Upcoming Shows: What To Do In Pittsburgh TONIGHT (5 June 2012)

Posted by valleyofsteel on


 

“The original Scottish Canadian punk band”

Vancouver BC’s The Real McKenzies coming to Pittsburgh tonight!

with The Goddamn Gallows, “twanged-out punk rock gutterbilly” from Detroit

and featuring The Bloody Seamen and Ernie and the Berts

Altar Bar 1620 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh (Strip District)

Doors 6:30, Show 7:30 | $13 ADV, $15 DOS | 21+ only

 
Around for nearly two decades now, The Real McKenzies were one of the first to come up with the idea of blending old Scottish drinking song styles with punk rock music — incorporating bagpipes into all their songs (as well as appearing in traditional highland dress). You can read more about the band’s inception and their long history here; then head on out to the Altar Bar this evening for some great, rowdy fun!

Shows in the middle of the week are always tough — I’m on my way to work right now and already feeling like I’m running out of gas; knowing I have to do this again tomorrow morning makes me especially unhappy. But they’ve really sweetened the pot with the rest of this line-up: you won’t want to miss this show!

Taking the rockabilly/psychobilly concept to ridiculous new heights, The Goddamn Gallows have augmented the typical “punk band with an upright bass” arrangement by also adding mandolin, banjo, accordion, and washboard; this has prompted the band to describe themselves as old-timey “gutterbilly” punk. You can read up on their story here.

And as an added bonus, there will be two a great local opening acts — pirate rockers extraordinaire The Bloody Seamen (recently profiled by Valley of Steel here) and sleazy muppet punks Ernie and the Berts (discussed in brief a few months ago, here)!

**UPDATE: Unfortunately, I’ve just learned that The Bloody Seamen will not be able to make it to this show tonight, but the other three acts should be performing as previously scheduled.**

Find all the details you’ll ever need here, including links to all the bands’ Facebook pages, information on buying tickets, and how you can win a pair of Ernie’s pants (there’s still time to get entered, but it’s running out quickly!) As an added bonus, there are additional Facebook events here, here, and here!

8 responses to “Upcoming Shows: What To Do In Pittsburgh TONIGHT (5 June 2012)”

    • Yeah, it was a ton of fun — the only downside was the considerable lack of pirate music.

      It’s a shame Ernie seemed so tired-out that evening, although once he got to playing and singing, you definitely couldn’t tell. There was a ton of fun and energy (both on stage and on the floor) throughout, especially during a couple of the originals like “Ikea” and “DFwEatB”.

      I’ve always been a huge David Bowie fan, but the song you opened with (“Suffragette City”) is defintely one of my least favorites. You did a pretty decent job with it, though. On the other hand, “Cool Kids” — which I’ve always liked, and is probably one of my top two favorite Screeching Weasel songs — was a pleasant surprise and one of the highlights.

      I really like how you guys end “Hot and Cold,” so it was unfortunate that it ended up getting slightly abridged, but still, a fun way to close things out, as per usual.

      ***

      4am arrives way too quickly for my liking, so I knew we weren’t going to last all the way to the end of the show, but after reading their bio on Facebook (from which the description above was borrowed), I knew I had to see at least a little bit of The Goddamn Gallows. Well, it was so intriguing (and engaging and fun) that it ended up being their entire set. I’m glad we stuck around, too — I just about fell over when the drummer came out front to sing “In League with Satan”! That was surely the most memorable song they did (for me, anyhow) although I also especially liked the earlier one about Jesus, too.

      I don’t think the Altar Bar stage was intended to accomodate a band of that size– excluding the drummer, who was practically invisible in the back, the front of the stage would have pretty crowded even if the bassist, washboard/accordianist, guitarist, banjo/mandolinist, and banjo/fiddler just stood there in a line. But the way they were stomping around and dancing and everything, I was really surprised nobody ended up falling off! (At least until the end, when they sort of spilled out onto the floor with some of the drums, actually increasing the level of rowdiness that was already pretty high throughout).

      ***

      I did feel bad missing out on the headliners, whom I haven’t seen before, but even after only two bands, I’d had a pretty awesome time, and I’m really glad we went.

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