While I'm not a regular, I've been here over a dozen times in the past five or six years, so I feel like I have a good idea of what Club Cafe does right.\n\nIt's a small, cozy live music venue that serves food and beverages. Depending on the show or event, there are (or aren't) a fair number of tables. No matter what, though, there's a padded bench that lines about a quarter of the space. That's a nice place to park and take in a show, provided you can get to the club early enough to get a seat.\n\nThere's a fairly small menu, but since this is a concert venue first and foremost that makes sense. I've had chili and sandwiches there before, and everything was above average. People seem to really dig their pizza, too, which always looks when I see a steaming pie drift past. There are usually lots of good craft and imported beers either on tap or bottled, and they whip up some mean mixed drinks. Fair wine list too, if that's your bag. Service can get a little chaotic once music starts, but that doesn't bother me too much.\n\nClub Cafe usually attracts smaller bands, from local Pittsburgh acts to national indie artists. Some higher-profile names sell out quickly (Sufjan Stevens right around the time of his Illinoise release, for instance), other modestly popular acts still draw a large crowd (Richard Buckner, to use an example from a couple of years ago, or Wovenhand). One of my qualms with the place is that the club's in-house sound set-up always seems pushed to its limit with distorted electric guitars. The stage is also small enough that any band that has more than three people looks like they're trying not to knock their bandmates over. \n\nOne problem I always have with Club Cafe--and I get that this might be a \"it's me, not you\" kind of thing--is that there's ALWAYS at least one incredibly loud person doing their best to ruin a show. I guess they get plastered before the show at the bar and then buy a ticket so they can keep drinking? I realize that talking to your friends is fun, but come on...other people are trying to watch the show! This has happened the last six shows I've been to. Pittsburgh people tend to be polite, so usually no one says anything...including the staff. THAT is what frustrates me.
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