Scene August 24, 2022

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 20224

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 5 COVER PHOTO BY MADDIE MCGARVEY FOR PROPUBLICA Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Andrew Zelman Editor Vince Grzegorek Editorial Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Visual Arts Writer Shawn Mishak Stage Editor Christine Howey Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Creative Services Creative Director Haimanti Germain Art Director Evan Sult Production Manager Sean Bieri Graphic Designer Aspen Smit Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace Business Business & Sales Support Specialist Megan Stimac Controller Kristy Cramer Circulation Circulation Director Burt Sender ...The story continues at clevescene.com Take SCENE with you with the Issuu app! “Cleveland Scene Magazine” Upfront 6 Feature 10 Get Out 16 Eat 19 Music 23 Savage Love 31 Euclid Media Group Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP Digital Services Stacy Volhein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media 1-800-278-9866,Groupvmgadvertising.com Cleveland Scene 737 Bolivar Road Cleveland OH www.clevescene.com44115 Phone 216-505-8199 E-mail scene@clevescene.com Cleveland Scene Magazine is published every other week by Euclid Media Group Verified Audit Member Cleveland Distribution Scene is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader Subscriptions - $150 (1 yr); $80 (6 mos.) Email Megan - MStimac@CleveScene.com - to subscribe. CONTENTS Copyright The entire contents of Cleveland Scene Magazine are copyright 2020 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’ AUGUST 24-SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 • VOL. 53 No 4 REWIND: 1983 The Big Man himself graced the Scene cover in the early 1980s, around the time he recorded a solo for a StanleyMichaelsong. years 1970-202252

“We’re a film distribution company, and we intentionally moved the company from Hollywood to Cleveland in 2019 because Cleveland is home for us,” he said.

Murphy emphasized this is a long-term vision — “These things happen on their own timeline” — but said the prospects for MLS NEXT Pro are “very sound” as the league seeks to expand with more independent teams.

Photo: Matthew Bernhardt/FlickrCC

MLS MADE SITE VISIT TO CLEVELAND ABOUT POTENTIAL EXPANSION TEAM IN DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE

FOUR SENIOR OFFICIALS FROM Major League Soccer took a site visit to Cleveland in late July for introductory talks and due diligence for a possible expansion team in the MLS development league with local officials and leaders who are seeking to land both men’s and women’s soccer franchises for the city. The “Cleveland Professional Soccer” group will also host site visits from the United Soccer League — men’s and women’s — and the National Women’s Soccer League “in the near term,” both of which have also expressed interest in the Cleveland market.

Michael Murphy of Gravitas Ventures is lead on the group’s efforts and was bubbling with excitement when he talked to Scene.

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 20226

“The women’s is Division I. It’d be a coup for Cleveland to get one of these franchises,” he said. “We’re competing against cities that are more well-versed with soccer and have stadiums.”

MLS didn’t respond to a request for comment but the city confirmed the hourlong meeting at City Hall with Mayor Justin Bibb and provided an itinerary for the rest of the site visit, which involved formal and informal meetings with the founder and president of Gravitas Ventures, David Gilbert of Destination Cleveland, multiple officials from Cleveland State University, Joe Cimperman from Global Cleveland, Baiju Shah of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, members of the Haslam Sports Group (which owns the Columbus Crew and the Crew 2 in the development league), leaders from the Northeast Ohio Women’s Sports Alliance, and real estate lawyers and agents.

“The more I looked at this, it’s an incredible vehicle for lasting impact for this community from a unification of disparate groups. We have these strong immigrant groups and the common language is soccer. Wouldn’t it be amazing to bring professional men’s and women’s soccer to them and the city?”

He’s even more excited about the prospect of women’s professional soccer in Cleveland.

A city official described the talks as preliminary, noting the conversation was centered on the potential to grow the game across the country and Northeast Ohio, and what sort of ecosystem might exist to support that locally. “Cleveland has a large international population (with

UPFRONTUPFRONT

MLS NEXT Pro is a third-tier league that launched this year with 22 teams all with direct MLS team affiliations, except for Rochester New York FC, which is independent. Seven more NEXT Pro teams will be added next year. And the league is looking to add even more in the future.

Employees told Scene that details were not provided in their layoff calls. One employee was told that Platform was “reevaluating its production process.”

“The whole situation sucks,” one employee said. “Platform kind of had a shitty name for a long time for a lot of people, both because they’ve been notorious for bad business practices and because you used to buy a six-pack and like half the cans would be empty. But I never wanted it to have those negative connotations. I got people drinking Platform and I did my best to be a good representative of the company, and this is what I get: fucked.”

The mayor met briefly with the group but did not attend the meetings with the various business leaders.” Cimperman told Scene that for his part, the conversation with the MLS officials was about that large and growing immigrant group in Cleveland.“Theyare very interested in what Cleveland has to offer. For me, I have a specific interest with Global Cleveland: How do we get newcomers involved and kids engaged in football?” he said. “How do we help create pitches in Cleveland for kids all across the city? It’s a really huge factor in the States, and any tool we can use for faster integration is welcome.”

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 7 anticipated growth),” a city spokesperson told Scene. “[These were] very early stages of conversation about increasing sports options in the city and introductions.

As many as 20 employees at Platform Brewing Company’s production facility in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood were laid off late last week, Scene has learned. Those who work at the facility, brewing, testing, canning, packaging and warehousing all but Platform’s Haze Jude IPA, (the brewery’s cash cow, which is produced offsite in New Hampshire), received a message Thursday night on the company’s Slack channel advising them not to come into work Friday. Employees told Scene that this message alluded to physical work being done at the building, but was “vague” and “seemed sketchy.” Friday morning, the Slack channel had been disabled and employees had no access. The Slack network was how they typically interacted with their direct supervisors, so they had no way of figuring out what was going on. Then they got the calls from Platform leadership and reps from HR — known by Platform as the “People Department” — telling them they’d been laid off. “I assume the People Department is just the layoff department,” one employee told Scene, “because they’ve always been dogshit with people.”

The local union, which represents janitorial workers and other service employees, wanted to apply pressure on Playhouse Square and other buildings downtown that utilize Royce Security, a firm that SEIU calls “irresponsible” for a history of wage theft and its refusal to provide fair wages and benefits to security officers during the pandemic. SEIU Local 1 believes that the security officers working for Royce, just like all workers, have a right to organize a union.Forweeks, SEIU says, they’ve attempted to contact Playhouse Square in the hopes of working cooperatively to improve the quality of life for the guards at the historic theater complex on Euclid Avenue. (Playhouse Square could, among other things, threaten to switch

That evolution, for now, includes everyone on the canning line getting the boot. Employees could only speculate that as the brewery enters a slow season, the decision may have come from Anheuser-Busch, the parent company that acquired Platform in 2019. The upshot could either be a radical downsizing of Platform’s total production or outsourcing of production to other facilities. A significant culling of the brewery’s enormous portfolio of beers was already in the offing. (An email to Anheuser-Busch’s media department seeking comment has not yet been returned. This story will be updated if and when they respond.)

The group toured sites for prospective new stadiums and existing ones where a Cleveland team could play, according to the itinerary. What “right-sized” means in this context isn’t clear, nor whether it overlaps with the ongoing conversations about what to do with FirstEnergy stadium (or whether to build a new billion-dollar facility), nor who would pick up the tab on a newly built venue.

Another was told that the building itself, which is owned by Platform co-owner Justin Carson and rented by AnheuserBusch, could no longer support production.Workers had just completed a huge batch of Platform’s “MUNI” beer, a “crushable” hazy IPA made in partnership with the Cleveland Browns. And employees suspected that Platform was waiting until that run was out the door before delivering the news. Today’s layoffs followed others earlier in the week in the company’s sales department. The bar and taproom on Lorain Avenue is a separate operation and is thought to be remaining open. Most of the brewery’s top brewers were known to have retained their jobs as of mid-Friday morning.

UPFRONT

-Vince Grzegorek Platform Brewing Company Lays Off Roughly 20 at Cleveland Production Facility

Two key points were emphasized in the Cleveland Professional Soccer group’s messaging, according to a deck provided to participants: First, that, “Cleveland will support professional soccer. Cleveland is one of the last major markets without professional soccer. We know Cleveland is a great sports town. Cleveland fans show up and this is an opportunity for those existing fans as well as new fans especially from our multi- national immigrant audience that may not feel as connected to MLB, NFL, or NBA. Professional soccer is family-friendly and many like the reasonable 2 hours for a match.” Second is, of course, the facility, which was described as a codependent goal along with bringing soccer to the shores of Lake Erie (“Build a world class multi-use stadium facility that fills a programming gap. Cleveland needs and will use a right-sized outdoor venue and indoor venue,” the presentation reads).

According to employees, those laid off will be paid in full and given severance that corresponds with their age and duration of employment.Thereasons for the abrupt layoffs remain unclear. When contacted by Scene, Platform’s co-owner Paul Benner said that “out of respect for the situation,” he would comment later in the day. Shortly thereafter, he provided the following statement: “Since we started brewing at our Cleveland production facility in 2016, the building has been an important part of our business and will continue to play an integral role in our consumer-first strategy. We will continue to brew and package beer at the facility, but moving forward, we will evolve our production plan to best fit the space, focusing on brewing high-quality beer as we work toward our collective goal of brewing the best beers in Ohio. Unfortunately, several employees at the production facility were impacted and we’re working to assist them through this transition.”

But

Local officials and those involved who spoke to Scene weren’t aware of a timeline for any decisions on a next step.

“The whole situation sucks,” one employee said. “Platform kind of had a shitty name for a long time for a lot of people, both because they’ve been notorious for bad business practices and because you used to buy a six-pack and like half the cans would be empty. But I never wanted it to have those negative connotations. I got people drinking Platform and I did my best to be a good representative of the company, and this is what I get: fucked.”

International Union Local 1 (SEIU Local 1) held a rally and press conference outside Playhouse Square earlier this month in support of downtown security guards.

David Gilbert, whose portion of the site visit included providing an overview of the Cleveland sports market to MLS officials, told Scene: “In general, professional soccer in the U.S., for the vast majority, not all, but the vast majority at all levels tend to be played in facilities that sort of match the crowd sizes that make the most sense for that level of soccer, from MLS on down. There’s been talk for years and different attempts to look at some purposebuilt facility for soccer and that could be all kinds of things. Some of these are 6,000 or 8,000, some are 20,000, some are smaller.”

-Sam Allard Security Guards at Playhouse Square, other Downtown Properties, Want to Unionize Members of Service Employees

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 20228

Sam Allard

“It is unconscionable that these essential workers continue to ensure tenants, residents and this community remain safe and secure, yet they lack fair wages and benefits that allow them to do the same for their own families,” Sims said in a statement. “These workers deserve a voice on the job—they deserve a fair process for union recognition.”

Melvin Barnes, Jr., 43, has been a security officer at the AECOM Building, (formerly the Penton Media Building), for 17 years and has worked under four contractors there. He said that while he made a lower hourly wage when he first started, he has less money now than he did then, given that inflation has been “in hyperdrive” and his wages haven’t kept pace with the cost of living.

Playhouse Square’s top executive, Gina Vernaci, incidentally, made just under $500,000 in total compensation in 2020, according to a recently published Crain’s Cleveland Business list. She made $660,000 the previous year. Royce security officers at Playhouse Square makeYanela$13/hour.Sims, SEIU Local 1 Ohio Director, said that these security officers have worked tirelessly and often amidst uncertain circumstances throughout the pandemic to provide high-quality service at the downtown buildings where Royce is contracted: Playhouse Square, the AECOM Building at St. Clair and E. 9th, and the United Way of Greater Cleveland building a few blocks east of Playhouse Square on Euclid.

“I’m not saying I should make as much as an engineer,” Barnes told Scene Wednesday. “And I don’t want to say I’m suffering, but I feel that I’m struggling unnecessarily. I work a full-time job. I should be paid a dignifiedBarneswage.”saidthat virtually an entire paycheck is required to cover his rent, and that his other monthly paycheck must cover the rest of his expenses: food, insurance, phone, internet, incidentals. He lives downtown and said he’s grateful he lives close enough to walk to the AECOM Building, where he works third shift. If he had to pay for a monthly bus pass, he said, (to say nothing of a personal vehicle), he’d be forced to find additional work to cover the Increasedcost.wages are the most obvious benefit that Barnes cited when asked about the appeal of forming a union, but he said paid time off, including sick time and bereavement leave, were also important to him. Twice during the pandemic, he said, he had to travel to New Orleans, where he was born and raised, for funeral services for family members. He was so over budget that he had to borrow money for the second trip.

“You need quality, responsible people in these jobs,” he said. “But if you pay any old type of wage, you’re going to get any old type of person.”

East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King could become the second consecutive mayor of the cash-strapped east side suburb to be removed from office by his constituents when he faces a recall election on Nov. 8. At its meeting Monday morning, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections set King’s recall date for the same day as the 2022 general election. The BOE last week certified the signatures submitted by those leading the recall effort, including East Cleveland council members Korean Stevenson and Patricia Blochowiak.UnderEast Cleveland’s charter, King had until Aug. 18 to resign his seat or else face the voters. The expectation was that the recall would be held in November, but Monday morning, King appeared before the BOE and asked them to consider a special election in October. He said residents had been duped into signing the recall petition and lamented the suburb’s political turmoil. King himself only became mayor after his predecessor, Gary Norton, was booted from office by voters in 2016 via recall. King won re-election in 2017 and then again lastKing’syear. opponents believe that he has spent public funds unlawfully and used the police force as his private army, as illustrated by an ongoing high-profile lawsuit.

At a City Hall press conference last week, council members outlined King’s fiscal misconduct, accusing the mayor of spending money without council approval and of engaging contractors for work without formal contracts in place.

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 9 contractors to pressure Royce into better behavior.)

“I’m very confident that we exceed standards in how we treat our people,” Conway said. “And that’s evident by the longevity of many of our security officers.”

Brian Norman, 50, has worked security for more than 20 years and has been at the AECOM Building for just over four. He said that during the pandemic, the workload has gone up while the benefits have gone down. And switching to Royce from the previous contractor, he said, “was a real“Theycurveball.”don’teven do direct deposit,” he said. Norman takes pride in his work and the many hats security officers must wear on the job: not only serving as a physical deterrent to intruders and potential criminal activity, but as a greeter and customer service worker, a trouble shooter, and even a technician.

East Cleveland’s King to Face Mayoral Recall Election

“There’s no PTO at Royce,” Barnes said. “You work your hours and you collect your check. And since they’ve been [the contractor at the AECOM Building] there hasn’t been a whisper, I mean not even a smoke signal, of a raise.”

At Monday’s BOE meeting, one citizen representative spoke on behalf of the recall effort, advocating for the general election date so as to attract as many voters as possible. The BOE agreed, as the schedule aligned with rules outlined in the city charter. East Cleveland has been in a state of fiscal emergency since the fall of 2012. Despite efforts to get its accounts in order, including by instituting a hiring freeze and selling publicly-owned properties, it’s still a long ways off from clearing its debts.

WIDGETDIGIT

$1.65 billion Acquisition price of IT products company Tripp Lite by Cleveland’s own EATON Corporation Lite’staxheadquartered(technicallyinIrelandforavoidancepurposes).TrippshareshadbeenpreviouslydonatedinfulltoaRepublicancontrolledPAC,andsotheprofitsofthesalebecamethelargestsinglepoliticalgiftinhistory.

$3.119 million Gross revenue from Machine Gun Kelly’s August 13 concert at FirstEnergy Stadium, his highest grossing performance ever. More than 42,000 tickets were sold.

Fambrough’s subsequent lawsuit, which is ongoing, received national attention. The police actions were described as retaliatory First Amendment transgressions.

-Sam Allard

But Playhouse Square has been unresponsive.

Both Barnes and Norman stressed that security guards, much like janitors, fast food workers and other service industry employees, are often regarded as losers and deadbeats. But in spite of the disrespect they’ve received, not least the disrespect inherent in their compensation, they said they work hard and honestly and deserve basic accommodations like vacation time and raises. “This isn’t about trying to get something for nothing,” Barnes said. “This is about being treated with dignity.”

William Fambrough, a veteran East Cleveland political operative and one of the recall leaders, alleged that he had been targeted by East Cleveland police during the 2021 mayoral race. At that time, Fambrough was campaigning for King’s challenger, city councilwoman Juanita Gowdy and had equipped his van with speakers to broadcast messages supporting her. His vehicle was towed by East Cleveland police, and he was cited for a noise violation.

“We have a situation where laws have been broken and we have a situation where we have major mismanagement,” said councilwoman Patricia Blochowiak. “If this keeps going on, the city is going to fall apart entirely.”

Reached by phone, Joe Conway, the President and CEO of Royce Security, told Scene that he had no comment on the unionization efforts, but said that as a company, Royce met and exceeded industry standards for pay and benefits.

9/20/2022 – Date of debate between Cuyahoga County Executive candidates Chris Ronayne and Lee Weingart at the Renaissance Hotel, hosted by the City Club of Cleveland. 10 Minimum number of Ohio counties that have blocked the development of new wind and solar projects since October 2021, when the state enacted a law giving counties veto power over renewable energy sites. (Medina is the only county in Northeast Ohio to have done so.) scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene

Norman said he has been certified in Microsoft Office and that if the building’s power goes off, he is regularly called to check on electric locks and other systems.

Ginger Munro holds the sonogram of her daughter Elliotte at her home in Ohio. Munro was hospitalized with COVID-19, placed on life support, and delivered her stillborn daughter at 27 weeks. Part of the image is blurred to conceal personal medical information.

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202210

COVID-related stillbirths didn’t have to happen

This story was originally published by ProPublica.

A pathologist who works in rural Ohio, Odronic leaned forward to examine tissue from the placenta of a woman who had recently given birth. She increased the magnification on the microscope. Never had she seen so many tiny, congealed reservoirs of blood or such severe inflammation of the tissue, a sign the placenta had been fighting an infection.“Rightaway, I knew it wasn’t compatible with life,” Odronic said. She asked her secretary to print out the patient’s chart. In dark letters were the words “fetal demise.” A stillbirth, the death of a fetus at 20 weeks or more of pregnancy. But that didn’t solve the mystery. Odronic had examined many placentas from pregnancies that ended in stillbirth. None looked like this — withered and scarred.

LATE ONE AFTERNOON LAST OCTOBER, Dr. Shelley Odronic sat in her office and, just as she had thousands of times before, slid a rectangular glass slide onto her microscope.

By Duaa Eldeib, ProPublica

Odronic kept reading. No chronic medical conditions. Good prenatal care. Then, buried in the middle of the report, she spotted something. Seven days before the stillbirth, the mother had tested positive for COVID-19. Odronic wondered if the virus could explain the damage to the placenta. In the world of placenta pathology, a new affliction is unusual, especially one so dramatic in presentation and so devastating in effect. Her mind traveled to Dr. Amy Heerema-McKenney, a pathologist at Cleveland Clinic and an expert on the placenta, who had trained Odronic during residency. Odronic went to sleep that night with a pit in her stomach and a plan to call her former teacher in the morning. Heerema-McKenney was in her office when the phone rang. As she listened, she knew that what Odronic was describing was what she and her colleagues had observed repeatedly over the past several months: a patient positive for the coronavirus, a placenta destroyed by COVID-19, a baby stillborn. Their next discovery was equally stunning. None of the stillbirths they studied involved a pregnant person who had been fully vaccinated. The doctors checked with colleagues across the country and around the world. The fatal pattern held. Unvaccinated women who contracted COVID-19 during pregnancy were at a higher risk of stillbirths. They also were more likely to be admitted

“God, No, Not Another Case.”

Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 11 to the intensive care unit, give birth prematurely or die. Yet their greatest protection — the COVID-19 vaccine — sat largely untouched, buried under doubt, polluted by disinformation.Pharmaceutical companies and government officials failed to ensure that pregnant people were included in the early development of the COVID-19 vaccine, a calamitous decision made amid the urgency of a rapidly spreading pandemic. That decision left pregnant people with little research to rely on when making a critical decision on how best to keep the babies growing inside of them safe. At the same time that research was excluding pregnant people from vaccine trials, a full-scale assault on vaccination was unfolding online.

Heerema-McKenney was examining the damaged placentas, Ginger Munro was on life support in a hospital 250 miles away in another part of Ohio. She and her husband, Kendal, had been trying to have a child for five years. They hadn’t expected that she’d get pregnant in the middle of a pandemic. But when her pregnancy test came back positive in the spring of 2021, she rushed to post a picture of it in an online pregnancy group. “Is it just me or can you see the 2 lines??” she asked. The pandemic had already brought much change to their lives. Ginger, who lives in the small town of Washington Court House in southwest Ohio, quit her job as assistant nutrition director with the county’s Commission on Aging. She stationed hand sanitizer throughout her house and in her car, and she only went grocery shopping early in the morning. If she noticed someone in an aisle, she skipped it.

AROUND THE SAME TIME

“I knew the virus was real,” she said, “but I was terrified to take the vaccine.”Ginger worried that the vaccine’s development had been rushed, and she hadn’t seen any data showing it was safe for pregnant people. At this point, the CDC had not explicitly recommended the vaccine during pregnancy. Ginger already worried she was tempting fate by getting pregnant at 40; she said she didn’t want to risk endangering her baby by taking the vaccine. Besides, if it was really important, her doctor would have mentioned it, and, she said, she would have followed his advice. But, she said, he never did. Her family hadn’t gotten vaccinated either. In a mostly rural county where less than half of the residents were vaccinated, they were hardly alone. Her doctor declined to comment through a spokesperson at the hospital system where he works; the spokesperson said the hospital couldn’t disseminate information about the vaccine to pregnant patients before it was recommended. Ginger’s pregnancy progressed without complications. She and Kendal shared the news of a new baby with Ginger’s two daughters from a previous marriage. At their kitchen table, near a sign that read “eat cake for breakfast,” Sophia, then 14, covered her mouth with both hands while Hailee, then 18, simply beamed.Atabackyard

Taking advantage of the lack of data, conspiracy theorists, antivaxxers and even some medical professionals spread false claims about the vaccine’s safety in pregnancy, leading many pregnant people to delay or refuse the vaccine. Even now, with numerous studies unequivocally announcing the safety of the vaccine for pregnant people, some doctors have failed to communicate the dangers of COVID-19 to pregnant people or the vaccine’s role in mitigating it.

“These are pregnancies that should not have ended,” HeeremaMcKenney said. She and others had tried to alert the CDC as well as maternal and state health organizations to their findings, but she said they either didn’t get a response or were told they needed to collect more data and publish studies.

gender reveal three months later, Ginger’s growing belly resembled a basketball against her tiny frame. She leaned in to kiss her husband, her long, dark hair falling onto her shoulders. Red confetti rained down on the deck. Kendal, an aircraft maintenance and avionics manager at an airport two counties away, worked through the pandemic. In the summer, when they realized his cough was actually COVID-19, it was too late. Ginger wasHavingsick. trouble reaching her doctor, she went to two different emergency rooms. One, she said, declined to treat her with monoclonal antibodies, which research had shown can be an effective treatment for pregnant people with COVID-19. The other, which described her in medical records as “an exceedingly pleasant individual admitted with symptomatic COVID-19 pneumonia,” transferred her about an hour away to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. There, records show, she was admitted with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to COVID-19.TheUniversity of Cincinnati doctor asked Ginger and Kendal — who was on FaceTime because of the hospital’s COVID-19 protocols — about “fetal priority.” Ginger made her wishes clear: Save the baby, their baby, the baby they had tried so hard to have. Kendal, who was worried about both his wife and their unborn child, said he went along with Ginger in that moment. “You were so scared,” Kendal wrote in a notebook that night. “We told each other over and over how much we loved each other.” They hung up so the doctors could insert a breathing tube. Before they could begin, Kendal called back three more times just to hear her voice. Doctors put Ginger on ECMO, a form of life support reserved for the sickest patients. Kendal, Hailee, Sophia and Ginger’s mother and sister were later allowed in the hospital two at a time, and they prayed at her bedside nearly every night. Ginger was sedated, her face swollen and obscured by tubing, her cheeks flattened by the crush of the ventilator straps, her wrists tied down so she wouldn’t accidentally pull out her breathing tube. Her family took solace in knowing the baby’s heartbeat was steady and her ultrasounds were normal. The doctors gave Ginger medication to help the baby’s lungs mature in case she was born early. After more than 30 days on ECMO, doctors took Ginger off the machine only to put her back on the next morning. She was the first patient in the hospital’s history to be placed on ECMO twice. The plan, records show, was to deliver at 28 weeks. But the day after Ginger was put back on life support, Kendal got the call telling him the baby was on her way. As doctors prepared for the delivery in Ginger’s intensive care room, the family camped out in the waiting room, jittery from excitement and vending machine snacks. They talked about baby names and future family outings. They pulled the waiting room chairs together to form makeshift beds and covered themselves with blankets they brought from home. They don’t know if they actually fell asleep before a nurse burst through the doors screaming at them to follow. “She’s coming! She’s coming!” They didn’t make it far before they were blocked by doctors and nurses, some huddled over an incubator in the middle of the hall and the rest crowded around Ginger.

Pathologists are experts in disease diagnosis, dealing with death and illness from the safe distance of their labs. Convincing obstetricians who met with patients daily or doctors who were making policy recommendations was a challenge. “I tried to sound the alarm. We tried so hard to get people to listen,” Heerema-McKenney said. “It was a really frustrating place to be as pathologists doing these autopsies, looking at these placentas and saying, ‘God, no, not another case.’”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contributed to the confusion with vague early messaging about whether pregnant people should get vaccinated. While Americans lined up at pharmacies and stalked vaccine websites in hopes of securing a shot last year, pregnant people had some of the lowest vaccination rates among adults, with only 35% fully vaccinated by last November. Meanwhile, many Americans were already moving on to their boosters after federal officials that month expanded eligibility for the additional shots to anyone 18 or older. And much of the country was beginning to return to pre-pandemic life. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, for instance, set the record for the busiest day of air travel since March 2020. November also marked a key moment in the understanding of COVID-19’s impact on stillbirths. A CDC study looking at 1.2 million births in the first 18 months of the pandemic found that more than 8,000 pregnancies ended in stillbirths, including more than 270 of them in patients with a documented COVID-19 diagnosis at the time of Althoughdelivery.stillbirths were rare overall, babies were dying. The risk of a stillbirth nearly doubled for those who had COVID-19 during pregnancy compared with those who didn’t. And during the spread of the delta variant, that risk was four timesIndeed,higher.doctors discovered that some stillbirths resulted from COVID-19 directly infiltrating the placenta, a condition they named SARS-CoV-2 placentitis. Cases were found even in people whose COVID-19 symptoms were mild or nonexistent. In some cases, however, placentas were discarded with medical waste without being tested for COVID-19, and parents never learned what led to their baby’s COVID-19stillbirth.alsoled to stillbirths among pregnant people who became exceedingly ill after contracting the virus. It damaged their lungs and clotted their blood, putting their babies in such severe distress that they were born before they could take their first breath.

Similarly, Moderna also studied its vaccine on pregnant animals, but the company said it made the decision “to prioritize the study of the safety and efficacy” of the vaccine in adults who weren’t pregnant. It called that approach “consistent with the precedent to study new vaccines in pregnant women only after demonstration of favorable benefit and risk in healthy adults.” In response to questions from ProPublica, Johnson & Johnson referred a reporter to its website, which didn’t address the relevant issues.Some government officials, including several from the Food and Drug Administration, said they support having pregnant women take part in clinical studies of vaccines for emerging infectious disease, including COVID-19. A spokesperson for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, said the agency did not “dictate the protocol development” for the trials and said that responsibility lies with theThecompanies.failureto include pregnant people early on in COVID-19 vaccine trials was, at least in part, a casualty of the tremendous urgency to respond to an intense public threat and develop the vaccine as quickly as possible, Faden said. But multiple groups had published road maps on how to ethically include pregnant people without slowing down that process.“Ican’t tell you how many pregnant people might not have died or how many stillbirths might not have occurred if the playbook had been followed,” she said, “but I’m willing to bet it was a significant chunk that would have been prevented if there had been a full-throated, evidence-based recommendation for COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy almost simultaneous to when it was available for the rest of the adult population.”

Women and Lactating Women. The group found longstanding obstacles, including liability concerns, to including pregnant and lactating people in clinical research. It concluded that recommending halting medication or foregoing treatment while pregnant may actually endanger the health of the mother and her fetus more than the treatment itself.

IN THE HURRIED QUEST FOR A safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, pharmaceutical companies and government officials did not include pregnant people in their initial plans. It’s a failure that continues to reverberate.“Theyabsolutely should have been included in COVID vaccine trials from the beginning,” said Kathryn Schubert, president and CEO of the Society for Women’s Health Research, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for the inclusion of women in research and clinicalResearcherstrials. and advocates have spent more than four decades trying to dismantle the belief that it’s unsafe or unethical for pregnant women to participate in clinical trials. A couple years ago, it seemed like they had finally prevailed. Shortly before leaving office, President Barack Obama signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act, which established the Task Force on Research Specific to Pregnant

COVID-19 provided an opportunity to implement the recommendations of the task force,” said Dr. Diana Bianchi, the director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the chair of the task force. In February 2021, Bianchi and her colleagues published an article lamenting the exclusion of those who were pregnant or breastfeeding from the initial COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. “Pregnant and lactating persons should not be protected from participating in research, but rather should be protected through research,” they wrote.

BY THE TIME THE CDC specifically recommended the vaccine for pregnant people, in August 2021, the damage had been done. A dizzying and vague series of advisories led to confusion and delayed vaccinations. When the COVID-19 vaccines were first made available in December 2020, the CDC said health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities should be prioritized, but the shots were not explicitly recommended for Dr. Shelley Odronic works in her office in Lima, Ohio. Odronic, a pathologist, noticed severe damage in the placentas of pregnant people who had COVID-19.

A spokesperson for Pfizer said the company followed guidance from the Food and Drug Administration. Although pregnant people were not included in the initial vaccine clinical trials, Pfizer tested its vaccine on pregnant rats and did not identify any safety concerns. The company subsequently launched a clinical trial with pregnant women but halted it because at that point the vaccine had already been recommended for pregnant people.

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202212

When Ginger woke up, she looked down at her sunken belly and realized she had given birth. She assumed her daughter was in the newborn intensive care unit. Ginger was barely able to speak around the tube in her trachea, but after a few days in which no one brought the baby to her, she couldn’t wait any longer. Ginger turned to her mother and sister and mouthed the words, “Where’s the baby?” The room fell silent. They called Kendal, who rushed to the hospital. He told her what had happened. He described their daughter’s dark hair and her long fingers and toes, just like her Ginger,mother’s.whohad always loved the sweet smell of a newborn’s breath, whispered to her husband. “Did you smell her breath?” “She wasn’t breathing,” he said.

The need for everything from asthma to depression medication doesn’t stop when a person gets pregnant, and when a catastrophic event such as a pandemic hits, experts said, pregnancy should not preclude someone from receiving lifesavingAroundtreatment.thesame time, researchers discovered that the Zika virus, which was mainly transmitted through mosquitoes, could pass from a pregnant person to their fetus and cause severe birth deformities. A second group of experts joined together to develop separate guidance on including pregnant people in the research, development and deployment of pandemic vaccines. Both groups pushed to remove pregnant women from a list of vulnerable populations that required additional review before being allowed to participate in research. Instead of proving that pregnant women should be included, manufacturers would need to provide compelling evidence for why theyInshouldn’t.2018,the federal task force issued recommendations calling for including pregnant and breastfeeding people in biomedical research, and the Department of Health and Human Services adopted some of the guidance. But a gap remained between what the task force and others insisted was needed and what was actually happening.

Ruth Faden, the founder of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, helped lead the group that issued the guidance after Zika. She and others urged manufacturers to include pregnant people in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed, the federal program that provided billions of taxpayer dollars to pharmaceutical companies to speed up vaccine production.

“There is a playbook in place so that when the U.S. launches Operation Warp Speed, it should be pretty obvious what should be done,” she said. “It’s not like no one knows how to do this, either ethically or technically.“Nevertheless, it doesn’t happen,” Faden added. “Once again, pregnant people are left behind.”

“We were frustrated because

Hailee tried to peer over the sea of blue scrubs to catch the first glimpse of her little sister. She smiled beneath her black mask. She’ll be OK, she said to herself. But after a few minutes of trying to revive the baby, a doctor told Kendal it was time. Kendal nodded, asked for a chair and collapsed as he tried to process his daughter’s death. Then another wave of grief washed over him. Someone would have to tell Ginger. Ginger’s medical records describe a baby born at 27 weeks “without signs of life” after an “uncomplicated delivery.” Her placenta had separated from the wall of the uterus, the risk of which studies have shown increases with COVID-19.

Maddie McGarvey for ProPublica

“CDC recognizes that pregnant people faced challenging decisions about how to best protect themselves in the setting of uncertainty related to both the infection and the COVID-19 vaccine,” a CDC spokesperson said, adding, “COVID-19 vaccination remains one of the best ways to protect yourself and your family from serious illness from COVID-19.”

After a promising study showed that the vaccine was safe for pregnant people, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing in late April that the CDC was recommending the vaccine for them. But the CDC did not update its website to reflect her comments and said the agency’s guidance had not changed: Pregnant people “may choose to be vaccinated.”

At the end of June 2021, the CDC added a general update to its website to reflect the dangers of the delta variant tearing across much of the country. “Getting vaccinated prevents severe illness, hospitalizations, and death,” it wrote. “Unvaccinated people should get vaccinated and continue masking until they are fully vaccinated.” But it wasn’t until Aug. 11, eight months after the first vaccine was administered, that the CDC issued its formal recommendation that pregnant and breastfeeding people get“Thevaccinated.vaccines are safe and effective,” Walensky said in a statement at the time, “and it has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible Delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people.”

“It played out in real time in the COVID pandemic because we see the effects of not including pregnant people in these trials,” GyamfiBannerman said. “We couldn’t make a strong recommendation, so pregnant people were hesitant. I think that directly led to fewer people using the vaccine than we would have wanted.”

A week later, she parked in front of Kohl’s to return the high chair, the clothes still on tiny hangers and the stroller her mom gave her. As she made her way to the register, she saw a baby in an identical stroller. The tears stung all the way down her“Youcheeks.see what you want right in front of you,” she said, “and it’s like, ‘My baby should be here. This shouldn’t have happened.’” Even before the pandemic, almost a quarter of all stillbirths may have been preventable. The stillbirth crisis

Dr. Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, a perinatologist and chair of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, shared the daunting task of making vaccine recommendations for pregnant people as part of COVID-19 task forces for two leading organizations, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 13 pregnant people. Instead, the agency said on its webpage for vaccines and pregnancy that pregnant health care workers “may choose to be vaccinated.”

August would prove to be the deadliest month for COVID-19-related deaths of pregnant people. The CDC issued an emergency call the next month strongly recommending the vaccine to pregnant people, noting that approximately 97% of pregnant people hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated. The dangers to symptomatic pregnant people included a 70% increased risk of death, and their developing babies could face a host of perils, including stillbirths.

In the beginning, she said, the only pregnancy-specific data they had came from a few dozen participants who were inadvertently included after becoming pregnant during the clinical trials and from some pregnant animal data.

HEARTBROKEN AND DETERMINED, Jaime Butcher has emerged as an unofficial ambassador for the vaccine, posting in online pregnancy and stillbirth forums about the risks of being pregnant and unvaccinated. No one, she said, told her of the risks. Doctors, the CDC and health officials, she continued, aren’t doing enough to inform people. Even now, well into the pandemic’s third year, the message still isn’t getting through.“Ikept seeing it happening more and more to women and it wasn’t talked about,” she said. “They just say, ‘Oh, get the vaccine,’ which is great, but they don’t talk about what getting the virus can do to pregnant women.”Asawedding planner, Butcher was surrounded by love. She found it with her husband, then in the daughter growing in her belly, who they named Emily after Butcher’s grandmother.Butchersuffered five miscarriages before, she said, she opened an email from an in-vitro fertilization clinic confirming her pregnancy in the summer of 2020. She screamed, and her husband rushed to wrap her in a hug.They waited until she was five months along to announce her pregnancy at Thanksgiving. The next day, Black Friday, they bought a high chair, a tummy time mat and pinkTheyonesies.were taking precautions, Butcher said, especially since the vaccine wasn’t yet available to her or her husband. But a week later, she woke up with a runny nose, though she didn’t think much of it. Still, she went to the hospital to make sure everything was OK. An ultrasound came back normal. When her daughter’s kicking slowed the next morning, she called her doctor’s office again. They told her to eat something sweet to get the baby moving. She tried everything she could find: orange juice, Cheerios, Twix, graham crackers, peanut butter and jelly. Nothing worked. A few hours later, Butcher drove herself to the hospital, where she followed her daughter’s heartbeat on the screen. Steady. Then slow. Then still.She delivered at 23 weeks. Butcher didn’t know she had COVID-19 until they tested her at the hospital. A lab report later revealed extensive damage to the placenta. “I was in shock. I was in shock that I lost my daughter, in shock that I had COVID,” Butcher said. “She should be alive, but it’s because of COVID that I lost her.”

In explaining that decision, the CDC said that experts had considered how mRNA vaccines, which do not contain the live virus, work. They concluded that the vaccines “are unlikely to pose a risk for people who are pregnant.” “However,” the CDC added, “the potential risks of mRNA vaccines to the pregnant person and her fetus are unknown because these vaccines have not been studied in pregnant women.”

In January, the World Health Organization recommended against pregnant people getting the vaccine unless they faced increased risk, such as complicating comorbidities or exposure to the virus due to a job in health care, but the agency later reversed course. A few months later, in March 2021, the CDC continued its lukewarm messaging that pregnant people “may choose” to be vaccinated. The agency listed some points for pregnant people to consider discussing with their health care providers, starting with how likely they are to be exposed to COVID-19.

Once again, pregnant people were put in the precarious position of receiving ambiguous and inconsistent recommendations. In May 2021, the CDC reiterated that pregnant people faced an increased risk of getting severely ill from COVID-19, but the language surrounding the vaccine — “If you are pregnant, you can receive a COVID-19 vaccine” — was noncommittal.ACDCspokesperson, responding to questions from ProPublica, said in an email that pregnant people were part of the first recommendations in December 2020 that encouraged people 16 and older to get vaccinated. At that time, data about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine during pregnancy was limited “because pregnant people had been excluded from pre-authorization clinical trials,” so the CDC included additional supporting language for pregnant people, saying they were eligible and could choose to receive the vaccine. The agency said its recommendations were based on available evidence and evolved throughout the pandemic. Before making changes to its guidance, the CDC had its team of scientists review available data to ensure that there was “an abundance of evidence.”“Foreach update to the statement of risks during pregnancy, multiple types of studies and the strength of evidence for each were reviewed,” another CDC spokesperson said. “These reviews of the evidence were accompanied with discussions among subject matter experts both internally and externally with clinical partners for an ultimate determination of risk.”

Researchers have yet to determine exactly why some pregnant people with COVID-19, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, deliver stillborn babies, while others do not. Attempts to answer that question have been hindered, in part, by incomplete data. The CDC’s statistics on COVID19-related fetal and maternal deaths are undercounts. The CDC has data on less than 73,000 birth outcomes following a mother’s confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis in 2020 and 2021, of which 579 were pregnancy losses.That information was sent in by fewer than three dozen health departments, and those estimates don’t include states like Mississippi, which in September reported 72 COVID-19related stillbirths since the start of the pandemic, nearly double what the state would have expected, according to data from the Mississippi State Department of Health. Preliminary state data shows total stillbirths increased there in 2020 then dipped in 2021, but were still higher than prepandemic numbers. A separate CDC database shows more than 220,000 COVID-19 cases and at least 305 deaths among pregnant people.

Ginger continues to wrestle with feelings of gratitude and guilt for surviving when her baby did not. In December, the family held a memorial service for the daughter they named Elliotte Jo and called Ellie. Ginger and Kendal were still too grief-stricken to speak, so Hailee and her uncle prepared remarks.

AMID THE DEVASTATION OF the pandemic, Heerema-McKenney sees a glimmer of hope. The antibodies from the vaccine have been shown to transfer through the placenta. That immunity in the womb, research shows, reduces the risk of the youngest infants being hospitalized with COVID-19. She continues to encourage pregnant patients to get vaccinated and boosted. If not for them, for their baby. While 71% of pregnant people were fully vaccinated as of midJuly, a figure not much lower than national vaccination rates for people 18 or older, only around 2% received at least one of their shots while they were pregnant — suggesting that persuading people who are already pregnant to get vaccinated remains a challenge. Research points to a substantial waning in immunity five to eight months after getting the first vaccine, yet only 58% of pregnant people were boosted. Like with booster rates among those who aren’t pregnant, Black and Hispanic people trail Heerema-McKenneybehind. said obesity, high blood pressure, age and diabetes may also increase the risk of stillbirth, but, she said, it appears the strongest risk factor is not being vaccinated.“Wehave a set of data saying that the vaccination is safe, and we have a set of data saying that COVID causes an increase in stillbirth. When you’re seeing those two,” she said, “to me it says, ‘Get the vaccine.’”

scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 15 FRIDAY AUG. 26 |7-11 PM FACTION SATURDAY AUG. 27 | 1-5 PM EAST WIND SATURDAY AUG. 27 | 7-11 PM CARLOS JONES WITH OUTLAWS I & I SUNDAY AUG. 28 | 2-6 PM SUNRISE JONES WEDNESDAY AUG. 31 | 6-10 PM TED RISER THURSDAY SEPT. 1 | 7-11 PM ABBEY RODEO FRIDAY SEPT. 2 | 7-11 PM ABBY NORMAL & THE DETROIT LEAN SATURDAY SEPT. 3 | 7-11 PM ROCK THE HOUSE SUNDAY SEPT. 4 | 7-11 PM OUT OF EDEN EAGLES TRIBUTE SATURDAY SEPT. 3 | 1-5 PM EAST WIND SUNDAY SEPT. 4 | 1-5 PM MONDAYSELLOUTSSEPT.5|2-6 PM ARMSTRONG BEARCAT THURSDAY AUG. 25 |6-10 PM CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE JIMMY BUFFET TRIBUTE has simmered silently in the U.S., claiming the lives of more than 20,000 babies annually. But parents often suffer alone, overwhelmed by grief and Butcher,guilt.now 45, scheduled her vaccine as soon as she could. Her second dose fell on what was supposed to be Emily’s due date. After getting the shot, she and her husband drove up to Cleveland to visit their daughter’s grave and tell her that her mother got the vaccine in her honor. They let her know how much she was loved and how desperately they wished she was still safe inside her mother’s womb. They didn’t linger long that spring day. It was a quiet visit. Butcher brought Emily pink flowers, always pink, and said goodbye. They didn’t know it at the time, but they’d be back in a year to introduce her to her little brother.

“You have the best dad that I know would have given you everything under the sun and protected you with every ounce of his being,” Hailee said. “And you also have the best mom to guide you through life. Having two older sisters, you would have had the best wardrobe and many visits to Starbucks.”Shebreathed laughter into the room, if only briefly. In June, the family traveled to Florida. As the waves lapped against the shore and the sunrise turned the sky pink, they etched Elliotte’s name in the sand.

Another reason for optimism is that the height of SARS-CoV-2 placentitis appears to have coincided with the dominance of the delta variant; Heerema-McKenney said she has not seen a case of COVID-19 directly infiltrating the placenta for months.Neither has Odronic, who is relieved to get back to her routine work of cancer biopsies after the punishing period last fall when she saw one to two stillbirths a week. Her hospital honored her in November as Physician of the Year for the “tireless leadership she demonstrated during the COVID response,” the first time the award was given to a pathologist. But, doctors warn, the virus continues to mutate and the risk of stillbirth“Mayberemains.we’reout of the woods with this, but we just don’t know,” Heerema-McKenney said. “There’s nothing more tragic than seeing a healthy pregnancy end because of something that’s potentially preventable.”Backinsouthwest Ohio, doctors released Ginger from the hospital at the end of October, two and a half months after she was admitted. Her oldest daughter, Hailee, who is now 19, got vaccinated shortly after her mother was hospitalized. Ginger said she wanted to get vaccinated when she awoke in the hospital, but she said her doctors told her to wait a bit. Since then, she said, her fear of the vaccine came flooding back. At a recent appointment, Ginger listened carefully as her doctor urged her to get vaccinated, which, the doctor said, would be even more important if she were to get pregnant again. Ginger trusted her. “There’s no agenda behind it,” Ginger said. “I will get the vaccine.”

The Baltimore Orioles, a team that has somehow kept playoff hopes alive despite playing in the very competitive AL East, come to Progressive Field today as part of a three-game series. First pitch is at 6:10 p.m. Check the club’s website for more info. 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, mlb. com/guardians.

THU 08/25 Encanto : The Sing Along Film Concert

WED 08/31 Walnut Wednesday Walnut Wednesday is one of summer’s great traditions. Today from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Perk

One World Day Since 1945, the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation (CCGF) has celebrated One World Day, and while the pandemic forced the cancellation of last year’s event, One World Day in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens returns today from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. throughout the Gardens on both East and MLK Boulevards. The event will feature ethnic performances, food and cultural activities in the 30+ Cultural Gardens. There will be special performances from the Singing Angels and Brazilian Jazz artist Moises Borges. Other One World Day highlights will also return, including the moving Naturalization Ceremony and the popular Parade of Flags. The Parade of Flags has grown into a large and colorful display of the numerous heritages represented in the Gardens and the broader Cleveland community. The event takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free. 1051 Martin Luther King Dr., 216220-3075, clevelandculturalgardens. org.

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202216

The Cleveland National Air Show returns to Burke Airport. See: Saturday, Sept. 3. Emanuel Wallace

Cleveland Garlic Festival Northeast Ohio is prime garlicgrowing territory, so it makes perfect sense to honor the stinking rose with its very own festival. A fundraiser for the North Union Farmers’ Markets, the Cleveland Garlic Festival features music, wine and beer vendors, food competitions, top chef grill-offs, and vendors peddling garlic-scented foods. The festival also rounds up many of the region’s best garlic growers, making the fest the best place for wannabe garlic growers to purchase this year’s planting stock. The event takes place today from noon to 8 p.m. and tomorrow from noon to 6 p.m. at Shaker clevelandgarlicfestival.org.Square.

Music on the Malls

Guardians vs. Baltimore Orioles

TUE 08/30

WED 08/24

Vegan Monday Each Monday, the Winchester chef puts together a special vegan menu featuring items such as comfort burgers, Philly burgers and peach cobbler. The kitchen opens up at 4 p.m. and stays open until midnight. Check the website for more info. 12112 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-600-5338, TheWinchesterMusicTavern.facebook.com/

SUN 08/28

This event will feature a screening of the entire feature-length film and an onstage band that’ll play the hit songs from the soundtrack, which features eight original songs by songwriter/composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, Moana) with an original score by Academy Awardnominated composer Germaine Franco. The concert begins tonight at 7:30 at Blossom. 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

MON 08/29

Comedy Bang! Bang! Host Scott Aukerman (director of Between Two Ferns), Paul F. Tompkins (Bojack Horseman) and a rotating cast of characters will improvise “humanity’s podcast” live tonight at 7 at the Agora. Check the club’s website for more info. 5000 Euclid Ave., agoracleveland.com.216-881-2221, SAT 08/27 Barton Center Annual Wine & Cheese Fundraiser

This free weekly summer music series on Mall C will feature live music, outdoor seating and food trucks each week. Mall C offers a park-like setting and views of Lake Erie. The event takes place from 5 to 7:30 p.m. On select dates, the Cleveland Division of Police Mindfulness Group will present a free yoga class at 4:30 downtowncleveland.com.p.m.

FRI 08/26

Enjoy unlimited wine by the glass, heavy hors d’oeuvres, music, raffle baskets and a “wine & spirits pull” (draw a number, get an expensive or cheap bottle) at this benefit for Barton Center. The event starts at 6 p.m. at Rozi’s in Lakewood. There will also be a cash bar available as well as beer and wine for take home purchase. One of a kind Lakewood posters will be available for purchase. Must be fully vaccinated to 14900attend.Detroit Ave., Lakewood, 216-221-1119, rozis.com.

The annual Paulaner Cleveland Oktoberfest kicks off today at Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds. The fest features more than 20 different types of Oktoberfest-style beers, 15 German and European restaurants, 20 bands from all over the world, more than 100 vendors and local artisans, a daily beer stein-holding contest, the largest glockenspiel in the country, wiener dog races, a Miss Oktoberfest contest, a 5-K race and entertainment for all ages. More than 70,000 people are expected to attend the event. The festivities continue through Monday, and the festival takes place next weekend too. Consult the website for a complete 19201schedule.East Bagley Rd., Middleburg Heights, 440clevelandoktoberfest.com.243-0090,

2301 N. Marginal clevelandairshow.com.Rd., SUN 09/04 Cars in the Park

Cleveland Oktoberfest

This for-charity event that takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at Crocker Park will exhibit an all-new collection of the most exotic, rarest and most luxurious vehicles in the world. Admission is free. 189 Crocker Park Blvd., Westlake, crockerpark.com. House Fest 2022 This annual benefit concert will feature performances by singersongwriter Alex Bevan, Long Time Gone, the Jah Messengers Reggae Band and J.R. Blessington. Renegade, BBC and friends, Universal Funk Mob, Scotty D. & the Artificial Hipster and more will all lend their musical skills to the diverse list of acts. Shāk Ground, a new act on the local music scene featuring area reggae music veterans will close out the night. Butchie B. will be the evening’s MC. The event begins at 7 p.m. at the Beachland. A $15 donation is 15711requested.Waterloo Rd., beachlandballroom.com.216-383-1124, TUE 09/06 Lyrical Rhythms Open Mic and Chill

This long-running open mic night at the B Side allows some of the city’s best rappers and poets to strut their stuff. The event begins at 8 with a comedy session dubbed 2 Drinks & a Joke with host Ant Morrow. The open mic performances begin at 10 p.m. Tickets cost $5 in advance, $10 at the door., $5. 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, bsideliquorlounge.com.216-932-1966, scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

GlamGore: The Filth Ball Expect to find performances inspired by elements of avant garde fashion, fetish and taboo acts at tonight’s GlamGore, a recurring alternative and themed drag show series that takes place at the Grog Shop. Doors open at 8. 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.

SAT 09/03 Cleveland National Air Show U.S. Navy Blue Angels will be part of this year’s annual Cleveland National Air Show that takes place today, tomorrow and Monday at Burke Airport. Note that tickets will only be sold online in advance of the event and not at the gate. Find more info on the website.

GET OUT

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 17 Plaza at Chester Commons — at East 12th and Walnut streets — food trucks gather to serve up lunch to area residents and employees. Follow the Downtown Cleveland Alliance on Facebook for weekly updates on vendors, entertainment offerings and more. The series continues through Sept. 7. Admission is free, but the food will cost downtowncleveland.com.you.

The nearly 20 members of Danjo Jazz Orchestra will fill Jilly’s Music Room with a “timeless big band sound and the power of horns, wind instruments and a top-notch rhythm section,” as it’s put in a press release. The 2022 residency will afford fans the group’s blend of jazz standards and originals on a monthly basis as the band tears it up on the first Thursday of the month. The performance begins at 7 p.m. It’s 111free.N Main St., Akron, 330-5763757, jillysmusicroom.com.

FRI 09/02

THU 09/01 Danjo Jazz Orchestra

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202218

“We left Syria as refugees, lived in Jordan as temporary residents and then came to America in 2016,” Allaham explains. “Before we came to America they asked us if there were any specific states that we would like to go to. But we didn’t know anyone in America, so we let them choose for us and they chose Cleveland.”Allaham says that both he and his brother, who helps run the shop, have considerable restaurant experience. During a search for potential spaces, Kifaya’s Kitchen became available. The family improved the kitchen and renovated the small dining room by painting the walls, installing new ceiling tiles and adding some mementos from the Old“OurCountry.decorations were inspired by Old Damascus, which is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world,” he Allahamadds.describes the local Syrian community as “fairly small” but tight knit. Now, thanks to Damas, those families have a place to go for comforting, traditional and often celebratory dishes that taste of home. While a Syrian restaurant might sound inaccessible to outsiders, a large part of the menu will be instantly recognizable to most local diners. But that doesn’t mean the flavors will be commonplace.“Ifyou’refamiliar with Lebanese food, you will be familiar with 80 percent of our menu,” says Allaham. “It’s mostly Mediterranean, so many of the items won’t be unfamiliar. Like the hummus, falafel, tabbouli and kibbeh – there are a lot of familiar foods. But even though it looks like Lebanese, it has a special taste.” A special taste indeed. I’ve enjoyed buckets of falafel in Cleveland over the years, but the version served here ($3.99) is truly unique. The patties are darker, crunchier and nuttier than most. They are served with tahini and some of the silkiest hummus I’ve ever tasted. Same goes for the stuffed grape leaves ($5.99), which have the unmistakable look of homemade. Stuffed with lemony seasoned rice, and sticky from a pomegranate glaze, the mini logs are irresistible.Whenyou crack open the kibbeh ($9.99) – golden brown, footballshaped pastries – they emit an aromatic puff of steam that signals good things to come. The just-fried pockets are filled with seasoned ground meat and pine nuts, which provide great textural contrast to the crispyWhileshell.speaking with Allaham on the phone in advance of my visit, the owner described a dish of which he felt particularly proud. “Fatteh is a traditional dish that we eat on weekends,” he told me. “I don’t think anyone has ever made this in AfterCleveland.”thewidebowl ($14.99) is placed on the table, the contents are topped with bubbling-hot ghee and toasted cashews straight from a small saucepan. Down below is a deliriously rich and delicious mixture of warm chickpeas, creamy yogurt sauce, and toasted pita chips, which soak it all up. On the side is a platter of raw and pickled vegetables. As triumphant as the fetteh was, it’s the goat mandi ($19.99) that will beckon me back. Arranged on a bed of fluffy, seasoned rice are meaty pieces of bone-in goat. Expertly cooked, the meat has a mellow, sweet, lamb-like flavor and it separates easily from the bone. Damas offers a variety of sauces to enhance the foods, including a spicy pepper puree and a sweeter one made from roasted peppers. In the coming weeks, the owners will install a vertical spit in the kitchen for cooking shawarma, which will make its way into sandwiches and dinner plates. An oven, too, will be added for baked items like za’atar-topped flatbreads, cheese pies and spinach pies. So far, reports Allaham, the feedback has been unanimously upbeat, with positive feedback on the food, setting and service from those who know it the best. Next, the owners will turn their attention to a new patio. And after that, additional locations could come to fruition.

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 19

“We’re planning to expand if we’re successful,” he says. dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner 216-219-8263CLEVELAND

Damas Eatery, newly opened on Cleveland’s west side and owned by Syrian immigrants, is already putting down solid roots By Douglas Trattner KIFAYA’S KITCHEN WAS A DREAM come true for Kifaya Mohamed. After fleeing Somalia as a refugee, Mohamed made her way through Yemen, eventually settling in Cleveland where she was able to open a restaurant that showcased the foods of her homeland. After eight years, Mohamed was ready to move on from the restaurant grind, but in a symbolic passing of the torch, she placed the restaurant into the hands of another passionate immigrant.

TrattnerDougbyPhoto

DAMAS EATERY 3650 W. 117TH ST.,

EAT A TASTE OF DAMASCUS

Yaseen Allaham, who fled war-torn Syria, has taken over the westside restaurant and in July opened Damas Eatery.

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202220

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At long last, The Reserve (42 N. Main St., 440-318-1492) in Chagrin Falls opened its doors on Tuesday, August 23rd. The restaurant replaces Umami, which closed this past winter after 14 years. Back in May, owners Mike Mendlovic and Nikki Williams revealed their plans for this small but mighty bistro. In addition to the name change, the restaurant underwent significant interior changes that included the addition of a“Thebar. number one complaint we’ve always heard is that you really had to plan to be here,” explains Mendlovic. “You had to call a couple days in advance to get a table. You could never just stop in for a quick bite and a drink.” When guests return after the months-long hiatus they will find a handsome bar constructed of black walnut that spans the length of the left side of the room. There is seating for about 10 to 12 guests at the bar, which requires no reservations to sit there.The booths on the opposite side of the room have been rebuilt to be more spacious and comfortable. No seats were lost in the arrangement, with a total occupancy still hovering around 28 to 30. The biggest changes were “reserved” for the menu, which is under the control of chef Gregg Gale. This time around, the chef focuses almost entirely on small plates, many of which will be familiar to regular diners. Most of the large plates and entrees have been jettisoned or converted to small-plate form. Seafood still plays a starring role on the Mendlovicmenu.says that the switch to a bar and small-plates format made perfect sense given the dramatic changes in the local dining scene.

EAT

“With so many great restaurants opening up in Chagrin, we thought it would be really nice to have a place where people could grab a drink or two before dinner or after dinner –or grab dessert after dinner – but also to have dinner if they want.”

BITES

The Reserve, Formerly Umami, Now Open in Chagrin Falls

The restaurant décor is described by owners Yavonne and Wade Sarber as “urban grunge,” and the Cleveland location is completely unique from any of the other properties.“Weprovide an escape from everyday life,” says Mia Beavers, the GM. Much has changed both inside and outside these four walls since a young chef named Michael Symon worked here when it was home to Piccolo Mondo. Since then, the iconic property has hosted Metropolitan Café, Metro Bar & Kitchen, and Bar Louie. A painting of Symon welcomes guests just inside the front door.

The restaurant, which opened this past Wednesday, is location number 13 for the Covington, KentuckybasedAgavecompany.&Rye is billed as a modern tequila and bourbon hall that serves “epic tacos.” The restaurant is known for its double-shelled tacos, which feature crunchy corn and soft flour shells sandwiched together by beans, queso, pimento or guacamole. Fillings and combinations range from the Plain Jane, stuffed with ground beef, shredded lettuce, white cheddar and diced tomato on up to the Crown Jewel starring butter-andgarlic lobster, shiitake mushrooms and truffle mac and cheese. Others feature kangaroo meat, Nathan’s hot dogs, carne asada and tater tots. The bar stocks one of the largest bourbon and tequila selections around, which wind up in punches, slushies and margaritas that can be purchased by the glass, mug or pitcher.Agave & Rye seats 280 guests indoors and another 100 on the wraparound patio, which currently is being improved. Down the road, a lower level speakeasy called Alibi Room will add a premium spirits experience to the mix.

After five successful years in Lyndhurst, Goldie’s Donuts & Bakery (5211 Mayfield Rd., 440683-4746) is gearing up for its first major expansion. Owners Dustin and Paloma Goldberg have inked a deal to open a second shop in Ohio City, which should take place in late fall. The bakery and café will occupy the corner spot at 41 West, a mixed-use development at the corner of Lorain Avenue and W. 41st St. Goldie’s is a family-owned business that makes its donuts, fillings, frostings and glazes from scratch daily using premium ingredients. They are known for their selection of old-fashioned classics like sour cream donuts, maple-glazed cake donuts, honeyglazed crullers, strawberry jam-filled donuts and powdered sugar donuts, but also long johns, apple fritters, croissants, muffins and brownies

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 21 TrattnerDougbyPhoto

First look: Agave & Rye, now open in the Warehouse District By Douglas Trattner WHEN GUESTS ENTER AGAVE & Rye (1352 W. 6th St.) they will be immersed in a colorful, whimsical environment jam packed with fine art, sculpture, graffitistyle paintings and blown-glass chandeliers.

Lyndhurst-Based Goldie’s Donuts & Bakery to Open Second Shop in Ohio City

Additional offerings might include cream cheese-filled quesitos and other traditional Latin treats. Those items will be joined by a full barista-managed coffee program. The owners are sparing no expense to create a beautiful donut bakery and café in Ohio City. The 1,800-square-foot space will be blinged out with white marble, brass and glass. A 20-seat airport-style bartop along the front windows will give guests a great view of the street action“I’moutside.determined to make it the nicest place in the whole area as far as the buildout is concerned,” adds Goldberg, calling the design “New York City high-end.” “Even though our product doesn’t cost that, we want to make it feel that.” Down the road, Goldie’s could add breakfast and lunch items to the mix. dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner Agave & Rye.

The donuts and pastries will be made seven days a week at the main kitchen in Lyndhurst and delivered to the café daily. A new location on Cleveland’s near-west offers the company an opportunity to expand the menu, says“TheDustin.area speaks to us because there’s a Latin community there,” he explains. “My wife is Latina and some of our stuff goes for that neighborhood. They have a sweet tooth more than almost anybody.”

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202222 2785 EUCLID HTS BLVD, CLEVELAND HTS 216.321.5588 GROGSHOP.GS 2875 EUCLID HEIGHTS BLVD CLEVELAND WWW.BSIDELIQUORLOUNGE.COMHEIGHTSEVERYTUESDAYLYRICALRHYTHMSOPENMICJAZZ/SPOKENWORDEVERYWEDNESDAYSHITSHOWKARAOKEWITHWALLACE,MANNYANDWHIPSAT. TERMINALEARTHLESS9/3LOVERS SUN. 8/28 ALMOST MONDAYTHEVUMMS PEOPLE IN THE DAYTIME FRI. GLAM9/2 GORE: THE FILTH BALL WED. 9/7 THESPIKECASUALTIESPIT•V-TRIGGERWYLDTIMEZ TICKETS TO GROG SHOP EVENTS ARE AVAILABLE www.grogshop.gsTHROUGH THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! THE GROG SHOP TUE 9/6 MYAH & FRIENDS WED 9/21 FALSE TEETH / COE / BLOSSOM PARK WED 10/26 FLEECE FRI 10/28 ILLUMINATI HOTTIES • Enumclaw • Guppy SAT 10/29 VIBE IN HORROR featuring: Vibe & Direct, Hello!3D, Rubix Groove, Smokescreen,Apostle Jones, Uncle Gnarly FRI 11/4 BARTEES STRANGE • They Hate Change WED SWEETESTHERSATKRAMIESNIIGHTSMERCURYTHUPLAYSDREAM40THWEDOBNOXTHEMEPHISKAPHELESSUNLEGGINZSUNNINAMEJAITHUFREEFRONTWINDOWFRIWESTOWNM.O.O.K.Y.DIVE8/31BOMBS•GIRLCOLOGNEBEND8/26DOGSPORCHLIGHTSVACATIONS9/1LIVE•LADYBUGG9/11PLAIDDISASTERS9/14ANNIVERSARYTOURSYNDICATETHEDAYSOFWINE&ROSES9/15REV8/27FITZTHINGSRELEASEPARTYW/MIKEYSILAS,CHARITYEVONNA,BROOKEMELODYMON8/29VICRUGGIERO(SLACKERS)CHRISMURRAY FRI NONNAPSACKHERZOG9/16BRUISES SUN THELAURENMADELINEFRIZUCK’SPRITHEEFOURTHUWSGRECORDHONEYPOCKET9/4RELEASEHOSTA&QUICKMYSTERY9/8TIMESLOUDER•LIBCORTURKEYFARM9/9FINNLANZARETTABRAKES SUN THE9/18GET UP KIDS FOUR MINUTE MILE 25TH ANNIVERSAY TOURPICTORIASWEETLASATW/SPARTA9/17DISPUTEPILLVARK THU. 8/25 6:30 PM B SIDE PATIO SERIES PRESENTS: OUSTER SAT RAYPERFORMINGTHE11/19LEMONHEADSIT’SASHAMEABOUTINITSENTIRETYWED10/12RAREAMERICANSMON10/17MELTBANANAEDSCHRADER’SMUSICBEATTHU10/20PREOCCUPATIONSCINDYLEESUITORFRI10/21TROPICALFUCKSTORMTHU11/3SCOTTH.BIRAMTUE10/18NOAGETIMKINSELLA&JENNYPULSESUN10/23NAPALMDEATHBRUJERIA•FROZENSOULMILLIONSOFDEADCOPSWED10/19SUUNSACTIVITY GROG SHOP PRESENTS: BORIS • NOTHING @ BEACHLAND THU 9/8 DINOSAUR JR @ AGORA SAT 10/1 AMIGO THE DEVIL @ BEACHLAND TUE 11/1 WITH WILLI CARLISLE FRI. 8/26 6:30 PM B SIDE PATIO SERIES PRESENTS: NATHAN HEDGES / TYLER RAY SAT. 8/27 6:30 PM B SIDE PATIO SERIES PRESENTS: LIZ KELLY / JOHN KALMAN SAT. 8/27 10:00 PM 4BASEMENT:R&BEXPERIENCEYEARANNIVERSARYFRI.9/26:30PMBSIDEPATIOSERIESPRESENTS:SUGARFOOTSAT.9/36:30PMBSIDEPATIOSERIESPRESENTS:C-LEVELSUN.9/47:00PMTHESAMMYDELEON&JACKIEWARRENQUARTETW/KIPREED&CHRISBURGEFRI.9/97:30PMCJ.:THETOURNOONEASKEDFORSAT.9/1010:00PMNOCHEDEVERANO SIN TI: A DANCE PARTY FOR BAD BUNNY LOVERS TUE POWERSWAND9/20•ROLIN DUO THU CONWAY9/29 MACHINETHE GROGSHOP30THANNIVERSARYWEEKEND!THU9/22COLLINMILLER&THEBROTHERNATUREHELLO!3D•REDROSEPANICFRI9/23CLOUDNOTHINGSTHEMISSED•LITTLELIONSDENSAT9/24FRAYLERELAXER•REBREATHERSUN9/25MELVINSWEARETHEASTEROIDFRI9/30REALFRIENDSW/WITHCONFIDENCE,THEHOMETEAMTAYLORACORNSUN10/9ATTILATHERAGETOUR

Collins says the band has refined its “local sound” into a “national sound” for Stay Steady “We wanted a full professional sound,” he says. “But it was really organic. Alison and I can sit and pluck around until we find something we like and then let it grow from there.”

The band cut the album in 2019 at Lava Room, which was located in Beachwood at the time (the studio has since moved). “Mike Brown is the [Lava Room] owner and was our producer,” says Collins. “He has some of the best equipment. It’s a relaxed, fun environment. We would go in with a song, and I would lay my guitar down. He would go, ‘That’s great. Play it better.’ He gets these melodies and styles out of your playing that you didn’t know you were capable of.”

“What really drew me to the music of AJ & the Woods was the mixture of rock meets the organic culture of folk, Americana and blues,” he says in a press release about the new album. “You get a sound that is exciting yet incredibly unique, not just to Cleveland but to the music scene in general.”

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 23

Local rock act AJ & the Woods adopts a more ‘professional’ sound for new album

By Jeff Niesel

With its dominant banjo riff, “Home” has more of a country/folk feel to “Weit.feel like it encompassed everything we had been working on,” says Tomin when asked about the song. “It has strong guitar and strong banjo and strong fiddle. We wrote that one in the studio. We had a different song we were working on. It wasn’t working out. We went back to the table. We sat down and refigured it out.”

AJ & THE WOODS, ORANGE ANIMAL, ELIZA NICHOLS 8 P.M. SATURDAY, SEPT. 3, BEACHLAND TAVERN, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124. TICKETS: $10 ADV, $12 DOS, BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM. jniesel@clevescene.com t @jniesel MUSIC

Ultimately, Stay Steady features a perfect distillation of the band’s disparate influences.

Brown says he loves the way the band mixes musical styles.

AJ &

Photo: Mollie Crowe (Little Blackbird Photo) the Woods.

AN ORGANIC EVOLUTION

“My mom got me into music when I was really young,” says Collins. “I got my first guitar when I was 6 or 7. It was always George Thorogood and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and Rory Gallagher. I like those classic big guitar sounds. I put my guitar pretty much straight into my amp.” He says he avoids using “a lot of bells and whistles.” “I get the amp really hot,” he says. “I understand the sound-scapers that put down a pedal board as long as a pool table and make the same note travel for days at a time. That’s not what I grew up listening to, and I could never really connect to that. My first CD I ever got was the Robert Johnson double disc. I remember in middle school, some girl wanted to listen to what I was listening to on my headphones. She heard it and said, ‘Eww. What the hell is that?” She was listening to N’Sync, so I was happy to stick with my music.” Tomin says she’s started listening to more folk and Americana in the last few years. “I like the Punch Brothers and that ‘newgrass’ style,” she says. Because the band takes influence from so many different sources, it’s opened for acts as wide-ranging as country singer Chase Rice, altrockers Lit and psychedelic rockers Flaming Lips. “We get thrown into cool festivals and shows where we don’t necessarily think we would fit,” says Collins.Onealbum highlight, “Buckeye,” began with just electric guitars. Singer-songwriter Madeline Finn collaborated with the band and helped add vocal production and give the tune a gospel feel. “The song is about change and how people deal with change,” says Tomin. “It’s kind of the title track because it has that line ‘stay steady the course with me.’ We weren’t sure if we wanted a title track because they are all our children and we couldn’t pick a favorite. Our drummer helped us name it. Over the course of the pandemic, it took on new meaning.”

SINGER ALISON TOMIN AND guitarist Joshua Alan Collins first met through a mutual friend back in 2014. When they wound up at the same open mic night at the Eastland Inn in Berea, they realized that it might be fun to jam together. They haven’t stopped jamming together.“Atthe time, we were both looking for a writing partner,” says Tomin in a recent conference call with Collins. “It just kind of worked, and our writing style worked well together. We did our first show at one of [local singer-songwriter] Brent Kirby’s 10X3 showcases. It was ’80s night, so we did two originals and a cover of the Phil Collins song ‘In the Air Tonight.’” Eventually, they’d formally christen their band AJ & the Woods. After releasing an EP in 2017, the group has just completed recording its first full-length, Stay Steady The band performs on Saturday, Sept. 3, at the Beachland Tavern. “Our plan was to release Stay Steady in 2020, and when the world basically shut down, we decided to hold off on it,” says Tomin. “We were so happy with the quality of it. We didn’t want to waste it by releasing it and not tour with it.”

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202224

Grounded by the pandemic and unable to tour at the same relentless pace, the band spent the last two years writing more material. Earlier this year, it issued its latest single, the hard rock “Black Confetti,” a song that Wold says represents the direction of the new material that’s yet to be released. “I think more and more, I’m going back to my roots of making rock music after I was into a synth wave thing,” he says. “Wherever I ended up musically, I end up falling back to the instinct of wanting to make rock again.”

RETURNING TO THEIR ROOTS Dreamers come to House of Blues with a batch of new rock-oriented tunes

THE SCORE,7EVIN7INSDREAMERS, 6:30 P.M., TUESDAY, SEPT. 6, HOUSE OF BLUES, 308 EUCLID AVE., 216-523-2583.

The upcoming tour with the Score represents the band’s first major trek since 2020, and Wold says he’ll use the shows to test out new material. “I’m super ready,” he says. “We have done some festivals, but this is the first actual tour [in a couple of years], and we have all this new music. I’m excited to see if all the people who listened to us before are still out there, and if we can still do it the way we used to. It’s a new world out there.”

“At that point, we felt like we had been around the block and were ready to do an album,” says Wold. Non-stop touring ensued, and the experiences the band had on the road informed the songs on 2019’s Launch Fly“[LandLaunch Fly Land] is about the journeys we go through in life,” says Wold. “It was our first landing. We even recorded it with our live sound guy, who was with us on the road. It was just us and just our guys at his house.” Last year, the band teamed up with Outkast’s Big Boi and up-andcoming singer UPSAHL for “Palm Reader,” a tune that draws from reggae, rock and hip-hop. “That was an amazing moment,” says Wold. “My favorite hip-hop group was OutKast. They were so smart and nerdy. My manager had sent [Big Boi] songs over the years. He had never wanted to do it. Somehow, he wanted to do this one. I was like, ‘Fuck yeah! Let’s go.’ He took it to a new level with his verse about how advertisers are trying to steal your brain. In Big Boi fashion, he elevated the content. Upsahl is this total star. I had been writing a bunch of songs with her. That was the dream team. And to me, it’s the reggae sound like what the Clash was doing in the ’70s. It’s like the punk rock version of reggae.”

TICKETS: $29.99 HOUSEOFBLUES.COM. jniesel@clevescene.com t @jniesel

After college, Wold had the chance to put his songwriting skills to the test with his band Motive. Working as a bartender at the time, Wold even took the band on a couple of “scrappy” tours. When that band dissolved, he found that he could save money if he lived in his practice space. Living there gave him the opportunity to focus on writing music.

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 25

GROWING UP IN SEATTLE during the ’90s, Dreamers singerguitarist Nick Wold absorbed plenty of the music that put the Northwestern city on the musical map.“My sister was older and in high school and showed me Nirvana and Soundgarden and all the grunge stuff,” he says in a recent phone interview from his Los Angeles home. Dreamers perform with the Score at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6, at House of Blues. “My parents listened to bands like Beatles and Crosby, Stills and Nash at home. That’s the musical soup that I grew out of. I think there’s a direct lineage from the Beatles to Nirvana, and Kurt Cobain used to talk about that. I think Kurt liked John Lennon more than Paul McCartney.”

“I started writing a ton of music at that time,” he says. “I didn’t even know what it would be.” Things progressed after he met bassist Marc Nelson through his previous manager. They’d form Dreamers and self-release “Wolves (You Got Me),” a catchy, Strokeslike number that received some significant airplay on Alt-Nation, a Sirius Radio channel. “It kicked things off,” says Wold when asked about the tune. “I was like, ‘Finally.’ I had written a lot of songs before that that got zero attention at all. It’s a very personal song that I still love to play now. It’s very random what people react to and what hits. It’s time and place and a little bit of luck. You have to keep doing stuff until you get one of those and then strike when the iron’s hot.”

MUSIC

Photo: Gina Gizella Manning

By Jeff Niesel Nick Wold.

The group moved to Los Angeles since that’s where its label was based. The group also hopped onto a tour opening for a Stone Temple Pilots that featured the late Chester Bennington subbing for original STP singer Scott Weiland. “That tour was great, and the whole band was so nice to us even though we didn’t have anything going for us at the time,” says Wold. “Chester saw us slumming it because our van broke down, and I borrowed my dad’s Volvo. He asked where we were sleeping and we told him that we were crashing at friend’s houses or in the car. He bought us hotel rooms out of his own pocket. That’s crazy. No one does that.” After two EPs, Dreamers finally recorded a full-length record, This Album Does Not Exist, in 2016.

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202226 Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet Sat. Aug. 27 Hayes Carll Sat. Sept. 3 Duane Betts Johnny Stachela Barry Duane Oakley Thurs. Sept. 8 The Fixx with Jill Sobule Fri. Sept. 9 Jimmy Carter Former Blind Boys of Alabama Lead singer Sat. Sept. 10 An Evening with Al Di Meola Sun. Sept. 11 AT THE GOODYEAR THEATER Get tix at goodyeartheater.com or ticketmaster.com Don McLean American Pie 50th Anniversary Tour Fri., Sept. 2 The Sixties Show A 1960s Musical Re-Creation Sat., Nov. 5 ALSO COMING IN 2022 Wednesday, Sept. 21 | Watkins Family Hour Friday, Sept. 23 | Steve Kimock & Friends Sunday Sept. 25 | Jim Messina Saturday Oct. 8 | Blues Traveler 35th Anniv. Show! Friday & Saturday | Jonah Koslen/Tommy Dobeck/ Oct. 21 & 22 Daniel Pecchio Songs & stories from the first three MSB albums Sunday, Oct. 23 | Martin Sexton Thursday, Oct. 27 | Jon McLaughlin with Kris Allen Wednesday Nov. 2 | Sophie B. Hawkins Thursday, Nov. 3 | Tab Benoit Friday Nov. 4 | Tim O’Brien/Jan Fribicius/ Chris Smither Saturday Nov. 5 | John McCutcheon’s Pete Seeger 100th B-Day Celebration Saturday Nov. 12 | Lucy Kaplansky

In 2012, Friedberg recorded a children’s album titled Jesse’s Jukebox with locally

Friedberg began taking piano lessons at age 7 and picked up the guitar when he was 14. At 16, he acquired a Fender Telecaster and realized he wanted to be just like Who guitarist Pete Townshend. “I taught myself to play all Who songs,” he says. “It was quite an epiphany when I realized that Pete [Townshend] wrote all the songs himself, so, naturally, I started writing my own songs. From that point on, I was completely obsessed with music.”

MINUTE MAN Local singer-songwriter Jesse Friedberg releases new kids’ album By Jeff Niesel LOCAL SINGER-SONGWRITER

Courtesy photo

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 27

Jesse Friedberg graduated from Berklee College of Music with a major in songwriting. While he played in indie rock bands locally for a number of years, he’s also written and recorded kids’ music as Jesse FriedbergJukebox.hastaught interactive early childhood music classes in Ohio City, at the Mandel JCC in Beachwood, and at synagogues and preschools throughout the greater Cleveland area. He’s also worked with inner city kids in the Notes for Notes program at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland. Now, he’s set to release his fourth kids’ album, Just A Minute, on Friday, Sept. 2. This time, there’s a catch. Every song on the album clocks in at just about a minute in length. “I have always wanted to make an album full of one-minute songs,” says Friedberg in a press release. “At first, I was daunted by the limitations of writing fully fleshed out songs while keeping them small and digestible. I reminded myself that limitations and finding ways to work around them inspire creativity. Every track was a new opportunity to problem solve.” That said, he says the album is still as “silly” and “weird” as anything else he’s recorded as Jesse Jukebox.“Theweirdest thing about ‘weird’ is the stigma occasionally attached to it,” he says. “Weird makes you unique! That’s why I have a song on the album called ‘Weird,’ which I placed after a slew of goofy songs. It’s to remind kids that being ‘weird’ is not a negative; it’s a worthy attribute. The song wraps up with the observation that ‘it’s also ok to be normal, but what’s normal, anyway?’”

Jukebox:heproducermulti-platinum-award-winningbasedMichaelSeifert.In2017,releasedafollowup:Jesse’sThere’sMusicEverywhereTwoyearsago,heissuedhisthirdalbum,Awesome!,whichherecordedwithGrammy-winningproducerDeanJones,whoalsoproducedJustAMinuteFriedberg,whohasamaster’sdegreeinearlychildhoodeducationfromUrsulineCollege,sayslistenerswillunderstandhismusicifthey“thinkofallthoseperformersgettingtogethertoformakids’bandandthenbringingonWeirdAlYankovicandJackBlack.”JustaMinutewillbeavailabletopurchasedigitallyviaBandcamp,andit’llbeavailabletostreamonallstreamingplatforms. jniesel@clevescene.com t @jniesel MUSIC

Jesse Friedberg.

Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs Best known as the guitarist in Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Mike Campbell brings his solo project to House of Blues tonight. Co-produced by Campbell and George Drakoulias (the Black Crowes, the Jayhawks), the band’s new 11-track album, External Combustion, was recorded at Campbell’s home studio. The album also features Margo Price and Ian Hunter as well as piano from fellow Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers founding member Benmont Tench. The concert begins at 7. 308 Euclid Ave., houseofblues.com.216-523-2583, FRI 09/02

Keep Flying This East Coast punk band recently debuted “Candy Cane Forest 2,” a single that finds the group improbably mixing banjo, horns, electric guitars and punk vocals. it can be found on the band’s latest effort, Revival, a record that features reimagined versions of songs from across their discography, as well as one new track. The band performs tonight at 7 at the Mahall’s 20 Lanes apartment. 13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216521-3280, mahalls20lanes.com.

WED 08/31

Diana Ross comes to MGM Northfield Park. See: Tuesday, Sept. 6 Courtesy of Live Nation scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

Linda Gail Lewis Fresh from the release of the Early Sides 1963-1973 CD collection as well as the concert CD/DVD Family Jewels, rockabilly pioneer Linda Gail Lewis brings her summer tour to the Beachland Ballroom tonight. Lewis, the sister of Jerry Lee Lewis, was a frequent collaborator and singing partner with Jerry Lee before going on to launch a solo career and work with Van Morrison. Lewis’s daughter, singer Annie Marie Lewis, will accompany Lewis along with rockabilly guitar superstar Danny B. Harvey (the Rockats, Swing Cats, the 69 Cats). The show starts at 8. 15711 Waterloo Rd., beachlandballroom.com.216-383-1124, Twenty One Pilots Performing as a duo, the guys in Twenty One Pilots delivered one helluva racket when they performed at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse back in 2018. The theatricality of the concert, which included numerous outfit changes and a stripped-down segment on a satellite stage, meant that it was regularly engaging and kept the band’s ardent fans on their feet for the entire set. Expect something similar when the group returns to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse tonight at 8 as part of a tour that supports last year’s Scaled and Icy. Peter McPoland opens the show. Consult the venue website for ticket prices. One Center Court, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.216-420-2000, Why Don’t We Out on a summer tour in support of its new single, “How Do You Love Somebody,” the pop band Why Don’t We comes to Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica tonight at 7. Co-written/ produced by the band alongside Grey (Zedd & Maren Morris’s “The Middle”), “How Do You Love Somebody” features the kind of sharp pop hooks for which the band is known. Consult the venue’s website for ticket prices and more info. 2014 Sycamore St., jacobspavilion.com.216-861-4080,

SUN 09/04

SAT 08/27

Diana Ross Motown icon Diana Ross recently headlined the Glastonbury Festival and performed for Queen Elizabeth at the Platinum Jubilee celebration. Her latest release, “Turn Up the Sunshine,” pairs her with Tame Impala. She performs tonight at 7:30 at MGM Northfield Park — Center Stage. 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, mgmresorts.com/en.html.mgmnorthfieldpark.

Rainbow Kitten Surprise Now boasting over 1 billion global streams across platforms, Rainbow Kitten Surprise built its fanbase with a series of self-released albums. The band’s major label debut, 2018’s How to: Friend, Love, Freefall only expanded that fanbase. Produced by Grammy Award-winner Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Sleeper Agent), the album featured hit single “It’s Called: Freefall.” The alternative rock band plays tonight at 7:30 at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. 2014 Sycamore St., jacobspavilion.com.216-861-4080, TUE 09/06

Real music in the real world

TUE 08/30 Wiz Khalifa and Logic Wiz Khalifa and Logic bring their co-headlining Vinyl Verse Tour 2022 featuring special guests 24kGoldn, DJ DRAMA, C Dot Castro and Fedd the God to Blossom tonight at 6:30. The two hip-hop starts roughly blew up at about the same time. Though Pittsburgh-based Khalifa launched his career back in 2005, his biggest hits came in the 2010s and Logic’s hits are from the same time period as well. 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

WCSB Presents Coleman Zurkowski’s Music for No One New York-based experimental composer Coleman Zurkowski brings his international/nationwide tour of Music for No One to the Bop Stop today at 3 p.m. Music for No One is a concert-length work for piano, cello, saxophone, and vocalists.

THU 09/01

| clevescene.com | August 24-September 6, 202228 FRI 08/26

“The purpose of this performance is to provide a safe space for reflection through musical interpretation, and to rekindle enjoying music physically after the height of the pandemic,” reads a press release about the gig. All funds collected at the door will be donated to the Bop Stop. 2920 Detroit Ave., themusicsettlement.org.216-771-6551,

Vanillaphase Formed in 2020 when the pandemic brought live music to a standstill, the local four-piece electronic act Vanillaphase quickly began recording and preparing a live set even though local clubs were shuttered. It released its debut EP, One Trick Pony, as well as the up-tempo single, “Almost Supernova” in early 2021 and has kept busy ever since. The band recently gave a few livestreamed performances, the latest of which featured new lead singer, the cheekily named Generic Goth Girl. Vanillaphase plays a release party at 6 tonight at the Mercury Music Lounge in Lakewood. 18206 Detroit Ave., Lakewood.

The Shins The Shins will celebrate the 21st anniversary of their classic 2001 debut album, Oh, Inverted World, by playing it in its entirety at tonight’s show, part of a 21st birthday tour. The live show will also feature “a nightly rotation of additional fan favorites and deep cuts.” The concert begins at 7 at the Agora. Check the venue’s website for more info. 5000 Euclid Ave., agoracleveland.com.216-881-2221, SAT 09/03 Hayes Carll On You Get It All, his eighth album, singer-songwriter Hayes Carll continues to polish his narrative approach to songwriting. The finely crafted songs explore “messy relationships, motel room respites, and an exasperated, hitchhiking God,” as it’s put in a press release. Carll performs at 8 tonight at the Kent Stage. 175 E. Main St., Kent, 330-677-5005, kentstage.org.

LIVEWIRE

Alexzandra Roy CLEVESCENE.COM

WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: In 2019, the band released a single and split tape with Cleveland indie rockers Forager. “They came to a show we had at Mahall’s,” Eresman says. “They came to it to check us out, and they wanted to come to Cincinnati more. They’re more peppy and energetic than us. Their song on the split is more high-energy. We put out a slow song that contrasts with that. It provides a fun dissonance.” In summer of 2020, Strobobean released another split single with the aforementioned Scrunchies. “They’re in the journey for the right reasons,” Eresman says of the Scrunchies. She says a Strobobean full-length is currently in the works.

By Jeff Niesel MEET THE BAND: Katrina Eresman (vocals, guitar), Rae Fisher (bass), Jake Langknecht (drums)

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 29 BAND OF THE WEEK: STROBOBEAN

A NEW APPRECIATION: Shortly after forming, the group released an EP and embarked on a tour in November of 2019, giving the band some confidence and the desire to hit the road again with the Minneapolisbased Scrunchies in spring of 2020. The pandemic wiped out that trek, and threw a major wrench into the band’s operation. “It shut me down,” Eresman says of having to cancel that tour. “I just took a break and focused on other creative stuff like writing poetry. Taking space from our normal rhythm forced me to decide what I really wanted to do. You get into a pattern of just responding to things that are happening. Since I was shut down, I thought about the shows we loved. There was a lot of downtime figuring that out. Now, we’re more precious about the shows and try to put together really great bills.”

WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM: strobobean.bandcamp.com. WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: Strobobean performs with Radderall and Bleeder at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, at the Happy Dog. scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene Strobobean.

A FULL EXPERIENCE: Inspired by the post-rock act Blonde Redhead, singer-guitarist Katria Eresman, who had played in the Cincinnati band Pop Empire with drummer Jake Langknecht, formed Strobobean in Cincinnati in 2018. “I like Blond Redhead because they create these little universes in their songs,” she says. “The first time I saw them was at Lollapalooza in 2005. I heard them and was completely drawn in. I take from that to create a full spatial experience. I want things to feel like they have depth to them. I’m influenced by any music that has lots of experiential levels to it.” Eresman has used the term “desert shoegaze” to describe the group’s music, and that seems appropriate given the sonic wash of guitars that flood a dream-pop song like “Ghost.” “It’s so hard for me to say what the genre is,” she says. “There are one or two songs that have a shoegaze feel to them with walls of guitar. It feels right to say [‘desert shoegaze’] even though we’re from Ohio.”

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If the last couples’ counselor you saw didn’t turn to your wife at the end of your first session and say, “You’re a fucking psycho,” they sucked at their job. Hey Dan: I am a gay man in a large Canadian city and I have a question about monkeypox. I have been seeing a male escort for several years and have built a friendly relationship with him. We both received the monkeypox vaccine in late June. My question is whether I should stop seeing him while monkeypox is still running rampant. Some further background — he is still advertising for clients online and he’s told me that he’s still sexually active and doesn’t always use condoms. I know he is in a financially precarious situation, which is why he escorts, so I don’t blame him for doing what he must. It pays the bills. I honestly miss him and our intimate connection, but I’m afraid I’d contract monkeypox even though we’re both vaccinated. Should I take a pause in seeing him because he is still having sex with multiple people?

By Dan Savage

Your wife’s bullshit is intolerable, WATCHER, and you shouldn’t put up withEveryoneit. is entitled to privacy, even married people. Likewise, everyone enjoys a zone of erotic autonomy, even married people. Experiences you fantasize about, when and how you masturbate, things you can safely do without violating your monogamous commitment and/or putting your partner at risk… not only shouldn’t someone try to take those things from you, it’s not in anyone’s power to take those things from you. We can’t police our partner’s fantasies. Ideally, our partners feel safe sharing their fantasies with us and involving us to the extent we can or wish to be involved. But we can’t prevent our partners from looking at whatever they want to look at, provided they’re considerate about when and where, and we certainly can’t stop our partners from thinking about whatever they want to think about, dick in hand or no dick in hand. Get a divorce. Or get better at telling your wife what she insists on hearing, doing whatever you want when you’re safely in the zone (of erotic autonomy), and covering your tracks.P.S.

Worried About Monkeypox Go to Savage.Love for Dan’s answer to this question and more!

August 24-September 6, 2022 | clevescene.com | 31 SAVAGE LOVE JERKED AROUND

There is more to this week’s Savage Love. To read the entire column, go to Savage.Love. Hey Dan: I’ve been with my wife for ten years. We are both 36 years old. We moved in fast and didn’t take time to learn certain things about one another. For example, I watch porn, which she only found out about after we moved in. She had a visceral reaction. She told me it was a dealbreaker for her, no negotiation. I agreed to stop but didn’t. Fast forward ten years and now I’m medicated for ADHD, which makes it much easier to avoid impulse behaviors like looking at porn. We have come close to divorce over this issue, as well as over how toxic I was before getting treatment for my ADHD. I’ve contributed my share of negativity to the marriage. Now, as it stands, the agreement we have is that I will not watch porn of any kind. This is where we really start to differ. To her, porn is masturbating to ANYTHING. Looking at porn? Not allowed. Looking at women in bikinis? Not allowed. Coming across something that sexually charges me and masturbating to it? I have betrayed her trust. So, I don’t watch “porn” anymore but I feel extremely resentful about how I am controlled. The latest example of this was when she was helping our kid play a game on a device that had to be connected to Facebook. Mine was connected, and a message came up with a recent conversation. In it I thanked a friend for being there for me, checking in on me, sending jokes, etc. This friend likes to send funny memes, some of which are risqué. I mentioned that I appreciated his jokes, even the ones that would have “upset my wife.” She is now accusing me of using friends (and memes) as loopholes to get around my promise NOT to look at porn.I’m so tired. I have so much shame around masturbation now and I feel like I have no privacy. We are about to see another couples’ counselor. Any suggestions for me?

questions@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage www.savage.love Joe Newton

Worried About This Constant Harassment Eroding Relationship I don’t know exactly what your wife has had to put up with. You mention toxic behavior on your part prior to seeking treatment for ADHD. Toxic energy, toxic actions, toxic toxins — whatever you did, I’m going to assume your bullshit came close to intolerable, WATCHER, and award your wife some points for putting up with your bullshit. With that said… Giving up porn is a price of admission some are willing to pay. A person with an otherwise healthy relationship to porn — someone who, like most people, can enjoy porn in moderation, someone who can use porn without neglecting their partner sexually and/or being inconsiderate about their partner’s feelings — sometimes falls in love with a person who, for whatever reason, can’t stand the idea of their partner watching porn. Some people have sensitivities, others have insecurities; some on the Left have political objections, some on the Right have religious objections. Giving up porn is not something I would ever agree to, but a reasonable person might agree to stop watching porn (or pretend they’ve stopped watching porn) for someone they love.But if the person who insisted their partner stop watching porn later defines absolutely everything as porn — porn itself, non-pornographic photos, good-looking people walking down the street, memes shared by friends — then it was never about the porn. It wasn’t about their insecurities or their political objections or their precious religious beliefs. It was about control. And the worst thing about controlling people is that they’re never satisfied. No matter how much control a romantic partner gives up, it’s never enough. A controlling person’s demands escalate slowly at the start of a new relationship, WATCHER, when it’s still relatively easy for someone to end things. But once the relationship is harder to exit — once leases have been signed, marriages have been performed, children have been born — the controlling person’s demands not only escalate rapidly, they also tend to be become more arbitrary and irrational. (No memes? Really?)