Mr. Smalls Theatre
Millvale (Pittsburgh), PA
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
General Admission
$28
So here Roy and I were in Cleveland in the middle of the biggest snowstorm in decades. And Jon Anderson was playing in Pittsburgh the next night. The highways had not even been salted, let alone plowed.
I did think we'd be able to make the 130 mile trip in under 10 hours and actually arrive at the show, but would it be worth it? Of course, it would be Jon Anderson. But we'd be stressed by the drive. And it was a true general admission, all standing show. I only like those things when I can get in line early and be in the front row. Otherwise, I'm surrounded by people taller than me and can't see. I feel very closed in and distracted from the music in situations like that. The sticking point for me was driving back into Cleveland for our flight home on Sunday. I didn't think we'd be able to make that flight if we drove away. That would lead to an expensive last minute flight home from Pittsburgh or losing precious vacation days. Roy didn't think we'd be able to make it to Pittsburgh in time anyway.
I convinced myself the show would be canceled. The School of Rock had canceled shows due to snow the previous two years. Pittsburgh was the westernmost show - the band didn't need to travel out there to get to the next show. It seemed logical. Then, I was able to tell myself that the roads were awful and we'd be in better shape staying in Cleveland. Theoretical sour grapes. We prepared for it. Our hotel was sold out on Saturday night, but there was another Holiday Inn in town with rooms available. I visited my hotel's business center to get on-line. I made back-up reservations at the other hotel and looked up some phone numbers.
Roy and I watched the Weather Channel. Cleveland had already gotten a foot of snow, and they were predicting another 5-8 inches. There was snow from Cleveland to about the halfway point to Pittsburgh, and then an ice storm. Nice driving conditions! I reached someone at the Mr. Smalls club and confirmed that the show was absolutely still on, and Pittsburgh was only getting a predicted 1-3 inches of snow. We watched more Weather Channel and local news about the roads.
After breakfast, we saw Adrian Belew's roadies loading their van. They were driving to Buffalo - right along with the storm. Looking at their itinerary, they had to try. The night after that was a show in Massachusetts. Skipping one show would cause a domino effect. Apparently they made it. We didn't have to take that risk. Cleveland was our home base for flights and we were already there.
Intellectually, it made sense to stay in Cleveland. Roy and I had a lot of fun that day, probably more than we would have had making that dangerous drive and getting ourselves to a bad spot in the concert venue. But it hurt to give up a chance to see Jon. Once we got home, I read of one guy at the Belew show who drove back on the same route we would have taken to Pennsylvania. His car got stuck on the interstate and he had to get it plowed out the next day. After hearing that, I am more convinced we made the right decision.
We left our car in the parking lot and took the hotel shuttle to their sister inn. We were staying at a Holiday Inn "Select" and the new one was an "Express", but it was a lot nicer. Rehabbed older building, cool ceilings and angled elevators, a large corner room with big windows. Lots of character. The woman at registration even gave us a "blizzard" rate, $30 less than we were quoted. We crashed for a little while.
Sometimes things just work out nicely. OK, the weather was miserable, we were missing Jon Anderson - the whole reason we went on this trip - but the 32nd annual Cleveland International Film Festival was taking place, not too far from our new hotel. And while the airport and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame closed that day because of the snow, the movies went on.
The new hotel didn't have a restaurant, so we went searching. Nothing was open in The Arcade building across the street, but a friendly security guard walked us out the other way and pointed out a sports bar and grill. I love that Ohio is non-smoking! I'd probably never walk into this place in St. Louis, but I could breathe easy. We had a nice lunch. The film festival was being held at Tower City, an indoor mall a few blocks away. There was a basketball game that actually took place that day. It let out around the time we finished eating. The restaurant was packed and the roads were jammed too. All these cars moving very slowly in the snow.
It was bitterly cold and windy. I was wearing two coats, but my hands were feeling it. We found the Hard Rock Cafe and decided to warm up in there. Roy was really impressed with its layout. No Yes stuff. It seemed trippy looking at all this memoribilia so soon after seeing the Hall of Fame. We found that the Hard Rock connected right to Tower City at their other entrance. No more outdoors for us!
Tower City was a weird mix of upscale and not-so-upscale mall. The connected hotel was a Ritz Carlton and there were some high end food chains like Morton's Steakhouse. But most of the stores were of the Dollar Store variety. Something for everyone, I guess. All the restaurants were open to accomodate the film festival people, so this one mall was populated while the rest of the city had a snow day.
We saw two films, one was a documentary on the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969. It talked about the river's history, the fire's cultural signifigance (including the nickname "The Mistake by the Lake"), and what the city has done to protect it since. It was interesting and "Cleveland-y" but not a must-see.
The second film was called Jump! It's in that genre of feel-good competitive kid documentaries, like Spellbound and the ballroom dancing movie. These kids compete by jumping rope, both in speed and style. Some of the examples look like gymnastics involving a rope. This is a sport, and they talk about the upsides and downsides of its expansion as well as showing off their moves and their background stories. The general goal is for it to grow enough to get it into the Olympics. It's amazing to see these young people so focused on a sport with no professional opportunities or even scholarships available.
Two of the girls in the movie, one being a world champion speed jumper, gave a demonstration. They, along with the director, answered questions from the audience. It wasn't as good as seeing Jon Anderson in concert, but it was a charming movie and a really fun night. It's like they invited us into their world for the day.
Roy and I got dinner at the upscale Italian restaurant in the mall called Bice. Every meal I ate in Cleveland was at a chain. Bad Rhea! It was hard to travel to places given the weather. It was the best meal of the trip. Afterwards, we headed into the Ritz Carlton to ask them to call a cab for us. We'd been inside since mid-afternoon and it was now 11pm. It had stopped snowing! The cabbie couldn't get closer than a half block from the hotel. He tried to drop us off on the sidewalk, but with the snow banks it was easier to walk in the street. The wind had died down, so it was actually kind of pleasant and pretty outside.
The next morning, things were getting back to normal. We printed out our boarding passes at the hotel and gave ourselves a long time to pick up the car and get to the airport. I expected it to be so busy, with people from canceled flights the previous two days, but it wasn't bad. Bad weather at another city caused our flight crew to be late, so the flight left about an hour late. But the travel home was uneventful. It was a bittersweet trip, because I so wanted to see Jon Anderson, but we had fun with our improvised plans.
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