Saturday, August 28th was a hot and muggy day at the First Niagara Pavilion; a great day for a rock and roll concert.  The stage was set for Stone Temple Pilots with opening act Cage the Elephant to rock Pittsburgh with some familiar classics and some new ones as well.  

Cage the Elephant put on a good show and their stage presence was surprisingly decent.  There were many fans in attendance that were super psyched about Cage the Elephant being the opening act and in fact there was a nice vibe at the time of their set going on in the lawn.  They played a lot of tracks from their self titled debut album, including "In One Ear," "Back Against the Wall," and of course, "Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked."

When three band are playing in one show odds are that at least one of those bands will be terrible, either through the substance of their songs or the quality of the performance itself. Pleasantly, this was not the case on Saturday night at the quasi-dilapidated Ches-a-Rena in Cheswick as three bands, The Dear Hunter, Circa Survive and Coheed and Cambria, all took their turn in thrilling onlookers with their performance.

As the least well known of the three bands, Dear Hunter naturally went first. And although the audience may not have been very familiar with the material they still showed up in large numbers to become more familiar. From the get-go any opening band is limited to only a select few songs, this is perhaps more-so true for Dear Hunter who have songs that are just a bit longer than your typical radio-friendly singles. 

August 19th marked the return of Ozzfest 2010 at the First Niagara Pavilion.  Rock heads we running amuck to see a slew of metal powerhouses take stage and set it off.  It was a hot day and the sun was relentless but it didn’t stop the bands or the fans from living it up and it all in.  The lineup was stacked from top to bottom with notable acts and  rock n’ roll superstars, all with the legend Ozzy Osbourne wrapping it up with quite an electrified set.

The Monster Energy 2nd stage laid the groundwork for this rock carnival as people filed into the venue, with Goatwhore kicking off the show, followed by Saviours, Skeletonswitch and Kataklysm. All respectively rocked the stage, but as it was early, there was limited crowd interaction.  Other than the fans that were there to see one of these aforementioned bands there was not much energy in the crowd but there was still tons of energy being emitted from the 2nd stage.  Many people were out in the parking lot, getting primed and ready to rock, or were still finding their way to the show.  

Before making snap judgments, remember looks can be deceiving, especially at a rock show. When John Vesely, also known as Secondhand Serenade, came onstage at Altar Bar on August 11, it was easy to make an assumption based on his looks. With his styled hair and large, white sunglasses in the dark room, he looked pretty ridiculous. About halfway through his set, he made it known that he realized how he was coming off. 

“If you’re thinking I’m a douchebag for wearing sunglasses, I’m not,” he told the audience. “I got into an altercation in Boston.” Vesely didn’t offer many more details, but did remove his shades to show the shiners he had around both eyes. 

Sunday night at the Thunderbird Café, The Sweetback Sisters put on a good show in a great-sounding room.  It didn’t seem to matter to them how small the crowd was—they were going to have a good time onstage no matter how much the gods may have conspired against them.  

The show began inauspiciously, with opening band Boulevard of the Allies, who, I am guessing, were an eleventh-hour replacement for the promoted opening band.  Yes, that’s right—“Boulevard of the Allies,” of all things, according to their website (www.boulevardoftheallies.com), a hybrid “Pittsburgh / London Band.”  I must admit I didn’t fully believe their name until I checked out the website just now, because if it had turned out that they were just a bunch of ‘Burghers trying to sound British, I would have been less surprised, as they sounded like a lot of other jangly British next-wave bands, and I have heard my share of bogus British accents over the years.  The guy sitting next to me was wondering if they changed their name for every city they played in (not a bad guess, Casey, and I supported the hypothesis myself up until I looked at their site).