South Side Works, Pittsburgh, PA.... New American Music Union festival The festival was two days long, featuring a lot more bands than listed above, but due to childcare these four were the only ones I was able to see. Of them Gnarls Barkley and Spoon were terrific. The Raconteurs and Bob Dylan not so much. Gnarls Barkley was already on stage when Betsy and I arrived, running through their great cover of Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone." Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo were wearing tan jackets over a white uniform (Cee-Lo quickly removed his, due to the summer heat) and their band all had maroon-looking vests over their dress whites (the drummer gussied up his uniform with a bowtie). Other highlights were "Run," a set-closing "Smiley Faces," and even their ballad (which I'm not as into on record) "Who's Gonna Save My Soul." Naturally, "Crazy" was great to hear live, but I was a little surprised that the crowd didn't go, well, c...
PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA.... A notorious show! My alt-rock radio station in NJ, WHTG, used to play Me First & The Gimee Gimees on our punk and hardcore show, and their shtick was doing punk covers of well-know songs that were often tongue-in-cheek. When I heard that the Pittsburgh Pirates had booked the band to play after three games on 8/24, 8/25, and 8/26, I was very surprised. I had a hard time believing the Pirates had booked the band, and I found it odd that the band would be into such a gig. (Apparently, it was the money. Also, Me First singer Spike Slawson is originally from Pittsburgh, but I don't know how that fit into the booking, if at all.) It did not go well. When the band started playing songs that the crowd knew but were performing these songs in a style that the crowd didn't care for, the boo-birds started coming fast and furious. (The Pirates must have thought they were booking a standard cover band.) Suffice to say the other two performances were ca...
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