Yesterday I went to Pittsburgh and saw Goldrush, a band I knew nothing about, at the Garfield Artworks. I suppose Goldrush is classified as shoegazer, which despite the emo-esque name, isn’t emo. [Thank Christ.] Also playing were Hopewell and a local band called Ennui [Their site appears to be down], that I didn’t stay to listen to.
It was a strange set since the local band went on last. I got to Pittsburgh a bit after 8, but Goldrush hadn’t arrived yet, so I ended up down the street at Crazy Mocha, a coffeehouse with free Wi-Fi and the best goddamn chai latte I’ve ever had. They closed about ten minutes after I got there though. When I made it back to the Garfield Artworks, Hopewell had just started. The Artworks isn’t a very good venue for live music, it is long and narrow, so the sounds get funneled and end up bouncing off of each other. Hopewell did a good job setting up the standard wall-of-sound, despite this acoustic oddity, and had added bonuses of a high and quavery-voiced lead singer and some good miniature jam sessions. Goldrush was very good; you could easily tell that each of their songs was finely crafted, but they also weren’t bound to playing the songs in the same way. They definitely had fun doing their thing.
It is a shame, that with such good bands, the crowd was virtually nonexistent, about 5 people. More people showed up for the local band, Ennui [which for some reason played last, a fact worth mentioning a second time] than listened to either Hopewell or Goldrush. I did get three free stickers to add to my guitar case though. My first view of Pittsburgh, coming in on 279, was pretty awesome: hills, hills, hills, hills, curve, Pittsburgh! It was dark out too, so the skyline was pretty groovy. I also found my first grey [actually white] hair today. It is in my beard.
Link of the Day: Tons of free science fiction stories, by good authors, thanks to MetaFilter.