Spring Fling proved to being a hit in Pittsburgh as the crowd of thousands were up and dancing the entire night.
The head liner of the Spring Fling Tour is Kentucky natives Cage the Elephant. Guitarist Brian Shultz amped up the crowd by telling everyone to get on their feet as his brother, and front man Matthew Shultz was about to take the stage. The photo policy was a little different tonight for press, making photographs to wait until the last 3 songs of the set to start photographing the band. It was kind of nice getting to watch them work their magic on stage, helping me with anticipating when I should photograph certain members by associating the music with their movements.
Watching Matt singing on stage reminded me of a love child between Mick Jagger and Nate Ruess. He didn’t stand still for a single second and neither did his air, flipping back and fourth throughout the night. The band is promoting their fourth album “Tell Me I’m Pretty,” playing multiple songs featured on the album, opening up with the first song featured on the album, “Cry Baby”.
Other songs featured on the album that were performed at the show was “Cold Cold Cold”, “ Too Late To Say Goodbye” and “Punchin’ Bag”. They also have a strong history to producing high quality rock and roll songs and incorporated classic CTE hits like “Come A Little Closer”, “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” and “In One Ear”.
The first time I ever saw Cage in person was at Lollapalooza back in 2011. While I didn’t technically go to their set to watch, I was waiting in line for some random signing and could hear “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” being played behind me. I remember thinking it was catchy enough to look up the next day, which lead me to becoming a Cage fan. Throughout the past few years though, the band has grown and evolved into a psychedelic, Alabama Shakes-esq Pixies offspring, still primarily sticking to their rock and roll roots.
While the photographers continued to watch the show from the side, I noticed multiple times where I wish I was in the photo pit to photograph the great energy the band had to offer. At one point, the band members were climbing on top of each other, creating a musical totem pole. Looking up the set list ahead of time, I knew that “Come a Little Closer” meant that the 3-song encore was coming.
As Cigarette Daydreams began to play, I worked my way into the photo pit and quickly photographed all the individual members of the band. I had a plan of mainly focusing on Matt, following him through my camera lens for a majority of the night. His energy couldn’t be contained as he kicked, head banged and jumped around the stage, and on top of the crowd.
As they performed their way through “Shake Me Down” and closed with “Teeth” the photographers and fans got to experience a more intimate moment with Shultz as he jumped into the pit, climbed the barricade and sang on top of the crowd. He eventually made his way back to the stage and the band said a goodnight to the Pittsburgh crowd. He stuck around after everyone had left the stage to rip off the set lists and throw them out to various fans.

My favorite memory of the night was probably watching him rip off a set list from the stage, crumple it up into a ball and stick it in his mouth. He then spit it out and threw it over to some fans in the bleachers. On multiple occasions throughout their set, he walked from end to end of the stage to make sure all fans in the auditorium were having a good time and not just the fans on the floor.
Unfortunately, because of Pittsburgh traffic and being unfamiliar in this industrial city, I entered the Petersen Events Center Friday night while first act, Bear Hands. UK based Foals was second for the night, being a popular festival attraction. Guitarist and front-man Yannis Philippakis set the bar high early on in the show, engaging with the crowd and letting loose with his guitar on stage. He must’ve set the theme of the night of crowd surfing as he jumped into the crowd during their last song “What Went Down” and sang face to face with some fans.
LA based alternative rock band Silversun Pickups were direct support for Cage for the tour. They had a great sense of energy and rapport with the crowd, as I constantly watched bassist Nikki Monniger making hearts and other gestures to various fans an vocalist and guitarist Brian Aubert talking to the crowd. Their set paid a homage to their new album “Better Nature” with favorites like “Cradle (Better Nature)”, “Nightlight”, “Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance)”, and “Latchkey Kids”.