Nestled under the blue arches of the Main Avenue Bridge, a once-dormant piece of Cleveland music history comes to life as Globe Iron. The new venue, run by AEG Presents, is the entertainment company’s latest stake in the Cleveland market — just half a mile from AEG’s biggest local venue, Jacobs Pavilion.
The Globe Iron building, dating to the 1800s, will welcome concertgoers with flashy upgrades: new lighting and sound systems in the concert hall, plus accessibility updates. Yet, you’ll still see historical elements of the former shipbuilding foundry’s structure, like its original wood beams.
“We’re really focused on keeping the bones of the building intact, accentuating the really cool features that a building of that age has,” says general manager Jeff Farmer.
Formerly the Metropolis, and also Dream Nightclub and Trilogy, the building once hosted shows by hip-hop stars like 2Pac and Rick Ross. Now, it’s back in the swing of things, with a slate of impressive, diverse concerts including standouts MJ Lenderman (May 13), BadBadNotGood (May 14), Perfume Genius (June 15) and Stereolab (Oct. 8).
Another music venue in a time where new stages continue to pop up in Cleveland. And it’s a pretty big one, too, able to accommodate 1,200 concertgoers.
The scene has fluctuated in recent years, becoming more crowded with performance spaces, all asking for audiences. With events occurring every night of the week in numerous venues around the city, and more on the way, a question rises: Could Cleveland’s expanding venue bubble, at some point, burst?
For now, no — and, for now, expect even more in-demand tours to be drawn to town, thanks to Globe Iron, says Mike Tata, AEG’s marketing manager for the Great Lakes region.
“You see it, consistently, where some of these tours skip Cleveland and they go to Columbus and Detroit and Pittsburgh,” he says. “That’s just how these things work, but what it’s going to do is just naturally increase competition. Cleveland’s going to win because of this.”
(Image courtesy AEG Presents)
In competitive music venue dynamics, getting those tours and establishing those early relationships with artists can be key.
Think of it like a ladder. Within AEG, Globe Iron provides a starting point under the brand’s umbrella for artists and bands to grow from. With the 2,000-capacity Agora and 5,000-capacity Jacobs Pavilion in its rungs, AEG can book the same band multiple times at different stages of their careers.
It can also pivot when an artist’s popularity takes off, like when pop musician Chappell Roan’s 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess skyrocketed last spring. Originally booked at The Agora, AEG moved the star to a bigger, sold-out event at Jacobs Pavilion.
“Obviously, it takes a very special artist to kind of shoot up that quickly,” Tata says, “but that’s kind of the main goal, is just to establish these acts in the market.”
It’s a tried-and-true strategy in the entertainment business that’s deeply rooted in Northeast Ohio, tied to institutions like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Belkin Productions, which produced some of Cleveland’s most iconic rock shows in the ’70s and ’80s. In 2001, Belkin sold to what would become Live Nation Entertainment, the largest entertainment company in the world — which is seconded, these days, by Anschutz Entertainment Group, aka AEG.
Cleveland music was long defined by the Belkins and Live Nation, and today, Live Nation still brings the city its biggest headliners. It booked Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and more on their most recent shows in the city — and regularly locks in the biggest concerts of Blossom’s season. This summer, that includes Neil Young (Aug. 15), Halsey (June 13) and Luke Bryan (July 11).
Recently, AEG has moved into spaces where its competitor has receded. Notably, it’s operating Jacobs Pavilion and The Agora, both of which were Live Nation venues in past lives.
(Photo courtesy Evan Duly)
“It was definitely an opportunity they presented. It was something that we noticed, that they weren’t booking in here, and we were like, ‘Alright, let’s do it,’” says Globe Iron talent buyer James Carol. “They’re really focused on their big tours, the tour bundles, and they focus on that big picture. Not that AEG doesn’t do that, but we also like to develop who is in that tour.”
Operating agreements at Globe Iron and Jacobs Pavilion came from a budding relationship between AEG and Jacobs Entertainment, the longstanding organization that owns the two venues and other properties in the West Bank of the Flats.
“This new venue adds another block of activity, expanding our footprint and adding another memory-making opportunity to the list of experiences you can have here,” Jacobs Entertainment executive vice president Pat McKinley said in a statement.
Graduating acts into bigger stages is a key strategy of AEG, and it’s also the beating heart of any live music industry. Before landing at Globe Iron, Carol formerly booked at the Beachland Ballroom, selecting acts for both its smaller 148-capacity Tavern stage and the larger 500-capacity Ballroom.
Notably, Carol booked English band Idles at the tiny Tavern then the bigger Ballroom on its first two U.S. tours. Surprisingly, the band later released a heartfelt song titled “Beachland Ballroom” on its 2021 album Crawler. The single uses the Collinwood venue to show the band’s steady rise — which continues, as the band prepares to open for Deftones at Rocket Arena in September.
It isn’t the only example. Akron blues-rock band The Black Keys famously played its first show at the Beachland Tavern, before ballooning into fame that will bring the band to Blossom Music Center this August. Early-on, Oasis and Bruno Mars performed at the Grog Shop. A 17-year-old Taylor Swift played a sparsely attended Rock Hall concert.
For Cindy Barber, who co-owns the Beachland Ballroom, these early-career shows are the nucleus of a city’s music scene.
“They had to start somewhere,” she says.
Globe Iron is a shiny new attraction in Cleveland. Still, some members of the local music scene see gaps in venues of certain sizes, and have concerns around funding for existing venues. It’s partly what led to the recent Cuyahoga LIVE! task force, a potential precursor to a local music commission.
“We’re over-cultured, in some ways, for the size of our region,” says Barber, a task force member who also runs the Cleveland Rocks: Past Present and Future nonprofit. “There’s only so much culture money to go around. It’ll be interesting to see how this all works as we keep adding more facilities.”
Globe Iron isn’t the only newcomer. Playhouse Square aims to transform the Greyhound Station into a venue, the Rock Hall incorporated a stage in its $135 million expansion and the Cavs’ upcoming Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center may include a venue in its plans, according to rumors heard by Barber. East Fourth Street will welcome a new country bar, Jolene, and a renovation project is bubbling at historic Flats venue the Odeon. Plus, a slew of recent openings: The Roxy, Treelawn, Crobar, Welcome to the Farm, Spotlight Cleveland and Mercury Music Lounge, to name a handful.
The volume of live music in Cleveland continues to grow louder. Will there be enough audiences to support new spaces like Globe Iron and other existing venues?
The AEG team, at least, is confident it will find its niche, by working collaboratively with smaller independent venues in town — and primarily by seeking out the best of the music world, in all genre types.
“People might not know what Globe Iron is, but they are being blown away by what we’re announcing,” Carol says. “And I want to continue to have that evolve, and eventually the name will coexist with: ‘Oh, there’s good stuff here.’”
For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.
Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, publishing 12 times a year with immersive features, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.
