The Town Fryer is closing for the third – and probably last — time. Since 2004, the restaurant specialized in roots music and Southern comfort food. Proprietor Susie Porter moved to Cleveland from North Carolina and opened the club at East 38th Street and Superior Ave. She closed it in early 2007, reopened briefly the next year, closed in September and reopened in the Agora Café (5000 Euclid Ave.) in late 2008.
Between personal and business travails, Porter couldn't keep away from her calling as a hostess. Over the years, touring acts like Wayne "the Train" Hancock graced the place. Cleveland's Austin "Walkin' Cane" Charanghat was the house troubadour.
Porter says the venue's move to the much-hyped Euclid Corridor hasn't been a business bonanza.
"It's horrible," says Porter. "I don't see anybody on the road at all — and a handful of people on the bus."
Porter plans to go back to college.
The final show will be an early Mardi Gras/Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year bash on Sunday, February 14. Jim Suhler and Monkey Beat, the blues-rock band led by George Thorogood's guitarist, will play. Doors at 7 p.m., cover $5.
Once the Fryer goes silent, so will the Agora. Owner Hank LoConti has settled the legal complications from his doomed partnership with the Jigsaw Saloon owners, but the club has no further events scheduled.
Industrial/goth stronghold Cleopatra Records has issued a deluxe vinyl edition of the Rotten Bastards' Year of the Bastard. The Los Angeles-based band, whose bassist Dale Baker and drummer Mike Strong are from Twinsburg, has a Hollywood hair-metal sound, injected with melodic punk-rock and sampled porn dialogue. Song titles include "Van Halen Is the Greatest Rock Band Ever and Anyone Who Claims Otherwise Can Line Up and Kiss My Ass One at a Time or All at the Same Time."
The Beachland will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Friday, March 5. That evening, influential Cleveland-spawned experimental rockers Pere Ubu will kick things off by performing their 1978 debut album, The Modern Dance, in its entirety. Texas psych-rock legend Roky Erickson headlines on Saturday. To commemorate its run, the club has launched a blog to collect peoples' memories of the venue. Send your anecdotes to [email protected].
