Millvale club spotlights local talent

Mr. Smalls Sonic Funhouse Featuring Ishtar, Ana-Vey, Phat Man Dee, Cellofourte and La Bicicletta Blanca Mr. Smalls 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale Sunday, Jan. 27 Doors at 6 p.m. $8 Advance / $10 at the door 412-821-4447

This Sunday, five local bands will invade the homes of Comcast customers around Pittsburgh. But don’t worry, you can put down the baseball bat. This Sunday’s Sonic Funhouse Showcase at Mr. Smalls will be filmed and made available on-demand to watch right from your living room.

Tango, jazz, belly dancing and string music will come together to create the sixth showcase of The Sonic Funhouse Series. Five of Pittsburgh’s most talented local bands, selected from over 200 submissions will take the stage this Sunday, Jan. 27, each bringing its own genre and style to the performance.

Though the previous five Sonic Funhouse shows have all had a clear theme to them, this week’s showcase, featuring Ishtar, Ana-Vey, Phat Man Dee, Cellofourte and La Bicicletta Blanca, shows no such consistency.

According to Mr. Smalls Facility Manager, Katie Smith, Sunday’s show is “full of interesting and diverse music that doesn’t quite fit together. It’s really a little bit of everything.”

Each of the five bands has its own variety of music. From Cellofourte’s classical training to Phat Man Dee’s experience performing with Circus Ridiculous, all of Sunday’s performers come from backgrounds as different as their music. “The more diverse the bands, the better the set. It keeps things more interesting,” said Jack Hayes, Ana-Vey’s guitar, percussion and banjo player.

The five very different bands will all sync together Sunday, starting with Ishtar, Pittsburgh’s only “belly rock” band. Ishtar will perform using both electric and traditional Middle Eastern instruments, like the darabuka, riq and clarinet. Ishtar’s five band members, Melissa Murphey, Rob Metil, Jeff Chmielarski, Mark DiFilippo and Beth DiFilippo will play their own distinctive modern Middle Eastern music.

Also performing Sunday will be Ana-Vey. Band member Jack Hayes describes the band’s eclectic music as “trip hop.” “It’s like old-fashioned jazz cabernet with electronic beats and a guitar, a banjo and a cello to make it sound a little bit classical,” he said.

Hayes will be playing with his other two band members, vocalist Liza Georgiana and cellist Meg Georgiana.

Phat Man Dee will be playing her jazzy set with her back up band, consisting of Colter Harper, Tony DePaolis, Chris Parker and Jacob Yoffee. She will perform what she describes as “crazy jazz that’s all written by local composers.” Having performed with Ishtar and Ana-Vey several times before, she anticipates that Sunday will be a great show.

String quartet Cellofourte will fuse classical cello music with modern rock to create a powerful rich sound onstage this weekend. Band member Tate Olsen describes the band’s music as, “driving, rhythmic playing on the bottom and soaring melodies on top.” The band is comprised of Simon Cummings, Ben Munoz, Nicole Myers and Tate Olsen, all of whom are classically trained cellists.

“That kind of training is really the only way you can play at the level we do,” Olsen said. The band has been playing shows around Pittsburgh for three years now and is nearly finished with its second album. La Bicicletta Blanca will bring tango music to the show with its Latin music influenced by jazz and Italian repertoires. As a side project of Colter Harper and Tony DePaolis, La Bicicletta Blanca also includes Mike Murray on the accordion as well as the two of Phat Man Dee’s band members.

The concert will be aired on the newly created Mr. Smalls Channel on Comcast On-Demand. The Mr. Smalls channel is the brainchild of a collaboration between Mr. Smalls, Comcast and Creative.Life.Support. Creative.Life.Support’s website describes the organization as a non-profit record label that “helps regional artists develop recordings with minimal front-end investment. “

Teamed up with Smalls and Comcast, “the segments of the concert including 2 songs and a brief interview from each band will be filmed and available to view in the ‘Your Town’ section on Comcast On-Demand,” said Smith. Of the five other shows that have been recorded for the series, three are currently featured in On-Demand and two more will be posted soon.

As well as promoting the local cultural and music scene, the showcase being televised gives the bands an opportunity to perform for a bigger audience than just the attending crowd. “It creates interest beyond live music. It’s great for people who don’t go out to bars and venues like Mr. Smalls,” said Ishtar’s Murphey.

The doors open on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. The show is for all ages, and tickets are $8 each when purchased online ahead of time or $10 when picked up at the door.