The shadow lounge is right next to a huge church in a kind of funky neighborhood.
Like on the train in Brooklyn I’m the only white dude around but I don’t care and so does everybody else. The venue has a great atmosphere and I’m looking forward to the performance.
The two owners Justin Strong and his friend Tim are very nice and created a little oasis in the hoods that is slowly starting to pick up.
They have mostly Hip Hop acts or full dance bands and I’m an exception. For sure there is nobody in the club at 5 pm and so we wait. I give Tim a guitar lesson outside and we sit in the sun who finally decided to peek out between the clouds. Justin didn’t get anybody else on the bill so I can start whenever I want. Jenna, Abby’s cousin who lives with her daughter Gab and husband Jeff in Pittsburgh comes by for my rescue. She and Ivan, a gentle spoken African American are my only audience besides the owners and the staff.
I do about 4 of my original songs and then start jammin’ out with Dahu, a local drummer who’s playing with his band at midnight.
By that time this venue is probably cooking over with people. However, I made some good new friends and they respected what I was doing despite age and cultural differences.
Around 10 pm Jenna leads the way home through downtown Pittsburgh.
It’s a 15 minute drive to her home and have to pick up Gabrielle her daughter who spend the evening with her grand parents. By the time we get home it’s about 11 pm and we chat until 1 pm before we all go to bed.
1 comment:
Hans,
Kudos to you and all others for putting aside race and cultural differences and letting the music do the talking. Where would we be if we all had the same taste? Not much flavor in that mix.
Bravo!
R
Post a Comment