Cleveland Recap

After initially canceling my trip to Cleveland due to weather, I remembered at the last minute that I'm from North Dakota and I'm driving on the interstate and what the hell is wrong with me, and I got in the car and headed out with just enough time to inhale a couple tacos at the Chipotle next to the Grog Shop before the show started.  I had a great time and learned the following things:

1. Cleveland has excellent venues.  I really enjoyed the show at the Grog Shop and Tom from the Afternoon Naps showed off the Beachland Ballroom and vouched for their sound.  The Beachland's anti-valentine's Morrissey brunch was tons of fun and I got a Morrissey valentine.  I would much rather catch a show there than at the Metro here, and if timing worked out and I got a sweet deal on a Megabus ride, I might even pick Cleveland over Madison or Milwaukee.
2. There are a lot of cute, little neighborhoods and fun shops and cool places to hang out in Cleveland (which I totally missed the first time I was there), but they are very far apart and you seem to almost need a car to get around.  
3. Everyone in Cleveland is insanely, insanely nice.  Bartenders smiled and chatted, the manager at the Chipotle who let me into the bathroom when the door was stuck joked with me, girls at venues complimented my outfits sincerely and out of nowhere, all the bands were super stoked I came out, I was introduced around, I met probably half the people involved in the scene, folks I was introduced to briefly came up and started conversations with me later--it was strange and wonderful.
4. The Afternoon Naps are in the running for "nicest band ever."  They guestlisted me at the show, introduced me to all the other bands, bought me drinks, and gave me a shoutout on stage, just because I drove 6 hours. Tom from Afternoon Naps not only offered me a place to stay, but encouraged me to hang out on Sunday and even went thrifting with me.  And he does this all the time--The Poison Control Center wrote a song about hanging out with him in Cleveland for a week.
5. There is some fucking awesome indie pop out of Ohio.  I knew this already, but Saturday's show was one of my favorites in a year where I've already been to multiple shows that have reduced me to tweeting drunken, misspelled variations of "everything is amazing. I love everyone." Bears are planning some limited touring behind their excellent new album, Greater Lakes.  If you get the chance to see them, definitely do it.  The Lighthouse and the Whaler also played an amazing set and have some releases and touring planned for later this year--we should all see them when they come through, because their Chicago shows have been sparsely attended and that's a shame.  Afternoon Naps still have no plans of ever playing anywhere other than Cleveland, New York, and Athens Popfest.  I'm seriously considering making up a fake indie pop festival in Chicago to try to lure them out this way.