From Marching Bands to Reggae in One Day

Yesterday, shortly before 5 p.m. in downtown Cleveland, my coworker, Jamie, announced she could hear a marching band outside somwhere 15 stories below. She couldn't see one, but when we all went in there, we could hear it too. Distinctly. We pondered for few moments why on earth a marching band would be playing downtown at the start of rush hour...and then went back to work.

Shortly thereafter, Kate, (who has been in this blog before. Check the archives.) and I headed down to our cars in the Tower City Parking Garge. We heard it again. The marching band...the Shaw High School marching band...and it was literally coming right at us. We nearly walked into it.

Turns out they had just finished a concert on the Avenue at Tower City as the kickoff for the Tri-C Jazz Fest. Gotta say these kids really seemed to have a great time and put on a fun show as they marched back out through the mall toward Public Square. Definitely caught a lot of people off guard, seeing that a high school marching band in full uniform is a bit of a non-sequitar in a downtown mall at the end of a business day, to say the least.

Later that evening, I went with Ty and Spice to see a different sort of live band. Carlos Jones and the Plus Band at McCarthy's in Lakewood. One of our favorite live shows, Carlos and the guys always deliver a great evening of reggae. Over the past year or so, we've struck up a friendship with Plus Band guitarist Dan Shramo, on the right of the picture and Carlos' left. Awesome guitar player...and banjo picker.

I took this final shot...my attempt at camera phone artsyness... through the front window of McCarthy's from the sidewalk as we were heading out. Needless to say, the band played on.