Beachland Ballroom at 25: Building cultural community in Cleveland, one show at a time

CLEVELAND, Ohio – After running a concert venue for 25 years, you best believe Cindy Barber and Mark Leddy of the Beachland Ballroom & Tavern have stories – including some that need heavy redaction, or a “Law & Order”-like “names changed to protect the innocent” caveat, to share.

"Dun-dun," indeed. We could have done a whole story on those alone. We promised not to.

Those salacious (and occasionally scary) moments still make them laugh, yet are outnumbered by hundreds of heartfelt, significant and memorable moments that made their labor of love – once the Croatian Liberty Hall in the Collinwood neighborhood – a Cleveland cultural institution.

They’ll tell you it’s taken blood, sweat, tears, scratch and elbow grease to keep things going. That they do it for every music fan that darkens their door – some of them visiting several times a week.

They choke up at the mention of regulars, musicians and familial employees who have shuffled off this mortal coil and tell you club ownership is not for the faint of heart.

It has tested their fortitude (and their relationship) but in the very same breath, both say they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

They’re celebrating every step of that quarter-century this weekend – featuring concerts by CLE soul-shakers Welshly Arms, punk rockers Dollyrots and Lake Erie surf-punks The Rosies – as well as “The Big Tease” burlesque show on Saturday.

A stocked-and-rockin’ flea market rounds things out Sunday, with gads of vinyl and vintage finds.

Owners Barber (formerly editor of alt-weekly Cleveland Free Times) and Leddy (a member of CLE band Satan’s Satellites and booking agent for the iconic Pat’s in the Flats venue at the time) worked to convert the hall on Waterloo Road into the storied live music venue it is now.

They say it’s nice to be recognized and get their flowers, but for them it’s all about the people, the music and their Collinwood environs.

Milestones and memories

“I had moved to this neighborhood in 1986,” Barber told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

“I was watching in real time the demise of the neighborhood, as older ethnic people were moving out, drugs were being sold on the street and things like that were happening.”

Barber didn’t like what she saw. When the publishing industry began to falter at the end of the 20th century, she decided it was time for a change and to invest in her neighborhood.

She saw Collinwood’s ethnic and musical community and history as potential: legendary Cleveland bands Pere Ubu and The Schwartz Brothers were living there; “polka dances and pig roasts” were commonplace and a hearty “bohemian music community” was present but without a proper venue.

Barber was a big part of the formation of Lakeshore Neighbors in the late 1980s. The focus was to rehab as many historic buildings as possible in Collinwood and to “create infrastructure for an artistic and entertainment focused community.” She later purchased the old Croatian Hall in 2000.

“I couldn’t stomach what was happening anymore and kinda put my community activist hat on,” Barber said.

“I naively thought if we bought a building on Waterloo and created a destination location, I could turn everything around in a couple of years.”

She’s still waiting for a full-blown neighborhood renaissance, but establishing the Beachland did bring light and life to Collinwood that remains today.

On March 2, 2000, the Beachland opened to the public. It’s been a rock and roller coaster ride ever since – full of brunches, poetry slams, burlesque, memorials for treasured locals who have passed and more. Independently owned and operated, it’s a destination for locals and travelers alike.

A quarter-century is long time to do anything, let alone something Barber and Leddy love so much – presenting live music and cultural performance.

When she hears of someone in another country sporting Beachland gear, or one of the musical odes created as a toast to the oasis they created, she can’t help but smile. It makes it all worthwhile, she said.

“Idles named one of their songs for us,” Barber smiles. “Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, too.”

‘A home away from home’

From the get-go, Barber and Leddy wanted to keep a lived-in, home-away-from-home feel.

“Vintage vibe and authenticity of the building” meant that a massive renovation-modernization project was never up for discussion up front; it was all about preservation, gritty intimacy and immediacy. Thanks to the two adjoining rooms the venue couldn’t have been more perfect to start.

The Beachland’s intimate Tavern stage (148 capacity) and larger Ballroom stage (500 capacity) often have simultaneous gigs going; a full kitchen and bar makes sure patrons are satiated.

Marquee acts have crashed Beachland’s doors early and often on their meteoric rise to megastardom.

Familiar names like Akron’s The Black Keys, The Cramps, Guided by Voices, The National, Arcade Fire, Idles, Mastadon, The White Stripes (among countless others) made early, memorable appearances there.

You might recognize some others: Television, Rise Against, Sleater-Kinney, Drive-by Truckers, Mumford & Sons and MGMT, too. As for local acts, they’re too numerous to list.

Two iterations of the short-lived CMJ Rock Hall Music Festival (2005, 2006) which had epic lineups. Clubs across the city had concurrent shows; Barber and Leddy notably featured Alejandro Escovedo, Detroit Cobras, the Dirtbombs, Gil Mantera’s Party Dream and others at the venue.

And get this: some talent – namely Wayne “The Train” Hancock, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys and Los Straitjackets – appear to be vying for an as-of-now-fictional “Most Beachland Appearances Award.”

Each act has cracked the 20-plus shows threshold. But to hear Barber tell it, that stands to reason.

“We still do this now, but back then we were feeding everybody that came through, taking really good care of them,” Barber said. Their chef at the time was whipping up gourmet family-style meals for artists rolling through. Camaraderie after a “thank you, good night!” often rolled into the morning.

“There’s a family vibe happening here that remains across the years and with Los Straitjackets, who have played here 25 times over the years,” Barber added. “Their early visits were so profound to them that when they got back to Nashville, they told everyone about us.”

“That’s when the bookings started increasing, Leddy said. “Pretty soon, word on the street was that you had to play here. There were some nights we didn’t leave here until three or four in the morning.”

When you’re here, you’re family

That kind of support has never been exclusive to national acts rolling through. Barber and Leddy have been hosting and supporting nightly local music and community-focused special events – summer and holiday markets, the Waterloo Arts Festival and more – for many, many years.

They’ve employed many local music industry pros and musicians over the years – folks who one would identify as subjects of the recent Cleveland Music Census that Barber and Happy Dog’s Sean Watterson spearheaded beginning in 2023.

When businesses and organizations in the neighborhood were looking for support, they had it in the club’s dynamic duo of Barber and Leddy.

The destination venue is nothing short of a pillar in Northeast Ohio’s music scene and artistic community.

Beachland also has “a tremendous amount of loyal customers,” Leddy said. “We have people here several times a month, folks who know bartenders and vice-versa. Every day, old friends see each other and new friends are made.”

The knock-on effect of that communal vibe is “really helpful to the business model and overall stability,” he added.

“But beyond that, it’s not just some anonymous group coming in for every show, like it is at a lot of other venues. We have a different kind of feel here entirely and folks know that.”

Next stop, a Golden Jubilee?

In the near-term, Barber wants to see the Beachland become an “incubator-hub for the region’s music and arts community.” Her budding nonprofit Cleveland Rocks: Past, Present, Future will have a hand in it. Plans to develop adjunct business support for local musicians is the future state vision.

There are always community-minded plans running in her mind.

“I don’t do much of the stuff that Cindy does on the street because I’m involved in all kinds of things behind the scenes – booking, staff schedules, marketing and so on,” Leddy said.

“But I am very supportive of all of it. And we’ve got a lot of young help keeping us going, a lot of great people. I may not be able to stay up as late as I used to, but that energy in infectious.”

Both partners agree that they should be “further along on a succession plan than we are,” Leddy added.

“We can’t do this forever, but anyone with a day-to-day like ours will tell you it’s hard to pull over to do something like that regardless of your age, because of the sheer attention to detail. But we’re on it.”

“We’ve got a few people starting to talk about putting a kind of a coalition of music in place to transition,” Barber agreed, adding that despite the coronavirus pandemic, downturns in the economy and the ever-present chaos inherent in the music industry, they’re in a healthy spot.

“There is no mortgage, so we can survive a lot more than the average bear might be able to in this world right now,” she said.

“We took the opportunity to make some upgrades and repairs when the pandemic money became available. There’s more work happening in the neighborhood. We have a lot of people working for us who weren’t alive when the club started, so that energy is at play as well,” Barber added.

So “onwards” to the next 25 years, then? A Golden Jubilee, if you will?

Barber and Leddy smile.

“There’s no firm timeline on [succession] but we have no immediate plans to stop what we’re doing, either,” she laughed.

“When we do make that move in the future, we want to be sure we have the right people in place. We aren’t getting any younger, but we won’t just turn it over to anybody.”

Beachland Ballroom & Tavern is at 15711 Waterloo Road, Cleveland. You can learn more about the storied club and the weekend events teed up to celebrate their 25th anniversary at beachlandballroom.com