Cure for the wintertime blues

Years ago, the thought of going out to a club at 10 p.m. wouldn't have fazed me in the slightest. That was before 10 o'clock was right around my bedtime ...

Over the weekend, I managed to adjust my schedule a bit to see some musical acquaintances do their thing. Hey, it beats sitting around the house, looking out the window and watching it snow.

I took my video equipment, of course, and when I sort through everything, I'll post performances by:

The Patti Spadaro Band. Patti (Amwell Twp. resident) is a terrific guitar player who recently formed her own group, which made its debut Friday at P.D.'s Pub in Squirrel Hill. We've featured Patti in our Living in Washington County magazine, and I've recorded her in an acoustic setting. But hearing her fire away with her four-piece band was a treat.

One Gig at a Time. I'd met band leader Steve "pUNK" Cunningham, he of the thundering six-string bass guitar, while he was playing with Fungus a few years back. His current band features a lot of original music against a colorful backdrop, in more ways than one. More on that later.

Kicked. Last summer, I helped organize the annual Rock Off during Peters Twp. Community Day, and Kicked earned the honors as the top band in the over-21 category. I remember being blown away by an original of theirs called "Babylon" (a lower-quality video exists in our library), and they're good guys, to boot. They played a rousing show Saturday at the Hard Rock Cafe at Station Square.

Stay tuned for the videos.