February: "Make it Be Spring"

Here is your preview of February bands at Poetry Lounge in Millvale, Pittsburgh, PA! It's going to be kind of a mellow ride through the shortest month. Lots of indie-folk-acoustic type stuff. 

25.2 February - “Make it be spring”

This schedule is accurate as I can make it, but is subject to change. There is also a lot more than just bands going on at Poetry Lounge. Click here for the latest Poetry Lounge schedule of events.

*Indicates artist is on the schedule, but I couldn't find them on Spotify. 

**Band/artist names that I had trouble disambiguating (too many artists out there with same name).

SAT 1
Alternative Agenda* - 90s-00s cover band

SUN 2
Caleb Pogyor & The Soft Wake - Indie Psychedelic Folk Rock
Tory Silver - Indie Bluesy Folk Rock
Joe Pretski*

FRI 7
Ziggy D of C-Level (Cleveland, OH) - Punk/Reggae Fusion Jam Band
Lem* - Lo-fi Joke Folk - https://lemmakesmusic.bandcamp.com/
Two Wolf Moon* - Alt Rock
Trailing Iris* - Indie Garage Shoegaze

SAT 8
Lounna - Indie Folk Pop
Lorelei Paige - Indie Folk Pop
Tai Chirovsky - Acoustic Singer-Songwriter

WED 12
Cindy Carpenter - Alt Pop, Synthpop
Kalie Shorr - Pop, Alt Country, Alt Rock

Zee Machine - Alt Pop, Synthpop

Jenna DeVries - Pop, Alt Country

THU 13
Z-Nemo and The Big Slime - Indie, Alt Rock

Chupaflor - Noise, Experimental Rock

Mr.Dr*

FRI 14
Hearts on Fire**
Shel the Philosopher - Alt Hip-hop/Rap

SAT 15
Kat Steih and the Ferals (Ann Arbor MI) - Singer-songwriter
Dream the Heavy - Alt Rock/Pop
Old Game - Post-hardcore Emo Grunge
Foamer - Indie Psychedelic Rock

THU 20
Veronica’s Picnic*
Favorite Band* - Experimental Jazz Funk Fusion - https://favoriteband.bandcamp.com/

FRI 21
Vireo - Ethereal Folk, Shoegaze
A Go Go (Columbus OH) - Indie Folk, Alt Country
Clear Creek SP (MS) - Southern Country Rock Duo

SAT 22
Slim Forsythe - Outlaw Country, Storyteller
The Boss Stingrays* - Surf Rock

THU 27
Flower Ranger - Alt Pop, Synth

Beach Boise, ID - Folk Pop Rock

Aliquid novi - Electronic Ambient Psychedelic Rock

FRI 28

William Matheny - Acoustic, Singer-songwriter, Alt-Country

Darrin Hacquard - Alt-Country, Honky Tonk

A music post

Photos and videos from some great shows that I have attended in the last year or so:

Galactic, with High & Mighty Brass Band, at The Rex

Chicano Batman, at The Rex

Gary Numan, at Mr. Smalls

Flaming Lips at Stage AE

Pixies and Weezer (at Keybank Pavilion)

Punk in Drublic (with NoFX and Bad Religion)

The Chainsmokers at MGM in Las Vegas

Fates Warning at The Rex

Dinosaur Jr. at Mr. Smalls

House history

I just found an interesting thing. There is a collection of historic maps of Pittsburgh & vicinity, accessible online. One of them, dated 1915, shows a structure built on my lot, but the Allegheny County real estate portal says that my house was built in 1925. I knew there was something funny about that, because I've seen historical photos of my street that are dated earlier than that, and my house is already there.

You can find the collection of GM Hopkins Co maps here.

Pittsburgh history as told in it's cemeteries

I do a lot of walking around my neighborhood, and one of my favorite places to walk is the nearby Monongahela/All Saints Braddock Catholic cemeteries that span Braddock and Braddock Hills. It is an interesting place to walk, and has an interesting story that reflects the history of Pittsburgh. I even found a personal connection (through Ancestry.com and findagrave.com).

The information here is what I could gather from the Internet, mostly collected by other people who were doing ancestry research. It's two cemeteries now, but it used to be one called Monongahela. Each Catholic church in the area had it's own dedicated section: St. Joseph, St. Thomas, Good Shepherd, etc. In1929, when the cemetery manager asked the Catholic churches to pay for repairing the road that ran through the cemetery, connecting Braddock with Braddock Hills, the churches refused to pay. So, they built a "spite wall" that cut the road off, and created All Saints Braddock Catholic Cemetery. The road was heavily used, and I can imagine how inconvenient it was for residents to go all the way around the cemeteries after the wall was built.

The wall was originally 8 feet high, but at some point it collapsed and is now about 2 feet high, not too difficult to clamber over if you are on foot.

The cemeteries were built on the steep hillside above Braddock, on what was cheap land at the time, so I get a good workout during my walks. I also get a great view. When standing on the highest points of the cemetery, you can see Braddock and the Monongahela valley below.

I found another interesting article about the cemetery that was published in the Spring 1990 issue of Pittsburgh History. It describes how, from the 1880s until the war in 1914, immigrants from Europe came to work the mills in the valley. The preferred sections of the cemetery were already claimed by the older, established English, German, and Irish communities. The people who came later from central, eastern, and southern Europe filled the more obscure lots and steeper slopes. As you walk through the cemetery, you see the timeline "marking successive waves of migrants to the Pittsburgh region."

I can see this timeline clearly as I walked from one section to another.

Turkeys! I see them all the time in the cemetery. 

Estate of Anthony Burns family - he was my great-great grandfather.

This is the entry in the ledger for my great-great grandmother's interment, in 1884. Records prior to the 1930s can be difficult to find because they were split between the two cemetery offices, but not necessarily according to where the interments occurred. This ledger is in the Monongahela office, but the record for my great-great grandfather, who died in 1933, is in the database for All Saints Braddock. They are both buried in the same lot. 

The markers on some of the steeper slopes have deteriorated, the inscriptions are obscured.

The low "spite wall" is visible on the right.

More turkeys: