Sat 6/4 @ 8PM
Donnie Iris & the Cruisers are almost as much of a Cleveland institution as Michael Stanley was. Even though Iris is being from western Pennsylvania, many of his band members are from northeast Ohio, and Iris opened for Michael Stanley many times, so there’s a lot of crossover among their fans.
We lost Michael in March 2021, but Donnie, now 79 years old, rocks on, after nearly 60 decades in music. He started performing as a kid entering talent contests in the crooner era — and then along came Elvis. He formed a band in college to do rock & R&B covers, before joining his first “pro” band, the Jaggerz, in the mid 60s. After kicking around the Pittsburgh area for five years, they struck gold in 1970 with a regional hit called “The Rapper,” which of course had nothing to do with today’s rap.
After the Jaggerz fizzled out, Iris performed with local Pittsburgh sensation B.E. Taylor and Wild Cherry during their “Play That Funky Music” period. There he met Cleveland keyboard player Mark Avsec, with whom he formed the Cruisers in the late 70s.
Although the band members have mostly gone on to other things (Avsec is a Cleveland entertainment attorney) and their hard-touring years are behind them, the band still plays occasionally in places where they have a fan base, such as northeast Ohio. This time they’re playing the downtown Akron outdoor venue, Lock 3, nxt to the Akron Civic Theatre, with Ravenwood opening.