Cloaca Melodia

Carnegie Music Hall, Pittsburgh, PA.... sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

The World, Pittsburgh, PA..... me with Jesse right after the show 

Rock Club, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Dowe's on 9th, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Rex Theater, Pittsburgh, PA..... A momentary distraction at the start of Hitchock's set led him to begin his show with covers of Jimi Hendrix' "Are You Experienced?" and Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco" and to declare that the '60s were still going on, he was the same 16-year-old he was in 1969, and that the current year was actually "1960-44." His choice of old material was terrific: "Swirling," "She Doesn't Exist," and "Queen Elvis," particularly. When he concluded the main set, he announced that he would be performing the encore in the lobby of the theater (a converted movie house). Naturally, we in the audience thought it was yet another whimsical Hitchcockian statement, but damned if he didn't play a four-song encore on an old baby-grand in the lobby with the entire audience crowded around. Following those four songs, he dashed back into the theater proper, grabbed his acoustic guitar, and played a...

Palumbo Center, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Rock Club, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Dowe's on 9th, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Byham Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

The World, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Rex Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Byham Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Benedum Center, Pittsburgh, PA... The show was originally booked for the Post-Gazette Pavilion but was moved in July to the Benedum Center. It was probably a good plan to have her indoors in a theater rather than doing the shed thing, but because of the move it seemed like they had to accommodate more people than they have seats at the Benedum. They had added folding chairs at the far ends of most aisles in the orchestra section and I ended up in one of these extreme-angled view seats. Norah was very enjoyable to see, and she was still riding extremely high from the ginormity (is that a word?) of her debut album, Come Away With Me . When you look back at her career, her debut was 12x platinum, her sophomore release was 4x platinum, her third album was 2x platinum, her fourth was platinum, her fifth was gold, and all subsequent albums weren't big sellers to the point of RIAA certification. And yet most of her albums were of very high quality, so one can say that her debut was the ex...

Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, PA..... sorry, I haven't yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!    my ticket stub from the show

Players Club, Boulder, CO..... The Shore, out of Silver Lake, CA, had a pretty good album self-titled debut album (released a few days before this show). Their performance was good.  Carbon Leaf was not very memorable. Players Club (formerly Tulagi) was a bar right next to the Fox Theater, and for these radio convention showcase performances, conference attendees could go back and forth between venue to see the artists performing at each with staggered set times. Here's who was at the Fox this night .    

Fox Theater, Boulder, CO.....   Old 97's had just released their Drag It Up album, and their latest single "The New Kid" was being played on WYEP as well as many stations in attendance at this Boulder radio conference. They did a great set and were very well-received. I have no recollection of Simple Kid or Low Millions, but Antigone Rising was very enjoyable (I had already seen them in 2002 ).      There was a bar right next to the Fox Theater called Players Club (formerly Tulagi), and for these radio convention showcase performances, conference attendees could go back and forth between venue to see the artists performing at each with staggered set times. Here's who was playing at Players Club this night . 

Millennium Harvest House Hotel, Boulder, CO..... This was a lunchtime showcase performance for a radio convention. Guitarist Johnny A had his second album Get Inside out, another great set of memorable instrumentals. Always fun to see live. The Damnwells had just played WYEP's Summer Music Festival , so I had hung out with those guys a little bit about five weeks previous. Also a good live band. I was not an Ari Hest fan.  

Players Club, Boulder, CO..... I wasn't a big fan of Johnathan Rice's solo music, although I later liked his 2010 Jenny & Johnny album with Jenny Lewis. He was decent enough live, but not enough to win me over as a fan. Adam Richman was not memorable.  Players Club (formerly Tulagi) was a bar right next to the Fox Theater, and for these radio convention showcase performances, conference attendees could go back and forth between venue to see the artists performing at each with staggered set times. Here's who was at the Fox this night .

Fox Theater, Boulder, CO..... Cullum was a consummate pro, as I discovered a few months earlier at a different radio conference . That early impression was confirmed by seeing this more typical performance. Glen Phillips is a bit of an enigma to me. He had a couple of great years with Toad the Wet Sprocket, but the rest of his career has just been OK in my estimation. He had released his solo album Winter Pays For Summer (great title) back in March, with the first single "Thankful," and it was... adequate. I always feel like her has the tools in the toolbox to be very good but it never seems to come together, in my view. He was good live, but nothing to write home about. Rachael Yamagata was one of the coterie of young female singer-songwriters with albums out in 2004 that had shelves-full of reviews using phrases like "think Tori Amos" or "a la Tori Amos" (including Vienna Teng and Charlotte Martin ). Her music is also just OK. There was a bar right next...

Millennium Harvest House Hotel, Boulder, CO..... Martin was a former Miss Teen USA contestant representing Illinois in the mid-1990s, but she was also a talented singer and pianist. Her first album with real distribution, On Your Shore , was released a few days after this performance, but I had already heard a pre-release copy of it. She did a worthwhile cover of the Stones' "Wild Horses" on the album and her album's first single "Every Time It Rains" was decent, but she came across as Tori Amos lite ("Wild Horses" sounded like a Tori soundalike recording). She didn't help her case at this showcase performance for a radio convention.There were some people talking at the back of the hotel courtyard/event space where the performance took place, and it really seemed to throw Martin off her game. She asked the crowd to be quiet at one point, but when that didn't work, she got pouty and started blowing air through pursed lips so that it ruffled ...

Millennium Harvest House Hotel, Boulder, CO..... This was a lunchtime showcase performance for a radio convention.  Riabko and Nalick were not very memorable, but Hornsby was terrific. Hornsby played "Circus on the Moon," the new single from his imminent new album  Halcyon Days . It was obvious that he was a savvy vet with his stage patter, speaking to the radio programmers in the audience in between songs. And his performance was flawless and entertaining. I had never seen him live before, and the experience led me to re-evaluate what I thought of Hornsby. I had always liked his singles, but I now fully understood why he was invited to sit in with the Grateful Dead. It set me up for really exploring his talents more when he released his 2006 box set Intersections (1985–2005) . Highly recommend everyone check out the live recording of "Fortunate Son/Comfortably Numb" from the box set.    

Millennium Harvest House Hotel, Boulder, CO..... Technically this late-night showcase performance for a radio convention took place on 8/7 as it began after midnight. Mraz was fun, Tolcher was not memorable.

Players Club, Boulder, CO.....   Players Club (formerly Tulagi) was a bar right next to the Fox Theater, and for these radio convention showcase performances, conference attendees could go back and forth between venue to see the artists performing at each with staggered set times. Here's who was at the Fox this night .

Fox Theater, Boulder, CO.....   There was a bar right next to the Fox Theater called Players Club (formerly Tulagi), and for these radio convention showcase performances, conference attendees could go back and forth between venue to see the artists performing at each with staggered set times. Here's who was playing at Players Club this night . 

Millennium Harvest House Hotel, Boulder, CO..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. Not a memorable performance.

Millennium Harvest House Hotel, Boulder, CO..... This was a lunchtime showcase performance for a radio convention. Neither performance was very memorable.     

Players Club, Boulder, CO..... Both artists were good to see. I think this was the first time I saw either. Both artists were about to release their debut albums (technically, Cope had some releases before The Clarence Greenwood Recordings , but with very limited distribution) about six weeks later. A big memory was seeing another radio guy I know standing right in front of Citizen Cope popping his outstretched arm up and down with the beat, a little ridiculously. Players Club (formerly Tulagi) was a bar right next to the Fox Theater, and for these radio convention showcase performances, conference attendees could go back and forth between venue to see the artists performing at each with staggered set times. Here's who was at the Fox this night .  

Fox Theater, Boulder, CO...... Nashville's Blue Merle had one stellar song, "Burning In the Sun," which would be the centerpiece for the band's 2003 debut EP, their first single, and the lead-off track from their debut 2005 album  Burning in the Sun . It didn't hurt that it sounded like Dave Matthews at a time when DMB and Matthews himself were in between albums. Unfortunately, the band wasn't able to capitalize on that terrific song and only lasted one album. (Guitarist Luke Reynolds would join Guster in 2010, a band I had seen in Boulder at the same conference the year previous . Camper Van was good. Jem and Graham Colton weren't very memorable.  There was a bar right next to the Fox Theater called Players Club (formerly Tulagi), and for these radio convention showcase performances, conference attendees could go back and forth between venue to see the artists performing at each with staggered set times. Here's who was playing at Players Club this nig...

Hartwood Amphitheatre, Hartwood Acres, Pittsburgh, PA External links : photos (including the one above by Brian S.)

Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

private concert, Pittsburgh, PA..... This performance was part of a series of benefit shows to raise money for  WYEP's capital campaign to build the Community Broadcast Center. It was at a church in (I believe) the South Hills somewhere. It was quiet yet entrancing performance. The only song I  definitely recall that he performed was the beautiful "Melt." After the show was over Phil wanted to go do something else and since I was his driver for the evening, we ended up at a Guster/Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright concert .     

Amphitheatre at Station Square, Pittsburgh, PA..... I think it was technically still the Chevrolet Amphitheater at the time. I believe it was the last night of their tour. Guster played first, then Ben Folds, and finally Rufus. Earlier that evening, I was at a WYEP fundraiser with singer/songwriter Phil Roy . When it was over, he asked me what live music was happening and when I mentioned this show, he said, "I know Guster and their crew, let's go see them!" (He had co-written three songs with Ryan Miller for their Goldfly album.) I told him that I didn't have tickets to the show, but I know people from the promoter. We decided to try our luck and see what we could do using only our connections and communication skills. Sure enough, I was able to talk our way into the venue. Once in, we were able to find Guster's sound engineer and Phil was able to get us backstage. Phil went over to hang out with Guster and I went to meet Rufus Wainwright. As I was making my way...

Allegheny Landing Park, Pittsburgh, PA.... The 7th annual WYEP Summer Music Festival. One behind-the-scenes component of this SMF was constructions taking place on the Parkway West. That's the stretch of road between down and the airport, and the construction delays caused some real headaches.  Prior to the event my co-workers told some stories about Angela McCluskey, who had performed at the 3rd SMF in 2000 as a member of the Wild Colonials. She was a very direct person and she did not suffer fools, I was told. Someone from the station had to pick her up from the airport and bring her to her hotel the day before the festival, and everyone who might have done it backed away into the shrubbery, Homer- Simpson-like, when the subject came up. I volunteered to do it. Everyone else was afraid of her, I thought, but not me. She flew in late on Friday, June 25th, and as it turned out she was very pleasant. Even when we hit an extended traffic slowdown on the Parkway, she was a delightful ...

Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Amphitheatre at Station Square, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show -- coming soon!

Amphitheatre at Station Square, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show -- coming soon!

Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Hartwood Amphitheatre, Hartwood Acres, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Mr. Small's, Millvale, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

The World, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Benedum Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Brown Theater, Louisville, KY.... Despite being a big Westerberg/Replacements fan (ever since first tracking through the Let It Be album working at the college radio station during Spring Break 1985), I ended up missing much of Westerberg's set. It was a radio convention, and being what they are, I was dining at a restaurant without a car to get me back to the show in time. Once I arrived at the Brown Theater, I made my way inside and opened the door to the theater itself--only to catch Westerberg already onstage. I only saw his blistering version of "Alex Chilton," which concluded with him whipping around, smashing his electric guitar on the amp stack, and striding offstage to thunderous cheers from the stunned audience. That's about all of the factual info I know firsthand (except that when I was heading out to dinner, Westerberg was standing outside the hotel on the South 4th Street sidewalk, talking with a few people and clutching a baseball bat--likely a Louisvi...

on the street in front of the Brown Theatre, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. The retro-pop duo from Los Angeles performed a busking set outside the Brown Theater prior to the event show . I had met them at dinner that evening shortly before their set, so I had to catch some of their very fun performance.

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. New Orleans' The Subdudes had split up in 1996 after around a decade making music, but they had reformed a year or two prior their 2004 album Miracle Mule . I had only gotten into their music in 2001 or so through frontman Tommy Malone's solo records, so it was good to see the band live.        

Crystal Ballroom at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a lunchtime showcase performance for a radio convention.  Jamie Cullum was a complete package. He had enviable musical talent and a winning personality, but the 25 year-old singer (then promoting his album Twentysomething ) seemed like an old hand speaking to a roomful of radio programmers and record label people. He pitched himself as a willing partner to radio in an articulate and self-assured way, something that even many grizzled veteran musicians didn't feel comfortable doing. It all clicked that he was being touted in his native UK as a "Sinatra in sneakers," since he seemed like such an old soul in a hip young guy.    

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention (another difficult-to-make-it breakfast performance at one of these conventions). But I had to see Samite, as he was performing a member appreciation show for WYEP in Pittsburgh a few nights later . Samite, originally from Uganda and living in Ithaca, NY, was promoting his gorgeous new album Tunula Eno .    

Brown Theater, Louisville, KY.... All due respect to all of the artists who played this night (and they were all great), but Zero 7 was utterly amazing to see live.  The band was promoting their second album, When It Falls , which was released that spring. A fine album--even better then their 2001 debut. They pulled out all the stops to promote it, at least for the live shows they did in their brief 2004 U.S. tour in May/June, for which this was their first show.  The band didn't have one vocalist but rotated through multiple singers on their recordings and they were all present, including Mozez, Sia Furler, Tina Dico, and Sophie Barker.  A review of one of their NYC shows from this tour sums up this Louisville gig as well: their music is "full of warm voices, resonant analog synthesizers and satisfying bass." They use "various guitarists, strong players and a handful of singers whose voices can be matched to different songs."  But: "Zero 7 aims for a smoot...

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. 

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention.  Robinson was promoting his then forthcoming album This Magnificent Distance , so he was playing all new songs. The clearest memory I have of Robinson's performance is his introduction to "If You See California" when he was delighted when some members of the audience got the "if you see kay"-style joke implicit in the song's title.    

Crystal Ballroom at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention.  I always felt bad for the artists who had the misfortune of being booked to do a breakfast gig at a radio conference. Everyone had been out late the night before, and the 8 AM audience was sparse at best and often hung over. I tried to attend whenever I could muster it. Fortunately, convention planners eventually nixed these early slots entirely.

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. It technically took place on 5/15, as the start time was at midnight. Sun Kil Moon was billed as a performer during this slot, but the band's Mark Kozelek was actually booked to perform a solo set. He was reportedly unhappy that he was being promoted as Sun Kil Moon, so he just skipped town and the gig. Supposedly, Paul Westerberg fell off the wagon while attending this performance, leading to some recriminations the following day .  

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention.  Smith, Starr, and Curtis performed together, in-the-round style, trading off songs and talking about their music as they played. (They were billed as "The Women Of Welk," as they were all signed to labels that were part of the Welk Music Group (footnote: started by Lawrence Welk and still owned by his heirs). Jules, along with Michael Andrews (former member of the band The Origin), had scored a surprise #1 hit in England the December previous covering Tears for Fears' "Mad World." So Jules was improbably making the rounds promoting his then three year old album Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets .

Byham Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

The World, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!      photo from 2007, after I interviewed Barbara and the band on WYEP

Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Byham Theater, Pittsburgh, PA....   Here's an external review .

Byham Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Club Laga, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Club Laga, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Rex Theater, Pittsburgh, PA setlist: Puzzle Crumble Surround Playboy Feet to the Sun The Next Train Out of My Mind Trip With My Dad Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Ask the Dust ad-libbed song: I Love Pittsurgh Morning Sickness Any Day the Wind Blows Dim Feel Me Don't You My Life Could Be Different Drum Solo/Posters Dizz Knee Land ENCORE BREAK Good Gracious, Good Night Dorina

Byham Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Quiet Storm Coffeehouse, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!