The Lords Of The New Church

It’s like a scene from a Lisa Robinson rock novel, here at Swingo’s Hotel in downtown Cleveland. The lobby’s a baroque mishmash of fake 18th-century furniture and ultramodern light fixtures, an overachiever jumble of styles dedicated to some misguided notion of class. But authentic rockstar legends lie just beyond (mostly above) this glitzy lobby; Swingo’s has been the traditional stopping-place of all the Lisa R.-class biggies when they’ve played Cleveland. The Stones had a whole floor here, Led Zep topped old Rubberlips & Co. by wrecking their entire suite, etc. etc. Yeah, the ’70s and those pamperedsuperstar indulgences seem positively ancient here in the rock recession, don’t they? •

Lowered expectations or not, Swingos still knows how to roll out\the red carpet for the new-age rockers who find their way here, and hometown boys rightfully get top billing. “Welcome Stiv *Bator And The Lords Of The New Church,” proclaim the little movable' letters on the desk’s message board, but just below that (in the same little white letters) are announcements of meetings of the Rotary Club and the American Society Of Women Accountants, scheduled to take place at Swingo’s simultaneously with the Lords’ descent bn the hotel. Punk rock’s come home to roost.