2011 started off with a bang concert-wise in the City of Pittsburgh, the city has seen the likes of Lady Gaga, Elton John, Ke$ha, Snoop Dogg, and Joe Grushecky and the House Rockers perform for music fans. Stage AE's outdoor stage just opened the other night with Social Distortion and has really been a boon to the concert scene in the city. There are plenty more shows coming up.
Social Distortion 5/11
Danzig 5/20
Weird Al Yankovic 5/22
Avett Brothers 5/27
Weezer 5/29
Panic! At the Disco 6/3
The Monkees 6/22
311 and Sublime w/Rome 7/12
Slayer & Rob Zombie 7/23
Motley Crue 7/24
Goo Goo Dolls 7/27
Perfect Circle 8/9
WDVE 4-Pack: Ted Nugent 8/3, Alice Cooper 8/12, ZZ Top 8/19, & Styx 9/1
Heinz Field
Taylor Swift 6/18
U2 7/26
Peterson Events Center
Katy Perry 6/23
Trib Total Media Amphitheatre aka IC Light Amphitheatre
Chicago 5/24
Elvis Costello 6/16
Meatloaf 7/28
Wiz Khalifa 8/6
Stone Temple Pilots 8/10
White Snake w/Mr. Big 8/16
The Doobie Brothers 8/18
REO Speedwagon 9/18
Consol Energy Center
New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys 6/15
Britney Spears 8/19
Foo Fighters 9/23
First Niagara Pavilion aka Star Lake
Jimmy Buffett 6/21
Kid Rock w/Sheryl Crow 7/6
Vans Warped Tour 7/22
Lil' Wayne 7/23
Def Leopard w/Heart 8/20
Journey 8/27
Blink 182 & My Chemical Romance 9/15
Meadows Racetrack & Casino
Beach Boys 6/10
Club Zoo
Alkaline Trio 8/9
I'm sure there will be a few more that haven't been announced yet. We'll also get some in for the Rib Fest, Arts Festival and Jam on Walnut aka "Shadyside Nights."
Here are some of the best concerts I have seen in Pittsburgh:
Pearl Jam '03 - Civic Arena, saw Pearl Jam twice, they were great both times but I have to go with the 2003 show. Eddie Vedder drank wine straight from the bottle and his commentary was classic. Also got to hear the rarely played "trilogy" and it was in reverse order.
Green Day '01- IC Light Amphitheatre, saw Green Day three times but this was their best show. They tore through their set playing all of the classics. The outdoor venue was perfect for them. Even saw 'Sammy Hagar' hoisting up fans to crowd surf.
Deftones - saw them at least six times, can't pick out my favorite show because they never disappoint. Metropol '10 was the best venue to see them.
AFI '09 - Club Zoo (Metropol), was a little late discovering AFI but this was an excellent show. Sorry I missed their 2000 show at Club Laga. Davey Havok had incredible stage presence
Bruce Springsteen at Mellon Arena 2009 - was never a huge fan but he lived up to all the hype and expectations, really rocked out
Blink 182 '98 - Metropol, Dude Ranch tour was great, it was all down hill from here after this for Blink.
Vans Warped Tour '98 - best lineup of any Warped Tour to date, featured Deftones, Bad Religion, Rancid, NOFX, Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Snapcase at the IC Light Amphitheatre
Honorable Mention: Metallica '04 - Civic Arena, 311 & The Roots - IC Light Amphitheatre '04, Tom Petty '02?
Wish I would have paid more attention to the Black Keys the Arts Festival Concert in 2009, it was probably pretty good considering it was free. Pretty far from stage and talking...oh well. Would love to put Radiohead in here, but had to travel to Cleveland to see them, maybe someday they'll be here.
Going to my first Stage AE show to see Weezer, can't wait to see the new venue. U2 is also coming up at Heinz Field..
Great post! It is a good thing not to have to go out to Star Lake for good music so much. My favorite shows have been every time I've seen Pearl Jam and Petty, the same Springsteen show you picked, the two times I saw STP, once at X-fest at Starlake and once at Rolling Rock in Latrobe, the U2 show at Mellon a few years back(much better than when I saw them at Three Rivers) and, surprisingly enough, my very first conference, Bush at Civic Arena in like '96 or so.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it looks like a good summer concert series. My best concert experience had to be Metallica. After that everyone falls into place and all of the concerts had their own feel. I really remember 311, Green Day, Tom Petty, and Korn. My top concert that I missed and I will never forgive Mike D for this was the Rage Against the Machine and Beastie Boys concert. We had tickets and then it was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a good line up. Nice post! The warped tour is at first niagara now? Has that been going on for a while?
ReplyDeleteThat warped tour was one of my favorite concerts ever. I remember it was really hot that day, and I had called off work that day so I could go to the concert. I told them I was sick, but when I came into work the next day my boss was holding up the front page of the paper with a picture of the show, and there was me right in the middle of it haha. He thought it was funny so I guess it was ok.
The Green Day show was probably the biggest surprise I've had at a concert. I remember being kind of excited but not really because they were releasing some songs I wasn't a big fan of at the time, and I thought the group might have gone soft. That was a big misconception. The show was great, intense, had a great mix up of slow and fast songs, had audience involvement (they invited a fan up on stage to play bass on the song 'she') and played for a little over three hours. One of the best concerts I have been to. Sammy Hagar might have even been there.
I've already gotten my Buffett tickets, extremely excited for that, even though I'm pretty sure I'm his only fan on this board. His concert was really great last year, played for almost three hours, was just a great night.
Yes, that Warped Tour was so hot, then it poured down rain in the middle of the day. I was so sick that day and the weather made it worse. I had to leave the Deftones set early.
ReplyDeleteYes, crowd surfing with 'Sammy Hagar' was great at Green Day.
Some of my favorite concerts were.
ReplyDelete1. U2
2. Metalica
3. My first Pearl Jam show at The Civic Arena. I think it was 97 or 98.
4. All the Tom Petty shows were good, but I've seen him so many times they kind of blur into one. Probably because drinking was usually involved, ha ha.
The one concert I missed that I still regret was in 93, headlined by Metalica, Guns N Roses, & Faith No More. Metalica and the original lineup of Guns N Roses, are you kidding me? It would have been the best concert ever!
I asked my mom if I could go every day for about three months. She heard about riots at other shows on the news so I was not allowed to go to the Pittsburgh show. She was probably right I was only 11 or 12 at the time.
Guns N Roses broke up soon after that Pittsburgh show. Unfortunately I will never get another chance to see the original Guns n Roses live.