It was a gorgeous day for Akron’s inaugural Pride event! Dare I say a better experience than Cleveland’s! A nice big open park in the middle of a residential & commercial area of Akron, with two stages, and the availability to have your drink and watch the live music (how novel)! And then there’s Martha Wash.
One of the more notable prides this year with the whole Iggy Azalea kerfuffle. I couldn’t have been happier that Nick Jonas swooped in to save the day… his performance was one of the best that I’ve seen at this Pride and I’m even more of a fan now. Great weekend!
Not really there for the music (unfortunately) but thought I’d at least document being there… :-)
“Can I Work This Pole?"
Pittsburgh Pride again this year, with Chaka Khan headlining. I wish I could say it was a better performance, but I think I’m expecting too much from these divas of yesteryear. At least she looked spectacular.
It wasn’t all Chaka this weekend however. There was a little Sharon the night before. (not for the faint of heart)
Not a venue for much in the way of live music at this event. Well, I guess there is, but it's so poorly promoted and managed (no set times? really??) that's even hard to coordinate seeing them. And of course you can have a beer while you do it either. I did have to use some powers of deduction to figure out about the time I needed to leave the beer tent to catch Bitch, or BEACH as she's using these days, with Ferron. Of course, you should know Ferron as a women's music icon. I first heard of her through my record store days, finding myself strangely drawn to that quite small, but intriguing section of the rack. I then heard of Bitch's working with her to produce an album (or 2?) and a movie. Sounds cool enough… Wish I could say the experience was cool - but it kinda wasn't.
OK, it wasn't all that bad. I guess I'm still sour that I then missed the 4 song Deborah Cox set because I didn't deduce the time correctly to leave the beer tent in time. Here are some more pics from the day…
I guess there were bands at Pittsburgh Pride this year. I have the photos to prove it… Sharon Needles was fun (and she does have an album out!), there was another guy named Joe McElderry, who I guess was some UK? TV show winner or runner up or something. He was sweet & talented enough. By the time Adam was on stage, I caught a song and a couple pics and then bailed on the crowd (you can see my progress outward) and went to the other end of the festival. I can honestly say it's more about the boys than the bands.
So as I previously mentioned, if I were a good Clevelander I would have stayed in town for the Weapons of Mass Creation Fest. However I didn't want to break a three year tradition of visiting friends and participating in the Pittsburgh Pride festivities. This year's headliner was Melissa Etheridge, who surprisingly was performing at her first Pride (of probably of many). I used to be a huge fan, but I didn't have high expectations for this performance. It's been a long time, and I've gotten bored with Melissa: the "professional out musician." I miss the early, gritty, rocking Melissa.
On the ride over, Matt had me run through the Greatest Hits to review his Melissa knowledge. That experience really took me back and bumped up my excitement level a couple notches - especially those tracks from her first three albums (before Yes I Am).
The festival was an awesome experience as usual, with the Saturday night event being the main stage performance. Melissa played a lengthy 2 1/2 hour set, but I would almost guess that an hour of it were talking about being gay. It was exhausting. Maybe being her first pride, she wanted to pull out every pro-gay comment/insight/battle cry that she could imagine - but seriously. But you know what, the crowd was really into her and I ended up having a good time.
Afterward, DJ Tracy Young took the stage and stirred up an incredible dance party. She was just oozing good vibes and great smiles. Total win in my book.
Yet another show (I hope) you wouldn't expect to see on this blog. However, it's still my goal to document every concert I attend (and have been doing so since 2005). For this one in particular, we were in Pittsburgh for Pride and Ms. Patti LaBelle was performing. She's big right?
While the Pride festivities were great, we didn't end up hanging around for much of Patti's set. My assumption for her was that this was a quick paycheck kinda show, a quick 40 mins. and she's off stage. She even had one of her back up singers sing a song for her. Great festival though!
