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*5,9 !5'534 s 6/,5-% .O Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Group Publisher Chris Keating
CONTENTS
Publisher Andrew Zelman Associate Publisher Angela Lott
Upfront
Editor Vince Grzegorek 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 Stage Editor Christine Howey Visual Arts Writers Josh Usmani, Dott von Schneider Copy Editor Elaine Cicora Interns Daniela Cacho, Julie Ciotola, Kirby Davis, Colton Faull, Adrian Leuthauser, Lawrence Neil Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Multimedia Account Executive Kiara Davis, Andrew Newsome
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The Q renovation battle heads to the Ohio Supreme Court
Feature
Tegan & Sara WILL BE AT (OUSE OF "LUES ON -ONDAY
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Al Fatz done came down: The untold saga of a Cleveland anthem
'ET /UT
All the best things to do this week in Cleveland
Creative Services Production Manager Steve Miluch Layout Editor/Graphic Designer Christine Hahn Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace Business Sales Assistant/Receptionist Megan Stimac Controller Kristy Dotson
Art
Circulation Circulation Director Don Kriss
A spotlight on Steve Mastroianni
Euclid Media Group Chief Executive OfďŹ cer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating OfďŹ cers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Human Resources Director Lisa Beilstein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon
Stage
www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-800-278-9866, voicemediagroup.com
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Violence comes to a park near you (thanks to Macbeth)
Film
Cleveland Scene 737 Bolivar Rd, #4100 Cleveland, OH 44115 www.clevescene.com Phone 216-241-7550 Retail & ClassiďŹ ed Fax 216-241-6275 Editoral Fax 216-802-7212 E-mail scene@clevescene.com
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33
A Ghost Story is A24’s latest mindbender
Cleveland Scene Magazine is published every week by Euclid Media Group. VeriďŹ ed Audit Member Cleveland Distribution Scene is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader Copyright The entire contents of Cleveland Scene Magazine are copyright 2017 by Euclid Media Group. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be mailed to the address listed above. Subscriptions $150 (1 yr); $ 80 (6 mos.) Send name, address and zip code with check or money order to the address listed above with the title ‘Attn: Subscription Department’
Dining
35
Our review Cleveland Mofongo Latin Grill, plus a ďŹ rst look at Seafood Shake
-USIC
Our chats with Tegan and Sara, Foxygen, plus all the shows to see this week
Savage Love
57
...The story continues at clevescene.com Take
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
5
UPFRONT A STORM OF BRIEFS
THIS WEEK
LAST WEEK, LAWYERS FOR BOTH Cleveland Law Director Barbara Langhenry and City Council Clerk Patricia Britt, as well as lawyers representing Cleveland taxpayers, filed briefs with the Ohio Supreme Court in a case which could determine the outcome of the Quicken Loans Arena renovation deal. At issue is whether or not Britt must be compelled to verify more than 20,000 petition signatures that her office received in May. The petitions, circulated by Greater Cleveland Congregations and other groups opposed to the Q deal, sought a referendum on city ordinance 305-17. That ordinance was passed as an emergency measure in late April and was signed into law the next day by Mayor Frank Jackson. It amended a complex financial arrangement between the city and the county, originally passed in 1992 to finance the construction of the the Gateway Complex, and committed future admissions tax revenue to the arena renovation. The clerk’s office, via Deputy Allan Dreyer, rejected the petition signatures on May 22, advising in a memo that a referendum seeking repeal of 305-17 was unconstitutional because it would impair an “already executed and binding contract.” Langhenry then filed suit against Britt to compel her to accept the signatures. The maneuver was announced by Frank Jackson and Council President Kevin Kelley at a city hall press conference, and was positioned as a presentation of “equally valid” legal arguments before an impartial court that would resolve the dispute quickly. Lawyers for Cleveland taxpayers successfully
6
Photo by Sam Allard
Opposing sides lay out Q deal arguments before Ohio Supreme Court
Leaders of the Q Deal referendum coalition gather on the steps of City Hall before their signatures were rejected.
intervened in the case, and have presented their briefs alongside Langhenry’s. The legal argument put forth by Langhenry’s team is that the constitutionality of the referendum is irrelevant, and in fact not the Ohio Supreme Court’s business. The court should compel Britt to verify the petition signatures because it is the clerk’s duty to do so, as outlined in the Cleveland city charter. The charter also explicitly states that the ordinance, despite its emergency status, is clearly subject to referendum. Langhenry’s lawyers argued that 305-17 “constitutes a legislative [as opposed to an administrative] act,” and “does not fall within the scope of the limited exceptions set forth in [the charter.]” The ordinance was not passed, in other words, “for the immediate preservation of the public peace, property, health or safety.” Nor was it passed to provide for “the refinancing of bonds, notes or other securities
of the city.” Those emergency ordinances would not be subject to referendum. All other emergency ordinances are. Lawyers for Cleveland taxpayers — Subodh Chandra and Peter Pattakos*— argued much the same. They, too, said that the constitutionality of the referendum (in keeping with Ohio legal precedent) should only be addressed after a vote had taken place. But even if the Constitution’s contracts clause were in play, they argued, it would only restrict the passage of laws that impair contracts, not their repeal. Furthermore, the contracts clause only applies when reasonable expectations of contracting parties are disrupted. “Everyone involved here knew that this deal was subject to the referendum process, just like every proposed public improvement project has been in Ohio for more than 100 years,” Pattakos wrote Scene in an email, paraphrasing his firm’s brief.
“The contract clause was not intended to allow elected officials to commit tax dollars to new projects against their constituents’ will and then thwart the public’s right to approve the project by rushing into contracts before the referendum process has a chance to play out.” That’s the crux of the taxpayers’ argument. In the language of the brief: “[A prior court finding] does not grant cities, carte blanche, a right to start making their own constitutional determinations regarding referendums or other voter initiatives prior to their enactment.” Britt’s legal team argued, on the flipside, that Cleveland taxpayers have no right to referendum because petitions were filed after the ordinance’s “effective date.” They argued [erroneously] that once an emergency ordinance goes into effect, referendum petitions cannot be processed. “By requiring two-thirds of Council to approve the emergency and a shorter effective date than 30 days,” the brief reads, “the Charter provides a reasonable safeguard against legislative abuse by making it difficult for Council to pass every ordinance as an emergency to avoid a referendum.” Britt’s team argued that even if petitions had been filed before the ordinance’s effective date, the referendum would be void ab initio [from the start] because it is unconstitutional. Britt, then, via Dreyer, had the authority to reject the signatures on constitutional grounds, they argued. Moreover, the lawyers wrote that referendum powers apply only to legislative acts, and 305-17 relates to an administrative act. (Langhenry’s team rebutted that claim.) Thursday, supporters of the Q
1967
WHAAA-WHO?
IRON BORN
QUALITY OF LIFE
Dan Gilbert pulls tone-deaf Bedrock ad that featured only white people, but then indelicately asked residents not to riot over something so snowflakey.
A shirtless man with prominent Nazi tattoos attended the Indians game Sunday. When pressed, he said the images were harmless cartoons created to induce feelings of pride for his team.
Twenty-seven adult turtles were rescued from the muck at the bottom of Shaker Lakes during dredging last week. “What is dead may never die,” muttered one, en route to its new captivity.
FirstEnergy Stadium covered in same material used in Grenfell tower; least surprising thing you’ve heard this month.
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
| ccl clevescene.com lev evvees esce esce cen neee.c ..cco om m | July Juully ly 26 26 - August Auugguus ust st 11,, 22017 st 017 01
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UPFRONT Deal ďŹ led Friends of the Court briefs, arguing on behalf of Britt and the renovation. Lawyers for the local laborers’ union (310), the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, the Cavaliers Operating Company and a slew of prominent business leaders advanced various economic rationales. “When the city enters into a development agreement, no one beneďŹ ts from a legal scheme that allows third parties to invalidate the agreement after the fact,â€? read the brief from Cleveland’s business community. “The court should not countenance a legal scheme that increases the risk, and thereby the cost, of economic and ďŹ nancial transactions. No one beneďŹ ts from such a scheme.â€? The Cavs’ brief called the referendum a “shakedown,â€? a ploy
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$900,000 Amount Cleveland City Council has authorized for spending on the removal of 3,800 dead trees currently on city property.
120,000 Number of trees in the city of Cleveland, down from 220,000 in 1940. Frank Jackson, under the “Cleveland Tree Plan� wants to plant 50,000 more by 2020.
1,800 Number of disconnected 911 calls in Cuyahoga County in the ďŹ rst two weeks of July. About 95 percent of them were described as “not real emergenciesâ€? — butt dials, etc.
$400-$500 Average cost of a home lead inspection in Cleveland. Jeff Johnson will introduce legislation next month to phase in a mandatory certiďŹ cate program.
intended to milk Dan Gilbert for additional community beneďŹ ts. (This references the GCC’s call for a “dollar for dollarâ€? pledge into a Community Equity Fund.) It also claimed, echoing Britt’s lawyers, that the signatures were a “nullity, rendered mootâ€? by their untimely submission. The Cavs also attached a letter from the NBA advising that if construction on the arena did not begin by Sept. 15, Cleveland would no longer be considered as a host city for the 2020 or 2021 NBA All-Star games. A brief ďŹ led by attorney Andrew Mayle, representing an organization called Property Owner’s Network, replied to the supporters’ claims. We quote it at length here: “Various amici supporting [City Council Clerk Pat Britt] assert — citing nothing — that permitting a referendum on the disputed Cleveland ordinance would increase the costs of contracting in this state and make economic development projects ‘impossible.’ Not so. The amici offer no empirical data supporting their claims. But even if the data existed — which it does not — the overall societal beneďŹ t of preserving the constitutional power to referendum outweighs the perceived ďŹ nancial gain for some owing from any given development project ‌ “In truth, the hope in reserving the right to referendum is that the right is rarely exercised. That is, the more potential for a referendum promotes enactment of sound — rather than wasteful — public policy backed by the will of the majority of the electorate. Thus, the right to referendum increases — not decreases — overall efďŹ ciency through direct public accountability. “This is one reason why most ordinances are enacted without ever being subjected to referenda. But in those rare cases where legislation is opposed to the point where enough electors are willing to circulate, sign, and vote for a referendum vetoing a recently-enacted ordinance, no city clerk, nor even the Supreme Court of Ohio, have the power to suppress the vote before it occurs. “Granted, in any particular referendum election, arguments may be made pro or con as to how a person should cast their vote. But the merits of the proposed referendum in Cleveland are not before this court of law. And therefore the business leaders who oppose the referendum should make their economic arguments directly to the voters of Cleveland rather than to this judicial tribunal — whose jurisdiction at this juncture is limited to overseeing [Britt’s] failure to perform her ministerial duties.â€? — Sam Allard
HERMES LOOKS AWFUL IN LAWSUIT AGAINST ST. MALACHI Reporting by Cleveland.com last week shed light on a controversy between a regional road race organizer and an inner city Catholic church. St. Malachi’s, on the city’s near westside, has hosted an annual run since 1981. This year, the church broke ties with Hermes Road Racing, the company that had organized the run for years. Hermes sued St. Malachi’s, contending that the church can’t host an event with its own name anywhere in the title because people will get confused and think Hermes is involved. Very dumb. As a lawyer for St. Malachi’s told Cleveland.com: “For Hermes to contend in court that it now owns the ‘St. Malachi’ name because it organized runs for the church ... is unjust, and legally and factually incorrect. It also should raise concerns for other charities and businesses that use (or have used) Hermes as a run organizer, and for the public who now must question whether Hermes’ use of charity names is an accurate indicator that a specific charity or cause actually benefits from and endorses a particular run.” Later details revealed that Hermes made at least $113,000 in registration fees for the 2017 event, which took place in March. But they only gave St. Malachi’s $3,000. The church reportedly made an additional $3,500 in direction donations. Hermes issued a statement on Facebook saying that it walked away with only $15,000 and that they did not initially want to sue St. Malachi’s. “We worked for almost four decades to build this race up by staging a first-class race and fundraiser,” Hermes wrote. “We were actively talking with St. Malachi to resolve any issues to both move forward and come up with ideas to increase the amount of money to be received by the church. During a time when we thought we were still talking, the church’s attorneys served us with a cease-and-desist order that said we had no right to stage our race under a name we’ve been using for 37 years. On top of that, we learned that the race would still be held but would instead be staged by one of our competitors who would then receive the benefit of 37 years of our hard work.” St. Malachi’s pastor, Tony Schuerger, said that while the parties were negotiating, Hermes registered the trade name “St. Malachi Church
Run” with the Ohio Secretary of State, a move that Schuerger said showed bad faith on the part of the organizers. — Allard
AMAZON FACILITY COMING TO RANDALL PARK MALL SITE A proposed Amazon fulfillment center could soon open at the former Randall Park Mall site, providing 1,200 new jobs to an area in need of an economic boost. The North Randall project would take up the vacant 69 acres. But first, Seefried Industrial
Properties Inc. must demolish the existing buildings on the site — a Burlington Coat Factory store, a vacant automotive-maintenance facility, and a former department store turned into a “PowerSport Institute” for the Ohio Technical College. Developers would then build a $177 million facility and lease it out for Amazon to use. Cleveland. com reported that the ClevelandCuyahoga County Port Authority will put up $123 million worth of bond financing for the project. Randall Park Mall closed in
2009 and was partly demolished in late 2014. Malls across America are slowly dying. The L.A. Times published a report earlier this summer predicting that up to 25 percent of U.S. shopping malls may close in the next five years. The Euclid Square Mall, also closed, remains standing and used by church congregations for worship. Seefried is also working on a deal to acquire the building for another project. — Colton Faull
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
9
FEATURE
AL FATZ DONE CAME DOWN The untold saga of a Cleveland anthem By Lawrence Neil
A SHIVERING LINE SNAKES OUT OF MODA ON A frigid December night in 2005. The controversial Ohio City club — an infamous nexus of dancing and drugs, nuisance and nightlife — would close the next year, its owner indicted on drug and money laundering charges. But in the winter of 2005 it was still a place to be — the crowd hopping, the living large, the muffled bass pulsing through brick walls onto West 25th Street.
Photo by Ted Soqui
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
An SUV glides up to the curb and a group of men spills out, including four young guys — a wide-eyed, ragtag bunch that looks like they should be strolling through a high school hallway, not into a club. A promoter waves them to the front of the line, unhooking the rope as they bypass the waiting crowds who probably don’t recognize the crew but who would certainly know their voices. Those voices, after all, had been booming out of cars, basement stereos and in gymnasiums across the city that year. They’re the Royalty Camp, a mercurial young hiphop group including Tae 4rm Da 50, Pooh Gutta, RJ Da Fool and charismatic frontman Fat Al, and they were about to get their first taste of the high life. The group posts up in the VIP section. A promoter leans over and hands a burnt CD in a paper sleeve to DJ Chicago, a local fixture and Z107.9 disc jockey. Chicago cuts the music in the 1,500-person-capacity club and grabs a microphone. “I need Cleveland to stand behind this song,” he says. “This is gonna be a hit.” Chicago presses play. A slow, intoxicating two-note bass clef piano lick punctuated by hand claps begins, expanding into a booming, stripped-down rhythm of claps
and bass knocks. A viscous, singsong voice begins to rap: It’s the Fat Al / and I’m from the SLAB Hands rise up on the dance floor. The verse rounds the corner for the chorus, and it seems like the whole city is singing along: I done came down, I done came down Chicago played it again. And then again. And again. “It was crazy. The track wasn’t even mixed down, and it definitely wasn’t mastered. It was the original, first cut,” he says, still a bit in awe 12 years later, “People had the same reaction every time I played it. It was like they were hearing it again for the first time.” DJ Chicago spun “Came Down” 10 times in a row. Sitting in the VIP section, the big-boned 17-year-old took it all in. He’d arrived. He done came down. Over a decade has passed since that evening but, on a rainy day this past April, Fat Al’s memory is vivid as he recounts that night at Moda. “We’re 16, 17, we don’t know what’s going on,” he says, sitting in the kitchen of a home on a quiet side street in Maple Heights. “We’re not smoking or drinking; it’s a natural high.” Now 29 years old, he’s slimmed down since the days when his nickname was christened, when hopping in a car might’ve caused its rims to scrape. But he still carries a wide frame, a boyish face, and a dazzling smile that peeks out as he reminisces about the song and what happened since. What happened was exactly what DJ Chicago predicted: It was a hit. And as DJ Chicago prescribed, Cleveland stood behind the song as it came to a popular and financial crest by the summer of 2007. Al would solidify a business relationship with Rich Paul, then a LeBron James advisor and nascent industry player. “Came Down” would appear on the wildly popular 2007 edition of the Madden video game. He would ink a deal with Atlantic Records. He’d record a video for the song with LeBron James himself, embark on a tour and perform with rap’s biggest names. And then it all fell apart. Fat Al was born Aljaray Gaston on Cleveland’s northeast side, growing up on the strip just north of East Cleveland between Glenville and Collinwood that kids dubbed “The Clair.” He was raised by his grandmother, who juggled a full house of responsibilities: three
siblings on his mother’s side plus dozens of other grandchildren staying with her at any given time. He was distant from his eight stepsiblings on his father’s side, even more so after his dad died when Al was 10. His mother was in and out of his life. “I used to lie and say that my mother lived in Florida when I was little,” Al recalls. “I felt embarrassed about my mother being in the streets my whole life and not being there for
of rapping. He first combined them into a little neighborhood chant, titled “Hol’ Up,” whose popularity snowballed among the social circles orbiting the popular football and track teams. At the Glenville talent show in December of 2004, in front of a thousand kids, he got up on a stage to perform for the first time. “Everyone was standing up on their seats and started yelling it,” he remembers. “Glenville High School, the week before winter break … that
“People had the same reaction every time I played it. It was like they were hearing it again for the first time.” — DJ Chicago me. But it made me at the same time. It made me a stronger me. It made me an entertainer. I had to dodge the tomatoes.” Al’s penchant for deflecting attention found a natural outlet as class clown at Glenville High School where he’d get tough love when he acted out. “We’ve gotta suspend you because you did some bullshit,” Al says, characterizing the staff’s approach. “‘But we love you, we’re gonna feed you. You want a corned beef sandwich?’ I was always spoiled with love in the ’Ville.” Much of that stemmed from a relationship with Ted Ginn Sr., the legendary coach of Glenville’s powerhouse football and track teams and the father of one of Al’s close friends, Ted Ginn Jr. Coach Ginn knew all about Al’s turbulent home life and took him under his wing, even inviting him over for Christmas. Al conditioned with the team, rode on the buses to games and meets. Al’s other foundation was a neighborhood crew that called itself the S.L.A.B., a nod to Houston’s rich “swangin’” culture that had found a second home in Northeast Ohio. Characterized by candy-painted, big-rimmed American luxury cars — Lincolns, Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles from the ’60s and ’70s — swangin’ was a coming-ofage prerequisite in the Clair. “It was our first taste of independence, getting our Ls and our whips,” Al says. “We knew all the hot music and we bumped it.” Al had some of the charisma of the guys they were listening to, plus a sharp tongue and a melodic style
was my start.” Over the next few weeks Al flipped the chant into a mixtape of freestyles called The Fat Album, burned them onto 10 CDs, and sold them for $3 to $5 a pop in his first week back at school in January. He used the profits to buy a 100-pack of blank discs. “And there wasn’t no looking back,” he says. “I was selling it on the street, CDs in envelopes type shit, standing on the corner selling ’em like I was selling dope. And I saw people start respecting me.” As Al enjoyed his school-ground notoriety, he was introduced to a Glenville freshman named Ralph Worley Jr. — known as RJ — who recorded music in a slipshod, DIY studio. “Studio, aka my bedroom,” RJ says, laughing. “Our first couple mixtapes were terrible quality; those were recorded in my closet.” Al recorded his second mixtape, The Fat Ality, in the bedroom studio. He rapped over popular contemporary instrumentals but tossed a beat and verse from RJ himself at the end of the project. RJ, 15, had first made beats on a PlayStation video game before becoming “savvy with the software shit” and upgrading to Pro Tools, an amateur producer’s Pandora’s box. The very first beat he made was inspired by the moody progressions of keyboard licks in “5 On It,” the 1995 Bay Area anthem by Oakland duo Luniz. He slowed them down, transposed them into mahogany piano notes, and stripped everything else back, leaving just handclaps, a
shaker and a bass kick so powerful it shook his bedroom walls. Al was addicted to it. “He would always come over and be like, ‘Play that beat for me!’” RJ says. “He would always freestyle the chorus — ‘I done came down, I done came down’ — but we didn’t record it.” As Al’s first two mixtapes created a buzz on the Clair, people got interested in working with him and RJ. In East Cleveland, a young rapper named Pooh Gutta and his crew caught wind; near Collinwood, a rapper who went by Tae 4rm Da 50. “A month later,” Al says, “there’s literally a hundred people at RJ’s house. They’ve formed this little clique and they were like, ‘Al, you in it?’ I was like, ‘I’m doing my own thing; y’all is crazy.’ But it just ended up kinda going. And I went.” Two months into his fledgling music career, this was the first of many moments where Al — then a 17-year-old teeming with talent but lacking on guidance — felt backed into a decision that was essentially already made for him. He doesn’t admit resentment toward anyone, but there are wistful cracks of lamentation. “It definitely was organic,” Al says of the group’s genesis. “But at the same time, my shit was moving, and they saw my movement, and it was by myself. And they said, ‘We gotta get with Al.’” The clique was whittled down to four guys who called themselves Royalty Camp. Over the next few weeks they recorded a 13-track tape, taking turns laying bars in RJ’s closet recording booth and embracing the local rap style of “cappin” — boasting about things you don’t have or haven’t done. They rhymed about jewelry, million-dollar deals, 28-inch rims on Jaguars, hoping the verses, those bedroom incantations, would rap themselves into reality. On the last day of recording, Al asked RJ to put on the “5 On It” beat that he’d been mumbling to for months. What they recorded, in one take, became the first version of “Came Down.” An ode to the SLAB, Al rapped about his friends, their old school whips that sat on enormous chrome rims, and the incomparable sense of cool that came with riding down the street, doors open, blasting music. Sure, he slurred some lines and words, but they liked the track’s rawness. Plus, they didn’t expect all that many people to hear it anyway. “It was a bullshit-ass version,” RJ says. “That shit really blew because | clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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Photo by Emanuel Wallace
FEATURE we didn’t go into it, like, we’re about to make a fucking hit record and get this shit on Madden. We were thinking small, like, we’re ’bout to burn this shit onto some CDs and sell these CDs and get some Jordans.” Sell CDs they did: “Came Down” quickly became a neighborhood hit, then picked up underground steam as CD-R discs were passed around, landing in the hands of the city’s tastemakers. “As a DJ, my ear is to the street, and I was hearing it in cars, on the street,” says DJ E-V, then a burgeoning 20-year-old trying to spin at parties before becoming one of the city’s mixtape kings. “It wasn’t mixed, but it was so catchy. It was like an infection — it was everywhere. It was like a fucking Martian landed on Earth.” “I can only imagine it was like being in New York City in 1997 when ‘It’s All About the Benjamins’ dropped,” says Mick Boogie, a staple of the Cleveland hip-hop scene who worked as the in-arena DJ for the Cavs during LeBron’s early years. “It was ubiquitous. We played it a lot during games. It was a local anthem.” Before Rich Paul was Rich Paul, mega agent with the world’s best basketball player as a client, he was Rich Paul, a grassroots entrepreneur who met LeBron while flipping throwback jerseys out of the trunk of his car. Like Al, Paul grew up in Glenville — they went to the same barbershop at East 112th and St. Clair and had met years earlier when Al was in middle school — and counted Ted Ginn Sr. as a mentor. They weren’t close but they were familiar, and by the time “Came Down” was being passed around, Paul was firmly in LeBron’s inner circle. Royalty Camp had scrambled to record new material, knocking out hits in Phatty Banks’ Hough studio for a mixtape called Royal Rumble. The mixtape featured “We Ballin’,” a colossal finger-snapping, buzzy synth-saw hype track that elevated the group, helped the group draw appearances like at Moda, and opening sets like for Harlem rapper Juelz Santana. The small purses — $500 or so — were nice, but it wasn’t about the money for Al; it was about the connections. He was introduced to Ducky Smallz, a local artist with far stronger ties to Rich Paul than
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Al laid claim to. While Paul knew of Al, he hadn’t known about the group’s breakout. “Rich always saw the potential in Al,” says RJ. “Our shit was in high schools. Rich didn’t know how big we were until we started to do little shows, packing them bitches out and rocking them. Eventually, he came around.” It was a different stratosphere than what the group was used to. Here was someone who had the stuff they rapped about. “When Rich came to Al, Al came to me to pick me up,” RJ says, recalling their first official business meeting. “Rich was in the 2007 Cadillac Escalade, and we went to fucking McDonald’s. Rich pulls out all $100 bills and paid for our meal with [one of them]. It had to come out to maybe $15, tops. They didn’t have change, so he was like, ‘Keep it.’ I was like, ‘Who the fuck is this
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
dude?’” Paul pitched the idea of forming a label through which they could release their music. After turning down some other local labels and a few meetings, Al found himself operating under Paul’s umbrella in an undefined business arrangement. “To be honest, I don’t know what Rich was,” Al says. “He just oversaw my business at that point. He was wearing all types of hats, from manager to jeweler. I was living a grown man’s life, but I still was a boy. Rich gave me guidance about how to be a man.” They hit the ground running. Al and the rest of the Royalty Camp started spending time at Rich’s home in Hudson and, within a few weeks, Rich had leveraged connections and the buzz of “Came Down” into a meeting with Atlantic Records in New York City. Al claims that within an hour, after playing just
“Came Down” and one beat from RJ, Atlantic was ready to sign him. This claim was repeated (more or less) by Rich Paul on a later mixtape of Al’s, saying: “Most n*ggas don’t get a deal in two hours ... but Al Fatz the next n*gga on deck.” By March, Rich had a deal on the table from Atlantic. Al had been recording for barely a year. But Al’s movement stumbled out of the gate. The day after Al returned from the Atlantic meeting, a close friend of the group, Anthony Gordon, was shot and killed in the Flats after a show where Al had been slated to play, but bailed at the last second. “I went sharp off of being a teenager with no support system straight into this, then one of my biggest supporters and friends just got killed at a show for me,” Al says. “I was dazed.”
Just weeks later, another wrench got tossed into the gears. Atlantic received cease-and-desist notices from Bill Cosby and his attorneys. Apparently “Fat Al” was too close in name to Cosby’s trademarked Fat Albert character. “Fuck Bill Cosby,” Al barks. “That’s the answer to all those questions.” Unable or unwilling to fight over the moniker, Atlantic prodded Al to change his name. The two sides finally agreed on Al Fatz. It was a minor hiccup though; the bigger problem was the layers of the deal itself. Paul’s budding label, co-created with LeBron and Leonard Brooks, a Clevelander who managed Atlantic R&B singer Gerald Levert, was christened Dreamlife. Al found himself in the basement below layers of middlemen with no experience in business or contract law, which made negotiating fuzzy. “Rich was supposed to manage them, but then it turned into a production deal,” says Phatty Banks, “It was a sticky situation. It’s murky, man.” Banks, a veteran producer and sound engineer, recorded the second version of “Came Down” and was instrumental in the group’s development during this era. While he knew that Paul was in the best position to help Al, he found it confusing that the relationship morphed from managerial — where Al and Rich would have effectively represented a single entity — to a label/artist relationship, where Al and Rich remained separate, even competing, entities in a negotiation. “Everything changes when one dollar is made, because how you gonna divide that dollar up?” Banks asks. “That’s when the music industry’s not fun any more.” And while RJ caught a respectable check from the deal, he can’t help but think that Al may have jumped the gun in signing with Atlantic, especially concerning the rest of the Royalty Camp. “There were never rifts about Al being the leader or the one with the record deal,” RJ says. “We’ve had our hardships, but we’re brothers. Brothers fight and brothers make up. I always wanted the group to keep doing what it was doing, but Al signed that deal and that lightweight messed it up for us.” Pinning down the decision processes and release schedules — basically any sort of detail — is difficult 10 years after the fact. Part of that is the industry, but part of that has to do with the time this was all unfolding, the difference
between the analog world of hard copy or erasure and the digital world of fossilized minutiae. There are no Twitter timelines to search for promo tweets, or archived Facebook event pages, or easily discoverable YouTube interviews at every major radio station. It’s a treasure hunt through the internet’s awkward middle-school phase: bootleg MP3 websites, long inactive Myspace pages, and pre-Soundcloud music sharing platforms. It’s squinting at thumbnail-sized photos taken on Nokia brick phones, newsletters created in MS Paint, and scanned copies of old Billboard magazines. It’s relying on the memories of kids who were 16 years old at the time. But what’s clear, at least to Al, is that without legal representation or even a guardian involved in the deal-making process, he ended up in the dark. “When you got people who know the world better than you do at the time, what can you do? All I could do was make music,” Al says. “I didn’t know what was going on. It was going through Rich and I just kind of let Rich do whatever.” Just like when Royalty Camp first formed and Al went along, the Atlantic deal just ended up kinda going ... and Al went. Contractual issues aside, this period really was a boon for everyone involved. With Al’s star rising, “Came Down” began spreading out of Cleveland and into the national spotlight. “I was traveling a lot at that time, and wherever I would go, people would know of Ray [Cash] and Al,” says Mick Boogie. “It was fun playing local music because, for the first time, it wasn’t out of obligation. It was because it worked for a mass audience.” “I gave it to my guys in Miami,” DJ Chicago says. “And when I got to South Beach, I’m seeing Bentleys playing ‘Came Down.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, this is a hit.’” Paul parlayed the national success into another deal, snagging an eleventh-hour $15,000 licensing deal for “Came Down” to appear on the upcoming Madden 2007 video game. It almost didn’t happen, as negotiations dragged through the summer. Paul, barely 25 years old at the time, seemed to be shooting from the hip himself. “Rich said it: ‘I don’t know the business, I just know how to connect dots,’” RJ says. “Music wasn’t his first thing; it was just some shit he did. He just saw some kids from his neighborhood in the city doing
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FEATURE some positive shit and he wanted to help. We didn’t know what the fuck we was doing. We just knew we had a nice record on our hands and it was a talented group of li’l kids that caught the ear of the city, which is hard to fucking do — to this day.” The lack of a hip-hop infrastructure — beyond a radio station that followed orders from HQ and vestiges of the Bone-ThugsN-Harmony ecosystem — made the road even more difficult. “I don’t think any of us really knew what we were doing,” says DJ E-V, reflecting on this era, “There were no people from Cleveland to tell us, you know? In Atlanta and New York and L.A., there are people who are O.G.s who can step in and help. In Cleveland, there was nobody. You’re kind of guessing what to do.” So when Paul invited Royalty Camp to move into his Hudson house permanently, it seemed as good an idea as any. But with a toddler and a girlfriend at home, and a lucrative gig working for LeBron, he knew he needed to give context to his role. While he was serious about
Still from “Came Down” music video with Lebron James.
the endeavor — building a home recording studio, bringing them with him when he bought a bigger place in Solon — RJ says Paul sat the whole crew down in his kitchen and told them, “Whether y’all pop or not, my lifestyle is not gonna change. This is not my bread and butter.” Royalty had support, but they had to be self-motivated, and they were. Pooh, Tae, and RJ were making music every day, and by that summer they’d released their album,
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Dedication to Anthony Gordon. Al was busy — getting pulled up onstage to perform with Yung Joc, playing dates on morning show host Russ Parr’s Bus Tour. He began working with Grammy-nominated Roc-A-Fella signees Young Gunz and picked up a Lil Wayne verse. He’d paired up with fellow SLAB member Chip Tha Ripper for their first hit collaboration, “Get It Girl,” produced by emerging Cleveland producers the Kickdrums. He was traveling with LeBron and Rich, playing shows
in tandem with Cavs away games across the country. Atlantic flew Al down to Miami to work at The Hit Factory, pairing him with various powerhouse producers to crank out songs for his upcoming album. By early 2007, Al was firing on every cylinder. LeBron snapped him up alongside Houston rapper Paul Wall to host his Sprite AllStar Weekend party at the Bellagio in Vegas. Atlantic finally unveiled “Came Down” for wide release, using a third and final recording of the track. With the Cavs on their way to an NBA Finals appearance, Atlantic dropped it as a single on May 1 and sent Al and the Royalty Camp on a 30-city promo tour. “We were going to the cities at the height of when shit was going on,” RJ says. “Bike Week on Myrtle Beach, Memorial Weekend in Miami.” It was that first night at the Moda, amplified tenfold across the country. By the time they’d got home, Sprite had dropped the collab with Paul Wall (“Main Attraction”), and Rich had surprised Al by setting up a video shoot for “Came Down” the day after they arrived. The video — shot between Al’s neighborhood, his barbershop and a club downtown — is triumphant, youthful, and unapologetically
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Cleveland. LeBron even showed up, dancing alongside Al in some shots and letting the DreamLife crew borrow his Rolls Royce. Atlantic talked about making a big push for it — MTV, BET, a hefty promotion budget — and in behind-the-scenes footage from the day, amidst the joyous atmosphere, Al told everyone to look out for his album, The Unexpected, under Atlantic and DreamLife in the early fall. Everything was moving. And then, for once, Al didn’t go along. By November, a profile featuring Al and Paul indicated that “negotiations between the local company and [Atlantic] are in limbo,” and that Paul “has doubts about the strength of Atlantic’s commitment to his artists.” The way Al describes it, though, he just kind of … bailed. Without attorneys to represent him at the negotiations between Atlantic and DreamLife, Al felt like he was losing too much control, too fast. “Who was really there to make sure my shit straight?” he says. “I didn’t really have the resources to make sure everything was right. I didn’t have the representation to even say, ‘This guy deserves a $500,000 or million-dollar deal.’ I didn’t really have a lawyer to go up against these big corporations. When there’s nobody really fighting for you, you end up taking scraps.” “Scraps” was $150,000, 60 percent of what Al says was a $250,000 advance, with the other 40 percent going to DreamLife. The final publishing deal was never signed, he says. Al left it on the table and walked away. “I didn’t like the percentages at the time,” he says. “I had all the control when I was rocking with Chicago and going to the Moda and selling CDs. But in this game you have to give up a lot to get where you want. After the deal went, I just disappeared on everybody because it felt weird.” Al had gone from high school talent shows to the Billboard charts in two years; something else would surely come through, he assumed. After Dreamlife dropped his collab mixtape with Chip, Double Trouble, in late November, Al moved out of Rich’s spot and back to The Clair. Royalty Camp had effectively disbanded in the wake of
the separation. “I wasn’t really around anybody except RJ,” he says. “I was just going to pick up beats from people and disappearing, coming up with shit, like damn, I’m still creative.” Al wrote and laid vocals for a song he called “To The Floor” over a beat he grabbed from RJ. The result was a bright, synth-driven poolside club jam. He took the recording, stored it on his computer, and sat on it until a surprise phone call from Paul. “Me and Rich weren’t really conversing at this point,” Al says, sort of glossing over the fact that he’d bounced on the deal that Rich had set up for him. “Then he hit me and he was with Polow Da Don and he wanted me to come to L.A.” “See, this is why I fuck with Rich,” RJ says. “Because he looked out, no matter what. Rich will put you in position to win.” In 2008, Paul and LeBron were in production on More Than A Game, the documentary about LeBron and his high-school teammates in Akron. They’d tapped a producer named Polow Da Don to help out with the soundtrack. Polow’s production credits were staggering, including hit singles for the Pussycat Dolls (“Buttons”), Fergie (“London Bridge” and “Glamorous”), and Usher (“Love in This Club”). And to top it all off, he was a huge fan of Al’s. “I played him “To The Floor” myself over my computer,” Al says. “Nobody knew I had those new songs — not Rich, not nobody.” Polow loved it. “Al called me asking about the files and said that Polow Da Don wanted the record,” RJ says. “I was like, ‘Word?’” RJ joined Al in Los Angeles along with JP, another Cleveland staple now known as Earl St. Clair. The three of them crashed at the studio for over a month, grinding on new music. “We didn’t even have a hotel; we were staying in the studio,” RJ says. “We weren’t just working on that song: We were just making beats, all types of shit.” Polow bought the rights to the song and filled the verses with his famous friends. “He went and got Drake on there, made Lloyd sing on it, Rich Boy did his thing on it, and left me on it,” Al says, “I have a song with Lloyd, Rich Boy and Drake that I wrote. RJ made the beat. And, uh ... That ended up not going through.” Polow was planning on saving it for Rich Boy’s next album, likely to be dropped as its lead single. Months of waiting turned to years. “2010 comes, and everybody’s hyped about this national record that I’m
supposed to have. Then that shit didn’t even come out. They said it got leaked.â€? “Maybe some cease-and-desist was sent out, maybe someone stole the record and put it out,â€? RJ says. “I just know it wasn’t rolled the way it was supposed to have been rolled out. There was no promotion: It just came out. “That was supposed to have been it,â€? RJ says. “After ‘Came Down,’ that was the next big thing for me. And when that shit didn’t work out, I was like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ This is Rookie of the Year Drake; Drake when he’s ďŹ rst poppin’. He’s just coming out and everybody’s checking for him, and that shit didn’t work? I was like, ‘Damn, that was another shot.’â€? For a sense of the scale of this missed opportunity, here’s a bit of context on the collaborations between the other featured artists on the track. The previous song that Drake and Rich Boy made together was on the mixtape that ďŹ rst splashed Drizzy into the mainstream, Comeback Season. Drake and Lloyd went on to make a song for Drake’s critically acclaimed second mixtape So Far Gone. The next single they collaborated on was ‘BedRock,’ the Young Money posse cut that hit No. 2 in the U.S., charted in seven countries, and introduced the mainstream to Nicki Minaj. Al was right there. “That song could deďŹ nitely have been the one,â€? says Steph Floss, who played the leaked versions in the club and on the radio, even without label backing. DJ E-V agrees. “That song would go,â€? he says. “Everyone loved it, and in Cleveland, that was a really big song. But when you stop pushing something, it just stops.â€? Al felt crushed, and jaded. “I just felt foolish. It wasn’t even about feeling depressed, I just felt like we could do this shit, we should do this shit,â€? he says. “At that point, I knew there was some weird shit going on. I don’t need to be looking forward to none of this shit. I need to be in control of all my music and everything.â€? This story stings even more with the knowledge that Al’s disappearance basically couldn’t occur in today’s Soundcloudcentric, social media-driven, DIY rap industry where fans have direct access to the artist’s music. But Al’s timing meant that his fanbase was among the last wave to be largely dependent on large corporate structures: physical CDs, radio
stations, record labels, and MySpace, which was just the wrong horse in the race. At one point or another, it seems like everyone involved in Al’s rise has thrown around blame in vague frustration. There’s certainly a version of this narrative that ďŹ nds Paul and the Dreamlife ecosystem at fault for the unfulďŹ lled potential in Al’s career. Signing to Atlantic so quickly, negotiating against the artist you’re supposed to be nurturing: There were a few potential red ags.
“They were ahead of their time. If that same movement had been happening now, they would’ve been super stars.� —Steph Floss There’s a compelling argument that Al undercut his own career at its most promising point. He did bail on a quarter-million dollar deal, after all, one which today he says could have worked. Accusations of straight-up laziness have been lobbed against him as well, that getting caught up in the glamorous lifestyle of Rich and LeBron was more important to him than grinding in the studio. In a subliminally charged video from 2010, Rich lauded Tae’s work ethic, but — without naming Al outright — railed against someone he’d worked with who got “spoiled� after private jets and fancy dinners. Even RJ admits that Al might have gotten “a little too lax� after the early heights. “He was working, but he was seeing too much, being around people who had more money than him and thinking he could live that life. Getting signed is just the beginning,� RJ says, “Once you get that, you gotta work 10 times harder.� Phatty Banks is a bit more magnanimous with his appraisal. “It came so fast,� he says. “The record took off, and everybody was trying to catch up to it, including
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FEATURE
“I’m ready to move forward, I’m ready to leave the past behind me.” — Al Fatz Photo by Ted Soqui
Al. The situation was probably very overwhelming for him, to go from sleeping on the floor at his friend’s house to being front row at the Cavs game and at LeBron’s house.” And this seems to come closest to the real root cause: a confluence of circumstances. The overwhelming youth that made this movement bold and fearless also lacked veteran guidance and know-how. The dearth of infrastructure meant that everyone who supposed to be helping Al was also trying to make money off him while learning how to navigate the business themselves. The relative obscurity of Cleveland’s music industry made it a blank canvas for its artists, but made it that much more difficult to get noticed or gain traction. “They were ahead of their time. If that same movement had been happening now, they would’ve been super stars,” Steph Floss hypothesizes. “They would’ve been Migos. They would’ve been Rae Sremmurd.”
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“It’s just the nature of the beast,” Mick Boogie offers. “The music industry is a fickle, complicated machine.” It’s certainly no coincidence, however, that Cleveland artists began getting national buzz with more consistency in the years directly following Al & Co.’s pioneering rise: from Kid Cudi’s Brooklyn approach to Chip Tha Ripper’s steady Midwestern spread to MGK’s homegrown punk-rap. “What we’re talking about 10 years ago, that was a boom,” E-V says. “And from there, it trickled into all these other talented artists being able to become something special. If it wasn’t for that, it might’ve gone a different way. Someone had to be the first guy. That was the start of something great.” Al and Royalty Camp are widely and rightly considered local greats. But for many of Al’s supporters, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the past tense. Al’s still got it, they say,
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
if he lets himself be helped. “If he has the right team now, he’ll go off, he’ll be good. He’s such a talented artist. Could you imagine if Rich had him now?” says E-V. “That’d be amazing.” “Being around him, the way he performs, the way he interacts with the crowd, he knows how to do that shit. For real, Al is a star,” says RJ, who still makes music part-time. “It’s just about him being around the right people who can put him in the right situation to win and taking that direction.” Al took a break from rapping to focus on singing from 2010 to 2013, even popping out a few catchy tunes that gained some local steam. He linked with a live band and began rapping again in 2013, but it was tough to regain traction in the city. Al was caught in a paradox: Locally perceived as wildly successful, but unable to reliably book shows — and therefore earn an income — in markets besides Cleveland and Columbus. He couldn’t move past being the “Came Down” rapper.
So last summer, he packed up and moved to Los Angeles for a fresh start. He reconnected with kids from The Clair who’d ended up in Southern California and found a thriving music community. “I’ll never turn my back on the city,” Al says. But, “L.A. is really arms open. I can do whatever I want.” In October, he landed in the studio with 100STACCS, a producer and engineer who’s scored recent hits for emerging artists like Lil Yachty and Joey Fatts, and rerecorded “Hol’ Up” — the chant he performed at the Glenville High School talent show in December of 2004. His new album, Pre Game — under Al’s newly formed label, Unlimited Recordings — will drop this year. “I’m ready to move forward,” he says. “I’m ready to leave the past behind me.”
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We invite you for free evenings of music, theatre and dance in Lincoln Park. Bring a picnic, order take-out from one of our Tuesdays in Tremont participants listed below. You definitely want to bring a chair or a blanket to sit and remember you are in a park at dusk, so you might want to bring bug spray too!
A RTS i n A UGUST freeartsprogrammingin Tremont’sLincolnPark WARD 3
Cleveland Public Theatre’s STEP on Friday, August 4th at 7pm Cleveland Shakespeare Festival Sunday, August 6th at 7pm Inlet Dance Theatre* on Friday, August 11th at 8:30pm Verb Ballets* on Saturday, August 12th at 8:30pm Cleveland Opera Theater on Friday, August 18th, 7pm Papo Ruiz Y La Dulzura de la Salsa on Saturday, August 19th, 7pm
Me Him & Her Presents - Good Vibes A family-friendly outdoor dance party featuring DJs spinning funk, soul, disco, reggae and music from around the world,
on Sunday, August 20th, 12-8pm ContempOpera on Friday, August 25th, 7pm Paul Ferguson, artistic director, leads the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra (CJO); presented in partnership with Arts Renaissance Tremont
*7:45pm - OnStage* A creative movement class with performance improvisation for kids of all ages will take place on the stage prior to the performance! All Arts in August events are FREE and are held in Tremont’s Lincoln Park. Please visit tremontwest.org for up to date information, rain locations/dates and program details, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @artsinaugust
on Saturday, August 26th at 7pm Extras
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and our Tuesdays in Tremont participants: Dante, Fat Cats, Grumpy’s Cafe, Crust, Prosperity Social Club, Tremont Tap House, The South Side, Lucky’s Cafe, The Rowley Inn, Civilization, The Clark Bar, Bourbon Street Barrel Room, The Treehouse, Merchant Street, Beviamo and Ty Fun Thai Bistro.
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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Balance & Brews If you’re looking for a way to unwind in the middle of the week, we suggest a stop this evening at Market Garden Brewery for its Balance & Brews event in the new production tasting room. After a yoga workout, the brewery will treat you to beers at its brewpub. The $18 admission includes four drinks, and the event takes place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (Daniela Cacho) 1947 West 25th St., 216-621-4000, marketgardenbrewery.com. COMEDY
Matt Fulchiron Sarcastic comedian Matt Fulchiron makes the most of a melancholy yet hysterical tone in his routines as he jokes about the hazards of legalizing marijuana; and he just loves to tell stories about the difficulty of living in New York for a year. He performs at 7 tonight at Hilarities. Tickets are $13 and $18. (Jeff Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.
Mokoomba performs at Ohio City Stages. See: Wednesday.
CMA’s mobile art studio, will offer hands-on art-making activities, popup drawing classes and other familyoriented art projects. (Niesel) 1460 West 29th St., 216-938-5429, transformerstation.org. MUSIC
SPORTS
Indians vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Playing in the American League West this season has hurt the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Houston Astros have won so many games, they’ve buried their division rivals. As a result, the Angels, despite having two of the league’s marquee players in Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, find themselves struggling to stay in contention. They face the Tribe tonight at 7:10 at Progressive Field for the second of a three-game series. Tickets start at $13. The two teams play again tomorrow at 12:10 p.m. (Niesel). 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com. MUSIC
Ohio City Stages For the past couple of summers, the Cleveland Museum of Art has hosted Ohio City Stages, a weekly summer block party that takes place in front of the Transformer Station throughout the month of July. Mokoomba, a Zimbabwe band that blends traditional Tonga and Luvale rhythms with funk, ska and soukous, will perform tonight at 7:30, and admission is free. Vendors will be on hand to sell food and drink as well. In addition, Studio Go, the
Summer in the City Concert Series Presented by Great Lakes Brewing Company, Fat Head’s Brewery and Magic Hat Brewing Company, the Rock Hall’s free Summer in the City concert series features some of the top bands in Cleveland. Concerts start at 6 p.m. on the seasonal outdoor stage, July through August 30. (Rain location is inside, on the Klipsch Audio Main Stage.) Tonight’s concert features Hamilton Handshake, “a high faultin, noise pollutin’ rock ’n’ roll band” and the Skulx, rockers who have toured the U.S. multiple times, including a stop at Austin’s SXSW. Food trucks and a beer garden are also on the lineup. Find out more on the website. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com. FAMILY FUN
Wade Oval Wednesdays A summer tradition, Wade Oval Wednesday takes place every Wednesday through Aug. 30, from 6 to 9 p.m., at Wade Oval in University Circle. The weekly party provides the opportunity to catch a free concert — jazz, swing, world music and more. Between sets, check out the local food vendors, the beer and wine tent, the farmers market, and free kids’
activities — all laid out on the Wade Oval lawn, adjacent to Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Cleveland Art Museum, and the Cleveland Natural History Museum. Son Gitano brings Latin and salsa beats to the Circle this evening. Details are on the website. (Niesel) 10820 East Blvd., universitycircle.org. FOOD
Walnut Wednesday Walnut Wednesday is one of summer’s great traditions, featuring an everchanging lineup of food trucks along with live entertainment. Today from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Perk Plaza at Chester Commons — at East 12th and Walnut streets — those food trucks gather once again to serve up lunch to area residents and employees. Follow the Downtown Cleveland Alliance on Facebook for weekly updates on vendors, entertainment offerings and more. The series continues through Sept. 27. Admission is free, but the food will cost you. (Niesel) downtowncleveland.com.
THU
07/27
FAMILY FUN
Coventry PEACE Campus Community Weekend Claiming the building needs $1 million in repairs, city officials in Cleveland Heights announced plans earlier this year to pursue a sale of the old Coventry school building. The unexpected announcement came as
quite a surprise to the building’s 11 tenants: all nonprofit organizations, such as Ensemble Theatre, Lake Erie Ink and its newest tenant, Artful Cleveland. Amid this uncertainty, the tenants host a Community Weekend from today to Sunday. The weekend includes a city council open forum at the Cleveland Heights Community Center on the future of the school site; a family-friendly screening of Power Rangers; an open house at the Coventry school building featuring a free concert by Swing State; and happy hour in Pekar Park with open studios at Artful Cleveland. You’ll also find a playground cleanup and community picnic in PEACE Park with a performance by Eve ‘N’ Stephen, and a Common Ground community discussion at Ensemble Theatre. (In partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, Common Ground is a community-wide event taking place at venues throughout Cuyahoga County. This particular event discusses the future of the Coventry school site.) There’s lots more information on the website. (Josh Usmani) coventrypeacecampus.org/events. MUSIC
Edgewater Live Now in its fourth season, Edgewater Live features local acts along the shore each Thursday throughout the summer. The event also boasts food trucks and recreational activities. The weekly beach party commences today at 4:30 p.m. on the Centennial Plaza at the new Edgewater Beach House with a performance from Montage, | clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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GET OUT The Band! From 6 to 9 p.m., Kinsman Dazz Band will perform on the RTA Main Stage. The Thursday-afternoon series continues through Aug. 10. (Niesel) 6500 Cleveland Memorial Shoreway NW, 216-635-3200, clevelandmetroparks.com. FILM
Giant In conjunction with Keith Mayerson: My
American Dream, currently on view at MOCA Cleveland, the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque hosts a screening of Giant, starring James Dean in his final screen appearance before his death. Mayerson’s exhibition at MOCA includes several paintings of Dean, including one inspired by Giant. The film screening begins at 6:30 tonight in CIA’s Peter B. Lewis Cinematheque. Admission is $11; Cinematheque and MOCA Cleveland members, CIA and CSU ID holders and those ages 25 and under are $8. (Usmani). 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.
COMEDY
Bert Kreischer Not many comedians have fought a grizzly bear. In his 2005 television movie Hurt Bert, Bert Kreischer not only comes face to face with a ferocious (yet ultimately harmless) bear, but lives to tell you about it in his nationally successful comedy act. Taking a break from his hosting gig on the Travel Channel’s hit show Trip Flip, Kreischer makes his way to Cleveland this week for a standup show. Check him out at 8 tonight at Hilarities, where he has shows scheduled through Saturday. Tickets
Powered by
start at $25. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com. COMEDY
Will Power If you’re skeptical about a comedy hypnotist show, Will Power will change your mind forever — whether he does it with mind tricks is for you to decide. His hypnotist act shows just how powerful suggestion can be on the human mind. This show is adults only, as Power’s act isn’t family friendly. Rated somewhere between R and X, Power’s performance will have you laughing with his naughty fun. Don’t think you can go to a hypnotist show and not participate: Power will undoubtedly find a way to rope you into the show. He performs tonight at 7:30 at the Improv. Tickets are $15. (Martin Harp) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com. BOOKS
FREE CONCERT SERIES
HAPPY Hour! Every Tues. & Thurs. in August • Drink Specials • Live Music • Trivia
Get on the Guest List for upcoming shows! • FREE: RSVP online & get a t-shirt AND souvenir photo* • OR $20 upgrade: get swag above, Rock Hall admission AND $10 food credit! (over a $40 value!)*
Wednesdays 6-9 pm July 26 - Hamilton Handshake with Skulx Aug. 2 - Shooter Sharp & The Shootouts with Cody J. Martin Aug. 9 - Seeress with Axioma Aug. 16 - Hiram Maxim with Glass Traps Aug. 23 - Funkyardx with JPENNELOPE Aug. 30 – Jack Fords with The Commonwealth *Advance online purchase required. Only one shirt and photo per email for free registration.
THEATER
MORE FREE STUFF! Aug. 19 - Celebrate Africa Aug. 25 - PechaKucha Night CLE
RSVP, get tix and full schedule at:
ROCKHALL.COM/SUMMER 22
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
A Used Book Sale Looking for a good read for the beach, pool, flight, road trip, etc.? The Friends of the Cleveland Public Library believe that summer is for reading. The main branch hosts a used book sale this weekend to raise money for the library. Organizers promise “a lot of fiction plus children’s and young adult books,” as well as audio books and even music and movies. Held in the Indoor Reading Garden in the first floor’s Louis Stokes Wing, the sale begins today with a members’ preview at 10 a.m., and is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The used book sale continues tomorrow and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturday, bags of books will be priced at just $6. Admission is free. (Usmani) 325 Superior Ave., 216-623-2800, cpl.org.
War on the Catwalk Some of the top contestants from Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race will perform tonight as part of War on the Catwalk, an event that organizers bill as “an evening of outstanding drag performances with your favorite queens.” The show will begin at 8 p.m. at the Ohio Theatre and, given that these queens travel with so much merch, there will be a 20-minute intermission to allow fans to shop. Tickets start at $25. (Niesel) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
FRI
07/28
COMEDY
Michael Blackson Known as the “African King of Comedy,” Michael Blackson developed his comedic skills by using original humor and being fearless onstage. During his performances, he jokes about current affairs and takes aim at celebs such as Kim Kardashian and Michael Jordan; however, he also focuses on more serious topics such as race, his love for America and his African descent. He performs tonight at 7:30 and 10 at the Improv, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday. Tickets cost $25. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com. SHOPPING
The Cleveland Bazaar Today, the Cleveland Bazaar once again invades the U.S. Bank Plaza at Playhouse Square. Attendees can shop local vendors, get lunch from Dynomite Burgers and enjoy the sunshine on the plaza. The fun continues on the second and fourth Friday of every summer month, including Aug. 11, Aug. 25 and Sept. 8. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free. (Usmani) East 14th Street and Euclid Avenue, 216-771-4444, playhousesquare.org.
SAT
07/29
FUNDRAISER
Christmas in July The owners of Gunselman’s Tavern, a bar and restaurant in Fairview Park with a history that dates back nearly 80 years, say the place has “unofficially served as Fairview Park’s Public House.” As a way to give back to the community, they’ve just announced that they’ll host a Christmas in July fundraiser to support Forward Fairview Park, a coalition of community business owners and residents collaborating with city government to help revitalize the Lorain Road Corridor. The event takes place tonight from 5 to 10. The $20 ticket includes a traditional barbecued chicken or pork dinner, side dishes and two complimentary draft beers or sodas. Kids will receive a soda voucher that includes free refills. There will be a DJ, 50/50 and “Christmas Gift” raffles, Christmas ale, an Ugly Christmas TShirt contest, festive decorations and a special visit from Santa. Tickets can be purchased in advance at Gunselman’s, through a Forward Fairview Park board member or by emailing forwardfairview@gmail.com. Tickets also will
be available for purchase at the door, cash or check only. (Niesel) 21490 Lorain Rd., Fairview Park, 440331-5719. BOOKS
Cleveland Inkubator Returning again this year, the Cleveland Inkubator is Northeast Ohio’s largest annual literary festival for both writers and readers. A week-long event, Cleveland Inkubator includes workshops, book talks, readings, performances and more. The series culminates today from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an all-day conference at the main branch of the Cleveland Public Library. The day includes workshops and discussions on nonfiction, fiction, poetry and more, a resource fair, author readings, a teen writer showcase for ages 14 to 18 and a keynote reading with author Dan Chaon. Admission is free. (Usmani) 325 Superior Ave., litcleveland.org/ cleveland-inkubator.html. BEER
Country Bar Crawl Nine participating bars, including Wild Eagle Saloon, 2nd & High, Barley House, Bar Louie, City Tap, Dive Bar, the Corner Alley, Velvet Dog and Wilberts play host to today’s country music-themed bar crawl. Attendees will receive a 16 ounce “Country Stadium Cup” for the drinks. The bars will also offer drink and food specials. The crawl takes place from noon to 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance. (Cacho) eventbrite.com/e/country-bar-crawlcleveland-tickets-32469084907.
DANCECLEVELAND PRESENTS AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL IN CLE
A Summer Dance Festival at Playhouse Square July 29-August 5 FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY PILOBOLUS, RAPHAEL XAVIER (HIP HOP) AND BRIAN BROOKS! Celebrate the National Day of Dance July 29 and kick off the festival with free events such as a giant Mega Barre Class down E. 14th, Dancing In the Street, food and drink discounts in the district and more! PRESENTED BY
IN CLE VEL AND
2 017
Tickets and more info at DANCECleveland.org or call 216.241.6000.
P R E S E N T E D B Y D A N C E C L E V E L A N D
WINE
Monsters Ohio Sip & Paint It may not be hockey season quite yet, but dedicated Lake Erie Monsters fans can prep for the upcoming season today at Monsters Ohio Sip & Paint at the Little Birdie Wine Nest in Parma. You’ll receive a wooden cutout of our fair state to decorate with a Monsters hockey theme, while you nibble on snacks and sample three different wines. Cost is $40 per person and includes all supplies. The event runs from 2 to 4 p.m. Snag your tickets on the website. (Cacho) 6060 Broadview Rd., Parma, 216-785-9922, littlebirdiewinenest.com. DANCE
Pilobolus Dance Theater Known for presenting works that “challenge the notions of what modern dance can look like,” Pilobolus Dance Theater creates “awe-inducing shapes that push the imagination to the extreme.” Tonight’s show includes
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the fan favorite, “Shadowland.” If the dance company’s name rings a bell, perhaps it’s because it has performed in a variety of music videos, along with doing commercials for the likes of Mobil, Ford and Toyota. It has also appeared on the 79th Annual Academy Awards, Oprah Winfrey Show and the Conan O’Brien show. Tonight’s performance begins at 7:30 at the State Theatre. Tickets are $25 to $50. (Niesel) 1519 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. ART
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
Relief for Beginners In printmaking, there are many techniques and processes. One of the most common and (relatively) easiest to do without a full printmaking studio is linocut, a process of removing the negative space from a piece of linoleum, similar to a woodcut. Ink is applied to the “raised” parts of the block with a roller, but does not reach the carvedout areas. Paper is then applied to the surface, and it is either rolled through a printing press or rubbed thoroughly with a shot glass. Learn more about the basics of linocuts and relief printing during Relief for Beginners, a workshop at Salty Not Sweet Boutique, today from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The workshop is led by Akronbased artist Raven Burdette, who received a bachelors degree with dual concentrations in printmaking and drawing/painting from the University of Akron, where she is currently pursuing her masters degree in administration. The workshop costs $75 per person and tickets are available online. (Usmani) 2074 West 25th St., saltynotsweet.bigcartel.com.
SUN
07/30
the Cleveland Metroparks Edgewater Beach House, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Coventry school building in Cleveland Heights, the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, the Parma-Snow Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library and many more. Local organizations and residents are encouraged to host their own meetings as well. For more information on how to join a table or host a meeting, visit the website. All events are free, but registration is required. (Usmani) clevelandfoundation.org/news/commonground. FAMILY FUN
Mom & Me Paint Class Sundays are meant for relaxation, and what could be more mellow than an afternoon session of painting, doughnuts, coffee, and bonding with the wee ones? The local traveling arts studio Artsy Cleveland will be at Peace, Love, and Little Donuts today for a Mom & Me Paint Class. Artsy will have a local artist on site to guide the class. Tickets start at $20 and include all art supplies, coffee and doughnuts. The class is in session from 1 to 3 p.m. (Cacho) 3786 Rocky River Dr., 216-862-9806, peaceloveandlittledonuts. com. PATIO
Sloppy Sundays in the Sun The bartenders at Now That’s Class will serve “the coolest and tastiest pitchers” of cocktails today from 3 to 7 p.m. at Sloppy Sundays in the Sun. Pitchers of specialty cocktails ($12) include Paul’s Puerto Rican Punch, Nascar Nectar and Stripple Nipple. The club will also set up a basketball hoop out back for patrons to show off their skills. Admission is free. (Niesel) 11213 Detroit Ave., 216-221-8576, nowthatsclass.net.
MON
07/31
NIGHTLIFE SPOKEN WORD
A Community Wide Conversation Organizations from throughout Cuyahoga County are partnering with the Cleveland Foundation for an unprecedented community-wide conversation at venues throughout the city. Today, residents will meet, share a meal, connect and discuss issues and solutions to create a better future for our shared home, or “common ground.” The convo includes community breakfast, lunch, dinner and in-between. The biggest get-together takes place on Public Square, but additional venues include
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 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. (Sam Allard) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com. NIGHTLIFE
Wing Ding Doodle Blues icon Howlin’ Wolf famously covered “Wang Dang Doodle,” the old blues tune penned by Willie Dixon. Prosperity Social Club in Tremont has adopted that slogan, calling its wing night Wing Ding Doodle. The weekly event features specials on Buffalo wings and cold brews. Prosperity will not only serve up substantial, $1 whole wings, but it’ll also offering meatless Monday “wing” baskets for vegans. Discounted drafts and a playlist of vintage-electric blues and soulful R&B curated by local musician Clint Holley will be on tap as well. 6 p.m. to midnight. (Niesel) 1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-937-1938, prosperitysocialclub.com.
TUE
08/01
MUSIC
Classical Revolution Cleveland For many years, classical music wasn’t intended for the masses. Seemingly reserved for quasi-exclusive 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 first Tuesday of every month, CRC brings its wide array of chamber music to Happy Dog. Performers like the Trepanning Trio, Anime Duo, students of Cleveland Institute of Music and even Cleveland Orchestra members grace the stage in these exciting concerts. Full of immensely talented performers, CRC re-instills the relevancy of this vibrant art form. Tonight’s free, allages performance starts at 8. (Patrick Stoops) 11625 Euclid Ave., 216-231-5400, happydogcleveland.com. DANCE
Dancing Under the Stars As a part of the 12-week outdoor dance event at Playhouse Square, local dance instructors will lead Dancing Under the Stars at U.S. Bank Plaza. Throw on your best dancing shoes, grab a partner and head downtown for a night full of dance music from Papo Ruiz & LaDulzura de la Salsa. If you aren’t familiar with salsa, then you
won’t want to miss the fun instruction offered at 6 p.m., from Rebecca Sweet of Viva Dance Studio. And then, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., the plaza will turn into a massive fun-filled dance party. It’s a great opportunity to learn new moves and experience another culture through dance. Admission is free (Niesel) East 14th Street and Euclid Avenue, 216-771-4444, playhousesquare.org. MUSIC
Open Turntable Tuesday Tonight from 6 to 9, Goldhorn Brewery hosts its weekly Open Turntable Tuesdays. DJ Kris Koch will offer 20-minute time slots to people who want to bring their own vinyl and spin their favorite songs or deep tracks. The Northeast Ohio Vinyl Club and the locally based Gotta Groove Records serve as the sponsors, and turntables will be provided. Each person will be able to play three to five songs during their time slot, and there will be a mic available to talk about the selections. Along with theme nights, there will be giveaways, drawings and contests. (Niesel) 1361 East 55th St., 216-465-1352, goldhornbrewery.com. MUSIC
Vinyl Night Jukebox owner Alex Budin has described his 1,350-square-foot music-focused bar in the Hingetown ’hood as “a place where people can expect to hear and learn about music of multiple genres, all of which is concentrated in a constantly evolving jukebox.” The club hosts a vinyl night every Tuesday that serves as a listening party for new releases. 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. It all starts at 5 p.m. (Niesel) 1404 West 29th St., 216-206-7699, jukeboxcle.com. THEATER
WWE Smackdown Live In a special “double main event,” wrestlers John Cena, Randy Orton and AJ Styles will team up to take on Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler in one of tonight’s key matchups. Shinsuke Nakamura will fight Baron Corbin in another. It’s all part of WWE Smackdown Live, and the brawling commences at 7:45 p.m. Tickets start at $20. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, theqarena.com.
FRIDAY, JULY 28
AGENDA 8P-12A
SATURDAY, JULY 29
JIM MILLER 2-6P
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON 8/9P-12A
SUNDAY, JULY 30
VELVET SHAKE DJ LARRY 2-6P
8P-12A
Find more events @clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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There are plenty of patios in Cleveland but none of them are like the one sported by Forest City Shuffleboard, which opened earlier this summer. That’s, quite simply, because no one else has two full-sized shuffleboard courts on their patio. Butting up to Lorain Ave., it’s the perfect place to go old-school -- it’s not just your grandparents who love and play
shuffleboard anymore -- while enjoying a beer or cocktail under the stars (or sun). You can sit around a table anywhere, but what fun is that? Throw some games into the mix and you have the perfect destination for a date, happy hour, weekend night on the town or office function. They do have leagues, so check availability ahead of time at 216-417-5838.
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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991 East 185th Street | 216.481.9635 | bistro185.com | clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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ART BEHIND THE CAMERA Photographer Steve Mastroianni on his new spot in Slavic Village, why he really loves shooting weddings, and more “THIS IS THE NEW DEAL HERE,” says photographer Steve Mastroianni as I walk up to his new space, Silver Scuro Studio & Gallery, in Slavic Village. Mastroianni had been a mainstay in Tremont for over two decades,hosting a plethora of shows at his own studio/gallery, and serving a six-year stint as co-director for Tremont Art Walk. Despite his deep ties to the neighborhood, eventually it was time to move on. “The lease was up, rents go up, and that comes along with success of an area,” he says. “I needed more space. Opportunities in Tremont are not what they used to be and that’s definitely not a knock against Tremont because I had great success there. But for what I need, I need a big studio space, not a small boutique. I need an actual working space and Slavic Village has that. They’ve got a lot of it and the spaces are wide open. There’s a lot of opportunity here.” And here he will focus on three or four events throughout the year as opposed to Tremont where he was flipping an exhibit every couple of months. “I was always trying to hit that art walk deadline. I don’t want to get back into that. Here I want to focus on the one event, combinations of maybe an exhibit, performance, lecture, reading, something along those lines. Maybe dedicate a week to it. Opening, closing, and that is it. It’s not up for months. So finding people and things that are interesting to me, that work with each other, collaborative stuff, that interests me.” Silver Scuro faces Fleet Avenue next to Saucisson, another bourgeoning business in the neighborhood. The tin ceiling has gorgeous smudged brown and oxidized green patinas with a smattering of shiny new panels. It’s a restoration professional’s wet dream. “The deal with it was that they scraped off the loose paint, because I assumed I would be repainting, but when I saw the original patina I said, ‘Nope! I’m just going to leave that,’” he says. “I want more paint to come off, but that’s not going to happen because it will probably kill me” — thanks to the labor involved, not lead. Pieces salvaged from an old walkin cooler next door form an open-air office space. “Instead of building
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Photos by Steve Mastroianni
By Dott von Schneider
drywall and all that crap, I saw these things and decided to use them to create dividers. I love them because they keep the whole space open and functional. This is what I wanted. This is twice the size of the previous studio (in Tremont).” Since graduating from CIA in 1988, Mastroianni has been running his own business. “Yeah, so I actually majored in photography and stayed in the field. It can happen! Dreams can come true, kids!” he jokes. “Seriously though, the thing that really got me going was weddings. I love weddings, and artists and other photographers will be freaked out to hear that, but I’m going to go on the record and tell you how much I love weddings. They are incredibly challenging. You are doing all types of photography, and all kinds of technical considerations come into play ... and it’s done within a very limited time frame under a lot of pressure. I know photographers
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
portraits, which is really demanding because it’s like doing a fashion shoot, except under the worst possible conditions. Lighting could be terrible and the location might not work. You could be shooting under midday sun. It’s like photojournalism, street photography, and fashion photography all rolled into one big package … and if you screw it up, you’re in big trouble.” Outside of weddings, Mastroianni presents terrifically interesting material. His Dark Silver series is an amalgam of dark, profoundly moving portraits of individuals and couples, some of which adorn the walls around us. He has also created a catalogue of the portraits
who will not touch them because it is so stressful. The other part of it is extremely creative. In the summer, I shoot a wedding per week, which means each time I get to create a new body of work. I go into people’s houses that I would never have any reason or purpose to go into, in this most intimate moment with all the emotions running high and family everywhere. I get people interacting with each other, intimate family interactions. Sometimes it’s great or sometimes it’s ugly, you never know. You want to do things in a beautiful and complimentary way, yet keep it real. So there’s always challenges. What do I really want to show? Do I edit that out? It’s akin to shooting sports. There’s an immediacy. You have to get the shots right or you lose them. Then I’m doing things like
from 2014 to 2016. Due to space constraints, Mastroianni is on the hunt for a gallery other than his own to exhibit the entire series, which begs to be seen in full. (We hope it happens, because the force of this portraiture is concrete.) You can peer into the world of Steve Mastroianni’s commercial and fine art photography at either stevemastroianni.com or silverscuro.com.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
Trending 4 RULES FOR WEARING ATHLEISURE GEAR EVERYDAY How To Take Your Gym Style To The Streets Jasmine Woolfork, Style By Jas Nicole
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SPORTY CHIC IS HITTING ITS TRENDY PEAK AND NOW MORE THAN EVER! We’re seeing athletic wear on the streets. People of all ages are embracing the philosophy of comfort first, but they aren’t sacrificing fashion in the process. In today’s fashion world, yoga pants aren’t just for yoga; we style dresses with sneakers, and track pants with t-shirts. We have designer collections and street style influencers to thank for making active wear acceptable whether you’re at the gym or not. Active wear has graced the runways of designers like Gucci and Alexander Wang, just to name a few. To get in on the effortless, athleisure style trend, opt for high performance fabrics. They’re more durable and heavier in weight. Be sure to select pieces that mix function and fashion. Choose a solid and neutral, color palette. While vibrant printed bottoms are a statement at the gym, they can become overpowering for day-to-day. Select a top with interesting details, like mesh inserts or unique necklines. Finally, to add to your look, try a hat or jacket to accessorize with. Athleisure is the new casual-get active, get effortless.
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STAGE
VIOLENCE COMING TO A PARK NEAR YOU Not to worry, it’s Macbeth, as staged by the roving Cleveland Shakespeare Festival By Christine Howey LET’S FACE IT, THE WHOLE dust-up in the “Scottish Play” could have been avoided if the main characters had simply considered the witches and their cryptic forecasts a barely tolerable skit by a troupe of street performers. Then they could have flipped them a haypenny and gone back to their business. But then, we wouldn’t have the play that still absorbs us to this day with its shifting assumptions, blood and gore, hallucinations, apparitions, and dazzling ambiguities. When watching a tragedy such as the story of Macbeth, there is a huge temptation to analogize everything to the Shakespearian drama unfolding in Washington, D.C. That daily disaster, centered on a character even old Will couldn’t have conjured up, is of such monumental import that the mind reels. Many of us want to pretend that the current administration, with its palace intrigues and raving and ranting leader, took place 400 years ago so we could relax and watch the ghastly proceedings from afar. Alas, no such luck. Since we are currently living in the belly of the beast, entertainments such as Macbeth serve as a faint balm, of sorts, to divert us from the present. So, Macbeth and his Lady take the witches prophecies at face value, believing that their destiny has been laid out before them if they
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only embark on a killing spree, and we’re off and running in this latest production of a play that is indeed full of sound and fury. And the production by the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, coming in at a tidy 100 minutes, has several strong points. CSF is Cleveland’s version of “Shakespeare in the Park.” And since they perform in different leafy glens all across the area, for free, it’s an undeniable treat for anyone to indulge on a summer’s eve. In this iteration, Eric Perusek is a dark and troubled Macbeth, goaded on to heinous activities by his wife, played with quiet ferocity by Cat R. Kenney. When Mr. M loses his nerve about killing King Duncan, Lady M. defaults to a truly horrific example to stiffen his spine: “I have given suck and know how tender it is to
references! Anyhow, Mac hires a hit team to eliminate his army buddy Banquo (Allen Branstein, an actor who both lives and dies on stage with consummate relish), only to be haunted by Banquo’s ghost at a big banquet. Then, surprise! Duncan’s ghost also shows up, making it a de facto ghost convention. Pretty soon, you expect Casper the Friendly Ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past, and Freddy Krueger to wander through as well, but director Tyson Douglas Rand doesn’t stretch it that far. Instead, Rand keeps the pace clipping along in this truncated version, aware that many in the audience may be unknowingly encountering Shakespeare while taking their pooch on a poop trot. And that’s part of the charm of free
MACBETH THROUGH AUG. 6, PRODUCED BY THE CLEVELAND SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, FREE ADMISSION. DATES AND LOCATIONS AT CLEVESHAKES.COM
love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done this.” Well, okay then. In short order, Duncan is dead, Macbeth is King, and he should be happy but he’s still paranoid, just like — No! No more Trump
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
outdoor Shakespeare: It’s just there all of a sudden, in front of you. And it’s hard to look away. It’s especially hard when performers such as Robert Hawkes are declaiming. Whether as Duncan, the drunken Porter, or the Doctor, Hawkes breathes fresh life into his characters. As do the three witches who are embodied by Khaki
Hermann, Keith Kornajcik and Jeanne Madison. Over the years, CSF has augmented its technical prowess in the open air, so now the performers are easily heard while recorded sound effects and music add to the ambiance. And since the actors often walk off the stage and then circle back around and through the audience to make their next entrance, it feels as if everyone is part of the performance. Some who see Shakespeare are put off by the complexity of the language and the labyrinthine plots, but that’s no reason not to attend shows such as this. Especially with Macbeth, there are tons of questions that intentionally go unanswered, as the characters themselves grapple with uncertainty. Nothing is what it seems, so don’t worry if you can’t figure it all out. Shakespearian scholars have been batting Ph.D. theses back and forth for eons and not coming to any conclusions. So just pack up your blanket or lawn chair and come out to admire the glorious language, and be astounded by an assortment of pompous, craven, flawed, occasionally heroic but often morally corrupt characters that you’ll see nowhere else. Except on CNN.
scene@clevescene.com t@christinehowey
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HORROR, A LA TREE OF LIFE A Ghost Story is A24’s latest mindbender By Colton Faull IT’S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO TALK about any film distributed by A24 without talking about the company itself. A24 means something today for movies, Slate wrote in a profile piece on the young film company, in the same way that “a 4AD record meant something in 1988.” A24 has been steadily and consistently releasing top quality films like Under the Skin and Ex Machina, and had its best year in 2016 when Moonlight took home Best Picture at the Oscars. Anytime A24 releases a film, our interest is piqued. A Ghost Story, which opens Friday in select area theaters, is no different. It’s A24’s latest offering pushing the idea of post-horror forward into film’s consciousness. (Others include It Comes at Night, released earlier this summer, and last year’s The Witch, both distributed by A24.) Despite the title, A Ghost Story is not a horror film, which should come across as obvious to fans of A24 or anyone who watched the trailer. Instead, it’s more of a metaphysical exploration of existence itself — like The Tree of Life but on a smaller scale, with a 90-minute runtime that never bores the audience. “We do what we can to endure ... you do what you can to make sure you’re still around after you’re gone,” says a character who breaks down the film’s meaning at a party, while a ghostly Casey Affleck observes, covered in a white sheet. A Ghost Story takes place, for the most part, inside a house bought by Affleck and Rooney Mara. Names are never assigned to any of the characters, but the credits list Mara as “M” and Affleck as “C.” Affleck is a musician who spends most of
his time inside the house recording. Mara is not so thrilled with where they live and wants to move, even asking Affleck what is it about the house he likes so much. He replies, “history.” Affleck is killed outside the house one morning in a car wreck. Mara goes to the morgue to say her final goodbyes, and once she leaves, the camera is placed on Affleck’s corpse for one minute. There is no dialogue (not that there was much to begin with) or any action. Director David Lowery, whose last film was Disney’s Pete’s Dragon, told Vulture, “we had a solid minute of nothingness, to kind of set the stage for how far the movie is gonna go in terms of its stillness and its sense of quiet.” After that minute of nothingness, and now draped in white cloth, Affleck gets up and walks back to his beloved house as a ghost, where Mara is unaware that she is being watched by him. Time begins to fly but we’re unsure of the exact amount. During “M’s” grieving, Lowery once again tests the audience’s patience with a fiveminute scene of her stress-eating a pie in one take. The scene became one of the most talked about at Sundance. Throughout all the existential, meditative screen time, I never felt bored by A Ghost Story; instead, I was intrigued and wondered where this film would go next. Lowery’s decision to use a 1.33:1 square aspect ratio makes the film more intimate, almost like you’re viewing found footage that was never meant to be seen by anyone but the person or couple who made it.
TO ENTER, VISIT GOFOBO.COM/ NJ2SCENE THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTY BY NATURE has been rated PG (Parental Guidance Suggested Some Material May Not Be Suitable for Children)for action and some rude humor. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit (1) admit-two pass per person. Must be 18 years of age to enter and receive pass. Employees of all promotional partners and their agencies are not eligible. Void where prohibited. One entry per person. Multiple entries will be disqualified. Sponsors not responsible for incomplete, lost, late or misdirected entries or for failure to receive entries due to transmission or technical failures of any kind.
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scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
EAT HITS AND MISSES AT QUICK-SERVE MOFONGO LATIN GRILL THE FAST-CASUAL CRAZE HAS co-opted nearly every other cuisine, so it might as well have claimed Puerto Rican food too. That’s the scene over at the new Cleveland Mofongo Latin Grill, which opened in May on the Cleveland/Lakewood border. An old Pizza Pan shop was reworked to accommodate a large open kitchen fronted by a small, basic dining room that seats about a dozen. Adhering to the fast-casual playbook, this operation offers a stripped-down menu populated with Latin favorites and dishes them up in a fashion that is the antithesis of fine dining. In place of warm greetings and guidance is a gruff directive to order at the counter. Instead of plates and silverware, there are plastic to-go containers and flimsy plastic cutlery, regardless of where or when a diner intends to eat. In place of tabletop condiments, or even a side table offering the same, diners who request it are presented with tiny packets of commercial hot sauce. Puerto Rican food is characteristically tame (some might say bland) in terms of spice, and the
Photo by Emanuel Wallace
By Douglas Trattner
CLEVELAND MOFONGO LATIN GRILL 11621 LORAIN AVE., 216-415-5323 CLEVELANDMOFONGO.COM
food served here is no exception. That’s not to say that dishes like the roasted pork shoulder ($8.50) are not satisfying, filling and delicious. A reasonable portion of tender shredded meat is paired
with fragrant yellow rice studded with pigeon peas and runny beans. The namesake mofungo — fried, mashed and seasoned plantains — is mounded high and round and topped with a choice of meats,
seafood or veggies. Ours suffered from shrimp ($11) that had an overpowering chemical taste that permeated the entire dish. In typical fast-casual manner, a handful of key components are utilized in multiple modes and forms. Roasted chicken, roasted pork, mofungo and chicharron appear as entrees, salads, wraps and sides. Unlike crispy-fried Mexican or American-style pork rinds, the chicharron served here as an entree with rice and beans ($9.50), atop mofungo ($10.50), or as a side dish ($5) is more meat (and fat) than skin. One of the tastiest things we ate at this casual Latin grill was the beef empanadilla ($2.50), a hot and flaky shell filled with nicely seasoned ground meat. Other varieties are stuffed with chicken, pork, guava and “pizza.” I get that the shop is quick-serve and server-free, but it would have been nice for a staffer to check to see how we were enjoying our meal, even if it was just a shout from the nearby open kitchen. We did get such an inquiry as we were walking out the door, but by that point it’s largely a perfunctory gesture.
A FORGETTABLE INDIAN ADVENTURE IN CHESTERLAND By Douglas Trattner THE THOUGHT OF TRAVELING TO Chesterland to eat Indian food has never occurred to me, but had it, I would have disabused myself of that folly forthwith. It was only on the heels of numerous positive reviews of Pari Indian Cuisine that I finally relented and traveled deep into the American hinterland for South Asian food. We regretted the decision almost immediately. Our meal started out on a high note, with a basket of crispy fried papadum sided by a bright and spicy cilantro chutney. “It’s like the Indian version of chips and salsa,” said the wife. But then the paneer pakora ($7) arrived. Eating fried
cheese should be a joyful experience, but these desiccated briquettes were so stiff and arid that they literally sounded like pebbles on the plate. When I brought them to our server’s attention, he immediately walked them into the kitchen. Upon his return he apologized, reporting that
was chalky and simultaneously bland and egregiously salty. I concede that we barely scratched the surface of the multi-page menu, which is filled with entirely too many dishes to master, but of the ones we tried, only one was worth recommending. That dish, the
PARI INDIAN CUISINE 12775 CHILLICOTHE RD., CHESTERLAND, 440-688-3016 INDIANFOODCHESTERLAND.COM
the cook “served you old ones by mistake.” Oops. Potato vada ($5), another deep-fried Indian snack, did in fact arrive hot and golden brown from the fryer, but the potato filling
Shahi paneer ($14), featured firm, fresh cheese in a lush and creamy cashew-based sauce. Another, the lamb vindaloo ($19), went largely untouched. This typically electric
dish suffered from chewy, stringy meat and a one-dimensional sauce that tasted like little more than stewed tomatoes. When an Indian restaurant serves dry basmati rice, you know the wheels have fully and completely fallen off the bus. Fortunately, we had a basket overflowing with fresh, fluffy naan ($12). For naan lovers like us, the combination of buttered, garlic and onion varieties did much to assuage the rage and fill the void left by too much abandoned food.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
ROCKY RIVER BREWING Company has all you’d expect from a suburban brewery: a rotating selection of house-brewed beers (the Hopgoblin IPA is a perennial favorite), an enormous patio and a menu offering tacos, burgers and wings. But look closer and that bar menu reveals some surprises: namely, a high proportion of plant-based dishes. Diners have Bill Fogarty to thank for that. “Since my diet’s changed, there’s a lot more vegetarian- and veganfriendly options,” says Chef Fogarty, a trim guy rocking a train engineer’s cap and salt-and-pepper beard. The change in his diet happened when his wife inspired him to go vegan for a couple weeks. Five years later, Fogarty is still meat- and animal product-free. “It was a complete lifestyle change,” he says. “I started running, working out. It’s had its challenges, but overall, I feel like a million bucks.” Now diners at RRBC can benefit from that change too, thanks to offerings like crispy Buffalo cauliflower, tofu curry bowls and tempura-fried avocado tacos. “It’s pretty cool,” says Fogarty, who’s been head chef for about eight years. “And odd. A brewery with a vegan following.” These dishes have the crunch, starch and protein to fit right in with the rest of the pub grub. But more than that, they’re popular; in fact, the Buffalo cauliflower is one of the topselling appetizers. The go-to trick for many nascent vegan chefs is to swap out meat for tofu or seitan. Fogarty eschews substitution in favor of dishes that highlight plants and grains. “You want it to be actually healthy,” he says, though he’s quick to admit that not every plant-based item on the menu — the aforementioned cauliflower, for one — contains optimal nutrition. The avocado tempura tacos are a picturesque example of his approach. Avocado slices are tempura-battered and fried, creating a pleasant contrast of creamy versus crunchy. They are topped with pickled red cabbage and tucked into warm corn tortillas. Crumbled peanuts add a nice kick of
Bill Fogarty
protein. Of course, Fogarty runs the kitchen of a brewery, and a majority of beer drinkers will eventually crave meat. Despite his personal beliefs, Fogarty has a job to do and people to please. The house-smoked ribs are well regarded; even Fogarty deems them excellent. “From an ethical standpoint, I don’t like it,” he says. “But it’s part of the job.” And, he reckons, there is a moral calculus to it: “If I can get someone to go for cauliflower when they would have ordered chicken wings, I consider that a success.” Fogarty is no evangelist for veganism, however. Any omnivore who breaks bread with him (this writer included) won’t walk away feeling judged. “I’m not here to preach,” he says. “I just want people to have options.” Fogarty grew up in Lakewood and currently lives in Sheffield. Lucky for him and his wife, most of the region’s vegetarian and vegan eateries fall west of the Cuyahoga: Root Cafe, Cleveland Vegan and Earth Bistro (which Fogarty calls “his jam”). Fogarty has toyed with the idea of starting his own vegan eatery, but not just yet. “The timing isn’t right.” Besides, now is an exciting time for the Cleveland beer scene. In fact, there’s never been more good beer. “We’re at a saturation point,” says Fogarty. “But it inspires us to do what we’re doing better.”
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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FIRST LOOK: Seafood Shake on Coventry now open By Douglas Trattner
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at Table 45 at InterContinental Cleveland 9801 Carnegie Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44106 216.707.4045 tbl45.com hotelscle.com
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
WE FIRST REVEALED HANGCHUN Zheng’s plans to open a seafoodin-a-bag concept on Coventry in Cleveland Heights in late winter, but he’s been hard at work transforming the former Winking Lizard space for close to a year. All that work began to pay off this past Friday evening when the doors officially opened to the public. Most visitors will be shocked by the transformation into a kitschy, colorful, casual fish shack. Like Boiling Seafood on Lee Road and Boiler 65 in Gordon Square, Seafood Shake (1852 Coventry Rd., 216-417-4830) is modeled after similarly styled shops down South and out West, where seafood (largely shellfish) is boiled in a flavorful broth, tossed in an aggressively seasoned spice mixture, and delivered to the table in clear plastic bags. Diners can pour the contents out onto paper-topped tables or eat straight out of the sack. Seafood Shake sets itself apart from the crowd thanks to the addition of a three-level fish tank that will be stocked with live lobster, Dungeness crabs and other inseason seafood such as blue crab and crawfish. Lobster, lobster tail, snow crab, King crab, shrimp, crawfish,
clams and mussels are ordered by the pound or sold as part of a combination. After choosing the fish, guests pick a seasoning from a list that includes Cajun, Lemon Pepper, Garlic and Ma La Spicy. Next up is the spiciness, which is on a scale from Non-Spicy to Extra Spicy. Appetizers like raw oysters, fried shrimp and crispy calamari join soups like lobster bisque and New England clam chowder. As is typical of the genre, Cajun entrees like crawfish etouffee join a few non-fish dishes such as chicken wings and fried tenders for the kids.
AFTER A 13-YEAR HIATUS, THE LOBSTER POT TO BE RESURRECTED IN WILLOUGHBY HILLS Chris Haffey’s father opened the Lobster Pot in South Euclid back in 1972. The family ran the seafood restaurant for more than 30 years, apart from a break in the early 1980s. Haffey says that he’s been itching to revive the old institution for years but hadn’t found the right property. “I haven’t found the right place and then this place in Willoughby Hills showed up,” he says. “It’s the
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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EAT Early Riser Special Mon-Fri 7am-9am 2 Eggs, 2 Sausages, Homefries & Toast
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1332 CARNEGIE AVE | CLEVELAND, OH 44115 (216) 239-1141
bites
perfect location; a lot of the customers who lived in South Euclid are still in the area, and there’s no place like this around.” Like the original, this iteration of the Lobster Pot (2749 SOM Center Rd.) will be loosely modeled after a traditional New England-style lobster house. The space will be decorated with nautical artifacts like wooden buoys and floats, fishing nets and the namesake lobster pots. A wooden dory will be suspended above the dining room. In addition to the regular tanks filled with live lobsters, the owner thought it would be fun to include a lobster-filled claw machine, where $2 buys a diner the chance to snag a live lobster. The space, most recently the Pub 91 and a Spectators, will seat approximately 200 guests in the dining room, at the bar, and on the patio. Haffey is going for what he calls, “casual with an upscale twist.” “We’ll have cloth napkins and tablecloths, so it will still feel like you’re going out to a nice dinner and not a sports bar,” he explains. In addition to the whole steamed Maine lobsters, the bill of fare will offer clam chowder, crab legs, lobster rolls and fried oyster Po’ Boys, to name a few. Look for the Lobster Pot to open in early August.
SOME OF THIS COUNTRY’S BEST TACOS (NO, REALLY) ARE SERVED AT A SEASONAL EATERY IN PAINESVILLE
+ DAILY SPECIALS + CILANTRO, CUCUMBER & CHILI SALAD ........................................ $ 5.95 FRIED CHINESE POT STICKERS .................................................. $ 5.95 SWEET & SOUR MANDARIN FISH .............................................. $ 18.95 PEKING DUCK (3 WAYS) .......................................................... $ 35.95 WALNUT SHRIMP ................................................................... $ 15.95 SALT & PEPPER SQUID ........................................................... $ 12.95 STIR FRIED LAMB TENDERLOIN ............................................... $ 13.95 BEIGING STYLE EGGPLANT ....................................................... $ 8.95 CHINESE KABOB (3) ................................................................. $ 6.50
• PROPIERTOR: SUSAN CEN • CUISINE PREPARED BY CHEF w/30 YEARS EXPERIENCE DINE IN • CARRY OUT • CATERING OPEN FOR LUNCH & DINNER • CLOSED WEDNESDAYS
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
When the invitation to meet for tacos in Painesville arrived, we blindly assumed that we were headed for El Señor’s, the fabulous taqueria tucked inside La Mexicana grocery store. When we bothered to actually read the invitation more than halfway into the journey, we learned that we were actually bound for La Casita (484 North State St., 440-357-1109), an altogether different Latin grocery less than a mile away. When we parked the car and circled around to the side of the building, I couldn’t believe the view. Beneath a large canopy was an arrangement of tables and chairs, a portable stainless steel hot line built around a large griddle, and a lengthy garnish table overflowing with colorful accoutrements. When I moved in close enough to see the food on somebody’s plate I immediately grew despondent — despondent because it took me so long to visit.
Marcos opened La Casita in 2006 with little more than a tortilla machine, which he used to craft the kind of fresh products he was used to back home in Mexico. He reinvested the money he earned by selling the tacos — to residents and restaurant owners — back into the shop, refashioning it into a Latin grocery with a butcher shop. Given his experience with family taco stands back home, not to mention his wife’s knack for seasonings, a seasonal outdoor eatery made perfect sense. From spring through fall, the transitory restaurant springs to life on a quiet side street on the edge of town. On weekends, singles, couples and entire families pop in for a delicious and affordable lunch or dinner. Orders are placed at the makeshift checkout counter and delivered to a pair of cooks manning the outdoor kitchen. There’s no menu, but you can count on tacos, quesadillas and tortas built around chicken, chorizo, tripe, tongue, al pastor and cabeza (cow head). Prices are $1.75 per taco, $3.50 per torta and $3.50 or $4 for a quesadilla depending on your choice of shell (flour or homemade corn). When your number is called — often in Spanish — walk up and grab your plate from the cooks. For no extra charge the guys will toss in a roasted onion and/or a well-charred jalapeno pepper. Slide over to the garnish table for a wide selection of crisp, bright and crunchy toppings like cucumber salad, diced onion, radish quarters, chopped fresh cilantro, lime and a variety of salsas. Grab a cold Jarritos soda or water and find a seat at one of the communal picnic tables. It’s not hyperbole to say that the food here is every bit as good — or better — than what’s found at countless similar spots south of the border. The fresh tortillas combined with the brilliantly seasoned meats and expansive selection of garnishes combine to create an experience as authentic as it gets in this country. That’s precisely why Mexican food lovers from as far afield as Lorain, Toledo, Columbus and Pennsylvania make regular pilgrimages to this very spot. When visiting, pop into the shop to purchase a wide variety of imported products, fresh meats and, of course, the housemade tortillas that started it all. La Casita’s outdoor eatery is open Fridays 4 p.m. to midnight, and Saturdays 9 a.m. to midnight and Sundays 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., weather permitting.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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| clevescene.com m | July 26 - August 1, 2017
MUSIC
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX A lunchbox of CDs inspired local hip-hop producer and ‘old head’ M. Stacks By Lawrence Neil CLEVELAND HIP-HOP PRODUCER M.Stacks turned 29 earlier this year and, for the first time, started feeling old. “People in the studio started calling me O.G., old head,” he says one recent afternoon from Bulkley Creative House. “It bothered me at first, but now I’m okay with it. When I was a little kid, I never wanted to be young and dumb; I wanted to be one of the wise older guys.” In a city whose hip-hop core has been ephemeral or non-existent, a kid who graduated high school 10 years ago can become a veteran just by learning the craft, putting in work and sticking around. But don’t get confused: Stacks didn’t just slide into this role by default. His musicality runs deep and his grind has been years in the works. Born Miguel Brown Jr. in Hawaii, Stacks and his family moved to Atlanta in 1993 as the city was beginning to form its unique hip-hop identity; Outkast, Laface Records and the Freaknik Festival were beginning to flourishing and the city’s hip-hop was getting national attention for the first time. At home, Brown’s father drenched him in the
era’s choicest sounds from around the country — Tribe Called Quest, Mobb Deep, Wu Tang, 2Pac, 2 Live Crew — and gifted him a lunchbox full of CDs that became Stacks’ life soundtrack. But it wasn’t until he began getting in trouble at school that he got serious about music. After moving to Shaker Heights, Stacks was expelled from the seventh grade following a few fights. His father basically told him to get his shit together, urging him to find an outlet while simultaneously expressing his support. Stacks replied that he wanted to make music — hip-hop, specifically. With saved-up Christmas money and some help from his parents, he went to Sam Ash and picked up the basics: an 8-track recorder, a microphone, a drum machine. With effectively an entire year of “alternative school” (read: chilling at home) just to work on his music, Stacks fell in love. By the next school year, he’d turned his act around. “I think I got ‘Most Improved Student’ or something,” he acknowledges. “It worked, so shout out to my dad. He wasn’t judgmental, never tried to shoot my dreams
down. He was always thinking outside the box.” He started developing a signature sound: M. Stacks beats are an appealing brand of bass-heavy, kushclouded, sample-driven concoctions. With sweeping strings and mellow horns layered on computerized drum kits, the result is a sort of lethargic, hazy summer sound that can knock out of car speakers. “Naledge from Kidz In the Hall told me I make ‘soulful stripper music,’” he says, laughing. “Slowed down, chopped-up soul samples, heavy bass, and heavy 808s.” By high school, his mixing skills and broad musical knowledge got him DJ gigs around the city: biker bars on the west side, sports bars in Brook Park. In a lucky happenstance during his senior year, he was prominently featured in a lengthy GQ essay by Shaker native and current GQ editorial director Devin Friedman as he returned to his alma mater; Friedman took a significant slice of the essay to dive into Stacks’ story, highlighting him as a talented, promising artist. “That GQ article really put a battery in my back and it felt solidified in my mind: I wasn’t
gonna go to college,” Stacks asserts. “But then I got scared. What the fuck kind of job was I gonna get? I didn’t have any skills. I DJ’ed all through high school, so I went to college to give it a try.” But after two semesters — one at CSU, another at Tri-C — he dropped out. He was spending far more time working on music, and in his first year out of high school, he’d produced a whole album for Ray Cash, a local artist coming off a record deal with Sony. “Even if I had gotten my degree, who was I going to show it to? Ray Cash didn’t ask to see my degree,” Stacks shrugs. During this time, he was brought into the fold of Dreamlife Entertainment, Lebron James and Rich Paul’s fledgling record label that served as an umbrella for Cleveland’s Cap Rap era — namely Al Fatz and Chip tha Ripper, with whom Stacks collaborated frequently. But he quickly discovered that working as an in-house producer wasn’t for him; there wasn’t enough flexibility, and he would get big bro’d by the label. Stacks specifically recalls a time when he was told he “wasn’t ready” to meet Kid Cudi and | clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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MUSIC play him some beats. Stacks split. His work with Ray Cash was enough of a foot in the door, and a beat of his got picked up by Bun-B, a heavy hitter from Houston with mainstream success and critical acclaim. Stacks began making frequent trips to Chicago to work with artists based in the Windy City. He nabbed placements with Vic Mensa, Kidz In the Hall, GLC, flipping one gig into another like any savvy, millennial creativetype worth his salt would do. Back in Cleveland, he’d maneuvered into the house DJ role at Peabody’s, the now-defunct Flats club that served up metal, hip-hop, or Top 40, depending on the night. Stacks used his role to gain access to some of hip-hop’s biggest names early on; it’s where he met Rittz, the 30-something quick-spitting Georgian who was opening for a fellow white Southern rapper, Yelawolf, with just an aux cord plugged into his phone. This chance encounter proved fruitful: The two kept up a steady collaborative dialogue, exchanging beats and verses until Rittz ended up rapping over a Stacks beat for what became “Like I Am.” The lush, drawling, blues-influenced track became a single off of Rittz’ debut album on Tech N9ne’s Strange Music label, and has since racked up millions of spins across streaming platforms and YouTube. These types of organic encounters have propelled Stacks’ career: right place, right time and real recognizing real. A few years ago, while Stacks was DJing a few showcases at SXSW, he ran into Detroit rapper Boldy James, one of hip-hop’s most known unknowns for whom he’d produced before. Boldy hasn’t cracked into the mainstream, but he’s a perennial underground star — your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper — who has entire albums produced by legendary producer the Alchemist, a record deal with Nas’s Mass Appeal Records and a penchant for lyricism. Boldy had parted ways with his DJ following a tour with Mobb Deep, and asked Stacks to back him up down in Austin. The pair clicked, and Boldy asked him to DJ for him on a 50-city tour opening for Royce Da 5’9” and DJ Premier, two godfathers of hip-hop. Stacks, of course, accepted and spent months picking the brain of one of the most
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
influential producers in hip-hop history. “I was trying not to fan out,” he says, laughing, describing the list of legends he met while on the tour: Slaughterhouse, Gangstarr, the Roots, Nas. Like Joey Bada$$ or Chuck Inglish, Stacks is an almost anachronistic torchbearer of a sound that some may argue is on its way out. He stands by his soul samples and has to be one of the youngest DJs to start out digging through yard-sale record crates and spinning on vinyl, not Serato, the DJing software that became ubiquitous by the mid-to-late ’00s. “People used to shit on me because I was sampling, saying that’s all I knew how to do,” he says. “And maybe so, but I’ve perfected it.” Even his introduction to the A-list of the hip-hop world on the Royce/Premier tour puts him in an old-school camp; Royce’s fellow Slaughterhouse group member, Joe Budden, is currently making waves as Complex’s stubborn old guard hip-hop purist, yelling at teenagers and confronting hitmakers. While he’s not flipping out at younger rappers, Stacks keeps an old-school flair, name dropping classic blogs illRoots and NahRight the way his SoundCloud rap contemporaries might rep a Fader writeup. He’s comfortable with, and accepting of, his role as a young old head, as long as it’s on his own terms. “I’m aware of the rules and the foundation that this shit was founded on … but I’m not stuck in my ways,” he notes. This strategy seems to be working, and he’s put himself in a good position; Stacks got in early with artists he respected and made himself valued. He could eat for years off his royalty checks from Rittz alone, which facilitates his creative freedom and fi nancial stability. “What is success? Making a living doing what I love: producing and DJing. I’ve achieved it,” Stacks says, and it’s hard to disagree with his assessment. While his next chapter as a musician is yet to be determined, it won’t be rushed, or fi ltered through trend or commercial necessity. “I’m not pressed, man,” says Stacks, shrugging, tempered. “I’m not pressed.”
lneil@clevescene.com t@lawrencejrneil
308 EUCLID AVE. CLEVELAND, OH 44114 216.523.BLUE Complete listing at houseofblues.com/cleveland
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July 27 All-American Rejects w/ The Whiskey Hollow July 27 Judith Owen feat. legend Leland Sklar Cambridge Room Aug. 1 Social Distortion w/ Jade Jackson LOW TICKET ALERT Aug. 7 Leopold and His Fiction w/ Ottawa, The Outer Waves Cambridge Room Aug. 10 Durand Jones & the Indications W/ Toobe Fresco Cambridge Room Aug. 15 Taking Back Sunday w/ Every Time I Die, All Get Out Aug. 18 Saved By The 90’s Aug. 20 Atlas Genius w/ The Sleeping Sounds Cambridge Room Aug. 24 Anathema w/ Silver Snakes Cambridge Room Sept. 2 Kyle w/ Bobby
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Buy tickets at HOUSEOFBLUES.COM/CLEVELAND Order By Phone: 800.745.3000 • House of Blues Box Office
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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Photo by Cara Robbins
MUSIC
A RETURN TO THEIR ROOTS Indie rockers Foxygen push deeper into Hollywood’s theatrical world By Eric Sandy IN LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR, Foxygen has traversed a scope of creativity and work that few bands touch even after decades of writing and performing together. The sometimes-esoteric and frequently baroque duo of Jonathan Rado and Sam France keeps its soul rooted clearly in California, all while exploring different versions of itself. At one point, in 2014, the guys released a concept album that imagined them as a fictional band with a far-reaching fictional history and trajectory. The stakes are no less dramatic on Foxygen’s latest album, Hang, which hit streets and stages this year. This new one is both a return to their roots — to their hometown — as well as a workshop that touches on all manner of good old American music. “The record itself is sort of a hero’s journey-type story through the canals of the Hollywood entertainment industry — the rock ’n’ roll world, whatever — and all the themes in that,” France says. “The area of town that we lived in — the entertainment industry was just seen as something that people that we grew up with felt entitled to be a part of. It was always this thing
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that affected the culture of where we lived. It had people living in a fantasy world, and that’s sort of what that area is all about.” With the cultural tides of Hollywood flowing through the band members’ veins, it was only natural to wash ashore now and then on the page as songs and albums. And while it’s studied in some ways, Hang is certainly a fun album. Take the sprightly “Mrs. Adams,” for instance, which pairs an ABBA-like melody with suicidal imagery and a song structure that just won’t quit. It’s a great example of how the rest of the album flows. “We felt that Hang itself is one piece of music; none of our other records, I feel, were one chunk of
feeling of a play or a film. In fact, France wrote an entire script — with dialogue and everything draped across a plot — that accompanies the score that Hang provides. He assembled this before the band even began rehearsing for this current tour. “We didn’t end up using it, because we wanted to showcase it as more of a concert,” he says. “We were proud of the music and wanted to make it about the music.” (That said, the band hasn’t ruled out bringing the theatrical performance to the stage as a one-off event — “possibly,” France adds.) Trey Pollard, who arranged the album, has been joining the band onstage, leading a tight ensemble adjacent to the core duo of Foxygen.
FOXYGEN, CUT WORMS, TRIOS 8:30 P.M. MONDAY, JULY 31, BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD. , 216-383-1124. TICKETS: $20 ADV/$22 DOS, BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM
music like this was one,” France says. “It’s the first time we’ve [played a full album in a set].” That was something that emerged organically as the album came together. As the writing began to gel, France says, a concept emerged that gave the album the
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
France says they’ve been loving the opportunity to showcase the album as it’s supposed to be heard before moving onto older tunes. That ensemble sound is key to the vision that Rado and France had while they were thinking about this
album over the course of the previous few years. The whole thing was written ahead of time, and the guys realized that they needed to bring in some additional instrumentalists. The Lemon Twigs were brought in to flesh out the sound on this album as the rhythm section, much to the delight of the Foxygen guys. (Rado had previously produced the Twigs’ debut, The Lemon Twigs Do Hollywood.) The resulting product is something that the guys have referred to as their first real studio album — in more ways than one. “All of our former records were made in some variation of a home studio,” France says. “The album really has that taste to it; it sounds like we’re onstage, it sounds like we’re performing in the room. We made what we saw in our heads, and I think it worked out. “It’s just an idea we’ve had for quite a few years, and finally we found all the cast to make it,” France says, sounding more and more like he’s seated in a director’s chair and loving every moment.
esandy@clevescene.com t@EricSandy
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4(5 | clevescene.com m | July 26 - Augus August st 1, 22017 0177
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MUSIC A LIVELY AFFAIR Indie duo Tegan and Sara bring their ‘robust pop show’ to town By Jeff Niesel AS THE INDIE POP DUO TEGAN and Sara enters its 20th year (the band started writing songs in the mid-’90s but didn’t issue its full-length debut until 2000), singer Sara Quin says she regularly reflects on the journey she’s taken with her sister, singer Tegan Quin. “I think more than ever before, the reflection is quite important,” she says via phone. The group performs on Monday at House of Blues. “It’s a reminder of where we started and how far we’ve come. It’s also a good reminder that creativity and making music, whether we were successful or not, saved our lives and gave us purpose and gave us a community. I’m just glad that whatever happened during those 20 years, we still get to play music.” As the songs started to come together for the band’s latest effort, Love You to Death, a theme emerged. “We’re both in really stable relationships, and there’s a longing for more self-awareness and understanding as you get older,” she says. “[The album is] a reflection on when things were harder and looking to the future, and knowing that you’ve been through hardship and can get through it again is an overarching theme.” When it came time to head into the studio to record, the band again enlisted Greg Kurstin, the same guy who worked the boards for the duo’s previous album, 2013’s Heartthrob. “We wanted to jump off from where we finished with Heartthrob,” says Quin. “It was such a cool collaborative situation with him. I remember thinking I can’t wait to go back into the studio. For me, I really trusted Greg. I feel he gets us and adds a lot. He definitely has a strong creative view on things. I feel like that allows us to sound like ourselves.” The album opens with “That Girl,”
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Photo by Lindsey Byrnes
a shimmering tune with layers of synthesizers and echoing vocals. Other songs embrace an ’80s synth pop aesthetic. “I think Tegan is more retro in that way,” says Quin. “She really taps into that place. Some of her songs have more of that vibe. For myself, a song like ‘White Knuckles’ or ‘Hang on to the Night,’ I’m trying to tap into something more modern. I think [the ’80s] are a safe and inspiring place for us. That was when we were teenagers, and Madonna and electronic music and hip-hop was what we were hearing. On
“I’m always sort of mining my own personal life or friends’ lives for narratives,” she says. “You can’t tell the full story. I was thinking of this idea of roles and gender identity and dating and how things are getting flipped. I was being very tongue-incheek about this girlfriend treating me as her boyfriend. The overarching theme is that dating is the worst, and I was excited to meet someone who could take me off the market. It’s like, ‘I’m done with dating. Let’s make this a real thing.’” While Quin says she was “horrified”
TEGAN AND SARA, JAPANESE BREAKFAST 7 P.M. MONDAY, JULY 31, HOUSE OF BLUES, 308 EUCLID AVE., 216-523-2583. TICKETS: $30-$40, HOUSEOFBLUES.COM
a subconscious level, it informed what we thought about music and how we made music.” The subject matter in the Cyndi Lauper-like “Boyfriend” stems from a specific relationship that Quin turned into pop fodder.
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
when Donald Trump became President, she says that she and her sister would have had the same amount of consciousness-raising to do even if Hillary Clinton had become President. “I think a lot of the work that needs to be done in this country would have
needed to be done no matter what happened with the election,” she says. “I know that for both myself and Tegan, who have more textured politics and a deeper understanding of what’s happening in the LGBTQ community, especially at the intersection of race and gender, stuff needs to come to the surface. This works needs to be done regardless of who’s the President. I feel like there’s hope. I feel like for the first time a lot of people are engaged, and people who weren’t listening before are listening.” Quin says the band’s live show, which has always been a lively affair, has evolved over the years and now features a fair amount of production. “It’s a big pop show right now with video screens,” she says. “We have an amazing backing band. We try to scale the show to fit the places we go. We’re doing big festivals, and we’re trying to compete and deliver a big robust pop show.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
49
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 ..........................................TRICKY DICK & THE COVER UPS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 ....................................................THE BREAKFAST CLUB FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 ...................................................................... VELVET SHAKE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 .................................. SHOUT & THE LEGENDS OF SOUL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3 .................................................................THE SPAZMATICS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4 ................................................................... ACE MOLAR FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10 ......................................TRICKY DICK & T HE COVER UPS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11 ....................................................... JUKEBOX HEROES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17 ........................................................................ OLD SKOOL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18 ...........................................................THAT 80S BAND FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24 ..................................................... RUTHERFORD COUNTY SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25 .................................................THE BREAKFAST CLUB FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1 ...................................................................DISCO INFERNO SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2.......................................................... JUKEBOX HEROES FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8 .........................................TRICKY DICK & THE COVER UPS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9............................................................THE SPAZMATICS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15 ..................................... SHOUT & THE LEGENDS OF SOUL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16 .................................................THE BREAKFAST CLUB FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22 .......................................................... JASON KELTY BAND SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23 .................................................................. OLD SKOOL FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29 ..........................................................................303 BAND SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30 ....................................................................... CALIBER
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
DIRTY FRANKS
LIVEWIRE
all the live music you should see this week Photo courtesy of Sony Music
WED
07/26
10 X 3 Singer Songwriter Showcase hosted by Brent Kirby: 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Alex Bevan (in the Supper Club): 6 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club. Negative Approach/Bloodclot/ Inducing Panic: 7 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Now That’s Class. Simon Mastri Ensemble: 8 p.m., $12. Bop Stop. Bob Schneider/Travis Linville: 8 p.m., $20 ADV, $25 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. A Summer High / Seconds To Live/ As Time Fades/Funeral Proposals/ War Stories (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $10. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Wild Rivers/AJ and The Woods: 8:30 p.m., $10. Beachland Tavern.
THU
07/27
Amos Lee + Lake Street Dive: This summer, Lake Street Dive (commonly and mistakenly called Lake Street Drive) has toured with singer-songwriters Jack Johnson and Amos Lee. And while these pairings make sense with an overlapping fan base, it’s Lake Street Dive vocalist Rachael Price who shines above all. After last year’s album, Side Pony, took the soulful indie band to new heights, even more listeners are aware of Price’s masterful vocals — which warble between smoky perfection and highvoltage belting over her band’s beats, brass and bass. Her velvety voice is unlike anything else being recorded today. Tonight, the group returns to town with Amos Lee, who is back in the spotlight after last year’s release of Spirit. (Laura Morrison) 8 p.m. Jacobs Pavilion. The All-American Rejects: 7 p.m., $25-$40. House of Blues. Dierks Bentley/Cole Swindell/Jon Pardi: 7 p.m., $32-$70.75. Blossom. Dominick Farinacci All-Star Quintet: 8 p.m., $30. Nighttown. Gazm/Shit Blimp/The Roobydocks: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class. 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. Northeast Ohio Drum & Music Jam: 9 p.m., free. Beachland Ballroom. Judith Owen Featuring Legend Leland Sklar: 7 p.m., $10 ADV, $13 DOS. House of Blues Cambridge Room.
The Shins return to town to play the Agora Theatre. See: Saturday.
Piebald/Signals Midwest/Curtail: 9 p.m., $20 ADV, $23 DOS. Grog Shop. Pronoun/The Movies/Ulysses (in the Locker Room): 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Sounds of Jazz featuring Nancy Redd: 8 p.m., $12. Bop Stop. Sparrowmilk/Pillärs: 8:30 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern.
FRI
07/28
Rod Stewart/Cyndi Lauper: When rocker Rod “The Mod” Stewart played the Q back in 2012, he displayed loads of energy for someone who had just entered his late 60s. He got the party started with a cover of “Love Train” and then never let up during a fantastic 90-minute set, delivering hits such as “Some Guys Have All the Luck” and “Forever Young” while occasionally dropping to his knees, shaking his ass and vamping with the band. Expect him to be in equally good form when he returns to town to play Blossom tonight with special guest Cyndi Lauper. (Jeff Niesel) 7:30 p.m., $38-$107.50. Blossom. Melvins/Spotlights/Blind Spring: 9 p.m., $20. Grog Shop. Ally & the Cats with special guests All We’ve Got and Snake Rock, Laura Schaefer Benefit: 9 p.m., $10. Brothers Lounge. Devotional 2017, Night 1: 7 p.m., free. Beachland Tavern. Everyn / Iron Bison / The Traveler / Soleo / Turtlebird: 7 p.m., $10. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Friday Concert Series with Tracy Marie featuring Maddie Finn (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m.
Brothers Lounge. Honeybucket/The Wayfarers: 8:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Jane Lee Hooker & Sonny Moorman Group (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. In Training July with Batu/ Nosferatu/Father of Two: 9 p.m., $8. Now That’s Class. Victor Jones Quintet Featuring Taeko: 8:30 p.m., $20. Nighttown. Math and Logic/Holden Laurence: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern. Simplified: 9 p.m., $30. Musica. Moss Stanley: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Stephen Stills / Judy Collins: 8 p.m. Cain Park. Tribute to Black Sabbath & Ozzy Osbourne by The Crazy Train: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Young Latino Network Presents “Noche De Guyabera”: 6 p.m., $25. Bop Stop.
SAT
07/29
The Shins/Tennis: Fresh off the release of their first studio album in five years, Albuquerque-based alternative/indie rockers the Shins are back with their critically acclaimed fifth studio album, Heartworms. The band rose to prominence in the ’00s thanks to its melodic, surrealist indie pop/rock. After the release of their first two albums, 2001’s Oh, Inverted World and 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow, it garnered a reputation as pop revivalists due to its emulation of
the hooks and melodies typically associated with ’60s pop groups. With their new, largely self-produced album, frontman James Mercer fully takes the reins: Since losing the remaining original band members in 2009, the Shins have essentially been Mercer’s brainchild. On Heartworms, he takes the listener on a journey to his childhood with the folk rock ballad “Mildenhall,” wherein he describes falling in love with music while living in England, “a kid in class passed me a tape / a band called the Jesus and Mary Chain.” With tracks like “Dead Alive” and “Name For You,” the album also recalls the classic indie rock sound of the band’s debut LP. Mercer is one of the most honest, heartfelt troubadours in American alternative rock and this latest Shins’ record proves that his appeal still hasn’t worn off. (Elizabeth Manno) 8 p.m., $37-$77. The Agora Theatre. The Clash Tribute by The Boys from the County Hell: For the third year in a row, the Boys from the County Hell, a local act best known for hitting clubs and bars on St. Patrick’s Day to pay tribute to the Pogues, will perform a set of songs by the Clash. Band leader Chris Allen promises that the group has added several new songs to the show and, in a strange twist, the band will open for itself with a set of Pogues tunes. Should be a blast. (Niesel) 8 p.m., $15. Music Box Supper Club. Earth, Wind & Fire and Chic featuring Nile Rodgers: The ’70s funk act Chic inspired the hip-hop revolution with its infectious hit, “Good Times.” This year, the band finally got its proper due as guitarist Nile Rodgers (but not his bandmates, for some odd reason) was inducted into the Rock Halll. Admittedly, Rodgers went on to great fame after Chic dissolved, and produced albums for David Bowie, Madonna, Diana Ross and Sister Sledge. He also helped the electronica group Daft Punk deliver its biggest hit by playing on their tune, “Get Lucky.” Tonight the band comes to town with Earth, Wind & Fire. Dubbed the 2054 Tour, the show will feature a special guest DJ and a specialized seating configuration toward the front of the stage where seats will have additional space between them to encourage audience members to “dance the night away.” (Niesel) 7:30 p.m. Quicken Loans Arena. Shirley Cook Band: 8 p.m., $20. Bop Stop. Devotional 2017, Night 2: 3 p.m., $35. | clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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LYFE JENNINGS Friday, Nov. 11
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LIVEWIRE Beachland Ballroom. The Dream Masons / Window Dogs / Glowing Moses / Passenger Trip: 8 p.m., $8. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. The Drexels/Morticia’s Chair/Frigid Touch: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Carlos Jones & the P.L.U.S. Band: 10 p.m., $8. Brothers Lounge. Kent Potter Fest Concert Featuring Blibbering Humdingers/Muggle Snuggle/Hawthorn and Holly: 5 p.m., $10 ADV, $15 DOS. The Kent Stage. LFO/CEONEO: 9 p.m., $20-$100. Musica. Mo Lowda & The Humble/Persons/ Places/Things: 8:30 p.m., $10. Beachland Tavern. Tony Monaco Organ Quartet featuring Richie Cole: 8:30 p.m., $25. Nighttown. The Moxies SteadyďŹ re, Primarie Kullers, Noon, Elipsus: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop. Soul for the Public Vol. 2 with Tied Stick and Tanman/DJ Andrew Kirschner/DJ RA Washington: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class. Sound of Jazz Featuring Nancy Redd (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown.
Friday, Nov. 24
Annual Holiday Stomp THE WALKING CLAMPETTS
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Vegas After Dark Christmas Show DOM & RUSS
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT Wednesday, July 26
TACO & CERVEZA
Friday, Dec. 1
MUSIQ SOULCHILD Saturday, Dec. 2
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
07/30
Jidenna, Long Live the Chief Tour: Splashing onto the scene in 2015 with his sauntering single “Classic Man,â€? its eventual Kendrick Lamar remix, and a dandy style to accompany it all, the Harlem Renaissance-referencing Jidenna runs in a circle of alternative hiphoppers that is simultaneously futurist and, well, classic. The dapper Nigerian-American has had a unique, worldly upbringing, his childhood split between his father’s Nigeria and New England, eventually leading him to Stanford University and a career in teaching. Rapping throughout, his music piqued the attention of visionary songwriter and actress Janelle Monae, who signed him to her burgeoning label, Wondaland Records, in 2015. His album, Long Live The Chief, is his ďŹ rst full-length release, a swaggering, diverse project that ranges from the Luke Cagefeatured mean mug, “Long Live The Chief,â€? to the summery dancehall jam, “Little Bit More.â€? The show’s been sold out for weeks, but he’s an act that merits a peek at secondary
ticketing sources to try to wiggle your way into the Grog. (Lawrence Neil) 9 p.m., $20 ADV, $22 DOS. Grog Shop. Rancid And Dropkick Murphys From Boston To Berkeley Tour/The Bounding Souls/Jake Burns: 7 p.m., $37.50-$42.50. Jacobs Pavilion. Engelbert Humperdinck: The 50th Anniversary Tour: 8 p.m., $25-$180. Hard Rock Rocksino NorthďŹ eld Park. Jesse Malin/Anthony D’Amato: 8 p.m., $16 ADV, $18 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Mike Petrone (in the Wine Bar): 5:30 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Night Terrors: 7 p.m., $10. Bop Stop. Off with Their Heads/Protruders/ Heart and Lung/Old Souls: 8 p.m., $10. Now That’s Class. Supersuckers/The Upper Crust/The Whiskey Daredevils: 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $17 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.
07/31
MON
Big Nothing/Two Hand Fools/Throw Shade (in the Locker Room): 9 p.m., $5. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Dominick Farinacci Featuring Julien Labro: 7 p.m., $20. Bop Stop. Flasher/Cross Brothers: 10 p.m., free. Happy Dog. Foxygen/Cut Worms: 8:30 p.m., $20 ADV, $22 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Joshua Radin & Rachael Yamagata: 7:30 p.m., $38 ADV, $45 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Shit Show Karaoke: 10 p.m. B-Side Liquor Lounge & Arcade. Tegan and Sara/Japanese Breakfast: 8 p.m., $30 ADV, $35 DOS. House of Blues. Velvet Voyage (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.
TUE
08/01
Alt-J/Sohn: 8 p.m., $37.50-$49.50. Jacobs Pavilion. Car Seat Headrest/Gold Connections: 8:30 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Dancehall on Coventry: Caribbean Dance Night w/ DJ Maul: 10 p.m., $10. Grog Shop. Part Time Lover/David Nance/The Cowboy: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Social Distortion/Jade Jackson: 8 p.m., $41-$56. House of Blues. Two-Set Tuesday Featuring the Twosdays (in the Wine Bar): 7 p.m. Brothers Lounge.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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DREAM MASONS By Jeff Niesel MEET THE BAND: Eric Hellinger (guitar), Annastacia (vocals), Austin Harpel (drummer), Phillip Martin (bass) A RANDOM MEETING: Dream Masons began a couple of years ago as Hello Violet, a band that came together around singer Annastacia. She says she “knew ofâ€? guitarist Eric Hellinger from other musicians, then heard him play at Mohawk Studios in Huron where she was recording her “folk-yâ€? solo project. “I met all the guys in the band at studios,â€? says Annastacia. “We were all working on other projects, but it was a meant-to-be type of thing. We came together ďŹ rst as musicians and then had to learn to be friends. We’ve ďŹ nally gotten there.â€?
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
THE NAME CHANGE: The band had played around town, and even cut an album, as Hello Violet, when Annastacia met a touring musician who told her about an up-andcoming band named Hey Violet. “I want to be gone and done with Hello Violet, but I know that is our foundation,â€? she says. “I disliked being compared to this other band and didn’t want people to be confused by that. Right after that conversation [about Hey Violet], I called the guys and told them we had to ďŹ gure something out.â€? Dream Masons were born. WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: A few months ago, the band released the bluesy single “Another Great Day,â€? a song that commences with a bit of whistling before the sultry vocals kick in. The band’s
“Coastin’â€? will be out in a few weeks. Dream Masons recorded at Broadwaves Studio in Lorain County. “I love the warmth and creativity of the tracking and I love the fact that Luke Theall, who runs Broadwaves, says what you need to know and just doesn’t tell you to record.â€? The upcoming release show at Mahall’s serves as a celebration of the release of “Coastin’â€? and the release of a music video for “All or Nothing.â€? “We decided to drop a bomb and release both at the same time,â€? says Annastacia. “For the music video, we set things on ďŹ re. I was hosed down multiple times. We ďŹ lmed at a 200-year-old church and out on Lake Erie for two hours.â€? The band has recorded another single that will be out before the year’s end and has enough songs for a full-length. It’s also continuing to explore its unique approximation of the blues. “Eric is a diehard blues fan,â€? says Annastacia, “but for me, I have a soft Disney Princess voice. I can only sing certain things. If I calm down and speak slowly, I can coax out a fuller richer tone.â€?
WHERE YOU HEAR THEM: thedreammasons.bandcamp.com and facebook.com/thedreammasons WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: The Dream Masons perform with Window Dogs and Glowing Moses at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 29, at Mahall’s.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
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ALWAYS OPEN FOR SWIMMING & CAMPING | clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
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| clevescene.com | July 26 - August 1, 2017
SAVAGE LOVE CREEPERS by Dan Savage Dear Dan, I’m a reader in Kansas with two teenage daughters, 16 and 18. My girls recently met a boy where they work and both took an interest in him. The 18-year-old was devastated that he was more interested in her younger sister. I spoke to the 16-year-old about it, which is when I found out this boy is going to be a sophomore in college. The fact that he’s interested in a 16-year-old is a red flag. I asked the 16-year-old to keep her distance. She agreed, but I saw a shirtless photo he sent her. I don’t know what other photos he’s sent and I don’t know what she’s sent him, but I immediately removed all photo apps from her phone. The girls have had public fights about this boy. They’ve made peace with each other, but now my 18-year-old wants to date him. I can’t control the actions of an 18-year-old but (1) it seem likely this guy is a complete creep and (2) isn’t her relationship with her sister more important? — Knowing A Numbskull Stalks Adorable Sisters 1. I’m not ready to pronounce this guy a creep — at least not for the age difference. It sounds like he met your daughters someplace they’re all working this summer. And you say this boy is going to be a sophomore in college, KANSAS, but don’t give his age. There are 30-year-old college sophomores, of course, but if this boy went straight to college from high school, that would make him 19 years old. If your 16-year-old is closing in on 17, this guy could be “older” by two years and change. While I can understand why you wouldn’t want your younger daughter dating college boys, I think you are overreacting to the age difference — and it’s a moot issue, as he’s no longer pursuing your younger daughter. 1.5. You know what is creepy? Pursuing a pair of sisters. The possibility of conflict was so predictable, it was likely a motivating factor for him. Getting off on drama and public fights isn’t a crime, but it is a red flag. 2. You ordered your 16-year-old to stop seeing this guy and deleted apps from her phone. (It’s cute you think your daughter isn’t tech-savvy enough to re-download and hide all the same apps.) You should warn your daughter about the risks of
sexting — it may be legal for her to have sex (16 is the age of consent in Kansas), but she could face child porn charges for sending photos and this boy could wind up on a sex-offender registry for receiving them. (Laws meant to protect young people from being exploited are routinely used to punish them.) But don’t attempt to micromanage your daughters’ love lives. Parental disapproval has a way of driving teenagers into each other’s arms, KANSAS. If you don’t want your daughters having a fuck-you-mom threesome with this guy before the summer is over, you’ll let them work through this on their own — but go ahead and stitch “boys come and go but sisters are forever” on a couple of pillows and put them on their beds.
Dear Dan, I’m a straight guy married to a wonderful woman. She has a daughter. This girl’s bio dad is a checked-out deadbeat, so I have played “dad” since I met her mom five years ago. The girl who used to be a gangly, awkward 11-year-old is now 16, and there’s no other way to put this: She is hot. I’m not supposed to notice, I know, and I have ZERO interest in being creepy with her, and she has ZERO interest in me. But she has always liked to cuddle with me and still does. I believe safe closeness from a dad figure helps girls make good choices when it comes to boys. I want to continue to play this role for her. But when she comes in wearing tiny shorts and puts her legs over my lap, I get rock hard. I’m not trying to be creepy, but I’m a guy and she’s a perfect female specimen. I can’t say, “We can’t be as physically close as we used to be,” because that itself would be creepy and it would make her sad. — Insert Dad Acronym Here Obviously No, you shouldn’t go to your stepdaughter and say, “You got hot, and I get boners when you put your legs on my lap, so stop.” But you should put an end to the cuddling. When she plops down on the couch, go take a walk or a shower or a shit. Better she has a sad over the end of snuggle time than she notices your boners and feels unsafe around you.
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