Of Tall Boys And Above Average Progeny
by Greg Boose

Sea Ray / Metric / The Stills
At the Grog Shop
Cleveland Heights, OH
 
Scenesters and students were out to see a show that had both hype and cold Pabst Blue Ribbon Tallboys. With its red curtains behind the stage, the Grog Shop found itself picking stray hairs off itself. Twenty bouncing Ohio kids followed Metric's Emily Haines orders to come on up and dance.
 
The nine o'clock show turned into a nine thirty show as Sea Ray started their first of many charming songs. With six members, the Brooklyn, NY band offered the crowd a panoramic musical lesson. The guy on the left was caught playing the synthesizer while blowing a horn into a microphone simultaneously and in the middle was a pretty girl controlling a cello. The drummer was slick and Sea Ray was tight. The only problem was their image. They looked like the result of a reality television show for learned musicians where the featured stylist was away at an AA meeting. Nobody looked like friends.
 
Mesmerized, I fell in love with the girl at the cello and pictured our genius children on the cover of the hometown daily. That is, until I saw Emily Haines stomp around.
 
Metric, the band that ultimately started in Toronto, stole the key to the city of Cleveland and threw it out the window. Emily Haines sang sweetly and headbanged hard. The music was electric and climatic and causing my knees to dip. Another Tall Boy could wait.
 
When the microphone wasn't being swallowed, Haines would stretch its chord out into the audience for a sing along and a self-gratifying shimmy. She told the audience to get on stage and they did - laughing and bouncing.
 
The Stills played to an almost capacity crowd. At one point, lead singer Tim Felcher announced, "We have one of your own." They stole the Grog Shop sound guy from their last stop through Cleveland and took him on tour. When he wasn't thanking us, he led the Stills into perfect renditions of songs off of their latest LP, Logic Will Break Your Heart. "Gender Bombs" and "Still in Love Song" stood out.
 
The Stills' stay was short, but long enough to know that they had been through. The encore included members of Metric with the final song being sung by Stills' drummer, Dave Hamelin.
 
I explained the whole thing to coworkers the next morning in short sentences that included words like "impressive" and "fun." In front of my computer I Googled cellos and kid geniuses.
 

©2004 Greg Boose