club cafe

Join Club Cafe for a very special show benefitting the American Cancer Society with Ray Powers, Brian Genovesi, Fetish Noir, Paul McGinty, Megan Pennington, Carrie Collins

LaRoyce Hawkins stars as “Officer Kevin Atwater” on NBC's police drama CHICAGO PD. Hawkins, who first originated the role on CHICAGO FIRE, is an accomplished standup comic, spoken-word artist and musician who also recently guest starred on Comedy Central’s SOUTH SIDE. He had a role in the feature film THE EXPRESS, which chronicled the life of Ernie Davis - the first African American to win college football's coveted Heisman Award. On the television side, Hawkins has appeared on MTV’S UNDEREMPLOYED, ABC’S DETROIT 187, and the TBS comedy TYLER PERRY’S HOUSE OF PAYNE. He was also in the pilot for the HBO series BALLERS opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He has appeared on stage in BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, HOODOO LOVE at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago, and MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM. Hawkins holds a BFA in acting from Illinois State University.

Quickly blazing a name for themselves with their progressive approach to American folk music, Fireside Collective delights listeners with memorable melodies and contemporary songwriting. Formed in the mountain city of Asheville North Carolina, the band plays original songs on stringed instruments, intended for a modern audience. Following the release of their debut album “Shadows and Dreams”, the band hit the road seeking to engage audiences with their energetic live show built on instrumental proficiency, colorful harmonies, and innovative musical arrangements.

Well what do you call it? “Bluegrass, Newgrass, perhaps Progressive folk…” These are some descriptions mandolinist and songwriter Jesse Iaquinto chooses to identify with. “Depending on where you come from and your experience with folk music, you may think we’re very traditional, or on the other hand, consider us a progressive act. We appreciate both ends of the spectrum and may lie on a different end on any given night.” While roots music lies at the core of the Collective’s songs, a willingness to explore the boundaries and present relevant new material remains fundamental. The band burst onto the scene in early 2014 following the release of “Shadows and Dreams.” The album weaves bluegrass, funk, rock, and blues influences into a refreshing representation of modern folk music. From the opening track “Poor Soul” with it’s energetic bluegrass overtones to the closer “Shine the Way Home”, the album takes listeners on a journey through simple love songs to complex themes such as metaphysics and coexistence. The album, recorded in Asheville at Sound Temple Studios, features guest musicians from Asheville’s rich acoustic music scene alongside members of the Fireside Collective. 2017 has been a momentous year for the band as they released their second studio album, "Life Between the Lines." The album helped garner a nomination for an IBMA momentum award for best band. The band has been touring heavily to support the release of their new album with over 120 shows by the end of the summer. Fireside plans to continue touring throughout 2017 and hopes to release another album in the not so distant future. If you revel in the sounds of acoustic instrumentation, enjoy the excitement of energetic live performances, and delight in the creation of original songs, then follow the Fireside Collective as they journey on in their musical endeavors.

Doors will open an hour early at 6pm for extended kitchen service. Come have dinner with us before the show!

Fifty years have passed in a flash,” says Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist, songwriter and vocalist MARCIA BALL of her long and storied career. Ball, the 2018 Texas State Musician Of The Year, has won worldwide fame and countless fans for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she takes the stage. Her rollicking Texas boogies, swampy New Orleans ballads and groove-laden Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all over the world. With each new release, her reputation as a profoundly soulful singer, a boundlessly talented pianist and a courageous, inventive songwriter continues to grow. Her love of the road has led to years of soul-satisfying performances at festivals, concert halls and clubs. The New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.” The Houston Chronicle says simply, “She’s as perfect as an artist can be.

With her new album, Shine Bright, Ball set out to, in her words, “Make the best Marcia Ball record I could make.” In doing so, she has put together the most musically substantial, hopeful and uplifting set of songs of her five-decade career. Produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and recorded in Texas and Louisiana, Shine Bright contains twelve songs (including nine originals), ranging from the title track’s rousing appeal for public and private acts of courage to the upbeat call to action of Pots And Pans, a song inspired by renowned Texas political writer and humorist Molly Ivins. From the humorous advice of Life Of The Party to the poignantly optimistic World Full Of Love, the intensity of Ball’s conviction never wavers while, simultaneously, the fun never stops. Shine Bright is exactly the album Ball set out to make. “It is a ridiculously hopeful, cheerful record,” she says, in light of some of the album’s more serious subject matter. The secret, according to Ball “is to set the political songs to a good dance beat.”

Born in Orange, Texas in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. She began taking piano lessons at age five, playing old Tin Pan Alley and popular music tunes from her grandmother’s collection. But it wasn’t until she was 13 that Marcia discovered the power of soul music. One day in New Orleans in 1962, she sat amazed as Irma Thomas delivered the most spirited and moving performance the young teenager had ever seen. A few years later she attended Louisiana State University, where she played some of her very first gigs with a blues-based rock band called Gum.

In 1970, Ball set out for San Francisco. Her car broke down in Austin, and while waiting for repairs she fell in love with the city and decided to stay. It wasn’t long before she was performing in local clubs with a progressive country band called Freda And The Firedogs, while beginning to sharpen her songwriting skills. It was around this time that she delved deeply into the music of the great New Orleans piano players, especially Professor Longhair. “Once I found out about Professor Longhair,” recalls Ball, “I knew I had found my direction.”

When Freda And The Firedogs broke up in 1974, Ball launched her solo career, playing clubs around Austin, Houston and Louisiana. She signed with Capitol Records in 1978, debuting with the country-rock album Circuit Queen. Creating and honing her own sound, she released six critically acclaimed titles on the Rounder label during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1990, Ball-collaborating with Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton-recorded the hugely successful Dreams Come True on the Antone’s label. At the end of 1997, Marcia finished work on a similar “three divas of the blues” project for Rounder, this time in the distinguished company of Tracy Nelson and her longtime inspiration, Irma Thomas. The CD, Sing It!, was released in 1998 and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Marcia Ball has appeared many times on national television over the years, including the PBS special In Performance At The White House along with B.B. King and Della Reese, Austin City Limits and HBO’s Treme. She performed in Piano Blues, the film directed by Clint Eastwood included in Martin Scorsese’s The Blues series which aired on PBS television nationwide in 2003. Marcia also appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman with The New Orleans Social Club, where she not only reached millions of people, but also helped to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, she had a role in the independent film Angels Sing starring Harry Connick, Jr., Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson. In 2017 she performed on NPR’s A Jazz Piano Christmas, live from The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Ball joined Alligator in 2001 with the release of the critically acclaimed Presumed Innocent. The CD won the 2002 Blues Music Award for Blues Album Of The Year. Her follow-up, So Many Rivers, was nominated for a Grammy Award, and won the 2004 Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year as well as the coveted Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The Year award. Her next release, Live! Down The Road, released in 2005, also garnered a Grammy nomination, as did 2008’s Peace, Love & BBQ (the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart). 2010’s Grammy-nominated Roadside Attractions and 2014’s The Tattooed Lady And The Alligator Man successfully grew her fan base even further. Altogether she holds ten Blues Music Awards, ten Living Blues Awards, and five Grammy Award nominations. She has been inducted into both the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. The Texas State legislature named her the official 2018 Texas State Musician. As her hometown Austin Chronicle says, “What’s not to like about Marcia Ball?”

Since joining Alligator, Ball has blossomed as a songwriter. Each album has been filled with fresh, original songs, never more so than on Shine Bright. Ball easily draws her listeners deep into her music with instantly memorable melodies and imaginative imagery. Her songs paint vibrant musical pictures richly detailed with recognizable characters, regional flavors, universal themes and colorful scenes, both real and imagined. Living Blues declares, “Her originals sound like timeless classics and southern soul masterpieces that no one else can imitate.”

Now, with Shine Bright, Ball’s new, aggressively hopeful songs are energized by Steve Berlin’s inventive and exciting production, creating electrifying music that is daring, inspired, poignant and timely. The Boston Globe calls Ball “a compelling storyteller” who plays “an irresistible, celebratory blend of rollicking, two-fisted New Orleans piano, Louisiana swamp rock and smoldering Texas blues.”

Of course, Ball will bring the party on the road, playing her new songs and old favorites for fans around the globe. “I still love the feel of the wheels rolling,” she says, “and the energy in a room full of people ready to go wherever it is we take them.” With both her new album and her legendary live performances, Marcia Ball will shine a light into the darkness, making the world a brighter place one song at a time.

Robert Brashear is a singer/songwriter in New York City and former city of Pittsburgh resident. Since returning to performing in 2015, after a long hiatus, Robert as both a solo singer-songwriter and with his "Home(Away) Band, has played all five boros of Manhattan, both coasts of Florida, from Portland in the northwest corner of the country to Lake Worth on the southeast, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Asheville and Berlin, Dublin and Copenhagen and most recently Argentina and Uruguay. He is featured on the just released ep "Hearing Double" by New York City icon, Marie Mazziotti.(https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/mariemazziotti8) His first album "Robert Brashear: Songs. Vol.1" will be released this summer. He recently produced (with Luba Dvorak) "Stay Awhile With Me: the songs of RL Haney," a tribute to one of New York City's "most unique and obscure artists"...(https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/stayawhilewithmethesongs).

Last December he had his first booking at the legendary "Bitter End" and in May begins a monthly first Sunday residency at "Sidewalk Cafe." He has collaborated and participated in a wide range of events and festivals from the "One Day: a Festival" produced by the Work Center of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards of Pontedara, Italy to performance with artist Heide Hatry's "Icons in Ash" to most recently with Guggenheim award winning composer Carman Moore and photographer Jacob Holdt (of "American Pictures" fame) in Copenhagen. Home (Away) has been described as a "floating musical collective" with differing configurations, from general Americana to electric blues. Their first gig was a December 2014 appearance with folk legends Christine Lavin, Suzzy Roche, Lucy Wainwright Roche and Julie Gold. Robert has also done side work with DK and the Joy Machine and violinist Liz Taub as well as an ongoing collaboration with singer-songwriter Steve Blane and the regular collaboration with Hot Glue & the Gun.

The Pittsburgh Comedy Festival brings together stand-ups and improvisers in a five-day celebration of all things funny. Our goals are to show off Pittsburgh on a national level, to make the art of comedy accessible here in Pittsburgh, and to raise up a wide array of perspectives and voices. That means informative workshops, programming for comedians and comedy fans young and old, and best of all, fantastic shows in the intimate settings of the South Side's City Theatre and Club Cafe.

The Pittsburgh Comedy Festival brings together stand-ups and improvisers in a five-day celebration of all things funny. Our goals are to show off Pittsburgh on a national level, to make the art of comedy accessible here in Pittsburgh, and to raise up a wide array of perspectives and voices. That means informative workshops, programming for comedians and comedy fans young and old, and best of all, fantastic shows in the intimate settings of the South Side’s City Theatre and Club Cafe.

The Pittsburgh Comedy Festival brings together stand-ups and improvisers in a five-day celebration of all things funny. Our goals are to show off Pittsburgh on a national level, to make the art of comedy accessible here in Pittsburgh, and to raise up a wide array of perspectives and voices. That means informative workshops, programming for comedians and comedy fans young and old, and best of all, fantastic shows in the intimate settings of the South Side’s City Theatre and Club Cafe.

The Pittsburgh Comedy Festival brings together stand-ups and improvisers in a five-day celebration of all things funny. Our goals are to show off Pittsburgh on a national level, to make the art of comedy accessible here in Pittsburgh, and to raise up a wide array of perspectives and voices. That means informative workshops, programming for comedians and comedy fans young and old, and best of all, fantastic shows in the intimate settings of the South Side’s City Theatre and Club Cafe.

The Pittsburgh Comedy Festival brings together stand-ups and improvisers in a five-day celebration of all things funny. Our goals are to show off Pittsburgh on a national level, to make the art of comedy accessible here in Pittsburgh, and to raise up a wide array of perspectives and voices. That means informative workshops, programming for comedians and comedy fans young and old, and best of all, fantastic shows in the intimate settings of the South Side’s City Theatre and Club Cafe.