Blessed by the Old 97s

This past Friday, Schenley Plaza hosted its biggest event yet: the 11th Annual WYEP Summer Music Festival.  We’d been tossing around the idea of putting on a show with WYEP for a while, and it was fantastic to see it come to fruition with great sets from Good Night, States, Juliana Hatfield, the Watson Twins, and the Old 97s.  A few notes from the evening:

1. The weather, which has been prone to fake-out sunshine and swampy humidity all week, managed to stay perfect for the whole show.
2. The consensus among the Parks Conservancy folks who were there was that this was easily an attendance record for the Plaza.  Now we just hope everyone liked what they saw and will come back…
3. The two kids sitting behind me watching the show from their tricycles (and trading trikes every two minutes) were adorable.
4. I was so excited when I heard that Juliana Hatfield was going to be playing, because I’ve been a fan of hers since I was an angsty middle-schooler and saw her on “My So-Called Life.”  So to be watching her over a decade later, playing in a space where I’ve invested so much time, was a little bit surreal.  Added bonus: she was accompanied on keyboards by Pittsburgh native Elizabeth Steen, who has a band called Fritter that is much beloved by both my dad and me.  It was pretty humorous to hear some of Juliana’s downer songs while surrounded by kids, but I think the younger set was too busy running around on the lawn and playing Game Boy to notice.  (It is still called Game Boy, right?  It’s not Pocket Wii or something by now?)
5. The Old 97s really brought the crowds in–the whole space was packed by the time of their set.  But for me the best moment happened around 5:30 at their soundcheck.  I was sitting and eating my bourbon chicken from Asia Tea House, listening to them play “Victoria” and watching people start to filter in.  Looking at the stage and the banners and the band, I just had this moment of, “Wow…our little space has arrived.”  I have such a feeling of pride in the Plaza, which comes largely from getting to work there and seeing the effort put into it by our staff, the City crews, and our sanitation and security folks…but watching it be appreciated by so many other people, while a great band plays, was really a defining moment. 

You can see some great photos of the festival on WYEP’s Flickr page.