Mark Farina DJing at the Winchester Music Tavern in Lakewood, OH
Friday, November 26, 2021
Mark Farina (11/26/21)
Friday, November 19, 2021
Shubh Saran (11/19/21)
Sunday, November 14, 2021
Cleveland Orchestra / Sheku Kanneh-Mason (11/4/21)
While I work right next to Severance Hall, its beauty always delights when I’m able to go inside for a performance - and it’s been quite awhile. The Cleveland Orchestra, along with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, performed Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor, Elgar’s Cello Concert in E minor, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6 in D major. However i’ll let those over at Bachtrack do the a proper review… but here was my favorite part of his performance:
"As an encore, Kanneh-Mason played his own wistful arrangement of the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble’s Mazltov Far Di Mekhutonim, which showed off the performer’s talent for whistling, self-accompanied on cello. It was haunting. Kanneh-Mason is supremely talented, with the promise of a very successful career, and he had a rapturous reception here in Cleveland."
(Via Sheku Kanneh-Mason makes highly successful debut with The Cleveland Orchestra | Bachtrack.)
Dead Horses (10/25/21)
At the Hocking Hills Music Festival, the Dead Horses announced that they’d be performing at the Kent Stage in the coming weeks, and this was that show! While they technically opened for Sierra Hull, I was only there to see Dead Horses again. I can attest they are just as good performing in a theater as they are at at a festival.
My friend Tim liked them so much, he just had to tell them how much. :-)
The Felice Brothers (10/22/21)
After hearing their names bandied about for years, I was finally able to catch The Felice Brothers - at the Happy Dog of all places! Alright! This group is definitely a party band, and quite appropriate for the Happy Dog / Cleveland crowd this night - they were a blast!
Michigander / Spirit of the Bear (10/15/21)
This was more of a regional group of artists performing at the Grog Shop, with HALLIE from Cleveland, Spirit of the Bear from Youngstown, and Michigander from, well, Michigan. I’ve been liking the newest Spirit of the Bear album, and they were probably the highlight of the night. Michigander has quite the catalog and seems well established. HALLIE was a rock star on stage, and is just looking for her audience.
Lucy Dacus (10/14/21)
Both Lucy Dacus and Bartees Strange have been getting a lot of love lately, and for good reason. It was an exciting night to have these two artists performing on the same bill - at the Beachland Ballroom! This was a “masks required” show and everyone seemed happy to do their part, as one would expect from a Lucy Dacus show. Check out the show and their performances!
Dar Williams (10/12/21)
Kent Stage has been killing with the female folksingers this Fall! First Ani DiFranco, and then this Dar Williams show, and I even had to miss the Patty Griffin show! It’s been a treat, and quite grounding and nostalgic as I’m making way through this pandemic fog. I almost missed the opener, Crys Matthews, but thankfully caught a clip of her performance! Dar was delightful as always, and she even covered Cathedrals by Jump, Little Children (who’s guitarist had joined Dar on tour!). It’s on the video.
Saturday, November 13, 2021
Hocking Hills Music Festival 2021
While it was sad that Nelsonville Music Festival didn’t happen again this year, a brand new festival was created through a collaboration between the folks at Nelsonville and at Duck Creek - the Hocking Hills Music Festival!! Got together with a couple of my Nelsonville Festival friends and we had the BEST time at this little inaugural camping festival. What really hooked me was that Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange), Dead Horses, and Sunny War would all be performing! Complimenting their performances were Cedric Burnside, Del McCoury Band, Hocking River String Band, The Brothers Comatose and the Rebirth Brass Band - among others! I’ve posted the ENTIRE Hocking Hills Music Festival photo album here on Flickr, but below are some of my favorites. I’ve also spent a little extra time to create a montage video, then created separate videos for some of the best performances! I know they announced that Nelsonville will be coming back next year (in a new location!) but I really hope this little Fall folk festival in the hills stays around.
Caveman (10/7/21)
Caveman was a fixture here on TZA in 2012 and 2103 with their first two albums coming out in consecutive years, seeing them 3 times. Then it was another three, and then six years until they released this year’s new album, Smash. It was such a good album that I purposely postponed my trip to the Hocking Hills Music Festival by a day to catch them live (again!). It was a motley crew of openers, which included Liily and Caroline Kingsbury. Liily came out the gate with one of the most aggressive and enjoyable opening performances I’ve seen in awhile! Bam! Next up was Caroline Kingsbury, who felt like she was taking a new twist on the 80’s female rockers (think Cyndi Lauper / Pat Benatar!). Caveman just capped off the night with a great show, showing all their albums some love.
Courtney Marie Andrews / The Brother Brothers (9/30/21)
It was really The Brother Brothers who brought me to Courtney Marie Andrews. Having caught these guys at a previous Nelsonville Music Festival, I was thrilled to see them making their way to Beachland’s Ballroom! I really enjoyed diving in and spending a bit more time with their new album, and then really enjoying a LOT of what I hear from Courtney Marie Andrews! Both were superb on this tour, and it was a great bonus to see The Brother Brothers doing double-duty as Courtney’s back up band as well! Check out when one of them shreds the mandolin with his teeth (?) during one of her performances in the video! Courtney Marie Andrews was just delightful, as you can probably tell from the amount of footage I recorded. Her most recent album really struck a chord with me.
Torres (9/13/21)
This Torres show felt like it was the true real re-opening of Beachland’s Tavern, this time including the kitchen! I couldn’t have been happier to arrive when the doors opened and to grab a seat at the bar and nestle in for the night. Torres was just delightful. If you weren’t already familiar with her music, I guess you could put her near St. Vincent on the pop/rock spectrum. I like her forward and bold approach to creating and performing. There was also a great crowd, and only a few creepers (which I’m sure St. Vincent also has to deal with). Also, the woman can rock out, and you can catch some of her bad-ass guitar licks in the video!
Opening was Ariana and the Rose.
Friday, November 12, 2021
Video Day #tzaupbeat
Moon Boots just makes you wanna dance with their new video for Come To Me. Caribou released this dog-tastic video for You Can Do it! Charli XCX turns the sexiness up to 10 with her video for Good Ones.
Bonus: This Troye Sivan video of STUD has what you’d expect, STUDS.
Indigo Girls (9/9/21)
Speaking of nostalgia coming off seeing Alanis Morissette & Garbage, the very next night I’m getting to see Indigo Girls close by at Cain Park! The bonus was that they brought Lucy Wainwright Roche along as part of the band, and she even got a couple songs on her own on stage!
Alanis Morissette (9/8/21)
When some friends have an extra ticket to see Alanis Morissette & Garbage down at Blossom Music Center - you take it! Nostalgia galore. Quite the crowd too!
Breakaway Music Festival 2021
This is generally not my type of festival, but I couldn’t have been more excited to see that Channel Tres had a headlining DJ set! There’s quite a story around my actual getting to the festival (via bicycle), but that’ll remain an offline story if you ever want to ask. Otherwise, it was a gorgeous day to have a festival and it was just fun to be outside with people. At least for the first day. (The second day rained and we ended up bailing and hanging out with drag queens in the Short North!)
I’ve also captured 2 videos, the first being a collections of clips from the festival, but I created a separate video just for the Channel Tres clips. I had also found out that day that he was having an after party at The Forum in downtown Columbus that night (!) so I included a clip from that as well. I can’t wait to catch him again!