3-18There is life in Pittsfield!!! Source of the Nile, North Street. Next to the Bagel store., Pittsfield, MA Davey G and the Keyboard with The Beat Machine, BARE BONES, THE BITTER LIFE TYPECAST, 315 (last show?), WASTELAND, THE STILLBORN EXTRACTION, HED 1ST, SCHLITZ I grew up in this town during the early '90s, and was in a semi-retarded sounding punk band called Lampstand. Pittsfield has apparently gone through some changes since I left. One of the problems with Big City Mentality is that everything is taken for granted. Everyone just looks at Baltimore and treats it with total disregard because it's not New York, "the scene sucks", blah blah, whatever. And then I think about what it was like when I grew up in a town that really sucked, and definitely was not New York and there was no "scene." The kids in Pittsfield are doing something really great--they are making their own scene, shunning the whole "Club" mentality and making something out of the ashes of a decaying post-industrial city. And from what I saw this Saturday, it's turning out pretty damn well. Source of the Nile is a store on the main drag in downtown Pittsfield, which hosts punk shows on a certain Saturday every month. The store appears to sell a variety of things, like video games, records, various old toys and books. I cannot stress enough on how overwhelmed I was by the fact that something like this existed in my hometown, the same town where historically, anything progressive or cool was instantly stymied or shut down. But here I was on a Saturday night, surrounded by punks and just various other kids, in a store that would not have been out of place in any big and supposedly "cooler" city. Here we all were as something like 8 or 9 bands took the stage and the energy never seemed to let up. I can't really do a band review as such, but I'll just say through a lineup of ska, hardcore, punk, etc., there were around 50 people crammed into this store space, completely supportive of everyone. I felt maybe a little old (and I'd been driving 7 hours to get here) and had to wait around. But once I got started, I could not believe how the response was. I played a 15 song set--sloppily, but no one seemed to care. I had fans right up front yelling my lyrics at me, totally into it. It seemed like every time I looked down to change the setting on the keyboard, I expected them to be gone, but they weren't. I finished, covered in lotion and disoriented as usual, but surrounded by the love of the really hard core fans, the ones who actually listened to my music enough to know it by heart. I never thought I'd get love in Pittsfield. My hat is off to the owner of Source of the Nile. Anyone reading this--if you're up in Pittsfield, or going through, take some time and drop in. He is a supportive leader in a town that needs it. I did not have anything like this when I was growing up--I urge you to support him and keep a good thing going.