My friend and I have been in love with Julien Baker since last year's NPR Tiny Desk Concert of her was released. We listened to her album on repeat that whole winter. I remember specifically sitting in my car as "Vessels" played while the snow fell thick around me. Julien Baker's music makes you feel sad in such a great way, like a big release after feeling any pent-up anxiety you never knew you even had. Though her voice is modest, it's pretty in a very humbling way; however, it's her lyrics which take center stage. Rumor has it that she didn't expect her album to blow up quite like it did, thus explaining how personal the music seems to be. Honest and almost brutal, the words of Julien Baker are what drew us to make the trip to see her at Stage AE last Saturday.
Originally, we were planning on seeing her opening for The Decemberists in Ithaca, NY, which would only be a two hour trip. However, due to the small size of the venue and the large following that The Decemberists brought, the concert sold out almost immediately. Surprisingly, Pittsburgh is only a four hour trip from Rochester, NY, and was the subsequent stop on their tour. Hilariously enough, my friend and I didn't care too much to see The Decemberists, but we were desperate to see Julien Baker this year so we bought our tickets to, essentially, Omaha The Decemberists. In recent slang, to Omaha a band comes from the city of Omaha, Nebraska whose hipster crowds will notoriously go to the opening act of a concert and leave right after. And, in being that we had to drive home right after the show, we did essentially that.
Pittsburgh was much more fun than it's neighboring city, Philadelphia. I'm sorry to any Philadelphians reading this, but my time there quite simply could not be redeemed by a meer steak sandwich. I had to physically leap over a homeless man sleeping next to a steam vent. I also saw a lot of facial hair - mostly on women. But I digress, searing images aside, visiting Pittsburgh had definitely redeemed Pennsylvania for me.
After we arrived and parked close to our venue, Stage AE, we looked for a place to eat. Luckily, on the trip down, I had used Foursquare to find The 15 Best Hipster Places in Pittsbugh, PA and we chose to chow down at Number 3, The Park House. Established suspiciously right after Prohibition in 1933, The Park House exuded everything we liked in old architecture, down to the cheerful red candelabra and the antique burgundy floral wallpaper. Not only that, but they had an excellent selection of local craft beers. And because we were there before 7PM, we received the $1 off Happy Hour special.
I decided to try the local Yellow Bridge "Little Dude" New England Pale Ale, an unfiltered brew. While this beer was only about 6% ABV, it tasted so yummy that I had to have another! It was very citrusy and hoppy, but smooth to drink without having the dreaded burping effect that comes with many IPAs. This would be an excellent picnic beer, and especially great if you are craving both a beer and some orange juice.
The Park House seemed to offer both grilled foods as well as Mediterranean kebab-based foods, which was a welcome juxtaposition as I enjoy both. I decided to order a side of fries with the Park House Special, which, according to their menu is, "A burger with either melted American, Mozzarella, or Swiss cheese served on toasted Challah roll." Since I'm a huge fan of Cheddar, they let me order that as my cheese of choice. Funnily enough, the small, two-man staff required one of the bartenders to man the tiny grill next to the bar as they made our burgers. Despite this curious set up, the burgers came out delicious as could be and my friend and I ate every bite. To top it off, they even offered old-timey popcorn and peanuts to munch on with your drinks as well.
After we finished our food and beers, we made our way over to the venue. I did not put two and two together to realize that Stage AE was sponsored and built by a partnership between American Eagle Outfitters and PromoWest Productions, which was very cool to me because I know that American Eagle often plays college radio broadcasting streams in their clothing stores. I'm a big advocate for college radio as I was the president of mine. The performance hall was very hip inside, as well, with very good lighting to find your way around in the dark theatre and lots of nice room for the small bar, merch tables, and some seating. My friend and I still had enough time to shimmy through the crowd to get to about the second row away from the stage as the performance started.
Julien did about a half an hour set, which, due to the fact that she only has one album out so far, Sprained Ankle, allowed her to play many of my favorite songs. Each song flowed so well into the next, and, even though I almost wished she'd talk a bit about her personal songwriting, I didn't mind at all as it set the mood for the crowd to just listen and get lost in the sound. My favorite things about the performance were the many fun echoes and effects she was dabbling with on her pedal board and, not to sound corny, but she simply sounded so much better live. Her voice cut through the mic so unbelievably well and she knew just how to ebb and flow her sound to give each of her songs the perfect arch. By the last song, the famed "Something", she really did leave me teary-eyed, and I wasn't upset about it.
Because my friend and I were spoiled with meeting Esme Patterson, who opened for San Fermin last year at Mohawk Place in Buffalo, NY, we were hopeful to catch Julien at her merch table as The Decemberists were preparing for their performance onstage. We waited around for about fifteen minutes, after my friend bought a physical copy of her album, until someone finally asked the man at the merch table if she would be coming out to meet any fans.
Unfortunately, he relayed to us that "due to her popularity, she probably wouldn't come out." Quite disappointing, but we did stay until The Decemberists started playing before leaving to see if she still would. No dice. I ended up taking a picture with "Ghost Julien" because I'm a weirdo. Regardless, it was a great concert and, greater still, we were out by 9PM. That's a score in my book! Thank you for reading my pub and concert review, keep an eye out for more articles like this by following my Twitter or my Instagram for post updates!
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