Show Pics: Temples @ The Grog Shop (10/20)

Cleveland. Many people groan at the idea of going to Cleveland, but I had heard many good things about the city by the big-assed lake. Au contraire, this is a good food town with plenty of venues to check out jams. I went to Lola last night, Michael Symon’s fancy place, and dear jeebus it was good. The night before I went to catch Temples at The Grog Shop. I was treated to locals Nowhere and Philly’s The Districts and dear jeebus, it was good.

So click through and see a bit of the Cleveland scene…

The Grog Shop reminds me of old Emo’s Inside, only the bathrooms smell a little better and they have a quite a few more beer choices. Plenty of stuff adorns the walls to commemorate patrons, artists and staff milestones. I tend to chat with the guys that run things and found them to be cheerful sort, ready to talk music, make fun of people watching shows through phones and make recommendations for local inside info. In fact, check out that show poster, done by the gent at the door and his girlfriend. Rad.

Nowhere opened. As fate would have it, one member is a friend of Andrew from Shivery Shakes. Cool. The band has a Tame Impala vibe, but grittier while adding vocal harmonies. There were several in attendance that thought the lone was side down. They have a bit of a following and for locals to pull a nice crowd with such shitty weather (blustery rain and mid-40s) was very unexpected.

The Districts bump the energy level up. Big guitar psych with heavy pop sensibilities, all eyes are on front man and most sweat of the night award winner, . Maniacally hunched over the mic stand while pounding out chords, the rest of the band follows suit giving a backing sonic wall. This was one fantastic set. Temples fans already up front were massively impressed, including yours truly. I’ll be attacking their catalog to post gems soon.

Temples took to the stage under rather bright lights. No request to lower them, they played a rock show. There was a little extra edge to the set, the proximity of fans instead of the barricades and security guys of a festival. I said it before about their sets at ACL, there are some very good songs out of this band and none of them are the ones deemed radio friendly. The tracks that feature the big chords jump at you and their harmonies on subtle tracks excel. “Colours To Life” is just goose-bump raisingly good with a ceiling over the band. “A Question Isn’t Answered” played live without the studio induced thrown down the well vocal and flutes may be one of the best songs the band has and needs to be rerecorded as a live track and released as a new single. The next guy to work with the band should make them record live. Period.

Pics time.