Scene April 29, 2015 by Chava Communications

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

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A P R I L 2 9 - M AY 5 , 2 0 1 5 VOLU M E 4 5 No 4 4 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Chris Keating Associate Publisher Desiree Bourgeois Editor Vince Grzegorek Editorial Managing Editor Eric Sandy Music Editor Jeff Niesel Staff Writers Sam Allard, Doug Brown Web Editor Alaina McConnell Contributing Writer Will Burge Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Contributing Dining Editors Nikki Delamotte, Jason Beudert Stage Editor Christine Howey Visual Arts Editor Josh Usmani Interns Martin Harp, Kaitlin Siegel

CONTENTS 33 Upfront

Framed

The sin tax debate continues, a man connected to Ariel Castro may get a new trial, and more

The best photos we shared with you this week

Facetime

Feature

Circulation Circulation Director Don Kriss

Get Out!

Euclid Media Group Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Chief Financial Officer Brian Painley Human Resources Director Lisa Beilstein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon

Art

Stage

Film

Dining

Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Multimedia Account Executives Amanda Klein, Moira O’Neill Classified Account Executive Alice Leslie Marketing and Events Promotions Coordinator Remi Bruell Creative Services Production Manager Steve Miluch Graphic Designer Kristen A Lovejoy Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace

Cleveland native and New Republic senior editor Jamil Smith talks about race and how the media should be covering race

Allegations of kidnapping, abduction, fraud and theft aren’t enough to stop one of the most contentious court cases in Northeast Ohio

Business Asst. To The Publisher Angela Lott Sales Assistant/Receptionist Megan Stimac

Dozens of events spanning the next week in Cleveland

Free Comic Book Day is upon us, and thus we rejoice

www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-800-278-9866, voicemediagroup.com Cleveland Scene 737 Bolivar Rd, #4100 Cleveland, OH 44115 www.clevescene.com Phone 216-241-7550 Retail & Classified Fax 216-241-6275 Editoral Fax 216-802-7212 E-mail scene@clevescene.com

Intestinal upset is just one of the problems in God of Carnage at None Too Fragile Theater

Cleveland Scene Magazine is published every week by Euclid Media Group. Verified Audit Member Cleveland Distribution Scene is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader Copyright The entire contents of Cleveland Scene Magazine are copyright 2015 by Euclid Media Group. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be mailed to the address listed above. Subscriptions $150 (1 yr); $ 80 (6 mos.) Send name, address and zip code with check or money order to the address listed above with the title ‘Attn: Subscription Department’

10 summer blockbusters you won’t want to miss, and more

On the Rise bakery in Cleveland Heights will soon feature a larger menu, and more

Music

248-620-2990

Electronic dance music star Kiesza puts an emphasis on singing and songwriting, and more

Savage Love Printed By

...The story continues at clevescene.com

Fun for the ages

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SCENE with you with our iPad app! “Cleveland Scene Magazine” COVER ILLUSTRATION BY KRISTEN A. LOVEJOY

Help on the Home Front Find out what benefits and programs are available to families and spouses of service members and veterans. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2015 | 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Families Served ...They Deserve

Cuyahoga Community College Eastern Campus – Liberal Arts Building 4250 Richmond Road Highland Hills, OH 44122-6195 For more information call 216-987-3193 or email richard.dechant@tri-c.edu

This event is sponsored by the Tri-C Veterans Initiative and the Hospice of the Western Reserve and is FREE and open to the public. 15-0038

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

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Nothing says authentically Irish quite like earning Gold Standard certification by Guinness. As the only Northeast Ohio bar holding the status, this pub modeled after the watering holes of rural western Ireland has come to be known for their stellar practices in storage, pouring and presentation of the beloved stout. Escape to the rolling hills and bustling towns of its picaresque décor with Guinness, Harp and Smithwick all on tap and an always extensive selection of Irish whiskey. With wooden beams, brick walls, and flags from Irish counties hanging from the ceiling, this is the perfect welcoming place to feel at home while cheering on your favorite sports teams. Share a slice of free pizza during a Cavs play-off game or stop by every Saturday for live, high-energy Irish music. Come see why natives say this is as close to an Irish pub as you can get without crossing the ocean. At Mullarkey’s, the countdown clock is always set for St. Patrick’s Day.

Be swept away by rustic Parisian charm at this crêpery that calls to mind those that line the streets abroad. Let your nose lead the way as the aroma of vanilla bean draws you to breakfast, lunch and dinner stuffed crepes that satisfy cravings for both the sweet and savory. Belgian waffle decorated with strawberries and twelve flavors of ice cream round out the decadent menu. Under chandeliers, you’ll watch your crepes prepared in front of you on an 18-inch hot plate. All crepes are built with fresh, local ingredients from the Willoughby Farmer’s Market and their own special batter recipe. Try a creative fusion like the Tuscan crepe filled with roasted red pepper, spinach, and pesto and leave room for a caramel baked apple cheesecake dessert crepe. Popular additions like roasted pineapple sauce and lemon mustard are all made in-house. A quaint patio allows you to relax and embrace the European-inspired experience by soaking in the sunshine.

mullarkeys.com

willoughbycrepes.com

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 5

upfront city council on sports stadium tax distribution

tHIS WEEK

We’re coming up on the first anniversary of the sin tax renewal vote (May 6), and we’re sure your local elected representative is planning some fun activities for the day. Until then, though, the need for committee discussion is strong. City Council held a meeting this week to run through all of the city’s obligations at “FirstEnergy Stadium, Home of the Cleveland Browns” and to reiterate to the public that, even still, no one really knows what’s to come of the six tax renewal revenue. The idea is that the city will see some $4.5 million annually from the sin tax. That’s based on dividing current expected revenues into thirds (for three stadiums), which is an as-yetundetermined plan. Sin tax revenue negotiations are ongoing, with County Council holding the final vote of approval. The verbalized intent is that sin tax revenue is meant to be shored up for capital repairs over the next 13 years of the lease with the Browns. It could also be used, via mostly vague ballot language, to cut down the city’s debt service. Councilman Jeff Johnson asked whether there’d ever be a point where City Council could challenge the Browns ownership on the interpretation of where the money goes -- or, ultimately, if any renegotiation of the lease could ever occur. The question was rhetorical, of course, as the team’s ownership has made it abundantly clear in past meetings with the city that there will be no renegotiations. Still, it’s a question that has come up time and time again since the renewal campaign began in earnest in 2013. “The fallback is always ‘We’re obligated to pay this,’” Johnson said.

“It’s just frustrating. This is an analysis about what we feel we’re obligated for. What I haven’t heard is the legal flexibility that may be discussed.” Most council members who spoke up at the meeting shared the same sortof-defeatist attitude about the long-term deal. “Isn’t it incredible when you think about it if we really can’t tell citizens what this thing cost us?” Councilman Michael Polensek said. True enough, no one could nail down a number for the exact cost to the city of what was originally known as Cleveland Browns Stadium. It’s just sort of a given at this point that the city has sunk an innumerable chunk of change into it. Polensek reiterated during the meeting that he didn’t vote for the deal with the franchise owners, reminding us of a point he made to Scene in 2012: “Here’s the Browns at the time, they don’t want to spend a nickel for anything or contribute to it, but then Randy Lerner sells the team for a billion dollars. With all the issues we’re contending with in this town, you would think the people who have the financial wherewithal would step up to the plate. But that don’t happen. That’s life.” Life, as translated into the Cleveland corporate campaign base, means that taxpayers will be ponying up yet again to fulfill the city’s lopsided obligations to the Browns. In sum, though, Monday’s meeting was presented as a chance for City Council to review all forthcoming financial obligations and transactions with the team -- not merely the sin tax renewal. A revised “white paper” was published and released to council members, detailing estimates for how the city will meet its goal between now and the lease’s termination in 2028.

MORRISSEY FAN

Ohio Senate introduces legislation to allow Pete Rose into Hall of Fame. Following up immediately, State Rep. Martin Sweeney introduces House resolution to urge the Smiths into the Rock Hall.

first energy statdium, home to the browns and the city’s money.

You can check that out on clevescene. com.

fernando colon may get new trial In 2004, a man named Fernando Colon told FBI investigators that they should look into Ariel Castro as someone connected to the disappearances of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. He was the last person to see DeJesus before she was taken. As history bears out, the FBI didn’t follow up on Colon’s suggestion. That same year, he was convicted of two counts of gross sexual imposition and classified as a sex offender for molesting two of Castro’s daughters. He claims that Castro helped “orchestrate” the criminal case after Colon began living with Castro’s excommon-law wife, Grimilda Figueroa. The two had met in the emergency room, after Castro beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital. Colon said their own common law marriage was a happy one. Castro and Grimilda’s daughters Emily and Arlene, lived with them as well. Against ongoing harassment from Castro, Colon began fearing for his and his wife’s lives. When Castro accused him of molesting his two youngest daughters, the Cleveland Police Department moved in. Convictions followed. In other media reports, Colon has said that he is Castro’s “forgotten victim.” Colon may now get a new trial, as Judge John Russo will hold a hearing to decide whether to reopen the case on May 19.

THE FRAMING DEvICE

Celtics’ Kelly Olynyk injures Kevin Love in what is now known in recent sports lore as “The Shoulder.” Love will miss next series, plans to “do some sightseeing” in Chicago.

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

OUCH

CPPA Prez asks members to speak up if they see “anything out of the ordinary” during Brelo trial. Says one officer: “You mean aside from The Shoulder?”

“We’ve been stonewalled at every turn,” says Chris Giannini, who’s been working this case pro bono for years. He and Colon maintain that, in all likelihood and based on everything we now know, Castro was sexually aggressive toward his daughters. “He told them specifically that they should be looking at Ariel.”

city braces for brelo verdict As of press time, Baltimore was imploding in on the city’s reaction to Freddie Gray’s death at the hands of police officers. Here in Cleveland, leaders are vocally concerned about the impending verdict in Officer Michael Brelo’s trial, wherein he faces charges of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the deadly Nov. 29, 2012, police chase and shootout. There’s fear that, despite very little visible outcry when the shootout actually took place, the social climate in a city where the police department has now been called out for it pattern of excessive use of force is more emotionally charged than ever. And that goes for both sides: This week, Councilman Jeff Johnson reminded his colleagues that members and directors of the police union are similarly capable of stoking ire, were Brelo to be pronounced guilty. One of the more bizarre aspects of the preparations arrived on social media. Last weekend, the city began using the hashtag #ourcle on Twitter to engage residents and get them talking about “what you love most about Cleveland” and “police/community

YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE Every time someone says “May the Fourth be with you,” an ewok dies.

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amnon Weinstein restores a violin played in the Holocaust.

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relations.” Worthy topics all, but the hashtag quickly turned into a digital watercooler for residents to air grievances over how little has been done and how PR stunts like #ourcle essentially accomplish nothing in the way of real reform. On Monday night, as Baltimore burned, the new Twitter account for the city’s Community Relations Board, @CRBCleveland, began getting weird. Two tweets in particular angered many in the area. They’ve since been deleted, but the tone suggested violence. “Should Cleveland be burned down like #bmore #Ferguson #hough #central ?” “Have heart! Don’t hide in the shadows! Should #ourcle be burned down? Speak up.” The bizarre message sent shockwaves of question marks across Twitter, which is sort of par for the course when a public agency tries its hand at digital engagement. A City Hall press release confirmed, anyway, that @CRBCleveland was indeed a real, city-sanctioned account. If it’s any indication tonally of how Cleveland is preparing to interface with its residents in the wake of the Brelo verdict, it’s not a good look.

Holocaust-Era Violins to BE PlayEd in clEVEland tHis Fall A very special and unique musical arts exhibition is coming to Northeast Ohio, giving us all a look and a listen into history. Violins of Hope builds a bridge to Nazi Germany, where music played a vital role in the minute sense of hope that was illuminated for the dying. The group’s founder, Amnon Weinstein, first encountered a customer at his restoration businesses who described violins being played by

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

Photo by Debra Yasinow

Jewish musicians while Nazis marched other victim to death. Almost 20 years ago, Weinstein began actively collecting and restoring violins that had been played during the Holocaust. “Wherever there were violins, there was hope,” Weinstein says of the program. “A profound personal story lives within each violin, and together they possess the potential to leave an indelible impact on every person who sees and hears them,” says Richard Bogomolny, Cleveland Orchestra chairman of the board and one of the leaders of the Violins of Hope Cleveland effort. This is only the second times the violins have been seen and heard in the U.S. (they were first hosted in Charlotte in 2012). Violins of Hope Cleveland will launch Sept. 27, 2015 and will conclude on Jan. 3, 2016. The months of programming with be anchored by a major exhibition at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, and events will take place all over Northeast Ohio. From the exhibition hosts: “The multimedia exhibition contextualizes and shares each of the instruments’ very different stories and further illustrates both the strength of the human spirit and the power of music.” The program is organized by Case Western Reserve University, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and ideastream.guns out of our communities.

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framed! our best shots from last week Emanuel Wallace, Jon Lichtenberg*, Joe Kleon**

Here for the game @ Quicken Loans Arena

License to spill @ Burning River Roller Derby

Feel the burn @ Burning River Roller Derby

The gauntlet @ Burning River Roller Derby

Europe! @ House of Blues*

Rocking out @ House of Blues

Friday night @ 5 O’Clock Lounge

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Young metalhead @ the Agora*

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The Candy Man @ Cleveland Masonic Auditorium**

Doompity-Doo @ Cleveland Masonic Auditorium**

Sweep and smiles! @ Quicken Loans Arena

Never miss a beat! See more pics @ clevescene.com

Willy Claypool @ Cleveland Masonic Auditorium**

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Share your best shots with SCENE – just tag or mention us! ™@ clevescene t @ cleveland_scene ` @ ClevelandScene • #clevescene

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facetime city stories Cleveland native and senior editor at The New Republic Jamil Smith talks about race, his new job, the new New Republic, and how the media should be covering race By Vince Grzegorek Jamil Smith iS a few monthS into his new gig at The New Republic after working as a producer for Rachel Maddow and then Melissa Harris-Perry at MSNBC. Much of his new gig is focused on covering race in America in a way that many magazines, let alone the New Republic, have in recent memory. He grew up in Shaker and still has many ties, and opinions of, home. We chatted for a few minutes about TNR, coverage of minorities in Cleveland, and why people get pissed when you point out the city’s negatives

Republic to cover those things, first of all, but I also saw an opportunity to open the door for other writers of color that the magazine hadn’t been very welcoming to in its history and recent history. When I first spoke to the editorin-chief, Gabriel Snyder, in December, I saw a lot of potential for growth, I saw the chance to not only do the kind of coverage I was interested in, but also to experiment with emerging mediums. We’re trying to launch a podcast, we’re trying to do more video, and he’s enabled me to captain all of that.

Vince Grzegorek: hey there, sir. thanks for taking a few minutes to chat. Jamil Smith: Of course. I’m actually coming back there soon. I was part of – in the very early stages – of a group called Minority Achievement Community in Shaker. You take a group of young black male students, juniors and seniors, with a 3.0 GPA or above and work with them and you advise freshmen and sophomores with below a 2.0 GPA. That program is still rolling some 25 years later. There’s going to be an award program in May and they asked me to speak at it.

VG: it’s very much needed. for the lack of a better way to put this: what can we, and by we i mean everyone in the media, especially those who control hiring and freelance assignments and green lights on stories, do better? JS: First things first: Too much when people think about covering race they think about covering racism and incidents of racism. There’s a lot of attention paid to police violence, paid to poverty, paid to income inequality and overt acts of bigotry. There’s so much about the experience of being a person of color that isn’t reflected in newspapers. In order for journalists to reflect the real character of the city, they have to get in the neighborhoods, they have to make allies, they have to convey that they are going to reflect those specific people’s experiences that they’re covering. As long as the community understands that journalists are out there trying to tell their side of the story, that’d be a big step in terms of broadening the scope of coverage.

VG: that is a tremendous program. JS: By the way, I grew up reading Scene. It’s cool to do this. I was telling my mom and my editor-in-chief. VG: me too, which is amazing to me now that i work here. it’s been around forever. and, perfect segue here, speaking of places that have been around forever: tell me a little bit about why you decided to take the senior editor position at the new Republic, which has been around for far longer than Scene, after the upheaval that took place on the masthead, and specifically why you took the job to do the sort of coverage on race that you are doing. JS: Well, I’ve always been interested in exploring the ideas and experiences and covering the news related to race and gender and identity politics. So I saw an opportunity at The New

VG: that’s obvious and yet a path not taken by many. JS: I think that’s what’s missing in Cleveland and other cities. I think the key for the media to understand… well, you understand if you’re making a movie and you want to appeal to a black market you hire Tyler Perry to direct the movie, you tell stories that appeal to a black audience who also have technical skills to do that well. That said, it’s not as easy in journalism

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

Jamil Smith wants to discuss race and how we discuss race in America.

– you’re dealing with real life. When it comes to Cleveland, you have certain realities that only come to light when tragedy happens. The media, it’s not purely their responsibility, but it’s part of their responsibility to make sure these stories are layered, to make sure they’re well told. If people tell these stories the way they’re supposed to be told, ways that appeal universally, and you approach race as you would any other subject, like economics, the better off it will be.

VG: it’s almost like this is what you do professionally, but i appreciate how much thought goes into that and what it means to take that and make it a part of the new Republic’s foundation. JS: I think the February essay [on the magazine’s historical problems publishing and covering minorities] was good to do off the top, not only to bring something important to light, but I felt like it helped me really grasp what part of my mission is here. My mission is to reflect the experiences of and tell the stories of people who have been ignored and erased. And I think that’s a big deal and a big responsibility. It’s only going to keep growing. We’re going to keep adding to our masthead and the newsroom. The sky’s the limit for the magazine. VG: You are still an active reader of and participant in Cleveland news. we’ve got one big news outlet here, Cleveland.com. we here at Scene are media critics of them, to be sure, and otherwise people that live and work in Cleveland and it’s hard not to get too far down the rabbit

hole of discussing their coverage of certain events. from a semi-outside perspective, when big national events happen hereand Cleveland. com’s coverage goes out, what’s the reaction to their reporting, especially when it comes to matters of race? JS: First of all, when I read the Plain Dealer or Scene or any local journalism, it takes me back home. But, trying to take a step back, looking at what the Cleveland coverage has signified, I feel like the one thing that stands out to me unfortunately is a negative. There was an article about Tamir Rice’s father that got a lot of press. I just thought, of all the different angles, of all the complex things that go into what happens those two seconds between when the cop gets out of his car and when he decided to fire his weapon at a 12-year-old, and it’s that? The media in Cleveland to some degree is stuck in an old paradigm of how to cover a story. I think that’s something that happens in New York and other places too – it’s not endemic to the hometown – but that said, I definitely found some of the coverage lacking. Now, I don’t know their internal dynamics or resources, but I do know that it doesn’t take much to cover a story with compassion, to think about whether a father’s record has anything to do with his boy being dead. We need to be really thinking about how we cover stories and what cultural sensitivities we come to bear when we do that. Read the full interview at clevescene.com.

vgrzegorek@clevescene.com t @vincethepolack

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 13

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FEATURE estate of emergency

Allegations of kidnapping, abduction, fraud and theft aren’t enough to stop one of the most contentious probate cases in Northeast Ohio By Eric Sandy Fourough Bakhtiar is wearing a magenta cardigan and a beige springtime hat in the Lorain County Justice Center in early April. Looking across the courtroom from behind big, thick-framed glasses, the 81-year-old wife, mother and grandmother is the center of her family’s universe, though none of them, except her son-in-law Phillip Presutto, are here this morning. There’s a good reason for that. She is, however, joined by her attorney, Stephen Wolf, and her current legal guardian, Zachary Simonoff, who was appointed to manage Bakhtiar’s affairs last year after much legal wrangling. “I’ve probably had no other case that has been as contentious as this one and that has spurred as much litigation as this one,” says Probate Court Judge James Walther. He is not being hyperbolic. The fate of Bakhtiar’s guardianship and sizable estate has been the gravitational center of a lengthy legal battle that’s torn her family apart. Since April 2013, for example, she has not lived with her husband, Mehdi Saghafi, in their Seven Hills home, and no one can agree whether that’s a good thing for her or not. Saddled with signs of dementia, according to three physicians, and “vulnerable to exploitation,” according to court records, even Fourough herself doesn’t seem to be sure. Five months ago, Judge Walther issued final orders to settle the legal war, the gist of which was this: Fourough, deemed incompetent by the court, was in need of a guardian. Her daughter, Jaleh Presutto, long estranged from the family, had brought her mother to live with her and her husband, Phillip Presutto, in Amherst and fought for the guardianship and initiated a divorce against Fourough’s husband. The other family members, Fourough’s husband and sons, fought back and claimed that Fourough was being corrupted, cajoled in her weak state to make decisions she wouldn’t otherwise make, intentionally

separated from her family. But there’s hardly an end in sight, and so up for debate this morning, as always in this probate case, is Fourough’s money: Jaleh is seeking $20,000 from her mother’s bank accounts to help her legal defense for allegedly abducting her mother. She was once Fourough’s legal guardian; she’s recently been

reserved for Christmas or birthdays, Judge Walther says. “No one’s ever asked me to pay for a legal defense. I’m not sure if I have to look behind the legal reasoning.” He shifts his attention to Fourough and asks her if she understands what is being asked, whether she grasps the enormity of this request. He’s smiling as he

The Saghafi family in 2004; Fourough is second from the left.

indicted on five felony counts in Cuyahoga County for the elderly woman’s kidnapping and abduction. “She wanted to provide any assistance she could to her daughter in this matter,” Fourough’s guardian Zachary Simonoff tells the judge. “I think it would benefit the ward. She wants to reunite with her daughter.” A no-contact order, since revoked, was in place, barring the two from seeing each other. “Gifts,” the legal term for free expenditures of cash from a ward’s financial accounts, are usually

speaks with her, rekindling fatherly tones with which he tends to conduct his courtroom. “Yes, I want her to choose what she wants,” Fourough says, referring to Jaleh. “She’s been kind of isolated, and I want her to feel more family. I want her to do something for herself and her husband.” Walther pushes a bit. That’s not what the money is for. Does she really understand the ramifications of the legal proceedings swirling around her? Does she understand that her daughter is facing criminal

charges in Cuyahoga County? Fourough appears confused. “I don’t understand.” Walther refers again to the criminal case. Fourough speaks quietly. “Yes.” Again. “Could my son-in-law answer that? I don’t really know.” Simonoff leans toward her and says that the judge needs to hear it from her. “Yes, I’m sorry.” Walther tells her how she seemed more at ease behind closed doors in earlier conversations. She’s clearly unsettled now, he points out. He tells her that he has “strong feelings” about the request before him and that he’s going to have to “take a really hard look at this.” Fourough responds: “I would like that to be given to her,” referring to the money. Always the money.

Fourough Bakhtiar met Mehdi Saghafi while working as a nurse in Iran. The couple would marry soon after and immigrate to the U.S., settling in the suburbs of Cleveland in the late 1960s. Mehdi opened a private medical practice, upon which the family estate was built slowly and grandly. Their children — Dariush, Kourosh, Jamsheed, Khashayar and Jaleh — grew up in a lively family. Parties were a regular occurrance. Still are. By the 2010s, their children themselves practicing nurses and doctors, Fourough and Mehdi had grown old and in need of assistance — physical and otherwise. Fourough’s mental health in particular was slipping, and so the children did what children do when it comes to matters of aging parents. In January 2013, the five siblings gathered in the basement of Jamsheed’s home in Parma and agreed that something had to be done. Jaleh had called the meeting, which was strange to her brothers, since they had not seen her much

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 15

FEATURE over the past five years. But family pain tends to bridge even the angriest gaps. Cuyahoga County court records show that Fourough Bakhtiar sided with Jaleh’s ex-husbands in contentious divorce cases spanning the late 1990s and 2000s, paying court fees for motions filed to reallocate parental rights and responsibilities and shift them away from Jaleh. The rift that grew amid the two women in those years was immense, family members tell Scene. A letter written by Jaleh in September 2008 bears that out: “Dear Dad, “Hello. I want to explain to you the way I feel and how horribly angry I am that my own mother would even think to do anything against me and set out to destroy my relationship with my children. I believe that she has mental issues and for that want nothing to do with her at this point in time.” In one August 2008 motion, one of Jaleh’s ex-husbands writes that she “has become increasingly violent, often striking the children and/or threatening them with the same.” At the time, one of her children was living with Fourough, and Fourough lent assistance to the ex-husband’s cause. Jaleh’s letter continued: “So, this huge war against me by my own mother has left nothing but CONTEMPT for her!! I will never get over this.” Family members say that Jaleh became estranged from her mother and most of the rest of the family after that, which made the January 2013 meeting all the more surprising. But, again, her brothers recall thinking, when it comes to aging parents, old squabbles tend to fall away. The siblings decided then that each would lend a portion of his or her week to care for their mother. Additional financial responsibilities were delegated by Dariush, who held Fourough’s power of attorney. Jamsheed took care of weekly grocery duty. Everything seemed in order, the duties of shepherding Fourough’s daily life fairly divided. But in the weeks that followed the meeting, Jaleh drifted out of the agreed workload and returned to her world in Amherst. No one, according to family members, thought much of it at the time. People were busy. She hadn’t been around much lately, anyway.

Meanwhile that spring, Fourough’s health problems continued, and a couple of incidents further proved the need for care, lest the elderly woman cause herself harm. Seven Hills police reports show that officers responded frequently to concerns at Fourough’s home. On March 12: “Caller says there is a mute woman at her door. She does not know what she needs or how to help her. “

home back in Lorain County for a few days. In the meantime, Dariush and his dad secured the Seven Hills home with deadbolt locks, following suggestions they had picked up from information on caring for those with Alzheimer’s. Fourough returned home to Seven Hills on April 9, but the next night, she wandered out into the backyard; the sliding glass door didn’t have a deadbolt. Dariush brought her to his Pepper Pike

The Lorain County Justice Center in Elyria.

And on April 5: “Caller seemed very confused. Talked about a baby just being born in a car.” On April 7, Fourough left her home in Seven Hills and wandered down the street in the early morning. She was found by her husband in a neighbor’s flower bed, clad in a nightgown and pounding on the windows to someone’s house. After hearing of the incident, Jaleh returned to Seven Hills to pick up her mother and take her to her

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

home until April 12 while the family made more logistical fixes at home and again huddled to further decide on Fourough’s care. Jaleh, who had been largely absent with the exception of caring for her mother for a few days, seemed intent on becoming part of the family’s care again, as text messages between her and her brother Dariush show. Jaleh, April 10: “I’m going to her house and Phillip is looking

forward to it. I’ll be there around 1230 p and stay for the day!” Dariush, April 10: “Well, she’ll be staying here through tomorrow. She cant go out with the cough she’s got. You are welcome to bring Phillip with you to our house and visit with mom here. You’ll be much more comfortable given the disarray the house is in.” Jaleh, April 11: “Not coming out today, some changes unexpectedly for Phillip… With his therapists/ therapies, need to rescheduled appts.. Will see mom this weekend!” And she did. But not in any way the family had agreed upon. On April 13, 2013, a Saturday, Jaleh called her mother’s Seven Hills home. Jaleh’s son, James Rhoads, picked up the phone. He had been living with his grandparents while he attended classes at Tri-C. Jaleh asked to speak with her mother, and soon drove over to the house. “I was not alarmed or worried that anything unusual was going on,” Rhoads said in an affidavit one year later. “My mom had told me that she’s taking my grandma out for a couple of hours and was bringing her back at some point later that day. In other words, it was supposed to be a temporary visit between my grandma and my mom.” That was not the case.

Reaction among Jaleh’s brothers was mixed. Dariush simply wanted information: “Trying to figure out where mom is at. I thought she’d be home by today,” he texted Jaleh on April 15. It had been two days. Over the next few weeks, his messages became more pointed, evolving from general worry to specific worries about proper prescription drug protocol, urging Jaleh to get Fourough to her various medical appointments, and alerting his sister that bill payments would be automatically deducted from Fourough’s accounts and to make sure that they money was there. Kourosh was angry from the beginning. Something had seemed off in the first place, back at that meeting in Jamsheed’s basement. For Jaleh to have suddenly expressed an interest in her mother’s health after everything that had happened? He grew suspicious as the days passed with no word from their mother, and he

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stoked his brothers’ curiosity. “I mean, Dariush is the power of attorney,” Jamsheed recalls saying. Still, a history of money troubles was hard to ignore and suspicions that Jaleh had alternative motives were hard to put to rest. The brothers began conferring over years of money trouble from Jaleh; they say she had routinely hit them up for cash as they grew into adulthood. Just one year prior, according to family members, Jaleh called Kouroush and said that her $200,000 home in Amherst was going into foreclosure. The Presuttos were trying to refinance a loan, according to Lorain County court documents. Jaleh and her husband briefly considered moving into another Seven Hills house owned by her dad, Mehdi Saghafi, one in which Jaleh had lived in the 1990s when she had run into a similar breed of financial trouble. Phillip Presutto offered an estimate for work on the basement: something around $25,000 for a fullon overhaul. Mehdi balked. Phillip offered the buy the home. Mehdi said he was not selling. The Presuttos did not move to Seven Hills; they continued the legal back-and-forth with Lorain County, eventually securing the loan they needed, but Jaleh’s brothers suspected the money troubles were never that far from their sister. And as they began turning past events around in conversation, they learned that Jaleh had not only taken her mother but had taken her to meet with an attorney. John Urban had previously arranged Fourough’s estate documents and power of attorney, naming Dariush as her agent. During this meeting, however, according to Urban, Fourough stated that she wanted her husband to be the agent of her living will and to hold healthcare power of attorney; but nothing was formalized during that meeting and no paperwork was filled out. “They started to talk about changes they wanted to make to the power of attorney, which changes caused me some concern,” he later said in a signed affidavit. “Because I was concerned, under the circumstances, I asked Jaleh to get a medical evaluation to demonstrate that Fourough was capable of understanding the documents and giving direction as to what she

wanted.” Jaleh never got back to him on that — medical evaluations later confirmed that Fourough was not capable of understanding nor giving direction in such matters — instead seeking out another attorney who might look past any such concerns. She found that in Mark Shearer, an estate planning attorney who changed the POA orders to name Jaleh Presutto as the agent the very day he met her. It wasn’t until more than a week later that he asked Fourough a series of questions on tape — i.e. Who is the president? What month is it? — to confirm her mental clarity. According to Shearer, Fourough appeared “of sound mind and under no duress.” Lisa Hahn, a divorce attorney who had represented Jaleh in past civil cases, notarized the order on April 23 and later paid the $300 flat fee for the estate planning codicil and trust amendment.

Jaleh now had control over Fourough’s decisions and continued to avoid Dariush’s text inquiries. The next move: a divorce against Mehdi Saghafi that, once approved, would open the floodgates to a massive estate. Estimates among attorneys involved in the case range from a few million to $10 million. Proceedings began on May 6, initiated by Lisa Hahn on behalf of Fourough, alleging “gross neglect of duty” and “extreme cruelty” against her husband. In the meantime, as family members would eventually learn and according to court records, Jaleh was changing how Fourough acted. The efficiency of her behavioral coaching was startling, Jamsheed says. “During those visits, at least one time each visit, I could hear my mother, Jaleh Presutto, coaching my grandmother,” James Rhoads, Jaleh’s son from a previous marriage, said. “What I mean by coaching is saying the same thing to her over and over again and making her repeat back. The following is what I heard: 1) ‘They do not want to take care of you.’ 2) ‘They do not care about you.’ 3) ‘They do not love you.’ 4) ‘The reason they are fighting back is to protect the wealth of the family.’ Also… 5) ‘They would put you in a Nursing Home if they could and leave you there to die. The only reason they don’t go to that extent is because they don’t want to spend

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FEATURE the money to take care of you.’” Jaleh brought Fourough to two doctors for medical assessments in May. Dr. Babak Tousi reported severe dementia, and referred Jaleh to Dr. Jody Pickle, who wrote: “At this time there are allegations on each side that the other side is seeking to control a large amount of money (reportedly millions) that has been amassed by Mrs. Bakhtiar and her husband. While Mrs. Bakhtiar was able to answer some questions regarding safety issues adequately, her memory and executive functions are impaired enough that she is likely to be vulnerable to exploitation.” Despite repeated claims from doctors and close family members that Fourough was in no way capable of comprehending the serious legal decisions at hand, the Lorain County Probate Court and the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court did not budge. The guardianship and divorce cases plowed ahead, full-steam. The cascade crashed quickly onto the Saghafi family. Much of this would be pieced together in

legal discovery over the next two years, but the POA changes and the divorce proceedings were clear as day. Dariush and Mehdi did the only thing they could think of to quash the family drama, filing applications to serve as Fourough’s legal guardian in Lorain County Probate Court. By the summer of 2013, a couple months after Jaleh brought Fourough to Amherst, the Lorain County Probate Court had appointed a guardian ad litem, a professional guardian in a case who serves only by court order and only for the duration of a legal action. Diane Jancura, a local estate planning attorney, examined the state of affairs in the case of Fourough and Jaleh and the brothers and the husband. Her report, submitted to the court in June 2013, details a woman in need of personal and financial help — the sort of help that no one around her has seemed willing to provide. Citing the persistent family discord, Jancura objected to either Fourough’s husband Mehdi, her son Dariush or her daughter Jaleh serving as guardian. She further recommended that Fourough be moved into an assisted living facility somewhere

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

between Amherst and Seven Hills, somewhere accessible to all family members, but, to be blunt here, the hell away from all of them. The court did not listen.

The family home on Gale Drive in Seven Hills is a surprisingly modest ranch, but the money referenced in countless court documents is very real — and very quickly disappearing. In 2013, not long after the POA changes and around the same time that Dariush and Mehdi got involved, Fourough’s Century Federal Credit Union account was being drained at an alarming rate. Her court-approved expenditures totaled $1,395 each month, mirroring the earlier budget arranged by Dariush. But somehow the account was hemorrhaging cash ($4,001 spent in June, $5,144 in July, $14,000 in October, for example), eclipsing the approved amount between May and December of that year by nearly $30,000. It would take a long time to learn all of that, though. Bank accounts associated with Fourough were kept under strict guard, accessible only to Jaleh by way of the power of

attorney order. Before any such discovery, Jaleh and Phillip Presutto’s attorney was already angling to keep that information secret, writing that, “This Court should not be required to sit idly during hearing while [her brother] Kouroush Saghafi satisfies his personal curiosity by rummaging through Phillip and Jaleh’s personal documents, none of which are germane to any issue before this Court.” It wasn’t germane to the court, but it was sure as hell germane to the rest of the family. Their suspicions were coming true. On Nov. 21, 2013, Fourough and Jaleh opened a joint bank account at Fifth Third Bank. On Nov. 25, attorney Steven Sartschev, Fourough’s longtime accountant, was appointed the guardian of estate by Judge James Walther. On Nov. 26, a U.S. Treasury check for $6,555 addressed to Fourough Bakhtiar was deposited into the account (and $100 was taken out as cash). On Nov. 27, $1,000 was withdrawn by Jaleh. According to a notice of discovery filed in 2014, the joint account debit card was swiped at Trendy Wendy (a

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 23

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restaurant), Dunham’s (a sporting goods store), Walmart, Finish Line, Toys R Us and Giant Eagle. The account was closed in March 2014. Throughout, Sartschev, who was unavailable to speak with Scene for this story, ignored subpoenas for Fourough’s communications and financial statements and the rest of the family remained in the dark. Against all of those financial dealings, there was this unavoidable detail: Phillip Presutto pleaded guilty to theft and two counts of felonious insurance fraud in August 2014. He maintains a balance of more than $11,000 in unpaid costs with the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas.

A year into everything, an impromptu March 2014 meeting between the family members and Fourough at the Lorain County Justice Center became a point of crystallization in the case, around which tempers flared more brightly in contrast. As the financial morass deepened, the family was elated simply to have a chance to see Fourough again. It was an unexpected bit of normalcy. Fourough’s grandchildren gathered around as the judge brought Fourough into the courtroom during an otherwise contentious hearing. Her sons — Dariush, Kourosh and Jamsheed — joined. The children laughed. They cried, hugged, reminisced. It had been nearly a year since Fourough’s disappearance. She seemed happy, family members say. The judge even ordered pizza for everybody. “There was an explosion of emotions,” Jamsheed tells Scene. “I had not seen my mom by herself without being surrounded by the Presuttos and the attorneys — and everybody not letting us get close to her — in close to a year. It was a wonderful meeting for everybody.” Walther promised that additional visitation dates would be submitted by Fourough’s attorneys in three days. Then five months passed by. On Labor Day weekend in 2014, Walther permitted a visitation between Fourough and her grandchildren. Per demands set forth by guardian Zachary Simonoff, no adults or other attorneys were allowed. After much debate involving the concerns over leaving very young children alone

in a restaurant with an elderly woman and an estate lawyer, the mother of two of the younger children was allowed to come. The meeting was arranged at Aladdin’s in Oberlin. It lasted for one hour, and, according to correspondence shared with Scene, the mood was tense. Fourough’s attorney, Stephen Wolf, entered the restaurant and sat at a table on the other side of the room, seemingly breaking the agreement that no other attorneys be present. Family members were caught off guard. Fourough refused to speak with the grandchildren. It was all very strange, very different from the family get-together over pizza. “I had a short conversation with the older grandchildren,” Simonoff wrote in the following days. “They were deeply hurt that the Ward would not speak to them. I told them that she expressed that she was angry that they had provided affidavits in the case against her wishes and that she could not trust them...I suggested that they concentrate on being grandchildren and let the parents fight this matter out. “In order to carry out the court order, I have set up another visit for September 19, 2014 at 5 p.m.,” Simonoff continued. “I believe that it will be a waste of time.” He never got to find out, though, as Judge James Walther barred visitation from then on.

March 2015. Jaleh Presutto is now sitting in a courtroom at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center, the same building where she was indicted on criminal charges in January: kidnapping (a firstdegree felony), abduction (a thirddegree felony), two counts of theft (third- and fourth-degree felonies) and telecommunications fraud (a third-degree felony). Fourough Bakhtiar is named as the victim in the kidnapping, abduction and theft counts. A trial date is set for June 22. Jaleh, unreachable for comment for this story, provided a statement through her attorney: “Jaleh S. Presutto is falsely accused of kidnapping, abduction and theft related charges in Cuyahoga County. Jaleh looks forward to demonstrating her complete innocence of all charges to a Cuyahoga County jury later this year. As you are aware, the charges against Ms. Presutto came about only after her father and brothers began repeatedly losing

FEATURE their respective legal positions, arguments, and cases in both Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court, Cuyahoga County Probate Court, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and Lorain County Probate Court. “When they were unable to convince the Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office that a crime was committed, they turned their collective attention and malicious intentions to pursuing venue and frivolous criminal charges in Cuyahoga County.” Jaleh needs money, though, as the simple matter of legal fees continues to mount. The estate of Fourough Bakhtiar is seen as a well for her defense. Fourough’s attorneys insist that this money meant for the defense of Jaleh Presutto will “protect this Court’s guardianship [of Fourough].” Jaleh’s defense is integral to the well-being of her mother, court motions claim. Shortly after the indictment, Jaleh was removed as her mother’s guardian and ordered not to have contact with her. Attorney Zachary Simonoff was installed as the guardian. As Jaleh’s criminal case has progressed, requests for legal defense funds were made. During the March hearing, Judge Michael Jackson permitted Jaleh to return to life at her home with her husband and her mother. A Channel 19 cameraman followed her and an attorney out of the courtroom, a sign of what life is like now. The case, granted a few minutes on Channel 5 back in March, is slipping out of the two counties’ courthouses and into the public light. Members of the Saghafi family lingered outside that day, meeting quietly with their own attorneys and quelling the concerns of Fourough’s grandchildren. It’s a difficult matter to comprehend, Jamsheed Saghafi says. He had been close with his sister growing up. “For me, this is real tragic,” Jamsheed says. “No matter what happens, I’ve lost my sister, I’ve lost my mom. It’s real tragic to me that she sat down and chose this path.” At the heart of the matter remains the question, answered and yet unanswered, of whether Fourough can make decisions for herself. Judge James Walther believes she can. He upheld Fourough’s divorce order against her husband just a few weeks after

she disappeared from her Seven Hills home. Fourough’s attorneys call it a “rescue.” The Saghafi family calls it an “abduction.” “Although the Court has declared her to be incompetent as a matter of law, the Court finds her to be very bright, articulate and determined,” Judge James Walther wrote in a Feb. 9, 2015, order to proceed with the divorce. The next hearing in the divorce case is scheduled for June 15 in Judge Leslie Celebrezze’s courtroom. That’s three court proceedings going on at one time over this 81-year-old woman’s future, and the future of her bank accounts.

Everyone claims to be speaking in the best interest of Fourough, but it can hardly be claimed that any of them are. Buried deep in the boxes of legal documents might be the only person who is: In her report, Diane Jancura writes that Fourough “prefers to live alone, not with her husband, sons or daughter,” hence her recommendation that Fourough move to an assisted living home. “My interview of Mrs. Bakhtiar... show[s] that Mrs. Bakhtiar is incapable of managing her own personal and financial affairs. I also believe that she is quite susceptible to undue influence and duress

from almost any member of her family and will change her mind frequently as a result. “Allowing Mrs. Bakhtiar the freedom to live apart from her husband. sons, and daughter, will, hopefully, provide her entire family with concrete proof of her abilities, and more importantly, her inabilities.” It’s been nearly two years since Jacura filed her report with the court, and no one has come up with a better idea since.

esandy@clevescene.com t @ericsandy

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 25

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An Evening with

BruCe hornsBy

Without Jack Noworth and Albert Von Tilzer, baseball wouldn’t sound the same.

Thursday May 7 8PM

You know how the song starts. Come see how it began.

Mary Chapin Carpenter

MarC Cohn

Lúnasa

This Tuesday May 5 8PM

With Special GueSt

This Thursday, April 30 7PM

YP MOVIE NIGHT: BULL DURHAM & BEER Wed., May 6, 5pm; film starts at 7pm – $12

THROUGH SEPT. 7, 2015 Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American was organized by the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence.

ORGANIZED BY:

M-Cubed, the Maltz Museum young professionals group, hosts a screening of the classic comedic baseball love story that tops ESPN, Sports Illustrated and American Film Institute lists of all-time best sports movies.

SPONSORED BY:

THE TREU-MART FUND

2929 Richmond Road, Beachwood, OH 216.593.0575 I @maltzmuseum I maltzmuseum.org

Unleash yoUr inner child with adUlt beverages.

Detroit Ave, Lakewood + 16-BitBar.com

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

get out everything you should do this week wed

04/29 (Photo by AdiHarari)

drink

Hoppin’ Rad Much like the Fat Heads tasting room in Middleburg Heights, Akron’s Hoppin’ Frog Tasting Room is in a nondescript strip of storage facilities and warehouses. But step inside and you’ll find a cozy tasting room with a huge array of the brewery’s wonderful libations. The place features “hoppy hour” every weekday from 3 to 7 p.m. Tonight, the brewers visit the tasting room from 5 to 7 p.m. While they don’t fill growlers, you can drink bottles on site or take ’em to go. The place also offers a “Hoppin’ Frog Rare & Vintage” list as well as a guest bottle list. (Jeff Niesel) 1680-F Waterloo Rd., Akron, 234-525-3764, hoppinfrog.com/tasting-room. Comedy

A Southern Man Comedian Chad Thornsberry is a Southern man who just loves to make people laugh. Thornsberry has a very laid-back attitude on stage and won’t stop at anything to make you laugh, even if that means the joke is at his expense. Whether joking about how his accent makes people think he can fix their tractor or making fun of everyday situations, he’s not above self-deprecation. He performs at Hilarities tonight at 8 and again on May 3. Tickets are $13 to $18. (Martin Harp) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com. nightlife

A Story of Splendor M-Cubed, the Maltz Museum’s young professionals group, meets today at 7 p.m. at a local eatery to discuss American Splendor, the graphic novel by the late local Jewish author (and library lover) Harvey Pekar and the source material for the award-winning film by the same name. But you needn’t be a M-Cubed member to attend the free discussion — which includes appetizers! (Copies of the book can be purchased in the Museum Store at a discounted rate for M-Cubed members.) While there is no cost for this evening’s discussion, RSVPs are required. Check out the website for more information. (Niesel) matlzmuseum.org.

thu

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Ester Rada evokes the soul power women of old. See: Thursday.

but he does sing out of his butt. Like the time his wife put him on the Atkins Diet and the “assflac” duck flew out as he hovered over the toilet while bacon grease dripped from his eyelashes. Yeah, this guy is not above fart jokes. Other topics of humor include the agonies of waiting for a pizza, comparing strippers to pillows and pretending to understand legal documents. He’s pretty hilarious. The show starts at 8 tonight at Hilarities and performances run through Saturday. Tickets start at $22. (Liz Trenholme) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

been touring the country for the past 20 years, entertaining anyone and everyone he possibly can. Paul focuses on everyday aspects of life like marriage, family and the stupidity of the people surrounding him. With an animated personality on stage, he loves to take the crowd on a hysterical journey with his stories. You can catch him tonight at 7:30 at the Hard Rock Rocksino’s Club Velvet. Tickets are $13 to $18 with performances scheduled through Sunday. (Harp) 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, hrrocksinonorthfieldpark.com.

leCture

Comedy

The Comma Queen Proofreader Mary Norris, whose cousin is politician Dennis Kucinich, began working at the New Yorker in 1978 and has been a query proofreader since 1993. According to her official bio, “She is best known for her pieces on pencils and punctuation.” Her first book, Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, has just come out. Tonight at 7:30 at the Happy Dog, she participates in a book reading and signing. Admission is free. (Niesel) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com.

He Likes it Raw At 4-foot-4, Brad Williams hasn’t let his height become an obstacle. The comic was born with a disability that’s become the basis for all his jokes. Carlos Mencia reportedly discovered him one night and made him his opening act. Williams has also made countless appearances on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jackass and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His high energy, combined with his raw skits about relationships and sex, translates well to the stage. Williams performs tonight at 7:30 at the Improv Comedy Club. Tickets are $20. Performances continue through Sunday. (Lisa Hammond) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

Comedy

The Butt of a Joke Comic Bob Marley doesn’t play reggae,

Fantastic Journey Longtime comedian Frankie Paul has

Benefit

Paying Homage to an Activist The late, great local poet Daniel Thompson was known as an activist for the homeless. He’ll be honored at today’s benefit for the Street Chronicle and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. The event takes place at 7:30 p.m. at the Algebra Tea House. Sax man Ernie Krivda and the jazz/jam outfit Drumplay will perform and local poet Ray McNiece will read. (Niesel) 2136 Murray Hill Rd., 216-421-9007, algebrateahouse.com. musiC

Jazz Times Jazz singer Ester Rada was born in Ethiopia but grew up in a highly religious Jewish family in Israel. As a result, her music, which she’s dubbed Ethio-Jazz, draws from funk, soul and R&B. Last year, on the heels of her first self-written and composed solo EP Life Happens, which was produced by Israeli producers Kuti (Kutiman/ThruYou) and Sabbo (Soulico), she delivered her self-titled debut. It’s an intoxicating blend of styles and even draws upon reggae. Rada cites early 20th century “soul power women” such as Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin as influences. She performs tonight at 7:30 at the Hanna Theatre. Tickets are $20 to $25. (Niesel) 2067 East 14th St., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 27

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when he was “excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” The show starts at 7 at the House of Blues. Tickets are $13 in advance and $15 day of show. (Harp) 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.

Art

Blast from the Past From the late 1970s until 2005, Cleveland photographer Kevin D. Carmont, — who had been in a band with Anton Fier (Golden Palominos) and Mike Terrell (Wild Giraffes) — photographed local acts such as Styrenes, Pere Ubu, Foreign Bodies, Dave E. with the Cool Marriage Counselors, Golden Palominos and Wally Bryson. His first “published” image was of Dave E. (best known as a member of the Electric Eels) in an issue of CLE magazine. His new exhibit, Kevin D. Carmont: Listen to these Pictures includes shots from the July 4 beach party at the Hanna mansion in Bratenahl where the Cramps and Pere Ubu played for about 100 guests, including Plain Dealer rock writer Jane Scott. “I began working by just heading into uncharted territories, by saying yes to most anyone that simply asked,” says Carmont in a press release. The exhibit’s opening reception takes place today from 6 to 10 p.m. at Space: Rock Gallery. (Niesel) 15721 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, clevelandrocksppf.org. theAter

Coble-d Together Cleveland native Eric Coble’s new play, Fairfield, centers on the issue of diversity in an elementary school. The story goes something like this: When a young teacher’s attempt to celebrate Black History Month goes awry, chaos erupts in the district. Coble’s play examines how cultural constructs determine what we consider appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. The play makes its debut tonight at 7:30 at the Outcalt Theater, and performances continue through May 31. Tickets are $29 to $69. (Kaitlin Siegel) 1407 Euclid Ave, 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

ComiCs

Free for All Carol and John’s isn’t just a comic book shop. Thanks to the store’s unique programming and special events, the store has become a catalyst for building community around pop culture and comics. Their annual Free Comic Book Day event is the biggest and best around, and it continues to grow every year. Get a sneak peek at the event today from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., then stop by tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. for a day filled with special events. The owners have more than 25,000 comic books to give away, 10 per person maximum. Check out the list of available titles at freecomicbookday. com. (Josh Usmani) 17462 Lorain Ave., 216-252-0606, cnjcomics.com. theAter

Dance Fever Saturday Night Fever, the smash hit musical based on the 1977 film, is coming to Playhouse Square courtesy of Baldwin Wallace University. The iconic story follows the life of Brooklyn youth Tony Manero who spends his weekends at the local disco, dancing his troubles away. There he basks in the admiration of the crowd and can escape the realities of life, like his dead-end job. Saturday Night Fever is of course filled with musical hits from the disco era including “Stayin’ Alive,” “Jive Talkin’,” and “Night Fever.” The film spawned one of the top-selling soundtracks of all time. Saturday Night Fever opens tonight at 7:30 at the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab and performances continue through Sunday. Tickets are $25. (Siegel) 1407 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. musiC

Comedy

Cox and Crew The sixth annual Alan Cox Comedy Tour is back tonight at the House of Blues. Featuring Alan Cox, Bill Squire, Mary Santora, Erik Cribley and Wil Anderson, the night is sure to leave everyone in tears from laughter. Music will be provided by Cleveland’s own Archie & the Bunkers. Cox, whom you might know from the Alan Cox Show on 100.7 WMMS, started doing standup back in college. Bill Squire, Cox’s co-host, has also been doing standup comedy for ages and likes to joke that he started

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

Folk Fest Veteran singer-songwriter Tom Paxton emerged out of the same Greenwich Village scene that spawned Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk and Joan Baez. For his new album, Redemption Road, he collaborated with a number of other musicians. The list includes Al Perkins on dobro, Tim Crouch on fiddle and mandolin, frequent collaborator Geoff Bartley on National steel guitar, Kirk “Jellyroll” Johnson on harmonica and executive producer Cathy Fink on banjo and harmonies. Singer-songwriter Janis Ian contributes harmony to the

title tune and singer-songwriter John Prine sings a line on “Skeeters’ll Gitcha.” It’s a terrific album. On what he says is his final tour, Paxton headlines Oberlin’s Folk Fest, which takes place today and tomorrow in Oberlin. He plays tomorrow night at Finney Chapel. Kimya Dawson, Jeremy Kittel Band, Front Country, Rushad Eggleston and 10 String Symphony are also slated to perform. Admission is free. Check the website for more details. (Niesel) oberlinspringfolkfest.tumblr.com. Art

A Grand Opening At 6 p.m. today, BAYarts celebrates the grand opening of their new 2,500-square-foot Karen Ryel Ceramic Arts and Education Center on the BAYarts campus in the Cleveland Metroparks Huntington Reservation. Following the ceremonial dedication, the adjacent Fuller House Sullivan Gallery hosts a free opening reception for the Annual Advanced Student Ceramic Show. This year’s exhibition theme is “Field of Dreams,” inspired by Karen Ryel’s award-winning flower bowls, a signature item she made in the former studio. Ryel’s daughter and grandchildren will be some of the first students to take classes in the new space. (Usmani) 28795 Lake Rd., Bay Village, 440-871-6543, bayarts.net.

outdoors

Good Clean Fun On the first Friday of May, volunteers clad in green overrun downtown Akron on a mission to paint the city green. That’s not meant literally, of course. The Eighth Annual Green & Clean Day aims to engage the community in the attempt to make Akron a more vibrant and valuable place. Volunteers and community members will construct teams and execute cleaning duties in each district. Each team member will receive a complimentary T-shirt, goodie bag and lunch. If you want to help, registration is free and the event takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in downtown Akron. (Siegel) downtownakron.com/greenandclean. Music

In Perfect Harmony Back in 2010, the duo Dala won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year. Listen to their version of “Dream a Little Dream,” and it’s readily apparent they deserved the honor. The voices harmonize perfectly and the two sing with a real elegance. The two come to the Happy Days Lodge in Peninsula tonight at 8 as part of the Cuyahoga Valley Heritage Series. The Conservancy Canteen will be serving up the grub: fresh, locally-sourced cuisine like Cuban sandwiches, antipasto skew-

ers and spiced beer nuts. Tickets are $17 for non-members, $12 for Conservancy members. (Niesel) 500 West Streetsboro Rd., Peninsula, 330-657-2909, ConservancyforCVNP.org. Art

Last Chance From 6 to 9 p.m. today, William Busta Gallery presents a freee opening reception for its latest exhibitions of Stephen Yusko’s sculptures and paintings by Andrea Joki and Enid Williams. All three exhibitions run through the end of May. Those of you who plan ahead may want to mark your calendars now for Friday, June 5, as Busta presents an opening reception for its final exhibitions. In August, new owners John and Lauren Davies will take over day-to-day operations of the exhibition space. (Usmani) 2731 Prospect Ave., 216-298-9071, williambustagallery.com. Art

A New Paradigm From 5 to 10 p.m. today, the Maria Neil Art Project debuts the first solo exhibition by Barbara Stanford, as part of May’s Walk All Over Waterloo. Despite the fact that the artist has created work for herself and selected juried shows for nearly 20 years, Imperceptible Paradigm includes nearly two decades

worth of work on public display for the very first time. Stanford’s work seeks to engage the audience in hopes of retaining ownership of our bodies and better understanding them inside and out. Imperceptible Paradigm runs through June 14. The event is free. (Usmani) 15813 Waterloo Rd., 216-481-7722, marianeilartproject.com. FilM

Short Stuff In conjunction with their I AM: A Trans Art Exhibition, Waterloo Arts hosts a special film screening at 6:30 p.m. today, as part of this month’s Walk All Over Waterloo. Presented in partnership with Sistah Sinema and the Cleveland International Film Festival, the evening includes two short films about transwomen of color. Following the films, a moderated discussion will be led by Zoë Renee Lapin. Kumu Hina: A Place in the Middle tells the story of Ho’onani, an 11-year-old who dreams of leading the all-male hula troupe at her Honolulu school. Stealth is a 22-minute short film exploring Sammy, a brave 11-yearold embracing herself and promoting acceptance of children facing similar obstacles. Admission is free, but a $5 donation is suggested to benefit Margie’s Hope. (Usmani) 15605 Waterloo Rd., 216-692-9500, waterlooarts.org.

BOUNCE / keegan & nick Opening reception: Friday, May 15, 6pm - 9pm On view: May 15 - July 10

2220 Superior Viaduct, Cleveland, OH 44113 216.621.2314 / www.SPACESgallery.org

A series of absurdist performance pieces and interactive artworks about what it means to bounce, by the father and son artist collaborative.

The exhibition and concert are free to attend, and are supported by the George Gund Foundation and Cleveland Foundation.

Closing event with concert by Chris Auerbach-Brown: July 10, 8pm

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 29

get out Music

Tangled Up in Country The Honey Dewdrops — Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish — play the kind of stripped-down folk/country that hearkens back to another era. Tracks such as “Silver Lining” feature beautiful harmony vocals and gently strummed banjo. The band has been kicking around for a few years now and often plays festivals across North America. It comes to town to celebrate the release of its new album, Tangled Country, with a performance tonight at 6:30 at G.A.R. Hall in Peninsula that’s part of the Voices in the Valley Small Hall Concert series. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 day of show. (Niesel) 1785 Main St., Peninsula, 330-657-2528, peninsulahistory.org.

sat

Tailgate for MS, a Draft Day party which takes place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Barley House. The event will also be broadcast live on CBS Radio 92.3 FM. Former NFL and Ohio State National Champion cornerback Dustin Fox, the host of the Bull & Fox Show, will serve as emcee. There will also be live music, balloon art, character drawings, a manicurist, Kentucky Derby games and a live auction. Tickets are $40 in advance, $50 at the door.

folks at Cleveland Cinemas. Today, they launch what they hope will be an annual event with 12 Hours of Terrible, a marathon movie event for “those brave enough to attend to sit through cinematic missteps.” The bill includes the arm-wrestling truck driver flick Over the Top, Ed Wood’s campy classic Plan 9 From Outer Space, the Nicolas Cage caper Drive Angry 3-D and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening. “I always say that a

Music

All That Jazz For 30 years, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra has nurtured new young talent and promoted an appreciation and love for jazz in Northeast Ohio. Tonight, the group celebrates its 30th anniversary with a special show, CJO Celebrates 30: Yesterday, Today & Forever. Sean Jones will lead “your favorite CJO musicians and arrangers” and “introduce the future stars of jazz.” The concert begins at 8 p.m. at the Hanna Theatre and tickets start at $25. (Niesel) 2067 East 14th St., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

art

Mutual Savings Thanks to a generous gift from Medical Mutual, every first Saturday of the month is free at MOCA Cleveland. Stop by today from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to see a large exhibition by Joyce J. Scott. You can also partake in a variety of fun activities including Highlights Tours, Target Talks and the One Hour, One Work program. Kids 10 and under can visit the ArtSquad Plays Workroom featuring activities, books and games designed to use art as an educational tool. (Usmani) 11400 Euclid Ave., 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org.

Nightlife

Draft Party Cleveland Browns players past and present (including Bernie Kosar, Hanford Dixon and Kevin Mack) will be on hand for today’s 15th Annual

theater

Mixed Media Monica Bill Barnes & Company Productions and Ira Glass, host of the NPR radio show This American Life, have combined two unlikely art forms. Radio is all words and no visuals; dance is all visuals and no words. Their joint project, Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, is a funny, lively and heartfelt evening of dance and stories. The show features radio interviews repurposed as dance pieces, and stories from the lives of the three performers: Ira Glass, Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass. “Combining these art forms has led to a show that’s unlike anything I’ve ever choreographed before,” says Barnes in a press release. The show starts at 7:30 at Connor Palace and tickets are $40 to $75. (Siegel) 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

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Derby Daze It’s Kentucky Derby time and local bars will be televising the event and throwing parties to celebrate. Join Market Garden Brewery in Ohio City today from 4:30 to 8 p.m. for their first annual Down & Derby in CLE party. Tickets are $25 online and $35 at the door, and all of the proceeds go to the Scholars of Boys Hope Girls Hope. The ticket price includes an all-you-can-eat buffet, two drink tickets, a mint julep bourbon tasting and raffles. Also, if you dress in your Derby best, you’ll be eligible for prizes. For more information,check out the website. (Siegel) 1947 West 25th St., 216-621-4000, downandderbyincle.eventbrite.com.

should have them rolling in the aisles.” Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 day of show. Audience members who make it through the entire night will receive $5 back at the end of the marathon as Cleveland Cinemas’ way of saying sorry. Not a bad deal. The event starts at 6 p.m. (Niesel) 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5411, clevelandcinemas.com.

Music

VIP tickets will set you back $75. (Niesel) 1261 West Sixth St., 216-623-1700, barleyhousecleveland.com. filM

A Marathon Session The marathon movie event is a thing of the past. But don’t tell that to the

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

bad movie can be just as entertaining as a good movie, as long as it’s the right kind of bad movie,” says Dave Huffman, Cleveland Cinemas director of marketing and Late Shift series programmer, in a press release. “Our annual horror marathon at the Capitol Theatre leaves people on the edges of their seats. The 12 Hours of Terrible

Party with a Purpose For a century, the Music Settlement has offered music therapy and music instruction as part of a general mission of promoting the arts in Northeast Ohio. Today at the Bop Stop, the Music Settlement hosts Fascinating Rhythms, its annual gala. Jazz artist/ educator Bill Pierce, a saxophonist and chair of the Berklee College of Music’s woodwinds department, headlines. The event will include cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, silent and live auctions and dancing. Proceeds go to the Berklee Scholarship fund and the Musical Settlement’s three centers: the

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Cleveland Scene is a 24/7 multi-media and events company. We publish more than 50 magazines each year and keep Cleveland up to date 24 hours a day with the hottest in local news, dining, arts & entertainment through clevescene.com and all social channels. We also produce 10 major annual events and sponsor countless others through the year. We are all over town, all the time! Cleveland Scene is looking for BAD ASS SALES PROs who have a No-Holds-Barred approach to selling consultatively and collaboratively to a diverse, intriguing, and engaging group of clients. Our multiplatform advertising solutions include Digital Advertising (email, banner advertising, social media, mobile, etc), Print advertising, Event Sponsorships, and glossy publications.

• Prospecting: minimum of 20 leads per week • Completing a minimum 150 outbound sales calls and securing and conducting a minimum of 15 outside appointments per week • Develop and maintain positive relationships with clients – local retailers, bars & restaurants, agencies, & major accounts • Communicate the benefits of our audience-based marketing solutions as they relate to each need and selling appropriate campaign • Create, manage, and monitor advertising campaigns. Requirements for a qualified Multi-Media Account Executive: Successful candidates will possess an outgoing, entrepreneurial, and assertive disposition; are driven to outperform goals and peers; resourceful; and are ready to work hard and play hard because that’s what we do!! • Have 2-5 years of experience in outside B2B sales, retail, or service industry experience; media sales experience is preferred • Solid understanding of the online marketing/advertising industry

• Proven history of meeting or exceeding revenue goals • Moderate proficiency with MS Office, PC, tablets, and smartphones • Valid driver’s license, reliable transportation, and insurance • Some college, Bachelor’s degree preferred • Be very familiar with Scene, its websites, its events, and Cleveland and surrounding area • Compensation: $50,000 is the average first year compensation; what you put in, is what you will get out. We want our executives to be successful, so we don’t put a cap on their earning potential We Provide: • Casual, dynamic, and fun work environment • Sales Training • Medical, Dental, Vision, & Life Insurance; Flexible Spending Accounts; 401K • Generous paid time off to include your birthday and 20 days PTO after 4 years! • Interested and qualified candidates please submit resume with cover letter indicating salary requirements to: jobs@clevescene.com

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Center for Music, the Center for Early Childhood and the Center for Music Therapy. The event begins at 6 p.m. and tickets start at $125. (Niesel) 2920 Detroit Ave., 216-771-6551, themusicsettlement.org. Nightlife

Cinco De Mayo Celebration Special Menu:

nachos, Quesadilla’s, Burritos, Tacos & much more. corona light Bucket Special 5 for $20 May 1 Friday: 5pm to close Saturday & Sunday: noon to close

Juke Box Hero

Friday, May 1st • 8pm - 12am

Ted riSer

Saturday, May 2nd 1pm - 5pm

evilwayS

Saturday, May 2nd • 8pm - 12am

redneck Band

Sunday, May 3rd 1pm - 5pm

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

Roof with a View Go to Las Vegas and you have your choice of rooftop lounges. Cleveland, not so much. But thanks to the folks at the swanky Metropolitan at the 9 Hotel, Clevelanders will have a new rooftop bar from which to party. Today, the 8,500-square-feet Azure opens, and it immediately can lay claim to the title of “the largest rooftop bar in downtown.” Azure offers “modern design, entertainment, and handcrafted cocktails and cuisine.” Keith Halfmann, COO of Geis Hospitality Group, says in a press release: “Azure provides an oasis above the city for guests to go into ‘vacation mode,’ no matter if it’s a Monday or a Saturday.” He promises “weekday happy hours, themed events, live music and even ‘Sunday-Funday’ parties for guests to see, and be seen.” (Niesel) 2017 East Ninth Street, 216-239-1200, metropolitancleveland.com.

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Nightlife

Champagne Toast The local burlesque promotion company Toxic Burlesque returns to Brothers Lounge tonight for a special show. For tonight’s event, the Toxic folks have booked Head Mistress Carmen M’Knoxide, Ava Adore, Shrimp Cocktail, Chelsea Daring, Aurora Sans and many more. The show also marks the return of Champagne Charlie as emcee. We trust these names mean something to those of you who know your burlesque dancers better than we do. The show begins at 8 p.m. Admission is $10. (Niesel) 11609 Detroit Ave., 216-226-2767, brotherslounge.com. Nightlife

Electronic Ecstasy Probably the best way to kick-start the week is by shaking your ass uncontrollably at B-Side Sundays, B-Side’s bitchin’ Sunday night electronic show. DJs Eso and Corey Grand join forces to spin anything and everything: Funk, soul, hip-hop, trap, drum and bass, and all sorts of similarly ill shit. Grand’s cred speaks for itself: “Sucka Free Since ’88.” And that same sentiment goes for the Sunday-night throwdown as a whole. Work your way across Coventry all weekend and wrap up the party at B-Side. The DJs start spinning at 10 p.m. (Eric Sandy)

2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com. theater

Make It RAIN Given how difficult it was to get tickets to the recent Rock Hall Inductions, chances are good that many Clevelanders didn’t gets to see Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr when they were in town. If you’re in need of a Beatles fix, you might want to head to the State Theatre today at 3 and 7 p.m. to see RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles. It’s been called “the next best thing to seeing the Beatles!” The group performs “the full range of the Beatles’ discography,” including songs the Beatles never performed for an audience. Tickets start at $29. (Niesel) 1519 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

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film

Dead Again The Grateful Dead are back on the silver screen with the fifth annual Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies 2015. This year’s “Classic Music Series” features footage from a previously unreleased concert that took place on July 19, 1989, at Alpine Valley. Recorded from the analog master multi-camera video from the famous concert venue in East Troy, Wisconsin, the film features hits such as “Sugaree,” “Box of Rain,” “Terrapin Station,” “Morning Dew” and more. It screens at area theaters at 7 p.m. (Niesel) fathomevents.com.

tue

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Comedy

Dynamic Duo Comedians Kenny Rogerson & Carl Labove have immense amounts of experience between the two of them. Rogerson has previously had a role on FX show Rescue Me and even appeared in There’s Something About Mary. Labove is one of the founding members of the Outlaws of Comedy and has been a comedian for the past 30 years. He even founded a rock comedy concept that earned Billboard Magazine’s Top Tour honors after selling out venues across the country for five years straight. You can catch these two experienced comics tonight at 8 at Hilarities. Tickets are $13 to $18. (Harp) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

Find more events @ clevescene.com t @cleveland_scene

ART

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Photo by Josh Usmani

COMICS FOR ALL

Free Comic Book Day finds an exciting annual home at Carol and John’s By Josh Usmani It’s a bIg weekend for comIc book fans. Not only does Avengers 2: Age of Ultron debut in theaters on Friday, but comic book shops around the country are celebrating Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) on Saturday, May 2. Carol and John’s Comic Book Shop has been celebrating Free Comic Book Day for 14 years. While the event is celebrated nationwide on the first Saturday of May, Carol and John’s FCBD event is so big that it begins with a midnight release party at 10 p.m. on Friday that runs until 2 a.m. The fun continues Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. During the two events, Carol and John’s plans to give away 25,000 free comics (10 per person). The comics will be split equally between the two events. The first person in line at both events will receive all 50 titles available — including the first issue of Chuck Palahniuk’s highly anticipated comic book sequel, Fight Club 2. The first 200 people in line at the early release event get their choice of one of two graphic novels, either the Astonishing X-Men gifted hardcover written by Joss Whedon or the Avengers Heroic Age graphic novel (a collection of Marvel first issues). Both books have a $24.99 retail value. At Saturday’s event, the first 200 people in line will receive one of two all-ages magazines, either Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes or Marvel Superhero Squad. Both are valued at $9.99. However, free comics are just the beginning. “On the day, we are not so much promoting comic books, as we are comic book culture and community,” explains Carol and John’s owner John Dudas. “The values of responsibility, determination, and respect for diversity are integral to comic books, and the chance to hand out 25,000 chances to help kids make that connection is an

honor. The selling of our product is very genuine, because we believe in it on many levels. “The new American business model is to be actively involved in your community on many levels to insure your existence,” he continues. “I originally got into comics because my great-grandfather was a Polish immigrant who had a stack of comics that he used to help him learn to read in the 1970s. When he passed away, he left them to me. So to be able to turn that gesture into an event of this size really is a dream come true. A business has a never-ending year-to-year responsibility to improve the quality of life in the community that allows it to exist.” Over the years, FCBD has made such an impact in the community that it was recognized by Cleveland City Council

“A big highlight of the event is creatinginteractionsbetweenCleveland’s art community and comic book consumers that might not have occurred otherwise,” says Dudas. “Our connection to the local art scene began with our sponsorship of two local art groups, Dr. Sketchy and the Cleveland Drink and Draw. I believe what is unique about Cleveland’s comic book art community is that it is a culture of support as opposed to competition. I have seen this quite a bit as artists new to the event are counseled by veterans.” Artists drawing live on Friday night include David Balan, Randy Crider, Amalia DeGirolamo, Rev. Jim Giar, Greg Golem, Ben Hale, Ron Hill, Chad “CHOD” Kimes, Clare Kolat, Steve King, Mark Overlow, Len Peralta, Dee Piotrowski, Ashley Ribblett, Erin

carol and john’s comic book shop kamms plaza shopping center, 17462 lorain ave., 216-252-0606, cnjcomics.com

and the Ohio secretary of state as being “a righteous event promoting literacy and creativity through comic books.” Carol and John’s Free Comic Book Day features a number of exclusive elements. At both events, more than a dozen local artists and professional illustrators will be drawing and giving away free superhero-themed sketches to guests. Additionally, 26 local artists have created work for a special DC-characterthemed exhibition curated by local artist Jeff Hulligan. Limited prints of the works will be available for $5 each, and many are signed and numbered by the artist. Artists participating in the art show include Sean Burns, Erin Cauruso, Randy Crider, Deanna Piotrowski, Ashley Ribblett, Jeff Ritchie, Aaron Sechrist, Tim Switalski, Shawny Walthaw,JaineWalland,RobertWalland and Craig Worrell, among others.

Schechtman, Shawny W, and Janie Walland, among others. Saturday’s artists include Sequoia Bostick, Lauren Chaikin, Amalia DeGirolamo, Ryan Finley, Phil Freid, Brian Gleine, Ryan Kacsandy, Mark Laubenthal, Angela Oster, OK PANTS, Henry Pope, Lindi Rae, Abdul H. Rashid, J Christopher Schmidt and Dave Wendt, among others. Local artists in the Rust Belt Monster Collective will be collaborating on a live painting again this year. Their 12-foot mural is inspired by the Superfriends Water Ski Show of the 1970s at Geauga Lake and Sea World. “My first memory as a kid was my mom (Carol of Carol and John’s) taking me to the Superfriends Water Ski Show in 1976 when I was 3 years old,” says Dudas. “This is also where she bought me my first comic book (The Superfriends Treasury Edition), and where the first brick of the comic book

shop was metaphorically set in place. Come see the Monsters put their spin on this great moment in local history. While this show was advertised on the back of all DC Comics in the 70s, you could only see it in two places: Florida and a land-locked lake in Northeast Ohio. This mural will be hung proudly in the shop upon completion. “We’ve tried to involve a feeling of Cleveland into this event,” explains Dudas, “from our promotional artwork, to the Sea World water ski mural being created live by the Rustbelt Monster Collective, to getting to ride in the decommissioned Euclid Beach Rocket Car. Over 2,000 FCBD events are being celebrated worldwide, but this one stands out as being decidedly Cleveland.” This year, local graphic designer Jameson Campbell has created a custom FCBD 2015 lithograph exclusively for Carol and John’s, made to commemorate both FCBD and the release of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. It’s a tribute to the classic Avengers #16, but with a Cleveland twist. You can score one of these limited prints on 11-by-17-inch cardstock for $4. Additionally, National Star Wars Trivia Champion Kevin Liell has designed an exclusive FCBD 2015 patch featuring Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. These patches are $5 each, but supplies are very limited. As an additional incentive, all back issues are 50% off all weekend. Don’t forget to dress the part. Carol and John’s will have a red carpettype backdrop with a professional photographer at both events, as well as photographers roaming throughout the shop. For more info on FCBD 2015 (including all 50 available titles), visit freecomicbookday.com.

scene@clevescene.com t @cleveland_scene

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 33

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

stage review

Even for the privileged, there’s stuff to fight about.

WHERE THE PUKE HITS THE FAN Intestinal upset is just one of the problems in God of Carnage By Christine Howey If you lIke a play that doesn’t beat around the bush getting to the conflict at hand, then you’re bound to appreciate God of Carnage, now at None Too Fragile Theater in Akron. As the lights come up, two couples are sharing a casually elegant suburban living room where a vase of yellow tulips occupies a central position. And before your eyes have focused, Veronica Novak, her beefy husband Michael standing alongside, is reading from a prepared statement: “At 5:30 p.m., on the third of November in Coble Hill Park, following a verbal altercation, Benjamin Raleigh, 11, armed with a stick, struck our son Henry Novak in the face. This action resulted in, apart from a swelling of the upper lip, the breaking of two incisors, including injury to the nerve in the right incisor.” “Armed?” challenges Alan Raleigh, the husband of Annette and the father of the accused boy. It turns out, the Raleighs prefer the less provocative wording “furnished with a stick,” and so the battle begins. This play by Yasmina Reza (and translated by Christopher Hampton) can easily be criticized for its superficiality as the two upper middle-class couples start out civilized and then become increasingly feral as the show evolves. But for most of us, there is a delicious element of schadenfreude as

we watch these privileged folks from the tonier reaches of Brooklyn slowly strip each other, and themselves, of their dignity. Also, it helps that Reza gives each of the characters a specific back story that contributes to the everincreasing tension. Director Sean Derry has assembled a dandy cast for this tag-team match that takes place in 90 minutes of real time, as refined snacks involving espresso and clafoutis give way to strong rum and projectile vomiting. This is the parlor version of Lord of the Flies where the out-of-control kids happen to be adults.

these roles, Jen Klika is believable as Veronica and Robert Ellis triggers many laughs with his underplayed Michael. In the opposite corner is Annette, mother of the assaulter Benjamin, but she is armed only with a delicate intestinal constitution that can evidently erupt at any moment. Jacqi Loewy is adept at registering Annette’s misery, both due to her upchucking and her impatience with husband Alan, who is constantly making and receiving calls. Indeed, Alan is that creature who seems to haunt every airplane gate

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Veronica is a seemingly reasonable woman who is seeking a civil and peaceful resolution to the conflict between the two families. And she has some experience dealing with violence, since she is writing a book on the atrocities in Darfur. Her character plays nicely off hubby Michael, who starts out as a friendly sort, a wholesaler by trade who seems grounded and reasonable. Soon, however, we learn that Michael has a dark side — especially involving racist attitudes and his interaction with his daughter’s pet hamster — and that Veronica is capable of lashing out as well. In

area, talking obnoxiously loud into his cell phone. It seems that lawyer Alan is trying to protect a big pharma client’s drug from lawsuits that it causes dizziness. Although this legal sleaze is a primary stereotype, Jeffrey Grover uses an oleaginous manner and his mellifluous voice to create a fresh gloss on this character. Indeed, when he introduces the concept of a dog-eatdog deity, which is embodied in the title, he seems to make momentary sense. As the alliances keep shifting, with the men bonding with each other, the women doing the same, and then the couples swapping confederates,

we see so many conflicts writ small. Sure, this whole mess could have been avoided with one reasonable person staking out a reasonable solution. But as we know, human dust-ups aren’t often subject to sweet reason and are fueled instead by constantly escalating aggravations until the tulips hit the floor (metaphorically speaking). While each of the actors perform superbly, the ensemble timing, which is critical to the success of this piece, gets a bit fuzzy in the second half. Some of the beats are not quite as sharp, dulling the edge of the slashing changes as each of the characters jockey for position. This will probably improve as the run continues. Of course, the hidden instigators in all this are the kids, and Reza goes after them with vigor. As Michael says, “Children consume and fracture our lives. Children drag us towards disaster. When you see those laughing couples casting off into the sea of matrimony, you say to yourself, ‘They have no idea, poor things.’” It’s a sentiment that is bracingly snarky, and it gives God of Carnage its one lasting thought. Beneath the thin veneer of civilization, we are all still children armed with sticks and the outcome is anyone’s guess.

scene@clevescene.com t @christinehowey

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 35

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

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10 BLOCKBUSTERS YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS By Sam Allard

SUMMER dOESN’T OffICIALLY start until June but with the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which opens this week, the summer movie season officially launches. Here’s a look at 10 must-see movies looming on the horizon.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1) Director: Joss Whedon Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, etc. In what promises to be an actionpacked, special FX romp — not to mention the biggest worldwide box office event of 2015 (barring something truly unexpected) — Tony Stark and the gang must do battle against the supervillain Ultron, who plans to wreak cosmic havoc on planet Earth. Whedon’s just gonna be Whedon here. Get ready for lots of superhero banter and aerial slugfests.

Hot Pursuit (May 8) Director: Anne Fletcher Starring: Sofia Vergara, Reese Witherspoon This comedy about an inept police officer (Witherspoon) tasked with protecting the widow of a notorious drug dealer from violent cartels and a slew of corrupt cops is the latest entry in an emergent sub-genre of female-led comedies about law enforcement. (Remember 2013’s The Heat, with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy?) Witherspoon and Vergara both reveal their vast reservoirs of comic talents, and look like a hilarious (if unlikely) pairing. It’ll be a breezy summer flick, with plenty of laughs.

Mad Max: fury Road (May 15) Director: George Miller Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron We’re not embarrassed to say that this is probably our most anticipated film of the young blockbuster season. The Mel

Gibson-led Mad Max franchise from the 80s is little more than a weird cultish blip at this point. The stories about an Australian police officer seeking vengeance in the desert weren’t exactly representative of Hollywood’s ample resources. The 2015 reboot, with Tom Hardy in the leading role, looks electric. In the same post-apocalyptic wasteland where bands of wackos battle to the death, Max and a mysterious woman fight to survive. Hardy brings his A game to every role, and the production design here will be the coolest of 2015.

Tomorrowland (May 22) Director: Brad Bird Starring: George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie What with Pixar and Marvel within their corporate umbrella, Disney has a pretty impressive line-up in 2015. Tomorrowland is its entry in the liveaction family flick category. A teenage girl with a scientific bent and a former boy genius (Clooney, go figure), team up to discover a secret place — beyond the traditional dimensions of space time — that could help change the world. Note also that the script was written by Lost co-creator Damen Lindelof, so expect some addictive mystery.

Jurassic World (June 12) Director: Colin Trevorrow Starring: Chris Pratt, Vincent D’Onfrio, Bryce Dallas Howard Consider our fingers crossed for this Jurassic Park sequel, but we’re frankly not all the way on board with the endless resuscitation of film franchises. The premise of Jurassic World is that, due to declining attendance at the fully functioning Jurassic Park, the scientists must create a new attraction, a brand-new dinosaur created in the lab. Dun-dun-dun! Naturally, the plan backfires. And Chris Pratt, now with an additional starring role to his name, must save the day. Spielberg’s Jurassic

Park remains one of the great box-office smash hits of the ’90s; we’re hoping this latest installment doesn’t damage the legacy in any permanent way. Terminator: Genisys (July 1) Director: Alan Taylor Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney Arnold stars alongside Game of Thrones’ Khalisi and the douche from Divergent, as they try to fend off Judgement Day in this Terminator sequel. Much like the earlier films in the franchise, this one involves John Connor, Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. In fact, much like the original, John Connor of the future sends soldier Kyle Reese back in time to protect his mother and ensure John’s existence. But in the past, Sarah has been orphaned and raised by a T-800 cyborg and, together with Reese, she’s got to elude a whole bunch of bad guys and prevent the sinister “Genisys” program from getting underway. Let’s hope this one’s not as messy as 2009’s Terminator Salvation.

Magic Mike: XXL (July 1) Director: Gregory Jacobs Starring: Channing Tatum, Amber Heard More really sexy male stripping courtesy of Channing Tatum & Co.

Ant-Man (July 17) Director: Peyton Reed Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Hayley Atwell, Michael Douglas Funny man Paul Rudd dons a superhero suit in this Marvel production that’s been the subject of some pitfalls and controversy. Con man Scott Lang must help his mentor, Dr. Frank Pym, pull off a heist that will save the world. But in order to do so, he must don a special suit that allows him to shrink in size while gaining strength. Expect a slight tonal shift

from some of the earlier Marvel films, but rom-com specialist Peyton Reed (Down with Love, The Break-Up, Bring it On) may have a dark horse up his sleeve. Plus, we’re happy to see Evangeline Lilly getting love in a major studio project.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (July 31) Director: Christopher McQuarrie Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rames At a certain point, how much more “impossible” can the mission get, right? But the studios are undeterred: They claim this is Ethan Hunt’s MOST IMPOSSIBLE mission yet. He and the gang must stop “The Syndicate,” an organized crime outfit as vast and skilled and technologically advanced as their spy agency, from turning the tables on them. With heart-pounding special effects and, as ever, neverending twists and turns, this one’s about as blockbustery as they come.

fantastic four (Aug. 7) Director: Josh Trank Starring: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell Directed by the guy who brought you Chronicle, this Marvel reboot is still something of a question mark. It’s got a heck of a young cast, and a familiar origin-story premise — four young scientists acquire superhuman powers after a failed experiment and must use those powers to stop a villainous tyrant — but color us unconvinced. We’re willing to be persuaded by a killer performance or a unique vibe, but in the sea of superhero movies bombarding us this (and every) summer, it might be hard for Fantastic Four to make a splash.

sallard@clevescene.com t @sceneSallard

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 37

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

eat review

Great breads make great sandwiches — and more.

ON THE RISE, ON THE RISE

Beloved eastside bakery will soon feature a larger menu and more By Douglas Trattner By his own account, adam Gidlow is a prudent, patient man. When he opened On the Rise bakery in Cleveland Heights 14 years ago, he did so only after thoroughly vetting other potential neighborhoods. The new shopkeeper didn’t even attempt to pursue wholesale restaurant accounts until his retail business was soundly in place. And it would be another decade before he and his crew branched out into the savory world of lunchtime sandwiches. The next move for Gidlow will be his boldest yet: taking over the adjacent space, adding a full kitchen and introducing an expanded menu and dine-in seating. “When it comes to business decisions I’m extremely conservative,” Gidlow explains. “I want to make sure that something is going to work, and the sandwiches are definitely working.” Even in the case of the sandwiches Gidlow proceeded with extreme caution. In the beginning, only three or four options were trotted out one weekend per month. Early success convinced the bakery to expand lunch service to every weekend. After tacking on another day here and another day there, they reached the point where they are today, selling nearly a dozen different sandwiches six days a week. Driving much of that internal growth has been Brian Evans, a young chef who came to On the Rise five

years ago to pursue a path in baking. After stints at Fire Food and Drink and Parallax, Evans sought out Gidlow to supply the next phase of his culinary development. “I started out in the culinary field, not so much in the baking field,” Evans says. “But I fell in love with baking and I wanted to further my skills. I knew I needed guidance, and everybody I spoke to said Adam was the guy.” Once he got his sea legs, Evans started looking for his next opportunity. It turned out it was right there all along. He approached his boss about the possibility of adding

days working with Doug Katz at Fire. The pork is marinated overnight, roasted, and then braised. The braising liquid is cooked down to a glaze, which is folded back into the meat. “We try and cram as much flavor into the preparation of a dish as we can,” says Evans. Nothing that goes between the bread is outsourced. Evans makes his own burrata and mozzarella cheeses, roasts and corns grass-fed beef from Miller Farms, confits local duck, pickles and ferments vegetables, even grinds his own peanut butter for the

ON THE RISE

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lunch service; given the nature of the bakery business, it made perfect sense. “In our business we’re super busy in the morning and then we slow down,” he says. “I’m always looking for somewhere to grab a quick lunch — and we already had all this great bread.” Though they’re built on bread, calling them sandwiches does them a bit of a disservice. Take the banh mi, for example, one of the most Instagrammed meals in Cleveland when it debuted. Evans starts with pork from New Creation farms, a relationship he cultivated during his

PBNJ. Following the construction, guests can expect a completely renovated interior that encompasses both spaces. The wall between On the Rise and the space that formerly housed Fairmount Letters will be removed, making way for an expanded retail section to the left and small dining room with open kitchen to the right. In all, the cafe will seat approximately 25 diners at tables and a chef’s counter. All care is being taken to maintain the look and feel of a European-style artisanal bakery, says Gidlow, while ensuring that the expanded food

service operations don’t interfere with the ever-important morning rush. “We’re a bakery first — it’s who we are and it’s what we do best,” he says. “We don’t want to mess with the flow of customers coming in and out, especially on weekends.” As for the food, Evans will be scaling back the sandwiches to make room for small plates built around seasonal ingredients that blend artisanal baking with savory flavors. Neighbors can look forward to an expanded lunch service and weekend breakfast/brunch service. Other than the occasional prix fixe dinner, On the Rise will maintain its current hours of operation. “We have a very talented and very motivated crew here, and everybody is super interested in food,” explains Evans, who recently brought on board chef Mark Osgood. “We wanted to take the next step in the progression with the food we’re doing.” For Evans, who just as easily could have taken his budding culinary talents to a more traditional restaurant setting, the journey is as fulfilling as the destination. “Being able to help build something and start from the ground up is something I’ve always been passionate about,” he says. “That was what excited me most about this.”

dtrattner@clevescene.com t @dougtrattner

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 39

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A Cookie and a Cupcake expands to the east By Nikki Delamotte

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

It’s the mIdweek calm before the weekend wedding storm and SynDee Bergen seems at ease in the cotton-candy pink chairs arranged in A Cookie and a Cupcake’s new South Euclid storefront (13953 Cedar Rd., 216-344-9433, acookieandacupcake. com). Bergen laughs while adjusting her bone-white cat-eye glasses that match the powder on her black apron and says that she’s prepared for anything. “I’m a 24-hour woman.” Little has slowed in the past month since Bergen and her business partner, Wendy Thompson, opened an eastside outpost to the wildly popular Tremont sweets shop they started in 2008. This spring the duo also consolidated their Tremont storefronts by moving Cookie and a Cupcake into their Churned ice cream shop a few blocks over on Lincoln Park (2681 West14th St., 216-344-9433). Both east and west locations now offer cupcakes and ice cream side-by-side. The cupcake bubble may have expanded a bit in the seven years since Cookie opened, but the airy morsels never were intended to be a big part of the plan. While Bergen was working as Thompson’s sous chef at Lockkeepers, the two bonded over a shared love of cake making. They knew that launching a niche gourmet cake business could be feast or famine, so they decided to include cupcakes as a fallback. “I keep her in the dream world and she keeps me in the numbers world,” Bergen says of Thompson. “We’re like yin and yang. We couldn’t do it without each other.” And the cupcakes — topped with a special recipe of labor-intensive, cooked buttercream frosting — have paid off. For Easter alone, the duo and their 12 employees cranked out more than 3,500 of them in signature flavors like Cassata-inspired strawberry, caramel swirled with black Hawaiian lava salt, and a minty chocolate grasshopper. And that’s on top of the eight to 12 weddings they cater each weekend,

which alternate between cake and cupcake centerpieces. A typical Saturday begins at dawn, says Bergen. Employees gather at the Tremont shop where the baking is concentrated and begin an assembly line of decoration. Bergen then delivers the orders, some of which extend all the way to Columbus. By 7 p.m., Bergen and Thompson transition into a night of preparation for the next day. As momentum grew, they realized they needed more space for baking. That led to the leasing of the building that would become Churned. Bergen jokes that she couldn’t sit still and before long she was making ice cream between her baking shifts. Today, their offerings include flavors such as malted cookie dough, brown butter and lavender brittle, and a campfire mix of chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers. “Wendy’s palate is amazing — especially the savory parts of our ice cream line,” says Bergen. “I’m not as refined; I’m the sweet tooth. But that’s also why we click. I don’t want to eat a gallon of garlic ice cream, but she does!” Since the move, all ice cream is created one gallon at a time at the new South Euclid shop. Baked goods from the west are brought in for red velvet cake and brownie ice creams. The creative fusions on both ends, Bergen explains, are often inspired by their own culinary surroundings. “We experiment with combinations we’ve tried from our favorite restaurants,” she says. “In Tremont, we’ve been in the presence of incredible places. Or a fresh product from one of our local gardens will spark an idea. We’ll see these gorgeous beets and think, let’s figure out a way to use them.” Within minutes, Bergen already is scheming up a new roasted beet flavor. “It’s a constant process. A cupcake shop never stops.”

scene@clevescene.com t @nikkidelamotte

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

eat bites Michael SyMon to hoSt new Food network Show By Douglas Trattner There have been mulTiple Michael Symon spottings around town lately: on Market Avenue by Great Lakes Brewing Co., at Karen Small’s Flying Fig, at downtown’s Butcher and the Brewer, Heck’s in Ohio City, and Oak & Embers out in Chesterland. What we did not know was what was behind the visits. Well, now we do. Symon has been tapped to head another Food Network show, this one titled Burgers, Brew and ‘Que. Here’s the official statement: “Meat lovers rejoice! Michael Symon is taking a summer road trip to taste the best of the American classics: burgers and BBQ. Whether it is mouth-watering, mile-high cheeseburgers or slow smoked, fall-off-the-bone ribs, Michael is going to eat and meet his way through some of the best All-American spots to get your grub on. And, what better way to wash it all down than with local beers and brews, sure to make any meal a perfect 10.”

Bars will be set up inside and out, TV screens will broadcast “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.” Following the race, Thor & the Bluegrass Platter will play to keep the party going. Doors open at 4 p.m. Post time

is 6:24 p.m., and the band starts immediately after.

Vegas-style POOl aDDeD tO Flats’ club FWD Owners of the seasonal, open-air nightclub FWD, expected to open this July in the Flats East Bank, have added a Vegas-style amenity that is sure to attract the hot and steamy set. A 4,000-square-foot pool and deck area — complete with full bar,

elevated decking, and custom day beds — is now part of the plans. The “club within a club” will be open on weekend days, offering a club-like environment that goes hand-in-hand with the evening events taking place next door at FWD. Those events are built around nationally touring DJs, who will perform Thursday through Sunday nights. Occasionally, the entire venue will operate as one large party that can accommodate up to 1,000 guests.

Derby Day is a big Deal at sOHO KitcHen I have no idea what a bib or tucker is, but if you do, Soho Kitchen’s Derby Day Porch Party is right up your alley. The annual event was a hit right out of the gate, says owner Nolan Konkoski, who along with partner Molly Smith hosted the first one a little over three years ago. That first year, the owners had no idea if their Yankee customers would appreciate the Kentucky Derby-based concept or not. Either way, at least the staff was going to have a great time, recalls Konkoski. “We remember telling our staff to dress the part — seersucker, bowties, bright dresses, fascinators — so that we could be sure there would be at least some atmosphere for the event,” he notes. “We were blown away when our restaurant was filled inside and out with people dressed to the nines.” Show up on the big day — May 2 — and you’ll see the Ohio City eatery transformed into an authentic Derby party. The staff will be passing around complimentary snacks like Benedictine sandwiches, deviled eggs, burgoo and Derby pies. The kitchen will be preparing a special menu of a la carte options like Hot Browns, crab cakes and oysters on the half shell.

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 43

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

music

Photo by Renee Cox

Kiesza strikes a pose.

pop smart

Electronic dance music star Kiesza puts an emphasis on singing and songwriting By Jeff Niesel

Kiesa “Kiesza” Rae ellestad originally set out to become a sailor. That’s right, the mega pop star whose electronic dance music hit “Hideaway” — with a Chicago house beat and upperregister vocals, the song sounds like a mash-up of Ray of Lightera Madonna and Adele — lays claim to more than 202 million combined YouTube views and over 100 million worldwide streams on Spotify, initially joined the navy. Born in Calgary, she enlisted in the reserves when she was very young. “I was 16 turning 17,” she says via Skype. “I was too young but they let me into boot camp because I was turning 17. I trained and boarded in Ontario and then there was a bit of training in Victoria. I did most of my time in Calgary.” Kiesza, who says she’s always been “very musical” and initially

learned to play piano, also picked up the guitar while she was in the naval reserves. The switch was out of necessity; you’re not likely to find a piano on board a naval vessel. “When I started sailing, people would bring guitars because they were portable instruments,” she says. “They would jam on the deck. I came from a background where you didn’t jam. You played what was in front of you. I thought that was so cool. I started songwriting the minute I started playing guitar. With the first chord I strummed, I had a melody idea.” To hear her tell it, she’s never had trouble writing tunes. “I’ve never been without a melody in my head,” she says. “I’ve never had writer’s block. Sometimes, you struggle to find a chorus, but it’s been free flowing

since the moment I started. I had a real sense of purpose since it came so effortlessly. I had to work and grow and learn more about songwriting. It’s never been something I struggled with.” She began playing folk music while at Selkirk College in British Columbia. “I started on a soft classical guitar,” she says. “I didn’t know how to play it. My first songs were slow and soft and almost lullabyesque. As I got better, my music evolved with my level of playing. I decided to approach the piano as a songwriting tool. I wanted to play simple chords and create all these different melodies.” But when she started music school at Berklee College of Music, she was “immersed in these music classes that teach you the history of rock and jazz and everything.” It left a huge impression on her.

“I was suddenly learning about music and surrounded by all different genres,” she says. “I started experimenting and trying different things out. I tried a jazz band and I even tried death metal for a short period of time. It was not easy on the voice.” She initially thought of herself as a singer-songwriter until she met producer and collaborator Rami Samir Afuni, who worked on the Miley Cyrus album Bangerz as a composer, engineer and executive producer. He encouraged her to become a “commercial songwriter.” “Rami was a graduate of Berklee and was working in the commercial writing industry,” she says. “I started working with him and people who write pop music. He introduced me to that world. I dove into the pop writing. I knew I needed to write pop music. It

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 49

was fun and I really got into it. As much as I love writing for other people, coming from a folk background, lyrically, there are more stories I wanted to tell. I stopped my own projects to focus on songwriting. It was when I stopped my own projects that things started to happen.” One thing that “happened” was “Hideaway,” a song she wrote on a whim in 2013. With its soulful vocals, the love song became a dance club smash. The fact that it has a thumping bass beat and percolating synthesizers certainly helped it find its way into the clubs. “‘Hideaway’ came out of nowhere,” she says. “I was just having fun. I can’t say it’s the deepest song ever. But it’s very instinctive and sincere. It’s true to my background. It just felt like me.” She says it was one of the first songs that made her think she should be singing her own material. “It wasn’t that I didn’t connect with the music I was writing [for other singers], but it was that

Kiesza walks down a city street, breaking into dance moves as a male dancer hoists her into the air. All the more impressive: She filmed the video with a busted rib. “It amazes me that I broke my rib,” she says. “I can’t pinpoint the moment. In the rehearsal, I did feel pain in my rib and by the time I was done with the shoot, I felt it swelling up. Two days after, I was bed-ridden. It was a hairline fracture. Man, it was painful. It still bothers me, but it was worth it.” While dance music usually privileges beats over vocals, Kiesza’s music does the opposite, especially on a song like “Bad Thing” that features a sharp snare drum and little in the way of other instrumentation. “That was something that Rami and I thought about,” she says when asked about putting her vocals up front in the sound mix. “Dance music is a DJ-driven or producer-driven thing. If you go back to classic songs like ‘What Is Love’ or even ‘Rhythm of the Night,’ it wasn’t about the singing. Even though her name

Kiesza with Betty who 8 p.m. Thursday, april 30, house of Blues, 308 euclid ave., 216-523-2583. TickeTs: $20 adv, $25 dos, houseofBlues.com

I wasn’t seeing myself singing the songs I was writing,” she says. “I was writing with other people in mind. With ‘Hideaway,’ I literally could not think of anyone else singing it. I loved the way I sounded on it. I had a whole vision of who I could be as a performer.” She had dabbled in dance and theater when she was younger. At one point, she even studied ballet. But a knee injury derailed those interests. “I felt like it was a great opportunity with my dance background to bring that into the music,” she says of embracing electronic dance music. “For me, I lost my dancing world at the age of 15 when I got injured. It was this big void in my life. When I started putting dance back into my music, it filled this huge gap. I didn’t expect anyone to hear ‘Hideaway’ honestly. It was a Facebook friend thing and an underground thing. It totally took me by storm when it went viral.” The choreography in the “Hideaway” music video makes the clip stand out. In one long take,

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

wasn’t on the song, [‘Rhythm of the Night’] was about Corona’s vocals. There was more of a balance. I love that aspect. It also naturally happens because I am a singer. I just let my instincts drive the process.” Touring in support of her first album Sound of a Woman, Kiesza makes her Cleveland debut this week at House of Blues. She’s also working on several collaborations. She’ll appear on the forthcoming Duran Duran album and she’s even given her follow-up album some thought. “I started jotting down ideas and got into the studio for a day,” she says. “Once the tour finishes, I’ll settle into the writing process. I do have an idea where I’m going to take it. It’s going to be different but not too far removed. It will be progression from this album.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t @jniesel

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Order By Phone: 800.745.3000 • House of Blues Box Office magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

Music

Mary Chapin Carpenter enjoys working in a “stripped down format.”

It takes an Orchestra

Singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter teams up with a symphony for Songs from the Movie By Matt Wardlaw

‘I don’t mInd workIng wIthout a net.” That’s what Mary Chapin Carpenter says in the lyrics to “I Take My Chances” from her 1992 album Come On Come On. She put that thought into play in a big way when it came to recording her latest album, Songs from the Movie, which was released in January of last year. The album finds Carpenter revisiting 10 of her favorite tracks from her back catalog — surrounded by a full symphony orchestra, which as you might expect, was a bit of a daunting experience. “To learn how to sing with an orchestra on stage and to be part of this enormous organism, it was terrifying, because it was a new skill set,” Carpenter says via phone. “But once I felt like I had learned how to do it, I felt euphoric in terms of what I’d learned to do.” Carpenter’s songs have always been highly visual experiences, filled with a variety of characters and emotions, so it’s a little bit surprising that it took this long for her to do an album like this. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t something that was on her mind. “It would have happened a lot sooner if I had been able ... you know, this is not an easy project to persuade people to spend money on,” she says. “It’s hard to persuade labels to spend money on anything nowadays. So this was an idea that I had had, that while it didn’t come to fruition [until] when it was released a year ago, I had had this idea for more than a decade and had wanted to do it.” In some ways, it seems like a good thing that it took a while for the album

to come to life. One can imagine that had Carpenter attempted something like this in her major label years, there would have been certain record label demands — and certain songs (read: hits) that a label would have wanted to be part of the track listing. Instead, Songs From the Movie plays like a trip down the lesser traveled back roads of Carpenter’s

record, there was a couple of things going on. It’s hard to explain, but my father was in the last few weeks of his life and I knew that,” she says. “I think they’re all connected somehow, but I was also suffering from these excruciating migraine headaches — and I was jetlagged.” “So all of these things, plus the

Mary Chapin Carpenter with Lunasa 7 p.m., Thursday, april 30, TriniTy CaThedral, 2230 euClid ave., 216-771-3630. TiCkeTs: $62.50, TriniTyCaThedral.org

catalog. It’s an intriguing opportunity to revisit a diverse selection of material that reaches as far back as the Come On, Come On period, moving all of the way through her 2010 album The Age of Miracles. As Carpenter reveals, her label couldn’t have been more supportive. “The way we came up with the list of songs, first of all, is a testament to my record label, Rounder, for saying, ‘We love this idea, go forth,’” she recalls. “They didn’t say it has to have this song or that song on it. So we came up with a master list of about 40 songs that I thought were candidates. Between Vince [Mendoza] and Matt Rollings, my other co-producer, and myself, we all retreated to our corners as it were, and then we all came up with 10 or 12 finalists and then we cross-referenced those.” Recording the album in London at AIR Studios was an emotional experience for Carpenter on a number of levels. “During the recording of this

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

enormity of the project and feeling [like I needed to be] totally on the ball, then I would hear in my headphones these beautiful arrangements and I would be on the camera in the isolation booth, but I’d need to start sobbing,” Carpenter says. “Because it was just summoning up so much emotion, I would duck down and weep while we were recording, because I didn’t want people in the control room to see me sobbing. I would just sob for two seconds, wipe my eyes and then stand up and start singing and then wait for the next passage where I could duck down and boo-hoo again.” She says it was a “highly charged couple of weeks.” “I don’t know, sometimes I listen to it and I hear a bit of a tear in my voice,” she says. “I don’t know how to explain it and maybe I’m just projecting, but that’s what I felt. It was deeply meaningful, deeply emotional, but what has resulted has been nothing short of extraordinary

to me and I’m so grateful for the project.” Carpenter returns to Cleveland as part of the Cathedral Concerts series, where she’ll appear with her acoustic trio for a performance at Trinity Cathedral that will be recorded for an upcoming broadcast. Working in a stripped-down format is something that she enjoys quite a bit. “I love how much room there is,” she says. “You know, there’s a lot of air in that [format]. Certainly, simplifying the songs with three instruments, you can excavate a little bit and sort of see what else is there and change arrangements a little bit. There’s a lot of air and I like that. I also feel like we’re all percussive enough players that you don’t feel like it’s too [stripped back], it definitely has a muscular quality to it at times when needed. So I feel like it can serve a lot of masters. It’s good that way.” On the heels of the Trinity gig, fans can look forward to a new studio album in the next year. As we spoke about songwriting during the conversation, Carpenter revealed that the wheels have been in motion for a while now and she’s been working towards a new album that she’s recording this spring. “I’ve been writing for the past three years or so and now’s the time. I have a bunch of things and I’ve got to make sure I’ve got enough. You know, I’ll work on it until the very last second.”

music@clevescene.com t @Cleveland_Scene

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 53

Music

Olathia, hellbent for leather.

kindred spirits

Chemistry came easy to new local metal band Olathia By Jeff Niesel The local meTal band Cellbound had a great 8-year run that resulted in three albums and several regional tours. The group even released an impressive, professional looking video for the tune “Fallen Angels,” which they shot at a cemetery off Pearl Road. Mushroomhead’s Skinny and Stitch directed it. But when the group’s drummer “retired,” singer Chris Emig figured it was time for a change. “For me, that was the first original project that had some meat to it,” says Emig via phone. “I had done other things before that but when we got together for Cellbound, it really clicked. I had a great time with the guys and really learned to write songs and work together and to do that. We really honed that. It was a great ride and a super good time. I loved my time with [vocalist] Tom Herttna on stage too. We had shared vocals and went back and forth. That was real fun and also challenging. We were both leads so we had to make the songs cohesive.” In January, she recruited drummer Jeff Morrow, and Olathia slowly came together. Earlier this year, the group, which also includes guitarist Jake Nicholson (formerly with Black Valor), guitarist Steve Albenze (also with Idleblack) and bassist Sully (also with Crown Royal), quickly wrote two songs, “Hellhound” and “Open Your Eyes.” Emig introduced the band earlier this year on Bill Peters’ Metal on Metal radio show on WJCU where the group played those two songs. To promote the release of the band’s new EP, the group even released a movie trailer-like video

announcing it. “When we got all the members in place, it’s like when you meet a friend for the first time and you’re just kindred spirits right off the bat,” she says when asked about what the first recording sessions were like. “You don’t have to second-guess anything. We had that chemistry right from the start and from how we connected. Jake [Nicholson] and Steve [Albenze] both play leads. Jake has a whole bunch of ideas. He has ideas all the time, which is good. We put those songs together in a matter of three or four jams. I didn’t think it was supposed to be that smooth. I realized as we progressed and did more writing that it’s a combination of everyone’s experience. We knew how to trim the fat

and dynamics,” she says when asked about the tune. “It goes back to the old Sabbath days when they would write ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ with the slow and then heavy parts. That’s something we think about. We wanted to find a place to put harmonies but we wanted to do it in a way that makes sense. If you have the right story, it can all come together.” “Seven Deadly Sins” begins with heavy guitar riffs and wailing vocals before it settles down for the song’s bridge. It sounds a bit like a Judas Priest tune if Pat Benatar were singing lead. “I wrote the lyrics in like 40 minutes — we wrote that song half way through the album,” says Emig. “I was thinking about how cool it was to be out there

Olathia with Space MOnkey, MythriaS, JuSt revenge, eliSiuM 8 p.m., Friday, may 1, EmpirE ConCErt Club, 1305 tallmadgE avE., akron, 330-634-9489. tiCkEts: $10 adv, $12 dos, EmpirEConCErtClub.Com

Olathia with kriadiaz, gunS Out at SundOwn, SparrOwMilk, FireS OF verMilliOn 8 p.m., saturday, may 2, thE maplEgrovE, 14832 pEasE rd., ClEvEland, 216-475-4224. tiCkEts: $10 adv, $12 dos

from the get go. We went straight to the sweet spot.” A song such as “Open Your Eyes” starts slow but builds in intensity as dueling guitars go at it and Emig, who counts her influences as “[metal singer] Dio, [country singer] Dolly [Parton], [metal singer] Doro [Pesch] and [Iron Maiden singer Bruce] Dickinson,” bellows, “I’m the last man standing.” “We all have a shared love for melody

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

meeting people and connecting. That song is a love song to the metalheads. That’s what it’s all about.” For “Hunters,” Emig started writing “on a musical level” with her bandmates. “What happens to me is that I’ll hear the guitar riffs and something will pop into my head and I’ll build a story from that,” she says. “That’s what happened with that. We wrote the song around it. The character is the young maiden who

has the love of her life taken away and she’s going to hunt you and the rest of your kinship for the rest of your lives.” The EP closes with “When I Die” and “After I Die,” two songs that work in conjunction with one another. Emig says she thought about people who were going through “tragic things” as she wrote it. “When it’s time to pass, that’s all you’re going to have is the memories you own,” she says. “That was your journey. That’s one of my favorites. We were done recording, and I got the idea for ‘After I Die.” A friend of mine’s grandmother passed away and we were drinking bourbons a few months before she passed. I heard her in my head one day after she passed. I realized that she’s okay and wants us to know she’s okay. I think about what someone would tell you after they die.” For the release of the new EP, the band will play two concerts and make a weekend out of it. “One guitarist is from Akron and the other is from the Cleveland area so the whole goal with the two CD release shows is playing smaller places and get the grassroots following,” she says. “We want to make it a party weekend instead of making people schlep from one side of town to the other, but we have had people buying tickets to both shows. All right. We’re going to party all weekend.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t @jniesel

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 55

livewire all the live music you should see this week wed

04/29

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys/The Monday Sound: Since he started performing with his backing band the Fly-Rite Boys some 25 years ago, singer-guitarist Big Sandy has continually attracted new young fans and introduced them to Western swing and rockabilly. Sandy, who last year wrapped a 25th anniversary tour, recently released an album of old tunes that he’s rearranged into acoustic instrumentals. His music, which recalls the type of music that was popular decades ago, has an easygoing vibe that appeals to fans of traditional country and rockabilly alike. He’s been playing Cleveland for years and always puts on a good show. 8:30 p.m., $12. Beachland Tavern. (Jeff Niesel) The BoDeans: The Milwaukee-bred band BoDeans have been making music for over 30 years now. And with 2012’s American Made (their most recent album) singer/songwriter/guitarist/ founder/frontman Kurt Neumann has said they finally realized they are “a truly American band.” It’s a band, he has said, which was initially comprised of “blue-collar kids straight out of the heartland.” A number of singles would garner rock radio airplay for the group over the years, but it was “Closer to Free,” first released in 1993 on the band’s Go Slow Down album, which would bring their music to a wider audience when it was later adopted as the theme song for the television show Party of Five. There’s a laid-back, easygoing feel that threads through the group’s catalog, but as the title of their recent live album Amped Across America suggests, they’re definitely a rock ’n’ roll band. 8 p.m., $25-$30. The Kent Stage. (Matt Wardlaw) The Maine/Real Friends/Knuckle Puck/ The Technicolors: The Maine began in 2007, when most of the band’s members were freshly graduated from their Tempe, Arizona, high school. Naming themselves after a song by their favorite band Ivory, the Maine set up a MySpace page and built an audience the new-fashioned way (they’ve since racked up 77 million plays), with some additional old-school word of mouth. Within months, the Maine were drawing sizable crowds and released a pair of EPs with their pop-punk translation of ’90s rock influences. They released their debut album, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, in 2008, followed by a band journal packed with pics, This Is Real Life. For the current tour, they’re supporting their fifth

A very sharp-dressed David Mayfield. See: Thursday.

studio effort, American Candy. 7 p.m., $20 ADV, $22 DOS. House of Blues. (Brian Baker) 10 X 3 Hosted by Brent Kirby (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Lou Armagno “Sinatra Selects”: 7 p.m., $10. Nighttown. Backstabbers Inc./Stray Dogs: 8 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class. Danny Kroha/John Kalman: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Tim Matson/Triage: 8 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern. Speedy Ortiz/Krill/Two Inch Astronaut: 8:30 p.m., $12. Grog Shop. Strung Out/Red City Radio/La Armada: 7 p.m., $17 ADV, $20 DOS. Agora.

Thu

04/30

Marti Jones & Don Dixon: For singersongwriter Marti Jones, the idea of a bossa nova album came to mind. So earlier this year, she released the appropriately titled You’re Not the Bossa Me, a festive album that’s light and upbeat. It’s a natural side effect of a trip that Jones took to Palm Springs, embracing the opportunity to enjoy warm weather and record at the studio of longtime friend and collaborator Kelley Ryan, who co-produced the new album. Tonight’s show will lean heavily on material from that album, but Jones’ husband, singer-songwriter Don Dixon, also will play material

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

The Maine bring pop-punk to House of Blues. See: Wednesday.

from his latest effort, the intriguingly titled High & Filthy & Borderline. There’s always an interesting storyline running through his solo work and the High & Filthy is no exception. 7:30 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. (Wardlaw) Acid Mothers Temple/ST 37/Blind Spring: 9 p.m., $10. Grog Shop. Apostle of Solitude/Thunderchief: 7 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. The Foundry. Arkells: 7:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. House of Blues Cambridge Room. Bad Boys Jam: 9 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Mary Chapin Carpenter: 8 p.m. Trinity Cathedral. Dieselboy/Downlink/Glockwize/Lord Swanex/Tasha Tribe Steppaz/Emplate: 9:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Dirty Bourbon River Show (in the Supper Club): 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Empires/Visors/Golden Streets of Paradise: 9 p.m., $8. The Euclid Tavern. Chris Hatton’s Musical Circus (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Hollywood Slim Band/Emily Keener/ Amanda Davids: 6 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern. Huntertones: 9 p.m., $10. BLU Jazz+. Kiesza/Betty Who: 8 p.m., $20 ADV, $25 DOS. House of Blues. NE-HI/Tim Moon: 8:30 p.m., $8. Beachland Tavern. Ester Rada: 7:30 p.m. Hanna Theatre.

The Rebels on the Run Tour: 7 p.m. Roc Bar. Roddy Radiation of the Specials/Scotch Bonnets/Super Awesome Macho: 8 p.m., $10. Now That’s Class. Twin Peaks/White Reaper/CHOMP/ Nowhere: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Webster, Carr & Custy Trio: 8 p.m., $15. Nighttown.

fri

05/01

Sinatra Night with Michael Sonata (in the Supper Club): Canton native Michael Sonata has always been involved in plays and choirs and was a member of the University of Notre Dame Glee Club. In 2004, he auditioned for a role in a Sopranos spoof that required a character based on Frank Sinatra. Sonata got the part and has been imitating Ol’ Blue Eyes ever since. He includes some 90 songs in his repertoire and covers all eras, including the Columbia years and the Capitol years. He even takes requests from the audience. 8 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club. (Niesel) Mushroomhead: When the local metal act Mushroomhead first formed in 1993, few critics imagined the group would still be going at it in 2015. And yet the masked band is now more popular than ever. Last year was particularly productive as the band

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 57

livewire toured Australia, where it played as part of the massive Soundwave festival. It also hit the road with Insane Clown Posse for a Halloweenthemed jaunt. Its latest album, The Righteous and the Butterfly, embraces a wide range of musical styles, including hip-hop, electronica and hard rock. Recorded at the band’s studio in North Royalton and mixed by long-time collaborator Bill Korecky, the disc is arguably the band’s most polished effort to date. Tonight’s concert will mark the first show at the newly reopened Odeon, a concert venue that Clevelanders cherished for many years until until it became a hiphop club about a decade ago. 6 p.m., $27.50. Odeon. (Niesel) Bumpin’ at the Dog: 9 p.m., free. Happy Dog. By Light We Loom/Marcus Alan Ward/ Nonaphoenix: 9 p.m., $8. The Euclid Tavern. Dead Flowers/Holden Laurence/Joey Beltram (in the Locker Room): 9 p.m., free. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Colin Dussault’s Blues Project: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge. George Foley: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Jamey Haddad: 8 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Light Weight Slams/C-Level: 8 p.m., $10. The Foundry. Tracy Marie (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Pieces of a Dream: 9 p.m. The Tangier. Playing to Vapors/The Village Bicycle/ Fine Animal: 9 p.m., $5. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Joe Robinson: 8:30 p.m., $15. Nighttown. Schwartz Brothers: 8:30 p.m., $6. Beachland Tavern. Soul Music for the Soul with LDC: 6 p.m., Free. Happy Dog. Southern Culture on the Skids/Whiskey Daredevils: 9 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Sundy Best: 9 p.m., $10. Musica. Terrain/Midnight Trail Band/George Foley & Friends: 5:30 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern. Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons: 8 p.m. State Theatre. Velvet Shake: 9 p.m. Vosh Club. Vibe & Direct/Eumatic/Younger Still: 9 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Grog Shop. Weeknight/Hen Demo/Sexy Pig Divas: 8 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class.

SAT

05/02

Alkaline Trio: Past Live/Empires: After putting a nice dent in the American punk rock scene by the mid-2000s,

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

Alkaline Trio has a pretty hefty cache of material to work with these days. They remain something of a powerhouse on the punk circuit. The band is currently touring around the U.S. in four-show stands. During these gigs, they’re working through their entire discography, all eight albums: Goddamnit, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire, From Here to Infirmary, Good Mourning, Crimson, Agony & Irony, This Addiction, and My Shame Is True. “The albums will not be played chronologically and the pairings will not be announced beforehand,” the band reports. 8:30 p.m., $29.50. Grog Shop. (Eric Sandy) The Werks/Broccoli Samurai: Last fall, the band released Mr. Smalls Sessions, which includes a handful of songs that have shown up in set lists over the past few years. There’s the road-trippin’ “Better Than Before,” the energetic “Moetry in Potion” and more, all satisfying the band’s long-standing intention to constantly shift and grow their sound. Recent soundboards released on the band’s Bandcamp page show off a terrific spring tour under way. The band held down a two-day stint at the Beachland last year. After the first show we wrote: “Guitarist Chris Houser reminded all in the audience that, good lord, he can shred when he’s feelin’ it. And he felt the call of the mighty, major-key solo many times last night.” Truth. 9 p.m., $17 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. (Sandy) Antiseen/Hep Z/Dead Federation: 9 p.m., $10. Now That’s Class. Arlo Guthrie: Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary Tour: 8 p.m., $35. E. J. Thomas Hall. Jen Babcox (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Bound by Fate/Hemi Devils/Kharmuh/ Storms Within/Picasso’s Dream/Dr. Dreadful: 6:30 p.m., $6. Agora. CSU Student Showcase: 9 p.m. Vosh Club. Oliver Dragojevic and Dupini: 7:30 p.m. Ohio Theatre. Andy Gabbard: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Jamey Haddad: 8 p.m., $15. BLU Jazz+. Herzog/Kyle Sowashes/Radon Quixote: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern. Tom Knific Quartet: 8:30 p.m., $20. Nighttown. Bill Lestock/Mathis Grey & Patrick Woods: 8 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern. Midnight Passenger CD Release/ Corduroy Season/Nights: 8:30 p.m. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. RATM2/Devilstrip/Titans in Time: 9 p.m., $10. Musica. Rock the Cradle Benefit with Mind Pulp/Demons Within: 7 p.m., $8. The Foundry. Maura Rogers & the Bellows CD

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 59

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

Release/The Duals: 8:30 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. That ‘80s Band: 7:30 p.m. Brothers Lounge. The Used/Every Time I Die/Marmozets/ The Eeries: 7 p.m., $27.50 ADV, $30 DOS. House of Blues. Vance School of Music: 4 p.m. Vosh Club. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Whiskey River Revival hosted by Hillbilly Idol: 8:30 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club. Dar Williams/Lucy Wainwright Roche: A veteran singer-songwriter who actually teaches a course at Wesleyan College on the subject, Dar Williams recently released a live recording celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Honesty Room, an album of contemplative folk songs that feature her fluttering, upper register voice (think Joni Mitchell). Her forthcoming album, Emerald, features contributions from friends such as Jill Sobule, Richard Thompson, Jim Lauderdale, the Milk Carton Kids, the Hooters, Lucy Wainwright Roche and her mother Suzzy Roche. 8 p.m., $25 ADV, $28 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. (Niesel)

Sun

05/03

Alkaline Trio: Past Live/Pity Sex: 8:30 p.m., $29.50. Grog Shop. Hellyeah/Brothers at Arms: 8 p.m., $23 ADV, $25 DOS. House of Blues. House of Shem/Ziggy from C-Level/Milton Blake/The Ukombozi Band: 9 p.m., $10 ADV, $13 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Margo & the Pricetags (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. May Noise Lunch: 4 p.m., free. Now That’s Class. Natural Child/Faux Ferocious/Daylight is the Dream: 8:30 p.m., $10. Beachland Tavern. Nostalgia Factor: 3 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern. The Rocket 88s: 6 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern. Amy Speace/Ryan Culwell: 7:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Twin Guns/The Bassics/Surfer Rex: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class.

mon 05/04 Alkaline Trio: Past Live/HIDE: 8:30 p.m., $29.50. Grog Shop. Chon/Sentients/Slow to Speak/ Covariance: 7 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. George Foley & Friends/Not Quite Right: 7 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern. John Wiese/Andrew Kirschner/Skin Graft/Dog Lady/Stagnant Fluids: 9 p.m.,

$5. Now That’s Class. Mojo Big Band: 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Northbound/The Flats/Ledges/Sunnyvale/ Rooted (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $8. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Quality Control Presents the Yung Rich Nation Tour with Migos and Og Maco: 7 p.m., $29.50. House of Blues.

tue

05/05

Alkaline Trio: Past Live/Citizen: 8:30 p.m., $29.50. Grog Shop. Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Featuring Sammy DeLeon and HIs Latin Jazz Septet: 8 p.m., $15. BLU Jazz+. Marc Cohn: In 1991 when “Walking in Memphis” was breaking nationally, it was getting airplay locally on WMMS. For singer/songwriter Marc Cohn, a Beachwood native, it was a victory that had been a long time coming, as he scored his first hit with the track, which eventually peaked at No.13 on the Billboard charts. More than two decades later, Cohn continues to come home periodically to play shows and he’s said it’s always a lot of fun to see familiar faces. 8 p.m. Trinity Cathedral. (Wardlaw), Diego Figueiredo & Gabriel Grossi: 7 p.m., $20. Nighttown. Steven Joseph/Big Tim: 6 p.m., $10 ADV, $13 DOS. Agora. Ernie Krivda and the Fat Tuesday Big Band: Vosh Club. Jimmy Maguire (in the Wine Bar): 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Open Mic Night with Gary Hall: Barking Spider Tavern. Smallpools/Grizfolk/Vinyl Theatre: 7 p.m., $17.50 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Mike Tramp Storytellers: 7:30 p.m., $15. Hard Rock Rocksino. White Mystery/Nico Missile/Obnox: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Yoni Wolf/Serengeti/p. stoops: The brainchild behind quirky alternative indie sometimes-hip-hop outfit Why? has always led a robust solo career. (He originally performed under the Why? moniker himself.) Yoni Wolf’s solo tour begins tonight in Cleveland, and it sounds like this will be a return to his hip-hop roots. For the as-yetuninitiated, Wolf dropped a cover of Frank Ocean’s “Thinking About You” recently, and the tone of the music and the video make for a pretty good primer on the guy’s aural vibe. It’s trippy, it’s off-kilter, and the weirdness is very apparent in the video effects. As for tonight? It’s anyone’s guess, really. “Don’t miss out on this chill hang,” Yoni writes. 8:30 p.m., $13. Beachland Tavern. (Sandy)

scene@clevescene.com t @cleveland_scene

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 61

band of the week By Light We Loom By Jeff Niesel

Meet the Band: Shanna Delaney (vocals, loops) and Eric Ling (guitars, vocals) a Good Run: With their previous band Bethesda, which called it quits last year, Delaney and Ling had a good run in the ’00s. The indie-folk group toured throughout the Midwest and even played big festivals such as Bonnaroo, CMJ, Bunbury and MidPoint. It opened for indie acts such as Mates of State, Sharon Van Etten and First Aid Kit. “It was a huge part of our life,” says Delaney when asked about that time period. “We got to play so many awesome shows, and we loved touring. We released two singles at the end of that run. Everyone was in different places and Eric and I went through so many different members to fill in when people couldn’t make it to shows. We just couldn’t hold it together anymore.” on to SoMethinG new: In the wake of Bethesda’s dissolution, Delaney and Ling reconvened as a duo, christening the band By Light We Loom. Last fall, it started writing songs. “We knew we didn’t want to be an acoustic duo,” she says of by Light We Loom. “Eric locked himself in a room for six hours and learned the Ableton Launchpad system by watching YouTube videos. He has that kind of mind. I’m not like that. I would just sit on the couch and cry. He taught me how to use it and now we’re writing all the parts and all the songs on it. We always wanted to go in an

magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

indie pop direction. Forming the new band allowed us to switch gears.”

why you Should heaR theM: The group’s new release, The Ignition EP, is a really solid effort. Album opener “Ignition” is a jittery pop number that makes good use of xylophone as Delaney croons, “I’ve got my mind made up.” The song finishes strong with a jam at the end. “Stand” features a steady drumbeat and cooing vocals; it comes off as a power ballad with its somber lyrics about a bitter breakup, and the handclaps and harmony vocals in “Measure of Us” are bound to make it a fan favorite. Recorded with local producer Jim Stewart, the EP shows an evolution in songwriting. “We hit the studio right away,” says Delaney. “We had a lot of things done before we went to the studio. The hard part is that we had so many sounds at our fingertips. It was hard to decide what to use or not.” She says the band has already started writing songs for a new EP it hopes to release in the fall. wheRe you Can heaR theM: bylightweloom.squarespace.com. wheRe you Can See theM: By Light We Loom performs with Marcus Alan Ward and Nonaphoenix at 9 p.m. on Friday, May 1.

jniesel@clevescene.com t @jniesel

7 37 B O L I VA R R D C L E V E L A N D , O H 4 4115 | c l e v e s c e n e . c o m magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015 63

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

savage love AGE PLAY By Dan Savage

Dear Dan, My partner is 31 years older than I am. I know the math: He’ll be 60 when I’m 29. But that isn’t the problem. The issue is he’s been a lifelong bachelor and never been monogamous. He’s fucked hundreds of women and is close friends with a lot of his former fuck buddies. Because of our four-year friendship before we hooked up, I know a lot about his sex life. The problem isn’t jealousy. It’s that I know too much. We both feel vulnerable at times— him because I’m still in contact with one ex, and me because I feel like I’m fighting his past preference for no-strings-attached relationships. He tells me this relationship is different and he loves me in a way he hasn’t loved anyone before. But I still feel like because of how many people he’s been with, and how many of these amazing, beautiful, young fuck buddies are still in his life, I’ll never attain any sort of primacy. — Notable Age Gap Gets In Newbie’s Grill Answering your question without knowing your actual ages is difficult, because it makes a difference whether you’re 21 and he’s 52 (which means this man befriended you when you were a high-school student) or you’re 28 and he’s 59 (and you met this man after you got out of college). Likewise, it would help to know how long you two have been together. Three months? Three years? Essentially, you’re asking me to game out the odds for both longterm success and monogamous success (and, yes, those are two different things), and that’s hard. Because I would definitely give your relationship slimmer odds of longterm success if your partner were the kind of middle-aged man who befriends and eventually beds highschool students. Conversely, I would give your relationship fatter odds of long-term success if you were three years into it and your partner had been successfully monogamous all that time. That said, NAGGING, cheating and breakups regularly happen in the absence of significant age gaps and friendship networks composed exclusively of ex–fuck buddies. There are no guarantees. Your partner may revert to nonmonogamous form at

some point and either cheat (boo!) or ask for permission to open up your relationship (yay?). You could find yourself in a caretaker role in 10plus years and find yourself asking him for permission to open up your relationship. Or you guys could stay together and stay faithful until death comes for one of you—most likely your partner, leaving you plenty of time to hook up with your ex, if he’s still available. You’ll obtain primacy—or realize you’ve already attained it—after a significant chunk of time has passed. So give it more time. Either it will work out or it won’t. But even if this relationship isn’t a long-term success, it can still be a short-term success. Good luck.

Dear Dan, I’m 62 and happily married for 20 years to a sweet guy who doesn’t seem particularly interested in sex any longer. We are open to allowing each other freedom, with full disclosure, and have occasionally done this. But what I’d really like is a young man who finds me attractive and would be interested in seducing, or being seduced by, yours truly, even though I’m old enough to be his grandma. — Wicked Older Woman A study you’re not going to want to read and that I’m not going to cite—because it lumps people who are sexually attracted to the elderly together with people who are sexually attracted to prepubescent children—puts the percentage of people attracted to senior citizens at .15 percent of the population. I’m not going to try to figure out how many gerontophiles are in their 20s and 30s. But there should be lots. And there are probably a few non-gerontophile guys (and gals) out there who are willing to take a walk on the postmenopausal side. How to make it happen? The same way everyone else does: Get online and advertise for what you want (clearly and explicitly), and get out of the house (you never know who you’ll meet). Then seize—safely—the opportunities that come your way.

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magazine | clevescene.com | April 29 - May 5, 2015

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