Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Thursday October 13, 2016 - Canton, OH

Road Blog
October 13, 2016
Buzzbin Music Shop – Canton, Ohio

Yesterday was an abnormally quiet and relaxing day. We are using Akron, Ohio for our base between shows in Cleveland and Canton, saving us some logistic and travel hassles and a few bucks. This ain’t exactly Led Zeppelin fishing for sharks from their hotel balcony in Seattle or Keith Richards throwing a TV from his balcony in that bootleg Stones film with the obscene name, folks. We mostly hung around our 1 ½ star hotel for most of the afternoon, watching the news, doing some work, and generally chilling out. We headed into downtown Akron in the early evening to check out a record store we like there and as usual, we didn’t leave empty handed. I got the new Dinosaur Jr LP, which is one of my favs this year, and a Cloud Nothings 7” single with a Thin Lizzy cover.

From there we made the 30 minute drive south to Canton and checked out the venue – Buzzbin Art & Music Shop. This place is a beautiful punk rock dive, covered in stickers and graffiti, with cement floors, broken pinball machines and toilets, and some 200 beers available. They have giant windows around the stage that were open to the street, and it was brisk in there, to put it mildly. We grabbed a bite at an adjacent brewery, where, despite his initial objections, Patty enjoyed a Scottish Egg. The Coffee Porter was a bit over the top; more coffee than Porter, but overall dinner was pretty decent.

We loaded in to the Buzzbin and said hi to Stereo Empire – the opening band, younger dudes playing the first show of their first tour, from Louisville, KY. We talked some Kentucky venues and settled in for some drinks. Before long, Scott Goldy introduced himself. He’s a local Canton guy with a big heart and an undying love for rock and roll. He was introduced to me by our mutual friend Miski Dee from City Mouse, and he helped us secure a local band for the show. It was pretty clear that there’s a cool local scene in Canton, and everyone is pretty passionate about it.

Stereo Empire hit at 9:30 and filled the room with a big sound that reminded us of some of the pop bands around today. Their singer Morgan has quite a range and command of the room. People were into it! We hit second and played to an attentive room. Every time my mouth hit the mike I got a healthy dose of electricity, which makes for a rough go, but we played well and worked out a couple of the bugs we were struggling with in Cleveland. Once again, it was great to be playing through a half stack. After us, locals The Intangibles played a great set of groove heavy soul and funk rock and roll. At one point they broke out a flute and a trumpet for a left turn into something really cool. Their singer Charlie is a great front man who looks a bit like a young Mike Love but plays with some amped up spirit. Another great set!

After some chats and a couple merch sales with some semi-inebriated locals, we loaded out and headed back to Akron with me at the helm of the big white van. We had a couple beers in the room before crashing out. Spirits are high as we head into the weekend, despite colder than expected weather and a relentless cough and cold that I just haven’t been able to shake. It’s a brisk but beautiful day in Akron and we’re hoping to see some good fall colors up in New England over the next few days. We’re off to upstate New York shortly for a show in Jamestown tonight.