Michael Zweig, native Clevelander and bassist for local band Disconnected, wants to believe that if you build it — in this case, an independent music venue a stone’s throw from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — fans will come. “That’s the question I intend to have answered 12 months from Aug. 3, 2018, when I opened this place,” said Zweig, owner of the three-month-old Stella’s Concert Club. Since opening in downtown Cleveland across from Progressive Field, business at Stella’s has been up and down. The space, which currently opens on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and can hold 250-300 people, has expectedly had its share of big crowds and frustratingly sparse ones. “The big nights are mind-blowing,” Zweig said. “On the days we’re slow, though, I do scratch my head.” That experience reflects the challenges any new indie concert club faces, especially one in a market rife with competition from giant promoters such as AEG Presents and Live Nation, which are battling for market share here, not to mention a bevy of established smaller venues dotted across Northeast Ohio from Lakewood to Cleveland Heights to Akron. But Zweig said he’s emboldened by the city’s rock history and optimistic that a steady flow of patrons will soon be the norm. “The assumption is in a city where the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is located and the term ‘rock and roll’ was coined, you would think a community like that could support as many venues as you can… [Read full story]
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