POP-PUNK ALL DAY, CONTINUED FROM PG. 36
Besides booking the festival, Bahl is playing it himself with his band The SpacePimps, one of the festival’s top-billed acts. He and partner Greg Roscoe are taking on the cost of the festival. The past three months have been “really crazy” for Bahl; he’s received more than 170 emails from bands asking to play the festival. But he’s been in those shoes before, and still is, with The SpacePimps. “I’m that band. I email every festival that happens in the United States, saying, ‘You gotta put The SpacePimps on. You gotta put the SpacePimps on,’” Bahl says. “And I never understood until now that it’s a total shit show. It’s a crapshoot to get a band on there.” Brandon Lehman, guitarist in local poppunk band Mace Ballard, says that Bahl approached his band and was very cryptic (which he sometimes is with the bigger things he plans), asking if they were available on the festival date and not offering much else. “I think a big festival, sort of independently put on like that, is really cool,” Lehman says. “I think it shows how strong the DIY music scene in Pittsburgh can be.” Bahl has known Mace Ballard and the majority of the bands playing the festival, local or not, for years. And booking his acquaintances isn’t an accident. “I’ll be the first one to admit that a lot of the bands on the show I know. It’s about being friends,” Bahl says. “Being in a scene is about being friends with people and I think that’s not around anymore. I think it’s all a competition.” Pittsburgh needs more shows like Four Chord, Lehman says, with the music and the bands being the focus. He also thinks that bands need to support each other, the way Mace Ballard has been supported. “More of the veteran bands need to step up and maybe take a few of the smaller local bands under their wing, sort of what Rishi and The SpacePimps have done for us,” Lehman says. “I think that camaraderie really brings people together.” With the first Four Chord Music Festival ready to go, Bahl wants to make it an annual event. and would like to book bands like New Found Glory, Bayside or Reel Big Fish in the future —simply keeping the festival within the theme of punk rock. “It’s not gonna be Christina Aguilera. It’s not gonna be Katy Perry — as much as I would love to have Katy Perry and hang out with her. I just don’t think it’s going to happen that way,” Bahl says. And first, he has to survive this year. “My blood pressure is through the roof, let’s be real here,” Bahl says jokingly. “I’m probably gonna have a heart attack before this event happens.” INF O @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 08.27/09.03.2014
JAZZ LICKS {BY MIKE SHANLEY} Musical worlds collide with the East Gipsy Band. The group of musicians, hailing from Budapest, Hungary, plays music with a clear link to members’ ancestors. Vilmos Oláh’s cimbalom, a hammered dulcimer with a sharp metallic tone, adds a haunting, traditionally exotic sound to the minor-key tunes. But the band’s sound doesn’t start and end with gypsy music. Although its rapid-fire melodies lean close to tradition, they also evoke the sound of bebop in their rhythmic and melodic complexity. This isn’t a fluke either. East Gipsy Band pianist József Balázs has proven himself to be a solid jazz man, having played with trombonist Robin Eubanks and other international improvisers. While performing, he can be seen singing the melody of his piano solo as he plays it, a la Oscar Peterson.
{PHOTO COURTESY OF LOURDES DELGADO}
Tim Ries, the Rolling Stones saxophonist who’s playing with East Gipsy Band
If that fusion of sounds wasn’t enough, the group received something of a profile boost when it was joined by Tim Ries. This American saxophonist can lay claim to his own lengthy résumé, but he’s best known as the saxophonist in the Rolling Stones touring band. Ries tackles the East Gipsy Band’s music as if he too has been playing it for years, spinning soprano sax melodies in tandem with Lájos Sarközi’s violin. Ries performed with the band on a 2011 tour that brought the festive atmosphere to Small’s jazz club in New York City. In a DVD documenting that trip, Ries calls the East Gipsy Band “magical.” “The audience feels the energy,” he goes on. “It’s fusing so many great traditions of classical and Roma music with jazz and folk.” Playing with Mick and Keef might be a good meal ticket, but somehow, this gig seems more fulfilling. INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
EAST GIPSY BAND feat. TIM RIES. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Sept. 3. Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland. $20. All ages. 412-361-2262 or www.garfieldartworks.com