CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio - This weekend, Friday, August 30 through Sunday, September 1, there’s gonna be a “palooza.”
The Grog Shop and B-Side Lounge have teamed up with local promoter Byron Bruce for the first (ideally annual) Grogapalooza! The three-day palooza will feature a packed lineup of live and mostly local music makers and a special preview screening of the locally shot and produced horror film “Stalker Jane” starring Halo Kitsch. Passes for Grogapalooza are $20 per day and $30 for all three.
Additionally, outside the Grog in the courtyard on Euclid Heights Boulevard and Coventry Rd. will be food vendors, art and clothing vendors and local non-profits adding to the community event vibe.
Bruce, 48, a Cleveland native, has embedded himself in the local music scene working with several bands, booking gigs, making connections and considers himself a “guardian of artistic integrity.” Bruce is also known by some as one of the creators of the Chemical Kickdrums production squad that made the “Shady Experiment: Eminem & G-Unit” and the Nas-focused “Hood Prophet” mixtape both presented by Joey Fingaz.
Bruce hopes Grogapalooza can help reignite the outdoor community vibe he felt hanging out in Coventry as a youngster.
“I was born in 1976, and I remember when Coventry used to have shows at the top of the hill, and it was a festival and I used to always like going to that,” Bruce said, acknowledging that the neighborhood experienced some tough times in the ’80s and ’90s, “but now it’s gotten peaceful again.”
“I created this event to bring all of Cleveland’s best together, kind of like a family reunion of bands, of great bands. And, of course at the center of it all is the Grog Shop since everybody has to come through there eventually in their career here in Cleveland,” he said.
The three days are broken down loosely by genre. Friday night’s slate is at the B-Side Lounge and begins at 7 p.m. and Byron said it’s about R&B, funk, soul and dance.
“The essence of rock and roll is rhythm and blues and blues. So I said, well, I’ll start off with R&B and a Friday dance party,” Bruce said.
FRIDAY
Funkadelic Universal Funk Mob –A local Funkadelic and funk cover band sure to bring unadulterated p-funk, uncut funk, the Bomb.
Malan The Artist – Singer-songwriter-producer who has released several singles including“NoFuture,” and the hip-shake inducing “Dutty Wine.”
Esther Fitz – Versatile, velvety-voiced neo-soul singer-songwriter who’s been on the scene for a while, also has performed around the country and in Europe and released a groovy, soulful five-song EP, “SweetThings” in 2022 that is available on Spotify.
Mr. Freedom Papers a.k.a DAVE - The evening’s headliner is an R&B singer raised in Cleveland Heights., Mr. Freedom Papers a.k.a DAVE (it’s a long E, pronounced “Davey”) has performed across the U.S. and other continents and has several singles and EPs available online. He also released a full-length album of his aspirational contemporary R&B sound, “Finally Fire,” in 2023.
Saturday is when the festival vibe should kick in with an all-day inside and outside affair with live music in the pop, emo, alternative, metal, punk and rock and psych-rock genres. The varied Day Two lineup begins with a fun “Shred Off” featuring game guitarists from some of the performing bands. That display of fretboard frenetics will be followed by a “Drum Off’ featuring band drummers getting their literal grooves on in a (presumably) friendly competition for a $100 prize.
Throughout the day, in the courtyard outside the Grog there will be vendors, local artists and non-profits and an open mic featuring more local artists sharing their musical wares.
Saturday lineup
Loconti – A Cleveland band with its musical legacy baked into its name. Co-founders, singer-guitarist-songwriter Henry Loconti and his drumming brother Michael Loconti are grandsons of famed promoter and Clevland Agora owner Henry Loconti. CherryRED” that has garnered them a growing fanbase in their two year existence.
SlagGenie – A breezy, psych-pop-rock, reverb-drenched guitar-driven band with several singles.
RentFor Cheryl – The Akron/Cleveland indie quintet has a couple of albums, their 2020 self-titled album and 2023’s “Crunch” along with several singles including their recent release, the dreamy “Static.”
SlugFest – A kinetic garage rock trio, who are also big fans of reverb, who have been on the scene since the late teens and released a fun, rockin’ and weird record, “Animal” in 2020, that is rife with cool riffs, jagged guitar chords and sing-shouted hooks.
Frida and the Mann - Recently named best new artist at the 2024 Cleveland Music Awards, the versatile rock quintet is fronted by the charismatic and intense singer Frida Mann.
Dotia - a Brooklyn-based band fronted by Jamie McVicker. The band, which works the mellower, cinematic end of rock. The band has a recently released EP, “E=MC2″ and a song on the “Stalker Jane” soundtrack.
The Magnavox’s - All the way from Lucas, Ohio comes this “haze twang psychedelic rock band,” with a healthy heaping of garage rock rawness. Check out their 2019 album and apparent mission statement, “Psychedelic Sounds From The Renaissance,” on bandcamp.com.
Fungits - Another band with a dash of ’60s psychedlia in the mix of their groovy pop rock. Dig their aptly named 2024 single, “Shoegazer” on Spotify.
Mitchel Madak - self-taught singer-songwriter-producer with an album, “Kingdom Come,” and a couple of 2024 singles featuring his melodic laptop-pop including the epic, atmospheric vocal workout “We Never Were.
Jet Star - Veteran Cleveland singer-songwriter-producer with a new calming, slow-building single “As The Sun Rises,” an instrumental driven by an ethereal string loop. Also released a full-length album, “Planetary Gore,” in 2022 featuring her eclectic mix of synth-laced electro-funk, dance-pop, breezy samba-pop, piano ballads and more.
Don Kenobi - Prolific Canton-bred rapper-singer who has released more than 100 singles, a couple of mixtapes and EPs and three albums including his emotional, self-reflective 2023 album” The War Within.”
Murr - A blue-collar musically eclectic singer-songwriter who released a video for his latest single “Bullseye” in the spring.
Rellick - A country-infused pop quartet of Cleveland East Siders with several singles and a couple of 2024 releases, including the recent country-shufflin’ single “Rain Covered Road” and the six-song “It’s Just” EP.
The Other Guys - This guitar-driven rock quartet touts themselves as “One of the bands of all time,” a claim I totally respect. The band released a 3-song EP, “Times We Had,” and a bouncy, pseudo-ska single, “Dancing In the Rain,” earlier this year.
SUNDAY
The main attraction on Sunday is the 6 p.m. preview screening of the locally produced, shot and funded thriller “Stalker Jane” directed by Roger Hill starring Halo Kitsch as the scary, unhinged, yet charismatic title character who is willing to go way beyond the pale to ensure, Demetri, the handsome frontman of her favorite band gets his chance at stardom.
Following the screening, there will be a meet and greet with some of the cast and crew before the live music starts that will include two of the bands featured on the “Staker Jane” soundtrack. Peformers include NYC based singer-songwriter Max Satow a.k.a Noshows, another set from fellow New Yorkers Dotia, post-rock/shoegazers Flourish and Grogapalooza will close with Atlanta “comedy punk band” Gas Station Boner Pills.
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