• Dan Lefkowitz
• Brillobox
• Saturday, February 26, 2011
• Larryville

Did I say in my last post that The Low Anthem was one of the darkest shows …

• The Low Anthem
• Brillobox
• Saturday, February 26, 2011
• Larryville

This was probably the most difficult concert I have ever shot for several reasons. First off, Brillobox is dark as hell to begin with and even though I …

• New Shouts
• Rehearsal/Recording Space
• Tuesday, February 22, 2011
• Penn Hills

This band is quickly becoming a staple of this blog, and Pittsburgh itself, for good reason. They are fresh, fun, and are seemingly recording new material …

• Bulletproof…I Wish I Was The Lighting & Stage Design of Andi Watson
• Christopher Scoates
• Chronicle Books
• 2011

This beautiful book details the component of concert going most fans take for granted, lighting design, concentrating on the work and art of Andi Watson. He is best associated…

• Trey Anastasio
• Stage AE
• Friday, February 25, 2011
• Northshore

Walking into the crowded venue, I asked the manager if it was a sell out. He said that there were 11 tickets left. With 2400 capacity, there were a lot of people psyched to…

A follow up shoot for the new Host Skull video. Working with David and …

• Justin Andrew
• The Smiling Moose
• Tuesday, March 8, 2011
• Southside

This is going to be one sweet show. Justin is supporting the next big buzz band Miniature Tigers, along with The Show. Purchase tickets here. You can check out some of Justin’s music here…

• Passengers
• Rangos Hall
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Sunday, February 12, 2011
• Oakland

This is a relatively new band on the local scene. They have been playing out to some high praise lately and have a gig coming up…

• Dr. Dog
• Mr Small’s Funhouse
• Thursday, February 17, 2011
• Millvale

The band came to town last November and considering that the show was at CMU, it might as well as been in another state for all (or lack thereof) of the publicity around it…

Opening acts usually get no love. Audiences can be indifferent, or even worse, cruel as they patiently bide the time waiting for the headliner. This band got none of that as the audience showed some genuine love. For good reason, they were really good. Word on the street is that they will be the next big band to blow up and although I hear that all the time, they have the goods to back it up. We’ll see…

David Lowery-The Palace Guards February flew by and as we all know Bright Eyes and Radiohead released their latest to much ‘electronic’ fanfare. As with last month, I want to spotlight some maybe lesser known releases that deserve as much attention.

It’s hard to believe that David Lowery has been making music since 1985, first with Camper Van Beethoven and later with Cracker. It’s even harder to believe that I have been seeing him play live for just as long and I easily consider him a reluctant musical hero of sorts to me. After 24 (Wow!) releases as main songwriter with his bands, he comes out with a debut solo album. I am happy to say it is exactly what to expect from him. It’s a little bit of country, rock, Americana, and thankfully ‘weirdness’ thrown together that ranks as amongst the best stuff he has ever produced. This album gets better and better every time I spin it. David Lowery is the man…

This was one of my absolute favorite releases from last year. With the intention of making a debut record that sounded like ‘Neil Young doing Motown’, songwriter Laura Burhemm formed The Mynabirds. You can check out some NPR love here as well as some Daytrotter goodness here. Currently on tour with label mates Bright Eyes (which hopefully has her hitting Pittsburgh soon), Laura was cool enough to participate in this “70th Platinum Anniversary” edition of First/Last Friday…

>Forrest’ First/Last here. Nice fangirl review here….

Of all the bands that performed this night, the only one I was familiar with Gold Motel. Greta did her First/Last this previous May, and I knew most of the tunes they ended up playing. She mentioned her favorite show was last year when her favorite band sang Happy Birthday to her. Weird that this show fell on her birthday also…

Sometimes I feel like and old fogie and want to get out and see what the kids are listening to to. As with the first band, these guys weren’t awful at all. In fact, I kinda dug a few tunes. They mentioned from the stage that it was nice to playing someplace else in Pittsburgh other than Garfield Artworks. A note to bands: stop hating on the GA. If it wasn’t for Manny, you probably wouldn’t be playing PGH at all. Think about it…

The first act of a multiple band night. What can I say, I was not too familiar at all with them but my buddy was. At least I wasn’t running for the door…

In 2009, musician and renowned photographer Graham Nash was asked to curate an exhibit for the Experience Music Project of rock and roll photography. The results have been compiled into this magnificent coffee table book that would satisfy any fan of music. With no guidelines set, Nash has chosen images that are iconic and many that are somewhat obscure. There is a CD included that has Nash himself giving brief descriptions of each of the 80 images included in the book. While I personally would have liked more technical information, it is cool that you get to hear some of why he chose the picture…

p>I happened to mention this band in my January artists of the month post. If you miss this this show next Thursday…your loss. This will beyond…as they say, EPIC. I give you the weirdness that is First/Last Friday…