LOCAL
“DON’T LET THAT FEAR OF DYING AFFECT THE WAY YOU LIVE.”
BEAT
{BY SETH PFANNENSCHMIDT}
VIDEO GAME On Thu., July 30, Old Game (formerly Good Thing) will host a video-release show at The Mr. Roboto Project. The night will showcase not only Old Game’s video for its single “Hunter,” but videos from Jon Bindley and Derider as well. Brenda Leeds, vocalist and guitar player for Old Game, feels that music videos should be celebrated. “We were not aware of the amount of time, money and effort that went into creating a music video,” Leeds says. “And knowing that other bands have also put their heart and souls into projects like this, we really wanted to make sure the public had a place to see a project of this magnitude.” The video was shot by Jack Culbertson, Scott Almendigner and Joe Nelis of Ramming Speed Pictures. Culbertson and Leeds — along with Old Game’s lead guitarist, Thom Hunter — became acquainted with each other while on the set of the Pittsburghshot film Homemakers, where Leeds and Hunter worked as actors. “We knew we’d eventually collaborate on a project together,” Leeds says, speaking of the relationship between Old Game and Ramming Speed Pictures. “[The video] is something we were all passionate about doing.” Leeds has a fantastic singing voice with excellent range, lending “Hunter” an intriguing melody that climbs and falls from verse to chorus. Richie Gendek’s punchy toms and Greg Wojo’s thunderous bass lay an emotive tone — which the video seems to capture well, based on the short preview that was made available — and the spacey lead guitar floating in the background buoys the rhythm guitar; the song’s arrangement is superb. The single is available online, and Old Game plans to head into The Wilderness Recording Studio this fall, aiming to release a full album by next spring. For now, the band’s attention is on the song and the video. “Pairing an image with a song, the listener may hear something that otherwise could have been missed,” Leeds explains. “A strong visual also aids in creating a long-term memory, and this is a song we want everyone to remember.”
“A STRONG VISUAL ALSO AIDS IN CREATING A LONG-TERM MEMORY.”
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OLD GAME MUSIC-VIDEO RELEASE PARTY 8 p.m. Thu., July 30. The Mr. Roboto Project, 5106 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. $5. www.therobotoproject.org
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ENDLESS SURF Playing through the pain: Dick Dale
{BY CHARLIE DEITCH}
B
Y HIS OWN admission, Dick Dale is a mess. The man hailed as the King of Surf Guitar has had rectal cancer twice. He’s currently in renal failure and refuses to go on dialysis, and he suffers from diabetes and from vertebrae that are so damaged “that every time I stand up it’s like a double-edge sword going into my spine.” During one bout with rectal cancer, part of his stomach and intestines were removed, and his bodily waste now empties through a stoma and into a plastic bag that he wears under his clothes. At 78 years old and with this many health issues, Dale should be dead, or at the very least resting at home. But he’s not. When he spoke with CP by phone from his California ranch on July 16, he was making the final preparations for a three-month,
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 07.29/08.05.2015
25-city tour stretching from Denver to Boston and back home. “I can’t stop touring because I will die,” Dale says. And he’s not saying that as the long-time performer who can’t give up the spotlight and the intoxicating adoration of his fans. Rather, he emphasizes, “Physically and literally, I will die.”
DICK DALE 8 p.m. Sun., Aug. 9. Rex Theater, 1602 E. Carson St., South Side. $30-35. 412-381-6811 or www.rextheater.com
He’s not kidding or overstating. Dale isn’t about to drive cross-country with his wife, Lana — herself in chronic pain due to multiple sclerosis — because he craves money to live high on the hog. He’s doing it to pay for medical patches and pouches
so he can change his colostomy bag more frequently than insurance will allow. “I have to raise $ 3,000 every month to pay for the medical supplies I need to stay alive, and that’s on top of the insurance that I pay for,” Dale explains. “The hospital says change your patch once a week. No! If you don’t change that patch two times a day, the fecal matter eats through your flesh and causes the nerves to rot and they turn black, and the pain is so excruciating that you can’t let anything touch it. That has happened to me because I was following the orders of the hospital.” They’ve also told him it’s OK to wash out and reuse the bags, but Dale says that the bacteria has nearly killed him and he won’t risk it. Because despite the pain, he’s a man who still loves life and wants to keep on living it — even if that means taxing CONTINUES ON PG. 20