The Rock Tribune

Stage AE//Pittsburgh, PA//7.10.14

On Thursday, July 10^th, three lads from West Yorkshire England by the names of Matt, Mike and Jim came to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to play what is their spin on a very influential music genre: 90’s alternative and grunge. In a brief interview with them we learned many things, but the most important thing we got was where they drew influence(s) from, and after hearing their songs and seeing the live show, it’s easy to tell Nirvana and Foo Fighters shaped what we know as Dinosaur Pile-Up. Now before discussing their live performance and finer details about the band, we will answer the question everyone is asking: “How did they get their name?” Well, from Matt’s mouth to your eyes, here’s how it happened…Prior to the inception of this project Matt said he was watching a shitty Godzilla remake, and at one point in the movie there is a herd, (I think they’d be called a herd) or a group if you will, of dinosaurs running and the lead dinosaur tripped eventually causing… you guessed it, a DINOSAUR PILE-UP! He claims that as soon as he saw that he jokingly thought, “That’d be a unique name for a band.” A few years later when the band was sitting there trying to come up a name he figured, “Why not use it? It’s different! Thus giving birth to Dinosaur Pile-Up.

-Check out photos here!-

Now onto the performance displayed at Stage AE that night…I personally was not fortunate enough to ever witness a Nirvana concert in person but this show may be the closest I’ll ever be able to get to one. It was everything a grunge concert was and is supposed to be; angst, raw emotion, and jam sessions. DPU has two albums to date, Nature Nature and Growing Pains (with Nature Nature being the most recent). Regardless of which is your “favorite” album, their set list won’t disappoint considering they play a beautiful selection from each album respectfully. To take a step back from specifically the Pittsburgh date, I was given testimonials (via social media) from people at two other shows that DPU played, and they too were floored by the performances. One of the individuals went as far as to say “Kurt Cobain has been reincarnated” when describing guitarist/vocalist Matt Bigland’s stage presence. By the way, before it’s forgotten and not mentioned in this article, this was not a headlining show for Dinosaur Pile-Up, even though there is no doubt in my mind that it would be successful if they attempted a North American headlining tour. They were actually one of two opening acts for this band called Brand New that is fronted by a gentleman named Jesse Lacey… maybe you’ve heard of them.

Sadly, with as great as this tour was, it was short lived due to the fact that it was only scheduled to be a small 6-7 city loop in the Northeast region on the United States. However, we can report that sometime in the near future Matt and the rest of the guys in Dinosaur Pile-Up do plan on doing a bigger North American tour, and plan on making Pittsburgh a stop yet again. Be sure to keep a look out and catch their next show in your town. It’s the perfect excuse to bust out your old converse and hole filled jeans!

Logan Rendulic © The Rock Tribune 2014