Category Archives: Music

Git Aht! – Things To Do This Weekend

(Things to do while being put in company that’s way better than you are but still being appreciative of the shout out …)

Friday, March 2
Women’s Work , 5:30 p.m., 709 Penn Gallery, Dahntahn
artThis art opening has been a long time coming because, of course, it’s never done.

Thank you. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.

Tonight’s the opening reception, and we all know what that means – free stuff, plus in this case, live music from Autumn Ayers. Over a dozen artists contribute to the show, including Leslie Ansley, Sarah Beitler, Margaret Burley, Susan Constanse, Christiane D, Vanessa German, Stacy Gross, Deborah Hoskings, Jill Hruska, Tavia LaFollette, Monique Kollman Luck, Mary Martin, Joana Ricou, and Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer.

Game Night and the Seven Minute Dance Series , 8:00 p.m., Attack Theatre, Bloom/Gar/Field
So it’s First Friday and Attack does this bit every First Friday. They mine the depths of your mom’s coffee table, the kind with the sliding hideaway cabinets,, right, and they find the gems like Four-Square, backgammon, Atari, and Connect Four. A quick note here – If a large, relatively good-looking (in the right light) bald man named Me is there and you shout out “Pretty Sneaky Sis” I’ll dope slap you. And that ain’t a threat, it’s a fact. Believe that.

Every so often, they’ll be busting out the dance, but only for seven minutes at a time. Am I the only one that thinks the phrase “The Seven Minute Dance” could maybe be a euphemism?

This gig was named one of the best places for Pittsburgh Singles to meet by the PG, so, y’know, work on those opening lines. As a public service, I’ll give you a couple for free:

– “Is that a Pitfall Cartridge in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”
– “Do you play backgammon around here often?”
– “Why is this large, relatively good-looking (in the right light) bald man hitting me? It was just a joke when I said ‘pretty sneaky sis!’ Ow! Christ! Ow! Someone help me, for god’s sake!”

Saturday, March 3
Pittsburgh Party For A Purpose – Pittsburgh Cares , 8:30 p.m., Olive Or Twist, Dahntahn
Call it what you want but this is your “Drinking For A Cause” for the weekend. Pittsburgh Cares is a local organization that helps the community through the spirit and application of volunteerism. So they do good work, and what better way to show your support than to get tight in a tony dahntahn establishment? I mean, they normally turn me away* at the door of Olive Or Twist, so right there, you know it’s a quality joint.

Raffles, live entertainment, food, and 100% of the 10 cover goes to Pittsburgh Cares.

(*Note: That’s never actually happened.)

“Amptique” – Indie Dance Party , 10:00 p.m., Creative Treehouse, Bellvue
Amptique is hosting an Indie dance party at Creative TreeHouse that includes work by local artists Laura Petrilla and Matthew Macri. The Creative Treehouse is trying to establish an arts scene up in Bellevue, by opening a space for a shared studio, art & music venue, educational center, and creative service, and good for them. I like the art, and I want more of the art everywhere. Bellevue’s as good a place as any for more art.

The gig’s byob, and they’ll have mixers available. I dunno how deep the mixer selection will be though, so if you’re really into drinking, say, vodka mixed with gatorade and clam juice you’re probably on your own.

Quick Hits For Saturday:
Moxie’s opening a show, the “Box Series” by E. Gibbons…
Planet Art’s opening “Surrealistic Realism” by John Hinderliter…

Sunday, March 4
Liquid Sundays , 6:30 p.m., Rex Theatre, Sahsside
So the “Liquid Sundays” is (I know, that seems awkward using “is”, but I’m such a rank bad hat at the English Language that I’m just gonna go with it that way) a new monthly event taking place on the South Side. I can’t really tell if it’ll always be at the Rex or not, but that doesn’t really matter, I suppose. It’ll be in Sahsside regardless, and how many places could it be hosted?

They start off with a couple bands, “Soulharmonic” and “In The Wake Of Giants”, and they’ll also have an author on hand, Bob Hartman of London to “tell a story or two”. One would assume they’ll be his own, and not like, retelling of other people’s stuff. 21 and up, no cover. We love no cover, in more ways than one.

(Thanks to Nicole for sending this one in and to Dwight for telling her to do so.)

—————–
Because Knowing Where To Go (and drink) Is Half The Battle
(Further Suggested Reading)
knowing_half – Pittsburgh City Paper
– Pittsburgh Post Gazette
– Craigs List
– This Is Happening

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Got an event planned? Would you like a whole flock* of yinzers with disposable income to show up? Let Git Aht know by sending the electronic mail to gitaht@gmail.com.

(* Note: “Flock” being, y’know.. very loosely-defined…)

Git Aht! – Things To Do This Weekend

(Things to do while making visual aids for the presentation…)

(NOTE: Just a couple quick ones for now, more a little later. See, things are busy what with all the repairs I’m making to the loading dock area of the lavishly-appointed iheartpgh.com headquarters. We had a small “incident” with a truck that was off-loading Lindsay and Natalia’s gin allotment for the month. We store it in an on-site, underground tank. Of course it’s fully-licensed by the PA DEP. I’ve got the paperwork right here behind this crisp one hundred dollar bill, officer…)

Friday, February 23
The Big Throw Back , 10:00 p.m., Brillobox, Penn/Main
brilloAhhh… The name is Brillo, Baby!

The monthly funk fest rolls on, and James still ain’t in the ground. I’m gonna suggest to Maestro Omar Abdul and Co-Conspirator J. Malls that we have a bake sale, or a car wash, or something so we can pay for lawyers to act on our behalf and put James in a final resting place, if only to give all of us a place to travel to and pay our respects, sort of a much funkier Graceland. I’ll open the souvenir stand, and sell sequined capes in various sizes for people to wear home, but then throw off and come back, and then put back on to go home, and then throw off to come back while people cheer over and over and over.

The gig starts at 10, 3 dollar bill y’all. .

The Lunch Club Happy Hour , 7:00 p.m., Bar Louie, Station Square
They sent this to me telling me that they’re doing it “Because drinking alone is…lame.”

Apparently, hey’ve never experienced the joy of getting tight all by yourself while sitting on your army surplus cot in your fifth floor walkup in the village under a bare bulb and listening to Sinatra records while repeating to yourself “They’re all after me, I know it, I just know it.” Right? I mean, we’ve all done that, haven’t we?

We have, right? No?

Well, regardless, the Pittsburgh Lunch Club is the local chapter of the larger social networking site “The Lunch Club” which says it ain’t about the hookups, so right there, I mean, bad marketing. There’s a reason Tom sold myspace to Fox and skated out on all the emo kids with a half billion pieces of silver or whatever it was strapped to his Web 2.0 back… Still though, seems like a good idea, a way for people to network a bit, get out and press the flesh, even if said flesh-pressing is meant to be platonic. They’d like you to register for the local chapter, but I would imagine if you just showed up and said hello, they’d probably be ok with that. They’re getting together out front of the place at 7 and then heading in, If you get there later, ask for “The Lunch Club” and you’ll probably be pointed in the right direction.

Saturday, February 24
An Evening With Gene Collier, 9:00 p.m., Cefalo’s Nightclub, Carnegie
Mr. Collier is one of the best writers in the city, and the PG is lucky to have him, or maybe we’re lucky the PG has him. Consistently creative and funny, his ability to take you down the expected hallway of sports columnist cliche and then make a 90 degree turn away from reality into the absurd makes him a pleasure to read every time. Not to mention, he’s written a play. Well, have you? Right then.

His comedic mind goes on display tonight at Club Cefalo in Carnegie, a short jaunt dahn the Parkway West. The MacYapper, fresh from his attempt to out Pitt Girl, is a “special guest”, and two local comedians hand-picked by the Right Honorable Judge Rufus Peckham fill the opening spots. 10 bucks gets you admission to the gig, and that’s a bargain at twice the price if once it was twice the price it was on sale for half off. Bonus points if you show up as “Carbon Man*” to get an autograph.

(*Ask Gene when you get there.)

“There Was A Time”, 10:00 p.m., Remedy (aka Ray’s), Lawrenceville
Flier_with_rekkidGit Aht loves the Soulcialism event every month, and I also love the Big Throw Back, and I also love funk and soul music. All of these things come together in a sweaty, beer-soaked perfect storm of Deep Funk & Northern Soul at Ray’s Blue Marlin Remedy in Lawrenceville. A half dozen DJs spin tonight, notably Juddy from Soulcialism and DJ Malls from BTB, and they’re bringing others in from ahtta tahn (Philly, which I dig because I’ve always been a fan of the Philly Soul) and way ahtta tahn (London, which I dig because I dated a British woman once and I could’ve listened to her talk all day and night with her South London accent. I mean, her reading the back of a cereal box was a turn on, y’see…).

Ray’s, err, “Remedy”, is a good place to have a beer, or at least was when it was Ray’s. I’m not sure what’s going on here, if it’s been a wholesale change in ownership, or the name “Remedy” is just tacked onto one or two of the upper floors. Whatever (Whichever?) the case, they’ll still have beer, and tonight they’ll have good, solid, DJ-spun music that’ll make you dance.

Because Knowing Where To Go (and drink) Is Half The Battle
(Further Suggested Reading)
knowing_half – Pittsburgh City Paper
– Pittsburgh Post Gazette
– Craigs List

—————–

Got an event planned? Would you like a whole flock of yinzers with disposable income to show up? Let Git Aht know by sending the electronic mail to gitaht@gmail.com.

PGH Party for a Purpose benefits Pittsburgh Cares!!

PGH Party for a Purpose will be hosting its second event on Saturday, March 3rd. 100% of proceeds will benefit Pittsburgh Cares, an organization which inspires volunteerism by organizaing flexible and rewarding volunteer services projects that impact critical need in Greater Pittsburgh.

The party will feature Sonny Cheeba-Cheeba and the Downtown Get-Down Sound from 8:30pm-11:30pm; Mr. Quick M.C. and Akurious Don will perform from 11:30pm til midnight; and DJ Supa C will spin funk, breakbeats, and hiphop til 2am. There will be happy hour specials the ENTIRE night! $2.50 beers, 1/2 off appetizers, and $6 martinis!

Who: PGH Party for a Purpose
What: Bash Benefiting Pittsburgh Cares
When: Saturday, March 3rd, 8:30pm – 2am
Where: Olive or Twist, 140 6th Street (Downtown)
Cost: $10 donation at the door. Remember, 100 percent of proceeds will benefit the extraordinary work of Pittsburgh Cares in our community

PGH Party for a Purpose is dedicated to helping small nonprofits grow by throwing fabulous parties for various Pittsburgh organizations, while encouraging all who attend to have a good time helping their community.

For more information, please contact PGHPartyforaPurpose@gmail.com or go to www.myspace.com/PGHPartyforaPurpose.

Git Aht! – Things To Do This Weekend

(Things to do while adjusting to life in a post-apocalyptic world…)

Friday, February 16
The Great Guinness Toast, 8:00 p.m., Mullaney’s Harp And Fiddle, Strip District
toucan That yearly thing to get people to drink Guinness to set a new world’s record for largest toast that doesn’t involve a toaster happens tonight at locations varied and widespread, but the place to be is probably dahn Mullaney’s in the Strip. They’ll have giveaways all night and live broadcasts by local radio stations. They don’t say which radio stations, so, I mean, it could be anyone. I’m kinda hoping the whole crew from WQED will be there, if only to hear the dulcet quiet tones of a classical DJ doing the standard radio station location jive of “Hey, come on down to Mullaney’s, jump in the QED money machine, and then do a shot with me. And don’t forget to pick up your QED ‘Cellists Do It Sitting Down’ beer koozie. Let’s rock on now with Marche Slave by Tchaikovsky part of a ’20 in a row or 20 thousand dollars’ all day marathon.”

They usually get packed for this deal, and in addition to the toast, Seamus Kennedy performs at 9, so it’d probably be a good idea to get there early-ish.

Savage Republic, 8:00 p.m., Lawrenceville Moose, Lawrenceville
savage_republic_logoi Lindsay (who also braved the weather to drink at D’s the other night during our time of crisis) posted this up the other day and writes about it better than I could ever hope to, so just go read it there. I will say that this looks like a really good solid show, and why would one ever not go to the L’ville Moose?

Paul Tabachneck, 9:00 p.m., Cabaret At Theater Square, Dahntahn
backstage bar Free is good, so good… I like free a lot. Probably too much, but that’s something I’ve got to work out with my therapist, that poor, poor man. I’m sure he never saw this coming when he went to grad school or he might’ve made a different career choice. He’s earning his money, that’s for sure… I mean, I mentioned something about my childhood and he did that sort of “sucking in your breath through your teeth while wincing and saying ‘ooo'” thing. That’s probably not a good sign, is it?

What? Oh, right, yeah, the Tabachneck thing… The Cultural Trust’s page says that Paul is “A bright & engaging singer/songwriter” and that his lyrics “reflect on loves lost and let loose.” Ok, so far so good, we all love a good torch song, don’t we? He does some covers in his act, and is also known for his “dark humor”. And that’s all well and good, but of greater import is the fact that Happy Hour at the Backstage Bar is from 9 to 11. So, no cover to get in, and the drinks are gonna be on special at a non-traditional-happy-hour time of day – honestly, what’s stopping you? Also, it’s a smoke-free environment, and I know how important the whole “breathing thing” is to some of you.

Saturday, February 17
Rod Stewart , 8:00 p.m., Mellon Civic Arena, Dahntahn
Too subtle over there on the left? Never let it be said I won’t perpetuate an Urban Legend.

Stewart will be playing all the hits, I’m sure, although I’m not 100% sure whose hits those will be. They might be his songs or they might be tunes from the “Standards” albums he’s been putting out the past few years. I’m guessing a combination of both, but I’m not sure how well “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” will fly at this point.It could be bizarre, like Debbie Reynolds singing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

An Evening with Aaron McGruder, 8:00 p.m., Byham Theater, Dahntahn
boondocks_wide The creator of the much-missed (by me, at least) comic strip The Boondocks comes in for a night at the Byham. The thing is, it doesn’t actually say what he’s going to do there. I’m assuming that means a speech of some sort, perhaps a look at his work, both the strip and the tv show, and a Q&A session. He’s never been afraid to speak his mind with regards to politics which is, in my opinion, a good thing in a comic strip author. Like that time when Cathy Guisewite got arrested for macing riot cops at that WTO protest in Seattle a couple years back.

Ok, I may have made that last part up.

—————–

Because Knowing Where To Go (and drink) Is Half The Battle
(Further Suggested Reading)
knowing_half – Pittsburgh City Paper
– Pittsburgh Post Gazette
– Craigs List

—————–

Got an event planned? Would you like a whole flock of yinzers with disposable income to show up? Let Git Aht know by sending the electronic mail to gitaht@gmail.com.

Savage Republic

In 1987, I was a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon excited by all the music being exposed by the innovative, forward-thinking college DJs at WRCT-FM. One of those was my friend Norm Veenstra, who had a particular interest in dark-tinged rock and began to bring some of the bands to Pittsburgh that we liked to spin on the air.
That resulted in a riveting outdoor performance by seminal Los Angeles band Savage Republic, who combined dark Joy Division-esque postpunk with tribal industrial rhythms on blazing 55-gallon oil drums and Middle-Eastern
influenced guitar melodies run through surfy reverb. The effect was unequalled by any other American band at the time, and comparable to legendary UK bands such as Killing Joke, as well as later imitators such as Godspeed You
Black Emperor.

Savage Republic existed from 1981 to 1989, releasing four amazing albums – Tragic Figures, Ceremonial, Jamahiriya, and Customs – and then breaking up to do various other bands. During their existence, they
were known for their staunch independent attitude and their amazing letterpress album covers and postage stamps. In 2002, the band reunited to headline the “Beyond the Pale” festival hosted by the well-known
art-metal band Neurosis in San Francisco. Now, they have gotten back together to record new material for release on Neurosis’ label, Neurot Recordings (also home of Isis). Their upcoming tour includes only a handful of US dates, and Pittsburgh is lucky enough to be one of them.

To see this band again after 20 years will be an unbelievable experience, one that should not be missed!

Savage Republic will perform on Friday February 16 at 8 pm, at the Lawrenceville Moose, 51st & Butler Sts. in Lawrenceville.

Opening the all ages show (21+ to drink) will be Microwaves and Mike Tamburo.
Tickets are $18 at the door, $15 advance at Paul’s CDs, Eide’s Entertainment, Dave’s Music Mine, Caliban Books, Brave New World, Record Village, and The Exchange Squirrel Hill.

Check out the Savage Republic website at http:/www.mobilization.com and their myspace at  http://www.myspace.com/savagerepublic