CityBeat | Aug. 29, 2018 by Cincinnati CityBeat

CINCINNATI’S NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY | AUG.29-SEP.4, 2018 | FREE

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THE WAIT AFTER FOUR YEARS OF AGING, NORTHERN KENTUCKY’S NEW RIFF BOURBON IS READY TO MEET THE MASSES

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LETTERS Reds Opening Days Reunite

Cary McCurdy: Was a bad call separating the two this year in the first place. Keeping the annual tradition of both on the same day is why this city is special on Opening Day. Bonnie Speeg: Absolutely like having your shoes on the wrong feet during the ENTIRE WEDDING! Comment posted at Facebook.com/CincinnatiCityBeat in response to the Aug. 22 post, “Reunited and it feels so good: Cincinnati Reds Opening Day and the Opening Day Parade Will Fall on Same Day Next Year.”

Pig Party

COMING SOON

Racin Tracy: Use them to feed the hungry. I’m starving. Craig Joseph: Who “saves” pigs and doesn’t get them neutered... you toss a bunch of fertile pigs in a pen together and things are gonna get out of hand quick... They didn’t figure this out after the first unexpected group of piglets? Shane Kelly: Erin Hickey Katherine Cameron Courtney Motz this looks like a way better idea than going on the Harry Potter cruise..... Mike Ash: Can we adopt just to make them pork chops? Jennifer Michels Kirby: Randi Michna, how many times have you been tagged on this story? John Winters: C’mon Theresa Emery, you’re up for some more live-stock aren’t you? Comments posted at Facebook.com/CincinnatiCityBeat in response to the Aug. 24 post, “Looking for a new pet? More than 300 potbellied pigs from a Falmouth, Ky. farm need to be rehomed before Sept. 14 or many will face euthanasia.”

Kroger Cancels Plastic Bags

Terry Vincent: Now they can say no to using kids with disabilities as cheap labor and treating them like shit. Bonnie Speeg: Should have been done in 1979. Who can care? Tami Jo Askren: 2025? really? Why no sooner? Comments posted at Facebook.com/CincinnatiCityBeat in response to the Aug. 25 post, “Kroger is eliminating plastic bags in all of its stores by 2025.”

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OCTOBER 8-14, 2018 W e ’ r e b r i n g i n g yo u $2 Taco s f ro m s o m e of Cincinnati’s most popular taqueros!

Every day is Taco Tuesday during Taco Week.

UPCOMING EVENTS Sept. 24-30 Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week Oct. 3 Hopscotch Oct. 8-14 Cincinnati Taco Week

WHAT A WEEK! BY T.C. B R I T TO N

This Week in Questionable Decisions…

Coconut Oil: Natural Lifestyle Staple or Literal Poison? A Harvard professor last week gave an educational talk about the dangers of nature’s lubricant: coconut oil. The ingredient has gained mainstream popularity in the States and beyond in recent years, being used as a healthier alternative to other fats and oils. But this prof called coconut oil “pure poison,” citing its high levels of saturated fatty acids. Don’t go spitting out your smoothie quite yet. Some were quick to clap back about how coconut oil has been both a beauty and food staple in many cultures for centuries and is totally fine in moderation. What, like Americans are alarmist and take trends too far? Never heard of it.

The Saga of Elon Musk, Azealia Banks and Grimes

2. Sarah Jessica Parker yelled at a kid for recording her on a cellphone during an in-store appearance and forced him to delete the video in front of her.

Is your coconut oil poison? PHOTO: UNSPL ASH

The VMAs (Very Mediocre Awards)

Stunt Queen Invites Dozens on Date for ‘Social Experiment’

Contact T.C. Britton: letters@citybeat.com

4. Remember the 2004 white trash anthem “Redneck Woman?” Singer Gretchen Wilson was arrested for causing a disturbance on a flight involving an airplane bathroom. When you gotta go… 5. A viral Twitter post about a Bloomington, Ill. funeral home employee collecting more than 200 penises from dead bodies turned out to be a hoax, but caught enough wind to where the Bloomington coroner had to issue a statement about it. 6. Most kids dream about going to space camp so I guess a NASA internship would be the next logical goal for hopeful moonwalkers. So one woman was rightfully excited when she tweeted last week, “EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP I GOT ACCEPTED FOR A NASA INTERNSHIP,” to which one user responded, “Language.” She quickly retorted, “Suck my dick and balls I’m working at NASA,” not knowing the cuss patrol was actually a member of the National Space Council that oversees NASA. She reportedly lost the gig. Shit! 7. Johnny Depp accused ex Amber Heard of pooping in his bed as a final adieu to their relationship. Heard’s camp claims it was the dog. How did we get to this place?

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I’ve never used a dating app because I’m ancient and met my person the oldfashioned way (on a singles chat line). But recently dozens of New York men found themselves in a similar boat: waiting on a Tinder date to meet them in Union Square. It turned out they were all waiting on the same woman who’d given them all the same instructions. She soon took the stage in the park and directed the dudes to compete for a date, “swiping” left and right in person. The sham turned out to be a social experiment produced by a viral filmmaker to expose the truth behind online dating. As if there’s anyone alive who doesn’t realize modern dating is a shitshow. I think I’ll stick to Bachelor in Paradise, thankyouverymuch.

3. A literal burned-down pile of rubble in Vancouver garnered attention after being listed at $4 million, pegged as a “very rare development opportunity.”

MTV’s Video Music Awards aired last week, offering yet another opportunity for many of us to feel old. As I watched the 35th annual show, I couldn’t help but (channel Carrie Bradshaw and) wonder: “Have I even ever heard a Shawn Mendes song?” “How do you pronounce Camila Cabello?” “What’s a Post Malone?” Cardi B opened the show with a baby reveal fake-out that turned out to be a “Moon Person” award statue wrapped in a blankie. As if she was gonna introduce her newborn to the world at the freakin’ VMAs — where’s the check in that? Cardi makes money moves. The rapper had quite the night, taking the most awards (three), tied with Childish Gambino. But don’t worry if you’re feeling totally out of touch — the VMAs delivered plenty of nostalgia, too. Jennifer Lopez performed all her hits from the past 20 years, including those with Ja Rule, as boyfriend of the year Alex Rodriguez looked on in memeworthy amazement. JLo was honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, the VMAs’ lifetime achievement — the first Latin artist to win the award. It was announced that pseudo-reality hit The Hills would be getting a reboot featuring O.G. cast members like Heidi and Spencer (with their unfortunately named baby Gunner), Audrina, Justin Bobby and more (but, unsurprisingly, no Kristin or L.C.) Aerosmith surprised everyone by joining the Post Malone/21 Savage performance, looking like some animated skeletons (aka they fit right in). But the most surreal moment of the night came from Madonna, who iconically performed “Like a Virgin” at the first-ever

VMAs in 1984. Madonna came out looking like a wannabe fortune teller left in the desert since last year’s Burning Man to give a tribute to our dearly departed Queen Aretha Franklin. Only…she basically just talked about herself? She rambled on about moving to New York with a few bucks in her pocket, living in a crack house, being mistaken for a prostitute and being extremely unprofessional at an audition… where she sung “You Make Me Feel” and launched her career. Show a little respect when you get home, Madge! Perhaps pandering to the aging MTV audience isn’t the best bet: It was the leastwatched VMAs of all time.

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Elon Musk is the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX (see: a recent emotional rollercoaster of an interview with The New York Times). Azealia Banks is a controversial New York rapper (see: multiple online and IRL flights with celebs and regulars alike; her blood-stained chicken-sacrificing closet). Grimes is a tiny goth alien bringing dreamy Synth-Pop music to this universe (see: her 2012 album Visions. No shade, it’s just a good record). Where do the three intersect? We all learned over the past couple weeks. There’s no obvious reason why these three would star in a real-life soap opera via the news, but that’s just what happened after Banks flew out to Musk’s home to collaborate on a song with his girlfriend Grimes (and yes, it’s weird that Musk and Grimes are a thing, but we have to keep this moving). Banks posted on Instagram, claiming that she was left alone in the Mansion That Tesla Built for days waiting for Grimes (which sounds like my dream scenario). Banks later went on to provide even more juicy details, like accusing Musk of tweeting on acid (which might explain his whole post about making Tesla private at $420 a share, which scared investors and caused the stock to drop), making fun of his and Grimes’ appearance, screenshots of Grimes’ texts to her that detail Musk’s big dick and how she got him into weed, racism allegations, the idea that the couple brought Banks in for a weird threesome — the list goes on. Now, Tesla is remaining public, Musk and Grimes may have broken up and Banks is pulling out the apology card for dragging Musk into the hot mess spotlight. The drama seems to have simmered for now, but as long as Banks has Instagram access, the next public beef is just around the corner. I’ll keep the popcorn warm.

1. The “In My Feelings” challenge can officially R.I.P. after an FBI most-wanted double homicide suspect did the dance while being escorted in handcuffs by police. Meanwhile, in a very “I’m not a regular teacher, I’m a cool teacher” move, instructors across the country are using the Drake song in their classroom decor, remixing the lyrics to be about school. Keke, do you love memes? Are you tired?

AN IRISH WHISKEY, SCOTCH ANd cRAFT BEER TASTING EVENT

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october 3rd, 2018

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Eats & drinks samples from

The balvenie, benriach, chart house, the glendronach, glenfiddich, glenglassaugh, glen scotia, grand central bistro & bar, loch lomond, monkey shoulder, and more to be announced

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT HOPSCOTCHCINCY.COM

NEWS

The Fight of His Life Activist Ady Barkan launched his political career in Cincinnati. Now he’s fighting for health care access while battling ALS. BY J U D E N O EL

Ady Barkan PH OTO: NIC K SWARTSELL

80,000 Ohioans under the age of 26 have been able to remain on their parents’ health care plans,” Cordray says. DeWine also expressed a desire to keep Medicaid expansions earlier this month, though his plan would require healthy adults that it covers to work at least 20 hours a week, participate in a drug treatment plan or enroll in a job training program. Barkan has also busied himself in recent weeks supporting other Democrats in Ohio, including the aforementioned O’Connor, who fought a pitched battle against Republican State Sen. Troy Balderson for a seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, a Republican who resigned earlier this year. O’Connor looks to have lost that race by a very slim margin, but will face Balderson again in the November general election. Barkan’s focus isn’t solely in Ohio, of course. Barkan has also worked in other areas around the country supporting progressive causes and candidates. But Barkan says he’s pushing for more than just a particular candidate or single policy. As he left Avondale to continue on his tour, he ended on a call to action for the audience. “When I come into a room like this, I’m speaking to the most engaged and informed folks who care about politics,” he said. “There surely will be 100 percent voter turnout from the people in this room. But this room isn’t big enough to defeat Steve Chabot or elect Richard Cordray. The job becomes how we build a movement.”

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15th District, and the release of an advertisement endorsing U.S. House candidate Danny O’Connor, who was running to represent Ohio’s 12th Congressional District in an Aug. 7 special election. “I was shocked when the Republicans in Congress proposed a tax bill that would take away my health care to fund tax cuts for billionaires,” Barkan says in the ad, framed by the caption, “Dying Man Has a Message for Ohio Voters.” At his Avondale appearance, Barkan took shots at congressman Steve Chabot, who represents Ohio’s 1st District. “It’s my first time being back in 12 years,” Barkan says. “Steve Chabot was a terrible congressman back then, and he’s a terrible congressman now. Hopefully, we’ll have another midterm landslide victory.” Beyond shade thrown at Chabot, Barkan directed most of his energy toward backing Democrat Richard Cordray, who is running for governor this November against Republican Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. Needing access to affordable health care is one of his primary reasons for supporting Cordray, Barkan said. His wheelchair alone — upon which he is totally dependent — costs between $32,000 and $35,000. Cordray says he plans to support the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a statute that his running mate, former U.S. representative Betty Sutton, voted for in 2010. He also supports protecting Medicaid expansion. “The ACA has allowed more than 666,000 Ohioans to gain coverage and more than

“I asked Flake to be a hero, stand up against the Trump administration and vote against the tax scam because of what it would do to our health care system,” Barkan said as he addressed candidates for local office and activists at Gabriel’s Place. “He listened, heard my story, saw my humanity and then promptly returned to Washington and forgot about me. Or, somebody decided that the campaign contributions and the needs of millionaires were more important.” Because Flake refused to carry out his request, he’s now asking the American people to be heroes, hence the name of his tour and fund. Barkan’s commitment has landed him several high-profile appearances so far on his tour. “I’ve been traveling with this great crew of organizers for 24 days,” he says. “We started in California, with a huge protest and rally (the Families Belong Together: Freedom for Immigrants march) of 70,000 people in Los Angeles, talking about the family separations at the border.” En route to Cincinnati, he traveled a significant portion of the western United States, moving in a zig-zag from Nevada to Wisconsin to Indiana. He’s most excited to recount the details of his stop in Minneapolis, where he shared the stage with his favorite member of Congress, Keith Ellison, and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. “And, I got to speak (at Fifth Avenue), on the stage where Prince used to perform,” he says, stifling a goofy grin. His Ohio itinerary didn’t end with his speech at Gabriel’s Place. In the same day, he addressed the members of the Greater Cincinnati Democrats over lunch at Blue Gibbon Chinese restaurant, and stopped by Rhinegeist in the evening, leading an event in which attendees could pledge to vote in exchange for a free drink. The following day, a stop in Columbus included an appearance with state senator Charleta Tavares, who represents Ohio’s

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hen Indian Hill resident Victoria Wulsin first met Ady Barkan during her run for a suburban Cincinnati congressional seat in 2006, she was struck by his enthusiasm, eloquence and — perhaps most of all — his talkative nature. Gearing up for her first general election campaign against incumbent Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District, she enlisted the young Columbia University graduate as her communications director. “At parades, he’d be the most active person, waving around, passing out flyers up and down the parade line,” Wulsin says. “But, most importantly, his eye was on the prize. ‘What is this about?’ It’s about better government. ‘People before politics:’ he came up with that. Other people have said it, but it’s sort of his brand.” Barkan is still active and energetic. But he’s working against a relatively new obstacle. In 2016, four months after the birth of his first child, Barkan was diagnosed with ALS — a progressive neurological disease that breaks down nerves controlling muscle activity. He has dedicated what may be his last days to fighting for affordable health care. Most notably, he confronted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on a flight in December 2017, initiating an 11-minute conversation in which Barkan asked the senator how he could afford a ventilator to help him breathe if the GOP tax-reform bill led to budget cuts for those with disabilities. Barkan’s crusade to support health care accessibility is taking him around the country, including a mid-summer homecoming back to the Queen City, where he got his start in politics. A July 24 appearance at Gabriel’s Place, a community-based kitchen and urban farm in Avondale, was the 18th stop on Barkan’s coast-to-coast “Summer of Heroes” tour. The tour ran through Aug. 12 and was planned in support of his Be a Hero fund, which supports efforts to expand access to health care. Beneath arched windows and two folk art paintings of angels, Barkan addressed the crowd without the microphone and amp he expected to have, reflecting on what has driven him to spend what may be his final days pushing for health care access — including his now-famous confrontation with Sen. Flake.

CITY DESK

Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman Files for Mayoral Run BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

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Do you miss the drama and hustle of last year’s mayoral campaigns? Don’t fret. It’s more than three years until the next election, but the fun is already starting up again. Cincinnati Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman Aug. 21 filed to run for mayor in 2021. Smitherman said the decision to start so early came in part because he wants his wife, who is battling breast cancer, to be able to be involved in his campaign. “It’s an opportunity for me to give back to a city that’s given me a lot,” he told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “It’s a real mission.” Smitherman, a financial planner by trade, has been a Cincinnati City Councilman for a total of seven years and will be term-limited when his current term is up. He’s been rumored as a mayoral hopeful at least since last year’s mayoral election, as current mayor John Cranley has served two terms and cannot run again. Smitherman, a conservative-leaning independent, has been a close ally of the mayor. Cranley appointed him vice mayor last year, and Smitherman has also chaired council’s Law and Public Safety Committee for the past five years. As chair of that committee, Smitherman has overseen some important initiatives, including an in-progress revamp of the city’s Emergency Communications Center following the death of Kyle Plush. The high school student died after he became trapped under the bench seat in his van. He called 911 twice, but police were unable to locate him. Smitherman has also backed some controversial items during his time chairing the committee, including a 2015 proposal seeking to criminalize panhandling near schools. Another high-profile priority of Smitherman’s: returning city council to two-year terms, which he says will increase accountability and responsiveness to the needs of Cincinnatians. Voters will decide on Smitherman’s proposal this November. A competing proposal for four-year staggered terms will also be on the ballot. Smitherman first joined council in 2003,

Unveiling Date Set for Union Terminal Renovation BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

Christopher Smitherman P H O T O : C I T Y O F C I N C I N N AT I

when he ran as a member of the Charter Committee and Hamilton County Green Party. He soon lost the Charter Committee’s endorsement, but has continued to receive support from the Green Party. He lost a reelection bid in 2005, but found ways to stay involved in Cincinnati politics. He became president of the Cincinnati NAACP in 2007, a position he held for six years. During his tenure at the NAACP, Smitherman courted controversy by allying with conservative anti-tax group COAST, even bringing the Tea Party-aligned group’s co-founder Chris Finney in as the local NAACP’s counsel. That caused some consternation within the group. Smitherman won reelection to city council in 2011, and stepped down from his role in the NAACP upon winning again in 2013. Smitherman left the reigns of the local chapter in the hands of ally Ishton Morton. Under

Morton’s presidency, the national NAACP sued the local chapter for trademark infringement and deception after revoking its membership in the organization. Smitherman’s most likely opponent, Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, has yet to file to run. Sittenfeld, who garnered the most votes in the last council election, has more than $220,000 in his campaign fund. Smitherman’s campaign has about $13,000. Raising money for the race will become more difficult — but more transparent — moving forward if voters this November approve changes to the city’s campaign finance laws around donations from limited liability corporations. Those donations would be limited to keep individuals from using LLC designations to donate more than the $1,100 limit per campaign cycle. Both mayoral candidates last election received cash from LLCs.

Are you ready to see Union Terminal in all its renovated, fresh-faced glory? Mark your calendars. The quintessential Cincinnati landmark will fully reopen to the public Nov. 17. The 85-year-old Terminal building was originally constructed as a train station and spent a brief time as a shopping mall before it became the home of the Cincinnati Museum Center. It has never been renovated before. Plans for the restoration of the Terminal have been in the works for more than a decade. Parts of the building have remained open during the nearly three-year, $228 million renovation effort. The restoration has been funded by a Hamilton County sales tax levy voters approved in 2014, state historic preservation tax credits and private donors. Many of Union Terminal’s biggest attractions — the half-dome rotunda, Cincinnati History Museum and the Museum of Science and Natural History — have been out of commission as crews work on the building. Some attractions, including the Duke Energy Children’s Museum, are already open, but will close one final time between Oct. 22 and Nov. 1 as workers put finishing touches on repairs. You’ll be able to get back into the Children’s Museum and check out special exhibits on Nov. 2, and a couple weeks later, you can come check out the unveiling of the restored rotunda as the building comes back into regular use. Early next year, the building will also become home to the Holocaust & Humanity Center, which broke ground on its new museum spaces and offices at Union Terminal in July.

Reds Opening Day Game, Parade Back to Same Day BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

It was a shocker when we found out last year that the holiest of all holy days in Cincinnati — Opening Day for Reds baseball — would be effectively split in two in 2018. But good news! Next year, the Reds’ first game and the city’s vaunted Findlay Market Opening Day Parade will once again fall on the same day. The Reds will play their first game of the 2019 season against the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 28 after the 100thannual parade and the Reds Community

Block Party, according to the schedule released by Major League Baseball. They’ll then take a one-day break before finishing out their series with the Pirates on March 30 and 31. This year’s split event came after Major League Baseball moved the season up a week schedule-wise. That caused difficulties with staging the parade from Findlay Market near the Easter holiday, a busy time for vendors. The 2018 parade took place four days after the Reds’ home

opener against the Washington Nationals. “The Reds Opening Day, which has historically fallen on a Monday, is now moved to the Thursday of the preceding week,” the market said in a statement at the time. “In 2018, this causes a conflict for Findlay Market because the opening week of the baseball season coincides with the Easter holidays. And, in order to operate the parade, Findlay Market needs to be closed.” There is no such conflict this year,

and thus, Reds fans will be spared the intense level of angst last year’s decision engendered. That’s a big deal in a city that birthed the world’s first professional baseball team: the 1866 Cincinnati Red Stockings. The parade has become a celebration of baseball’s importance to the city, and it’s very rare for it to take place on a day other than Opening Day.

Ticket Tax Hike to Fund Human Services Is Likely Dead BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

A plan that would have provided funding for human services agencies through the city via a ticket tax hike appears to be off the table. Cincinnati City Council members P.G. Sittenfeld and David Mann, both Democrats, announced the proposal in June at a news conference at the West End’s Center for Addiction Treatment. The plan would have boosted a tax on tickets for sports, music and other events from three percent to five percent. That money, roughly $3.56 million a year, would have then been funneled into a city fund that provides resources for various social service agencies via a process overseen by United Way of Greater Cincinnati. Under Sittenfeld and Mann’s proposed amendment, $3 million of the tax hike’s receipts would have gone to human services funding and the other $600,000 would go to fund community councils and community development corporations. But that plan would have required a charter amendment needing voter approval in November, and no one has come forward to lead the campaign to

pitch it to voters, Mann says. Meanwhile, the city’s professional sports teams and others likely to be adversely affected by the tax increase have floated the idea of running a well-funded campaign against the idea. The plan came during the city’s budget process as Cincinnati once again struggled to scrape together enough money to approach a commitment it made in the 1980s to fund human services organizations at 1.5 percent of the city’s overall discretionary operating budget. The city hasn’t achieved that ratio in years. A budget proposal from Acting City Manager Patrick Duhaney cut funding for human services down to .69 percent of the overall operating budget. Adjustments by Mayor John Cranley brought the amount to .93 percent. After adjusting for inflation, the $4 million the city spent last year on addiction services, anti-poverty efforts and violence prevention initiatives is down 39 percent from a high in 2004. Council’s budget proposals face another challenge — a temporary restraining order a judge placed on a tax increase for billboard advertising council Democrats sought to use to generate roughly $700,000 in revenue. Norton Outdoor Advertising sued the city over that plan, saying it discriminates against the business. Without the revenue, the city faces a $700,000

Cincinnati City Hall PH OTO: NIC K SWARTSELL

shortfall. Mayor John Cranley, who opposed the tax hikes, has proposed cutting funding to the Center for Closing the Health Gap to bridge some of the gap. The Health Gap, a nonprofit focused on eliminating health disparities experienced by Cincinnati’s minority populations, has drawn questions about its spending practices in

recent years. The organization is run by former Cincinnati Mayor Dwight Tillery, a onetime ally of Cranley. The Health Gap is slated to receive $550,000 in council’s budget this year. Cranley has also suggested cutting roughly $180,000 in funding to tech business accelerators Cintrifuse, CincyTech and the Hillman Accelerator.

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Foodies, you won't want to miss this unique intimate meet and greet with chefs from some of your favorite Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week restaurants!

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September 19th |5:30pm-8:30pm

WORTH THE

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n a hot Tuesday afternoon in July, more than 2,000 people have gathered on the Purple People Bridge, lining the structure from Newport to Cincinnati in two haphazard rows. They’re here to participate in “The World’s Biggest Bourbon Toast” — and to get a taste of New Riff Distillery’s highly anticipated first batch of bourbon. After four years of aging, the spirit is bottled, branded, priced (at $39.99 suggested retail) and ready to hit 500 liquor distribution points on Sept. 1. (A first round of bottles was available for sale at the distillery on Aug. 1 but the entire allocation — all 2,100 bottles — sold out the first day.) After listening to praise from Newport dignitaries and an impassioned sermon from distillery owner Ken Lewis on bourbon, growth and celebrating the relationship between Northern Kentucky and the Queen City, glasses are raised by those who haven’t already finished sipping their sample and the throng toasts to New Riff’s new era. Even though each individual allotment of liquor is only enough to fill a shot glass, you can almost hear a collective sigh of relief and eager chatter as the group realizes the bourbon they have been patiently waiting four years for is actually, honestly really good.

NEW RIFF OWNER KEN LEWIS

FROM THE SOURCE “Our mission statement is to be one of the great small distilleries of the world,” Lewis says, “not to be one of the most profitable distilleries of the world. We want to pay our bills, have a good lifestyle, but we want to be one of the great distilleries of the world.” Named New Riff — as in a new riff on an old tradition — the company set out to look at bourbon making and its associated industries through a new lens. Since its inception, that innovative mindset has been the machination of Lewis. “By design, I’m very independent. Always have been. An entrepreneur,” he says. “I’m a 100 percent owner (of New Riff). I don’t have any investors. No venture capital money. Those folks, inevitably, bring a different set of expectations. The whole thing is about making money; short-term thinking. I didn’t want any of that.” This is Lewis’ third act. He went to school to be an educator and was an English teacher for a couple of years in the 1970s before taking over his uncle’s liquor store in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. “I was 24 years old and I found myself in the liquor business,” Lewis says. “I never looked back. I loved it. I like being a retailer. I like dealing with people. I like the action. I like the multitasking. I really like the whole business. I threw myself into it.” Fast forward several years and Lewis had launched an empire of discount liquor stores in Kentucky — he actually opened the first discount liquor store in the state. He had 400 employees spread across a handful of outlets, including at Newport’s The Party Source. He was living in Louisville with his family and driving back and forth from there to here, working 80-hour weeks. “I didn’t like the whole scene,” he says. “I thought I was going to die rich but not be very happy.” That’s when he decided to focus solely on The Party Source — it was his largest and most successful store. And for about a dozen years, he was happy. But it was in the early 2010s while he was at The Party Source that he noticed the uptick in interest in bourbon. (According to the Kentucky Distillers Association, Kentucky bourbon production alone has increased 315 percent since 1999.) “Because I owned The Party Source, I saw the tremendous demand,” Lewis says. “I saw it was starting to happen. I thought, ‘That’s interesting.’ Nobody else was doing anything in distilling in Greater Cincinnati whatsoever. I thought, ‘Maybe we could open a distillery?’ That idea grew and grew and grew.” In the United States there is a three-tier liquor system; you cannot be a manufacturer of alcoholic beverages as well as a retailer or wholesaler. You have to pick one. “I had to make a choice: If I wanted to jump into distilling and have a second career in my life — or third, I guess — then it was necessary for me to sell off (The Party Source), get out of the retailing, and I chose to do it,” Lewis says.

He sold the company to his employees and The Party Source became — and still is — a group-owned ESOP or Employee Stock Ownership Plan. “It fit the values and the culture that I’ve always tried to incorporate in my businesses,” he says. With that problem solved, Lewis was ready to start the next chapter.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BARREL Now, Lewis knew he wanted to start a distillery, and he had some capital from selling off ownership of The Party Source. But where do you put a distillery and how do you make alcohol? The first part was relatively simple. Lewis already had the land (he still owned the land upon which The Party Source sits), location recognition and a big parking lot at The Party Source. He just had to move a million-dollar floodwall and construct a 30,000-square-foot modern distillery and event space on the property. With that underway, the next part was assembling a team. Lewis and The Party Source’s fine spirits buyer Jay Erisman used their knowledge of the spirit industry and recruited Larry Ebersol, a retired master distiller from the Seagram’s plant in Lawrenceburg, Ind., to consult. With his knowledge and expertise in place, Lewis went out to build the rest of New Riff’s distilling team. “I didn’t want to just go out and hire people from other distilleries,” he says. “If you’re in a global big heritage distillery, you tend to repeat. You want consistency. You tend to spend your entire career doing the same thing.” Instead, Lewis and Ebersol wanted to find someone passionate and educated about fermentation that could make something new — a fresh take on America’s strictly regulated and only native spirit — so they started looking for beer brewers. Enter Brian Sprance, now New Riff’s head distiller, whose pedigree includes brewing experience at the Cincinnati’s BarrelHouse and Sam Adams, but zero distilling experience and an initial limited knowledge about whiskey itself (“Whatever whiskey I drank was at like three in the morning,” he says). “I was there when the building was still being built,” Sprance says. “I mean the first interview I ever had with Ken, he was walking through basically the ruins of construction. I had this vision of like Ken is the owner of The Party Source and he’s going to put this little pot still in The Party Source and I’d just be sitting in a corner of The Party Source. “As he walked us through the building and he was like, ‘That’s going to be a 60-foot column still,’ I was like, ‘I don’t even know what a column still is.’ … He said no one else has had any part of running a distillery or making whiskey so it was just the opportunity to jump in feet first and learn a brand-new trade.” Sprance also had the benefit of coming to distilling without ingrained ways of thinking about bourbon and

WAIT

AFTER FOUR YEARS OF AGING, NORTHERN KENTUCKY’S NEW RIFF BOURBON IS READY TO MEET THE MASSES

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PHOTOS BY HAILEY BOLLINGER

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BY MAIJA ZUMMO

A REPRESENTATION OF GRAINS USED IN NEW RIFF’S SPIRITS

HEAD DISTILLER BRIAN SPRANCE

other spirits. “Let’s say they were to hire a distiller from Maker’s Mark, he’s probably going to come here and make Maker’s Mark,” he says. In the United States, for bourbon to be bourbon, it must be made from a mash recipe containing at least 51 percent corn — the rest can contain rye, wheat, etc. It must be distilled at no higher than 160 proof, stored and aged in a new charred oak barrel at no more than 125 proof (there are no specific minimum aging requirements) and must be a minimum of 80 proof at bottling. And it can’t have any color or flavor additives. Outside of that, the rest is up to you. Since Sprance had zero experience making bourbon, but a lot of experience brewing beer, that’s where he started.

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FINDING THE SPIRIT

“As we started making bourbon, we started with kind of a traditional recipe, but as a brewer, there’s an arsenal of a million different ingredients out there that you can use,” he says. “Bourbon doesn’t have to be just corn, rye and barley. It’s got to be certain percentages, but you can really expand upon that on the other half of designing and creating mash builds.” For the distillery’s signature bourbon, Sprance went high rye, meaning the bourbon’s second ingredient after corn is rye. Rye is finicky and hard to work with, but it makes for a spicier, more complex and full-bodied spirit. Lewis calls it “smooth but bold” and “aggressive.” “I’m always most comfortable when I’m uncomfortable as far as when you’re creating, so I’m not afraid to think outside the box,” Sprance says. “A lot of brewers that I know, and distillers for that fact, always talk about wanting to have their creative license. Ken gave me my creative license and for a lot of people, that’s hard. You stomp your feet and wave your hands and say, ‘I wanna do what I wanna do,’ but when somebody actually gives it to you, it’s like staring off a cliff and being like, ‘So it’s just me here. OK.’ So you lean on a lot of what you’ve learned throughout the years.” “Ken’s always said, ‘One of my jobs is to give you the best tools and just get the hell out of your way,’ ” he continues. Sprance describes the taste of New Riff’s just-released bourbon as rich and big-bodied with an aroma of butterscotch, vanilla and some confectionery rye spices. It’s zesty with a backend of dark fruit. And part of that flavor is derived from the water they use

to make their bourbon, sourced from the Ohio River alluvial aquifer — serendipitously located 100 feet below the distillery in The Party Source parking lot. “Water is important. You only have a couple ingredients,” Lewis says. “Some grains and some water. You throw in a little yeast. Boom. You’re making whiskey.” “It’s extremely hard and very high in calcium and magnesium,” Sprance says of the aquifer’s water. “It’s very good for yeast health. But also, it’s one thing that’s extremely unique to our distillery. They call it the flora and fauna. I believe that translates into our natural wild yeast, and all of these bacteria that are floating around all contribute to the flavor of our whiskey. It’s, in my opinion, a very geographical flavor that I hope no one else can reproduce.” The water, which comes out of the ground at 58 degrees, is also used to cool the distillery and stills. It’s cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Other ingredients and techniques that impact the flavor of New Riff and create a terroir unique to the distillery are their non-GMO grains — corn from a family farm in Indiana (Lewis says it’s the same place Four Roses sources their corn) and the highest-quality rye and malted rye from Germany — as well as their lack of chill filtration. Chill filtration is what it sounds like: For liquors that are under 96 proof, you cool the spirit and filter it to remove any little particles and improve clarity. Because New Riff is 100 proof — “We’d rather sell you whiskey than water,” says Lewis — they forgo chill filtration. It’s not necessary and it kills some of the inherent natural flavor. “We want every last drop of flavor,” Lewis says. “(We’re) trying to be as natural as possible. It’s very akin to the natural wine movement. It’s like craft brewing. It is an important differentiation with big distilleries. That’s our flavor profile. Very, very bold. Spicy. Aggressive. Lots of mouth.” New Riff bourbon is also “bottled in bond,” a distinction set by an act passed in 1897. It means the bourbon was produced in one distillation season, by one distiller at one distillery and aged for at least four years. “It was a baseline of quality,” Lewis says. “We determined early on, it’s an old-fashioned concept, we’re going to bring it back. That’s part of our DNA.” “To (be one of the great small distilleries of the world), you have to be all about the quality,” he continues. “One of the things that we eschew is selling our whiskey too young or too expensive. From the beginning we wanted it to be at least four years old.”

THE WAITING GAME New Riff’s distillery and event space opened in the parking lot of The Party Source in 2014; that meant they had to wait until 2018 to start seeing a return on investment on their own bourbon. The distillery’s annual production capacity is about 8,000 barrels and they’re making roughly 3,500 barrels for themselves per year (the rest is contract distilling). But without their own bourbon, they had to find a way to support themselves and entertain their 30,000 annual guests until, well, right now. “We’ve survived for the first four years of the distillery on a combination of contract distilling, what we make for other people, but subsidizing it with the proceeds from the sale of The Party Source to my employees,” Lewis says. Lewis bought barrels of high-rye bourbon from a Lawrenceburg, Ind. distillery six or seven years ago, bottled them and, very transparently, sold those under the name “O.K.I.” (named for the states it was served, bottled and distilled: Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana) — not New Riff bourbon — and used it for guests to taste after distillery tours. They also made Kentucky wild gin and a unique barrel-aged gin. But during that time, they were still producing, distilling, barreling and aging their own spirit, waiting to see what it would taste like and if it would be successful. “Ken is the most supportive boss,” Sprance says. “He told us straight up we’re going to fail (or) we’re going to succeed, but we’ll do it as a team. You see buildings going up and you see all of this other stuff going up and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is all built on the quality of the whiskey and we’re still waiting and waiting.’ ” As New Riff was producing and aging barrels, they had to expand — even before they had tasted the finished product, they needed more space to store their spirits. They had to take a gamble and keep growing with the assumption the public would like and support the results. “Barrels take a lot of space. And they weigh a lot. They pile up on you,” Lewis says. They filled a building they were renting and for the past two years have been sending barrels to age at Castle & Key Distillery in Frankfort, Ky. “We knew all along we would need a second campus (besides The Party Source campus),” Lewis says. “We’re hemmed in. We’re constrained. We would need rickhouses. We would need a distribution facility. Finished goods. We’d eventually run out of offices. All those things have happened.” Three years ago, Lewis bought two turn-of-the-century buildings on Route 9 in West Newport. They used to house Northern Kentucky’s Green Line busses and trolleys. In the years since, he’s restored the structures, built new rickhouses and created space for New Riff to expand. The two rickhouses on the West Newport campus can hold 21,000 barrels. The other structure houses offices, a private

“HE TOLD US STRAIGHT UP WE’RE GOING T O FA I L ( O R ) W E ’ R E G O I N G T O S U C C E E D, BUT WE’LL DO IT AS A TEAM.” tasting room and will eventually be home to an event space. “We project that in about five years we’ll need another 18,000-barrel rickhouse, which ought to complete our needs,” Lewis says. “We’re not trying to grow, grow, grow.” But they are trying to help bring commerce, jobs and tourism to that section of Newport. To “reinvigorate” that area, Lewis says.

RIFFING AHEAD

NEW RIFF DISTILLING is located at 24 Distillery Way, Newport and its West Newport Warehouse is located at 1104 Lowell St., Newport. More info: newriffdistilling.com.

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NEW RIFF’S WEST NEWPORT CAMPUS

corner of it. I still believe that. It’s in my DNA. The idea here is great sense of pride — 30 families having jobs that they really are passionate and care about. A sense that the employer has taken care of them. It’s a career position. “This is what I want. This is not about me on personal level. It’s all about New Riff bringing that tourism, bringing that pride to Greater Cincinnati. Having had an influence on 30 lives, like how selling to the 100 employees at The Party Source influences those lives. It’s all about leaving the world a little better than the way I found it. My own little piece of the world.”

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“We’re at the beginning of a journey. Releasing the bourbon is the beginning,” Lewis says. “We’re going to hold back a third of everything we make to get older. Not principally to make more money but because our quality, determining our reputation to be a great small distiller of the world, that will be determined a lot more by our 8-year-old or 10-yearold bourbon than our 4-year-old.” Within the next 18 months, New Riff will release a singlebarrel bourbon, a barrel-proof bourbon, a 100 percent rye whiskey and some other creations Sprance has been working on — maybe something inspired by an oatmeal stout beer. By 2020, there will be a 100 percent malted rye on the market. All of this will help increase tourism in the area and elevate Northern Kentucky as a bourbon destination. “We’re a founding member of the B-Line,” Lewis says of a local bourbon tourism initiative. “The tourism thing is a big deal. Cincinnati is a natural gateway to the (Kentucky) Bourbon Trail. Whether it’s the beginning or the end. It makes sense to do a loop. Start in Louisville. Finish in Cincinnati.” “That’s one of the reasons we built our second campus in West Newport instead of, like everybody else, going out and buying 150 acres out in the country where it’s a lot cheaper,” he continues. “We want to be loyal to Newport and to Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati. We want to have a place for tourism. People love barrels. We actually think there will be more tourism at that (West Newport) campus than (the Newport one), eventually.” Lewis says having a significantly sized distillery in Greater

Cincinnati is “a big feather in the cap of the area from a tourism standpoint.” And that tourism not only helps support the local economy but also helps ensure the long-term employment of the loyal New Riff team, which currently has 27 or 28 members, including Lewis’ daughter as well as New Riff’s vice president of operations and general manager, Hannah Lowen; distiller Stephanie Batty; and director of communications, Amy Tobin. In a traditionally maledominated industry, it’s worth noting that New Riff is one of the progressive distilleries putting females at the forefront, which Lewis says, “comes naturally (when) looking for quality.” “The thing I love about New Riff is that, frankly, everyone actually gives a shit about what we’re trying to do,” VP Lowen says. “I think the commitment to our big goals and each other somehow translates to a quiet confidence in what we’ve been up to all these years. You never know how people will react subjectively — it’s whiskey and everyone has a unique palate — but objectively, we feel really good about what’s in the barrel. It’s been so fun to share.” The all-in supportive mentality and excitement that’s inherent in the New Riff team is spreading to the general public as they start to buy into the cult of Ken and his vision of the future … and his ONE OF NEW bourbon. “I grew up in the RIFF’S WEST ’60s,” Lewis says. “That NEWPORT was what we said: You change the world by RICKHOUSES changing your tiny little

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STUFF TO DO

Ongoing Shows ONSTAGE: Jesus Christ Superstar Warsaw Federal Incline Theater, Price Hill (through Sept. 9)

Cincy Kids Book Release PHOTO: KRISTIAN GEER

VISUAL ART: Mark de Jong: Swing House Contemporary Arts Center, Downtown (through Sept. 3)

WEDNESDAY 29

ART: vanessa german: running with freedom exhibits mixed-media sculptures from the Taft Museum’s Duncanson Artist-in-Residence. See interview on page 21. EVENT: Interactive indoor skatepark and art installation SkateABLE vs. Non takes over People’s Liberty’s Camp Washington gallery through Oct. 17. See feature on page 24.

MUSIC: Indie songwriter John Vanderslice brings his “Living Room Tour” to Urban Artifact. See Sound Advice on page 32.

MUSIC: Wildly imaginative experimental Cincy Hip Hop band WHY? celebrates the 10th-anniversary of its landmark album Alopecia by playing it in full at Woodward Theater. See Sound Advice on page 33. ART: Cincy Kids Book Release and Play to the Gallery at the Pendleton Art Center It’s the little things we remember from childhood, and favorite toys loom larger than life for Kristian Geer, a UPS sorter whose hobby is forced-perspective photography. For about three years, the fifthgeneration Cincinnatian has posed tiny treasures from a chest that his dad made in front of city landmarks. Now he’s compiled the shots into

EVENT: Art After Ducklings Celebrate the Cincinnati Art Museum’s exhibit of Hamilton children’s book illustrator Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings, a collection of his Caldecott Medalwinning artwork from the mid-20th century. At this Art After Dark event, there will be a bounce house, live

music from Jake Speed & the Freddies, meet-andgreets with FC Cincinnati players and Cincinnati Reds mascots and food for purchase from Mazunte and Graeter’s. Take a guided tour of the exhibit at 5:15, 6:15 and 7:15 p.m. 5-9 p.m. Friday. Free admission. Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams, cincinnatiartmuseum.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO EVENT: AGAR Block Party Over-the-Rhine creative agency AGAR is shutting down the block in front of its headquarters for a night of live music and DJs. Check out sets from The Hood Internet, Pomegranates, Passeport, Knotts Music and DJ HD. 6 p.m.-midnight Friday. Free admission. 1205 Walnut St., Overthe-Rhine, facebook.com/ agaragency. — MAIJA ZUMMO ART: The King of Them All: King Records Show at MOTR Pub Syd Nathan put his plan to launch a record label

SATURDAY 01

MUSIC: Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio The Vintage Soul revival has largely been fueled by singers who magically recapture the emotional depths of Rock & Roll-era R&B greats like Sam Cooke or Al Green. But rising star Delvon Lamarr has taken a different route, and it’s wordless. The Hammond B-3 organ specialist is more Booker T than Otis — he channels his soul brilliantly through instrumental Soul Jazz compositions in his Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, alongside bandmates Jimmy James (guitar) and David McGraw (drums). Formed in Seattle in 2015, the CONTINUES ON PAGE 16

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MUSIC: Rock supergroup of sorts The Dead Daisies

FRIDAY 31

ART: Group exhibition Ohio Artists For Freedoms opens at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. See feature on page 22.

Cincy Kids, a picture book with his poetry. Join the release party and Play to the Gallery photo exhibition to see where your imagination takes you. Ten percent of sales will be donated to ArtWorks. All drink tips go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Plus, bring a gently used plastic toy or action figure for Happen, Inc. Toy Lab and receive a postcard featuring one of Geer’s geek-outs. Opening reception 6-11 p.m. Friday. By appointment through Sept. 21. Free admission. 510 Annex Gallery at the Pendleton Art Center, 1310 Pendleton St., Pendleton, geersofchange. com. — KATHY SCHWARTZ

THURSDAY 30

COMEDY: Jay Phillips “My son, who is 15, was asking me for advice on women,” comedian jay Phillips tells an audience. “I don’t know what to tell him. Technology has messed everything up. eHarmony is a big lie. They say, ‘We asked people 350 questions to make sure we find the perfect match for you.’ I’m a college-educated man; I’ve never taken a test with 350 questions in my life.” Phillips, a native of Washington, D.C., began his career in radio, co-hosting the morning show on a popular Baltimore, Md. radio station. “It’s different now,” he says about teenage dating. “My son was caught sexting, but don’t judge him. The only reason I wasn’t doing that when I was his age is because it wasn’t around. I did all my pimpin’ from in the kitchen with that phone that was attached to the wall. I couldn’t even click over — I had to mack my chicks individually.” Through Sunday. $15-$45. Funny Bone Liberty, 7518 Bales

St., Liberty Township, liberty. funnybone.com. — P.F. WILSON

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EVENT: Cincinnati Reds Bark in the Park Bring your pup to the park for the Cincinnati Reds’ Bark in the Park event. All good dogs (who have signed a vaccine wavier) are invited to parade around the field 40 minutes before the first pitch and then join their human in a special seating section to watch the game. Vendors will be on hand with dog treats and goodies at the pet expo and SPCA Cincinnati will be there with dogs available for adoption. All dogs must be leashed. 7:10 p.m. Wednesday. $50 includes one human and one dog; $30 additional human tickets; $20 additional dog tickets. Great American Ball Park, 100 Joe Nuxhall Way, Downtown, reds.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

play Bogart’s. See Sound Advice on page 32.

into action in September of 1943, enlisting Country music entertainers Grandpa Jones and Merle Travis to record the first music for the venture, which Nathan dubbed “King Records.” To mark the beginning of what would become one of the most crucial record labels in the history of music, Cincinnati has been celebrating King Records Month in September for the past several years. In honor of the 75th anniversary of those first King sessions, this year’s celebration is too big to contain in just one month. On Friday, MOTR Pub hosts the opening of The King of Them All, a King Records poster art show. Art Academy of Cincinnati students reimagined vintage posters that promoted concerts by various King musicians in local venues like Music Hall for this exhibition. MOTR’s event listing says, “Using black and white newspapers ads from the 1940s to the 1970s as source material, these young artists have used their creativity and imagination to bring color, vibrancy and excitement to this poster art.” Opening reception 5-8 p.m. Friday. Through Sept. 25. Free admission. MOTR Pub, 1345 Main St., Overthe-Rhine, facebook.com/ motrpub. — MIKE BREEN

P H O T O : C H E C K M AT E P H O T O G R A P H Y

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FROM PAGE 15

threesome self-released its debut album, Close But No Cigar, the following year. The full-length — which nods to Soul greats in the grooves, supple playing and song titles, including tracks like “Al Greenery” and “Little Booker T” — was picked up for wider distribution by Colemine Records, the Soul label based in Loveland, Ohio that also runs the popular area brick-andmortar record shop Plaid Room Records. When Colemine issued the LP in March, it went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart; a live seven-song Record Store Day vinyl release put out a few months later landed at No. 10 on the overall Jazz Albums chart. The band has lots of new material, some of which fans will likely hear at its Cincinnati tour stop this weekend. Recording for a second studio album is expected to begin by the end of the year. 10 p.m. Saturday. Free. MOTR Pub, 1345 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, motrpub.com. — MIKE BREEN ONSTAGE: Misery at the Playhouse in the Park Want a head start on the theater season? Catch this stage adaptation of Stephen King’s creepy, spine-tingling

SATURDAY 01

EVENT: Ohio Renaissance Festival Take a step back in time into the 16th century at this 30-acre recreated Elizabethan village offering “400 years of fun in a single day.” There are costumed characters; jousting tournaments; jugglers; swordsmen; pirates; peasants; busty ladies of all stripes; authentic artisans laboring over metal and glass; and enough turkey legs to cancel Thanksgiving. Browse the Medieval market, try your hand at archery, indulge in Renaissance stew, wine and ales or come during a themed weekend for some bonus fun. Time Travelers Weekend takes place Sept. 8-9, so pack up the Tardis and strap on your steampunk goggles; other themes include Pirates Weekend, Fantasy Weekend, Highland Weekend and more. Opening weekend adult tickets are buy one, get one free. Park is open Labor Day. Open 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 28. $23 adults; $21 seniors/military/police/fire/ EMS; $9.50 children ages 5-12; $60 adult season pass. Ohio Renaissance Festival, 10542 East State Route 73, Waynesville, Ohio, renfestival.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

novel that’s in previews this weekend, starting Saturday evening. Barbara Chisholm returns to the Playhouse. No more sweet and chipper Erma Bombeck, whom she played in 2017. Now she’s deranged Annie Wilkes, romance novelist Paul Sheldon’s “Number One Fan,” holding him hostage in a remote cabin while he recovers from a car accident and forcing him to write a new ending for a character she loves. This psychological thriller, full of dark humor and savage twists and turns, will keep you on the edge of your

seat. Through Sept. 29. $35.40-$75.40. Playhouse in the Park, 962 Mount Adams Circle, Mount Adams, cincyplay.com. — RICK PENDER EVENT: Cincy Beerfest at Great American Ball Park The 10th annual summer Cincy Beerfest is moving from Fountain Square to Great American Ball Park for a single-day, two-session festival on Sept. 1. Sessions take place 1:30-4:30 p.m. or 8-11 p.m. that day, and early admission tickets get you into each session one hour early. Beerfest

PHOTO: PROVIDED

SUNDAY 02

EVENT: Riverfest and the Western & Southern/WEBN Fireworks Nobody celebrates the end of summer better than Cincinnati, so join Western & Southern and WEBN at Riverfest and enjoy food and entertainers during the day, followed by a Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks show over the river at 9:07 p.m. The day will feature events vendors on both sides of the river with family-friendly fun. For entertainment, live bands such as Sir Sly, Madison Beer, the Arkells and more will be performing. Riverfest fireworks will be coordinated, as always, to a Classic Rock soundtrack by WEBN. You can basically guarantee you’re going to hear Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Riverfest kicks off at noon; fireworks start at 9:07 p.m. Sunday. Sawyer Point, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, webn.iheart.com. — LIZZY SCHMITT

1:30-4:30 p.m. or 8-11 p.m. Saturday. $45-$50 regular admission; $50-$55 early admission. Great American Ball Park, 100 Joe Nuxhall Way, Downtown, cincybeerfest.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

YOUR WEEKEND TO DO LIST: LOCAL.CITYBEAT.COM

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MUSIC: A Paranormal Evening with Alice Cooper Halloween starts early with “A Paranormal Evening with Alice Cooper.” The master of shock Rock theatrics mixes vaudeville, horror and Garage Rock in this stage show with, yes, Alice Cooper music, but also electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood and boa constrictors. The 70-year-old Glam king still wants you to feed his Frankenstein. 8 p.m. Tuesday. $48.50-$69.50. Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Downtown, tafttheatre.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

MUSIC: Counting Crows with +Live+ Counting Crows celebrates 25 years of producing radio-friendly College Rock on a worldwide tour, hitting more than 40 cities across North America before heading abroad. “The nice thing about having 25 years of music to celebrate and seven studio albums we

TUESDAY 04

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will be taking over multiple areas within and outside the ball park including Crosley Terrace, the new beer garden, the First Base Concourse, the Fan Zone and Viewing Decks, offering more than 150 different local and regional craft beers to sample. Tickets include 25 samples, each good for up to a 5-ounce pour. You can also redeem tickets for mini craft cocktails or gluten-free ciders and wine, if beer isn’t your thing. The festival is also partnering with sponsors Fifty West and The Party Source and proceeds will benefit the Big Joe Duskin Musical Education Foundation, dedicated to supporting music programs in underfunded schools.

absolutely love to choose from is that we can play a different show every night,” said Counting Crows’ lead singer Adam Duritz in a release. So expect an eclectic mix of old favorites — one can assume at least a handful of tunes from 1993’s August and Everything After — and new sounds. AltRock band +Live+ opens. 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets start at $26 for the lawn. Riverbend Music Center, 6295 Kellogg Ave., California, riverbend.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

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ARTS & CULTURE

Finding the Sacred in Art

considers the way her life is valued in society. “In the present, depending on the culture that your life is active in, you can reclaim those images and rename them for something specific,” she says. “And so…you can apply that sacred and holy power to whatever specific use you want it to have.” In her case, that use is irony. Here’s what German says her art asks of us: “Do we live in a time where only white bodies are seen as sacred? Do we live in a time where black bodies are seen as sacred? Is that evidenced by the lives that we live? Who is treated with sacredness? Whose ideas are treated with sacredness?” The answers aren’t simple. Her work presents these questions through bold, ornate figures that often remind viewers of the racial encoding that accompanies seemingly innocent everyday objects, like Snow White Cream Soda bottle-caps.

Vanessa German gets her ideas and material by searching “wherever stuff is” BY M AC K EN ZI E M A N L E Y

German’s “I Am Reaching for the New Day” PHOTO: PROVIDED

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bodies. They often don quilted attire (her mother Vanessa German was a fiber artist) and are made up of miscellaneous PHOTO: PROVIDED objects. Frequently, they’re coded in what she refers to as a “matrix of identities.” In “Water. Bones. Holy. Blood. Oh Yes.,” In her Sinton Gallery show, titles of objects she says the object is a “black Madonna,” have a repetitive mantra-like effect, such referring to the religious figure. Woven into as in her use of “Yes. See.” She acknowlit is imagery evocative of the Virgin Mary: edges the importance of this. A serpent sits at the figure’s feet; twisted “Yes is an affirmation, so in all of the black braids are outlined by a bedazzled ways that the work is affirmed by my hands, halo with an all-seeing eye perched atop. by existing — all of those things count,” By using ancient — often European — she says. religious iconography, she says she’s able But she can’t say exactly what that “Yes” to reclaim often exclusive and restrictive means, despite the word’s reoccurrence. images of what is depicted as sacred. All she knows is that those affirmations “When you think of the icons and return with the permission and agency of the symbology that we have to reflect her own soul. Just like everything else she sacredness in American culture, it’s does. actually really racist,” she says. “Even if it’s vanessa german: running with freedom pulled from other cultures, there’s not a lot is up through Oct. 21 at the Taft Museum of representation in the sacred symbology.” of Art (316 Pike St., Downtown). For more By playing with these concepts through information, visit taftmuseum.org. art, she can use them to question what is sacred in our larger culture as she

culturally and poetically.” German, 42, is a self-taught artist and performer based largely in Pittsburgh, though she did previously live in Greater Cincinnati for awhile. She is a recipient of the 2015 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, the 2017 Jacob Lawrence Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a 2018 United States Artists Grant. Her work — both mixed-media sculptures and spoken word — has been featured in museums and publications across the nation. German is the Taft’s current Duncanson Artist-in-Residence, a program to recognize contemporary AfricanAmerican artists and honor the legacy of Robert Duncanson, the black artist who in the 19th century painted murals on the walls of the museum when it was the home of art patron Nicholas Longworth. As part of that residency, from Oct. 7-21 German will lead public programs, teach workshops and visit schools across Greater Cincinnati. She calls the sculptures she creates “power figures”— depicting black female

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figure stands tall in the Longworth Foyer at the Taft Museum of Art. Her body is made up of quilts, her feet clad in torn but bright yellow Converse shoes. In her hand, a bullhorn blooms with a bouquet of synthetic flowers. Her bronze face stares off, topped by hair that appears almost swan-shaped. The sculpture, titled “I Am Reaching for the New Day,” is arguably the focal point of Vanessa German’s current gallery exhibition running with freedom at the Taft, which opened in July and runs through Oct. 21. Back-splashed by subdued green walls, the figure is vibrant. A mirror sits poised in her chest cavity, looking outward. “I recognize that what happens to me in the studio, the making that I do, is activating of my own freedom,” German writes, as cited on wall text accompanying the sculpture. “I resist with my love. I resist with every song that rings through me. I resist by centering my joy. I resist through art.” Seemingly, so do the powerful figures that make up her work. Down the hall, sculptures occupy the Sinton Gallery. They fill the room: one with an arm upraised teetering on an alligator atop a toy skateboard, another with blue birds perched in its hair, a third sitting in a throne adorned with glitter. The sculptures consist of both made and found objects (look closely and you’ll see one wears a “Where’s the beef?” pin while another is made up of used power cords); German makes the faces through a combination of plaster, wood and shells for the mouth. Then she covers them in tar. Other objects are found — in the trash, abandoned lots, flea markets or “wherever stuff is,” she says. “I never use anything too precious because it will never be the same again,” she says. “But I put myself in places where interesting things are, whether I’m paying for it or picking it off a railroad track. I have that sort of satellite system inside me.” She doesn’t begin projects with a “mathematical plan,” she says. But rather, her work starts from the inside and goes out. “I’m always looking for things; I’m always feeling. I’m always mining the dimensions of my identity and existence for objects that work within the language I speak

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Exhibit Champions Art and Democracy BY K AT I E G R I FFI T H

Does the presentation of political issues affect the way you think about them? Is a call to action louder if visual art is its form of delivery? Can opposing opinions find common ground within a creative medium? A group exhibition at the Art Academy of Cincinnati opening Aug. 31 aims to probe those questions. Titled Ohio Artists For Freedoms, it is one of over 200 installations around the U.S. comprising the For Freedoms’ 50 State Initiative, a New York-based platform for civic engagement, discourse and direct action for artists. Started by conceptual artist Hank Anissa Lewis’ “Neighborhood Crime Watch” Willis Thomas and photographer Eric Gottesman, it seeks to stress PHOTO: PROVIDED that citizenship is defined by active participation in support of a democracy’s values. The name resources. So they installed colorful yard “For Freedoms” comes from Norman signs as a form of guerilla art — they Rockwell’s paintings of the worldwide resembled standard neighborhood warnfreedoms President Franklin D. Roosevelt ing and street signs, but held positive and proposed in a 1941 speech — freedom motivational messages. Since then, they of speech, freedom of worship, freedom have spread the work to galleries and the from want and freedom from fear. The Art yards of supportive community members. Academy show runs through Sept. 21, with Examples will be in this show. a panel discussion at 11 a.m. on Sept. 6. One of the signs reads, “Don’t apologize After combing Ohio, the Cincinnati for the skin that you’re in,” under bold red show’s curator (and Art Academy letters proclaiming “Private Property No professor) Emily Hanako Momohara found Trespassing.” eight participating artists or teams whose “Every time you see an open lot, you work represents major issues in today’s have (not just) a physical structure that’s society. This display personalizes hot gone but a family that’s gone,” Lewis says. topics such as gun control, immigration, “Those are actual physical little holes in the neighborhood development and more. community fabric. I wanted it to be viewed “No one makes work in a vacuum; the as a space for potential and possibility.” work is a reflection of society and society The other Ohio-artist participants are is also reflected in the artists,” Momohara Ryan Dewey of Cleveland, Scott Hagan of says. “Being able to create that kind of Jerusalem and Darice Polo of Kent; and engagement around ideas of politics and Cincinnatians Melvin Grier and Terence power is a really amazing prospect for an Hammonds. artist, because then you can maybe have This exhibit is just one way that the discussions with people you don’t know For Freedoms’ 50 State Initiative is who might come to the gallery and have calling upon its participants to exercise different opinions.” their voices. Elsewhere, participants One of the largest installations will be are organizing concerts, circulating a wall-size painted mural of Lady Liberty informative posters, using billboard shedding her colonial identity, created by messages and holding town halls, Jenny Ustick. Another work is from Camp according to Emma Nuzzo, a New YorkWashington’s Wave Pool gallery, whose based For Freedoms team member. individual artists are being considered “There are so many issues that divide us, collectively as one of the eight participants. but we can center around these universal It showcases actual “gun flutes” — adaptafreedoms that we believe we have access tions of artist Pedro Reyes’ recycled gun to and believe our neighbors should as barrels — while a video from this year’s well,” Nuzzo says. “There aren’t two sides Cincinnati March for Our Lives protest to the aisle. We are all really standing here shows the flutes being played at City Hall. together, and these complex issues are Wave Pool’s executive director, going to involve more nuanced answers Calcagno Cullen, says the gun flutes are a than partisan politics is currently allowing transformation of something destructive the space for.” and violent into something beautiful. She Ohio Artists For Freedoms opens Aug. 31 calls it a sign of hope. with a 5-8 p.m. reception at Art Academy About two years ago, artists Anissa of Cincinnati (1212 Jackson St., Over-theLewis and Mary Clare Reitz sought to Rhine). It is up through Sept. 21. More info: activate empty spaces in Covington, Ky. artacademy.edu. because they believed they represented the effects of uneven distribution of

COMEDY

The Dark Humor of Helping Aging Parents BY P. F. W I L S O N

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Raising Adults is the mostly autobiographical web series about two young Cincinnatians, Brittany Wagner and Kait Staley, trying to navigate life in their mid-20s while also taking care of aging and disabled parents. For Wagner, it was her father; for Staley, her mother. After debuting in 2017, the series is about to start airing its second season in September on YouTube. Brittany Wagner, co-creator of Raising Adults web series Their experiences are wrenching, tragic PHOTO: PROVIDED even. Yet Raising Adults is a dark comedy. Wagner and Staley have worked hard after graduating headed to New York City, to balance the intensely serious subject where she worked for a digital marketing matter with the absurdity of the situations agency. However, the Big Apple turned out they find themselves in. to be a bit much and she returned home. “In the simplest sense, our series dis“I came back to Cincinnati at a time when tinguishes itself as a dark comedy in that my dad was getting over his second conthe girls are young adults now, raising secutive back surgery,” she says. “I thought, the people who once raised them — their ‘I’ll come home and take care of my dad,’ parents,” Wagner writes via email. “And, and I started managing his health care.” though ‘adults,’ Britt and Kait still struggle While here, she participated in the to grow up amidst everything life throws 48-Hour Film Project, in which teams work at them, including helping their parents to complete an entire short film in just two pursue disability support while trying to days. It was there she met Staley. “She was hold down a job and simply maintain a life an actor in the film I worked on,” she says. of their own. Wrangling Mom at the doc“We fell in friendship love.” tor’s office or revising Dad’s colorful letters It turned out Staley had also grown up to politicians just scratches the surface of in unconventional circumstances with a the things they reluctantly do for the ones single mom, eventually settling in Mount they love.” Washington. But not everything could be handled “We compared notes on the crazy stuff with humor. Wagner’s father, Mike, who our parents did or the crazy stuff we were played a slightly-fictionalized version of going through as women in our mid-20s,” himself in Season One, was getting ready Wagner says. to act in Season Two and even writing The two talked about developing a web his own lines. But while Wagner was series but couldn’t get themselves properly working in Chicago, she received a phone motivated. call that her dad had taken his own life in “Finally we got to the point where we Cincinnati. realized we were going to lose a major “My dad taking his life was definitely not filming location,” Wagner says. “Kait was part of the narrative and not something going through a big life change after a I cared to exploit,” she says by phone. pretty traumatic breakup and that forced “But it’s very important to me to be as her to move into a place of questionable transparent as possible with the audience, stability in Northside.” anyone I work with and anyone I come into What might be beyond the second contact with.” season? Wagner grew up in Madeira, where she “We plan to pitch Raising Adults to and her two sisters were raised by a single networks with the end goal being to father. “My dad was a closeted homosexual get picked up, sure,” Wagner says. “It’s and he met my mom when they were very important to us, however, to work with young,” she says. a platform that really wants to elevate Thinking he’d found love, and that his our voice so we can tell the stories and new bride was sent to save him, Wagner’s highlight struggles we haven’t seen on father tried to live his life as a heterosexual. screen yet, relating and connecting with “My mom was a great parent,” she says, “but others who ‘get it’ or simply want to laugh.” she was packing her own demons.” Raising Adults is available on Wagner went to the University of YouTube.com. Cincinnati to study communications and

27 Years of Live Stand-Up Comedy in Cincinnati!

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Skatepark Installation is Usable Art BY M AC K EN ZI E M A N L E Y

The teal head of a cartoon dinosaur protrudes above a door frame in an otherwise beige stretch of Camp Washington. Beside it, the word “fun” is brightly painted with an arrow aptly pointing toward the entrance. It’s the site of People Liberty’s new storefront gallery on Colerain Avenue, and the current home of SkateABLE vs Non — an indoor skatepark that merges the creativity SkateABLE vs Non installation of skateboarding with community. (It runs P H O T O : P AT T Y S A L A S through Oct. 17.) Inside, the space is filled with handmade quarter-pipes, means to me, but as an artist it just means various ramps and spines awash with bold everything to be able to do these cool projcolors. The sound of skateboards landing ects through art and skateboarding and be tricks — or skaters wiping out — is in able to know these people.” harmony with the wafting lo-fi Punk music, On opening day, patrons milled in and reminiscent of Surf Rock. Creating all this out, pointing to various “skateable” art, be was a large undertaking, built mainly by it a collection of lilac scrunched-up faces four people: Ali Calis, Scott Licardi, Zach rendered in plywood, a jagged skull or a Kincaid and Jill Cleary. Though the group bowl painted as a lime-green gator. has created similar DIY parks in the For the team members, the grant is past, they’ve generally been in someone’s part of work that they’ve been pouring driveway or garage. But this time they were themselves into for years. Across the river, backed by one of People’s Liberty’s $15,000 a similar (and permanent) skatepark found Globe Grants. a home under a bridge in Newport. Most of the construction work happened “(The process) is natural. Ali has been offsite in an Over-the-Rhine workspace doing this for decades,” Cleary says. “We called Felsenhaus. came together as the group we are now “We were there for two months before we probably four years ago. I’ve been doing came here (for two weeks),” Cleary says. these on and off. But you can do it for a long “We wanted to get in here and have our time and people will still be shocked like, opening as soon as possible so we could ‘Oh, this is a new idea.’ ” utilize the whole grant period. We’re used In the fenced-in backyard of the Camp to hustling — making a lot of the stuff in a Washington space, the “non” comes short amount of time.” into play: a skee-ball ramp shaped like In that window — a mere two weeks — Fiona the hippo is joined by wavy pastel they installed the entire skatepark, painted pink benches, which surround a rocking the ramps and hung rows of skateboard yellow wooden cow inspired by the story decks painted by local artists. Cleary of Cincinnati “Charlene” Freedom. (She’s says the SkateABLE team came together a 1,050-pound cow that leaped over a through different stages, slowly forming as fence at a local slaughterhouse in 2002 and a cohesive group through a mutual love of not only escaped death but gained fame, skateboarding. too.) There’s also a basketball court with a But they all have different day jobs. Two backboard shaped like a twilight-hued bat. of them work as scientists (Licardi and To have People’s Liberty fund their work, Kincaid), the others as graphic designers Cleary says, was “awesome.” And for the (Calis and Cleary). At the time of the next three months, they’ll be able to spend interview — four days prior to their Aug. 22 more time — with financial backing — opening — Cleary motioned to the thendoing what they love: skateboarding and unpainted ramps, noting that she was creating. excited to see the project come together as “Cincinnati is definitely unique. And to Licardi unloaded materials from a pickup have people like Ali (and the team) keep truck. In terms of why they chose to do facilitating SkateABLE art just makes our this work, he chimes in that, “It’s more like, city a little cooler than everybody else’s,” ‘Why not?’ Why not do it?” Cleary says. “Skateboarding made all this, you know?” SkateABLE vs Non is on view at 2840 Cleary says. “We just enjoy it so much that Colerain Ave., Camp Washington. More — like Scott said — why not? We just did info: skateablevsnon.com. it. You can go on and on about what this

FILM

John McEnroe’s Maddening Perfectionism BY T T S T ER N - EN ZI

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH MEMORIAL HALL

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Tennis legend and commentator John time; he would have been the perfect McEnroe has become the subject of sevexemplar of the sports diva on the current eral films recently. At last year’s Toronto stage, even more so than he was in the International Film Festival, director Janus 1980s. But in truth, that assessment misses Metz Pedersen and screenwriter Ronnie the mark completely. Sandahl captured the essence of McEnWhat In the Realm of Perfection reveals roe’s rivalry with the centered, machineis that there was a method behind the like Björn Borg in their dramatic portrayal volatility and the madness of McEnroe’s of Borg vs McEnroe. Now, the documentary persona. The film, with its spot-on narJohn McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfecration from actor Mathieu Amalric (who tion, directed by Julien Faraut, provides eerily becomes the ideal voice for McEnroe a thoughtful and critical analysis of what as the film progresses), starts off with a fueled the greatness of the volatile tennis look at old footage of tennis players. That’s champion of the 1980s. We tend to love team sport narratives (Remember the Titans, We Are Marshall) that show the unification of disparate individuals in pursuit of a common goal. Or, when we turn our attention to a single player, we long to spotlight the trailblazers (think Jackie Robinson in 42), who battle social and cultural odds in addition to performing spectacular physical feats. There is something monumentally selfcentered when we turn John McEnroe in his tennis-playing heyday our attention to a virtually lone figure on the field PHOTO: PROVIDED of play. Their efforts to achieve success and glory sometimes take a backseat to their perintended to clinically illustrate how form sonalities. In order to merit such detailed and function integrate in tennis. What we investigation, they flaunt a certain level get is an instruction manual for building of grandiosity. We imagine these players the perfect tennis player from the groundto be egomaniacs and divas who chose strokes up. their sports because they knew they would Enter McEnroe, who upsets the logical never have to share the spotlight with a progression and order of things. The footteam. There is no “celebrity story” — which age of his game and the accompanying fuels our interest in athletes and artists, analysis uncover how his instincts and especially in this social media-defined age nuanced readings of his opponents expose — if the subject turns quietly inward and the flaws in regimentation. Perfection, it never allows the fans to glimpse behind turns out, requires an ability to adapt right the curtain. We desire and thrive on their in the moment, which McEnroe does like naked and unfettered expression; we like few others. to see them cut loose from propriety. Yet he still adheres to a desire to control If we were to seek out a poster child his environment and the game, which for this angle, we might not find a better explains his volcanic outbursts. Faraut model than McEnroe, the classically helps us to appreciate that the behavior we brash former champion known as much saw and misrecognized as bullying and for his epic clashes with linesmen and egomania was, in fact, McEnroe’s attempt chair umpires as his battles with his top to counter what he felt were efforts to hincompetitors on the pro circuit, like Borg der his pursuit of perfection. and Ivan Lendl. In interviews, he adopted Borg vs McEnroe, which featured Shia alternating poses — a sullen unwillingness LaBeouf as McEnroe, embraced the to address the camera (sometimes going assumed narrative of the tennis great as an so far as to hold up a hand or push the emotional powder keg waiting to explode. offending lens away) and an almost feral It set him opposite the self-contained Borg stare-down with the camera and the inter(Sverrir Gudnason) and gave audiences a viewer. In today’s world, that approach simplistic contest. Thankfully, In the Realm would complement an aggressive social of Perfection provides greater insight into media profile. the mind and motivation of an athlete In some ways, an argument could be engaged in a larger struggle. (Opens made that McEnroe was born at the wrong Friday) Grade: A

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FOOD & DRINK

Five No-Frills Cincinnati Hot Dog Stands BY L IZ Z Y S C H M I T T, SA M I S T E WA R T A N D M O R G A N Z U M B I EL

Mr. Gene’s Dog House PH OTO: SA MI STE WART

incinnati has plenty of hot dogs to choose from, some traditional and others more extravagant. We sent our CityBeat editorial interns out to test some of the Queen City’s most classic spots to grab a hot dog and report back with their recommendations. These aren’t fancy gourmet sausages delicately topped with fried egg or kimchi — these are real wieners: no-frills torpedoes of meat, hugged by a whitebread bun and smothered with a hot dog’s best companions: chili, cheese, ketchup and/or sport peppers. OK. There may be some coleslaw in there, too.

Avril-Bleh & Sons Founded by the Avril family in 1894, the butcher shop was sold to Len Bleh, a loyal employee, in 1998. “This is all I’ve ever done my whole life and I’ve been doing it about 46 years,” Bleh says. His son, Mike, works the summertime outdoor hot dog stand, grilling up their signature wieners, brats, metts and chorizo for the faithful downtown crowd during lunchtime every Tuesday through Friday. The sausages are made in-house every day and find their way to the menus of local restaurants like Senate, Zip’s, Izzy’s and more. What to order: With 30 different types of hot dogs, metts and sausages available at Avril-Bleh’s, there is certainly a lot to try. However, you can’t go wrong with just a simple, hearty all-beef dog. 33 E Court St., Downtown, avril-blehmeats.com.

Harley Dogs Harley’s hot dog cart has a crazy simple menu with only four options: Glier’s Oktoberfest bratwurst, Queen City hot or mild metts and Gordon’s all-beef hot dogs (plus nachos and cheese or Husman’s plain or barbecue potato chips). You can’t get lost, because it’s legitimately a stand on a street corner, and there’s only one name to remember: Harley Iles, the namesake behind Harley Dogs. Iles has been peddling dogs on the street corner for five years and has built up quite the fan base. “I’ve built a personal relationship with so many people because of this stand,” he says. “When they think of the hot dog guy, they think of me.” What to order: Iles recommends the Glier’s bratwurst smothered in nacho cheese. The cheese on a brat will alter your worldview on hot dog toppings. Here we are, slathering our dogs in yellow mustard when we could be putting nacho cheese on those bad boys instead. If you don’t want cheese — or yellow mustard — Harley’s also has relish, onion, jalapeños and banana peppers. 220 Madison Ave., Covington, facebook.com/harleydogs2015.

Ollie’s Trolley

PH OTO: SA MI STE WART

side of the window, you know it’s gonna be good. Since the kitchen is literally in a vintage trolley car, it’s tight quarters, but what little space there is has been packed with personality. The pink and yellow walls are covered in family photos: graduation announcements, Smith back in his Air Force days and snapshots featuring Michelle and Barack Obama. What to order: Ollie’s is a comfort food hot spot with food that couldn’t be better if you cooked it in your own kitchen. They’ve got everything from breakfast pancake platters to ribs and the oh-so-famous Ollieburger, but if you’re really in it to win it, order a chili dog. All respectable Cincinnatians know that no two chili dogs are made the same. Unlike the Greekinspired recipe found at popular chain restaurants, Ollie’s covers their dog in what can only be described as your mama’s chili — the hearty, savory stuff you’d be plenty happy to eat out of a bowl all by itself. Top off the humble dog with a generous helping of cheese (and mustard and onions, if you want them). 1607 Central Ave., Over-theRhine/West End, 513-381-6100.

The Root Beer Stand

PH OTO: SA MI STE WART

unique taste. In 1990, the Root Beer Stand was bought by Scott and Jackie Donley and is now run by their son-in-law, Eric Burroughs, who likes to stay true to the stand’s roots. Note: This seasonal spot closes on Sept. 16 and reopens spring 2019. What to order: Their footlong chili dog is made with the same recipe developed by Catherine herself; adding fresh shredded cheddar is a must. You can also get the dog as a six incher. The Timmy dog, named after a loyal patron, is another must if you prefer your wieners loaded with literally everything: mustard, ketchup, relish, chili, onions, hot sauce, sauerkraut, coleslaw and cheddar cheese. Oh, and don’t forget to order some root beer, available to drink there or by the gallon to go. 11566 Reading Road, Sharonville, therootbeerstand.com.

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Founded in 1957 by Jim and Catherine Clark along with their daughter, Nancy, and her husband, Mick, the Root Beer Stand was originally a part of the A&W franchise. The stand was one of the only places to get a bite along Route 25, which at the time was the main road between Cincinnati and Dayton and quickly became a favorite among travelers and truckers alike. Yet, in the middle of the 1980s, the Clark family decided to let the A&W franchise expire and formulated their now-legendary root beer using on-site well water and a low-carbonation method for a

Harley Dogs

To find Ollie’s Trolley, look for a giant outsider-art mural of Barack Obama, a handful of barbecue smokers out front or, you know, an old-school trolley car sitting on the corner of Central Avenue and West Liberty Street. A fast food chain turned one-of-a-kind local favorite, Ollie’s owner Marvin Smith has been keeping the trolley in business since he bought it at an auction in 1993. Today, the trolley is a favorite for its Southern-style soul food. When you swing open the door and hear the crackle and pop of the frying oil on the other

Ollie’s Trolley

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Mr. Gene’s Dog House Mr. Gene’s Dog House is a white cinderblock building tucked away in South Cumminsville with a fat orange stripe wrapped around the outside. If you’re lucky, you’ll be greeted by Rita Andrews, the sweet lady who’s been holding down the fort and serving up coneys for 52 years (founder Gene Kuester died in 2015). They keep things simple with a handful of variations on hot dogs and some ice cream to wash it all down (with bonus chicken wings, chili cheese fries and a couple of sandwiches). “We do one thing and we do it right,” Andrews says. The shop strives to employ folks from inside the neighborhood to keep the community close while serving the best damn slaw dog to anyone who

walks up to the window. What to order: With six excellent dog options, it’s hard to choose just one so opt for three: a slaw dog, Chicago dog and Italian sausage sandwich. All three hit the spot, but the slaw dog slaps the hardest. Some might say that the dog’s blend of coleslaw and chili are an unconventional pair — unorthodox even — but don’t let that stop you. 3703 Beekman St., South Cumminsville, mrgenesdoghouse.com.

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WHAT’S THE HOPS

Brewery Music Festivals, Events BY G A R I N PI R N I A

Breweries have become synonymous with music fests. Urban Artifact hosts a two-day Hip Hop festival called Overcast from Aug. 31-Sept. 2 (see Spill it on page 31 for more), but on Sept. 22, Cincy’s ladies of Rock get their chance to shine at the brewery’s Moxie Rock. Acts include Kristen Kreft of the Perfect Children, Endive, Flying Underground and Oh So Luminous. Music starts at 9 p.m. From Sept. 7-9, Grainworks Brewing Company will celebrate one-year in business with the Grainworks One-Year Music Festival at their West Chester taproom. Over three days, check out 10 live acts, eat a lot of pork from Brew City Sausage and Lyon’s BBQ (among other food vendors), try some shaved ice and imbibe special beer releases. Sept. 15 sees the return of Fifty West’s annual Fifty Fest, a celebration of local food, music and, of course, brews. More than 80 craft beers — both local and regional — will be available, including rare tappings, plus a cocktail booth and food trucks. They’ll even have a petting zoo. Tickets cost $7-$35; kids 12 and under are free. Grab a pack of Fifty West’s Pluot Coast to Coast, peel the label and see if you’ve won a free entry to the fest.

New Beers

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• Taft just released Nebulosity, a hazy IPA, in cans and on draft at the Ale House and Spring Grove Brewpourium. • Recently, Fretboard released a couple of new beers. Juicy Improv is an unfiltered grapefruit IPA, and Rockin’ the Rhein is a Märzen larger. Try them at the taproom. • Bellevue’s Darkness Brewing brewed a special milkshake pale ale beer for the 19th anniversary of Newport’s Crazy Fox Saloon. Dancing Beer contains citra and zythos hops and vanilla, almond, pineapple, orange and cranberry juices and lactose. Find it on tap at the Crazy Fox. • Braxton’s latest is Garage Beer, a premium lager that’s available in cans and on draft at their taproom.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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Events

C I N C I N N AT I P I Z Z AW E E K .C O M

• On Sept. 1, Fifty West will host Brews + Bulldogs: Round 2. No, humans won’t be fighting dogs. It’s a fundraiser for Queen City Bulldog Rescue. Tickets are $25 and include a pint glass, a beer ticket and a raffle. Adopt a bulldog or just sit in a baby pool with one. Well-behaved dogs welcome. • Come to Listermann on Sept. 5 for Cat Trivia, taking place in their biergarten. They’ll tap a collaboration beer with Ohio Alleycat Rescue; $1 per pint will go to help the kitties. Trivia starts at 7 p.m. The brewery is also throwing a three-day 10th-anniversary bash Sept. 7-9. Friday’s event will feature more than 20 breweries from around the world and special bottle releases. Saturday’s event will focus on Oktoberfest, and Sunday will be a family day with zoo encounters. Tickets for Friday

Bad Veins plays Fifty West’s annual Fifty Fest. PHOTO: PROVIDED

cost $59.99-$69.99. • On Sept. 7, Braxton will officially launch Oktober Fuel, a German lager, at the taproom. Expect a biergarten atmosphere, with live music and food. • Taft’s Ale House and Fifty West will team up on Sept. 8 for the Great American Beer Rush. Not only will they release two collaboration beers, but teams of four will compete in an Amazing Race-style bar crawl throughout downtown Cincy. Tickets are $25 per person. Washington Park is the starting point, and through a series of clues (and beers), teams have a chance to win a grand prize. • In September, Rhinegeist will give their fans a chance to participate in two kinds of VIP tours. The tour on Sept. 11 involves beers paired with The Rhined’s cheeses. Tour the brewery and sample unreleased beers complemented by cheese. The cost is $35 per person. On Sept. 21, for $40, again take a behindthe-scenes tour of Rhinegeist, but this time tourists get to sample five rare sour and/or funky beers. • Moerlein’s The Brewer’s Table occurs on Sept. 14. For $16, get a flight of Moerlein beers alongside food pairings. The event takes place at Moerlein Lager House. • If you’re not anniversary-ed out by this point, go to Mason’s 16 Lots Brewing Sept. 14-16 for their one-year anniversary party, which will be Oktoberfest-themed. They will have German food, music and nine new beers, including their Oktoberfest Märzen. • Pump for Pups, a fundraiser for the League for Animal Welfare, returns to Streetside on Sept. 16. Workout with the trainers from Cincy 360 fitness, and then drink some beers and check out adoptable dogs. The $20 ticket gets you a free beer, a workout and a Pump for Pups T-shirt. Contact Garin Pirnia: letters@citybeat.com

CLASSES & EVENTS WEDNESDAY 29

World Fare at Fountain Square — Every Wednesday this summer, vendors will be on the square with different international cuisine. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free admission. Fountain Square, Fifth and Vine streets, Downtown, myfountainsquare.com.

THURSDAY 30

Date Night: Couples Grill Tomahawk Steaks — Grab a date and learn to make a tomahawk steak on the grill. Menu also includes stuffed jalapeño bread, potato gratin and individual chocolate fudge cakes. 6-8:30 p.m. $150 per couple. Jungle Jim’s, 5440 Dixie Highway, Fairfield, junglejims.com. Roebling Point Food Tour — Step back in time and explore the architecture of the Licking Riverside historic district on foot and savor special food and drink tastings from five area restaurants like Molly Malone’s, Keystone Bar & Grill, The Gruff and more. 11 a.m. $59. Meets outside of Molly Malone’s, 112 E. Fourth St., Covington, Ky., riversidefoodtours.com. Vegan Wine Dinner Summer 2018 — The Mercer hosts a vegan dinner with five innovative courses, all paired with wine. Chef Kyle Roberts will be using seasonal and local produce to create dishes “that please the eye, the palate and the soul.” 6:30-9 p.m. $60. The Mercer OTR, 1324 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook. com/themercerotr.

FRIDAY 31

Bourbon Dinner Featuring Brown-Forman — A sixcourse, chef-prepared menu will be paired with carefully selected Woodford Reserve or Old Forester bourbons. 6:30-10 p.m. $100. Jungle Jim’s, 5440 Dixie Highway, Fairfield, junglejims.com. Fifth Friday Froth Fest — The Cincinnati Donauschwaben Society hosts this fest featuring a taco dinner, Scwaben lager at the bar, bottled German beers, mixed drinks and music from Die VereinsMusikanten. 5-10 p.m. Free admission. Cincinnati Donauschwaben Society, 4290 Dry Ridge Road, Colerain, facebook.com/ cincydonau.

SATURDAY 01

Afrofood Festival — This Afrofood Fest celebrates the cuisine of Africa and the African diaspora. Sample a wide range of eats from local restaurants, vendors and more, including Mashed Roots Latin Kitchen, Senegrill, C&M BBQ Grill and Good Guys Food Truck. There will also be artisans and performances with work rooted in the African experience. Noon-9 p.m. Free admission; dishes range $2-$6. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-theRhine, afrofoodfestival.com.

Signature Over-the-Rhine Walking Tour — This

EST. 1933

NIVERSARY

Brewing Heritage Cellarman’s Tour — Tour includes a visit underground into the lagering cellar of the Schmidt Brothers Brewery and a beer tasting at the Christian Moerlein Malt House Taproom. 12:30 p.m. $25. Leaves from the Christian Moerlein Malt House Taproom, 1621 Moore St., Over-the-Rhine, brewingheritagetrail.org. Cincy Beerfest at Great American Ball Park — Cincy Beerfest moves from Fountain Square to Great American Ball Park for two sessions of beer tasting. Sample more than 150 local and regional craft beers, along with mini cocktails and wines. Two sessions: 12:304:30 p.m.; 7-11 p.m. $45$50 regular; $50-$55 early admission. Great American Ball Park, 100 Joe Nuxhall Way, Downtown, cincybeerfest.com.

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SUNDAY 02

White Girl Wasted Pedal Wagon — The Cincinnati Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence host a Pedal Wagon party for people wanting to get “White Girl Wasted.” Join them for a super basic bar crawl through OTR to raise funds to benefit the Cincinnati branch of the Sisters, “a group of gay drag nuns delivering a message of love and acceptance.” 11 a.m.-2 p.m. $25. Pedal Wagon, 1114 Bunker Alley, Downtown, facebook.com/ cincinnatisisters.

TUESDAY 04

Quick Cooking Techniques at Turner Farm — In this hands-on class, you’ll learn techniques like stir frying, sautéing and grilling. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. $75. Turner Farm, 7400 Given Road, Indian Hill, turnerfarm.org.

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Brews + Bulldogs: Round Two — Queen City Bulldog Rescue heads to Fifty West for a fundraiser. There will be a photo booth, adoption stations, raffle baskets and baby pools for bulldogs to cool down. Noon-4 p.m. Free; $25 includes a pint glass, beer ticket and raffle ticket. Fifty West, 7668 Wooster Pike, Columbia Township, queencitybulldogrescue.com.

three-hour walking tour includes stops at three sit-down eateries in the Vine Street corridor and samples from one or two specialty shops or bakeries. 1 p.m. $45 Leaves from the information desk at Findlay Market, 1801 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, cincinnatifoodtours.com.

Mug Club at The Video Archive — Head to The Video Archive to drink some cheap beer and eat Taglio pizza. Buy a $6 mug and

your first beer is free. After that, domestics are $2 in the mug and crafts are $4. 8 p.m. Free admission. The Video Archive, 965 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, facebook.com/ videoarchivecincinnati.

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Ingredient Spotlight: Summer Squash and Zucchini — Chef Stephanie from Turner Farm will teach students how to make a variety of dishes with summer squash, including chocolate zucchini bread and roasted zucchini quesadillas. 11:301:30 p.m. $50. Turner Farm, 7400 Given Road, Indian Hill, turnerfarm.org.

Most classes and events require registration and classes frequently sell out.

MUSIC Trouble In Mind Cincinnati Roots newcomers Chelsea Ford and The Trouble release their album debut, recorded in a Kentucky tavern BY B I L L F U R B EE

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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“I

finally got the guts to start doing this and I don’t ever want to stop,” proclaims 35-year-old Chelsea Ford, bandleader of Cincinnati’s Chelsea Ford and The Trouble, beaming with a mischievous smile under a worn truckerstyle cap. “I ain’t going nowhere!” That outlook bodes well for the rest of us, as Ford and her band recently celebrated the release of an exceptional debut album at Camp Springs Tavern in nearby Melbourne, Ky. For a local act barely over a year old, things have happened fairly quickly. “We’ve played over 30 shows in the last year with some of my favorite bands,” Ford says. “I still feel like the new kid on the block and I feel a lot of pressure, since everyone around me has been playing for decades and I’ve only been playing for five years.” The stage took some getting used to, though. Before The Trouble was a thing, Ford’s husband Jonathan (also of Country/Americana group Warrick & Lowell) encouraged her to go to an open mic at Price Hill Americana club The Crow’s Nest, which she calls “a terrifying experience.” “Some of the best pickers and players in the city are there sometimes,” she says. “I think my whole body shook violently the first few times I played, and I remember asking Jonathan, ‘When does this get fun?’ I hated it, but he kept pushing me.” Chelsea Ford and The Trouble features Ford on banjo, with Jonathan on acoustic guitar and Matt Crone (also from Warrick & Lowell) on upright bass. The collection of tunes breathes in kicked-up red dust from rural paths and exhales stark, confident Americana, drifting from melancholy reflections to up-tempo, string-band Folk with Bluegrass inflections, complemented by violin, dobro and steel guitar. There are songs about killing a man alongside lover duets and laments about drinks holding on a little too closely. They are heartfelt tunes — played with topnotch skill — that are like pulling open photo albums to present both joyous and distressing recollections. “When I was 23 years old I had the honor of seeing (highly regarded local Jazz bassist) Bob Bodley at The Blue Wisp,” Ford says. “I only got to see him once (Bodley passed in 2007), but that experience changed the course of my life. I decided I had to learn

the bass — (he played with) strength and a beauty and with an obvious love for the instrument. I’ve never seen anything like it to this day. I was going through a very hard time in my life and he hit me through to my core.” It was only appropriate that they record the album with supportive friends and in a historically-steeped location ripe for renewed action. Enter Keith Neltner. Neltner should need no introduction to many area Chelsea Ford music fans; the Camp Springs, Ky. native cut his teeth at local P H O T O : K E I T H N E LT N E R marketing agencies before becoming a major force in the design and music worlds, with a roster of clients that includes Hank Williams III and Shooter Jennings. to record and release soon. After a quick You’ve also seen his design work for local email and tour of the space with engineer spots like Braxton Brewing and Lucius Q. Robert Fugate, the whole process came Neltner and his wife Amy are also together quickly.” the relatively new owners of the Camp “We recorded the first track (the a capSprings Tavern, a spot with tons of history pella ‘Wake Up’) in the ice room downemanating from its hand-cut stone walls. stairs,” Ford says. “Rob had to drop a mic “From the early planning and buying of through a window and down three floors. the Tavern, we envisioned a community The walls are entirely made of stone, and it spot where bands like The Tillers, Buffalo has a beautiful natural echo. It was surreal. Wabs, Jeremy Pinnell, The Kentucky Struts You can feel the history of that building. and other friends could perform,” Neltner We did two takes and that was that.” says. The whole day was a success, according Of course, Neltner’s design artistry is to Neltner. frequently involved, too, as many of the “It was all about the band and Robert Tavern’s shows are memorialized with having what they needed, feeling limited-edition screen prints designed and comfortable in the space,” he says. “I printed by his own Neltner Small Batch admire the process of music being created. design company. I’ve been at sessions with Hank III and Ford, The Trouble and Neltner were Kentucky Struts with a formal sound booth already acquaintances before appearing as and linear scenario. Learning that, from guests on the same local podcast (full distheir perspective, it was a tranquil day, and closure: your humble writer is a host of the they laid down 13 tracks — (it) was super program, Herzog Music’s Lost on the River). positive.” After overhearing The Trouble’s interview, The visual connection is that Neltner Neltner decided to offer the Camp Springs created the cover artwork while taking in space to the band for recording. the recording session as it was happening “The idea of recording in the floors before his very eyes. above the Tavern bubbled up last year in “I wanted this to be the culmination conversations with local musicians and of everyone’s skill set and see what that producers,” Neltner says. “So, it was really would become,” he says. “Most of the time, finding the right artist and producer to when I work on album projects, they’re give it a shot. My wife and I were fans of the recorded and done — I get the rough cuts band from the get-go, so it was exciting to and inspiration flows from there. This hear the band had material they wanted was different in that I was experiencing

everything in between the takes, even a snoring dog in the corner. The energy Chelsea, Jonathan and Matt have for the music allowed me to get to know them and then go off and create a vibe through the art.” Does this mean that Neltner plans to expand his empire to include releasing music recordings? He only hints at an answer. “On this day, an artifact was made,” he says. “This won’t be the only one, but it is the first.” With eyes to the future, Ford still recalls that crucial moment being inspired to get into music, something she shares in the album’s liner notes: “I hope Bob Bodley would be proud to know that he got me to learn three instruments and to sing in public,” she writes. “When I say this album didn’t take long to make, but it’s been long in coming, those who read this will understand now. It is really hard to explain what this album means to me because all of it has been there all along. It’s been hiding and waiting for so very long, and now here it is and I’m amazingly proud of it. Follow your dreams, it will fill your heart in ways you can’t imagine. Let your song be sung.” Chelsea Ford and The Trouble play the Southgate Roots Revival: Fall Folk Festival at Southgate House Revival on Sept. 8. More info: facebook.com/ chelseafordandthetrouble.

SPILL IT

Overcast Conjures Scribble Jam Spirit BY M I K E B R EEN

BY M I K E B R EE N

Fake Tunes

Sony Music has come clean about the origins of several unreleased “new songs” that appeared on Michael Jackson’s posthumous 2010 album. “Monster,” “Keep Your Head Up” and “Breaking News” were fake, the work of an MJ-esque singer named Jason Malachi and a production company led by a friend of Jackson’s. Sony’s admission came on the heels of a lawsuit filed by one of many fans certain it wasn’t actually Jackson on the tracks. The production company and Sony were accused of misleading consumers, but the only fallout so far is the admission — it’s still unknown whether the Jackson estate, consumers or anyone else will receive compensation as a result.

Eagles Are The Best (Selling)

Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, a 1976 compilation of music by Eagles, is now the top-selling album of all-time in the U.S., surpassing Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The news started a weird internet-wide argument between fans and detractors. Some felt it was somehow representative of the times in which we are living — that the U.S. is somehow ignorantly denying the consensus of music listeners around the planet who’ve made Thriller (made by an African American!) the top worldwide bestseller, reflecting America’s increased isolationism and the blatant xenophobia rising in the country. Others used it as simply a way to remind everyone Eagles are terrible. Still others were like, “Eagles, fuck yeah, Rock & Roll! Wooo!” or something.

Madonna on Aretha

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Many viewers held their breath in anticipation of a VMA tribute to Aretha Franklin. For MTV’s recent show, Madonna drew the short straw and gave a speech during which she thankfully didn’t sing (no offense to Madge; Aretha’s just not in her range), instead telling a story about how she auditioned once by singing an Aretha song a cappella. The story was fine, if a little awkward in that it was really just about Madonna, but it launched a million thought-pieces and social media posts, the vast majority of which hated everything about it. Madonna defended herself, saying she was booked to give out the Video of the Year trophy and was asked last minute to share a story about Aretha, not conduct an all-out tribute.

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Beginning in the mid-’90s, Cincinnati’s Along with Eyenine and Dope KNife Scribble Jam grew to become a marquee (a Georgia MC signed to Strange Famous event for indie and underground Hip Records, the label founded by Scribble vet Hop lovers. And not just among local Sage Francis), Dibbs is joined at the top of fans — the fest attained iconic status the Overcast poster by another performer within underground Hip Hop circles far whose roots wrap around the base of the and wide, attracting massive crowds every Scribble Jam family tree — Columbus, year with its blend of established and Ohio’s Blueprint, who competed in the up-and-coming performers, as well as its Scribble MC battles and also performed various “battles” and a focus on the other at both the fest and its 2005 coast-to-coast forms of Hip Hop, like graffiti and dance. tour, which help establish him as one of Several Scribble performers went on to Ohio’s all-time greats. Blueprint headlines have successful careers, including AtmoOvercast Friday and Dibbs tops the lineup sphere, Lyrics Born, MURS, Brother Ali Saturday. and Eminem (who competed in — but ultimately lost — one of the event’s famed Emcee Battles), but the festival itself was the draw. It was a true “immersive experience” well before “immersive experience” became a marketing buzz phrase, but it was achieved in a very cool, organic and noncalculated manner. This year marks 10 years since the last Scribble Jam. While it will never be duplicated completely, the spirit of Scribble Jam will live on in the Overcast Hip Hop Festival, which debuts this weekend at Northside brewery/venue Overcast Hip Hop Festival’s Nick Mitchell Urban Artifact (1660 Blue Rock St., artifactbeer.com) and feaPHOTO: PROVIDED tures a dynamic array of artists who represent the music’s progressive and sometimes experimental The rest of the inaugural Overcast lineup side. The event takes place this Friday and is heavy on local Hip Hop artists. Greater Saturday. Cincinnati performers include Raised One of the top-of-the-poster performers x Wolves, Sons of Silverton, Eugenius, at Overcast is Cincinnati Hip Hop legend Audley, Xzela & Luna Bruja, Haskell, Mr. Dibbs, who formed the DJ crew 1200 Trademark Aaron, Devin Burgess, Evolve Hobos in the early ’90s and went on to work and Triiibe, among many others. The fest with Rhymesayers Entertainment artists will also feature plenty of non-locals, like like Atmosphere and a pre-Run the Jewels Nashville’s Spoken Nerd, Milwaukee’s TaiEl-P. Oh yeah — and Dibbs was also a coyamo Denku, Philly’s ialive and Columbus’ founder of Scribble Jam. Hafrican and Happy Tooth & Dug. Dibbs recently made headlines in the Overcast was created by the locallyinternational music press when Run the based Grasshopper Juice Records, which Jewels released “Run the Dibbs,” a mix of was co-founded by musician Nick Mitchell, their sounds created by the Cincinnati Hip aka Hip Hop producer/DJ Juan Cosby, Hop DJ/producer. Dibbs has been known who is also the force behind the annual to join Run the Jewels on stage in recent AYE Music & Art Festival. Juan Cosby years and “Run the Dibbs” is a sprawling, will perform at Overcast with his various head-spinning collage that recasts their projects, including Counterfeit Money music in his crafty, estimable style. Machine and his collaboration with the In an email sent out to Run the Jewels duo WeirDose. mailing list subscribers with a link to the Overcast will also feature a “B-Boy free download, the duo called the “purBattle” and a Rap battle hosted by Noah I pose” of Dibbs’ mix, “a reinterpretation Mean of the famed Cincy DJ ensemble Aniwhere rules don’t apply, pitch becomes a mal Crackers, plus an open-mic cypher led weapon and production standards don’t by Stallitix, Senseless, Ronin and Audley. exist.” Get info on Overcast Hip Hop Festival “The man goes way back with us and has presale tickets, full schedule of events and been a heavyweight in the DJ/turntablist more at overcastfest.com. scene for years,” the email continued. “If Contact Mike Breen: you don’t know, we highly suggest you get mbreen@citybeat.com. acquainted.”

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A Florida native, John Vanderslice ended up in San Francisco in the early ’90s to attend college; after his local band MK Ultra began playing more frequently, his focus shifted. He opened a small studio in the Mission District in the late ’90s called Tiny Telephone, which outlived MK Ultra (the group broke up before the end of the decade). Stocked with vintage and analog equipment, Tiny Telephone and Vanderslice would become recording favorites of Indie Rock and Pop musicians of all sorts, playing host to Death Cab for Cutie, Jolie Holland, Kronos Quartet, Bob Mould, Magnetic Fields, Sleater-Kinney, The Mountain Goats, tUnE-yArDs, Explosions in the Sky and many others over the years. Besides the groovy gear collection and direct-to-tape recording mindset, Vanderslice’s imaginative perspective and intuitive grasp on music’s in and outs is what makes him a go-to producer for many. It’s evident in his work with others, but even more deeply so in his own songwriting and recordings, which define “deceptively simple” in their thoughtout, often orchestral arrangements and intensely catchy effectiveness. His solo career officially began in 2000 with his first album under his own name on a label, Mass Suicide Occult Figurines. Even before the album was issued, Vanderslice received some unusual early publicity. While recording, he began spinning a conspiracy theory that Microsoft was secretly attempting to bring down his efforts to release the album, roused by the album track “Bill Gates Must Die” and the album’s art design, which mimicked an old Windows installation CD. Though also often lyrically insightful on multiple levels, that playful eccentricity became a trademark characteristic of Vanderslice, who would go on to release nearly a dozen more albums, most critically acclaimed and all cultishly beloved by his devoted fan base. His most recent efforts came in 2013 — Dagger Beach and an unusual reimagining of David Bowie’s 1974 album Diamond Dogs. The touring behind those albums played a big part in Vanderslice’s decision to do his current “Living Room Tour,” a run of intimate “house concerts” across the U.S. While traveling through Ohio, the van in which Vanderslice was riding narrowly avoided hitting a car that had stopped in the middle of the highway. “After that happened, maybe a second later, I was like, I’m done. I don’t want to die in a van,” he told The New Yorker in 2014 when explaining why he decided to cut back on touring. Vanderslice’s decision to play smaller venues on the “living room” circuit seems to have re-invigorated his desire to tour. “I would definitely not go back to touring

John Vanderslice P H O T O : VA N D E R S L I C E P R O D U C T I O N . C O M

the way I was, with a band in a van and a trailer,” he told Bay Area PBS station KQED recently. “I just knew when I booked my house tour that this is the only way I want to do it.” Vanderslice is testing out new songs on his current road trip; he’s reportedly finishing up a new album, which is due next year. (Mike Breen)

The Dead Daisies with Dizzy Reed Thursday • Bogart’s

Of all the unlikely origin stories in the history of Rock, The Dead Daisies may possess the unlikeliest of them all. Co-founder/guitarist David Lowy’s résumé prior to 2011 included holding the Executive and Managing Director positions for Australia’s Westfield Group, a corporation that oversaw the creation, acquisition and marketing of shopping centers (or centres, as they arrange the letters). He held the job from 1981 to 2000, at which point, he left Westfield and spearheaded the formation of his family’s private investment company, Lowy Family Group (LFG), with which he still maintains several directorial positions. He had retained a seat on the Westfield board until his 2011 retirement. The following year, Lowy and veteran vocalist Jon Stevens co-founded The Dead Daisies. In 2013, the Hard Rock/quasiMetal band released its self-titled debut album which featured the hit single “Lock ’N’ Load,” co-written by Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, who also guested on the track. The band was fleshed out by GNR vets Richard Fortus, Frank Ferrer and Dizzy Reed, along with Whitesnake/Thin Lizzy bassist Marco Mendoza. The Dead Daisies toured relentlessly in support of the album, opening for ZZ Top, Jane’s Addiction, Alice in Chains and the Black Star Riders, performing several festival slots, and headlining their first show late in the year in the U.K.

MASON JENNINGS W/Special Guest

WHY? with Lala Lala and Ben Sloan

Friday • Woodward Theater

WHY?’s Yoni Wolf PH OTO: T EL L A L L YO U R FR IEN DS PR

The Dead Daisies PHOTO: PROVIDED

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By then, they’d already installed a new rhythm section — former Rolling Stones bassist Darryl Jones and former Cult/ Divinyls drummer Charley Drayton. In 2014, the Daisies shifted lineups fairly regularly, most notably with Mendoza returning to the band, and released the Face I Love EP. The band also did its first headlining tour of Australia and opened the Bad Company/Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kiss/Def Leppard tours. In 2015, the Daisies made history by becoming the first western band to play Cuba after the Obama administration normalized relations with the country (Stevens opted out of the tour — and eventually the band — and was replaced by former Mötley Crüe/ Angel City vocalist John Corabi). In 2015, the Daisies’ sophomore album, Revolución, was released and the group continued its association with KISS, opening the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ Australian tour and taking part in another KISS Kruise. In the last two years, Fortus and Reed left for GNR duties, replaced by former Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich and, eventually, veteran skinsman Deen Castronovo. The band has also released its third studio album, 2016’s Make Some Noise, and a live album, last year’s Live & Louder. Back in April, The Dead Daisies released their fourth studio set, Burn It Down; the first single from the album, “Rise Up,” is a call to counteract the current ills of the world.

On March 11, 2008, Cincinnati-native and Bay Area transplant Yoni Wolf and fellow Cincy musical brothers Josiah Wolf (also Yoni’s actual brother) and Doug McDiarmid saw the album on which they’d spent months working, Alopecia, released into the wild. Issued by experimental Hip Hop label Anticon (which Yoni co-founded), the album would prove to be a landmark moment in WHY?’s history, marking a pronounced evolutionary sonic shift and the true beginnings of Wolf & Co.’s imminent global success as a recording and touring band. (The group eventually centralized in Cincinnati, out of which they still work today.) Prior to Alopecia, WHY? was primarily a solo studio guise for Yoni’s wildly imaginative Hip Hop explorations. His brother and McDiarmid had joined him in California to begin performing live as a full band, but WHY? became a true ensemble project with Alopecia. It also marked a rather sharp turn into the kaleidoscopic, slanted Indie Pop realm for which the group would become so beloved. It’s not quite like when Wizard of Oz goes from black-and-white to color, because Yoni’s Hip Hop work was deeply and uniquely compelling in its own way and certainly not devoid of colorfulness. Replace the black-and-white start of Wizard of Oz with Eraserhead and the in-color part with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and you’re a little closer to a fair analogy of what Alopecia represented in WHY?’s creative history. This year, WHY? has been marking the 10th anniversary of Alopecia in several ways. Over the past few weeks, Yoni and WHY?’s current label, Joyful Noise, have been unraveling a series of short behindthe-scenes videos from the album’s recording sessions (watch them spliced together in a playlist at citybeat.com). On Aug. 17, Joyful Noise released a 10th-anniversary reissue of Alopecia, alongside a companion 7-inch single featuring two remixes of tracks from the LP — Boards of Canada’s take on the stone-cold WHY? classic “Good Friday” and DNTEL’s rewiring of “By Torpedo or Chron’s.” Friday in their hometown, WHY? kicks off an extensive run of dates that will have them playing Alopecia in full all over the world. Anticipation is high — the lateNovember tour stop in New York sold out in mid-August and other dates on the tour are expected to follow suit. (MB)

Friday Sept

Charlie Millikin

LISTINGS

CityBeat’s music listings are free. Send info to Mike Breen at mbreen@citybeat.com. Listings are subject to change. See CityBeat.com for full music listings and all club locations. H is CityBeat staff’s stamp of approval.

WEDNESDAY 29

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8 p.m. Big Band Jazz.

FOUNTAIN SQUARE Ras Bonghi Allstars. 7 p.m. Reggae. Free. KNOTTY PINE - Dallas Moore. 10 p.m. Country. Free.

MARTY’S HOPS & VINES - Doug Kreitzer. 7 p.m. Various. Free. MERITAGE - Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues. Free.

MOTR PUB - Kalbells with Maria Carrelli and Georgia Eng-lish. 10 p.m. Indie/Pop/Various. Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - Lost Coast with Ohio Valley Salvage. 9:30 p.m. Rock/Roots/ Various. Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Terry Bozzio. 8:30 p.m. Rock/Progressive/Alt/ Drums/Various. $25. STANLEY’S PUB - The Raquels with Captain Culpepper. 9 p.m. Funk/Pop.

URBAN ARTIFACT Heavy Hinges and Near Earth Objects. 8 p.m. Rock/ Alt/Various.

THURSDAY 30

BOGART’S - The Dead Daisies with Dizzy Reed. 8 p.m. Rock. $17.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - George Cunningham & Joe Lukasik. 7:30 p.m. Jazz.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

A U G . 2 9 – S E P T. 4 , 2 0 18

FOUNTAIN SQUARE - Salsa on the Square with The Amador Sisters. 7 p.m. Salsa/Latin/Dance. Free.

THE GREENWICH - Randy Villars Quartet. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. $5. KNOTTY PINE - Chalis. 9 p.m. Pop/Rock/Various. Free.

MEMORIAL HALL No Promises (album release concert). 8 p.m. Vocal Jazz. $15-$18.

MOTR PUB - Grace Vonderkuhn. 10 p.m. Indie/Pop/Rock. Free. NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB

- Freak Heat Waves, Kristian North, Smut and Amazon. 9 p.m. Post Punk/Indie Rock. $10.

MOTR PUB - Kid Congo Powers with Slim Cessna’s Auto Club. 10 p.m. Rock. Free.

- Friends & A Foe with Chris From Space and Jess Lamb & The Factory. 8 p.m. Alt/ Various.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT JAZZ & ACOUSTIC CLUB - Pat Kelly Duo. 8 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - The God- damn Gallows and Gang Green. 9 p.m. Americana Punk. $18, $20 day of show.

WASHINGTON PARK Roots Revival with Ben Knight and The Welldiggers. 7 p.m. Americana. Free.

WOODWARD THEATER - Barrence Whitfield & The Sav-ages with The Woggles. 8 p.m. Garage/Soul/Rock/Various.

FRIDAY 31

50 WEST BREWING CO. Moonshine Drive. 7 p.m. Bluegrass. Free.

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Johnny Payne and the True Believers. 9 p.m. Reggae. Free. BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - The Brian Lovely Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free. CLIFTON PLAZA - Ma Crow & Co. 7 p.m. Bluegrass. Free.

THE GREENWICH Sonny Moorman & Final Friday Blues. 8 p.m. Blues. $5.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - The Fun Size. 7 p.m. Pop/Rock/Dance/Various. $5. JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Chuck Brisbin and the Tuna Project. 9 p.m. Blues. Free. KNOTTY PINE - Wayward Son. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover. LUDLOW GARAGE Rumours. 8:30 p.m. Fleetwood Mac tribute. $20-$35. THE MAD FROG - Drop the Sun, Lost Henry and Draud Haus, plus EDM and Hip Hop Dance Party (in the basement). 9 p.m. Indie Rock/Pop Punk. Cover. MANSION HILL TAVERN - Doug Hart Band. 9 p.m. Blues. Cover.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Gringo Starr and The Harlequins. 10 p.m. Psych/ Indie/Garage/Rock. Free.

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Kayak Jones and Safe Bet with Home Plate, DI and Brian Kettering. 8 p.m. Punk/ Pop. $10, $12 day of show. OCTAVE - Strange Mechanics. 8 p.m. Funk/Jam/Prog/ Rock/Various. Cover. THE REDMOOR - Soul Pocket. 8 p.m. R&B/Pop/ Dance/Various. Cover. SCHWARTZ’S POINT JAZZ & ACOUSTIC CLUB - Zac Granger Quartet. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) Blazing Gentlemen: A NKY Tribute to GBV. 9:30 p.m. Guided By Voices tribute. Free. SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Steve’n’Seagulls with ClusterPluck. 9 p.m. Roots/Rock. $17.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Patsy (album release show) with The Debtors, The Pistol Mystics and 7” Gamble. 9 p.m. Rock. $5. STANLEY’S PUB - The Stolen Faces. 10 p.m. Grateful Dead tribute. Cover.

THOMPSON HOUSE - Rap showcase featuring Brandon Vest. 9 p.m. Rap. $10.

URBAN ARTIFACT Overcast Hip Hop Fest with Blueprint, Vast Aire, Raised x Wolves, Counterfeit Money Machine, Triiibe, Audley and more. 8 p.m. Hip Hop. $20 (two-day pass: $30). VINKOLET WINERY AND RESTAURANT - Holly Spears. 7 p.m. Americana/ Country. Free.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM SALOON & RESTAURANT - Max Gise Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

WOODEN CASK BREWING COMPANY

WOODWARD THEATER - WHY? with Lala Lala and Ben Sloan. 9 p.m. Indie/Alt/Pop/Various. $16, $20 day of show.

SATURDAY 01

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Cincinnati Dancing Pigs. 9 p.m. Americana/Jug band. Free. BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Adia Dobbins and the Ben Tweedt Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

H H

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Marc Fields Quartet. 8:30 p.m. Jazz.

FOUNTAIN SQUARE - Fifth & Vine Live with Dave Hause and The Mermaid with A.M. Nice and Triiibe. 7 p.m. Rock/Hip Hop/ Various. Free.

THE GREENWICH Jess Lamb and The Factory (live recording). 9 p.m. Soul/Alt/Rock/Pop/Various. $8.

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Take a Chance. 9 p.m. Country. Free. JOCKO’S PUB - Ambush. 9 p.m. Rock. Free. LUDLOW BROMLEY YACHT CLUB - Trailer Park Floosies. 9:30 p.m. Rock/ Dance/Pop/Rap/Country/ Various. $5. THE MAD FROG - Fast Eddy, Biased Footwear Company and Vandalia. 6 p.m. Indie Rock/Pop Punk. $5.

MADISON LIVE - Local Summer Showcase with Vibrant Fiction, One Day Steady, CrossWalk and Dead Humor. 8 p.m. Rock/ Various. $10, $12 day of show.

MANSION HILL TAVERN - Jamie Carr Band. 9 p.m. Blues. Cover.

H H

MOTR PUB - Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. 10 p.m. Soul Jazz. Free.

THE REDMOOR Shroomfest with Balderdash, Rhythm Jones, Al Andalus Ensemble and Blue

Birds. 8 p.m. Rock/Blues/ Various. $15. RICK’S TAVERN - Empty Garden. 10 p.m. Rock. $5. RIVERBEND MUSIC CENTER - Counting Crows with Live. 6:30 p.m. Rock. $29.50-$99.50.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL - Planned Parenthood Benefit with Oso Bear, Common Center, Sleepcrawler, New Third Worlds, Danbient, Rucca, Disaster Class, Black Signal, Little Lights, Mara Moon, Near Earth Objects, DJ Mowgli and more. 5 p.m. Various. $10. STANLEY’S PUB - Lost Henry. 10 p.m. Emo/Pop Punk. Cover.

H H

THOMPSON HOUSE - Nappy Roots. 8 p.m. Hip Hop. $15.

URBAN ARTIFACT Overcast Hip Hop Fest with Mr. Dibbs, Eyenine, Sons of Silverton, Dope KNife, Eugenius, Happy Tooth & Dug, POC and more. 3 p.m. Hip. $20 (two-day pass: $30).

SUNDAY 02

THE MAD FROG - Joe Nester with Marshall Alexander. 8 p.m. Acoustic/ Rock/Hip Hop. $15. MANSION HILL TAVERN Open Blues Jam with Deb Olinger. 6 p.m. Blues. Free. NORTHSIDE TAVERN Beasts of Joy. 8 p.m. Lute/ Cello. Free.

THOMPSON HOUSE Grave Friends, Odium, Altar Of Lilith, The Human Tragedy and I Hate Heroes. 7 p.m. Rock. $10.

MONDAY 03

THE GREENWICH - Baron Von Ohlen & the Flying Circus Big Band. 7:30 p.m. Big Band Jazz. $5. THE MAD FROG - Art + Fashion + Hip-Hop with Joeymakes. 7 p.m. Hip Hop. $5. MANSION HILL TAVERN - Acoustic Jam with John Redell and Friends. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

MOTR PUB - Moira, Fritz Pape and Rafting. 9 p.m. In-die/Electronic/Pop/ Various. Free.

TUESDAY 04

BLIND LEMON - Nick Tuttle. 8:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL - Music Live @ Lunch with Clark and Jones Trio. 12:10 p.m. Celtic/Various. Free.

MEMORIAL HALL - The Queen’s Cartoonists. 8 p.m. Car-toon Jazz. $18-$28.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN Impel Music Series with Now Hear This and KGB Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz/Various. Free.

PNC PAVILION AT RIVERBEND - NEEDTOBREATHE with JOHNNYSWIM and Forest Blakk. 7 p.m. Pop/Rock. $23.50-$65.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Wovenhand. 8 p.m. AltRock. $15.

STANLEY’S PUB - The Trashgrass Troubadours. 9 p.m. Bluegrass. TAFT THEATRE - Alice Cooper. 8 p.m. Rock. $48.50-$69.50.

Future Sounds Michaele Graves – Sept. 15, Northside Yacht Club Philip H Anselmo & The Illegals – Sept. 22, Blue Note Harrison Yngwie Malmsteen – Oct. 12, The Venue Cincinnati Puddle of Mudd – Oct. 24, Bogart’s Turkuaz – Oct. 26, Madison Theater John Medeski – Nov. 9, Ludlow Garage Death from Above – Nov. 18, Bogart’s Bayside – Dec. 2, Southgate House Revival Sleep – Dec. 10, Taft Theatre

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810 Sycamore St. 4th Fl, Cincinnati, OH 45202

513.651.9666

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C I T Y B E AT. C O M

A U G . 2 9 – S E P T. 4 , 2 0 18

WE’RE HIRING!

Advertising Sales Executive

If the following sounds like you, we’d love to speak with you: You are energetic, outgoing and passionate You live with integrity You are fearless and welcome challenges You have a track record of getting to the decision maker You conduct yourself with professionalism in person, in writing and over the phone Compensation: Base salary + commission + Bonus Paid Vacation/PTO Insurance + 401(k) Spiffs and prizes around special events Visit CityBeat.com/Work-Here to learn more and submit your resume. *Online submissions including resumes only. No other inquiries will be considered*

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Tohi

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