Hey Dave,
What's up man? I have a couple of suggestions for the Cincinnati area. You could try Bogarts, but that's the venue where you almost melted from the heat this summer, remember? Kind of a dump, but the website is:
http://www.bogarts.com/main.html
Better places to try might be:
The Southgate House -
http://www.southgatehouse.com/ - mostly indie bands and smaller signed acts. Actually in northern Kentucky but people go right over the river from Cincinnati to this district for entertainment which has lots going on.
The Madison -
http://themadison.frontgatetickets.com/
Lots of mid to bigger sized acts, again in northern Kentucky but really serves Cincinnati. I see whitesnake is on the schedule for July 11th – Might be a good Steve connection there…
Hope this helps. Let me know if you come to Cincy. I'll help in any way I can...
Eric Scheve