2 Months Down 10 To Go Concert Calendar
When I sum up 2019 I'm sure that my concert attendance will be at least as good as last year, but right now I've only been to one show with two bands total.
1. My friend Tony (formerly onabus) is the lyricist for a rock band called Herzog. On Friday, February 22, they released a new album as part of a show at the Happy Dog. I saw many radio friends there and had a fine time listening to new and old songs from Herzog. Alas, they didn't have the new album on CD, just vinyl, so I bought a copy of the prior album. The Royal Beasts (featuring RonK filling in on bass) provided competent opening entertainment. I was distracted somewhat by XXX being on the TV. What a good bad movie that was.
And with that covered, let's move on to concert 2 and beyond. As always, bold means I'm going and italics means I'm strongly considering it. Everything is listed because I might play it on my radio show (still Sundays 2pm-4pm on 91.1/wruw.org) or because I think a friend might be interested, or because I'm entertained by it.
March
F 3/01 - Los Lobos @ MBCH. The Wolf will survive by playing very pricey gigs!
F 3/01 - Adrien Belew @ Beachland Ballroom. Ex King Crimson. Beachland's 19th Anniversary Weekend.
T 3/05 - The Beths @ Beachland Ballroom. New Zealand indie rock goodness. I decided that I liked them enough to see them again, plus a ton of my friends will be there.
Su 3/10 - Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ Beachland Ballroom. My divorce band always get listed.
Su 3/10 - Lulo Reinhardt & Daniel Stelter @ Nighttown. I'll happily take an excuse to play gypsy swing (Lulo is Django's grandnephew).
3/13 through 3/17 - CityMusic Cleveland @ Various Locations
R 3/14 - All Them Witches @ Grog Shop. Powers likes them. So do stoners, apparently.
R 3/14 - Cherish the Ladies @ Happy Days Lodge CVNP. All female Irish classics. Beloved of my late friend Roger.
F 3/15 - The Tossers @ Beachland Tavern. Irish drinking songs just in time for St. Patrick's Day.
F 3/15 - Into The Blue: Grateful Dead Revival @ Beachland Ballroom. My friend Don's Grateful Dead band. I like half of that sentence.
F 3/15 - Yonder Mountain String Band @ HOB.
F 3/15 - The Honeytones w/Ben Pirani and the Means of Production @ Mahalls. The Honeytones are local soul. Ben Pirani put out a nice little soul/punk album last year.
T 3/19 - Chastity @ Beachland Tavern. $10 bet on a not quite punk band.
R 3/21 - Take 6 @ Nighttown. A cappella legends. A priced high as a result, alas. Two shows.
F 3/22 - Massive Attack @ Masonic Temple (Detroit). I have tickets.
S 3/23 - Kinky Friedman @ Beachland Tavern. Small intimate show for the Jewish humorist/rocker. If I'm ever going to pull the trigger, this would be the gig, despite the high price.
T 3/26 - Masked Intruder @ Mahalls. Crime-themed pop punk. Really.
W 3/27 - 2 Cellos @ The Q. I'll happily take an excuse to play their stuff on my show, but once was enough for me.
W 3/27 - Miss Sharon Jones! @ Rock Hall. Showing of the documentary about Sharon Jones of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.
R 3/28 - TEEN @ Beachland Tavern. 3 sisters from Halifax doing poppy music. For $10, I'm not sure how I could lose.
S 3/30 - Stephanie Mills, The Whispers, The Dramatics @ PSQ. Definitely appropriate for my radio show.
April
W 4/03 - Eric B. & Rakim @ HOB. I'm sure I can find an excuse to play these 80s hip-hop artists on my show.
R 4/04 - The Temptations & the Four Tops @ Akron Civic. More fodder for my show.
F 4/05 - J. Mascis @ Grog Shop. I'm not sure there's much difference between Mascis solo and Dinosaur Jr, but I'm sure someone will tell me why I'm wrong.
F 4/05 - The Cybertronic Spree @ HOB. A band dressed as Transformers, performing the soundtrack to the original Transformers movie. Sure, why not?
Su 4/07 - Carlene Carter @ MBCH. One of the Cash/Carter music family. I liked her when I saw her.
Su 4/07 - Chicago @ Rocksino. One of my guilty pleasures. Judge away.
W 4/10 - Avi Avital with Omer Avital @ CMA. Jazz quartet with an oud.
W 4/10 - Okilly Dokilly @ Beachland Tavern. Absolutely the finest Simpsons-themed metal band you'll see this year.
F 4/12 - The Drifters, Cornell Gunter's Coasters & The Platters @ Akron Civic. Current lineups of classic doo-wop bands certainly is an excuse to play them on my show.
F 4/12 - Coathangers @ Grog Shop. To quote Powers, "Awesome-sauce punk rock."
Su 4/14 - Black Violin @ PSQ. Classical & Hip-hop and steadily larger rooms on each tour.
Su 4/14 - Neyla Pekarek @ Beachland Ballroom. Ex-Lumineer. Apparently making a concept album about a pioneer woman who was attacked by rattlesnakes. Why not?
M 4/15 - Of Montreal @ Beachland Ballroom. I saw them back in 2007 and I would never have guessed that they'd still be touring today.
T 4/16 - Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers @ Grog Shop. The Against Me! frontwoman has a solo tour. I'm sure this will sell out.
W 4/17 - The Spring Quartet @ Finney Chapel. Jazz with Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano on tenor sax, Esperanza Spalding on bass/vocals, and Leo Genovese. I have tickets.
W 4/17 and R 4/18 - Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio @ Beachland Tavern. Funky organ trio from Seattle.
R 4/18 - Dave Davies @ MBCH. Of the Kinks. I have two friends who will be excited, except they already know, I'm sure.
S 4/20 - Bill Toms and Hard Rain featuring The Soulville Horns @ Beachland Tavern. Rock & soul, although it appears to be more rock.
M 4/22 - Neko Case @ The Majestic (Detroit). Monday night road trip concerts are rough, but I missed her last year.
W 4/24 - Peelander-Z @ Beachland Tavern. Possibly the finest Japanese superhero themed punk band you'll ever see. I say possibly because I've seen a lot of superhero themed bands!
F 4/26 - Elle King @ Cleveland Masonic. She was fun the first time around.
S 4/27 - Squirrel Nut Zippers @ Kent Stage. I like that one song, but further listening shows they have a bunch of stuff I like. Maybe.
May
Su 5/05 - MC Lars / MC Frontalot / MegaRan @ Mahalls. Nerdcore.
Su 5/05 and M 5/06 - Todd Rundgren @ PSQ. I have a friend who is a very obsessed fan.
M 5/06 - Lemonheads @ Grog Shop. It's a Shame I Only Know It's A Shame About Ray.
W 5/08 - Cenk Ergün @ CMA. Composer and sound artist.
W 5/08 - Epic Beard Men @ Beachland Tavern. Listed solely for the name.
F 5/10 - KT Tunstall @ Beachland Ballroom. Rescheduled from November.
Su 5/12 - Eli Paperboy Reed @ Beachland Ballroom. White boy soul.
Su 5/12 - RBRM @ PSQ. Basically, New Edition + Bell Biv DeVoe reunion tour. Great for my show.
W 5/15 - Xiu Xiu @ Beachland Ballroom. Weirdos, in all the best ways.
W 5/15 - Joan Osborne @ MBCH. Doing Dylan covers, but maybe she'll throw some of her own stuff in there.
5/15 through 5/19 - CityMusic Cleveland @ Various Locations
R 5/16 - Nils Lofgren Band @ Kent Stage. I saw him solo once. It was full because everyone thought Bruce might show up. Spoilers: he didn't.
5/16-5/18 - The Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance. Listed as Mitsuko Uchida Plays Bartók, but my friend Dashon is singing Schubert. We have tickets for Friday.
M 5/20 - Molly Burch @ Beachland Tavern. For some reason her name is stuck in my head, have to go figure out why.
W 5/22 - X @ Kent Stage. As someone one said, arguably the best band Ray Manzarek was ever involved with.
T 5/23 - Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band @ Majestic (Detroit) - Closest he's coming on this tour, apparently. Maybe I should do a multi-city road trip.
R 5/23 - Nashville Pussy & Guitar Wolf @ Beachland Ballroom. I saw N.P. way back in 2004 and Guitar Wolf in 2016. Both are very loud rock and roll, and fun.
F 5/24 - The 5.6.7.8s @ Beachland Ballroom. Japanese rock trio, as featured on the Kill Bill soundtrack.
F 5/24 - Rodrigo & Gabriela @ The Chicago Theater (Chicago) - One of the finest guitar duos I've ever heard. I'm going!
Su 5/26 - Apocalyptica @ PSQ. Were they the ones to begin the "interesting variants on something mainstream" fad? I don't know, but that first album is still a lot of fun.
F 5/31 - The Rolling Stones @ Fed Ex Field (DC) - I've never seen them. M's never seen them. They aren't getting younger, and Keith probably isn't literally immortal.
June
Su 6/02 - Jon Spencer & the HITmakers @ Beachland Ballroom. Jon Spencer has a new project. I guess we'll see what weirdness this one gets up to.
W 6/05 - Gimme Shelter @ Rock Hall. Acclaimed Stones movies.
S 6/15 - Buddy Guy @ Rocksino. With BB King's passing, the most famous living blues guitarist.
W 6/19 - Phish @ Blossom. Hi Amanda!
W 6/19 - Robyn Hitchcock @ MBCH. A rocker beloved by college radio types.
W 6/26 - Car Seat Headrest @ HOB. Rock. They've rather taken off since I saw them in 2016.
R 6/27 - Tower of Power @ PSQ (Tri-C JazzFest). Also good for my show.
F 6/28 - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones w/John Scofield's Combo 66 @ PSQ (Tri-C JazzFest). I've seen the Flecktones more times than I can conveniently count and it's been great every time.
July and Beyond
F 7/12 - Queensryche @ Rocksino. Operation Mindcrime is a classic.
F 7/19 - Belle & Sebastian @ HOB. M wants to go.
Su 7/28 - Air Supply @ Cain Park. Listed for my mother.
W 7/31 - Queen & Adam Lambert @
Su 8/04 - Heart & Joan Jet w/Elle King @ Blossom. I know some very obsessed Joan Jett fans. Guess I'll see what the fuss is about.
S 8/10 - Judy Collins @ Cain Park. Also listed for my mother.
S 8/17 - Iron Maiden @ PPG Paints Area Pittsburgh. Up the Irons! I have tickets.
T 9/17 - Jenny Lewis @ Aogra Theatre. New album drops in March.
T 9/24 - The Blasters @ Beachland Ballroom. Roots legends.
R 10/03 - Stereolab @ The Majestic (Detroit).
M 11/11 - Elton John @ The Q. The retirement tour continues. I'm giving it some serious thought.
Here's the venue list in no particular order:
Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
Grog Shop
Wolstein Center
HOB
Kent Stage
Agora Theater & Ballroom
Quicken Loans Arena
Night Town
Playhouse Square
Rock Hall
Cain Park
Blossom
Jacob's Pavilion (Nautica)
Lakewood Civic Auditorium
E.J. Thomas Hall (Akron)
Akron Civic
CityMusic Cleveland
Now That's Class
Happy Dog
Mahall's 20 Lanes
Tri-C Jazzfest
Oberlin College
Cleveland Museum of Art
Hard Rock Live (aka, the Rocksino)
The Music Box
Cleveland Masonic
And I don't go through all of these, but maybe I should have:
Severance Hall/Orchestra
Cleveland Chamber Music
Cleveland Classical Guitar Society
Apollo's Fire
NE Ohio Jazz Calendar
Bop Stop
1. My friend Tony (formerly onabus) is the lyricist for a rock band called Herzog. On Friday, February 22, they released a new album as part of a show at the Happy Dog. I saw many radio friends there and had a fine time listening to new and old songs from Herzog. Alas, they didn't have the new album on CD, just vinyl, so I bought a copy of the prior album. The Royal Beasts (featuring RonK filling in on bass) provided competent opening entertainment. I was distracted somewhat by XXX being on the TV. What a good bad movie that was.
And with that covered, let's move on to concert 2 and beyond. As always, bold means I'm going and italics means I'm strongly considering it. Everything is listed because I might play it on my radio show (still Sundays 2pm-4pm on 91.1/wruw.org) or because I think a friend might be interested, or because I'm entertained by it.
March
F 3/01 - Los Lobos @ MBCH. The Wolf will survive by playing very pricey gigs!
F 3/01 - Adrien Belew @ Beachland Ballroom. Ex King Crimson. Beachland's 19th Anniversary Weekend.
T 3/05 - The Beths @ Beachland Ballroom. New Zealand indie rock goodness. I decided that I liked them enough to see them again, plus a ton of my friends will be there.
Su 3/10 - Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ Beachland Ballroom. My divorce band always get listed.
Su 3/10 - Lulo Reinhardt & Daniel Stelter @ Nighttown. I'll happily take an excuse to play gypsy swing (Lulo is Django's grandnephew).
3/13 through 3/17 - CityMusic Cleveland @ Various Locations
R 3/14 - All Them Witches @ Grog Shop. Powers likes them. So do stoners, apparently.
R 3/14 - Cherish the Ladies @ Happy Days Lodge CVNP. All female Irish classics. Beloved of my late friend Roger.
F 3/15 - The Tossers @ Beachland Tavern. Irish drinking songs just in time for St. Patrick's Day.
F 3/15 - Into The Blue: Grateful Dead Revival @ Beachland Ballroom. My friend Don's Grateful Dead band. I like half of that sentence.
F 3/15 - Yonder Mountain String Band @ HOB.
F 3/15 - The Honeytones w/Ben Pirani and the Means of Production @ Mahalls. The Honeytones are local soul. Ben Pirani put out a nice little soul/punk album last year.
T 3/19 - Chastity @ Beachland Tavern. $10 bet on a not quite punk band.
R 3/21 - Take 6 @ Nighttown. A cappella legends. A priced high as a result, alas. Two shows.
F 3/22 - Massive Attack @ Masonic Temple (Detroit). I have tickets.
S 3/23 - Kinky Friedman @ Beachland Tavern. Small intimate show for the Jewish humorist/rocker. If I'm ever going to pull the trigger, this would be the gig, despite the high price.
T 3/26 - Masked Intruder @ Mahalls. Crime-themed pop punk. Really.
W 3/27 - 2 Cellos @ The Q. I'll happily take an excuse to play their stuff on my show, but once was enough for me.
W 3/27 - Miss Sharon Jones! @ Rock Hall. Showing of the documentary about Sharon Jones of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.
R 3/28 - TEEN @ Beachland Tavern. 3 sisters from Halifax doing poppy music. For $10, I'm not sure how I could lose.
S 3/30 - Stephanie Mills, The Whispers, The Dramatics @ PSQ. Definitely appropriate for my radio show.
April
W 4/03 - Eric B. & Rakim @ HOB. I'm sure I can find an excuse to play these 80s hip-hop artists on my show.
R 4/04 - The Temptations & the Four Tops @ Akron Civic. More fodder for my show.
F 4/05 - J. Mascis @ Grog Shop. I'm not sure there's much difference between Mascis solo and Dinosaur Jr, but I'm sure someone will tell me why I'm wrong.
F 4/05 - The Cybertronic Spree @ HOB. A band dressed as Transformers, performing the soundtrack to the original Transformers movie. Sure, why not?
Su 4/07 - Carlene Carter @ MBCH. One of the Cash/Carter music family. I liked her when I saw her.
Su 4/07 - Chicago @ Rocksino. One of my guilty pleasures. Judge away.
W 4/10 - Avi Avital with Omer Avital @ CMA. Jazz quartet with an oud.
W 4/10 - Okilly Dokilly @ Beachland Tavern. Absolutely the finest Simpsons-themed metal band you'll see this year.
F 4/12 - The Drifters, Cornell Gunter's Coasters & The Platters @ Akron Civic. Current lineups of classic doo-wop bands certainly is an excuse to play them on my show.
F 4/12 - Coathangers @ Grog Shop. To quote Powers, "Awesome-sauce punk rock."
Su 4/14 - Black Violin @ PSQ. Classical & Hip-hop and steadily larger rooms on each tour.
Su 4/14 - Neyla Pekarek @ Beachland Ballroom. Ex-Lumineer. Apparently making a concept album about a pioneer woman who was attacked by rattlesnakes. Why not?
M 4/15 - Of Montreal @ Beachland Ballroom. I saw them back in 2007 and I would never have guessed that they'd still be touring today.
T 4/16 - Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers @ Grog Shop. The Against Me! frontwoman has a solo tour. I'm sure this will sell out.
W 4/17 - The Spring Quartet @ Finney Chapel. Jazz with Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano on tenor sax, Esperanza Spalding on bass/vocals, and Leo Genovese. I have tickets.
W 4/17 and R 4/18 - Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio @ Beachland Tavern. Funky organ trio from Seattle.
R 4/18 - Dave Davies @ MBCH. Of the Kinks. I have two friends who will be excited, except they already know, I'm sure.
S 4/20 - Bill Toms and Hard Rain featuring The Soulville Horns @ Beachland Tavern. Rock & soul, although it appears to be more rock.
M 4/22 - Neko Case @ The Majestic (Detroit). Monday night road trip concerts are rough, but I missed her last year.
W 4/24 - Peelander-Z @ Beachland Tavern. Possibly the finest Japanese superhero themed punk band you'll ever see. I say possibly because I've seen a lot of superhero themed bands!
F 4/26 - Elle King @ Cleveland Masonic. She was fun the first time around.
S 4/27 - Squirrel Nut Zippers @ Kent Stage. I like that one song, but further listening shows they have a bunch of stuff I like. Maybe.
May
Su 5/05 - MC Lars / MC Frontalot / MegaRan @ Mahalls. Nerdcore.
Su 5/05 and M 5/06 - Todd Rundgren @ PSQ. I have a friend who is a very obsessed fan.
M 5/06 - Lemonheads @ Grog Shop. It's a Shame I Only Know It's A Shame About Ray.
W 5/08 - Cenk Ergün @ CMA. Composer and sound artist.
W 5/08 - Epic Beard Men @ Beachland Tavern. Listed solely for the name.
F 5/10 - KT Tunstall @ Beachland Ballroom. Rescheduled from November.
Su 5/12 - Eli Paperboy Reed @ Beachland Ballroom. White boy soul.
Su 5/12 - RBRM @ PSQ. Basically, New Edition + Bell Biv DeVoe reunion tour. Great for my show.
W 5/15 - Xiu Xiu @ Beachland Ballroom. Weirdos, in all the best ways.
W 5/15 - Joan Osborne @ MBCH. Doing Dylan covers, but maybe she'll throw some of her own stuff in there.
5/15 through 5/19 - CityMusic Cleveland @ Various Locations
R 5/16 - Nils Lofgren Band @ Kent Stage. I saw him solo once. It was full because everyone thought Bruce might show up. Spoilers: he didn't.
5/16-5/18 - The Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance. Listed as Mitsuko Uchida Plays Bartók, but my friend Dashon is singing Schubert. We have tickets for Friday.
M 5/20 - Molly Burch @ Beachland Tavern. For some reason her name is stuck in my head, have to go figure out why.
W 5/22 - X @ Kent Stage. As someone one said, arguably the best band Ray Manzarek was ever involved with.
T 5/23 - Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band @ Majestic (Detroit) - Closest he's coming on this tour, apparently. Maybe I should do a multi-city road trip.
R 5/23 - Nashville Pussy & Guitar Wolf @ Beachland Ballroom. I saw N.P. way back in 2004 and Guitar Wolf in 2016. Both are very loud rock and roll, and fun.
F 5/24 - The 5.6.7.8s @ Beachland Ballroom. Japanese rock trio, as featured on the Kill Bill soundtrack.
F 5/24 - Rodrigo & Gabriela @ The Chicago Theater (Chicago) - One of the finest guitar duos I've ever heard. I'm going!
Su 5/26 - Apocalyptica @ PSQ. Were they the ones to begin the "interesting variants on something mainstream" fad? I don't know, but that first album is still a lot of fun.
F 5/31 - The Rolling Stones @ Fed Ex Field (DC) - I've never seen them. M's never seen them. They aren't getting younger, and Keith probably isn't literally immortal.
June
Su 6/02 - Jon Spencer & the HITmakers @ Beachland Ballroom. Jon Spencer has a new project. I guess we'll see what weirdness this one gets up to.
W 6/05 - Gimme Shelter @ Rock Hall. Acclaimed Stones movies.
S 6/15 - Buddy Guy @ Rocksino. With BB King's passing, the most famous living blues guitarist.
W 6/19 - Phish @ Blossom. Hi Amanda!
W 6/19 - Robyn Hitchcock @ MBCH. A rocker beloved by college radio types.
W 6/26 - Car Seat Headrest @ HOB. Rock. They've rather taken off since I saw them in 2016.
R 6/27 - Tower of Power @ PSQ (Tri-C JazzFest). Also good for my show.
F 6/28 - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones w/John Scofield's Combo 66 @ PSQ (Tri-C JazzFest). I've seen the Flecktones more times than I can conveniently count and it's been great every time.
July and Beyond
F 7/12 - Queensryche @ Rocksino. Operation Mindcrime is a classic.
F 7/19 - Belle & Sebastian @ HOB. M wants to go.
Su 7/28 - Air Supply @ Cain Park. Listed for my mother.
W 7/31 - Queen & Adam Lambert @
Su 8/04 - Heart & Joan Jet w/Elle King @ Blossom. I know some very obsessed Joan Jett fans. Guess I'll see what the fuss is about.
S 8/10 - Judy Collins @ Cain Park. Also listed for my mother.
S 8/17 - Iron Maiden @ PPG Paints Area Pittsburgh. Up the Irons! I have tickets.
T 9/17 - Jenny Lewis @ Aogra Theatre. New album drops in March.
T 9/24 - The Blasters @ Beachland Ballroom. Roots legends.
R 10/03 - Stereolab @ The Majestic (Detroit).
M 11/11 - Elton John @ The Q. The retirement tour continues. I'm giving it some serious thought.
Here's the venue list in no particular order:
Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
Grog Shop
Wolstein Center
HOB
Kent Stage
Agora Theater & Ballroom
Quicken Loans Arena
Night Town
Playhouse Square
Rock Hall
Cain Park
Blossom
Jacob's Pavilion (Nautica)
Lakewood Civic Auditorium
E.J. Thomas Hall (Akron)
Akron Civic
CityMusic Cleveland
Now That's Class
Happy Dog
Mahall's 20 Lanes
Tri-C Jazzfest
Oberlin College
Cleveland Museum of Art
Hard Rock Live (aka, the Rocksino)
The Music Box
Cleveland Masonic
And I don't go through all of these, but maybe I should have:
Severance Hall/Orchestra
Cleveland Chamber Music
Cleveland Classical Guitar Society
Apollo's Fire
NE Ohio Jazz Calendar
Bop Stop