Weapons Cache

Since I haven’t done much writing for this page yet, I want to give a little foundational info on what’s going on in Pittsburgh. I feel that I need to preface this with the statement that I’m well aware of the personal biases I carry. Many or most of the things I write about are extremely incestuous – projects or events that I’m directly or tangentially involved with. That said, Pittsburgh really is a small city – the general wisdom is pop. 300,000 city, 1-2 million metro – and everybody is only one or two degrees of separation from each other. So when it comes down to it, I like the fact that I, or anybody who really wants to can be involved with things.

So what is going on in terms of shows? At the moment, not really a hell of a lot. These things go in cycles it would seem, and we’re sort of in a slightly dead period in terms of actual shows.

The last show of note was the 4th GALACTIC ASS DRAGON CLASSIC laptop battle, back in November. Three rounds of sonic pugilism, and Philly’s 215Noiseician STATAS (formerly known as Nodal Terror) emerged as the victor. There were some really awesome sets thoughout the night. I was especially impressed with J. Stat, Blaerg, Split Horizon and Vasculator’s stuff. The last couple In Broken Key tracks were phenominal. All in all I think there were 13 entrants which was really great to see. It’s too bad that this was the last show at the venue we used, ON GALLERY. It really was a great spot, especially for doing all ages shows that could have alcohol and be a bit more raucous than some other venues. Earlier in the fall we hooked up a series called SOUND BYTES at the Wood Street Gallery downtown thanks to Chris Korch, and was able to host Enduser for free, as well as do a few other free electronics shows. Thanks to the NYC airport, a scheduled Mathhead show fell through.

The situation with venues in Pittsburgh has been somewhat schitzophrenic lately. There have been a number of new venues that have opened and closed, as well as opportunities to use awesome spaces that have come about then gone away. Garfield Artworks is still booked by Manny, and he has indie shows of all stripes going on nightly, although not as many electronics shows as in the past. The Quiet Storm no longer books music. Modern Formations seems to be focusing more on art than music shows, although they do still do music now and again. On Gallery, in the same section of Penn Ave had a brief run of shows, then left as quickly as it came. Earlier in the year the Paint and Body space had a run of art and music shows, but is also now closed. As of the end of the year, the Upstage closed its doors perminantly. It housed a number of alternative dance nights and shows over the years. The saturday goth / industrial night has relocated to Wednesdays at Club Pegasus, which will unlikely be the same.
Currently there is an interesting opportunity to do events in Braddock of all places. Braddock is a suburb that is very close to the city that once thrived, but has lost tons of population since the days when the steel mills closed down. The main drag is now mostly filled with unused and empty buildings. The mayor of Braddock has offered derelict buildings to artists and musicians to use at no cost. Lori Mancuso and Ed Bucholtz put on an art/noise show there a few weeks back featuring locals Fuck Telecorps, Lord Bird Golden Cobra, Sun Tornado and guest Eloe Moe which showed the potential for doing some pretty extreme things with their spaces. To whit, on Jan 12th there will be a lazer crunk tastic rave there, LAZER FUZZ!, with Dieselboy, the Brigade, Xanopticon and more.

As far as other spots, there are a number of places that have been hosting dj nites of various levels of interest. The FUZZ! drum and bass weekly is going on it’s 7th year. It still goes down wednesdays at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern. I spin there as part of the resident 412DNB dj crew (Absolut, ABZ, Alaska, Depth, Jake, Ra and myself). We spread the love around and book good locals as well as guests. This year we’ve had a number of guests including Abel Gein, Catacomb, DJ Suv, Dieselboy, the Brigade, Doormouse & Anonymous, Klute, and Spor. On the southside, Z-Lounge (formerly Zythos), is the only venue dedicated to doing electronic music and djs. Most of their nights are house or techno, with occasional drum and bass. We did manage to do a few shows upstairs, which is a nice sized bar (holds maybe 100), including the THAC0 release party and a few other things earlier this year. The Beehive, a large and infamous coffeehouse has started an after hours run by Kelly of Milk records. It’s mostly breaks, but occasionally drum and bass, and runs from midnight until 4am every saturday. In the east end, the Brillobox is a bar/venue that has been open for nearly two years and has a number of different monthly dj nights on thursdays and usually friday or saturdays. The one most of note is PANDEMIC, which is a monthly night in thursdays and features a collection of djs spinning cutting edge dance music of different international flavors – from balkan brass, to baille funk, desi beats and things along those lines. Once a month Edgr Umm and I do a weekend event where we spin a mashed up variety of dance music. In Lawrenceville there are a few spaces that have been transformed in the past year. Belvederes is a former Polish club and is now a bar with a huge hall attached and has been doing shows and dj nites of many stripes. Back in November Girltalk played there along with The Modey Lemon, Centepede E’st and Ed Umm, and it was quite a banger.