CMA Summer Soltice
2018-06-23 20:00 - 2018-06-24 01:00 UTC | Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
Celebrate the long summer days and hot summer nights with WRUW at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s tenth annual Solstice 2018 broadcasted live from the CMA on Saturday June 23rd beginning around 8 pm — right here on WRUW-FM.Join us for a night where art and music come together.Starting at 8 pm it’s four fabulous women from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and the US – LadamaAt 9:15 it’s Ravid Kahalani’s Yemen BluesThen at 10:30pm Miho Hatori’s New OptimismClosing out the show – near midnight (11:50pm) Afro-Canadian singer-songwriter Pierre KwendersThe concert is sold out but you can enjoy this world music event with us on 91.1 FM

Waterloo Arts Fest
2018-06-30 12:00 - 18:30 UTC | Blue Arrow Records, 16001 Waterloo Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44110, United States
Come down to this year’s Waterloo Arts Fest.

We will have WRUW freebies available at Blue Arrow Records where Ed from Chasing Infinity will be DJing. Our Brand new Live From Cleveland T-shirts will be there on sale for purchase as well.

Here is the line-up of DJ’s:

12:00pm to 2:00pm – Chris and Heidi Kulsar2:00pm to 4:00pm – Ed from WRUW’s Chasing Infinity
4:00pm to 6:00pm – Stanislav Zabic 4-6

City Stages - Sidi Touré
2018-07-18 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Transformer Station, 2811 Church Ave, Clevland, OH, 44113, United States
We will be broadcasting the Cleveland Museum of Art’s City Stages concert of Sidi Touré from the Transformer Station in Ohio City.

A highly acclaimed practitioner of Songhai music whose band features the most exciting new faces on the Malian music scene, Sidi Touré makes music driven by the energy and groove of the rhythms—a danceable, dynamic, trance music overflowing with joy and carried by the beauty of Sidi’s voice.

CMA City Stages: Gili Yalo
2018-09-07 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
Combining Ethiopian roots music with a modern touch of jazz and soul, Tel Aviv-based Gili Yalo incorporates traditional sound into the music of right now. Yalo’s family was part of the migration to Israel of Ethiopian Jews fleeing famine in Sudan; the music encouraged Gili and his family to keep moving forward in this exhausting, emotional journey.

Studio-A-Rama 2018
2018-10-13 14:00 - 23:00 UTC | MOCA Cleveland, 11400 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44114, United States
Studio-A-Rama 2018 will take place during Case Western Reserve University’s Homecoming Weekend on Saturday, October 13th, outside of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, MOCA, in University Circle’s Uptown Cleveland District.
Lucy Dacus will be this year’s national headliner, sharing the stage with special guest: Land of Talk.
The music and fun will all start at 2 PM, and our special guest, Land of Talk will take the stage starting at 8:30 PM
A cash bar and food trucks will be on site throughout the day.
This year’s lineup also features the following bands from Cleveland’s local music scene:
Key To The Mint
Biitchseat
Kid Tested
Punch Drunk Tagalongs
Oregon Space Trail of Doom
Actual Form
Niights
Paranoid Lovesick
Land of Talk
Lucy Dacus

Read more about Lucy Dacus her: https://www.paradigmagency.com/music/artists/lucy-dacus/

Live from Lakewood 5
2019-03-21 20:00 - 2019-03-22 00:00 (America/New_York) | Mahall’s 20 Lanes, 13200 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, OH, 44107, United States
We’re back again for the 5th Annual Live From Lakewood!
Presented by Live From Cleveland & WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, all proceeds benefit college radio!
Purchase tickets in advance at https://mahalls20lanes.ticketfly.com/event/1836842-shagg-lakewood/
Can’t make it to the show? We’ll be broadcasting it like over the airwaves and on wruw.org
Featuring:
Shagg- Fast & fierce leather mommy
https://qualitytimerecords.bandcamp.com/album/shagg
Teamonade- Kick ass BG band that weaves in and out of arrangements similar to tUnE-yArDs, Cocteau Twins, and straight up indie rock like Palehound or Cherry Glazerr.
https://teamonade.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-your-only-warning
Young Teazer – Brand new electro-pop project from p.stoops & Chayla Hope! Their debut show!
Flipcoin- Cool as a cucumber duo playing fast, tight, power pop with vocals that sound like P!ATD and The Ramones had a baby. Some songs even remind us of AJJ or The Cure.
https://flipcoin.bandcamp.com/

Dyngus Day Celebration
2019-04-22 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Detroit Ave, 5800 Detroit Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44102, United States
Join WRUW as we once again bring the Dyngus Day celebration to you live from the corner of W 58th and Detroit. Dr. Polka and ATM from Polka Changed My Life Today will be there spinning polkas both live in person and over the airwaves.

Premium Pick-Up Party
2019-05-04 12:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | jolly sholar, 11111 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
We will be hosting a Premium Pick-up Party where you can come to the Case Western Reserve University campus, pick up your thank-you gifts, meet WRUW DJs, tour the station, and receive free food and a drink on us (if you made a $25 or greater donation in 2019).
Who: WRUW Staff, Donors, and Friends
What: Party to pick-up premiums, meet staff members, tour the station, eat drink and be merry!
Where: Thwing Atrium, The Jolly Scholar, WRUW (11111 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, Ohio 44106)
When: Saturday, May 4th 12pm-6pm
Why: We want to meet our awesome donors, and show off the station!!

If you cannot make the pick-up party, your premium will be mailed to you as was done in the past.

Street parking is available along Bellflower Road and East Ave (free on weekends), and garage parking is available in Lot 29 ($2.00/hour).

Any questions can be sent to telethon@wruw.org.

Studio A Rama 2019
2019-09-07 14:30 - 2019-09-08 00:00 (America/New_York) | Mather Memorial Courtyard, 11220 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
It’s the Return to Mather Memorial Courtyard: One day + 11 bands + 9 hours of music = FREE for the community!
Starting at 2 PM come check out…
King Buu
cotton ponys
Extra Medium Pony
SLUG FEST
Leaf Borbie & The Family Tree
Xanny Stars
Time Cat
The Beyonderers
With our “Ohio Heritage” Band Electric Citizen from Cincinnati!
Special Guests Surfer Blood!!!
+ Headliner… Post Animal!
Beer will be available on site for those 21+ to purchase from the Jolly Scholar, brewed right here on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. Food trucks will be on site including Touch Supper Club and MORE.
Spend the day in University Circle, bring a picnic and your own beverages, but please leave glass bottles and containers at home.
Thank you for your ongoing support of WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland and college radio, let’s party! Artwork by Kevin Rodriguez.

Live from Cleveland Halloween Blues and Costume Night
2019-10-31 20:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | Brothers Lounge, 11609 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, OH, United States
Attention Earth beings, your bodily attendance at the 2019 Live from Cleveland Halloween Blues and Costume night is hereby formally requested.
Join WRUW FM as we broadcast a special live remote broadcast from Brother’s Lounge Halloween night, Thursday October 31st.
The show starts at 8PM in the treacherous concert hall, and features the Bad Boys of Blues, we are broadcasting it live on 91.1 FM in Cleveland and worldwide at www.wruw.org. The FREE event is open to those 21 years of age or older and happens at The Brother’s Lounge 11609 Detroit Ave. Cleveland, OH 44102.
Dress as a Blues Brother [creative costumes encouraged!] and receive a special gift!

WRUW-FM presents The Blue Stones w/ JJ Wilde and The Dead Licks
2020-02-22 19:00 - 23:30 (America/New_York) | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
Come celebrate WRUW’s 53rd birthday at the Grog Shop and B-Side Lounge! Starting at 7:00, there will be a free pre-party at the B-Side featuring free pizza, drink specials, and more. Then at 8:30, come join us in the Grog Shop for The Blue Stones with JJ Wilde and The Dead Licks.

Not having a third member to fill another rhythm role, the Windsor, Ontario based duo developed an original characteristic to the sounds of the bands that influenced them, such as Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket, MUTEMATH and The Black Keys. “We never had a bass player in our early jams, so we subconsciously compensated for one in the music,” says guitarist/vocalist Tarek Jafar.
Apparently it’s worked, the group has reached top-level sales on the popular Bandcamp.com as well as garnering over one million spins on Spotify. The duo’s music has also been featured numerous times on major network television shows such as Suits, Parks and Rec and Monday Night Football .
More importantly, crowds across Canada and hometown-neighbouring Detroit, MI have been stunned by the energy and force behind their loud, dominant live performances—especially for just two dapper guys. The Blue Stones create a killer hi/lo effect; contrasting their slick and put together look with their rough and rollicking live show. Heart, soul and sweat characterize every Blue Stones spectacle – you can’t help but be pulled in from the moment the first note is played.
The two are elated to have played with premiere acts and in national festivals; however, they’d like to achieve an even greater reach to bigger audiences around all of North America and the world. “We love this too much to keep it hid in southwestern Ontario.”

Telethon
2021-04-05 - 2021-04-11 | OH
Telethon is back this year after taking a year hiatus. Check out this year’s merch and donate at telethon.wruw.org

Beatmatrix Telethon 2021
2021-04-05 21:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
It’s the beginning of the week, in an all new month and we hope that everyone is doing well and staying safe and sound!!! The Home Edition of Beatmatrix continues tonight with…WRUW Annual Telethon 2021!!!

Yes it’s that the time of the year where there will be no guest mix for tonight’s show, but there will be two hours of some of the best Electronic music tracks that we have to offer! This is the only time during the year where your dollars will make a difference(along with some cool gifts & music that you’ll get for every donation)! Shows like ours, Darewaves, What You Need, Erie Effusion and other wonderful shows that you listen to for your music genre pleasure on WRUW reach out to the local and surrounding communities in this area & throughout the country and we need your help now more than ever!

With a pledge, your dollars will help with the upkeep of WRUW, allow the station to purchase new equipment to improve our studios, help strengthen things like the bandwidth of our archived shows(that are always free to download but the sound quality has continued to be elusive to say the least) and continue to build up our already vast catalog of cutting edge music that you demand for us to play!

None of the money goes into our pockets, cause WRUW has been all volunteer & community driven for over 50 years now! Who says that people in Cleveland have no passion, determination or drive? We here at Beatmatrix continue to provide the latest, classic and regional tracks that spotlights talent here in our own backyard! Beatmatrix crew have done our best to motivate and inspire you to dance and support your local scene week after week for 18 years now! Tune in tonight and show that you support what we and the rest of the staff on WRUW does for you!

Beatmatrix show…What?!? You can donate anytime this week Feel free and support community/collage radio waves for a place to freely play non playlist music!!! Thanks for the support over the years, especially during 2020, to which we delivered to you 24/7/365…we this year will continue to keep you safe & sound!

Catch the Beat Matrix on 91.1FM WRUW in the Cleveland area Mondays from 9:00 PM thru 11:00 PM EST, stream live on your mobile devices via Tune In app or listen to the live stream & Thank You for all donations!!!!

Telethon
2022-03-21 - 2022-03-27 | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
It’s that time of year again!
WRUW will be holding its one-week on-air fundraiser (telethon) Monday March 21 to Sunday March 27.
We hope to raise $91,100 this year to help improve our signal. Our transmitter is 20 years old and needs to be replaced, a five-figure bill.

We have a new donation option this year, an endowment. Funds here are administered through the University and are set to keep us going far into the future.

We are encouraging all to donate online at telethon.wruw.org/ (the page is open for donations now). Daytime shows will also accept donations at 216-368-2208.

Our telethon home page has a list (with pictures!) of the thank-you premiums we are offering this year.

Premium Pick-up Party
2022-05-14 12:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Jolly Scholar, 11111 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
Returning this year is the 2 nd Annual Telethon Pick-up Party!
Donors will be invited to the “Thank You” party on Saturday, May 14th from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. located at The Jolly Scholar (11111
Euclid Ave.) where they can pick up their thank-you gifts, meet WRUW DJs, and partake in free appetizers and refreshments. If you cannot make the pick-up party, your premium will be mailed to you as per usual.

Telethon 2023
2023-04-10 - 2023-04-16 | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
It’s the most wonderful time of the year here at WRUW—Telethon!
This year, we’re hoping to keep up our amazing high donation streak, with a goal of $91,100 in total donations. (Get it? 91.1 thousand?) These funds will allow us to keep growing as a station (both in terms of music owned and air quality). We’re also hoping to raise enough to finally get our 30-year-old transmitter that was built with a 15-year lifespan replaced—while we won’t be upgrading our wattage, our potential future existence will get a lot longer! Another way to make an investment in securing WRUW as part of the Cleveland airscape for years to come is to give part or all of your donation to the endowment. We need $25,000 in this endowment before it will be officially be put away by the University, offering us a bit of a safety net in case of any future financial catastrophe and showing the administration just how much we all value this station.
Of course, to reach that goal, we’ll need lots of support from our listeners (that’s you!). And as usual, there are plenty of old and new premiums available as a thanks for giving. You can check those premiums out at the very same place you can donate: telethon.wruw.org. If you prefer to keep it a little less digital, you can also call in at 216.368.2208 all week long, and you can get a premium that way too. That said, we’d really appreciate if you could try to donate online—it’ll be simpler for everyone. You don’t have to read out your credit card numbers over the phone or send a check in the mail, and you entering your own address makes it a lot less likely that we’ll accidentally mix up our abbreviations and accidentally send your premium to Minnesota instead of Maine. Unfortunately, any money given into the endowment fund will not be eligible for a premium (but we encourage you to think of your expanding of the lifespan of WRUW as a premium in itself).
Thank you so much for your support—it really means the world to us!!!

Live from Dyngus Day
2024-04-01 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | OH
We’ll be broadcasting live from in from of Bater on Detroit Ave for Dyngus Day. Tune in from 2-4 to listen to our broadcast or stop by our tent as we DJ all day.

2024 Pick-Up Party
2024-05-11 13:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Jolly Scholar, 11111 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
It’s our annual Premium Pick-Up Party! Come meet your favorite station members, tour the station, and get your premiums before anyone else. Free food and a free drink (any draft beer, well drink, or milkshake) for everyone that donates at least $25. We’ll send an email to everyone who donated and of course announce it over the Cleveland airwaves. Come on down and party with your favorite college radio station in Cleveland Ohio that has the frequency 91.1 MHz. Stay tuned to WRUW for the latest updates!

What: Our fourth annual pick-up party
When: May 11, 2024 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Where: Jolly Scholar, 11111 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106
What do I get: Everyone who donated at least $25 will get a free drink ticket for a beer, well drink, milkshake, or soft drink as well as a wristband for free food, including boneless wings, pizza, and pretzel bites
Do I have to donate to attend: Nope! Though you will not receive a free drink or free food.
Can I donate there: Yes! We will have a limited number of premiums still available on site. Or you can just donate and not receive a premium.
Where can I park: Street parking (free on weekends!) is available along Bellflower Rd. and East Blvd. and garage parking is available in Lot 29 ($2.00/hour). You can also take the RTA HealthLine, which will drop you off right in front, or Red Line to Little Italy and walk a short distance.
Will there be more music and fewer hits: Yes! Some of your favorite WRUW DJ’s will be spinning tunes throughout the party
What if I can’t make it: We will begin shipping out remaining premiums the following day. You will receive an email when it ships. Keep in mind we had a very successful year and may take some time for our volunteer staff to get everything out the door.
What’s the fastest time someone has pushed an orange a mile with just their nose: In 2007, USA’s Ashrita Furman pushed an orange with his nose for one mile in 22 minutes and 41 seconds.

The Vumms on Live From Cleveland
2024-06-27 22:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
Tune into WRUW-FM 91.1 at 10 p.m. on your radio, via the live stream on our website, or watch and listen on Youtube at the link below to hear The Vumms live!
The Vumms are a Cleveland-based, 60s-influenced rock band, featuring Emilio Marriott (Bass/vox), Philippe Kogan (Guitar/vox), and Tom Middleton (Drums/vox). For more information go to https://www.thevumms.com/.

Letters To Cleo w/ ((megasound)) & Biitchseat
2024-06-29 19:00 - 23:30 (America/New_York) | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages; + $3 at the door if under 21
When Boston alt-rock band Letters To Cleo split after 10 years, 3 albums, and thousands of tour miles together, it was at the behest of a pact that singer Kay Hanley and guitarist Greg McKenna made with each other when they started the band in 1990.
“We said that we’d stop doing it when we weren’t having fun anymore.” says Hanley. “I had just had a baby, (lead guitarist) Michael Eisenstein and (drummer) Stacy Jones were recording and touring with Veruca Salt’s Nina Gordon, (bassist) Scott Riebling was crazy in demand as a record producer, and I know it was frustrating to Greg to be in the shitty position of doing all the work to try and keep the ball rolling. It felt hard all of a sudden, and I hated that feeling.”
Soul searching done and tough decisions made, Letters To Cleo called it quits. The band members moved into new careers in and out of the music business, with Hanley, Eisenstein, and Jones migrating to Los Angeles. They all remained friends and sometimes even colleagues, collaborating on a host of movie, TV, and touring projects.
Now, for the first time in 17 years, Hanley, Eisenstein, Jones, and McKenna have written and recorded five brand new songs for “The EP”, are poised to launch a Pledge Music campaign, and will play club dates in Boston, NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in the Fall. So why reunite now?
“Because we’re good and stuff”, laughs Jones. “To me, the question isn’t ‘Why are we doing this now?’, the question is, ‘Why didn’t we do it sooner and why aren’t we doing it more?’’
McKenna adds, “It’s a blast. I mean, we spent our formative years learning how to do this stuff together. When it was done, we went out and lived our lives and now everyone’s bringing their experiences back to this at a new level of musicianship, but writing with these guys still feels effortless.”
The new material reflects McKenna’s sentiment. All 5 songs are instantly recognizable Cleo concoctions that fans will devour. From Eisenstein’s fierce, angular guitars locking horns with Jones’ roaring locomotive rhythm on “Hitch A Ride” to McKenna and Hanley’s signature melodic ESP on “Good Right Here”, the Cleo bandmates are in prizefighter form.

Live From Cleveland Rewind Special: Mr. Stress
2024-07-04 17:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
On Thursday, July 17 of 2014, Bill “Mr. Stress” Miller visited WRUW and sat in on all the evening’s shows!
– 5 PM Woodchoppers Ball with Chip
– 7 PM Polka Changed My Life Today with Dr. Polka and Andrew The Mailman
– 8 PM Laying Down Tracks with Mr. JEG
– 10 PM Live From Cleveland featuring Mr. Stress backed by Cleveland’s own The Nightwalkers

This may have been the last live recording of Mr. Stress before he passed on May 19, 2015 at the age of 72. For this July 4th, WRUW-FM will be presenting an encore broadcast of that very special night, beginning at 5 PM. Tune in for “An Evening With Mr. Stress” exclusively on
WRUW FM 91.1 Cleveland which will last until 11 p.m. ET.
Bill Miller was the first baby born in Cleveland on New Years Day of 1943. Mr. Stress was an original inductee to the Cleveland Blues Society Hall Of Fame in 2009. Here’s CWRU’s entry on Mr. Stress: https://case.edu/ech/articles/m/miller-bill-mr-stress

The Spits w/ The Hell
2024-07-06 20:00 - 23:30 (America/New_York) | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
Doors 8 p.m. | Show 9 p.m.
All Ages; + $3 at the door day of show
In an era that relies so heavily on quick-hit bands, there are very few things that are truly part of the subculture and not just the passing zeitgeist du jour. Closing in on three decades, The Spits have signified the crossroads between punk mayhem and well-honed songwriting, creating some of the most unhinged and anthemic tracks in underground music while standing tall enough to be uttered in the same breath as names like Jay Reatard, Dead Moon, Ty Segall and more.
The Spits are readying their highly anticipated VI, due May 1 via their own Thriftstore Records imprint. Recorded by Erik Nervous on cassette four track, the band’s new LP VI is ten hummable tracks, shrouded in chainsaw punk that mesh the wild showmanship of party-rock legends Van Halen and the leather-clad toughness and songwriting chops of the Misfits. Marking a “return to roots’’ approach for the LP, the band decided to record and write VI in the basements of Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Michigan over the course of several spurts of activity, each yielding a few new songs from a terrible drum kit with a literal thrift store guitar. “We’ve only been into an actual studio like three times,” admits Sean Wood. “I don’t think we’ve had one record that was recorded all in one place, this may be the closest thing. And for these songs we’d record a couple tracks, step away and go back at it later– sometimes weeks later. You know, take our time.”

Mates of State w/ Al Menne
2024-07-14 19:00 - 23:30 (America/New_York) | Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, OH, 44110, United States
“Still The One Tour”
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages
Mates of State, the iconic indie band featuring married couple Jason and Kori, today announce a 17-show tour for this summer 2024 in conjunction with going back into the studio to record all new songs.
Mates garnered a rabid following beginning in 1998 and toured nearly non-stop for 15 years, performing all over the world including runs with NPR’s This American Life, The Postal Service, The Strokes, Jimmy Eat World, Santigold and Death Cab for Cutie. They’ve also been seen on David Letterman, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Conan O’Brien, and Yo Gabba Gabba.
Since 2000, Mates’ have released 7 full length albums (on labels including Barsuk and Polyvinyl) while simultaneously starting a family of 3 daughters(!) who travelled the world with them on tour. The Mates’ paused touring for a minute to “give their girls a bit of an anchor through their teenage years”, while continuing to write and explore to find their next musical phase. This new direction is coming to light and Mates are hitting the road hard with 17 shows in 17 days, no days off.
They also are currently recording a full-length album with long-time collaborator, producer Peter Katis, at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT.

City Stages 2024: Wesli
2024-07-17 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Transformer Station, 2811 Church Ave, Clevland, OH, 44113, United States
City Stages, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s acclaimed free outdoor summer concert series featuring the best in global music, returns to Hingetown with three dynamic performances in July. These block parties take place in front of Transformer Station. Each begins at 7:30 p.m.
Born Wesley Louissaint in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wesli is a prolific songwriter, guitarist, and producer. Uniting a large cross section of Montreal talent, his music links Haitian voudou and rara with roots, Afrobeat, and hip-hop. Since being crowned with the Révélation Radio-Canada award for 2009–2010, Wesli has gone on to win the Babel Med Music Award (2010), SOCAN’s Hagood Hardy Award (2016), an award from the Académie Charles Cros (2019), a Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year (2019), a Félix Award for World Music Album of the Year (2019), and a Canadian Folk Music Award for World Solo Artist of the Year (2020). He has toured across North America, Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, and Europe and participated in WOMEX, Mundial Montréal, and Cape Verde’s Atlantic Music Expo. For his Cleveland debut, he is performing as part of a six-piece party band.
Seating is limited—bring camp chairs and enjoy an evening of music and dancing in the street. Free parking is available in the Lutheran Hospital lot located at West 28th Street and Franklin Boulevard. Transformer Station is located at 1460 West 29th Street (at the corner of Church Avenue), Cleveland, OH 44113. Transformer Station remains open until 9:00 p.m. during City Stages.

The Claudettes
2024-07-18 17:30 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | Music Box Supper Club, 1148 Main Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, 44113, United States
Doors 5:30 p.m. | Show 7:30 p.m.
All Ages

“Rich, layered…the execution is sophisticated, suggesting a band bashing out 1960s pop after hours at a dive bar, sometimes so thoroughly connecting with the lateness of the hour that they drift into dream-pop. Even if there are some shimmering, ethereal touches, the hard-swinging piano of chief songwriter Johnny Iguana and the sweet, steely purity of vocalist Berit Ulseth give the Claudettes an earthy, human hook.” –Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic
Grounded in blues and jazz yet pushing the boundaries of rock, the Claudettes are writing the most riveting chapter of their story now. With six albums on Forty Below Records and Yellow Dog Records, the Claudettes have earned international acclaim for their piano-powered “garage cabaret” sound featuring Rachel Williams (vocals), Johnny Iguana (piano, vocals, songwriting), Zach Verdoorn (bass, guitar, vocals) and Michael Caskey (drums). Outside the Claudettes, Iguana has earned Blues Music Award and Living Blues Award nominations, toured with Junior Wells and Otis Rush, played on three Grammy-nominated releases and recorded with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Derek Trucks, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and more. Johnny is also composer of the score for the Emmy-winning, smash-hit FX/Hulu series The Bear.

Mad Daddy! A Celebration of How Cleveland Changed Rock Radio
2024-07-24 17:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
On the Wednesday, July 24 edition of “Dare Waves”, Neal and his sometimes radio side-kick Reverend Comrade X will air an interview with Mike Olszewski, author of the new book “Mad Daddy – Myers, Mintz, and the Moondog and how Cleveland Ohio changed Rock Radio”. In addition to the interview, Dare Waves will air radio bits from The Mad Daddy, and music from The Cramps, Andre WIlliams, Screaming Jay Hawkins, and more.

The interview will air before the event “Mad Daddy! A Celebration of how Cleveland changed Rock Radio” which takes place on Saturday July 27 at 2PM, at the Music Box Supper Club. This event is FREE and open to the public.

Hosted by Mike and Janice Olszewski (with special guests), the event tells the story of Pete Myers and his on-air persona, the Mad Daddy, a legendary 50’s Cleveland radio DJ. Pete Myers “The Mad Daddy.” was a Northeast Ohio radio legend thrilling Cleveland and Akron audiences with a rapid-fire delivery over early rock and roll. Born from the pages of Mad magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and his own twisted humor, The Mad Daddy gave his legion of followers a whole new way to communicate and helped define the power and influence of the youth culture that emerged in Cleveland in the 1950s.

The Felice Brothers
2024-07-25 19:00 - 23:30 (America/New_York) | OH
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages; + $3 at the door if under 21

The Felice Brothers first emerged from the Hudson Valley nearly two decades ago with a gloriously ramshackle sound that drew on everything from Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan to Walt Whitman and Flannery O’Connor. In just a few short years, the group went from busking in the subway to playing Radio City Music Hall with Bright Eyes and appearing everywhere from the Newport Folk Festival to Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble. Beginning with 2007’s Tonight At The Arizona, the band helped pave the way for the modern folk revival, while at the same time challenging its boundaries and conventions with bold sonic experimentation and unyielding integrity. The New York Times likened their music to “the rootsy mysticism of the Band,” while Rolling Stone praised the “scrappiness” of their “folk-rock noir,” and The Guardian hailed their songs as “impeccably crafted, with literary-minded lyrics that are both playful and profound.”
The band’s newest record, Valley of Abandoned Songs, marks The Felice Brothers’ debut for Conor Oberst’s new Million Stars label and showcases the group at their most intimate and unvarnished. Balancing hope and despair in equal measure, the album explores the search for meaning and connection through the eyes of a wide-ranging cast of misfits and outcasts, and though the recordings here span several years of almost-lost tunes, the result is a thoroughly cohesive collection that manages to feel both utterly timeless and particularly attuned to the present all at once.

The Mountain Goats w/ Field Medic
2024-07-26 19:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | The Agora, 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44103, United States
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages

Maybe you are just like John Darnielle: In the depths of the pandemic winter at the end of 2020, the Mountain Goatsfrontman passed the time trapped at home in North Carolina watching pulpy action movies, finding comfort in familiar tropes and sofabound escapism. But you are not really like John Darnielle, unless the action movies you found comfort in included French thrillers like 2008’s Mesrine, vintage Italianpoliziotteschi,or the 1974 Donald Pleasence mad-scientist vehicle The Freakmaker. Or unless watching them brought you back to your formative days as an artist, when watching films fueled and soundtracked your songwriting jags and bare-bones home recordings and in turn inspired your 20th album to be a song cycle about the allure—and futility—of vengeance. But there’s no shame in not being like John Darnielle; few people are.“On earlier tapes you’ll find these sound samples,” Darnielle says. “‘Oh, where’s this sample from?’ It’s from whatever movie I was watching while I was sitting around on the couch with a guitar. I watch a movie, somebody’d say something that I like the sound of and I’ll write that phrase down. And then I would pause the VHS, write the song, record the song on a boombox, and go back to watching my movie. I got into doing that again; I just kept watching action movies and taking notes on what they’re about and on what the governing plots and tropes and styles are. It was very much like an immersion method acting technique.”The resulting performance is Bleed Out,a cinematic experience unto itself. One song about preparing to exact bloody revenge begat another song about the act of exacting bloody revenge and then more songs about and the causes and the aftermath of being driven to exact bloody revenge, each delivered with the urgency and desperation deserving of their narrators and circumstances.Just as Getting Into Knives and Dark in Here—recorded in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, respectively, in the first two weeks of March 2020, just before such a thing would become impossible—were heavily informed and influenced by their historic settings, Bleed Out is all pent-up energy and explosion, executed by a bunch of friends who were mainly happy to be in a room together making loud noises. In January 2021, just weeks after Darnielle had started writing, his bandmates Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster joined him at a studio in the woods near his home in Chapel Hill. Everything was finished inside a week.“We often make a record and then bring in some guests who flesh out the textures,” Darnielle says. “And for this one, it was very much like a pack mentality. That sort of seemed to proceed from the songs.” One new face was that of Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, recommended to Darnielle by his manager as a producer who could help nurture the rougher-edged sound these songs requested. “We met up and hit it off. She’s a great guitarist. It was kind of just a lark, to see what would happen, and it was totally great.”That abandon is on full display from the opening track, “Training Montage,” which lovingly documents the getting-ready-for-battle scene in any action movie regardless of provenance and loudly declares its intentions: “I’m doing this for revenge.” This and the next song, “Mark on You,” were the first two Darnielle wrote, and they set the tone for everything that follows on Bleed Out.
Running narrative themes are not new to Mountain Goats projects, especially in recent years, be it the pro wrestlers of 2015’s Beat the Champor the goths of 2017’s Goths. Darnielle was drawn to the antiheroes of the hard-boiled action flicks he was bingeing, particularly the ways in which their quests for justice were almost all inevitably doomed.“In these movies and elsewhere, it’s such a dearly held trope, when in fact, I don’t think anybody really exacts much revenge in this life at all,” he says. “Because we all know that revenge is bullshit, right? The Greeks knew this. It’s never a zero-sum game. And yet the idea is so delicious, you can’t get enough of it. It’s more of a grail—because you can’t have it, it starts to seem really appealing. That’s why you want to get revenge, because you know you’re never going to get revenge.”Bleed Out could be all one movie, from the opening training montage to the demise in the elegiac closing title track. Songs like “Make You Suffer,” “First Blood,” “Hostages,” and “Need More Bandages” do what they say on the tin, telling typically vivid, deliberately recognizable vignettes of desperate characters in no-win situations who plan on taking as many people down with them as they have to. But Darnielle sees these as unconnected stories that feel universal in their desire for justice, if not in their wanton bloodshed. Anthems don’t get more straightforward or anthem-y than “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,” tapping into an anger that’s easy to reach in 2022, even if the solutions aren’t.Few people think as much, or as well, about violence and its portrayal as John Darnielle. His recent bestselling novel Devil House(his third) is all about the relationship between tragedy and entertainment, though he is careful to downplay any parallels to Bleed Out beyond a natural attraction to terrible things as a coping mechanism.“That’s what catharsis is,” he says. “When you are able to experience something that is frightening to you but you don’t have to be harmed by it—that experience is really valuable. I think we’re reflecting on the nature of what we consume and of what it says about us.”

Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew: Remain In Light w/ Cool Cool Cool
2024-07-28 18:30 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | The Agora, 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44103, United States
Doors 6:30 p.m. | Show 7:30 p.m.
ALL AGES
For those hoping that Talking Heads would announce a reunion tour since they started being able to be in the same room together again, there’s been no word of that. However, Heads guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison and ancillary member Adrian Belew have announced more dates of their Remain in Light tour where they’re playing the band’s classic fourth album in full. Cool Cool Cool opens.

City Stages 2024: Bia Ferreira
2024-07-31 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Transformer Station, 2811 Church Ave, Clevland, OH, 44113, United States
City Stages, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s acclaimed free outdoor summer concert series featuring the best in global music, returns to Hingetown with three dynamic performances in July. These block parties take place in front of Transformer Station. Each begins at 7:30 p.m.
Bia Ferreira, a Brazilian singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, stands out for her innovative approach to combining Afrodiasporic rhythms—like soul, R & B, reggae, and rap—with Brazilian music—such as samba and repente. She is known for her lyrics addressing racism, women’s rights, and LGBTQIAP+ rights. She broke into public consciousness in 2017 with the track “Cota Não é Esmola,” which highlights the importance of the quota system for the black Brazilian population’s access to the country’s universities. In addition to the 13 million views on YouTube and several million Spotify plays, the song became mandatory reading for the University of Brasília’s entrance exam. Ferreira was nominated for the 2018 Women in Music Awards. This evening, she performs with her trio.
Seating is limited—bring camp chairs and enjoy an evening of music and dancing in the street. Free parking is available in the Lutheran Hospital lot located at West 28th Street and Franklin Boulevard. Transformer Station is located at 1460 West 29th Street (at the corner of Church Avenue), Cleveland, OH 44113. Transformer Station remains open until 9:00 p.m. during City Stages.
