Who: Dana C. Crawford, PhD
What: House of Blues (Lord Huron)
Where: 308 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44114
No matter where you live, a universal truth remains: summer is for fun. The longer days and warmer nights are energizing, convincing your body that yes, you can stay up past 9pm tonight! To feed this urge to get out and about in the sun, many communities pack a tight schedule of art and music events for people to enjoy. And Cleveland packs it in with the best of them.
It was one such summer night last year when graduate student Josh Hoffman starting making the office rounds towards the end of the workday. “Want to go to a concern tonight?” was the question of the afternoon. What? So soon? I usually prepare for these things in advance---I have an electronic calendar to maintain! Oh, WTH, let’s throw caution to the wind and go. It’s summer, after all! Oh, wait: who’s playing and where are we going?
Apparently it was Lord Huron at the Cleveland House of Blues. I have been to the House of Blues in Los Angeles and New Orleans, and I have to admit that this is not my favorite music venue. I briefly wavered in my decision, but the group going helped me tip the scale and off we went. The House of Blues is located in the East 4th Street District past the Playhouse Square District and close to the Arcade. If you plan ahead, you can dine at some of the nice restaurants on East 4th Street (like the Greenhouse Tavern). On that night, we grabbed our quick meal at the Chocolate Bar on Euclid before the show.
Lord Huron is an American indie folk band based out of Los Angeles. I actually didn’t know them by name when we decided to go to the concert, but Will Bush assured me that I would recognize their music. Besides, I like that genre of music, so we were sure there would be something to like during the show. WWR (Will was right): I did know at least one song Lord Huron played and I enjoyed the show. I was even more impressed with the scenes after the show: everyone spilled out onto brightly lit East 4th Street to enjoy the rest of that warm night. After all, summer in Cleveland is for fun.
