2020 Concert Calendar (and about damn time)
It's only been four months since the last concert calendar. Oops. Let's move ahead into the new year, shall we?
As always, Bold means I'm going, Italics means I'm more than usually interested, and I'm going to list all sorts of things just because they might be fun on my radio show or because it amuses me or allows me to tell a funny story.
January
Su 1/26 - Seratones @ Beachland Tavern. Louisiana rockers with a soul tinge.
Su 1/26 - Damien Jurado @ Beachland Ballroom. Singer-songwriter. I tried to hook him up for a house show once but failed. Oh well.
T 1/28 - Courtney Barnett @ Cleveland Museum of Art (Grog Shop sponsored). SOLD OUT. Really weird venue choice, but I guess people didn't care!
W 1/29 - Wayne "The Train" Hancock @ Beachland Tavern. Hi Elise!
W 1/29 - Badi Assad @ Nighttown. Brazilian guitarist beloved by my friend Grover.
R 1/30 - Trampled by Turtles @ HOB (sponsored by Beachland). Bluegrass from Duluth. I saw them a long time ago in the Beachland Tavern, and if you had told me they'd be at the HOB one day I would have laughed at you. I'm happy to be wrong.
R 1/30 - Wednesday Night Titans @ Beachland Tavern. Wrestling themed rock band. Sounds weird and/or great and/or terrible. If I was in town, I'd be there.
February
S 2/01 - Calexico w/Iron & Wine - @ Agora Theatre. Calexico is a perennial entry on the "bands I should see one day" list. Not this time, as I'll be partying in another city.
M 2/03 - Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn @ Kent Stage. The power couple of banjo. If I trusted my plane to land in time...
F 2/07 - Sarah Shook & the Disarmers @ Beachland Ballroom. Country rock on the way up.
S 2/08 - The Iron Maidens @ Beachland Ballroom. I have a bunch of friends going, and I may join them. Because Maiden is pretty much always awesome.
Su 2/09 - CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band @ Beachland Ballroom. All the Louisiana bands come through in the run up to Mardis Gras. He's better than most of them.
W 2/12 - Sunny Sweeney @ Beachland Ballroom. Country singer-songwriter.
W 2/12 - Film screening: Amazing Grace @ Rock Hall. The live footage of the recording of Aretha's legendary gospel album. I saw this movie last year and it is incredible.
W 2/12 - John Doe, Kristin Hersh & Grant Lee-Phillips @ MBCH. I'm out of town, alas.
S 2/15 - Slave @ Akron Civic. 70s funk from Dayton.
Su 2/16 - The Family Crest @ Beachland Tavern. Weird looking pop.
R 2/18 - Emily Wolfe @ Beachland Tavern. Austin singer-songwriter.
2/20-2/23 The Cleveland Orchesrtra @ Severance Hall. Featuring my friend Dashon singing on the debut of a new piece by Michael Tilson Thomas, who will be there to conduct. I'll be there on F 2/21.
F 2/21 - Jill Scott @ Rocksino. Man, if we didn't already have tickets to the orchestra.
S 2/22 - MC Lars @ Mahall's. Nerdcore.
M 2/24 - FretX @ Transformer Station. Contemporary guitar duo.
T 2/25 - Academy of St Martin in the Fields w/Joshua Bell @ EJ Thomas. I believe Bell is their music director now. Paganini’s Violin Concert No. 1, Op. 6, plus Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98.
W 2/26 - Film screening: Chuck Berry @ Rock Hall. New documentary. Hey Chuck, Listen to this!
W 2/26 - Fatoumata Diawara @ CMA Gartner. Malian musician.
W 2/26 - Bambara @ Beachland Tavern. Post-punk. Or so they say. Labels are hard.
R 2/27 - We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Grog Shop. My favorite Scottish band, probably. First two albums were killer.
F 2/28 - Fred Eaglesmith w/Tif Ginn @ Beachland Tavern. One of my perennial favorites, although it's been a few years since I saw him.
S 2/29 - Cyrille Aimee @ Nighttown. Two shows! One of my favorite jazz singers!
March
Su 3/01 - Radical Face @ Beachland Ballroom. Indie rock, confessional in nature.
R 3/05 - Geoff Tate @ Beachland Ballroom. Queensryche, playing two albums all the way through. But not the one I know (I'm not a huge Queensryche fan, so you can probably guess which one it is).
F 3/06 - back to BACK TO BLACK: Amy Winehouse Tribute featuring Remember Jones + a 12-Piece Orchestra @ MBCH. As close as you can get to Amy Winehouse now, alas.
S 3/07 - The Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance Hall. Mendelssohn, I believe. His music, I mean, not his desiccated corpse.
S 3/07 - New Bomb Turks w/Chargers Street Gang @ Beachland Ballroom. Cleveland punks reunite.
S 3/07 - Thornetta Davis @ MBSC. She's covering Aretha. She's probably be better served doing her own stuff, but she's plenty good.
S 3/7 - 70's Soul Jam @ Wolstein Center featuring The Stylistics, Heatwave, The Emotions, Blue Magic and Sonny Bivins Manhattans. In other words, there are a bunch of bands I can play on my show here.
Su 3/08 - Mike Tyson @ Rocksino. No, really. Doing his one man show.
Su 3/08 - Of Montreal @ Beachland Ballroom. Reliably weird indie rock. I saw them nearly 15 years ago or so, and they're still chugging away.
T 3/10 - Theo Katzman @ Beachland Ballroom. Weird rock and roll solo thing. Might be worth listening.
W 3/11 - Squirrel Nut Zippers @ Beachland Ballroom. 25th anniversary tour. Oy.
3/11-3/15 - CityMusic Cleveland at various locations.
W 3/12 - Lauryn Hill @ Rocksino. One amazing album.
S 3/14 - Robert Cray @ Kent Stage. Long-time popular blues artist.
S 3/14 - Berta Rojas @ Plymouth Church of Shaker Heights. Paraguayan classical guitarist.
T 3/17 - Dragonforce @ Agora Theatre. Power metal.
S 3/21 - Erykah Badu w/Talib Kweli @ Wolstein Center. M got me tickets for my birthday!
Su 3/22 - Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone @ Akron Civic. Confession: I really like Herman's Hermits. I mean, not enough to see them at these prices.
W 3/25 - Bob Mould @ Kent Stage. His recent run of albums is frankly as good as any equivalent run by Husker Du, if less ground breaking.
W 3/25 - Bowie Alumni Play Diamond Dogs & Ziggy Stardust @ Agora Theatre. Bowie's band soldiers on.
W 3/25 - Film screening: The Sound of My Voice @ Rock Hall. Linda Ronstadt doc.
R 3/26 - Anti-Flag @ Grog. Pittsburgh punk.
F 3/27 - Aleksandra Vrebalov @ CMA Ames. Free. Serbian-born composer has a new work debut in the atrium.
S 3/28 & Su 3/29 - Pussy Riot @ Grog Shop (first night) and Beachland Ballroom (second night). Vladimir Putin's least favorite punk band, straight from Russia.
Su 3/29 - That 1 Guy @ Beachland Tavern. I've always been intrigued. Maybe this is the time!
Su 3/29 - Murder By Death @ Grog Shop. Favorite of my former co-host Colleen.
Su 3/29 - Alejandro Escovedo @ MBCH. His last album was a return to form.
April
S 4/04 - The Whispers, Jeffrey Osborne, the Dramatics featuring LJ Reynolds @ PSQ. More bands for my show.
S 4/04 - Straight No Chaser @ Rocksino. Finally, a non-holiday show.
M 4/06 - Subhumans @ Grog Shop. UK Punk.
W 4/08 - Zakir Hussain @ CMA Gartner. Indian classical music.
T 4/14 - Lily Hiatt @ Beachland Tavern. Nashville based singer-songwriter.
F 4/17 - Dixon's Violin @ Beachland Tavern. One man, a violin and a loop pedal. Have I mentioned I enjoy weird things?
F 4/17 - Los Lobos @ MBCH. So expensive. So good.
Su 4/19 - Prince Royce @ Agora Theatre. Bachata artist who apparently is really successful. Go figure.
Su 4/26 - Nicole Keller @ CMA Gartner. Free afternoon organ concert.
W 4/29 - Alison Krauss @ PSQ. I really liked Union Station.
May
S 5/02 - The Beths @ Grog Shop (Beachland sponsored). Indie Rock from New Zealand. Great both times I saw them.
R 5/07 - Gladys Knight @ Rocksino. Not cheap, but still Motown.
S 5/09 - Here Come the Mummies @ HOB. Mummy-themed funk.
57-5/10 - CityMusic Cleveland at various locations.
T 5/12 - Fu Manchu @ Grog Shop. Hard rock. I'm probably not cool enough to go :-)
T 5/12 & W 5/13 - TMBG @ Beachland Ballroom. Two SOLD OUT shows for the 30th anniversary of Flood. I went to the 20th anniversary tour, so yeah, I feel old.
R 5/14 & F 5/15 - Todd Rundgren @ Rocksino. Hi Gaela!
R 5/14 - Whose Live Anyway? @ Akron Civic. M loves Whose Line Is It Anyway?
W 5/20 - Tanya Tucker @ HOB. Country legend.
F 5/22 - Bikini Kill @ Agora Theatre. The original riot grrls, or at least one of the most important.
Su 5/31 - AJJ w/Xiu Xiu @ Grog Shop. One of my favorite punk things.
June and Beyond
Su 6/21 - Halsey @ Blossom. Someone whose musical taste I respect likes her, and as such if cheap tickets arise perhaps I'll go for it.
6/25 - 6/27 - Tri-C JazzFest @ PSQ. Lineup to be announced.
T 6/30 - Journey w/The Pretenders @ Blossom. I don't think I've seen Journey. That might be a good "get the friends together for a terrible band" show.
T 7/23 - Alanis Morissette w/Garbage & Liz Phair @ Blossom. That's a solid "if I get cheap tickets" show.
Here's the venue list in no particular order:
Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
Grog Shop
Wolstein Center
HOB
Kent Stage
Agora Theater & Ballroom
Rockert Mortgage FieldHouse
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 has been rebranded to MGM Northfield. I'm still calling it 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
As always, Bold means I'm going, Italics means I'm more than usually interested, and I'm going to list all sorts of things just because they might be fun on my radio show or because it amuses me or allows me to tell a funny story.
January
Su 1/26 - Seratones @ Beachland Tavern. Louisiana rockers with a soul tinge.
Su 1/26 - Damien Jurado @ Beachland Ballroom. Singer-songwriter. I tried to hook him up for a house show once but failed. Oh well.
T 1/28 - Courtney Barnett @ Cleveland Museum of Art (Grog Shop sponsored). SOLD OUT. Really weird venue choice, but I guess people didn't care!
W 1/29 - Wayne "The Train" Hancock @ Beachland Tavern. Hi Elise!
W 1/29 - Badi Assad @ Nighttown. Brazilian guitarist beloved by my friend Grover.
R 1/30 - Trampled by Turtles @ HOB (sponsored by Beachland). Bluegrass from Duluth. I saw them a long time ago in the Beachland Tavern, and if you had told me they'd be at the HOB one day I would have laughed at you. I'm happy to be wrong.
R 1/30 - Wednesday Night Titans @ Beachland Tavern. Wrestling themed rock band. Sounds weird and/or great and/or terrible. If I was in town, I'd be there.
February
S 2/01 - Calexico w/Iron & Wine - @ Agora Theatre. Calexico is a perennial entry on the "bands I should see one day" list. Not this time, as I'll be partying in another city.
M 2/03 - Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn @ Kent Stage. The power couple of banjo. If I trusted my plane to land in time...
F 2/07 - Sarah Shook & the Disarmers @ Beachland Ballroom. Country rock on the way up.
S 2/08 - The Iron Maidens @ Beachland Ballroom. I have a bunch of friends going, and I may join them. Because Maiden is pretty much always awesome.
Su 2/09 - CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band @ Beachland Ballroom. All the Louisiana bands come through in the run up to Mardis Gras. He's better than most of them.
W 2/12 - Sunny Sweeney @ Beachland Ballroom. Country singer-songwriter.
W 2/12 - Film screening: Amazing Grace @ Rock Hall. The live footage of the recording of Aretha's legendary gospel album. I saw this movie last year and it is incredible.
W 2/12 - John Doe, Kristin Hersh & Grant Lee-Phillips @ MBCH. I'm out of town, alas.
S 2/15 - Slave @ Akron Civic. 70s funk from Dayton.
Su 2/16 - The Family Crest @ Beachland Tavern. Weird looking pop.
R 2/18 - Emily Wolfe @ Beachland Tavern. Austin singer-songwriter.
2/20-2/23 The Cleveland Orchesrtra @ Severance Hall. Featuring my friend Dashon singing on the debut of a new piece by Michael Tilson Thomas, who will be there to conduct. I'll be there on F 2/21.
F 2/21 - Jill Scott @ Rocksino. Man, if we didn't already have tickets to the orchestra.
S 2/22 - MC Lars @ Mahall's. Nerdcore.
M 2/24 - FretX @ Transformer Station. Contemporary guitar duo.
T 2/25 - Academy of St Martin in the Fields w/Joshua Bell @ EJ Thomas. I believe Bell is their music director now. Paganini’s Violin Concert No. 1, Op. 6, plus Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98.
W 2/26 - Film screening: Chuck Berry @ Rock Hall. New documentary. Hey Chuck, Listen to this!
W 2/26 - Fatoumata Diawara @ CMA Gartner. Malian musician.
W 2/26 - Bambara @ Beachland Tavern. Post-punk. Or so they say. Labels are hard.
R 2/27 - We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Grog Shop. My favorite Scottish band, probably. First two albums were killer.
F 2/28 - Fred Eaglesmith w/Tif Ginn @ Beachland Tavern. One of my perennial favorites, although it's been a few years since I saw him.
S 2/29 - Cyrille Aimee @ Nighttown. Two shows! One of my favorite jazz singers!
March
Su 3/01 - Radical Face @ Beachland Ballroom. Indie rock, confessional in nature.
R 3/05 - Geoff Tate @ Beachland Ballroom. Queensryche, playing two albums all the way through. But not the one I know (I'm not a huge Queensryche fan, so you can probably guess which one it is).
F 3/06 - back to BACK TO BLACK: Amy Winehouse Tribute featuring Remember Jones + a 12-Piece Orchestra @ MBCH. As close as you can get to Amy Winehouse now, alas.
S 3/07 - The Cleveland Orchestra @ Severance Hall. Mendelssohn, I believe. His music, I mean, not his desiccated corpse.
S 3/07 - New Bomb Turks w/Chargers Street Gang @ Beachland Ballroom. Cleveland punks reunite.
S 3/07 - Thornetta Davis @ MBSC. She's covering Aretha. She's probably be better served doing her own stuff, but she's plenty good.
S 3/7 - 70's Soul Jam @ Wolstein Center featuring The Stylistics, Heatwave, The Emotions, Blue Magic and Sonny Bivins Manhattans. In other words, there are a bunch of bands I can play on my show here.
Su 3/08 - Mike Tyson @ Rocksino. No, really. Doing his one man show.
Su 3/08 - Of Montreal @ Beachland Ballroom. Reliably weird indie rock. I saw them nearly 15 years ago or so, and they're still chugging away.
T 3/10 - Theo Katzman @ Beachland Ballroom. Weird rock and roll solo thing. Might be worth listening.
W 3/11 - Squirrel Nut Zippers @ Beachland Ballroom. 25th anniversary tour. Oy.
3/11-3/15 - CityMusic Cleveland at various locations.
W 3/12 - Lauryn Hill @ Rocksino. One amazing album.
S 3/14 - Robert Cray @ Kent Stage. Long-time popular blues artist.
S 3/14 - Berta Rojas @ Plymouth Church of Shaker Heights. Paraguayan classical guitarist.
T 3/17 - Dragonforce @ Agora Theatre. Power metal.
S 3/21 - Erykah Badu w/Talib Kweli @ Wolstein Center. M got me tickets for my birthday!
Su 3/22 - Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone @ Akron Civic. Confession: I really like Herman's Hermits. I mean, not enough to see them at these prices.
W 3/25 - Bob Mould @ Kent Stage. His recent run of albums is frankly as good as any equivalent run by Husker Du, if less ground breaking.
W 3/25 - Bowie Alumni Play Diamond Dogs & Ziggy Stardust @ Agora Theatre. Bowie's band soldiers on.
W 3/25 - Film screening: The Sound of My Voice @ Rock Hall. Linda Ronstadt doc.
R 3/26 - Anti-Flag @ Grog. Pittsburgh punk.
F 3/27 - Aleksandra Vrebalov @ CMA Ames. Free. Serbian-born composer has a new work debut in the atrium.
S 3/28 & Su 3/29 - Pussy Riot @ Grog Shop (first night) and Beachland Ballroom (second night). Vladimir Putin's least favorite punk band, straight from Russia.
Su 3/29 - That 1 Guy @ Beachland Tavern. I've always been intrigued. Maybe this is the time!
Su 3/29 - Murder By Death @ Grog Shop. Favorite of my former co-host Colleen.
Su 3/29 - Alejandro Escovedo @ MBCH. His last album was a return to form.
April
S 4/04 - The Whispers, Jeffrey Osborne, the Dramatics featuring LJ Reynolds @ PSQ. More bands for my show.
S 4/04 - Straight No Chaser @ Rocksino. Finally, a non-holiday show.
M 4/06 - Subhumans @ Grog Shop. UK Punk.
W 4/08 - Zakir Hussain @ CMA Gartner. Indian classical music.
T 4/14 - Lily Hiatt @ Beachland Tavern. Nashville based singer-songwriter.
F 4/17 - Dixon's Violin @ Beachland Tavern. One man, a violin and a loop pedal. Have I mentioned I enjoy weird things?
F 4/17 - Los Lobos @ MBCH. So expensive. So good.
Su 4/19 - Prince Royce @ Agora Theatre. Bachata artist who apparently is really successful. Go figure.
Su 4/26 - Nicole Keller @ CMA Gartner. Free afternoon organ concert.
W 4/29 - Alison Krauss @ PSQ. I really liked Union Station.
May
S 5/02 - The Beths @ Grog Shop (Beachland sponsored). Indie Rock from New Zealand. Great both times I saw them.
R 5/07 - Gladys Knight @ Rocksino. Not cheap, but still Motown.
S 5/09 - Here Come the Mummies @ HOB. Mummy-themed funk.
57-5/10 - CityMusic Cleveland at various locations.
T 5/12 - Fu Manchu @ Grog Shop. Hard rock. I'm probably not cool enough to go :-)
T 5/12 & W 5/13 - TMBG @ Beachland Ballroom. Two SOLD OUT shows for the 30th anniversary of Flood. I went to the 20th anniversary tour, so yeah, I feel old.
R 5/14 & F 5/15 - Todd Rundgren @ Rocksino. Hi Gaela!
R 5/14 - Whose Live Anyway? @ Akron Civic. M loves Whose Line Is It Anyway?
W 5/20 - Tanya Tucker @ HOB. Country legend.
F 5/22 - Bikini Kill @ Agora Theatre. The original riot grrls, or at least one of the most important.
Su 5/31 - AJJ w/Xiu Xiu @ Grog Shop. One of my favorite punk things.
June and Beyond
Su 6/21 - Halsey @ Blossom. Someone whose musical taste I respect likes her, and as such if cheap tickets arise perhaps I'll go for it.
6/25 - 6/27 - Tri-C JazzFest @ PSQ. Lineup to be announced.
T 6/30 - Journey w/The Pretenders @ Blossom. I don't think I've seen Journey. That might be a good "get the friends together for a terrible band" show.
T 7/23 - Alanis Morissette w/Garbage & Liz Phair @ Blossom. That's a solid "if I get cheap tickets" show.
Here's the venue list in no particular order:
Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
Grog Shop
Wolstein Center
HOB
Kent Stage
Agora Theater & Ballroom
Rockert Mortgage FieldHouse
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 has been rebranded to MGM Northfield. I'm still calling it 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