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1st May 2002 — Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
Review(s)
my thoughts of the cleveland cranes show are both hazy and bias due to the emotional impairment of seeing the perfect portsmouth sibling duo and their two-and-a-half band members. the beachland ballroom, though completely hospitable and strangely resembling the high school from BTTF's "The Enchanment Under the Sea Dance", was just not the ideal venue for this type of band. its location, some 15 miles from downtown-- only seemed to discourage the walk-up crowd. yes, the ones that showed up brought their true grit-- the die-hards that weren't afraid to get a little dirty in order to see an uber-band that doesn't make it over to the states very often.
the opening bands-- the reputation and forstars:
not much can be said about the reputation-- both due to what precedes them and by the fact that i was engaged at the bar in the adjacent room during their set. from that distance i could not possibly pass any sort of opinion on how their set was..
forstars was really good though-- their set pulled me out of my mass consumption of old-friend conversation and guinness. their intricately-woven guitar work and quasi-thom yorke vocals were both intriquing and hypnotising. forstars songs grew into a frenzy of grinding melodies which seemed to peak by slowly floating the listener back down into reality.. very nice band
the cranes were nice as well.. unfortunately, and i counted, there were only a little over 100 people there. i apologized to ms. shaw about the small turnout too-- to which she replied "..thank you very much for coming". impressive versions of lillies, adoration, driving in the sun, sunrise, paris and rome, and loved. the crowd that was there was quite enthusiastically loud-- or it may have sounded that way due to the large, square, bunker-like echo chamber that is the beachland ballroom. some guys yelled for the band to do some cover-- "We Don't Do COVERS!" replied ms. shaw.. to the humor of all.. they did, however, respond to the positive crowd feedback by playing two encores.
due to the small turnout and the shear wonderfulness of seeing the cranes, i made myself buy as much merchandise as my buddy's wallet could afford. i hope they come back to the u.s. again-- but with the amount of people that show up to the gigs i can't see how it would make any sense financially to do so... however, i don't think that the quest for monetary success has had anything to do with this band making many people around the world enormously happy.
Reviewed by Pawlio.
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