After the second song, Layus approached the mic with glassy eyes, a Dylan personality, and hair to match asking the audience if they were ready to have fun. The crowd, mostly ranging in age from mid teens to mid 20s, stared dumbfounded; most of them had never seen real blues before and had not expect such an outrageous display of showmanship. “We’re gonna make you have fun. How ‘bout that?” Layus added, as the band struck up their own blues version of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” originally by Nirvana.

After their third blues cover, Layus quickly said, “Well, never done that before. This is one of ours.” They slowed it down with “Either Way I’ll Break Your Heart Someday,” off of their most recent record 'Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt.' Their live performance gave it a folk feel, as Layus handed out the solos in a classic blues/folk style saying, “Hey John that’s you,” to John Vincent Fredericks, the organist/keyboard player, as he began his to tear into his Hammond B3 organ. They continued with the title track of their first album “Stars and Boulevards,” followed by “I’ll Meet You There Someday” and “Fire.”

Layus asked the audience, “Y’all know who Robert Zimmerman is?” Once again, the unknowing crowd remained silent, save a handful of people who gave a “whoo!” “Well even if you don’t know who he is, you know who he is,” Layus continued, “He goes by an A.K.A. of Bob Dylan. Anyway this is one of his.” The band proceeded to play “Just Like a Woman” with organ and all. Dylan would have given a grin had he been in Mr. Smalls that night to see it. They continued on to play “Boston,” “I Still Ain’t Over You,” and “Sweet and Low.”

Then, Chris Sachtleben, lead guitarist, Fredericks, and Layus picked up acoustic guitars. The band gathered around one mic and played “Mayfield” the first song off of their first album. As he announced that they would play their last song, Layus introduced the band. They finished with “Dust” thanked the crowd and walked off as quickly as they had come out.  Augustana’s overall performance was miles above what I had anticipated. They were comfortable on stage and kept the audience in the show. Although I never really liked their music very much, they put on one of the best show’s I’ve seen this summer.

Race the Ghost, one of Pittsburgh’s own, opened the show with quite a bang. From the first song, Frank Salati, the lead guitarist, tore up the set with a creative stew of leads, riffs, and solos.  He used only two Ibanez Tube Screamer Pedals, models TS-9 and TS-808, to kick his guitar into overdrive. The second song they played, “I Heard There Was a Fire,” comes from their recently released album 'My First Crown.' The song gave a “Dire Straits meets Indie” feel with slow almost talking style of singing supplied by lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Vincent Bruni. The rhythm section, made up of Michael Salati on drums and Benjamin Bruni on bass, added a dance-able beat through the set that with the right audience, could make a great concert experience.

After the third song, “All the Way to Your House,” Vincent Bruni, while making small talk with the audience, called out a girl in the front of the crowd for texting. Being in the Pittsburgh circuit for 5 years and dealing with audiences helped him handle it well. Learning her name the first time, he called her out later in the set saying, “Again Rachael?” with a “joking but seriously” tone. Despite a few time issues they raced the ghost and came out ahead.

The second band that approached the stage, Recession, also hails from the steel city, but obviously grew up in a different neighborhood. They started with three guitarists, which is almost always unnecessary and the first song further supported this as two of the guitarists were playing the same chords the entire time. The lead singer, Joeseph Bucci, who had been on guitar, then sat behind his center stage keyboard. Despite spurts of creativity in the bridge of one song or the breakdown of another, the majority of their songs and lyrics were a generic pop rock. Their sound was very unbalanced with the bass noticeable high, which is unlike Smalls. For the most part, I would say that Smalls has one of the best small venue sounds in Pittsburgh. In short, Recession is a Christian Maroon 5. They have a small following, because they trade in their creativity for popularity.