42nd A Fair in the Park Arts and Crafts Festival 2011

42nd Annual A Fair in the Park 2011 at Mellon Park

For 42 years, the Craftsmen’s Guild of Pittsburgh has been celebrating creativity and artistic expression in a garden setting full of trees and green grass. A Fair in the Park started in 1969 and has been going strong ever since. Held in the historical Mellon Park, the festival is considered to be one of the best arts and crafts shows in the country. It’s a free, end of summer tradition in the Burgh, and not to be missed. Join over 25,000 people and browse the work of over 100 artists. Aside from the fresh air and beautiful scenery, this event offers something for everyone, plus live music (schedule below) and lots of fun activities for kids. Scan through the list of artists here.
Continue reading + Discuss →

The Ballad of Little E’s Jazz Club

No more food please, I'm just here for the sax.

Enter Little E’s. A club/restaurant downtown that gives Pittsburgh the sounds of jazz it rarely hears. Little E’s sports a fully stocked bar and restaurant menu. They trumpet various performances each and every night. And even if you can’t reed the menu, it is easy to enjoy the simplicity of Little E’s; the symphony here is not created for your mouth, but for your ears.
Continue reading + Discuss →

The Sweetback Sisters @ Thunderbird Cafe

The Sweetback Sisters are playing at Thunderbird Cafe in Lawrenceville on Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Sweetback Sisters will be at Thunderbird Cafe in Lawrenceville on Sunday, August 8th (by kenficara)

I can’t help but think of the B-52’s when I hear the Sweetback Sisters. No, I don’t mean that they make you want to hear “Rock Lobster.” Although the Sisters’ two primary singers, Zara Bode and Emily Miller, do like to dress alike onstage, they remind me a lot of the way Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson sing together in that their voices and singing styles complement each other well,

and they always sound like they’re having a good time singing together. The enthusiasm of the singers makes the infectiousness of The Sweetback Sisters’ sound a foregone conclusion. They’re going to be at the Thunderbird Café in Lawrenceville on Sunday, August 8th. The Thunderbird is renowned both for its acoustics and for the unusually eclectic variety of artists who perform there.
Continue reading + Discuss →

John Mayer Coming to Pittsburgh 8/1/2010

John Mayer coming to Pittsburgh Augusts 1st, 2010

John Mayer playing in Pittsburgh Augusts 1st, 2010 (pic by P Keigan)

John Mayer visits the ‘Burgh next Sunday, on August 1^st, at the First Niagara Pavilion. (Yes, I still want to call it the Post-Gazette, too, but that’s show biz.) I’ve seen some good shows there in the past—the name change can’t have made that much of a difference.

Mayer is one of those artists whose place in the pop culture often eclipses the art itself. That’s a dangerous place for an artist—people will form opinions about the individual (based on what the press reports) without ever viewing the painting, reading the book, watching the movie, hearing the music. I remember when this happened to me, back in the early 90’s, when Nirvana was suddenly everywhere—before I ever had a chance to hear their music, I was already tired of them.
Continue reading + Discuss →

Maxwell Concert @ Mellon Arena POSTPONED

Maxwell Summer Tour 2010 in Pittsburgh at Mellon Arena - Postponed

Maxwell’s “The Tour” concert in Pittsburgh on Saturday, July 10th has been postponed until further notice. This was supposed to be the final event at the historical Mellon Arena.

We haven’t been given a reason for why the show was cancelled and all evidence of the tour stopping in Pittsburgh have been removed from Maxwell’s official events page. Before you get all pissed off, the concert was not cancelled because of the Igloo closing down…
Continue reading + Discuss →

Hamell on Trial: Explicit (but poetic) Lyrics

See Hamell on Trial at Club Cafe in Pittsburgh on June 3rd, 2010 (flickr via armadilo60)

Now that I have your attention, I’d like to call your attention to Hamell on Trial’s impending show, Thursday, June 3rd, at Club Café in the South Side. I know what to expect. I expect the same good time I had the last time I saw him there. Granted, that was a few years ago now, but I have faith in him.

I say this partially because I also have faith in the venue. While I wouldn’t want to see a pyrotechnic metal band there (come to think of it, I doubt I’d want to see a pyrotechnic metal band anywhere), I know from personal experience that Club Café is a great place to see an acoustic act. Intimate setting, nice sound, good beer on tap, and, as of less than a year ago, excellent food.
Continue reading + Discuss →