best, you didn't disappoint. You know this city better than anyone else.

You are, after all, what makes Cleveland.

Enjoy local bites, funky cocktails and some of our best local entertainers

Friday, June 23 / 7-10:30pm / FWD Day & Nightclub Tickets onSale n Now SCENEBESTOFPARTY.com

| cl cclevescene.com leevveesscceenee.com .ccom m | April Apr prililil 12 12 - 18, 18, 20 18 20177 2017

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day off. Not that you have to work in the restaurant industry to indulge.

The menu features items such as Chicken & 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

Monday Night Trivia Do you have tons of obscure music knowledge? Are you a student of fast food menus and their nuanced histories? What say you about the geographic evolution of Scotch whisky? Tonight’s your chance to wow your friends, make yourself instantly more desirable to someone you’re newly dating, and hang with Cleveland’s headiest hipsters and hot dog lovers. It’s the Happy Dog Monday Night Trivia. Starting at 8 p.m., expect themed rounds — it’s a crapshoot — and general knowledge questions that seem considerably trickier than some of the other live trivia locales in town.

Obviously, have a hot dog and a craft brew while you’re at it. And arrive early. The tables fill up quickly. (Sam Allard) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com.

FILM

Movie Mondays Every Monday, Cleveland Cinemas hosts $5 Movie Mondays, where film fans can catch up on the latest Hollywood flicks for significantly reduced prices. Bring your friends and family and make Movie Mondays a weekly tradition — many theaters even offer discounted concession stand items. Participating theaters include Apollo Theatre, Capitol Theatre, Cedar Lee Theatre, Chagrin Cinemas, Shaker Square Cinemas and Tower City Cinemas. Unfortunately, additional charges apply for 3D movies. (Alaina Nutile) clevelandcinemas.com.

TUE

04/18

MUSIC

Classical Revolution Cleveland For many years, classical music

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT

WITH

wasn’t intended for the masses.

Seemingly reserved for quasiexclusive concert halls, classical music hid from the outside world.

Classical Revolution Cleveland helps tear down that wall and once again bring great chamber music to the people. Showcasing a variety of performers in bars, cafes and the like, it’s actually not that different from how people used to listen to chamber music. The third Tuesday of every month, CRC brings its music to the Euclid Tavern.

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. Full of immensely talented performers, CRC re-instills the relevancy of this vibrant art form. Tonight’s free, all-ages performance starts at 8. (Stoops) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com.

recent Jack White album became the fastest-selling vinyl album since Nielsen Soundscan began compiling vinyl sales figures in 1991. Jukebox owner Alex Budin has described his 1,350-squarefoot music-focused bar in the Hingetown ’hood as “a place where people can expect to hear and learn about music of multiple genres, all of which is concentrated in a constantly evolving jukebox.”

In keeping with that spirit and recognizing the burgeoning popularity of vinyl, the club hosts a vinyl night every Tuesday that serves as a listening party for new releases. The place has partnered with Loop in Tremont so that patrons can hear a new album on vinyl. You can bring your own vinyl and spin it too. We love the concept. It all starts at 7 p.m.

(Niesel) 1404 West 29th St., 216-206-7699, jukeboxcle.com.

NIGHTLIFE

Vinyl Night While sales of CDs continue to decline, vinyl has seen a resurgence. In fact, the most

Find more events @clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

Fressh froom thee premmierre in loondonn’s west ennd!

The 10th annual baldwin wallace university / playhouse square collaboration

YOU

by steven cheslik-demeyer, tim maner & alan stevens hewitt

“This is the greatest American musical since Sweeney Todd... the entire show is a spectacular rock concert.”– British Theatre

APRIL 28-30

Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square

written by MOSS HART & GEORGE S. KAUFMAN www.karamuhouse.org | 216.795.7077

April 20 - May 7 28

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

216-241-6000

playhousesquare.org

PRESENT:

The 6th Annual

DOWNTOWN WILLOUGHBY

RIB BURN OFF Tickets On Sale Now! Presented by SCENE

Saturday May 20, Noon-11p

SUNDAY May 21, Noon-8p

Presented by DTW Bar & Restaurant Association & SCENE

BEST OF CLEVELAND PARTY

DTW RIB BURN OFF

You nominated your favorite people and places, where to go for that perfect bowl of pho, the bartender who makes the perfect drink, your favorite sports player and much more.

These were then narrowed down, voted upon and now we get to celebrate all of those named the Best Of Cleveland for 2017! Enjoy craft cocktails + music while meeting some of our Best Of winners for this year. Let's celebrate what makes Cleveland the place we call home.

In its 6th year, this event has become the most anticipated event to take place in Downtown Willoughby. This two-day event is going to rock this town with three stages featuring live music, plus vendors and a complete kidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s zone plus beer & craft cocktails, and, of course, ribs from participating Downtown Willoughby restaurants & national vendors.

scenebestofparty.com

Friday, June 23 | 7-10:30pm @ FWD Day & Nightclub

dtwribburnoff.com

Saturday, May 20 Noon-11p & Sunday, May 21 Noon-8p @ Downtown Willoughby

Ninth Annual

A SCENE MAGAZINE EVENT

ALEFEST

MAY 26, 27 & 28

8C:G ' Â&#x2019; ( > %( >

Presented by Flats East Bank & SCENE

Presented by SCENE

TASTE OF SUMMER

ALEFEST

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to summer and Taste of Summer is the perfect opportunity for people to get outside and enjoy the weather. This event will feature food, local music, craft cocktails, beer, local vendors, Cavs and Indians on the big screen and activities for all ages.

The 9th Annual SCENE Magazine Ale Fest will feature over 100 beers from around the corner to around the globe. The celebration is packed with your favorite porters, stouts, pilasters,ales, wheats, Belgians, ciders, and lagers just to name a few. Ale Fest has live music, interactive games, food booths, local vendors and more.

May 26-28 @ Flats East Bank

Saturday, July 29 1p @ Lincoln Park in Tremont

scenetasteofsummer.com

scenealefestival.com

Tickets On Sale Now!

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 | April 12 - 18, 2017

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ART COLOR ME PASSIONATE Garrett Weider had a revelation and brought a new artistic focus to Cleveland

By Josh Usmani ALMOST EXACTLY EIGHT YEARS ago, local artist Garrett Weider was laid off from his job at American Greetings. Turning an obstacle into an opportunity, Weider pursued his personal creative interests, freelancing and creating largescale murals filled with imagery celebrating his hometown.

Weider returned to American Greetings in 2011, and has

happily worked part-time for the past six years.

That interim, however, became a catalyst for his artistic career, and in hindsight his efforts were perfectly timed to parallel Cleveland’s renaissance. Now arguably one of the most recognizable artists in the region, Weider’s trademark style takes a new direction with his first exhibition of painted vinyl records, opening at Loop this week as part of Walkabout Tremont.

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“I took a few weeks and drove across the country, I made a big loop to the West Coast and back, staying in different cities along the way,” Weider says of his time away from American Greetings. “It was a weird time, no job and my girlfriend just dumped me. But at the same time,

it was like a whole new beginning.

I’m an optimist! Once I got back, I started to think seriously about really making it as an artist. What does it really take? That time was like a springboard to go for it. Before that, I had an occasional show, but nothing really took off. It wasn’t clicking in my brain. It’s tough with a full-time job, plus overtime, then try and build a career as an artist on top of that. It never worked. But when I was laid off, which I knew

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

was going to happen and was looking forward to, I saw this as an opportunity to go for it. You only live once and I’d forever regret it if I didn’t try. I chose to really focus and keep creating.”

Originally more interested in experimenting with styles and subject matter, Weider’s early work lacked cohesion as he attempted to create something new each time. Weider eventually found inspiration in both his city and legendary pop artist Andy Warhol.

“I needed to essentially build my ‘brand,’ for lack of a better word,” Weider says.

“People need to recognize my work; it needs to get out there. People need to notice it and keep seeing it around. So maybe I’m taking a page from Warhol by using repetition to get noticed.”

After returning home from his crosscountry road trip, Weider had a newfound appreciation for Cleveland. Since then, Weider’s personal success has paralleled the city’s rise. As the region’s pride has swelled, Weider’s love of Cleveland has made him one of the city’s most active artists over the past decade.

“I’m not sure if there was a eureka moment, but it seemed the more I traveled, the more I liked Cleveland,” Weider says. “So I kept doing Cleveland-themed work and it kept selling. So I kept doing more Cleveland work! At the same time, I could feel the underdog mentality around town. People had a Cleveland pride in a self-deprecating way. I love it! And now we see all kinds of great things going on, it’s awesome.

I remember hanging out in Tremont 15 years ago and it was pretty rough, but you could see things happening. People were coming back into the city. There were little pockets of cool spots and you could see the resurgence coming.”

Today, Weider’s work can be seen at venues all over town, including smaller paintings for sale at Cleveland Clothing Company and Native Cleveland, as well as murals at Viking Technology in Westlake, Campus International School near downtown, CLE Urban Winery on Cedar Road in Cleveland Heights, Orange Theory Fitness in Mentor, and even the new Crocker Park world headquarters of his longtime employer, American Greetings. A graduate of Ohio University, Weider holds a degree in graphic design, but he spent a large amount of his time studying painting. “That was my passion, but I liked design too and it was a more sensible degree to get a job,” he says.

After painting on everything from guitars to skateboards, Weider recently began experimenting with painting on vinyl records collected from thrift stores and Loop’s dollar bins in Tremont. Opening with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m. this Friday, April 14, in conjunction with April’s Walkabout Tremont, Weider’s The Great Wall of Vinyl fills Loop’s huge exhibition wall with more than 200 new, painted records, all featuring variations of Weider’s trademark Cleveland imagery.

THE GREAT WALL OF VINYL LOOP, 2180 WEST 11TH ST., 216-298-5096, FACEBOOK.COM/LOOPINTREMONT

“I can’t take credit for the idea.

Last year I saw some friends painting on records at the Cleveland Flea,” Weider says. “Then I saw some art on vinyl at 78th Street Studios.

I’ve painted guitars, snowboards, canvas, skate decks, under bridges: Why didn’t I think of vinyl records?”

The Great Wall of Vinyl remains on view at Loop through May 11 during regular hours.

jusmani@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

STAGE PLAYING THE CARDS THEY’RE DEALT A lot of bluffing and some poignant redemption in Between Riverside and Crazy at the Cleveland Play House

PICTURE A STAGE FULL OF Sideshow Bob-style rakes sitting all over the floor. And just like that intrepid clown from The Simpsons, who steps on the teeth of one rake after another and slaps himself in the head with the handle, the characters in Between Riverside and Crazy keep stepping on their own stories, and the lies and half-truths buried in those stories come back to haunt them.

This is the devilish scenario that playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis has devised, and this Pulitzer Prize winner makes for a compelling couple of hours. The excellent Cleveland Play House cast invests the proceedings with plenty of wry characterizations to bring out the humor in this rather seedy narrative.

We are in a capacious, rentcontrolled apartment on Riverside Drive in New York City, handsomely designed by Wilson Chin. It is owned

by Walter Washington, an AfricanAmerican retired cop whose wife recently died. To fill that gap in his life, he is populating his rooms with other people, including his son Junior, Junior’s fiancee Lulu, and Oswaldo who is Junior’s pal. The three younger people all call Walter “Pops” or “Dad,” and he seems pleased enough with that role.

Not that anything pleases curmudgeonly Walter for long, or very deeply. Heck, he even hates his dog. Although he can walk, he often uses a wheelchair to move about his flat, nursing some injuries from a shooting incident a few years before when a white officer put six slugs into Walter after an N-word confrontation. Ever since, Walter has been trying to get a satisfactory settlement from the police department, but every time he receives an offer he turns it down.

Meanwhile Junior is fencing stolen electronics from one of the apartment’s bedrooms, and Oswaldo is doing his best to hang onto his free room and board while trying to reconnect with his real father. As for Lulu (a playfully vexing Zoe Sophia Garcia), she claims she is pregnant and a college student. But her activities, like those of all the other

Photo by Roger Mastroianni

By Christine Howey

Ken Robinson (Junior) and Zoe Sophia Garcia (Lulu)

characters, seem a bit suspicious.

Walter is not all that happy with any of these folks, saying at one point to his son: “Hurry up and become a man so I can break a hip and drop dead in peace.” He also questions Lulu’s IQ, but he seems to have a soft spot for the quirky Oswaldo, who seems to exist on a quaint diet of almonds, baloney and Ring-Dings.

Even when a couple cops visit to share some drinks with Walt, all is not as it seems. Lt. Dave Caro

realm. This scene combines religious ritual and carnal passion in a way that has rarely been done, or done so well. A small hint: It’s baptism by booze and communion via a French kiss, and a whole lot more.

Guirgis has created a fascinating hall of fun house mirrors, and the cast handles all the reflections with sure-handed professionalism under the direction of Robert Barry Fleming. As Walter, Larry Marshall’s gruff and cantankerous persona

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seems a hail fellow well met, as he shares Walter’s booze and glories in the old man’s reminiscences.

And Dave’s fiancee Audrey, who is a detective and was Walter’s former partner, serves as wingman on this visit. But once Dave casually mentions the civil suit Walter has filed against the city, other motives come to the fore.

It isn’t until Walter has a new injury and is visited by a Church Lady that the play slides into an even more distorted and mystical

launches many of the playwright’s laugh lines. And when this poker player finally plays his trump card and finds some surprising redemption at the end, it feels well earned. Ken Robinson is strong and believable as Junior, convincingly portraying a man who has spent more than a couple years in the slammer.

Playing the betrothed cops who visit Walt, Michael Russotto and Danielle Skraastad hit just the right notes of chummy playfulness

early on, which nicely sets up their later scene when all pretense is unmasked. The same is true of Dominic Colon as Oswaldo, turning this seemingly goofy and inoffensive houseguest into something entirely different later on.

But perhaps the most interesting character is the Church Lady, as played by Yvette Ganier. It’s hard to game out exactly who she is, as she initially comes on to Walter with a standard religious pitch that soon turns exotic and then balls-out crazy. Is it really happening? And is the final scene between her and Walter a final moment of muchneeded truth?

That is for you to decide.

Although the play sags a bit in the second act, it asks interesting questions ranging from the mystery of father-son relationships to the con games we all play on each other —and ourselves. Are we all hustlers at heart, or is there a core of goodness we must seek to reveal? Feel free to take those questions home and discuss.

scene@clevescene.com t@christinehowey | clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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MOVIES BEER IS GLORIOUS IN FRANCE Young German actress wows in Francois Ozon beauty

By Sam Allard IN FRANTZ, THE NEW FILM from French director Francois Ozon which opens Friday at the Cedar Lee Theatre, the young German actress Paula Beer plays Anna, a woman whose fiance died on the front lines at the tail end of WWI. Without a family of her own, she has taken up residence with her fiance’s parents, Hans (Ernst Stotzner) and Magda (Marie Gruber) Hoffmeister, in the northern German town of Quedlinburg. She seems to do little but tend to the gravesite of her beloved Frantz, a plot which is only symbolic, as his body never returned from the war. Anna’s grief is echoed and enhanced on screen by black-and-white photography and a keening piano-and-violin score.

Anna’s face, though it seldom emotes at first, is mournful in its restraint.

The plot of this gorgeous and morally vexing film revolves around a mysterious French soldier named Adrien Rivoire (Pierre Niney). Anna sees him leaving flowers on Frantz’ grave one day, and he soon introduces himself to Herr Hoffmeister, who turns him away. (Franco-German relations were chilly in 1919.) But it’s clear that this timid, mustachioed young man has information.

Something about Frantz? Indeed. It turns out that Adrien and Frantz were dear friends in Paris, before

the war. Despite initial misgivings, Hans and Magda grow fond of him, and are drawn to stories about their only child. Anna, too, comes to see in Adrien some of the same qualities she loved in Frantz.

But as in prior Ozon films, all is not what it seems. Lies are told, stories concocted. You begin to suspect (though you may have from the beginning) that Adrien and Frantz were, shall we say, more than just friends. It seems for a moment that even the staid and old-school Hans intuits a deeper connection.

But there is more lurking beneath Adrien’s stories, and poor Anna, who seems to overcome one tragedy just in time to greet a new one, must decide

to advance or reveal certain fictions.

Ozon confounds your first and second guesses throughout the film.

With its occasional bursts of color — to signify moments of happiness before the war, or fleeting happiness after — and its simple, sometimes embarrassingly sentimental dialogue (the script is adapted from a short story written in 1932) Frantz, to its credit, feels like a movie from a bygone era.

It takes place, for the most part, in 1919, and is a constant reminder of just how romantic romance used to be.

When one must communicate by letter — when one must travel by train to deliver a message, to seek forgiveness, to profess love — encounters are

freighted with so much more: more anticipation, deeper longing, greater loss.

Speaking of which, without spoiling too much, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my favorite scene, which is one of the best of the year and includes perhaps the loveliest kiss I’ve ever seen captured on screen. It’s very late in the film, and Anna, torn to emotional shreds by multiple parties, receives an inadvertently insulting sendoff before boarding a French train back to Germany. She sheds a tear as a hug from Adrien becomes, after a pause, a kiss. And Adrien, suddenly, begins to understand a dynamic between them that Anna has long come to terms with. There is no score to accompany this storm of emotion, no orchestra to dramatize Adrien’s eyes as he looks at this woman who has traveled so far to see him. There is only the final whistle of the train.

“Anna,” he says, in shock. “It’s too late,” Anna replies. It’s a pearl of a scene, performed to perfection by Niney and Beer and serves as an incredible, if quiet, payoff to a film chock-full of sadness and romance and mystery. It’s what you go to the movies for.

sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard

SPOTLIGHT: TOMMY’S HONOUR TOM MORRIS AND HIS SON TOM Morris Jr. (nicknamed Old and Young Tom Morris) are two of golf’s most important pioneers and innovators. Historians credit the Scottish father-and-son duo for establishing the modern game of golf and for broadening the sport’s popularity.

They get the biopic treatment in Tommy’s Honour, a new historical drama based on the award-winning 2007 book of the same name. The film, which opens on Friday at the Cedar Lee Theatre and Cinemark Valley View, focuses on both the historical development of golf and the development of Scotland’s social classes toward the end of the 19th century, and includes elements

of sports drama, romance, and historical biography.

The film follows the life of Tom Morris (Peter Mullan) and his son Tommy Morris Jr. (Jack Lowden).

Old Tom Morris is, at this point in his life, a respected grounds-keeper who makes clubs and balls for the town’s wealthy golfers. His son is a golf prodigy, making international news with his innovative play and cavalier attitude toward the sport.

Tommy wants to use his golf talents to enrich himself instead of the upper-class benefactors who bet on his games; however, Old Tom Morris tries to respect the rules and social norms of the game, chastising Tommy for his revolutionary behavior.

Though the source material seems generative and interesting, the film fails to present the two main characters as complex and unique — both Old and Young Tom Morris just seem like two guys who were really good golfers, but not much else. The film’s most interesting narrative thread is Young Tom’s crusade to make golf a game for everyone, not just the upper-class members of society.

Nor does the film explain the stakes involved in any of the matches. Normally, in a sports drama, there’s a “big game” or a “final showdown,” but nothing of the sort appears in Tommy’s Honour.

Tommy Jr. simply wins match after match, and the film doesn’t explain

why any of them matter. It’s possible that Young Tom Morris was such a good golfer that he never lost important matches, but the film doesn’t make that clear either.

Avid golfers might find some interest in the historical development of the sport, but for casual viewers, Tommy’s Honour does very little to make the sport interesting. The acting and direction is competent enough, but the film doesn’t generate any dramatic tension, and what is presented as conflict doesn’t get much more intense than watching a round of golf on TV. — Johnny Cook

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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EAT A GALLEY BOY MIRACLE Swensons is coming to Cleveland this year

By Douglas Trattner “SERVICE” ISN’T OFTEN A concept that comes up when discussing fast-food restaurants.

In fact, the entire foundation of the category is based on reducing labor costs by eliminating servers.

But park your car at any of the Swensons Drive-In locations and you actually will feel appreciated — important, even. Quicker than you can roll down the window, a zealous, dutiful and genuinely cheery waiter — here called “curb server” — is at your beck and call, handy with a menu for the rare customer who doesn’t already know what he or she wants.

“White tablecloth-level service,” CEO Jeff Flowers calls it without a trace of hyperbole, despite the fact that customers dine in parked cars.

That level of service, coupled with the quality and freshness of its product, is how this Akron-born institution has managed to survive and grow alongside behemoths like McDonald’s and Burger King. Since Wesley “Pop” Swenson opened his first drive-in, in 1934, the regional chain has grown to seven locations.

But unlike those zippy curb servers — whose official rallying cry is “Sprint and smile!” — the organization does not move quickly.

In fact, Swensons has not added a new location since the Seven Hills shop opened in 2001, and there has been zero desire to breach the I-480 boundary.

Until now.

“We’re definitely working hard to get some new sites open in Cleveland,” says Flowers, a former curb server himself. “We’re slow, we’re methodical, and we’re going to make sure we do things right.”

Flowers says that until very recently, he and Steve Thompson, owner since 1974, frankly didn’t believe that a market for their product existed outside the Greater Akron area. That changed in July of 2013, when the Swensons food truck first rolled onto the scene.

“We’ve always looked at ourselves as an Akron organization,” notes Flowers. “But when we first put the food truck out, it really became apparent that there’s a strong market for us up there — coming up and doing the Walnut Wednesdays, not

to mention the Cavs, Indians and Monsters playoff games.”

If the truck managed to unearth a heretofore silent fan base, it also reinforced the fact that the Galley Boy is by far the most popular item — both on the truck’s streamlined menu and the restaurant’s standard one. The twin 3-ounce patties, which are house-ground and hand-formed daily at the company’s commissary, come topped with cheese and a pair of “top secret” sauces. Each bundle of love is swaddled in wax paper and garnished with a toothpick-stabbed

and “potato teezers.” All of the above gets washed down with one of dozens of phosphates, milkshakes and soft drinks, including the odd but loveable California and Florida concoctions. The mile-long menu is the antithesis of the modern, succinct fast-food roster.

“Quite frankly, the menu might be slightly bigger than it needs to be,” admits Flowers, who adds that having something for everyone has been essential to the brand’s success.

Flowers reports that the organization is actively looking at

SWENSONS DRIVE-IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS SWENSONSDRIVEINS.COM

olive.

But Swensons’ menu goes well past the Galley Boy. In addition to single, double and triple burgers, there are hot dogs, Sloppy Joes, fried bologna, and fish sandwiches. There is also pulled pork, grilled cheese, egg salad and a shrimp dinner, believe it or not, paired with sides like onion rings, fried mushrooms

locations on both sides of town, and it hopes to have something in the works — if not open and serving Galley Boys — before the end of the year. But given the unique nature of the operation, finding ideal spots is more challenging than the typical strip-mall eatery. Unlike most fastfood joints, Swensons shuns soulless drive-through windows in favor of

the more relaxed drive-in format.

And unlike contemporary drive-in chains like Sonic that utilize faceless squawk boxes, they employ living, breathing human beings to do the job. And because every one of those curb servers is a full-time college student, proximity to universities is key.

Thanks to schools like Cleveland State, John Carroll, Baldwin Wallace and Case, Cleveland is ideally situated for multiple locations, Flowers admits, but given the company’s history of measured expansion, we shouldn’t expect a spate of openings.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to show more than Akron what Swensons is all about,” says Flowers.

“Hopefully we can get another couple restaurants open in Cleveland, but we’re not going to damage the brand.

There’s too much that is important and that has allowed Swensons to be around for the last 83 years to duplicate like wildfire.”

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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Warren Taylor to give keynote speech at CWRU Food Week

By Rachel Hunt FEW SUCCESS STORIES START with a glass of milk. Even fewer with kefir, the oldest cultured milk product known to man. It’s a tart and yeasty cross between buttermilk and yogurt, a favorite of Warren Taylor, founder of Snowville Creamery, a small dairy production plant in Pomeroy, Ohio. He hoists a glass of the homemade concoction every morning.

The powerful probiotic-rich beverage energizes Taylor to keep up with the demands of work, and it gives him the ethical drive to continue converting consumers to his brand’s philosophy. The engineer and entrepreneur was raised by an award-winning organoleptic evaluator, or someone who judges dairy products by tasting them; thus everything that Taylor produces at his plant has taste at the forefront.

Taylor garnered acclaim in the dairy industry as a technologist or engineer in his own right. “By the time I was 31 years old, I was involved in the third brand-new milk plant for Safeway, and it was my own design,” he explains. “It was one of the largest and the most modern milk plants in America.”

From there, the progressive milkman started a consulting firm with clients ranging from Dannon and Yoplait to Land O’Lakes. When he retired at 55, a move to southeast Ohio with his wife Victoria led to a fateful meeting.

“Bill [Dix] and Stacey [Hall] were real pioneers and leaders in getting cows back on grass,” he says. “They started a national organization called the Prograsstinators that helped catalyze grass-based dairy farming that’s now the foundation of America’s organic dairy industry.” His colleagues were featured in Food Inc. and continue to supply his creamery with grass-fed A2 milk, which contains predominantly a type of protein that has been bred out of modern milk.

They call it “milk the way it used to be” and preach the advantages of restorative agriculture. Grass grazing cows help replenish soil

carbon, which means that the earth can retain more water. “A one-percent change in the level of carbon within the soil gives that soil a breathtaking increase of 20,000 gallons of water storage capacity per acre,” Taylor explains.

“There is no arguing but that we have to do agriculture that takes the soil levels in American soil from the one to two percent it has now back to the five to eight percent level it was at when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.”

Students at the Ohio State University may remember Taylor passing out chocolate milk on campus over the past decade, to build an awareness of his company.

Today, Snowville’s milk can be purchased in Heinen’s, Earth Fare and Giant Eagle in the Greater Cleveland area. But drink up: These cultured dairy products have a shelf life of about 14 days versus your average milk jug that is pasteurized to the point that it stays good for weeks.

With a total of 500 cows spread over five farms, Snowville is able to play a major role for their distributor, Premier Produce One, which distributes them to a growing number of restaurants throughout Cleveland. Little by little, Taylor is converting customers to A2 milk based on taste and health benefits.

Taylor thinks back to when he first started in the industry: “Milk was a lot better at that time.

What most people are not tuned into is that during the course of human history, our relationship with animals was based on our selectively breeding for thousands of years based on their longevity and fertility. In doing that, we ended up with the animals that we brought into the 20th century.”

You can hear Taylor speak on the subject April 13 at 5 p.m. in the Wolstein Research Building (2103 Cornell Rd.). His talk is part of Case Western Reserve University’s Food Week.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

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WORTH THE WAIT Butcher and the Brewer opens its butcher shop and market

By Douglas Trattner THIS WEEK, BUTCHER AND the Brewer finally unveiled its long-anticipated butcher shop, which is in a space separate from, but connected to, the rest of the operation. The original plan was to open the shop soon after the restaurant portion of the operation debuted, which was two and a half years ago, but that obviously was not the case.

“We focused on getting the brewery and the restaurant right, including the basement and private event space, before tackling this,” explains director of operations Jeff Uniatowski. “It’s a big building, there are a lot of moving pieces, and we just wanted to do it well. We’re finally firing on all cylinders.”

The shop’s primary function will be two-fold, says partner Jason Workman: as a carryout sandwich shop and retail butcher shop and market.

“We will focus on lunch and early-dinner carryout business and then those people who are heading out of town after work or those who are coming back home who want to grab something from the butcher shop to cook,” he says.

To avoid competition with the restaurant’s prime dinner hours, the shop’s hours of operation will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The lunch/dinner menu, which will change frequently, consists of a dozen signature sandwiches and a half-dozen specialty hot dogs. Half of the sandwiches will be served hot, fresh out of the restaurant’s Wood Stone oven. The artisan all-beef hot dogs, formulated over months of trial and error by house butcher Josh Sampsell, will be heated in the charcoal-fired Josper oven and topped with various condiments and garnishes.

The Butcher Reuben features house corned beef, house sauerkraut, Swiss and smoked Thousand Island dressing. Cle Poboy tops housemade kielbasa with shoestring fries and whipped blue slaw. In the “cold pressed” section are sandwiches like housesmoked maple ham with bacon,

lettuce and tomato, and the Spiced Italian, layered with salami, ham, pepperoni, mozz, pickled peppers and vinaigrette. All sandwiches are $12.

In the hot dog department are combos like the Classic, topped with whole-grain mustard and kraut, the Reuben with corned beef, Swiss and kraut, and the banh mi, which combines pork pate and loin, pickled veggies, soy and cilantro. Dogs range from $9 to $11.

Sides like pasta and potato salads, vegan salads, krauts and slaws are available for purchase.

In warm weather, customers are welcome to use the brewery patio, but this is a carryout-only operation.

The in-house butchers have been hard at work readying product for the coolers. They are stocked with pork, beef and lamb-based chops, steaks and roasts from locally raised animals fabricated in-house.

In a few weeks, chickens raised specifically for Butcher and the Brewer will join them. Charcuterie items like pates, terrines, salami, coppa, lonzino and lanza join a selection of housemade sausages (smoked or poached) and all-beef frankfurters.

The market also stocks imported cheese, deli meats and a handful of staples like Hartzler milk and butter, Bearded Buch kombucha, dried pasta and jarred sauces, and cooking spices.

DISTILL TABLE TO JOIN WESTERN RESERVE DISTILLERY PROJECT When Kevin and Ann Thomas announced their plans for Western Reserve Distillery, a “grain-to-glass” distillery on Madison Avenue in Lakewood, they stated that a new restaurant would be part and parcel of the operation. Just who would operate that restaurant and what the concept would be, however, was still TBD. Now we know. Chef Eddie Tancredi, formerly of Adega at The 9, will open Distill Table.

“It’s very exciting news,” Tancredi

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says. “This is why I came back home.

I’ve been very fortunate to work in some great establishments, but now to actually do what I’ve always wanted to do is really something special.”

Although the two enterprises will share the same parcel, they are independent operations, he explains. The Thomases will be the owner-operators of the distillery and Tancredi will be the owner-operator of the restaurant. Western Reserve will take up residence in an existing four-story building, formerly the Fridrich building (14221 Madison Ave.), while Distill Table is going into a new structure that is being built immediately next door.

Tancredi says that his vision for the restaurant was a perfect match with those of Kevin and Ann Thomas.

“I know a lot of the places I’ve worked have been high-end, but I’m from Cleveland; this is my hometown,” says Tancredi. “When it comes down to it, what I really enjoy cooking is down to earth. Keep it simple but do it right. Everything on the menu, people will know what it is.”

The focus of the farm-to-table eatery will be on affordable, customizable small plates, shared items, sandwiches, pizzas and a handful of chef features. Diners can build their own experience around charcuterie items like pates, torchon, rillettes, salumi and Ohio cheeses. A “Crispy Craving” section will be flush with snacks like housemade chips and pork rinds. Lunch service will feature speedy lunch combos. There will be weekend brunch Naturally, the beverage program will be built around Western Reserve spirits like vodka, gin, rum and whiskey. Ohio craft beers will be in tall supply.

The 55-seat interior, which is being designed by Christian Kalinyak of Burntwood Tavern fame, will feature a chef’s counter at the open kitchen, communal seating, and a bar and lounge area. An inside-outside bar will open to the patio in warm weather.

Next door, the distillery will feature a tasting room, tour area and gift shop.

The goal is to have both businesses open simultaneously, says Tancredi, which should occur in late summer or early fall.

DATE, CHEFS ANNOUNCED FOR FIVE STAR SENSATION In 2015, longstanding honorary chair Wolfgang Puck ceded the

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

reins of Five Star Sensation, a mega-fundraiser for University Hospitals’ Seidman Cancer Center, to Michael Symon. The co-host of ABC’s The Chew and owner of Lola in Cleveland, Roast in Detroit and several B Spot Burgers throughout the Midwest alternates as host, on a biennial schedule, between this event and Autism Speaks Chefs Gala.

Since its inception back in 1987, Five Star Sensation has raised more than $18 million for the cancer center. This year’s event will take place at Cuyahoga Community College in Highland Hills on Saturday, June 24, and feature more than 80 chefs and winemakers from around the world.

“I am thrilled to participate in this culinary extravaganza in my hometown benefiting University Hospitals’ Seidman Cancer Center,” Symon says. “It raises vital funds for such an important cause in our community, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to continue to serve as host chef of this truly sensational evening.”

Symon will be joined by local chefs like Doug Katz (Fire), Paul Minnillo (Flour), Jonathon Sawyer (Greenhouse Tavern) and Rocco Whalen (Fahrenheit), as well as national stars such as Aaron Sanchez (Johnny Sanchez, New Orleans), Michelle Karr-Ueoka (MW Restaurant, Honolulu), Hubert Keller (Fleur, Las Vegas), Sherry Yard (Helms Bakery, Los Angeles) and Marc Forgione (American Cut, NYC).

Funds from the benefit, which includes live music, dancing and a silent auction, support UH Seidman Cancer Center physician-scientists’ innovative work to identify promising new therapies, as well as community cancer screenings, cancer information services and public education programs.

“Five Star Sensation provides tremendous support in helping us deliver unparalleled care to our patients and families,” states Nathan Levitan, M.D., president of UH Seidman Cancer Center. “As a result, our patients have access to a highly specialized medical team, the most effective, personalized treatments and promising clinical research trials.”

This event sells out every year. For more information or to purchase tickets visit fivestarsensation.org.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CHICKEN AND OUR 13 GOURMET SAUCES rice and greens is ingenious! They have a little kick to them but quite tasty. They were buttery and lightly sweet. I enjoyed my meal and will return in the future.” - Ladonna G. ★★★★★ “This is some Seriously delicious chicken. I have lived very ery close, and almost drive by there daily. Thought it was part of the convenient store, so I would not go there. here. After reading the reviews and being g extremely hungry, I took the more than glad I plunge, and I am mor much did. I will be coming g here so muc more.” - Stephanie L. ★★★★★ “It’s no joke, best fried chicken in Cleveland. They’ve got plenty of yourself, it’s all sides, but don’t kid yourse While there’s about the chicken. ch a variety of flavors the staff might not give you many clues past identifying the individual flavors.

Luckily there’s a brief explanation of them at the restaurant.” - Noah F. ★★★★★ “Oh my gosh this place has the best food.The chicken is superbly uperbly trimmed and seasoned to perfection. ction. Normally I always get the fried ed chicken but tonight I went with the e fish dinner for the first time and can’t stop jumping up-anddown with joy. Make sure you get biscuits and at least try the honey bisc the greens and nd rice. Thank you for culinary such great service and the culina gift you’ve given us.” - Sarah J. ★★★★★ Excellent xcellent fried chicken. Try the seasoned. soaked asoned. The honey ho biscuits, cuits mac & cheese, and rice are all must haves, too. The menu is enormous so you’ll have plenty of options when you come back for more. - Nichole K. ★★★★★

Hands down, the best friend chicken in town! We love the honey y crisp and the seasoned. Delicious, hot and fresh, esh, never sitting under a heater or warmer for hours. We host a lot of parties and people always ask for V’s!

The sides are mediocre, in all honesty I’m not a huge fan fa of them, however,, the cornbread muffins are incredible! cornb dible!

They’re great eat plain or with butter or honey. I have gotten a piece of their chocolate butter cream cake as well and that’s incredible too! It’s home made! I’m a huge fan of the old t school look of the restaurant.

In my r opinion, nothing needs to change.

Thanks for the awesome service! Ashley B.

chicken chicke dinner instead of spending cash at a KFC or any other fast food chicken chains. Best chicken ever!” Bunny Marie L. M

E H T T U O !

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★★★★★ “Worth the stop & future excursions from the Near West Side in the future.I can’t find one thing wrong with V’s and the woman taking care of us was just the nicest and personable person ever. For all the food we ordered it was very reasonably priced and d held up well on the ride home// Stopping here in the near future iss in order as it puts lousy KFC’s, Popeyes, eyes etc to shame in terms of quality, price, and customer service.” vice.” - Jesco D. ★★★★★ “I went here after the good reviews and I was impressed. I had the regular/mild mild batter. The chicken was light, crispy and de delicious. The

“I absolutely love the food here! Best fried chicken I’ve ever had. People should stop in and grab a family

“I absolutely absolute loved this his place! I will w be back soon!” n! - Lori M. “Five Stars aren’t Enough! This is 10 HON STAR FOOD!! LOVE THOSE HONEY sh ROLLS!! It’s my dinner tonight shrimp, slaw, fries and corn muffin. SO YUMMY” - Lonnie R. “Such a delicious choice for Fried chicken” - Nicole Elaine T.

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

MUSIC

AN AMERICANA BAND Jayhawks frontman talks about the band’s new collaboration with Ray Davies

By Matt Wardlaw LIFE HAS QUICKLY MOVED beyond the “quiet corners and empty spaces” that singer-guitarist Gary Louris mentions on the opening track of the same name from the current Jayhawks album, Paging Mr. Proust.

They’ve spent a lot of time on the road over the past year playing shows in support of the new record. But they’ve also been operating as musical double agents, working in secret as the backing band on Americana, the upcoming solo release from Ray Davies which will be released on April 21.

“We’ve become the session players,” Louris says with a chuckle, during a call from his North Carolina home. “[We have] an excellent friend named John Jackson, who is an executive at Sony/Legacy. Over the last few years, John has sat in with us a lot. He comes out and tours with us at times. He plays guitar, mandolin, fiddle and stuff. John is the A&R guy on this whole Ray Davies thing, along with other projects [at Legacy]. He started working with Ray and, obviously, his project is called Americana. John knew us so well, and he just thought it was the perfect fit.”

The chance to work with Davies was a thrill. Louris admits it took some schedule juggling to make it all come together — and a lot of it involved pinning the Kinks legend

down. Often, when they found the right moments for Davies, the roadweary band would be just coming off a tour and looking forward to a break.

But it was a sacrifice that Louris and the band were willing to make.

“I mean, I grew up, it was like who is the greatest band, the Beatles or the Stones? And I’d say, ‘Well, the Kinks!’

That was the quick answer to that,” he laughs. “But yeah, the Kinks have always been my favorite. So there were times that we were in the studio and maybe I was singing the harmonies to Ray’s vocal where I certainly had to pinch myself, saying, ‘How did I end up here?’ Walking into Konk Studios [was another one of those moments]. I thought the band fit the bill perfectly.”

The collaboration worked so well that Davies and the band got together to work on a second album this past December that will be the next chapter of Davies’ developing vision, which Louris indicates has lots of layers.

“It’s a bigger project than just a record, you know? It’s connected with the book [Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story, the memoir from Davies which was released in 2015], multiple records and who knows what else? He’s much more than just a rock dude. You know, he’s a writer, there’s a play [Sunny Afternoon] that is based on the Kinks that’s ongoing

in London. He’s got his fingers in a lot of different things, so I see this [as a] multi-faceted project that’s not just one record and not just a record.”

Davies had been working with guitarist/musical director Bill Shanley, who had already spent a good amount of time with the songs and could do a lot in a short period because of his familiarity with the material. Louris says he stepped back from his traditional lead singer role, calling himself “probably the least important player on those records,” adding additional guitars and “a lot of singing.” The other members of the band found themselves with no shortage of things to do — and Davies took a particular shine to Jayhawks keyboardist/vocalist Karen Grotberg, who became “very integral for him.”

“I think Ray has a history of liking a female presence on his records, going way back to the early days when his first wife [Rasa Davies] would sing on his records,” Louris says. “I think he had a real affinity to Karen and Tim [O’Reagan] and Marc [Perlman].

I mean, we just did what we do, but what was more challenging is that he pretty much knew what he wanted or would find it as he went along. But it was very much orchestrated by him, what everyone played. It wasn’t like we just got there and jammed. He wanted

a certain thing and we had to help him find it.”

Louris hopes that the band will get a chance to do some shows with Davies in support of the music, but he admits he’s not sure how those plans might shake out.

“I know that we’re in discussion, but I don’t think he’s going to be that guy who hops on a bus for two months at a time,” he says. “I think there’s just going to be some select weekends or weeks or something like that. But I know we’ve built a good relationship with him and I think what he liked about us was that we were a band. I think he’s attracted to that and we represented some part of his love affair with the United States. We’re an American band with some British roots, and he’s a British musician with a lot of American roots.”

Besides the Davies albums, Louris and the members of the Jayhawks also recently worked with singersongwriter John Wesley Harding, a longtime friend and associate now recording under his real name of Wesley Stace, on his new album, Wesley Stace Presents John Wesley Harding, which Louris co-produced.

He’ll be on the road with the band when they arrive in Cleveland at the Music Box Supper Club on April 13, playing a solo acoustic opening set. | clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

43

MUSIC “We were a great fit for what he wanted and we’re pretty adaptable,” he says. “Wes is one of my favorite people in the world and I’m excited to have him along [on the tour]. The record turned out great; I mean, I don’t know if I deserved a producing credit, but I’ll take it. I love that record too.”

Things are in a good place for the Minneapolis-bred band that has been quite busy over the past year and a half, working not only on the album sessions with Davies and Stace, but also on their own album, which was released last April. The fact that they made it back into the studio to record Jayhawks material is a somewhat unexpected development.

During a 2014 conversation with Scene, Louris admitted he was “a little gun shy” of the idea of doing new music after the negative experience he had working on Mockingbird Time, the 2011 album which officially reunited Louris and his one-time collaborator Mark Olson under the Jayhawks banner. (Louris and Olson eased into the subsequent band reunion with the Chris Robinsonproduced 2009’s Ready For The Flood, which was credited simply to Mark Olson and Gary Louris.)

“Last time, we wanted to recapture the gold, and the chemistry wasn’t there. It was a fiasco and left a bad taste in my mouth,” Louris said then.

“I’m a little wary. I’m trying to think

“I didn’t trust myself to produce it, because you can get kind of lost with the big picture when you’re sitting there recording and producing. We trusted Peter’s aesthetic,” he says.

“What we also liked about him is that he’s made all kinds of records and I think that, at this point in his life, he agrees with us that it’s vibe over perfection. It was more like, ‘Let’s make a cool record. We don’t have to have everything tuned and edited to make it [perfect] and spend months doing it. Let’s just make a really cool record.’ Peter was good to bounce the songs off of and he helped me really sort through what were the best ones.”

Co-producer Tucker Martine helped to steer the ship from a recording standpoint, according to Louris.

“Tucker was the day-to-day guy manning the board. You know, Peter is not a knob twiddler,” he says. “It was Tucker’s studio and he knows the gear and how to get the sounds. If it was an architecture firm, Peter would be the design architect and Tucker was the project architect. He was the detail guy and really was invaluable and became a good friend. They were a good team: They didn’t seem to have an ego thing and that can happen if you have two producers.”

Paging Mr. Proust, the album which emerged from the sessions with Buck and Martine, ended up being a positive experience for all involved and Louris is keen to explore further writing and recording with the group — and also some additional solo work, collaborations and producing — after

THE JAYHAWKS, WESLEY STACE 8 P.M. THURSDAY, APRIL 13, MUSIC BOX SUPPER CLUB, 1148 MAIN AVE., 216-242-1250.

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of bands that regrouped and made their best record and the list is very short if any. We’re doing [shows] right now and enjoying it. If we started writing songs and have some material, it would work. The material has to be there rather than us thinking we need to have a new album and writing the album. If there’s stuff that’s just kind of happening, then we’ll do it.”

When things first broke apart in 2012 after the band had completed touring behind Mockingbird Time, the future of the Jayhawks appeared to be in doubt for a short time. It was reissues of three post-Olson albums, 1997’s Sound of Lies, 2000’s Smile and 2003’s Rainy Day Music that brought the band back together for a run of 2014 tour dates that were well-received.

The group continued to tour and heard from R.E.M’s Peter Buck, a longtime fan, who expressed interest in helming sessions for an album. | clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

he gets the chance to take a bit of time off.

“I’m just kind of recharging, after a year of time on the road. I haven’t written a lot, but I’d like to get the band more involved in the writing. I think everybody in the band can write and they’ve been interested [in that]. It would be nice to have more songs for Karen to sing that aren’t covers. Tim is a great singer and it would be great for him to have some other songs on the list that are his own compositions and [Marc] Perlman has co-written or written some of the best Jayhawks songs in our catalog. I think it would be good for us [to have everybody] be more involved, and I’m ready to open the door a little bit more, I think.”

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

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| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

45

MUSIC BRING THA NOISE Local indie rockers Hiram-Maxim return with an aggressive-sounding new album

By Jeff Niesel Photo by Bryon Miller

A LOCAL EVENT THAT PAIRS various musicians from an array of local bands, the Lottery League has generated a slew of new bands since its inception. Few acts have stuck like Hiram-Maxim, the indie noise band that releases its second album, Ghosts, next week.

Band members didn’t know much about each other before they assembled for the first practice in 2014 and on the spot decided to play “dark post-punk music.”

“Me and [guitarist] Dave [Taha] were pretty good friends before Lottery League, but I didn’t know [keyboardist] Lisa [Miralia] or [drummer] John [Panza] at all,” says singer Fred Gunn one afternoon from Loop, the Tremont coffeehouse and record store where he and Taha have met up for this interview.

“We went to John’s practice spot and plugged in,” Gunn says of the first release. “We had researched each other. I checked out John and Lisa to see what they were about. I added up the parts in my head and wanted to go dark with some post-punk thrown in there. That was what we wanted to aim for. We just jammed for 15 minutes and looked around the room and knew it would work.”

“It was totally free form,” says Taha.

Recorded and mixed by John Delzoppo at Negative Space in Cleveland and mastered by Chris Keffer at Magnetic North, the band’s 2014 self-titled debut, the first release to come out on Aqualamb Records, the imprint run by graphic designers Eric Palmerlee and

46

Johnathan Swafford, mixes elements of noise, post-rock and punk.

For Ghosts, the band hooked up with producer Martin Bisi (Swans, Sonic Youth) and recorded at his BC Studio in New York. The album includes two unreleased tracks the band cut with Delzoppo; Bisi recorded the rest of the album at his studio.

“Martin had come to see the [local indie rock band] Filmstrip in New York, and I told him about Hiram-Maxim because I thought he might be interested in the group,” says Taha. “I sent him some tracks, and he messaged me that day that he loved the music.”

With Bisi on board as a producer, the band decided to take a slightly different approach.

“This album is more aggressive vocally and a more brutal record,” says Gunn. “I’m a little angrier.

There’s a lot of emotion in the lyrics.”

The press release for the album

songs on this album,” he says. “This is a far better record than the first one and shows how we’ve evolved.”

Guest guitarist Oliver Ackermann of the indie rock act A Place to Bury Strangers adds meaty, feedbackridden guitar riffs to tunes such as “Behind the Blindfold” and the Sonic Youth-like title track.

“He came in and unloaded all this gear and listens to what we’ve recorded and goes downstairs and rips through them right away and nails them,” says Gunn when asked about Ackermann’s contributions.

“After Oliver recorded his part, Martin ran down, and he told us he didn’t know what we were thinking when we told him that we wanted Oliver to play on the song. But he was shocked. He said, ‘Somehow, he found the space in the song.’”

The group also recorded two 15-minute sessions with Ackermann, and a portion of one of them became

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declares that Gunn’s lyrics address “personal suffering and statesponsored acts of oppression.” The album’s title track even references the Tamir Rice shooting.

“Our practice space is a stone’s throw away from where that shooting took place,” says Taha.

“The song captures that turmoil. I’m really inspired by it.”

Gunn agrees.

“There is more structure to the

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

“Interlude,” one of the tracks on Ghosts.

“Burn” comes off as such a powerful tune, especially as it escalates into the mess of glitch-y electronics and chanted vocals.

“The song is more about frustration with everything around you,” says Gunn, who adds that Bisi works on an old Mac computer with an outdated version of ProTools and uses the same mixing board

that was used on David Bowie’s “Young Americans.” “If you listen on headphones, the panning is incredible. The music just swirls around you. That’s the B.C. touch right there.”

The album will be issued on vinyl printed locally at Gotta Groove Records and, as was the case with band’s debut, a 100-page book will accompany the digital release.

“It’s Aqualamb’s signature. In lieu of a CD, the label puts out a book that’s something to own and have in an age when no one buys CDs,” says Gunn. “It’s really clever.”

Palmerlee handled the art direction, and the book includes photos from Gunn along with photos from locals Bryon Miller and Lauren Voss. Lyrics will be displayed with redacted text.

Initially, Lottery League organizers intended to release a compilation after each event, but that hasn’t consistently happened, and many of the groups haven’t stuck around long enough to record and tour.

Gunn admits he didn’t initially think the Hiram-Maxim collaboration would have such staying power.

“We thought we’d sign up for something we’d do for a few months and a few years later, we’re putting out our second album,” he says. “For me, I was in this mode of thinking that I tried music, and it didn’t work. But this band has been like the universe saying, ‘You’re not done yet. Don’t give up.’”

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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ONLY THE BEGINNING Rock and classical worlds collide in the musical Rocktopia: A Classical (R)evolution

By Jeff Niesel A TOURING MUSICAL THAT stops at the State Theatre on Thursday, Rocktopia: A Classical (R)evolution features world-class vocalists and top rock musicians celebrating â&#x20AC;&#x153;the combination of classical music and opera with classic rock.â&#x20AC;?

The show here will include the locally based Contemporary Youth Orchestra.

For co-founder Randall Craig Fleischer, who attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the musical represents the culmination of a lifelong pursuit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been doing rock fusion projects for pretty much my whole career, for 30 years or so,â&#x20AC;? says Fleischer via phone from Alaska where he works as music director/ conductor of the Anchorage Symphony. He also serves as the music director/conductor of the Youngstown Symphony and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was a rock â&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roll fan from the beginning. I remember when â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Stairway to Heavenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; was the top song on the Top 40 for I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how many weeks. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m old enough to remember those things. All the music that was classic rock was huge when I was a kid. I then became interested in classical music after singing in the high school choir.â&#x20AC;?

Fleischer says he tried to create a â&#x20AC;&#x153;classical music meets rockâ&#x20AC;? musical when he was a freshman in high school. Later, he met Rocktopia: A Classical (R)evolution co-founder Rob Evan, and the two began collaborating. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I met Rob Evan on a show we worked together called Broadway Rocks,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Then, I invited him to Youngstown to sing with me in a project called Rock Fusion. At the time, he was working on a show called Rock Tenor. We were doing similar things. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been friends this whole time. Rob came up with the name Rocktopia: A Classical (R)evolution, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been working on it for ďŹ ve years.â&#x20AC;?

The ďŹ rst performance took place in Youngstown with the Youngstown Symphony. Though the current show has changed some since that ďŹ rst performance, Fleischer says the

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

present-day incarnation retains the originalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Several of the same sequences that were in that show are in the show today,â&#x20AC;? Fleischer says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The ďŹ rst show was an enormous success.

Rob then brought in executive producer William Franzblau, and between the two of them they could get the interest from PBS, and we shot a special last year in Budapest and have been off and running.â&#x20AC;?

In Budapest, the group performed at the Budapest Opera, which Fleischer says is â&#x20AC;&#x153;an exact replica of the Paris Opera.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the most beautiful classic music venues in the world,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To put in a big rock â&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roll show in a gorgeous old 19th-century opera house makes sense. The visual metaphor is clear as a bell. We are building a bridge between the two worlds.â&#x20AC;?

The group puts strings and horns on Queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;We Are the Champions,â&#x20AC;?

Aronson, Tony Bruno, Mat Fieldes and Mairead Nesbitt. Nesbitt is a former ďŹ ddler for the group Celtic Woman, Evan and Lowery are both members of the progressive rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Nichole and Vincent both competed on the TV series The Voice. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh my god, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all really stars in their own right,â&#x20AC;? Fleischer says when asked about the cast. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They have Broadway credits and things like that. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just really lucky that the chemistry between them, on stage and off, is so positive. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the same with the band. [Guitarist] Tony Bruno [whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s played with Enrique Iglesias, Rihanna, and others] is a star.

Music director Henry Aronson is an extremely accomplishd Broadway musical director and [drummer] Alex [Alexander] and [bassist] Mat [Fieldes] have careers as well.â&#x20AC;?

Fleischer says Rocktopia works simply because the rock and classical

ROCKTOPIA 7:30 P.M. THURSDAY, APRIL 13, STATE THEATRE, 1519 EUCLID AVE., 216-241-6000.

TICKETS: $37.50 - $99, PLAYHOUSESQUARE.ORG

Led Zeppelinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kashmirâ&#x20AC;? and Pink Floydâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;On the Turning Away,â&#x20AC;? and features classical composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky along with rock bands such as Foreigner, Heart, Journey, Styx, the Who and U2.

Evan sings in the group, and the cast also includes singers Ximena Borges, Chloe Lowery, Kimberly Nichole and Tony Vincent and musicians Alex Alexander, Henry

worlds are â&#x20AC;&#x153;very similar.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Who knows where weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll take this show in the future?â&#x20AC;? he says.

Rocktopia 2 is a possibility, as is Rocktopia Hip-hop. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about the expression. Both forms of music [classical and rock] are about passion and all the expressions of the human experience. The music is about emotion. I hope people are really moved and excited by the show.â&#x20AC;?

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

| clevescene.com m | April 12 - 18, 2017

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Richard Thompson w/Joan Shelley Wed., Apr. 12

The Pschedlic Furs Tim O’Brien, JD Huthison & Jan Fabricius w/Robyn Hitchcock Thu., Apr. 13

Timothy B. Schmit of The Eagles

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50

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

LIVEWIRE WED

04/12

Elephant Revival/Dead Horses: Known for low-key, deep folk rock — “transcendental folk,” they’ve been called — Elephant Revival incorporates a number of older music traditions (like Celtic strains) into their music. It’s a calming sort of songwriting, and their albums make for pleasant country drives through forests of strings: guitar, pedal steel, banjo, fiddle, bass.

They’ve brought the Beachland to an utter silence in past visits, and we expect them to craft a similar reverie tonight with the goods from their most recent album, Petals.

Tunes like “Peace Tonight” offer a head-swaying rhythm and the cooling vocals of Bonnie Paine and Charlie Rose. You can take this stuff as deep as you like; it’s introspective and contemplative music while at the same time being enjoyable simply for the pleasantness of the music itself.

(Eric Sandy) 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

J.Leshelle/Dame B./Esther Fitz/ BJones/CallMeChrisG/Mikal Callow/Tone Sinatra: 7 p.m., $20.

House of Blues.

John 5 & the Creatures: 6:30 p.m., $15 ADV $18 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

10 X 3 Singer Songwriter Showcase: Hosted by Brent Kirby (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Bad Boys of Blues Weekly Jam: 9 p.m., free. Happy Dog. Bro Dylan/The Brothers’ Band/Joe Risen/Goldenbear/Dorian Sway: 8 p.m., $7 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Jamey Haddad With Members of Under One Sun and Guests: 8 p.m., $20. Bop Stop.

Mug Night with Elliot Nash: 9 p.m., free. B-Side Liquor Lounge & Arcade.

Richard Thompson/Joan Shelley: 8 p.m., $32-$42. The Kent Stage.

THU

all the live music you should see this week

04/13

Dopapod/Vibe & Direct: This marks Dopapod’s first show back in Cleveland with original drummer Neal “Fro” Evans, and we couldn’t be more delighted. The band offered a statement last fall: “As we count our blessings for every moment that we’ve experienced while surrounded by a wonderfully supportive family of fans, we’ve also found ourselves recounting the original chemistry

The quirky indie electronic group Octopus Project comes to the Grog Shop. See: Monday.

that undeniably forged the path that we’re grateful to be walking.”

For fans both new and old, the best place to start before tonight’s show would be Dopapod’s new live album, II Saw Live Dopapod, Evil Was II, the imaginatively titled followup to an earlier outing. Cue up “Faba,” which really seemed to anchor the band’s last studio album and here blossoms into a nearly 17-minute synth-trip beast. More of that and then some at the Beachland tonight! (Sandy) 8:30 p.m., $15. Beachland Ballroom.

Operators/Mister Moon/Key to the Mint: Even though you may not have heard of Operators frontman Dan Boeckner before, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard his music somewhere. A member of Canadian indie rock band Wolf Parade, Boeckner released three albums with his side project Handsome Furs, and also teamed up with Spoon frontman Britt Daniel to form the side project Divine Fits.

Operators, which formed in 2013, is a synth pop/punk project — it bears resemblance to some of Boeckner’s other projects but feels a little more individual than his previous work.

“Cold Light,” a single from the band’s 2016 album Blue Wave, takes cues from ’80s house music, post punk, and new wave. The songs on Blue Wave span lots of eras, but Boeckner’s distinctive voice keeps the band grounded in modernity.

Local post-punkers Key to the Mint will open. (Johnny Cook) 9 p.m., $12.

Grog Shop.

Eric Arn/Steve DK/Bill Weita: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog.

Cemetery Piss/Horrible Earth/Crypt Rot/Throne: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class.

Doyle: 6:30 p.m., $7 ADV, $10 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

Great Lake Swimmers/Brooke Annibale: 8:30 p.m., $15 ADV, $17 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Jamey Haddad With Members of Under One Sun and Guests: 8 p.m., $20. Bop Stop.

Chris Hatton’s Musical Circus (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Jam Night with the Bad Boys of Blues: 9 p.m., free. Brothers Lounge.

The Jayhawks/Wesley Stace: 8 p.m., $38 ADV, $42 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Loretta Lynn Birthday Bash with Duchess (in the Supper Club): 7 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club.

Open Stage Sound System/Birdog/ Xela: 7:30 p.m., free. B-Side Liquor Lounge & Arcade.

The Psychedelic Furs/Robyn Hitchcock: 8 p.m., $35-$45. The Kent Stage.

Whiskey Myers/The Steel Woods: 7 p.m., $13. House of Blues.

FRI

04/14

DeadPhish Orchestra/JiMiller Band: The Grateful Dead and Phish often get lumped into the same sentence anytime some mass-media figure wants to make a reference to “hippies” or “patchouli.” It’s more off the mark than one would like but, of course, the two iconic American bands share a fair bit

of DNA. DeadPhish Orchestra incorporates the two catalogs into one stirring show, segueing into and out of one or the other; setlists often weave from “Divided Sky” into, say, “Morning Dew” and back into “Divided Sky.” There are a lot of tribute bands out there, performing the tasteful music of the Dead and Phish. This is one of those nights when you’ll get ’em both in one show. Whatever you do, take care of your U.S. Blues.

(Sandy) 8 p.m., $15. Music Box Supper Club.

All-In Country Band: 9:30 p.m., $5.

Brothers Lounge.

The Chardon Polka Band (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club.

Ricky Exton’s Octo-Jazz: 8 p.m., $12.

Bop Stop.

Goodnight Tonight/Band of Silver/ The Outer Waves/As Time Fades/ The Drawing Blanks (in the Locker Room): 6 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Green Jelly: 6:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $13 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

Hiram-Maxim Record Release Party/ Deche/Ex-Astronaut: 9 p.m., $5.

Now That’s Class.

Honeybucket: 8:30 p.m., $15.

Nighttown.

Los Muchachos: 9 p.m., $8. Musica.

The Moxies/Primarie Killers/Johnny in the Grave: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern.

Tim O’Brien/JD Hutchison/Jan Fabricius: 8 p.m., $25. The Kent Stage.

The Obsessed/Karma to Burn/Black Death Resurrected/Black Spirit Crown: 9 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Grog Shop.

Sammy Slims/Glass Traps/ Christmas Pets: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Moss Stanley: 10:30 p.m., free.

Nighttown.

Travelin’ Johnsons (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

The Way Down Wanderers/Swap Meet: 8:30 p.m., $12. Beachland Tavern.

SAT

04/15

Alt Nation’s Advanced Placement Tour with 888/Coast Modern/ Sundara Karma: 7 p.m., $15.

House of Blues.

Kofi Baker’s Cream Experience (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. | clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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Bev Rage & the Drinks/Dollar Drafts/Tufted Puffins/Womantra: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Brave Combo: 8:30 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

Paul Christensen (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Paulo Costa: 8 p.m., $10. The Euclid Tavern.

The Districts/Abi Remold/Yung Folk: 9 p.m., $13 ADV, $15 DOS. Grog Shop.

Harvest: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge.

Kat’s Birthday Boogaloo Part II with Agent/Kill the Hippies/ Rubbermate/Pig Flayer: 9 p.m., $5.

Now That’s Class.

Konyafest 2 with Nunslaughter/ FYPM/Dead of Night/From the Depth Combo Set/Embalmer/ Sathanas/Faithxtractor/Drogheda/ Mini Schnauzer: 6 p.m., $10. Agora Ballroom.

Raul Midon: 8:30 p.m., $30. Nighttown.

Skid Row: 8 p.m., $20-$37.50. Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park.

Songwriters’ Round in the Tavern: 3 p.m., free. Beachland Tavern.

Tribute to Journey with E5C4P3: 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $20 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Tweens/The Venus Flytraps/Slug Fest (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Wanted: A Tribute to Bon Jovi/ Panama: A Van Halen Tribute: 7:30 p.m., $11. House of Blues.

Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free.

Nighttown.

Weinberg, Bennet, Welcome Trio/Alec Schumann/Pete Bach + Maggie Duff: 8:30 p.m., $8. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Helen Welch: The NEW American Songbook: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop.

Jennifer Westwood and the Handsome Devils/The Dallas Moore Band/Erin Still: 8:30 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

SUN

04/16

Mothership/Sparrowmilk/The Great Iron Make: 6:30 p.m., free. Agora Ballroom.

Reverend Hylton/Tracy Marie/Mason District: 8 p.m., free. Beachland Tavern.

MON

04/17

Skatch Anderssen Orchestra: 8 p.m., $7. Brothers Lounge.

54

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

Manatees/Choke Chains/ Meanderthal/Watched Things: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class.

Nonpoint/Nine Shrines: 6 p.m., $13 ADV, $17 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

The Octopus Project/ITEM/Half an Animal: For the past decade or so, Austin’s Octopus Project has combined the astral guitar landscapes of bands like Spacemen 3 with the cosmic lounge-pop swoon of Stereolab and the electro-vibe of Four Tet. Keyboardist Yvonne Lambert regularly steals the show with her theremin. Recorded at Filmon Baby, Good Danny’s and Tarbox Road Studios, the band’s latest effort, Memory Mirror, features more of the same — quirky electronic pop that suggests a high degree of craftsmanship. (Jeff Niesel) 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop.

Oso Oso/Throw Shade/Nervous Laughter/Walk Slow/Nic Adkins (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $8.

Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Velvet Voyage (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

TUE

04/18

Dream Decay/Frank Hurricane/Liz Durette/Real Regular: 10 p.m., $5.

Now That’s Class.

False Negative: 7 p.m., $5. Bop Stop.

Flux Pavillion: 8 p.m., $25 ADV $35 DOS. House of Blues.

Little Hurricane/Jennifer Hall: 8 p.m., $12. Musica.

Outlab Session: 9 p.m., free. Bop Stop.

Tempest with Special Guest Crystal Ball: 8 p.m., $20. Brothers Lounge.

Two-Set Tuesday Featuring Matt Harmon (in the Wine Bar): 7 p.m.

Brothers Lounge.

TAUK/Mr. F: I considered Tauk’s 2014 Beachland Tavern show to be my favorite Cleveland show of that year. The band was magnetic, and I was most especially taken with drummer Isaac Teel’s chops, calling him in my review an “untamed robot from the future.” That still holds, as the band’s latest — 2016’s Sir Nebula — cranks up the energy from their earlier releases.

Opener “Horizon” goes to frantic, interdimensional places. “Rainwalk” sounds like the ambitious offspring of something off 2013’s incredible Homonculus. Note, if you don’t yet know, that Tauk is all-instrumental.

These are spacey, funky jams that tell wordless stories all their own.

(Sandy) 8:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

| clevescene.com | April 12 - 18, 2017

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| ccl clevescene.com leevves vesce esce es cene ene ne..ccom om | April Apri Ap rilil 12 12 - 118, 88,, 22017 00117

SAVAGE LOVE HARD LIMITS

by Dan Savage Dear Dan, I’ve read your column for as long as I had access to the internet and was interested in sex, so here goes: I’m a 27-year-old male with a 42-year-old girlfriend. We met at work; we were both going through divorce. At the beginning, holy moly! My dream girl in the bedroom. We’ve been together for a year, and the sex is still the best I’ve ever had, but it’s vanilla. I am assertive and in-control in the bedroom, which works for both of us, as she prefers to be passive and wants me to make moves or switch it up. I want to do other things, but she doesn’t. Anal, oral, watching porn together, bondage, voyeurism — she’s not up for any of it. There’s always an excuse: “I’m not young like you,” “I’m not flexible like you,” “I have done that before and don’t like it, no, no, no.” Do I just suck it up and be grateful for what I have or what?

— She Hates Options Totally, Desires One Way Now She wants you to be in control and switch it up but doesn’t want to do any of the things you suggest when you take control and attempt to switch things up. Hmm. Either you’re bad at everything you’ve attempted, SHOTDOWN, or she has a very limited sexual repertoire and/or actual physical limitations or health issues she hasn’t divulged to you.

Considering the age difference here, and considering that this is a post-divorce rebound relationship for you both, the odds are stacked against anything long-term. I don’t mean this relationship is doomed to fail. What I mean is this: You’ll probably be together for another year or two before parting ways. While most people would define that as a “failed relationship,” anyone who’s been reading my column for as long as he’s been interested in sex can tell you that I don’t define failure that way. If two people are together for a time, if they enjoy each other’s company (and genitals), if they part amicably and always remember each other fondly and/or remain friends, their relationship can be counted as a success.

In the meantime, enjoy the amazing vanilla sex for as long as it lasts — which could be forever. Anyone who’s been reading my column for as long as he’s been interested in sex knows that I’m not always right.

Dear Dan, My BF and I have been dating for two years. He’s 21; I’m 20 (and female). When I noticed my boyfriend wanted his ass played with and liked being submissive, I couldn’t help but wonder if something more was going on. I snooped through his browser history and found he was looking at pictures of naked men. Then I saw he posted an ad on Craigslist under “men seeking men.” He responded to one person, saying he wasn’t sure if he was straight or bi, but he had a car and could drive over! The guy responded saying how about tonight, and my BF never responded to him. I confronted him. He explained it was just a fantasy, he’s totally straight, and he was never planning on going through with it.

After the dust settled, he told me he never wanted to lose me. We then went to a sex shop and bought a strap-on dildo for me to use on him, which we both really enjoy. He bought me a diamond bracelet as an apology and promised never to fuck up again. A couple months have passed, and things are great, but I still feel bothered. He loves my tits, ass, and pussy. Just cuddling with me gets him hard.

Which is why I’m even more perplexed.

Is my boyfriend secretly gay?

— Confused And Curious Your boyfriend isn’t “secretly gay,” CAC, he’s “actually bisexual.” You know, like he said he was — or might be (but totally is)— in that e-mail exchange you found.

At this point, I’m required to tell you that bisexuals are just as capable of honoring monogamous commitments as monosexuals. But since the data shows that monosexuals are bad at monogamy — the data says bisexuals are too — I’m not sure why I’m required to say that or how it’s supposed to be comforting. But even if your boyfriend never has sex with a man, CAC, even if it takes him years to drop the “totally straight” line, you should go ahead and accept the fact that your boyfriend is bisexual.

Pretend to be shocked when he finally comes out to you — there might be a necklace in it for you — and then get busy setting up your first MMF threesome.

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