Blue Oyster Cult

Because people will drag their lawn chairs to South Park on a Friday no matter what's happening, there were actually folks in their 80s on the hill for Blue Oyster Cult this weekend.

With all the squealing guitar solos that followed, they must have been popping Excedrins on the ride home.

Aside from being 99.9 percent white, it was the most diverse crowd that's ever attended a rock concert. There were seniors, toddlers, tweens, metalheads, bikers in black and professionals in khakis with wine and cheese picnics. The dude next to me was a grizzled Vietnam vet in a tie-dyed shirt and camo Marine cap who told me 10 times, "Don't send your kids, maaan" and noted of BOC, "I rock the trailer with this [stuff]."

BOC, led by 60-somethings Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma, rocked the packed hillside with 13 songs, five or six of which people truly cared about. One was the opener "This Ain't the Summer of Love," which would have been far more menacing had it not been daylight in a park.

Dharma made a disastrous attempt to get acquainted, when his greeting of "Pittsburgh! Isn't this the home of the Pirates?" was met with dead silence. Dude, don't you know you have to say Steelers or Penguins? He retreated with "We'd better get back to the music."

The Long Island band did just that with the golden oldie "Burnin' for You" and the rock anthem "Cities on Flame," surrounded by more obscure choices like boogie-fied "Me262" and the rather dull "The Vigil." Some of them were slowed from the originals, because, well, they're old. "Buck's Boogie" and "Shooting Shark" opened the door for long, wanky guitar solos, the likes of which you mostly hear at rib festivals and guitar shops.

As night fell, BOC gave the people want they wanted. They stomped into the monster riff of "Godzilla" like true dinosaurs, prompting the rockers up front to throw up their arms. Unlike the version they did at the Stanley back in the day, there were no lasers, but they did take a Quiet Riot tangent in honor of current bassist, Rudy Sarzo.

It was the first of a one-two punch with "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," a classic that came with one of the most sinister guitar riffs ever and a killer solo in the middle, all nailed just right. One of the more khaki guys toward the back said it all when he hollered to his buddy "Man, the old hits still rock!"

-- Scott Mervis, Post-Gazette staff writer

Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble

The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble welcomed virtuoso percussionist Steven Schick to the City Theatre Saturday, when he performed four solo works and collaborated with sound artist Shahrokh Yadegari in an inspiring performance of Kurt Schwitters' "UrSonate." The duo epitomized PNME artistic director Kevin Noe's vision of presenting concerts showcasing the "theater of music."

Superlatives do not adequately describe the caliber of Schick's performance. He brought out the timbral expression inherent to each work with rhythmic precision that coalesced with his wide-ranging techniques. Schick's ability to coax the subtle timbral shades from each instrument in his battery made his interpretation of Helmut Lachenmann's "Interiur I" particularly impressive. He also found the harmonic overtones, shimmering clangs and dull thuds available to a single triangle in Alvin Lucier's "Silver Street Car for the Orchestra." Brian Ferneyhough's "Bone Alphabet," a ballet of polyrhythms, and Iannis Xenakis' "Psappha" each benefited from Schick's abilities. The visceral, kick-drum conclusion of Xenakis' counterpoint-rich work was especially dramatic.

Yadegari joined Schick for "UrSonate," a four-movement sound poem composed between 1922-32 and derived from nonsensical sounds, phonemes and the German language. The duo updated this surreal, performance art-like work by incorporating live electronic processing and four-channel playback. Schick carried the performance, finding all of the dramatic range necessary for Schwitters' nonsensical spoken text. Yadegari's electronic processing bolstered his dramatic verve and created a dynamic soundscape .

Noe will bring the New Music Ensemble back to City Theatre this weekend for the world premiere of "Just Out of Reach." The ensemble will then travel to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for 17 performances of the same work.

-- Burkhardt Reiter, Pittsburgh-based composer, lecturer and writer