Looking back at a lengthy and celebrated career, Pittsburgh icons Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers took the stage Saturday night at Bottlerocket Social Hall to celebrate the release of new double-disc “Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology.” And the show certainly sold the anthology to the assembled crowd of fans, who filled Bottlerocket’s theater space to enjoy two hours of no-holds-barred rock. Saturday night’s two-hour set — much like the anthology — spanned the decades of Grushecky’s music.
The show felt a lot like a big Memorial Day family party. After opening the show with “I Can’t Take It” and “No Strings Attached,” Grushecky implored the crowd to wish his wife a happy birthday — and they obliged by singing a whole verse of “Happy Birthday.” He followed this up with “A Labor of Love,” which he dedicated to his wife.
“Back in 1982 I was at The Decade and the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen walked in, and I can’t believe she wanted to talk to me. We’ve been together ever since,” Grushecky told the crowd. That sense of nostalgia — and of enjoying the journey — was emblematic of the whole evening.
Grushecky talked a lot between songs about the twists and turns his career has taken, and expressed enormous gratitude for the success he’s had and where he is now. Where he is now is rocking it with The Houserockers, who are a force of nature in their current form. With three guitarists, all of whom can whip up a killer solo.