Apples in Stereo
[02.12.2007]
Assembly of Dust
[02.04.2007]
The Hackensaw Boys
[01.27.2007]
Paul Luc
[01.20.2007]
Local Honey / Slim Cessna
[01.13.2007]
Bob Seger
[12.14.2006]
Skinks / Rahim / Transcontinental Booze Hounds
[11.25.2006]
The Big Sleep
[11.18.2006]
Local Honey / The Izzys
[11.10.2006]
Cloud Cult
[11.07.2006]
Grand Buffet / Magnolia Electric Co
[10.31.2006]
Norman Nardini
[10.28.2006]
Wilco
[10.20.2006]
Wilco
[10.18.2006]
Kid Congo Powers
[10.12.2006]
Dave Alvin
[09.23.2006]
Wolfmother
[09.22.2006]
Mountain Goats
[09.20.2006]
World Party
[08.27.2006]
Gil Mantera's Party Dream
[08.16.2006]
Whiskey Daredevils / Local Honey
[08.11.2006]
The Silver Jews
[07.28.2006]
The Bottle Rockets / Marah
[07.27.2006]
Slim Cessna's Auto Club
[07.15.2006]
Alejandro Escovedo
[07.10.2006]
Cat Power
[07.09.2006]
Life In Bed / The Transcontinental Booze Hounds
[07.07.2006]
Violent Femmes
[07.01.2006]
Guitar Zack Wiesinger / Pittsburgh Pirates Loss # 54
[06.30.2006]
The Black Crowes \ Robert Randolph \ The Drive-By Truckers
[06.25.2006]
Pearl Jam
[06.23.2006]
The Octopus Project \ Black Moth Super Rainbow \ Amoeba Knievel
[06.19.2006]
The Bottle Rockets
[06.14.2006]
Govt.
Mule / Local Honey / Wil E. Tri
[06.08.2006]
Tehran Iran
[06.03.2006]
Astronautalis
[05.25.2006]
Grand Buffet / Cobalt Black
[05.19.2006]
Phil
Boyd w/Manny Theiner & Weird Paul / The Codetalkers feat. Col. Bruce
Hampton
[05.15.2006]
The
Four Seasons Boys
[05.11.2006]
The
Supersuckers
[05.02.2006]
The Breakup Society
[04.28.2006]
The Four Seasons Boys / The
Gris Gris
[04.19.2006]
Rhett Miller & The Believers
[04.14.2006]
Good Brother Earl
[04.08.2006]
Slim Cessna's Auto Club
[04.03.2006]
"Guitar" Zack Wiesinger
[03.25.2006]
The Minus 5 / The Silos
[03.24.2006]
The Mendoza Line / Great Lake Swimmers
[03.12.2006]
Dave Alvin
[03.10.2006]
Apollo Sunshine
[03.07.2006]
Lyle Lovett / John Hiatt / Joe Ely
/ Guy Clark
[02.14.2006]
Marah
[02.12.2006]
Marah / Slim Cessna's Auto
Club
[11.12.2005]
Ted Leo + Pharmacists / Sharon
Jones and the Dap-Kings
[11.08.2005]
The National
[11.02.2005]
Modey Lemon
[10.07.2005]
Gang of Four
[10.04.2005]
Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers
[09.24.2005]
Thunderbirds Are Now!
[09.22.2005]
The Walkmen
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Circle
[09.15.05]
Akron/Family, Great Lake Swimmers
[09.05.05]
Los Lobos
[08.21.05]
Grand Buffet, Magnolia Electric
Co.
[08.20.05]
Joe Ely
[08.19.05]
Solomon Burke
[08.14.05]
Billie Joe Shaver
[08.11.05]
Robert
Randolph & The Family Band
[08.07.05]
Oneida
[08.06.05]
Richard
Buckner
[07.13.05]
NYC Road Trip
[07.08.05]
Stars
[06.23.05]
Aimee
Mann
[06.19.05]
Bobbie
"Blue" Bland, Michael Penn, Erin McKeown, OPEK, The Mavens
[06.18.05]
The
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[06.15.05]
Drive-By
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[06.11.05]
Los
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[06.10.05]
Marah
[06.08.05]
Brant Bjork & The Bros.
[06.03.05]
Railroad
Earth
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Andrew
Bird
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Ryan
Adams & The Cardinals
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Rosavelt
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Green
Day
[04.23.05]
The
Shins
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Bonnie
"Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney
[04.14.05]
The
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Apollo
Sunshine
[03.12.05]
From The Jayhawks: Gary Louris
and Mark Olson
[03.11.05]
Clem Snide, Archer Prewitt
[03.07.05]
Norman
Nardini
[03.04.05]
The SPUDS, Norman Nardini
[02.18.05]
The Comas
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Tarbox Ramblers
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Black Tie Revue
[01.28.05]
Elvismas, Shade
[01.08.2005]
Chalk Outline Party, Comrad
[12.18.2004]
One Star Hotel
[12.10.2004]
Ted Leo + Pharmacists
[12.03.2004]
Thanksgiving Eve / The Italian
Club / Blairsville, Pa
Sue Foley
[11.20.2004]
The Whiskey Daredevils
[11.19.2004]
The Arcade Fire, The Cynics
[11.15.2004]
Steelers v. Patriots
[10.31.2004]
Mike Watt
[10.21.2004]
Magnolia Electric
Co.
[10.14.2004]
The Mendoza
Line
[10.09.2004]
The Black Keys
[10.07.2004]
The Secret Machines
[10.06.2004]
The Fiery
Furnaces, Charles Bissell (The Wrens)
[09.23.2004] |
Norman Nardini
10.28.2006 / Excuses / Pittsburgh, PA
 I wasn’t sure if this one was worth writing up ‘cause Wifey and I only spent 30 minutes or so at Excuses but what the heck. We started off at a co-worker of Wifey’s Halloween party attended by some salt-of-the-earth Munhall folks. I actually got somewhat dressed up this year, raiding the wardrobe of my mailman neighbor, Greg. For some reason he wasn’t interested in dressing up in old slacks and outdated button down shirt to complete to exchange.
The Munhall house was done up quite nicely, with the living and dining room completely covered from floor to ceiling in fake dungeon wall paper. They had an insane amount of food and an even more insane amount of jello shots. A whole cooler full. So we helped them out with that.
Our buddy Wes was tagging along so we bailed and took him back to the South Side to Excuses to catch Norm. Wes, ever the Norm devotee, was getting his first dose of Norm since moving back to the ‘Burgh a couple of months ago.
The crowd was a small one for a Saturday night but we beered up and sat towards the front of the cafeteria-style tables and watched Norm yuk it up for the next half hour. We caught the band’s first performance of “Jingle Bell Rock,” a half-assed tribute to Freddy Fender and a spontaneous Monster Mash on this Halloween weekend. Regarding that last bit, a group of 15 or so costumed bar hoppers come in, Norm gets them to dance to "The Monster Mash” and then keeps them on the dance floor with the Johnny Case standards “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”
Wifey and I then bailed, leaving Wes to pick up the pieces. We were headed to an artsy party that I’d been hearing about for the last couple of years but never could seem to make it to.
First we would stop in Polish Hill to pick up the man himself, Bob Smith. Upon seeing my outfit he holds us on his stairway for a good five minutes as he readies his costume and lo and behold it was some crazy getup that was supposed to be a wall with a bunch of pictures hanging off it and in the middle was Bob’s face with a frame around it. The mechanics of hanging this off his body obviously took some time. It took 10 minutes to figure out how to stuff it in the Civic but we did and headed off to Friendship only to find a line of people trying to get into a house party.
So we walked down the street to Silky’s and were shortly followed by others abandoning the wait in need of a cold one. Unfortunately Bob never got the outfit on but was convinced that he would have won some sort of prize had he worn it to some bar contest he didn’t know about.
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