Sat 3/28 @ 9PM
Although northeast Ohio’s music scene has always been incredibly diverse, its image as a fountain of power pop has been bandied around since the Raspberries broke out in the early ’70s. Perhaps it’s because the style, while seldom getting much traction with the listening public, is deeply beloved by music critics.
And literate musicians love to reach back to the treasure trove of power pop influences. Longtime Cleveland musician Brian Lisik, for instance, sounds like he spend a lot of time listening to the Raspberries prior to recording his new album Curtisinterruptus. His vocals on the album’s three opening tunes owe a lot to ‘berries lead yelper Eric Carmen and the songs sound like long-lost Raspberries B-sides.
Much of the rest of the album digs into a sort of earnest blue-collar folk rock —“Normalcy” sounds like the usual sort of song written by songwriters who grew up on Springsteen, Mellencamp and Petty. Bur he keeps slipping back into the Carmenisms, as on the piano ballad “Born on Needles and Pins.”
It’s Lisik’s fourth solo album since he released his first, Baggage, in 2004. Lovers of both tuneful retro pop and rust-belt rock should check out him and his band the Unfortunates when they play at the Beachland Tavern with Chamber Strings (pictured), another Cleveland ensemble inspired by ’60s and ’70s pop/rock.
Formed by northeast Ohio native Kevin Junior while he was living in Chicago in the ’90s, the group’s classic pop songwriting made them kind of a big deal with music reviewers in the late ’90s and early ’00s, when they were released a couple of much-loved albums and launched regular tours from their Chicago base. Smitten writers compared them to groups like the Kinks, Big Star, and the Beatles.
The band petered out after its second album Month of Sundays in 2001. Junior moved back to northeast Ohio, and two years ago, he reactivated the band with a new lineup featuring some some of the area’s most seasoned and sympathetic indie rockers: drummer/vocalist Dave Swanson, bassist Brian P. McCafferty and sax player/vocalist Marianne Friend, all from Rainy Day Saints, Breaker guitarist Don DePew and ex-Revelers keyboardist Andrej Cuturic of the Revelers.
The two local groups will be joined by Chicago trio Hushdrops, which includes Jim Shapiro, formerly of Veruca Salt, who were the buzz band for a moment in the ’90s.
Admission is $10.
facebook.com/The-Chamber-Strings/
Cleveland, OH 44110