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Around this time last year, pretty much every band in the world was trying to find a way to monetize virtual gigs to survive. This year is a whole different story.
While it is an exaggeration to say that we are back to “normal†before the pandemic, the pent-up energy for live music is palpable for artists and fans alike. A bunch of shows that were canceled due to Covid have been rescheduled for November, which is shaping up to be a pretty solid month for live music.
Please note that most sites require proof of vaccination, negative Covid tests and / or masks, so check with each club. (But really, do that stuff anyway). There are also likely to be other Covid-related cancellations, so double check before you go.
Photo courtesy of Sylvan Esso.
November 5, Sylvan Esso: Scene AE, North Shore
Electropop is the sound of fall in Pittsburgh, apparently, with Caribou and Chvrches on the way this month. This North Carolina duo can be as sweet and sticky as undiluted Kool-Aid, with a heavily satirical sense of humor that takes a while to absorb. In their best songs, Amelia Meath’s languid croon curiously wraps around Nick Sanborn’s subtle rhythmic accompaniment, never taking the obvious route. A perfect example of their oblique attack on pop conventions is “HSKT”, which takes the playground song of “head, shoulders, knees and toes” and turns it into a kick in the shins against the oppressive omnipresence. of our video screens.
Bad religion. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
November 9, Bad Religion, Alkaline Trio: Stage AE, North Shore
Bad Religion has been playing punk rock since 1979 (!). Calling them fossils would be rude – but when did punks care about politeness? Plus, in the case of their singer, Greg Graffin, it’s true. About a decade ago, a discovery by a team of paleontologists (including Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History) named a newly discovered extinct bird species – Qiliania graffini – after the Qilian Mountains in China, where it was found, and Graffin. He is no stranger to scholarship: Graffin is probably the only punk singer with a doctorate. in zoology, and that sometimes dropped the odd polysyllabic scientific term in a song and made it stick, like “A phylogenetically linked piece of chaos / To every living organ system we are brothers and sisters, can’t you see ? “From” The World Won’t End Without You. “
Renaissance brass band. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
November 9, Shake & Holla with The North Mississippi All-Stars, Rebirth Brass Band, Cedric Burnside: Byham Theater, Downtown
The musical connection between the dark blues like the night of the Mississippi Hills and the noisy joy of Bourbon Street is not a straight line, but rather a second zigzagging and bouncing line through American musical history. You can connect the dots yourself on this great show at Byham – don’t show up late either. Opener Cedric Burnside is the grandson of Mississippi Delta’s most raw and real-life bluesman RL Burnside and a veteran of the icon group.
Photo courtesy of Gary Clark Jr.
November 10, Gary Clark Jr., Stage AE, North Shore
It started out as the great hope for an electric blues revival, as fewer kings (BB and others) are still around to carry the torch. But Gary Clark Jr. quickly began to assert his own vision, which didn’t exactly match blues traditions. It encompassed soul, funk, rock, R&B and even hip-hop – with collaborations ranging from Alicia Keys to the Foo Fighters – chained loosely with mind-blowing guitar solos. His protest-filled 2019 record, “This Land,†packed a political punch aimed directly at the zeitgeist, responding to a racist reality with a century of synthesized black musical traditions.
J Dinosaur Jr. Mascis Photo courtesy of Dinosaur Jr. Instagram
November 11, Dinosaur Jr., Ryley Walker: Mr. Small’s Theater, Millvale
Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis established himself as indie rock’s quintessential heroic guitarist in the mid-1980s, with an extremely original style, copied but never duplicated – a searing fury of notes, chords and distortion that sounded more like an army of 10 guitars. than the work of one man. Plus, he somehow sang above all else, in a drawling, laconic voice that offered an eerie counterpoint to the guitar work on the sound barrier. Well, Mascis still does the same thing today, but with more gray hair.
Flaming lips. Photo by Blake Studdard.
November 11, Flaming Lips, Particle Kid: Stage AE, North Shore
The Flaming Lips are one of the few truly weird rock bands to have reached that sweet spot of success, where they have enough fans, money and resources to do just about all the weird, absurd, even silly things. that they can imagine. And they do – from entire albums meant to be played on synced car radios, to the making of their own weird little movie about a Martian Santa called “Christmas on Mars.” Of course, this poses its own dilemma. When your fans are expecting something new and strange all the time, you have to keep going. What could surpass seeing singer Wayne Coyne inside a giant inflatable hamster ball rolling above the audience? They will think of something.
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