Two of Northeast Ohio’s coolest records stores faced off last weekend for a pair of shows that represented some of the best bands on each shop’s home turf. In Cleveland’s corner was Music Saves, a relatively new player on the local independent record store scene with an enviable location, mere steps from the Beachland. Representing Cleveland for the shop were psychedelic folk avatars the Dreadful Yawns and heavy instrumentalists Wisconsin. In Akron’s corner was Square Records, the Rubber City’s finest stop for real music fans. The store’s chosen bands were Tight Whips and Houseguest.

The diverse lineups both nights brought large crowds to their respective bars, and seemingly all in attendance were exposed to music they might normally have missed.

While the Akron bands turned in good sets of aggressive, crunchy, percussive rock (Tight Whips) and melodic pop (Houseguest), and Wisconsin’s droning, dynamic instrumentals drew applause, the real highlight of Friday’s Beachland show was the Dreadful Yawns.

The Yawns music is an amalgam of whooshy, dreamy shoegazer pop and kozmic country in the vein of the late Byrds, tempered with a hint of Nuggets-era garage-psych, and Friday’s performance highlighted every nuance of the band’s sound.

With a lineup bolstered by the addition of acoustic guitar player Nick Tolar, the band roamed freely from jangling, 12-string folk rock, to the laconic country lope of “Get Yourself Back Home,” a song which showcased one of guitarist Dave Molnar’s extra skills – harmonica. Throughout the set, the group’s talent for multi-layered vocal harmonies was also evident with, singer-guitarist Ben Gmetro and Molnar trading leads.

By the time the performance climaxed with a soaring, lysergic, seven-minute opus, everyone in the bar was paying attention, and the band’s friends and fans in front of the stage were ecstatic – an impressive display for a band that is often guilty of not playing to the crowd.

Saturday night’s show did not yield quite as decisive a winner, although Tight Whips female singer, whose voice lands somewhere between Patti Smith and Poly Stryene made a fairly convincing case for her band.

Eight rounds of rock and roll, but with no knockout in sight, everyone – bars, bands, record stores and audiences – could consider themselves the winner.
from Cool Cleveland contributor Leslie Basalla lbasalla77@msn.com

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