Apr 27 – May 4, 2016
History’s Echo: A New Nonprofit is Trying to Tell the Stories of Over-the-Rhine Before They’re Forgotten
Cincy Shakes Pours First Cement — and Cements a Big-Deal Conference for 2018
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company today made its “first pours” of cement on Wednesday afternoon, May 4, getting started on the foundation for the new Otto M. Budig Theater at 12th and Elm streets in Over-the-Rhine. This is the beginning of construction for a brand-new 244-seat theater, Cincinnati Shakespeare’s home starting in the fall of 2017. Project…
Sing Street
Writer-director John Carney (Once) continues to mine the deep musical reservoir that fuels memories and emotions in the souls of audiences. With Sing Street, he digs into the 1980s, tracking the adventures of Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a Dublin lad dealing with troubles on the home front as his squabbling parents (Maria Doyle Kennedy and Aidan…
The Congressman
In the midst of campaign season, which has seemingly been in effect since 2008, audiences can’t even seek refuge from political and ideological discourse in the local movie theater. The Congressman in question, Charlie Winship (Treat Williams) proudly represents Maine, but stumbles into a rough patch, the kind that could sink even a no-nonsense veteran…
Kentucky Derby Parties in Cincinnati
Dark Horse Derby Party — Grab your fascinator and head to The Transept for the Junior League of Cincinnati’s Derby party. Party features cocktails and dancing to benefit GrinUp! and RefugeeConnect, music by DJ Self Diploma, light bites and emcee Sheila Gray. Cocktail attire and fascinators encouraged. 7-11 p.m. May 6. $55 general admission; $96 includes open…
Event: Crafty Supermarket
Get ready to meet some seriously creative makers. This well-curated indie craft show features more than 40 different vendors, with participants coming from all over the country. Browse local makers like The Chocolate Bee, The Hoop & Needle and Paper Acorn and discover crafters from out of state like print shop everyday balloons from Pittsburgh…
Event: CHCURC Derby Day Party
Grab the biggest, flashiest hat you can find (and still hold up your head while wearing). The 142nd Kentucky Derby takes place this Saturday, and the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation is hosting its sixth-annual bash and viewing party at historic Laurel Court. Mint juleps, catered Derby fare and live jazz from Mouse Trap…
Event: Cincy-Cinco Latino Festival
The Cincy-Cinco Latino Festival is world-renowned for setting two world records in 2006: one for the world’s largest piñata and another for the world’s longest taco. Though you can’t help bash open a ginormous piñata or take a bite out of a taco long enough to feed everyone at the festival this year, the event…
Art: Zachary Rawe and Avril Thurman Exhibition Opening
Philadelphia-based artist, writer and curator Zachary Rawe and visual artist and poet Avril Thurman will have an exhibition of artwork at Live(In) Gallery titled if only awkwardly, all gots is words and crying. Both artists pull language from poetry and critical theory, producing artworks that “indulge their passivity and play with romantic notions of crying.”…
Event: Northside Art in the Park
Northside Art in the Park brings together more than 50 area artists to sell their handmade and hand-crafted products while you enjoy family-friendly activities and bites from some of the city’s best food trucks. Spend Saturday afternoon in Northside. Rain or shine. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Free admission. Jacob Hoffner Park, corner of Blue Rock…
Event: Appalachian Festival
Celebrate moms and mountain culture at the 47th-annual Appalachian Festival. Peruse booths of artwork and handcrafted goods as you enjoy Folk tunes from four stages, traditional dance and storytelling performances, craft demos and a living history village depicting 1800s Appalachian mountain life. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. $10;…
Art: Double Vision
Double Vision, now in its seventh year, is a fundraising art auction benefiting Visionaries + Voices, the nonprofit organization that works with and seeks opportunities for artists with disabilities. For the event, those artists have collaborated with formally trained ones to produce work for live and silent auction. Tickets include beer, wine and pizza, and…
Event: Cincinnati Preservation Association Historic House Tour
This annual spring home tour explores the Raeburn subdivision in Mount Airy, off Colerain Avenue. Stops include four houses built between 1902 and 2011, including the original estate, the castle-esque Cote Bonneville; a house inspired by the “Homes of Tomorrow” from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair; a California contemporary with Asian influence; and a LEED…
Event: Civic Garden Center Plant Sale
What started as a friendly plant swap in 1960 has grown to be the Civic Garden Center’s largest fundraiser. The Friday night preview party — dubbed the “best little plant party in town” — features dinner by the bite, wine, beer, a silent auction, live entertainment and first pick of the center’s plants. The remainder…
Sports: Star Wars Weekend at Great American Ball Park
It’s no secret that the 2016 Cincinnati Reds are struggling — as of this week’s publication the rebuilding team was in last place in the division, nine games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs. But will the force be with Joey Votto when he and the Redlegs take on the Brewers this weekend? Hopefully! Star Wars…
Comedy: Rocky LaPorte
Rocky LaPorte is a successful and popular headlining comedian, actor and grandfather. “I have four kids,” he says, “three daughters and a son, and 10 grandkids. My kids really like sex. They found out about it, and they’re not stopping any time soon.” On those rare occasions when he’s not on the road, he’s back…
Music: Imarhan
If you’re up for something very different from our town’s usual live music offerings this week, you are in luck, as Algerian quintet Imarhan comes to Cincy to showcase its unique and infectious spin on the traditional African music style called Tuareg. Like the veteran group Tinariwen (which helped bring the music to a wider…
Onstage: Brigadoon
This old-fashioned show from 1949 is just the kind of musical that Cincinnati Landmark Productions excels at staging. The story of a town in Scotland that disappears into the Highland mists and only returns one day every hundred years is a delightful, tuneful fantasy from writer Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe (the team…
Onstage: Toruk: The First Flight
Though the 2018 release date for Avatar 2 leaves Avatar fans impatiently waiting for the next installment, Cirque du Soleil offers a nice treat to tide fans over. Their new show Toruk depicts a world that predates the events in the movie by 1,000 years. See circus performers and acrobats from around the world flip,…
Reports: Kasich Will Drop Out Today
With U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz departing the GOP presidential primary following last night's big win for Donald Trump in Indiana, Ohio Gov. John Kasich was, for a moment, Trump's sole challenger in one of the strangest primaries in memory. Now, however, there are multiple reports citing a senior campaign advisor saying Kasich is dropping out…
As Schumer Skyrockets, ‘Inside’ Evolves
Land a Comedy Central series, and you’re bound to be flung into the public eye, even if you’re already an accomplished standup comic. Of course, that’s exactly what happened to Amy Schumer, who in the last few years has catapulted from a promising comedian to a summer blockbuster star and multi-hyphenate wunderkind. So how has…
Captain America Brings ‘Civil War’ Home
Truth be told, we should have seen this coming. Forget the fact that in the comic book universe, Marvel had already given readers a grand Civil War event, crossing over damn near every superhero title in their brand with Captain America as the heart and soul of the conflict, pitting him against his chief rival…
Turner-Yamamoto Exposes Earth’s Natural Artistry
Shinji Turner-Yamamoto points to one of the “Irish Study” paintings in his waterfall-inspired Sidereal Silence installation at the Weston Art Gallery. Streaks of rust, green and gray run down the canvas and evoke the strata of a mountain face. “I like this line,” he says thoughtfully, gesturing toward a silvery cascade. “I like it… because…
The Times They Are A-Changin’
In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player in Major League Baseball history. But there were many others just as skilled and competitive, impatiently waiting their turns to step onto the larger stage. Satchel Paige, who had pitched formidably in the American Negro leagues for two decades, was foremost among those expecting his turn…
How to Look at Glass, Not Just Through It
One key to being an artist — to being a thoughtful, productive human being, really — is to question things that others take for granted. Like glass, for instance. To most of us, it’s just a conduit — a way to look outside from inside or to see if a drinking utensil is half-full or…
The Rituals of Reenactment
C hris Bachelder’s latest novel, The Throwback Special, centers its narrative on a very specific idea: 22 guys who gather every year to reenact the play in which Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann’s leg was shattered during a Monday Night Football game in November 1985. Bachelder’s fourth novel — previous singular, humor-infused efforts include 2001’s Bear v.…
West Side Ride or Die
Big roads. Big hills. Fast traffic and nary a bike lane. Some cyclists, including yours truly, find riding Cincinnati’s West Side daunting. But there was plenty to enjoy on two wheels between Riverside and Mount Airy on a recent sunny Saturday. I launch my West Side odyssey from the Kentucky side of the Anderson Ferry,…
Communing with Nature on Two Wheels
A lot has changed in the Cincinnati mountain bike community over the past couple of decades — for one, there is an actual community now, and a thriving one at that. There are formalized mountain bike trail systems in major local parks, something unheard of two decades ago. “Twenty years ago really was the time…
Cycling as a Way of Life
It’s half past seven on a Thursday morning, and while most of us are still putzing with the coffee maker to get a jump on the day, Cincinnati attorney Al Gerhardstein is just finishing his morning bicycle ride to work. Gerhardstein’s law practice, Gerhardstein & Branch, is best known for taking on civil rights cases.…
It’s Bike Month!
THURSDAY, MAY 05 Cheviot “Slow Ride” Cinco De Mayo Party Cinco de Mayo on the first Thursday — no way! Join the “Ariba, Andelay Party” ride, which starts at Harvest Home Park at 7 p.m. All Tristate riders are invited to attend this free “slow” 4-plus mile ride around Cheviot. Happy hour will be at…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. It’s news time. I think you know what’s first on the agenda: last night’s historic Indiana primary results and the ensuing realization that, barring some unimaginable turn of events, Donald Trump will be the GOP’s presidential nominee. Trump dominated the Hoosier State yesterday, taking at least 51 of the state’s 57 delegates…
Treats to Try at Asian Food Fest
Asian Food Fest is the little festival that has launched some legends. It started out at Mount Healthy’s Kolping Park in 2010 with a small number of mostly amateur cooks preparing the dishes they usually make for friends. This year, the two-day event, which will be held May 14 and 15 at Washington Park, expects…
Fried and Gone to Heaven
Several years ago, I had an idea to open a tater tot eatery and call it Tater Tot Heaven. Well, Scott Nelowet beat me to the punch (sort of) with French Fry Heaven, which originally opened as a fry stand in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2011. Since then, French Fry Heaven has evolved into brick-and-mortar franchises…
Center in a Storm
A months-long battle between the Clifton Cultural Arts Center and Cincinnati Public Schools began with an unexpected voicemail this winter. CCAC Executive Director Leslie Mooney had been working with CPS to potentially lease space in the CCAC’s building for the Fairview-Clifton German Language School, the highly-ranked magnet school located directly across the street on Clifton…
Worst Week Ever! April 27-May 3
Kirk Cameron Shares Thoughts with Dozens of People Who Still Know Who He Is The key to harmony between man and woman has always been a woman shutting up and letting the stupid man be stupid, because God, the Bible, a talking bush that was on fire or some combination of these things suggested it…
Music: Silversun Pickups
Silversun Pickups’ 2015 album, Better Nature, is a slightly poppier, shinier version of the California quartet’s Indie Rock-meets-Shoegaze-at-the-Grunge-thrift-store ethic. But that doesn’t mean that the band has diverted a molecule of the energy of its core sound, which was in full evidence on its debut EP, 2005’s Pikul, and its subsequent breakthrough full-lengths — 2006’s…
Sound Advice: Silversun Pickups with Foals and Joywave
Silversun Pickups’ 2015 album, Better Nature, is a slightly poppier, shinier version of the California quartet’s Indie Rock-meets-Shoegaze-at-the-Grunge-thrift-store ethic. But that doesn’t mean that the band has diverted a molecule of the energy of its core sound, which was in full evidence on its debut EP, 2005’s Pikul, and its subsequent breakthrough full-lengths — 2006’s…
Music: The Front Bottoms
Ten years ago, guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Brian Sella and his childhood pal, drummer Mat Uychich, formed The Front Bottoms after Sella’s freshman year of college, concocting a melodic, acoustic-based sound often described as Folk Punk. Uychich’s brother Brian found a keyboard in their parents’ attic and asked to join the band; the trio subsequently recorded an interesting…
Modern Band-Ridicule Protocol
HOT: Modern Band-Ridicule Protocol It appears the pranksters behind the “Limp Bizkit to play secret Dayton gas station gig” hoax that took the world by storm last month are pioneers of a new viral internet fad we’ll all soon forget (like planking or Tebowing). There’s now a Facebook event/campaign to have Smash Mouth perform at…
Sound Advice: The Front Bottoms with Brick + Mortar and Diet Cig
A pair of old friends on the East Coast get together to start a band as an outlet for their obtusely catchy songs. After playing are gigs and self-releasing a few titles, the duo scores a contract with respected independent label Bar/None Records and begins touring nationally, leading to more exposure and, ultimately, a contract…
Music: Klaus Johann Grobe
With nothing else to go on but the severe Teutonic name, you might surmise that Klaus Johann Grobe is a humorless German Synth Pop/Krautrock texturalist who stands alone on stage making icily atmospheric blips and gurgles while staring emotionlessly at his audience. You’d only be partially right. To begin, Klaus Johann Grobe isn’t a single…
Sound Advice: Klaus Johann Grobe with PRIM
With nothing else to go on but the severe Teutonic name, you might surmise that Klaus Johann Grobe is a humorless German Synth Pop/Krautrock texturalist who stands alone on stage making icily atmospheric blips and gurgles while staring emotionlessly at his audience. You’d only be partially right. To begin, Klaus Johann Grobe isn’t a single…
Music: The New Stew
At the mic of this supergroup is Corey Glover, lead singer with the popular Rock band Living Colour, and that would be enough to raise interest. But wait, as the purveyors of Ginsu knives once implored, there’s more. The New Stew features a murderer’s row of musical greatness: lap steel/pedal steel player Roosevelt Collier (The…
Sound Advice: The New Stew
Way back in the day, the music industry devised the term “supergroup” to denote a collaborative project featuring individual members of different bands that were commercial powerhouses. (Blind Faith, with Cream’s Eric Clapton and Traffic’s Steve Winwood, was among the first to be so designated.) Eventually, the term became diluted when it was applied indiscriminately…
Happy Birthday, Buffalo Killers
This year is a milestone one for one of the Cincinnati area’s best Rock bands, Buffalo Killers, as the group celebrates a very successful 10 years of rocking. Bassist/singer Zachary Gabbard and his brother, singer/guitarist Andy Gabbard, emerged in the late ’90s with the Garage Rock band The Shams (later changed to Thee Shams) and…
Higher Power
T he more things change, the more they stay the same, as the old saying goes. If you put any stock in the wisdom of platitudes, that one in particular holds some sway in Electric Citizen’s story. The Cincinnati-based group — the brainchild of Ross and Laura Dolan — has achieved a great deal since…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey all. Today is Indiana’s primary. Go vote if you live in Indiana. If you don’t live in Indiana, continue to gnash your teeth and pray that somehow this election season is simply some very long-term practical joke or a very committed performance art piece. About the primary: On the GOP side, Donald Trump is…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. Did you run the pig this weekend? I thought about it. For a few seconds. That should count for something, right? No? OK. Let’s talk news then. There’s a bunch of politics transpiring. Here it is: A new poll says that only 38 percent of Ohioans want Ohio Gov. John Kasich to…
Stage Door
Need suggestions for a good theater production to attend this weekend? Here are some good choices on Cincinnati stages. Last night I attended the opening of Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing at the Cincinnati Playhouse. It’s an inventive recreation of the legendary African-American pitcher who found his fame eclipsed by Jackie Robinson. The…
Morning News and Stuff
Big things happened at Wednesday's City Council meeting. Council finally voted to approve the streetcar's operating budget for the first year after spending the last month squabbling and kicking it back and forth between council and committee. The budget just barely passed in a vote of 5-3, with council members Kevin Flynn, Christopher Smitherman and…
Ratchet & Clank
T his animated adventure follows the timeworn blueprint of an impending galactic threat that must be met and thwarted by a steely resistance augmented by the presence of a lowly figure and a robot ally. Ratchet (voiced by James Arnold Taylor) is a mechanic and Clank (David Kaye) is the robot partner. Directors Kevin Munroe…
Papa: Hemingway in Cuba
Imagine a fantastic true story that feels like it can’t be real. In 1959, toiling away at a newspaper, Ed Myers (Giovanni Ribisi) pens a letter to Ernest Hemingway (Adrian Sparks) that gets sent by a co-worker to Havana, Cuba, where the great writer enjoys a life of unparalleled celebrity and a sense of self-satisfaction.…
Keanu
The television sketch comedy princes Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele seemingly abdicated their crowns at the height of their reign with the intention of tackling other formats (although sticking to making us laugh, rather than straying into more dramatic fare). Fortunately for Keanu, their fist big project after the Key & Peele show, the duo…
Mother’s Day
I feel like I might have to accept some level of responsibility for the ensemble comedy from Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman), since I, along with just about every other critic in the game, joked about his seeming desire to pander to audiences with holiday-themed rom-coms. From Valentine’s Day to New Year’s Eve, it looked like…
Francofonia
Historical perspective allows us to consider the true power and glory of art during moments of great human crises. Filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) examines the impact of the Nazi occupation on The Louvre, one of the monumental reserves of timeless artifacts, and seemingly dares to ponder a series of questions we thankfully did not…
Attraction: Zoo Babies
Oh, baby: ’tis the season for tots of all sorts at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Cubs, calves, chicks and more will be on exhibit throughout the month of May. Gasp and squeal in the presence of more than a dozen babies, including Bowie the penguin in the Children’s Zoo; Dale the takin at…
Music: Poliça
P oliça’s third album, United Crushers, is another beat-driven, electronically enhanced affair that mixes the shimmering, high-lonesome vocals of Channy Leaneagh with the sleek production work of Ryan Olson, a creative duo that also happens to be a romantic couple and parents of a newborn son. But Poliça — which rose from the ashes of…
Event: Spring Fiber Fair
Just in time for some Mother’s Day shopping, the Weavers Guild of Cincinnati hosts its second-annual Fiber Fair. The guild brings together some of the city’s best fiber artists and their wares to sell and demonstrate weaving, spinning, knitting and felting techniques. Learn about upcoming classes and workshops, participate in a make-it-and-take-it free fiber project,…
Sports: Cincinnati Rollergirls’ Star Wars Night
Not long ago in our very own galaxy, the Cincinnati Rollergirls unsheathed their lightsabers and hosted their first-ever Star Wars night. The force returns to the team this weekend during a very otherworldly home game against the Naptown Roller Girls Warning Belles and Naptown Tornado Sirens. The CRG’s Second-Annual Star Wars Night features appearances by…
Event: Flying Pig Weekend
Pheidippides probably couldn’t have imagined the sporting event he inspired when he ran 26.2 miles to Athens to announce victory in the Battle of Marathon, but the endurance sport will be celebrated in Cincinnati this weekend as the Flying Pig Marathon. Activities begin Friday and run through Sunday. Gear up for the competition with a…
Event: Art School Orientation 2016
For the fourth year in a row, 21c Museum Hotel hosts a discussion panel aimed at the needs of graduating art school students who might be looking to start careers as art world professionals. Panelists include four members of the local art community: DAAP professors and ceramics gurus Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis, Higher…
Event: Art After Dark: Swingin’ with Solway
The Cincinnati Art Museum honors the city’s most influential contemporary art dealer with Not in New York: Carl Solway and Cincinnati. The exhibit title refers to a gallery Solway once operated on Fourth Street in addition to an eponymous space that’s now in the West End. For more than a half-century, Solway has introduced compelling…
Dance: Director’s Choice at the Cincinnati Ballet
The Cincinnati Ballet closes its 2015-16 season with Director’s Choice, a selection of four pieces from four groundbreaking contemporary female choreographers. According to ballet artistic director and CEO Victoria Morgan, women are significantly underrepresented in professional ballet’s choreographic and leadership roles. “My hope is that in some grassroots way, as a prominent midrange ballet company,…
Event: Light Up the Night Gala
Exhume your bellbottoms, disco shirts and dashikis and head to Horseshoe Casino, where Women Helping Women is hosting a far-out night for a serious cause. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the organization’s Light Up the Night Gala, which supports survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence and stalking. The theme of this year’s 1970s-style…
Onstage: Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing
History suggests Satchel Paige was the greatest pitcher of all time. But his career preceded the moment that professional baseball’s color line was crossed. In fact, this new play — Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing — is set in 1947, just after Jackie Robinson’s debut. Paige and other black players are barnstorming in exhibition…
Netflix Dining Docs Raise the Bar
Cooking shows are a dime a dozen today, with several networks and daytime TV series devoted to foodie entertainment. But a true culinary documentary is rare. Enter Netflix, which offers two original programs that examine food in a beautiful, critical way. Chef’s Table elevates the genre from baking competitions and restaurant rescues to a more…
Desperation Drives ‘Green Room’
Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) knows the simple secret for creating a down-and-dirty little indie thriller: Introduce us to smart, funny characters, but don’t feel the need to burden them with cluttered backstories. Give us violent acts, but don’t linger on the results for very long. Tease us with familiar faces, although you must present…
Affordable Pet Care for Low-Income Locals
In June of 2014, Kathy Meece and her five German shepherds could be found living in the woods under the intersection of Linn and West Eighth streets. Her heart condition had put her out of work and back on the street — a place she’d been familiar with since she was 10 years old. The…
Politics and Theater
Musical theater fans loved Mel Brooks’ The Producers, and when I clicked on a Jimmy Kimmel Live! video a few months back and saw Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom and Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock, I thought it was a scene from that Tony Award winner. They were hatching a scheme to make money —…
Break the System
S aul Williams — poet, actor, vocalist and alt-Hip Hop musician — has a worldwide following that includes one unusual Classical composer in Switzerland. You’ll be able to see and hear the results of Williams’ collaboration with that composer, Thomas Kessler, when Williams and Mivos Quartet perform the Ohio premiere of “NGH WHT” Thursday at…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. Here’s your news today. The operating budget for the Cincinnati streetcar again looks likely to move forward in City Council today, barring any major surprises. Of course, that was also the case a couple weeks ago, when the budget stumbled over some last-minute objections by Councilman Kevin Flynn around contingency funding. Flynn’s…
History’s Echo
A lthough Over-the-Rhine is a neighborhood about which most Cincinnatians have strong opinions, one thing remains certain: It’s no stranger to change. When trying to imagine its history, one is confronted with various images: You might imagine it in the 19th century, when up to 10 immigrant families lived under a single tenement roof, fighting…
Beer Fests, New Releases and Little Kings’ Return
First off, let’s recap what’s new in brews. Last week, MadTree released their popular and limited Galaxy High imperial IPA. The “dank” flavored beer is made with New Zealand hops, has 120 IBUs and a 10.2 percent ABV. Get it in cans and on draft. Speaking of MadTree, they recently collaborated with Metropole chef Jared…
New, Now and Coming Soon
I n Cincinnati’s constantly changing dining scene, it’s always nice to stop and take a breather to recap all the new and now food news. New and Now • If you’re sick of $5 footlongs, Grind on the Rhine, an artisan sandwich shop, opened last weekend at Findlay Market. Chef Tyler Retyi-Gazda and manager Joshua…
Courting Controversy
For 11-year-old Santinez Payne, the grassy lots and basketball courts behind his apartment building in northern Over-the-Rhine are among the most important places in the city. The spot, a little overgrown and very green, is where he goes to meet up with his friends, many of whom also live in the same low-income apartment building.…
The Enquirer’s ‘Agenda’ and the Dennison Hotel
There’s a quirky line in The Cincinnati Enquirer’s “2016 Editorial Agenda,” which in January introduced its readers to a restructured, five-person editorial board. The column reaffirms the board’s dedication to a promise the publication made 175 years ago to weigh in on the most pressing issues of the day “in a firm and unflinching, yet…
Worst Week Ever! April 20-April 26
They Don’t Just Look Beautiful; Indian Hill Residents Are Happy, Too Most Cincinnatians don’t know that much about the Village of Indian Hill because they never go there because they do not belong. It’s a land of mystery and shiny things made of the purest gold. Thanks to the good folks of Zippia, a very…
R.I.P. Prince
HOT: R.I.P. Prince Even if you are living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that American music icon Prince died on April 21. Coverage of his death and tributes have been extensive and far-reaching, the sheer quantity and diversity of which was rivaled only by the reaction to the passing of Prince’s ’80s rival, Michael…
Music: Little Green Cars
We live in a curious Pop music era. Bands can go from playing small rooms one day to massive festivals the next — then back to the clubs again just as quickly. Case in point: Little Green Cars’ buzzed-about 2013 debut, Absolute Zero, drew invitations for the Irish Indie Rock fivesome to play such profile-broadening…
Sound Advice: Little Green Cars with John Mark Nelson
We live in a curious Pop music era. Bands can go from playing small rooms one day to massive festivals the next — then back to the clubs again just as quickly. Case in point: Little Green Cars’ buzzed-about 2013 debut, Absolute Zero, drew invitations for the Irish Indie Rock fivesome to play such profile-broadening…
Music: Charlie Hunter
While it’s a fair conclusion that Charlie Hunter’s recorded output should be filed in a record store’s Jazz section, there is an equally compelling argument that it should be in the Charlie Hunter section. Hunter’s stylistic compass has no magnetic North, and his musical adventures over the course of his 20-plus-year career have taken him…
Sound Advice: Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola
While it’s a fair conclusion that Charlie Hunter’s recorded output should be filed in a record store’s Jazz section, there is an equally compelling argument that it should be in the Charlie Hunter section. Hunter’s stylistic compass has no magnetic North, and his musical adventures over the course of his 20-plus-year career have taken him…
Music: The Honeycutters
One of the best current acts to come out of Asheville is The Honeycutters, a great band ready to be discovered by the rest of America. The group seems to triangulate Country music — it is definitely and thankfully not a Bro-Country dog-and-pony show, yet the band is also off to the side of the…
Sound Advice: The Honeycutters
Cincinnati is lucky enough to have one of the best music scenes in the Midwest, and perhaps the country. Asheville, N.C. is another city that is exploding when it comes to its music scene. Cincy is a much bigger town with a longer history, of course, and a river city as opposed to the mountain…
Music: Dream Theater
It seems impossible that 31 years have passed since guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and drummer Mike Portnoy assembled as Berklee College of Music students and formed the Prog Metal band Majesty. The trio soon dropped out of Berklee to focus on the band and expand both their ranks and musical vision for the…
Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
He was The Hardest Working Man in Show Business. The Godfather of Soul. Mr. Dynamite and a dozen other monikers. James Brown was many things to many people. And when he died, his estate was estimated at more than $100 million, all of which Brown left for poor schoolchildren around America. More than eight years…
Sound Advice: Dream Theater
It seems impossible that 31 years have passed since guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and drummer Mike Portnoy assembled as Berklee College of Music students and formed the Prog Metal band Majesty. The trio soon dropped out of Berklee to focus on the band and expand both their ranks and musical vision for the…
Go Go Buffalo Go-Goes Wild on Debut LP
Raucous Cincinnati Rock crew Go Go Buffalo (which was nominated in the Best New Artist category at the most recent Cincinnati Entertainment Awards) celebrates the release of its first full-length album with a free show Saturday at MOTR Pub (1345 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, motrpub.com). It should be a great night of adrenalized, high-flying Rock &…
The North Water
In a dark and brutal novel that is not for the weak of stomach, Ian McGuire follows the ill-fated journey of the Volunteer, a whaling ship bound for hunting in the icy waters of the Arctic Circle. It’s a dark ride, a combination of Jack London, Joseph Conrad and Cormac McCarthy, and there is not…
A Crushing Farewell?
P oliça’s third album, United Crushers, is another beat-driven, electronically enhanced affair that mixes the shimmering, high-lonesome vocals of Channy Leaneagh with the sleek production work of Ryan Olson, a creative duo that also happens to be a romantic couple and parents of a newborn son. But Poliça — which rose from the ashes of…
Music: White Reaper with Bully
Two of the most buzzed-about shows at Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival in 2015 were (separate) packed gigs at MOTR Pub featuring Louisville, Ky. rockers White Reaper and Nashville, Tenn.-based up-and-comers Bully. If you missed one or both (each night MOTR reached capacity and there were lines out the door), you’re in luck — MOTR’s larger,…
Music: Classical Roots
Academy Award-winning Hip Hop artist (and very handsome man) Common joins the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for Classical Roots, a celebration of African-American musical heritage. Common will be performing “Glory” from the movie Selma, along with performances from guest vocalist Capathia Jenkins and the CSO Classical Roots Community Mass Choir. 7:30 p.m. Friday. $25 adult; $10…
Art: Radically Visible at Thunder-Sky, Inc.
Two of Cincinnati’s most inimitable artists, Antonio Adams and Lindsey M. Whittle, have an exhibition opening Friday with collaborators Sky Cubacub (Chicago) and Craig Matis (Cleveland). The artists work in costume, performance and sculpture. For this exhibition — which also features paintings, drawings and collages — their aim is to subvert the limiting stereotypes regarding abilities,…
