* Those who showed up to the Beachland’s 11th anniversary party Saturday night hoping to catch another glimpse of local buzz band, Cloud Nothings, didn’t actually get to see Cloud Nothings, but were instead treated to a unique, solo-acoustic set by the band’s frontman, Dylan Baldi. Don’t read too much into his band’s absence. This wasn’t a spat between bandmembers, and Baldi hasn’t gone all Rock ‘N’ Roll, hookers and blow, on us. Rather, it was a conflict between bandmates and bandmates’ employers which resulted in Baldi going solo Saturday night. The show had already been booked, but after the band’s European tour, not everyone’s boss was on board with more time away from the job. That being said, Baldi, showed tremendous poise and true dedication to his fans by hitting the stage with nothing more than him and his guitar. Songs like “Hey Cool Kid” and “Understand At All,” worked surprisingly well in this setting, and his version of GBV’s “As We Go Up, We Go Down,” provided another pleasant twist to his set.
* Cincinnati’s Wussy, a perennial favorite at the Beachland, have a new record waiting to be released, but have thus far been unable to find a label willing to release it. Shake-It-Records, the Cinicinnati record store and record label, who released their first three full-lengths have decided to stop putting out new titles, and negotiations with some of the bigger indies out there (Including Merge and Matador) haven’t produced terms suitable to the band. While this is a band who’ve had significant critical success to date, and a band who would provide mutual benefit to a label willing to release their music, this isn’t a band who are going to be road warriors, as some of those labels have asked as part of any deal. Guitarist Chuck Cleaver is pushing 50, and being on the road for five months of the year isn’t as appealing as it was back in his days with The Ass Ponys.
* I can’t write about last night’s variety show with The Modern Electric, Cloud Nothings, Wussy, and This Moment in Black History without commenting on the variety. And by variety, I don’t mean the eclectic lineup of high-speed, indie rock, Americana-infused, rust-belt rock, and heavy. I mean the juggler. I get the idea behind the variety show — A diverse set of music, combined with an old-fashioned variety show, complete with street performers. However, when the juggler brought out his glowing juggling balls set to the music of Enya, all good will was lost. Instead of providing entertainment between sets, he now became an object of contention between sets.
