(Editor’s note: The picture above is the view from my bedroom window. Winter has hit Cleveland hard. It is cold. It is snowing. I know that I’ve written this before, but I like seasons. I like shovelling. I like wearing gloves and boots. If you’re somewhere that the sun is shining, where folks are strolling on sandy paths in tanktops and short shorts, where the air never feels the chill of deep winter, I feel pity for your plight. This is the time when man retreats to his cave, gazes upon an apparently dead world and finds life and art springing anew. You don’t get transcendent shit like that in Los Angeles or South Beach.)
Last night was a big night for live shows here at Citizen Dick. New Brooklynite James caught The Duchess and the Duke in New York. (Random aside: now that we have a writer in Brooklyn, will we get new Jay-Z songs before everyone else? I hope so.) Justin took in Afternoon Naps at the Grog Shop. (I think. Dude might have changed course at the last minute, hopped on a ferry to New Zealand or something. I keep telling you: his finger is on the pulse.) Most significantly for me, Rob Kevin and I (and Citizen Dick honorary correspondent Dr. Marvin Monroe) took in Scene Magazine’s 2010 showcase at the beautiful and historic Beachland Ballroom and Tavern. We saw local favorites The Modern Electric, Simeon Soul Charger and Good Touch Bad Touch (among nine or so others) for a mere five bucks.
The Scene showcase is where we’re starting today (mostly because that teleportation/time travel thing hasn’t come through yet and I couldn’t be at the other two gigs). There have been times in this forum when we’ve bemoaned the lack of a vibrant music community in Cleveland. We’ve whined about acts skipping over our fair city or folks failing to turn out for gigs that we felt were meritorious or crowds standing with hands in pockets during glorious performances. These slings and arrows aimed at Cleveland have long tortured my homerish soul. I want us to be an epicenter (Should that be the epicenter? Can there be more than one of those? Grammarians, nitpick the verbiage at your leisure.) of a thing, some sort of congregation of cognoscenti, agreeing to support stuff in town that is good. Tonight’s show made me both joyful and repentant. The Beachland was well-nigh packed. It was elbow to bumhole for The Modern Electric and Good Touch Bad Touch (both in the Tavern) and there was a goodly sized crowd for the acts we caught in the Ballroom. Folks turned out to hear good bands from Cleveland. Will we ignore the occasional hot band of the minute, in town on a Tuesday? Yes. Will we be reticent to give our favors to an addle-brained hipster with three chords and an MFA? Yes. Given that, do we know when to turn up to support our own when they deserve it? Yes. We are fickle and we are proud, but we are also participants in a defined scene. Be proud Cleveland! There is good music coming from within our borders! We are supporting it with fully-chipped shoulders.
The three bands that caught my ear were the ones mentioned above. We’ve written about Simeon Soul Charger before and their fairly direct rock vibe was in full effect on Friday. I hadn’t seen them for a while and it was good to confirm that my original opinion was well-founded. They rock. They closed with a scorching rendition of “Someone Shoot the Fuckin’ TV” which seemed to win a few new fans in the crowd. Good times. Good Touch Bad Touch were particularly impressive for both their staunchly displayed indie badge of irony and legitimate song-writing chops. They’ve been on the Cleveland radar for a bit, but I’d not caught them before. I’d make a trip to see them again, if only to digest their material with a more critical eye. For all of the good stuff that I saw last night, The Modern Electric were the act that got me off of my sofa. My New Year’s resolution was to see this band more often and I’m glad I made it. They played a quick set featuring the strongest songs from their self-titled release. They were a bit hamstrung by the absence of a guitar player, but the semi-acoustic set served to highlight the quality of the songs themselves. Komyati played “Sharp as Knives” accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and an enthusiastically played tambourine. It was a goosebump-raiser. Rob snagged video of longtime CD favorite “David Bowie,” which I’ll forever contend is the catchiest song ever written. The Modern Electric have several more gigs in Cleveland this month. Go see this band. If you’re in a 150 mile radius it is worth the trip. If you’re outside of that radius, but own a helicopter, it is a no brainer.
In other news, Soundgarden is getting back together for some live gigs. Generally, I view this kind of thing (the reunion of a long defunct act) through two distinct lenses:
(1) A band reunites to craft new and legitimate art, while exploring their storied past: The best recent example is Mission of Burma. Dudes were unfairly neglected in their prime, found glory through their influence on others and got back together to put out new records and melt the faces of a new generation of fans. Money seems, in these cases, to be purely secondary. These types of reunions get the green light from me.
(2) A band reunites because one or more members can’t make their car payment: There are a ton of these. The Sex Pistols most recent tour is probably a good example. Here, dudes hate each other, their fans and their catalog, but need to make some dough. This, obviously, gets a big frowny face from me.
It’s hard to tell what the aegis for the Soundgarden reunion tour is. If they pump out a new record that doesn’t suck, I’ll be pleased as punch. If they just play “Spoonman” to a bunch of thirty year-olds in ampitheaters, I’ll be pissed. Time will tell. In the meantime, no one can argue that Badmotorfinger wasn’t the truth. We’re closing today with two classics from that record, performed live in 1994. (1994 was sixteen years ago. That, friends and readers, is totally fucked up.) As always, enjoy.
So glad to find a video of this track from the show on Friday – blew me away!