Benefit concert to rock Barberton neighborhood
COURTESY PHOTO
Westside Steve Simmons recreates Meat Loaf’s greatest hits with Paradise.
By BOB MOREHEAD
BGNN senior staff writer
BARBERTON A block of W Tuscarawas Avenue will shut down again Aug. 9 and fill with Jim Steinman’s 1970s operatic crescendos as Paradise takes the stage to rock cancer. Paradise is an Easy Street Band tribute project, bringing to life the music and stage presence of Meat Loaf.
Paradise is made up of members of the longstanding and popular Easy Street Band, itself tracing roots back to a Norton High School garage band called The Rats.
Paradise/Easy Street bass player Bob Martin, the group’s purple-clad token Barbertonian, said the tribute grew out of vocalists Westside Steve Simmons and Kearsten Kopf’s popular Meat Loaf covers with Easy Street.
This will be the fifth benefit show under the auspices of the 4-Leaf Clover Foundation, founded in 2015 by Ed Sutters, former operator of The Tangier in Akron. The organization helps support patients and families dealing with cancer; Sutters lost two of his sisters to forms of the disease, prompting him to found the organization.
Proceeds will be split between 4-Leaf, the Comunale Cancer Foundation and Project Ed Bear. 4-Leaf’s chosen cancer warriors this year are Emma Bryant and Barberton’s own Lexi Haynes, a 2025 BHS graduate diagnosed with ovarian cancer a week after commencement.
Martin and his bandmates played the first Rock Cancer event July 3, 2019 in the middle of West Tuscarawas Avenue in downtown Barberton.
“When I started this, I just wanted to play downtown but I needed a nonprofit in order to get a liquor license,” Martin said. “The city has been more than helpful.”
Paradise is again bringing special guests The Woovs that night and the show starts at 6:45 p.m. at the intersection of W Tuscarawas Avenue and Third Street NW.
There will be a 50-50 drawing and gift baskets. Donations for the baskets will be accepted right up to the night before the event; text 440-742-0010 to participate.
