Pittsburgh, while it's no Austin, TX or even (gasp) Philadelphia when it comes to live music, they do have a steady stream of artists coming through the city. It's pretty easy to complain about Pittsburgh not having the type of influence over national acts that the aforementioned cities have, but Pittsburgh's main problem is perhaps the advertisement of their shows.
I have found that email newsletters do wonders. Usually I UNcheck that box about receiving email notifications when I purchase something online, but after using ticketmaster, I wanted to squeeze as much, and use as much as I could from that taxing online service. I receive an Opus One email each week that informs me of shows in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. It's a pretty comprehensive email newsletter that includes shows at the Carnegie in Homestead, Club Cafe, Mr. Smalls, and the Brillobox. Some of the listings go as far as April, allowing the receiver of the letter to plan well into the coming months. Their website provides all of the same information as the newsletter, just a few more clickables and pictures. You can sign up for the newsletter here as well as follow their Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and RSS feeds.
So in light of this brief explanation of Pittsburgh music, I will urge you to check out Jessica Lea Mayfield, who will be coming to Pittsburgh on December 12 at Club Cafe. Club Cafe is located in the South Side at 56 S 12th St, right off of East Carson St. All shows are 21+. Tickets for Ms. Mayfield are only $10, which is pretty gnarly. She plays folky "indie" rock and has made a splash on the national scene. NPR brought her in for a live set which you can listen to here. Plus, she's only 20 (19 when she recorded her breakthrough album). I'm blogging. She's putting out albums produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach - a fellow Ohioan. He lends his musical hand to a few instruments on the record in addition to his production role. Philadelphia band, Dr. Dog, even lends their lead singer (Scott McMicken) for some backup harmonies.
But, jeeze. She released the album when she was 19, after a recording session of two years. So she's been going at it quite seriously and achieving some sort of national notoriety at such a young age. Kind of kicks my butt and puts a little more emphasis back on the seriousness of maintaining this blog. Keep reading, fellow lovers of Pittsburgh. Jay and I will teach you the ways to get the most out of what you have chosen to surround yourself.
(1) As a New York native, the dearth of shows in Pittsburgh is ceaselessly infuriating. I will never get over it.
ReplyDelete(2) As far as email lists go, Ticketmaster blows. At most, they'll list four or five shows in the actual Pittsburgh area, and then everything else will be in a "nearby area," half of them being in New York. Opus One emails are excellent - well-designed and fairly comprehensive. Even better than Opus One, in my opinion, is last.FM. It doesn't send out a weekly email, but it's the most comprehensive listing of shows I've seen for the Pittsburgh area (or any area, for that matter). Opus One only lists four venues, but what about Diesel? Rex Theater? Garfield Artworks? Last.FM events is a user aggregated list, so it includes events in any venue, given that a user created a listing for it. Check it out: http://www.last.fm/events
(3) I have to disagree about the lack of advertisements being the main problem for Pittsburgh. People who would go to live shows seek out live shows, and they can find them pretty easily as demonstrated in this post. I might even say that the advertisement for shows is better in Pittsburgh than it is in bigger cities - the only flyering and advertisements I hear of in New York are for gigantic, Madison Square Garden acts. The fundamental problem is the lack of acts coming through Pittsburgh, and that stems from (a) it's location, (b) it's lack of venues, and (c) the taxing. (A) Pittsburgh is located right between Philly and Cleveland/Columbus/Cincinnati/other Ohio cities. Bands will usually skip right over Pittsburgh from Philly to Cleveland, and that probably has something to do with (b) and (c) as well as tight tour schedules. (B) There are like, seven venues in Pittsburgh, and they're either HUGE (Mellon Arena) or they're tiny (Garfield Artworks). There are few mid-sized venues akin to, say, Hammerstein Ballroom in New York or the Electric Factory in Philly. With the scarcity and size of Pittsburgh venues, acts probably have a hard time finding places to play. Also, (C) - I've never actually looked at this thoroughly, but apparently, there's a tax for playing in Pittsburgh, which further deters artists to come perform in Pittsburgh. I don't know how true this is; I think I heard it from some WPTS guy at a party, and in looking online, I've only found the amusement tax, which apparently taxes admission tickets for entertainment events (including vaudeville, as it says in the .pdf I found) but nothing about the actual acts. This is why Snoop Dog played at Mr. Smalls. Or something. I have no idea.
Point is, advertising isn't the main issue. Advertising is superbly sufficient. It's the fact that no one fucking stops in Pittsburgh, despite the abundance of college students looking for shit to do. Woe is me.
Christ, this was a long comment. Apologies.
Holy lengthy comments, Barbara,
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to concede to you. I guess I didn't want to admit the fact that, well, Pittsburgh just doesn't get the shows.
How about Mr. Smalls' location? If it was NOT in Millvale, I would assume a much larger crowd, and thus, more acclaimed acts. Yes? Simply, it helps when people are able to walk to the venue.
Best line: "I've only heard it from some WPTS guy at a party..."
^I'd like to learn more about this supposed tax.
Well damn, Barbara said what I was going to say: that when it comes to shows, Pittsburgh has an unfortunate geographic location. Cleveland is only 2 1/2 hours away so most artists will leapfrog pgh bc they figure hardcore fans will just travel.
ReplyDeleteWhich is kinda true; I grew up in between the 2 cities (1 hr from Cleveland, 2 hrs from Pittsburgh) and while I frequented the Agora in Cle, I also went to shows at Mr. Smalls before I even heard of Pitt. (Ah, propaganda-laden Anti-Flag shows... those sure were the days.)
And I get that Opus one email newsletter too.... but I never read it. I never read emails unless they look really important. I suck.