Carlos Jones brings the island sound to Brothers Lounge
So another weekend night brings us back to The Brothers Lounge and I swear not to rip into them very much at all. Just two things this time really. I had a decent enough salad for dinner. I can’t sing the praises of a salad though because if something is wrong with a salad well you got issues. It was fine. My wife had the nachos. She wanted something small and it was just that. When you see a nacho plate at other places around town they are usually huge and come fully loaded. Cheese, sour cream, assorted veggies garnishes and usually at the very least ground beef or something. Now you can add chicken or steak to the nacho platter here for an added cost so I guess that’s an option. Seriously though just ditch the $7.00 price for the Nachos. Raise it to $9.00 and throw some pulled pork on them or something. I sampled some of the smoked pork from the kitchen and that shit was good. Throw that on top, maybe a little crumbled bacon and that’s worth $9.00, but $7.00 for a plate of nachos is pretty lackluster.
Where's the beef nacho-man?
The second bitch isn’t so much with Brothers but with the Jones band. It wasn’t about the show at all. I will get to the meat of the review (unlike the no meat of the nachos) a bit later. My issue was with the sound check. Seriously this could have been the longest sound check I had ever witnessed in my entire life. I shit you not the sound check took every bit of 2 hours. I am not sure if it was the sound guy or what the hell the deal was but you would think the Wailers or Toots himself was getting mic’ed up. It was the single longest sound check I have ever been through and after an ordeal like that I thought this guy better be fucking good.
Everything's gonna be alright now
I can honestly say yeah he was damn good, but I don’t think the Rolling Stones are worth sitting through a 2 hour sound check. Once I calmed down the soothing reggae sounds of Carlos Jones started to flow through me. I lost myself in the groove. People dig this guy. There is something about him that is so real. It was so unexpected to see this kind of island soul coming out of Cleveland Ohio. I bought into it 100%. This was real reggae and Carlos Jones is the real deal. I have seen others make a mockery of it, I have seen others hold their own but I have never seen something this authentic and real up close like this. The 2 hour sound check worked, they sounded great. The crowd was a mix of all creeds and colors dancing to the sound of this deep funky island music. If you weren’t at least bobbing your heads to this beat you had no soul. They say music can bring unity and peace. I am hear to say Jones and his band write the soundtrack for that concept.
Craig, AKA "Tex" ask him for a Sarsaparilla.
Brothers again delivers on some of the best music in Cleveland. I can’t say enough about seeing bands at this place. Service was ridiculously good, John Golubic popping around every crevice of the bar like a jack in the box, and Craig behind the bar keeping the drinks flowing. I am still not sold on some of the booked acts but they do right for the music scene and for the people of the community holding benefit shows and doing some good things. You will not find a cleaner music venue in Cleveland. I would sleep on the bathroom floor if I had to. Not sure why I would have to but it’s an option. I am sure we will be back as long as the entertainment is solid like this Carlos Jones cat and the beers remain cold. This is Cleveland entertainment at its finest. I would not hesitate taking out of town folks here to impress the fuck out of them. Well, as long as you don’t buy the nachos.
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I’m with you on the soundcheck thing. I’m in the band and it drives me crazy to soundcheck in front of people, period. But the reason why we do this is mostly because some guys in the band have other jobs that prevent them from being able to do a soundcheck earlier in the day, sometimes even making it to gigs on time. There was also a band booked in front of us that night which made getting up there to set up impossible before 9pm. I will mention this to the band because I feel that the experience prior to when we play is crucial to set the mood and tone of the night. And while I’m grateful that our music spoke to you, the fact that we obviously pissed you off beforehand is unacceptable to me.
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