We tried to sleep in. Didn’t realy happen. We were up pretty early and outta the hotel after some email and showers. We shot into town and found Carson street and walked the entire stretch of it. We found some dive and enjoyed a cold one over some talk with the bartender, who turned out to be a snowboarder familiar with many same things in our lives. We talked about the change in Pittsburghs economy, the affordable real estate all over town, the slow rebirth of the Southside district. Nice fella. He bought us a shot. Some kind of lime thing. Phew.

The best shop on the strip was this litle pretzel joint. So good. I got a bag of them and we kept going, nibbling on fresh pretzels as we made our way back to BIg S.

142. “Twisted, man, twisted.”
143. “Goodbye, new friend.”

We conquered Carson Street and set off to find the Union Project for that Chicago band, “Shellac.” After a number of red lights ran, rolling stops at stop signs and a couple gigantically illegal u-turns, we found the place. We secured Big S and walked over to the show.

144. “Burrell Scientific Laboratory.”
145. “Acme Banana.”

Shellac shows are fucking awesome. Zero frills. Zero bullshit. Just three guys pounding it out. Simple. Loud. Rattling. Jarring. I’ll spare you a blow-by-blow recap of the set list. Instead, I’ll offer this much: If you get a chance to see them, do it. No one else does it better, making so much out of so little. No one. Bravo.

146. “The Union Project.”
147. “Trainer setting up…”
148. “…for the onslaught.”
149. “Albini throws nothing away.”
150. “Albini: Screech, Trainer: Time.”
151. “Endgame: Cymbal decimation.”

Met up with new friends Christina, Sara and Aaron for some drinks on the Southside. They taught us some Pittsburgh slang over cold ones at a corner bar called, “Jack’s,” is bit of a Stillers Bar. We’ll get to that in a sec.

Some Pittsburghese for the next time you roll through town:
A. “Yinz” = Y’all
B. “Dahn Tahn” = Downtown
C. “Sah Side” = Southside
D. “Innat” = And that…
E. “Stillers” = Steelers
F. “Pixburgh” = Pittsburgh
G. “Gumband” = Rubberband

As the night wore thin, they took us up on top of Washington Hill so we could see the city in it’s nighttime entirety. Very, very nice. Thank you.

152. “Pittsburgh, from Washington HIll.”
153. “Some sort of Mellon building.”
154. “Derek, midnight watch.”
155. “Looking Northwest.”
156. “Points.”
157. “Pittsburgh: A town with good trashcan art.”

We said goodnights, parted ways and split out into the ‘burbs to find accomodations. Shit was getting real late so we settled on a Red Roof Inn. It was clean, but without free wireless. Had to pay for it. Those fuckers.