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
[09.17.05]
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
Holmes Brothers
[06.15.05]
Drive-By
Truckers, Deep Purple
[06.11.05]
Los
Lonely Boys, Martin Sexton
[06.10.05]
Marah
[06.08.05]
Brant Bjork & The Bros.
[06.03.05]
Railroad
Earth
[05.20.05]
Andrew
Bird
[05.17.05]
Ryan
Adams & The Cardinals
[05.13.05]
Rosavelt
[05.12.05]
Green
Day
[04.23.05]
The
Shins
[04.15.05]
Bonnie
"Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney
[04.14.05]
The
Beakup Society, Whiskey Daredevils
[03.25.05]
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
[02.15.05]
Tarbox Ramblers
[02.12.05]
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] |
Wolfmother
09.22.2006 / Mr. Smalls / Pittsburgh, PA
 With all the wolf themed bands coming out in the last year I kind of gave up trying to figure out which was which. Then I got turned on to these guys and suddenly my other guy friends were talking about them. A date for Millvale shows up, I start telling the guys we should get tickets but no one does and I don’t either but my work buddy Paul says he hooked me up and the show quickly sells out. Apparently I never mention anything to Wifey and she hears from someone else that I’m going to this show and she’s like, “Um, were you going to tell me about this?” It takes some time but I eventually get out of the doghouse.
Paul wants to get there early and I explain to him that that’s not the way I operate but seeing how he’s got my ticket and it would be somewhat rude to have him hanging by himself I make an exception and a 20 minute bike ride later I’m locking up outside of Mr. Smalls and catch the last few songs from opener Mess Hall. I let Paul know I’m ready to rock and have got my flask of whiskey in my camera bag along with the one-hitter in my front pocket but he’s heading into the studio in the morning to record and doesn’t seem to be up to that amount of partying. So I start a tab.
Being a sold-out show I expected the worst at Smalls but to be honest the crowd wasn’t too bad. With the MTV exposure and all there were a bunch of young’uns up front and they weren’t budging so that opened up the back a bit.
I was hanging with Paul at the back bar when Wolfmother come out and the crowd went crazy as the band banged out the first chords of “Dimension” and heads started to bob. They quickly started tearing through the songs on their self-titled release and at “Joker & The Thief” I turned to Paul and said what was probably on everybody’s mind, “This sound so much like Sabbath.” Just when you think they're bringing it down a notch they ratchet it back up during a great version of “Vagabond." While the live versions of their album’s songs rarely veered off course, these guys proved a stage-worthy presence as singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale captured the spotlight most of the evening, complimenting his antics with his rock star looks. Drummer Myles Heskett rarely got a moment’s rest and the basist/organist Chris Ross was able to liven up the keyboard stand for a change.
I moved my way up towards the front for the last third of the show with a beer in my waistband, flask in my camera bag, and pulling off the one-hitter then quickly trying to hide it as I exhaled above the crowd. The whole setlist as well as encore numbers are a mystery to me and for the first time I’m going to plagiarize someone else’s blog for a totally different take:
Oh man.. Out of the many scenes that I play back in my mind, one of them is in my top three. Andrew had this white Fender, and during a keyboard solo he layed the guitar down on one of the big black thingies at the front of the stage and got onto his knees. He like.. Put the bottom of the guitar up against his crotch and like, THRUSTED toward Sophie, Keight and I. Keight was like, a foot and a half away from him and could have touched him right there if she weren't so amazed by the wonderfully vulgar motions before her. Sophie and I had a vice grip on eachother's hands and were just like :O :O :O :O <3 <3 <3 <3 And we yelled into eachother's ears.
Me: OH GOD. INSTANT ORGASM.
Sophie: I JUST CAME.
They played amazingly and then suddenly rushed off stage for like three minutes. They came back and Chris had a cigarette held firmly between his lips. And he played bass very sexily- SMOKING at the SAME TIME. I'm not a fan of smoking but that was SO SEXY. Chris also has some pretty sexy chest hair <3 I'm so in love.
At one point Andrew came to the edge of the stage in front of Keight and put his foot on the barrier. She was freaking out because she held her hand on his lower thigh for probably over a minute XD <3 Sophie touched his shoe and ankle. I was too busy being crushed and trying to protect my camera :( At one point this girl was behind me and she kept slamming into me. She apologized like, five times and said "I'm sorry honey, I'm trying to keep these people from crushing you!" She must have been from New York.
Then some guy lifted Sophie up completely randomly and tried throwing her onto the stage! I'm pretty sure I wasn't on the ground for about ten seconds because I had my arms over her shoulders trying to hold her down. Then suddenly the guy was GONE and my mum was there! Apparently she pulled on his pony tail and threw him back like, six feet. Go mom! Kick some ass!
When they were finished, Andrew hopped down into the crevice between the barrier and the stage. He shook Keight's hand and ruffled Sophie's hair and kind of just breezed by me. I didn't want to grab at him like a crazy person so I just reached out and brushed my fingers along his hand, but he kept moving so I got his arm, then his side then a little bit of his perfect posterior.. *Cough* It was just my fingertips.. But I can still remember the feel of his skin and jeans. Then Myles did the same and I'm pretty sure I touched Myles' hand. I'm not sure because I was like *SHOCK SHOCK* I JUST TOUCHED ANDREW STOCKDALE'S ASS. Then Chris leaned over and full-on grabbed my hand. His hands are a lot bigger than mine so my right hand and wrist were completely enveloped in Chris Ross' hand for at least one second ;0;
I love this. A totally different show than the one I saw.
Afterwards I biked up to Gooski’s to meet Wifey and some other friends. I get to the door and they’re asking for a $10 cover which is quite unusual but I fork it over to find an interesting Serbian gypsy band, Kal, holding court over a packed room full of hipsters. Apparently on a tour hitting more formal venues, they seem appreciative of the crowd and environs and jammed late into the night. With the room so full, dancing was on an if-you-can-find-the-space basis but most folks grooved as best they could. The drunkenness escalated and, knowing that Wifey was getting a ride home, I headed out on my bike alone and was already out on the easy chair by the time Wifey called from the South Side saying she'd be home shortly.
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