Poster by Joe Mruk
By Melanie Stangl
Golden Magnet Showcase
featuring Delicious Pastries,
Mariage Blanc, Sleep Expiriments,
and Host Skull
William Pitt Union Assembly Hall
January 27
When you think of music hotspots and places to catch a show around Pittsburgh, Oakland is probably the last neighborhood that comes to mind. Restaurants, libraries, hospitals, and academic buildings are easily found, but concert venues? Not so much.
However, local record label Golden Magnet hopes to change that…at least for a day. On Friday, January 27th, they’re performing in a showcase concert at the William Pitt Union on Pitt’s campus. Hosted by the school’s radio station, WPTS Radio, it will feature all four participating bands—Delicious Pastries, Sleep Experiments, Mariage Blanc, and Host Skull—at the student-friendly price of free. Notably, this will be the first show for both Delicious Pastries and Mariage Blanc in multiple months, as they’ve been hard at work on new albums to be released under the label.
The idea is to bring a bit of the scene directly and conveniently to the students, a group that’s somewhat of an untapped market. This, hopefully, will encourage them to explore beyond the campus bubble and discover the wide range of cool venues and talented musicians in our city. “[The label] want[s] to provide interesting live and recorded experiences for audiences in Pittsburgh,” says Phil Johnson of Sleep Experiments. “We sometimes suffer from lack of exposure or advertising, and our hope is that by getting together under a larger umbrella, we’ll expand our audience.”
Fittingly, it will be the first ever collective-wide show, described on the event page as a “grand unveiling.” When discussing the label’s goals for our article which covered the Golden Magnet debut back in August, Matt Ceraso of Mariage Blanc echoed Johnson’s sentiments. “We have various goals for the collective,” he said. “Some of these include trying to expose each band to the audiences of the other bands, getting more people engaged in the local music scene, and getting more people out to shows.”
There are few better ways to encourage that than by waiving ticket prices and performing in such a central campus location. The show starts at 7 PM on Friday in WPU’s Assembly Room. Don’t miss the chance to support this prime collection of local talent, all in one place, and all for free.
