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THE AGORA

1971, Dave E., Brian and I went to see "The Flamin' Groovies" at the Agora. It was my virgin visit to that shithole. The opening act, "Glass Harp" played on endlessly, but they were the band that the extant lumpen proles had come to see. Encore after fucking encore, with the sycophantic sea of the Cle-oids heaping praise upon them after each (gasp) "original."

Ad-fucking-infinitum.

We certainly had no wish to mingle with such base morons, so bid our time in the alley smoking cigarettes. After a trice, The Groovies also appeared. We were star struck. Danny Minh, the Groovie's drummer (who, though I did not wear them, had glasses I lusted after) asked, "How long are these fucks [G. Harp] gonna play?" Then he looked over at me and queried, "What time is it anyway?"

I had just gotten my first watch since the timex I had in Jr. high and wanted to show it off, so rather than just tell him, I walked over and held it up for him. "Nice!" he said. The chronometer's face countenanced an ink drawing of a couple happily engaged in 69 with the word "Aires" written on top. The Groovies doing "Teenage Head" were worth the interminable wait.
(John "the Praying Nihilist" Morton)
THE CLEVELAND UNDERGROUND

Located at the bottom of Columbus Rd. The Cleveland underground never made any money because all the patrons chose to drink their own beer sitting outside the club. You could do that in the eighties! On a hot summer Saturday night I saw 50 0r 60 people sitting outside socializing. What were they talking about? the high price of beer inside, or course. A friend of mine told me she was sitting behind the club, drinking and the police came by, they were looking for some fugitive, asked her if she'd seen anyone, then split. Those were the days, when the Cleveland police had better things to do than give tickets for open container. Some bands played there, the Subhumans I think, but that's not important, it was the atomsphere, it was the six of Busch under the Rapid Tressle, the homeless lady's bus the creamatorium next door.
(Malcom Ryder)

THE CLOCKWORK ORANGE (Payne Ave. across from the old police station)

Mirrors played there regularly during the fall of 1974 and into the winter of 75. Clockwork Eddie, talked us into buying a keg of 3.2 beer each week and giving it away free to encourage traffic. It didn't help. We had to bring our own PA , as was the case at all clubs in those days, and play 4 sets a night. It never occurred to us to ask another band to share the bill. The money from the door, $1.75 a head, would often disappear before it was time to pay us. Sometime in the early '75 the bar changed hands and it became "Loose Lounge". The new owner , Steve, didn't stop us from playing there but he really wanted the place to be a watering hole for Cleveland cops. our second or third show after he took over two off duty cops pulled a gun on us because they thought we were too loud. We stopped playing there after that.
(Paul Marotta)
COACH HOUSE (2025 Abbington, University Circle)

The Coach House is a VERY small club operated by members of Cle reggae band I-Tal. The main problem here is the location--next door to several hospitals. Amplified sound creates problems with the authorities. A number of bands played here in '78, including Styrene Money, Chi Pig, Lepers, Pagans, Wild Giraffes, and Bernie & The Invisibles - Both Linear Voltage Reviews were also held here. Several incidents involving art-types from the nearby university have cooled the management's "enthusiasm" for non-wave. No more here, as of 12/78.
(reprinted from Cle 3a - courtesy of Jim Ellis)
THE EAGLE STREET SALOON

I think the Jake is pretty much right where this club used to be. Saw Friction there once; After the show Pete Laughner was lyin' on the floor in a pool of beer swill smacking his head against the concrete floor, yelling, "I want to die".
(Paul Marotta)


FITZPATRICK'S (Old River Rd., Flats)

This is a small club down the road from the Pirate's Cove that started booking non-wave bands during the summer. X-Blank-X made their debut here. The club is too small to book the major bar bands and so gives alot of young bands gigs. Non-wave groups are booked sporadically. Bands that have played here include Backdoor Men (who opened the place up to non-wave bands), Lepers, Pere Ubu, Human Switchboard" Pagans and Tulsa Jacks. Loose atmosphere.
(reprinted from Cle 3a - courtesy of Jim Ellis)
FITZPATRICK'S (Continued)

The Backdoor Men check out Fitzpatrick's newly painted wall (circa 1978). It was not a noble attempt by John to improve the atmosphere of the area or to attract attention, hell, there were less than half a dozen buildings in that area of the flats that were not boarded up or abandoned. Fitz had a regular customer at the bar paint it as payment for a past tab that John knew he would never see cash for from the guy. This picture captures the Flats as I like to remember them.

photo by: Mike Stienberg
The ruins of Cleveland's industrial past in the background of the photo are long gone, now a Hooter's and Dick's Last Resort. Even Fitzpatrick's building is gone, now an empty lot waiting for the next "fad of the moment" bar and restaurant to move in. Sure the place was dirty and the bathrooms rarely worked, but for a few years in the late '70s it was ours for one or two nights a week, to book whatever underground or original bands we wanted, to draw (or not draw!) any type of crowd we wanted, to promote shows however we wanted. Fitz, bless his heart (and liver), never once complained about what we were trying to do for original music in Cleveland using his bar.
(Dave Lach, President, Handsome Productions 1977-1980)
FITZPATRICK'S (Continued)

My family had a PD route our entire lives...so when I was a teenager, I got the job of driving my littler siblings through their route. The only good music available early in the a.m. on Sundays (other than horrific church music ) was CWRU's Michigan Mom. WOW! My sibs were freaked, but I loved it. This lead to lies to my folks about where I was going in the evening - "Really, Dad, I'm taking the car to John Carroll's library so I can study!" - when instead I was at Fitzpatricks, dodging the river from the bathroom, and where I met Scruffs so at least I didn't feel totally alone. Months later I got busted when my dad wondered why there was always bird shit all over the car - those damn Flats bridges!
(Carol Spiros)

THE JUNGLE - March 1986 to September 1986

Named by Pat Kim (Beatnik Termites, Mice, etc), the Jungle was in the basement of the Hot and Chili Pizza on the corner of Euclid and Mayfield in University Circle. It hosted only 2 (or three) semi national acts -Eugene Chadbourne, Skeleton Crew, and possibly Snakeout (I think that last one might have been cancelled). One or two local acts 6 nights a week, 2 bucks to get in.

Mike Baker was the manager, the place was filled with concrete dust, and over head pipes (some with openable valves) Nearly every local act at the time played there (with the exception of maybe the Pink Holes, I still have the fake Pink Holes flyer for the Jungle with babies drinking beer somewhere) and it was closed down abruptly for code violations by some angry neighbors.

After it closed, Home and Garden played one show in the restaurant upstairs, but that was it.

Memorable shows:

The Mice doing a set of covers after too many people started yelling out random song names (in a gadda da vita comes to mind).

The band Gunk bringing lots of bars and sticks for the entire audience to bang together (but always in 4/4 time)

Some private party with a Savoy Brown reunion Numbskull playing under the name "The Norm Skully Trio."

While They were together before and after the jungle's existance, this place kind of made the New Salem Witch Hunters.

It was also almost always unbearably hot and humid and very well attended.
(Mark Penacho)



RESPONSE FROM KURT TURD of the Holes

The Pink Holes did indeed play one and only one show at the Jungle, which led immediately to us being banned from that club. Our response was to make up fake flyers saying wee WERE playing there for the next month or so, every weekend. I still remember hanging out in the parking lot watching people come up to the club, where the giant outside the entrance read in big bold letters "THE PINK HOLES ARE NOT PLAYING HERE TONIGHT!" They got pretty pissed at us. It was funny.

GOVERNOR'S CHATEAU (W. 117th Governor)

A very small neighborhood tavern located in the city's ethnic west side. A shot & beer place; sponsors its own softball team, who could always be found hanging around. A more unlikely non-wave venue could not be imagined. Which was what made it a great gig; that and a real good jukebox. Mo, the owner's daughter, promoted shows here semi-regularly all through the summer with The B-52's, Pere Ubu, The Cramps, Chi Pig, Lepers, Bizarros, Pagans, Public Enemy, Wild Giraffes and Styrene Money. The bands set up inside a large semi-circular booth at one end of the bar's small back room. Non-wave fans clustered there with the bands while, in the front room,' it was business-as-usual with the usual neighborhood clientele huddled at the bar, the two TV sets turned up full-blast. Certain tensions developed between the two camps during the World Series telecasts but, for the most part, live and-let-live was the rule. Laissez-faire. That is until the bar was cited for serving to an under-age fan. Non-wave activity was terminated sometime in the fall. Future events unlikely.
(reprinted from Cle 3a - courtesy of Jim Ellis)

The first time the B52's ever played in Cleveland was at the G.C. The guys watching TV told the band to turn down, cause they couldn't hear the game.
(Malcom Ryder)
THE LOOKING GLASS (Euclid, OH)

At one time I think this was part of a chain of local "teen clubs" called "Hullabaloo". They probably hadn't renovated since the late 60s.

Styrenes there a few times under the name George Money Band; with Ubu once, a few times with the Pagans and maybe Wild Giraffes and I can't remember who else. Saw the Nerves there ( they wrote Hangin' on a Telephone Line, which became a minor hit for Blondie) on tour from LA, three guys in a station wagon, changing into their suits in the parking lot. The Pagans claimed they wanted to fight us after one show. Our bass player at the time, Mike Antle, about as effeminate a guy as you could find, said to me, "Yeah Paul, let's kick their asses, even you and I can take 'em!" The Pagans never showed up for the big rumble. Figures.
(Paul Marotta)
PAT'S IN THE FLATS

Working man's lunch/shot 'n' a beer joint by day - punk rock bar on an occasional Friday and Saturday night. If you lived in Tremont, you could stumble down Literary Rd. into the Flats on foot and not have to worry about driving home drunk. I was usually too wasted to have many coherent memories of the place. Dog named "Budweiser". Skinny hillbilly "bouncer" in a security guard uniform constantly smacking his nightstick into his palm, hoping someone would screw up. John Walsh too fucked up by 7:30 to even turn his P.A. system on. Watching the West 3rd. St. drag races was more entertaining than the bands some summer nights. Got laid in a backseat by the barbed wire topped fence, that was also more entertaining than whatever band was playing.
(Phlegm)


PIRATE'S COVE (Old River Rd., Flats)

From 10/76 when Ubu began playing there and through most of '77, the Cove was the only Cle club booking new music. In the beginning, as the pattern usually goes, the Cove was a sleazy dive one step away from bankruptcy. They had nothing to lose--they booked Ubu. That first winter between 30 & 50 fans would show up on good nights and most of them ended up standing on chairs to keep warm (heat rises). The first Ubu/Devo show was flooded out when cold weather burst water pipes in the bathrooms.

As the weather warmed and into the summer of '77, Ubu nights became something like a private party. Everybody knew everyone else. There were the same faces, the same approx. 200 people every Thursday night. Inside was Ubu. Outside, was the heart of the Flats. Fifty yards away, the Cove is located in the ground floor of Rockefeller's first warehouse, is the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. Ore boats pulled up opposite the Cove to unload ballast into huge gravel mounds. The Aeronautical Shot Peening Company, across the road, pushed air- sounds into the night from behind a surrealist architectural facade of alien angles and pastel colors.

Quality control was always a problem at the Cove, though. "Country-boogie" bands on Friday and Saturday nights became the club's bread and butter. A very significant amount of "cultural" tension was ever-present between Cove personnel and the non-wave bands and fans. After Ubu quit their Thursday night gig, worthwhile bookings/billings occurred only sporadically. The Cove still books "new wave" on Thursday nights but guarantees no consistent quality. It continues to be a unpleasant experience.
(reprinted from Cle 3a - courtesy of Jim Ellis)

THE POP SHOP

The infamous drunkard junkie, Robert Ritchie, is well remembered for putting on benefits for ....well, his own benefit. This was despite, or perhaps in spite of, his considerable artistic talent. December 16, 1983, he pulled one of these off under the guise of "Cleve-bland Rag-o-zine", a masturbatory "literary" project that had clear flexible rubber coating as its most memorable feature. I think about ten bands played, but the only ones I can remember are the Offbeats and the Pink Holes, and I know Robert Griffin’s band at the time was there.

Jerome Caja had been asked to contribute by being the evening’s go-go dancer, on the side of the stage. A tall order, with which he complied by piling five wigs on top of his head, wearing something really sexy, and flailing around for the night. I contributed to the event by going in disguise as his bodyguard, in case any hard-asses wanted to maim his thin, faggot frame; and so I could enter without giving Robert a thin dime.

Nobody knew just what to make of Jerome. They wanted to be hip, they really did. By three in the morning we were practically begging anyone for a ride, just over the bridge. But all those pussies from Mentor (which is where every punk boy was from by then, there or Shaker) had to get home; I think they were just afraid of getting lost on the West Side –oooooo. On the bus it was hard to tell who was more afraid, us or the other passengers. I never ran as fast in my entire life, as when I got off that bus.
 (Anna van der Meulen)
REAL WORLD NITE CLUB (11800 Detroit Av, Lakewood)

The Real World Nite Club is located directly above the Drome. More popularly known as the Phantasy Nite Club, it was originally the product of the Last Hurrah of CLE 70's Glitter, and as such, has a certain "nostalgic" charm -- it's very tacky. Pretty much indescribable. Since the club's fall from grace several years ago, it's mostly been used for private parties and a black weekend disco. Johnny Dromette dubs the place the "Real World" for shows he occasionally promotes here. Pere Ubu, The Cramps, Pagans, Styrene Money and a number of groups from Detroit have played here. Attempts at establishing a non-wave disco in the summer failed.
(reprinted from Cle 3a - courtesy of Jim Ellis)

REAL WORLD THEATER (11806 Detroit Av, Lakewood)

More popularly known as The Homestead, the Real World Theater is an out-of-business movie house located next door to the Drome and underneath the Real World Nite Club. Three shows, headlined by The B-52's, Pere Ubu and Styrene Money, were promoted here in the fall of '78, along with the Cleveland screening of "Eraserhead." Atmospherics and lack of heat tend to make the WHK Auditorium a more desirable venue. The 'HK is also cheaper.
(reprinted from Cle 3a - courtesy of Jim Ellis)
TUCKY'S (W. 9th and St. Clair)

Tucky's was a real hot spot the fall and winter '81/'82. The club was three levels and the upstairs was an old disco complete with a lighted dance floor and mirror ball. It was always interesting to see someone like the Defnics play in such surroundings. Going downstairs there were Christmas lights on the walls and stairs. The bar downstairs had swings instead of stools around the bar and a stage that was most likely built for exotic dancers not Rock-N-Roll bands. It was a long stage that ran across the wall. The groups had to stand in a row to able to fit, often adjusting your head safely in between the pipes hanging from the ceiling. The bathroom walls were decoratively plastered with Playboy and Penthouse centerfolds.

The "second wave" began to mature that fall/winter. Every weekend Tucky's had someone worth seeing. Many bands filtered through Tucky's in it's brief history. Clocks, Easter Monkeys, Defnics, Dark, Offbeats, The Dissidents, Jazz Destroyers, Dr. Bloodmoney, Suspect Device, The Adults, Joey and the Radish Heads all come to mind as I recall swinging and swigging at the downstairs bar. Brian Sands had his Bizarmy show upstairs one night. Mike Hudson had his Cleveland Confidential album benefit downstairs on another.

The Cleveland Confidential show was the night Tucky's met it's demise (at least our type of music wasn't welcome anymore). The Easter Monkeys played last that night and the place was really hopping. Old Man Tucky concerned that it was going to run too late tried to unplug the Monkeys' amps. Chris spit beer on the old man and the crowd proceeded to do the same. The Monkeys leaned their guitars across the amps and let them wail while Mr. Tucky ran away holding his hand over his ears. All good things must come to an end.I guess.
(Scott Stemple)
THE VIKING SALOON

From the point of view of a band playing out, Dick Korn's Viking Saloon was a small step up from most of the rat-hole bars....Mirrors and Eels pestered Korn enough that he let us play a few times. Of course after one Eels show he claimed that we did damage to his club so he held on to our equipment until we apologized or paid him money, I forget which. Cinderella Backstreet, Rockets, Frankenstein, Tin Huey and all the rest played there, usually on the shittiest nights of the week, Sundays and Tuesdays.

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays were reserved for the big draws, such groundbreaking music as Dragonwyck, a Moody Blues and Yes cover band; or Charlie Wiener an often funny but always out of tune folkie singer songwriter. Of course the best part of the club was that if you got too rowdy the you might get kicked out by the bouncer there; I think his name was Crocus or something like that. Whatever happened to him?
(Paul Marotta)





Hey - Cinderella landed the Wednesday night slot, Paul, and never forget
it!

Dragonwyk - yikes - the only other mellotron in the city was owned by
their keyboardist. He'd come to watch me play mine through a Foxx fuzz!

The cool place to sit in the Viking was at the back corner of the bar
(which you could access without crossing in front of the stage). That
way you could come in, watch a band (but be so far back the band
couldn't see you past the lights) and then split before you were caught
eyeing the competition - you'd just hear about so-and so being there
later from a friend or roadie. What a silly bunch of infighting jealous
wankers we could be!

FM DJ "Kid" Leo used to come and see us too. BTW, he got his moniker
"Kid" from me...really.
(Cynthia Black)
WHK AUDITORIUM (5000 Euclid Ave.)

The 'HK was built in the thirties as a radio broadcast theater. It seats approx. 1500. It's old, neglected and crumbling. What once was beautiful is now a "unique atmosphere," perched on the edge of the "inner city." In the late 60's it was the Cleveland Grande for a while. In the mid-70's an early version of Devo played a private party for WMMS, warming' up for Sun Ra. Now it's used occasionally by black concert promoters and, of course, as the site for DISASTO.
(reprinted from Cle 3a - courtesy of Jim Ellis)
ZEPHYR ROCK AND ROLL GRILL (BROAD STREET, ELYRIA, OHIO)

26 miles west of Cleveland, tucked in between country and western bars and biker bars, was the Zephyr Rock and Roll Grill. It began around 1980-81, started by a group of fans from Elyria, Ohio led by Pat Costigan. Unable to afford the gas to get out to Cleveland every weekend, they took over a small, smelly bar across the street from where their own band would practice, built a stage higher than it was wide, and began booking Cleveland bands on a regular basis. The joint was tiny, and the smell of the long-defunct deep fryer would linger on your clothes for days after you left. The bartender was Jeannie, the same 50ish West Virginia-bred bartendress who had worked there for years. The crowd was a mix of her old regulars, Clevelanders who would brave the commute there, Elyrians starving for music other than Charlie Daniels, and Charlie Daniels fans who'd come to gawk and harass and, more often than not, ultimately dance. This is just a partial list, but I remember seeing these bands there: Wild Giraffes, The Adults, The Ponyboys, Dr. Bloodmoney, Insanity and the Killers, Lucky Pierre; I remember Wayne Kramer of the MC5 played there on his birthday once. The stage was over 5 feet high, made of rickety, about-to-break plywood. It was probably 4 feet wide. It was a perfect height to deal with hecklers. I remember once a Cat-hat wearing Elyria boy was taunting Crystal of the Adults from right against the stage, and without missing a note she laid a bootheel in his face. But for the most part it was drunken dancing; punks dancing with middle-aged Elyria women, new wave Cleveland chicks with Elyria bikers, all slipping around a tiny, cramped, greasy deep-fried dance floor. It's a low-rent strip joint now, nothing special. But it used to be.
(Sunny Jim)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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