The Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival opened Friday night at Arts Landing in Downtown Pittsburgh with the Spin Doctors headlining the first show at the new park space. The band, best known for its 1990s alt-rock hits, went on at 7:30 p.m. after Broom closed its set about 30 minutes earlier with a cover of The Monkees’ “I’m A Believer.”
The timing mattered because the festival opened on the first night of the new venue, and the weather could not have been better. For Pittsburgh, a summer arts kickoff that landed on a clean, pleasant Friday gave the Downtown event the kind of start organizers hope will carry through the rest of the festival run.
Chris Barron worked the crowd hard from the start. He introduced himself with a grin and said, “My name is Chris Barron and I love cats! And dogs. But I’m really a cat guy,” a line that fit the loose, joking tone he kept throughout the set. The band moved through “Traction Blues,” “She Stands Alone,” “Lady Kerosene,” “Jimmy Olson’s Blues,” “The Heart of the Highway,” “Big Fat Funky Booty,” “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” and “How Could You Want Him,” with Barron stopping before “Big Fat Funky Booty” to ask, “Anyone out there know what love is? To give yourself over to another person? … This song isn’t about any of that … It’s called ‘Big Fat Funky Booty.’”
He also stumbled briefly halfway through the second verse of “Rock n Roll Heaven,” then quickly recovered without breaking the momentum of the set. Barron later told the crowd, “The Spin Doctors, body positive since 1988!” and wished everyone a happy Pride before “How Could You Want Him.” When he shouted, “More parks, no data centers!” the line drew applause, underscoring how much the new space itself was part of the night’s appeal.
That point came into focus as Barron said he was impressed the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust had built the park for public good and public art. Arts Landing may also have done something less visible but just as welcome: it seemed to end the festival’s old bad-weather curse, at least for opening night. The unanswered question is whether Friday’s crowd stayed for the full Spin Doctors set, but the band’s first night at Arts Landing gave the festival a loud, sunny start.
