Unfortunately, the good people of Cleveland might not have received the message that Torres is currently touring on one of the year's most celebrated albums, Sprinter. Little more than 30 people showed up to the city's Beachland Ballroom & Tavern for what turned out to be a surprisingly intimate show.
Torres took the stage last night (Oct. 27) with bright blue lipstick that glimmered like the chrome spray in Mad Max while dressed in what looked like an all-black painters' suit with the leg cuffs hiked up to reveal her pot leaf stockings. She was ready to perform.
"This is my first headlining gig in Cleveland," Torres lead Mackenzie Scott said sheepishly to the thin crowd. Unfortunately, this scene tends to be the norm in Cleveland's faltering live music scene, even with the poor weather conditions and the fact that it was a Tuesday night are taken into account.
But, that didn't stop her from performing her best and showing her gratitude on stage.
The best moment of the night came when she started in on the choppy guitar part and quiet vocals that open one of her more uptempo rock songs, the album's closer, "Strange Hellos."
Some spectators in the back were being disruptive, drinking and being loud. After attempts to get their attention with louder and snappier guitar playing failed, she had to resort to outright telling the loudmouths off.
By the time the song launched into its noisy, meaty center, it was obvious the situation had pissed off Scott enough to give the song that extra kick as she came screaming in on the chorus.
Those kinds of hard rock moments were made all the better by her more subdued songs that can really engulf a room and crowd of that size. One of those moments came at the slow fading ending to "Honey," when someone in the crowd whispered to himself "beautiful" as if to say it as an internal thought, but blurted it out for the whole room to hear. That little moment brought a much-needed smile to Scott's face as she began to thank the crowd for their attentiveness and graciousness, with the exception of the "big mouth" in the back.
Hopefully her experience in Cleveland wasn't too off-putting, because it's a real treat to see her perform.
