BoomBox really delivered on their promise of dance. These guys funked up the night with their dance, house jams, which were only complimented by the Beachland Ballroom’s disco ball. Check it out below!
Opening the night was Cleveland’s own Uncle Gnarly, who was a great compliment to BoomBox, with his mostly electronic sound, but occasionally bringing in a saxophone or what looked like a digital clarinet! Would totally see him again.
I’m not quite sure where this nu disco / fun / jam band came from (technically from Alabama), but I’ve really been enjoying all their music lately. The danceable elements are what really captures me. This should be a great show!
"The band is known for not using setlists, instead improvising and changing their set's direction based on the crowd's energy. According to NUVO, "BoomBox plays a unique blend of psychedelic rock and electronica," and also incorporates elements of funk, soul, R&B, and... This channel was generated automatically by YouTube's video discovery system."
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy95iVVkZe4RkZmyz4icgQA/about)
After several albums, I was able to catch Sinkane in Cleveland! He’s always had this great pop, funk, soul, rock sound that really translated well live. What a fun show!
Opening was Red Rose Panic and Uptowne Buddah. Both enjoyable in their own right.
I was able to take a trip to Denver this Summer, and of course I had to catch a couple shows. Seeing this Luke the Knife (Lotus) show was a true party - and Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox is such a great space as well!
Tomorrow night is going to be a PARTY. It was the last time that !!! (chk chk chk) came to the Beachland Tavern, and I’m expecting more of the same tomorrow night. Their new album is superb, and you should be ready to dance!
Also - if !!! is a bit much for your taste, you can slow things down with The Black Lillies show in the Ballroom - great americana/country music.
I can’t imagine a more disparate night of musical experiences - so I’m purposely grouping them. In looking for something to do Friday night, I stumbled up on this DJ event over on the West Side called kallocain. Knowing that was going to start late, we decided to meet some friends over at Brothers Lounge to catch Get on UP who “is Akron’s new Funk Authority playing all 70’s and 80’s funk covers." It was… interesting. I was reminded who cool of a venue that Brothers Lounge can be - and I was surprised at how full it was for this band! If only the Beachland could get crowds like this for some of their amazing, original music.
Next we headed over to the DJ event. Here’s the lineup for this “night of dystopian sound + vision” - which was presented by the Bent Crayon:
regis - downwards - uk veronica vasicka - minimal wave - nyc talker/stave - downwards/fss - chi prostitutes - mira/diagonal - cle visuals: jeremy bible - experimedia
I have no idea which DJ’s we saw - but I can say it was an awesome night of non-stop dancing on some west side warehouse / studio.
So in case you've been in a cave, the Rock Hall Induction happened this weekend. One of the major festivities leading up to the big night was this free show with George Clinton and Kid Cudi at Quicken Loans Arena. Sure, I'll go. I can dig George, and I've liked Kid. We got there early and got good nose-bleed seats (seriously). We watched Kids These Days open, which was a group of teens playing some crazy funk, rap, jazz fusion. George was up next, but I wouldn't recommend your first experience with him being at a place like the Q. So much of the party atmosphere is lost through bad sound and a video screen display. Next was Kid Cudi. I was a huge supporter of him early on, but he's since lost me with the WRZD release. Terrible. He opened with the two worse songs from that album, but we hung around and he ended up putting on a decent show.
Overall, I was thrilled to be part of this ceremony psych-up. Seeing Cleveland light up like this was a thrill. This night was more about that than being at a good concert (which is hard to have at the Q).
Here's what it looked like:
