Beardo

Last weekend (as many of you know since I have been talking about it pretty much non-stop) I went to visit my friend who attends the University of Pittsburgh.  She is one of my best friends from high school and we have often spoke of visiting one another since we only get to see each other sporadically on school breaks or the random weekend when we can coordinate to be home at the same time.  I had planned to visit her last semester, but our plans were delayed due to schedule conflicts. However, things worked in our favor for when both her schedule and my schedule allowed a visit was the same weekend as Pittsburgh’s annual carnival.

Every year the city of Pittsburgh shuts down a few of its major streets for a weekend for the city residents (and especially the college students) to enjoy food, games, rides, and free musical entertainment.  The musicians or bands who take the stage are not just locals either, but well-known performers.  This year the performer was Ke$sha.

Ke$sha’s opening act was an interesting fellow who went by the name of Beardo. (Pronounced Beard-O)  He sported a multi-colored mullet and was in his late 30s or early 40s.  Halfway through his performance he shed his shirt to reveal haphazardly placed tattoo with emphasis placed on a large rifle tattoo on his chest.  Being from a small rural community (and yes this is a nice way of saying hick town), I know many people who have gun pride and quite a few of my hometown friends have gun tattoos ( I did  mentioned I’m from a “small rural community” right). Anyway, when the people around where I was standing saw Beardo’s gun tattoo, being mainly city-kids, they were like Dude’s got a gun tattooed on his chest!!!!

Based on how the crowd responded to that, his age, and more importantly to his music, I don’t think Beardo was a good choice in opening act for Ke$sha.  He didn’t relate to the crowd (an audience full of screaming college kids) and when it comes down to it, being able to relate to something or someone is what really matters.