It's astounding how many of these posters are from 1999 - I don't know how I managed to work and study at the same time. I think this one was the pinnacle of my concert-organising work in Pittsburgh, and I'm amazed that it was 1999, as I swore this happened in 2000.  Despite all of the indie rock and post-hardcore shows I was organising, I was playing minimalist/experimental music myself in Land, and my main interest was in drone, psychedelia and outer sounds.

Getting a chance to book No Neck was special - I was only vaguely familiar with them as they were hot off the NYC avant scene at the time, and the tour booker (I forget who it was, maybe John Allen?  His email address was germanoak@ something) said they would prefer to play in art galleries or outdoor spaces instead of clubs.

I arranged with Manny to use the parking lot outside of MIT, which provided some problems in terms of amplification and how to make people actually pay, but as it was a nice summer night, it turned out to be magical. MIT's car park was filled with old, broken vending machines and other junk, and NNCK's frontman (the guy who later went on to start Excepter) was climbing all over everything while the band banged away.  It was total madness.

We were already looking to leave behind our minimal, guitar-based drone, and we performed a largely improvised set (I think) that culminated in us using electric razors near the pickups of our guitars to create a harsh, Merzbow-like dissonance. I feel like we lost some of our friends from the rock-based music scene that night and never quite got them back.  Meisha were glorious, probably their best performance (or tied with the one at the Brew House, which had projections -- this one had the night sky which was even better).

NNCK's Japanese cellist didn't make it on this tour so it was a slightly smaller group.  I had a guarantee for the first time and I was worried about making it; I also had to buy them all food, which we got from Tram's kitchen in Lawrenceville.  I think we just covered the guarantee or I only lost a little bit.  They stayed at my place and I took them to Giant Eagle the next morning before they headed off.

I saw them again in 2005 in Louisville, hanging out at Kris Abplanalp's place in the afternoon when they arrived and later in a full-fledged freakout of a show, and then I think at All Tomorrow's Parties that Thurston organised -- though I honestly can't remember if I saw their set that night or not.

Outside concerts should happen more.  This poster was made by B. Chad, with his hand-set moveable type; a design that I think is beautiful and perfect.

This has the distinction of being the first show I ever organised, though to be completely honest my flatmate at the time, Dan, actually organised and executed this.  But we were setting up the show 'together' - I think I worked the door - and it showed me how easy it actually is to make things happen.  I felt like things had changed after this; for the next 2 years I was pretty actively involved in setting up shows while at the same time playing music myself in 1-2 bands and somehow getting through Uni intact.

I think all of these bands are somewhat forgotten now.  Shale were an aggressive post-hardcore band, locals who I saw quite a few times and always enjoyed even though that 'wasn't my thing'.  Faraquet were on their first tour here but later developed a bit of a following with a slightly proggy/post-rock take on the DC sound.  Also from DC were the Better Automatic, who did a sharp mod-pop that reminded me a bit of Chisel but yet completely different.  I still have their 7" which I play every few years.

This was poorly attended, a rainy Sunday night if I remember correctly.  Dan designed this poster.

I don't know why I'm gravitating so much towards the CMU-based posters (or why I have so many of them), but certainly the CMU shows were something special and central to my young music-devouring appetite.  'Tainted Candy' was slightly overhyped amongst my friends - a festival on Halloween to be held in the studio union gymnasium, this was a can't-miss event on my calendar, even though I didn't know that many of the bands. 

What I found was a too-long mess that made me realise why rock bands don't play inside gynmasiums: acoustics.  I remember distinct elements of many sets, but most artists just struggled with the sound in some way.  The 1985 were telling everyone jokingly that they were planning to blow up a goat on stage, which of course didn't happen, but I remember my young vegan friend being angry at the idea.  This was an introduction to hardcore music for me, though I didn't realise it and only Four Hundred Years made any impact - they were possibly the best band overall.  The Impossible Five did a spy music-influenced rock which I liked enough to pick up their CD; Operation Re-Information were the most enjoyable act as I had never seen them before, and their crisp electronica actually worked in the reverberating wooden space.

Don Caballero and Hurl were two mainstays of PIttsburgh music that were both a bit before my time, or I should say I was never really interested in them.  This was the first time I had seen Don Cab and they were notably terrible, angering the audience and at one point throwing a mic stand at a friend of mine.  I left the show completely despising them and never wanting to see them again.  I did twice though - once at the Beehive with Mike Banfield in the lineup, and once in Paris when they had completely changed members apart from Che.

I came dressed as Ric Ocasek, which involved nothing more than sunglasses and a blazer.  Doug, who did a good job organising this despite my griping, dressed as Michael Douglas from Falling Down and it was fabulous. I remember being really disappointed overall with the show, but a friend later pointed out that I still had fun, and I guess this was true.  This was the first big event of my freshman year of college and I saw a handful of people from the local college radio station here.  The woodcut here in the flyer was by Randy Costanza, who I saw the last time I was in New York and was casual friends with for much of my time in Pittsburgh.  I don't remember the games or horror films promised on the handbill, but I'm sure Doug can refresh my memory.

Another Connan Room show, this time featuring my then-local-faves The 1985 at the peak of their powers, Harriet the Spy (who are still remembered fondly by fans of that particular time and place), and Melt-Banana, whose performance I actually missed in 1996 at a show that has a very seminal place in my adolescence.  A Minor Forest headlined; at the time, I had their CD Flemish Altruism, which I never could figure out if I liked.

I remember nothing about The 1985's performance, but I saw them around 20 times so that's to be expected - the different shows start to run together.  So many of their best performances will never appear in these archives because I have no artifact to scan: the infamous Halloween 1998 show with Unsinkable which erupted into violence (Chatham REA Coffeehouse, just two weeks after this); the aborted show with Frodus in the Peach Pitt basement; the Lascaux gallery show with Arab on Radar and a brilliant band called Laurels that I'm guessing was late April, 1997; oh, my high school graduation party too!

But this night -- Melt-Banana's performance is only memorable to me because their guitarist wore a facemask the whole time, and there was a rumour that he was deathly ill and couldn't risk breahting in any disease.  But maybe that was horseshit; I later disovered upon visiting Japan that it's quite common to see businessmen wearing dustmasks on the streets of Tokyo.  Harriet the Spy I don't remember at all, either.

As for A Minor Forest ... well, by that point I was acting drunk and rowdy with Luke from Land, except not actually drunk because I was a teetotaling 18 year old.  But we didn't enjoy it; this was of course when we had our own band, Land, and I was sick of the mathy guitar-riffs that dominated Pittsburgh music for so long.  I remember seeing the Fucking Champs in this same room one time, and being similarly bored, or maybe I am confusing two bands.  A Minor Forest was definitely boring; this night Luke was actually heckling them from the back of the Connan Room, calling out song titles from Master of Puppets. I think we left early.

I'm not sure if Doug Mosurak organised this or if this was in the Neal Donnelly era of CMU show organising, or who made this poster, which was 11x17-sized.

A battered but intact poster from a concert at CMU that I remember attending my freshman year of University.  Doug Mousrak who I am still friends with organised this and designed the poster, which has a lovely, shimmery metallic feel to it that probably doesn't come across well in the scan.  This was a great concert, as I was quite a fan of Apples in Stereo at the time, liked the Notwist (particulary 12, which I think they were coming off of, and the once fantastic instrumental heavy jam they played), and was just exploring 60's psychedelia, so Silver Apples were a great thing to see fresh off their reunion.  I knew Meisha then though I had not become super-close to them yet.  I remember this being in the big auditorium and the vibe being somewhat compromised by the rows of seats looking down at the stage, but the sound being good.  A CMU janitor walked onstage during the Silver Apples set to ask them to move their van which was parked illegally.  Apples in Stereo were good and I met them that night and somewhere have a photo of C. and myself and other friends with them, which I recreated with Robert and Hillary in 2005 when I lived in Lexington (with a different supporting cast).