Roots rockers The Dead End Streets celebrated their 10th anniversary as a band with the release of a new single, “Fool,” on June 12.
Written by band founder Matt Aquiline, the song takes the perspective of vocalist Heather Catley as the singer of Aquiline’s lyrics.
“When I wrote the 2024 song ‘Dummy’ for Heather to sing with lyrics like, ‘The dummy that I am, I just can’t understand. You must be high to be my man,’ Tom Hohn’s wife, Linda, asked how the singer felt singing my self-deprecating lyrics,” Aquiline said. “I never thought to ask but took the question as a sign that it might be time to tell some truth about who the band’s vocalist really is, and that ‘ain’t no fool.’”
Reaching the 10-year mark, which they hit June 10, is a sign of the band’s dedication.
“It means we’ve worked really hard, gotten really good and put up with a fair amount of stuff. Being a local original band is hard. Being an eight-piece band requires real commitment, self-sacrifice, patience and an exponentially larger number of scheduling texts than normal-sized bands,” Aquiline said. “Above all, and considering all that, what it means is that we all appreciate each other’s abilities and contributions, and we all think the music we make is valuable. So we are going to keep making that music, performing in local venues and releasing recordings. In fact, we already have another single in the works for later in the summer.”
Fresh off an appearance at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, they have another show planned for July 11 at Dead Head Winery in Monongahela. Other favorite local venues include Moondog’s Pub, Music Partis on Jupiter and the old Club Cafe, where the band played its first show on June 10, 2016.
“What we enjoy most about live performances is the opportunity to make music with a group of eight people, creating something meaningful together in real time,” Aquiline said. “Every performance is unique, with subtle nuances in interpretation, energy and interaction that make each experience different from the last. We also love seeing the audience’s enjoyment and engagement, as their reactions contribute to the atmosphere and make the performance even more rewarding.”
No matter what happens in the future, it will be hard to be as memorable as a show from their past.
“This one goes way back and only a few of the current members will remember, but we were booked for a big summer concert series in D.C., so we embarked on our one and only road trip with excitement because we heard this entire city block was packed with hundreds of people every week for these shows, and we were the finale,” he said. “What we didn’t know was that all of those people had depleted the festival of all of its supplies so they ran out of literally everything the week before our show. Not even a sip of water to be had. Luckily, one dude brought his own water, so he sat alone in this giant field watching us play. It was our own little Fyre Festival, without the gross stuff.”
Aquiline filled in TribLive on what else we should know about The Dead End Streets:
Band: The Dead End Streets
Band members: Matt Aquiline (guitar, mandolin, vocals); Heather Catley (vocals, guitar); Greg Eggert (trumpet); Alex Hershey (lead guitar); Tom Hohn (drums, vocals); Bill Maruca (organ, piano, accordion, vocals); Joe Safari (bass); Hannah Veri (saxophone)
Founding story: I returned home to Pittsburgh after almost two decades living and performing in Washington D.C. After getting my family settled and writing a bunch of new tunes, I decided it was time to start performing again and formed the band in 2016 through Craigslist ads and word of mouth.
Origin of band’s name: On the drive moving from D.C. to Pittsburgh, I mused about the possibility of putting a band together with my first friend and first sideman, Mike Ruane, who he was neighbors with on a dead end street. Grateful to be moving my family from the deeply unauthentic Washington D.C. to the nothing but authentic (and full of dead end streets) Pittsburgh, I was struck with the value of home and felt the positivity of something that is usually portrayed negatively. In the band’s self-titled song, I wrote “venturing too far from home never did extend my reach, so I’ll take dead end streets.”
For fans of: Tedeschi Trucks Band, Bruce Springsteen, Lake Street Dive, John Hiatt
Influences: Bruce Springsteen, John Hiatt, Steve Earle, Neil Young
Releases: “Coming Home” EP (as Matt Aquiline and The Dead End Streets), 2016; “No Excuse Not To Have A Merry Christmas” single, 2018; “Snowball Fight on the 4th of July” single, 2019; “The Time Has Come” single, 2020; “Seems I Survived” album, 2022; “What Will They Say (When I Am Gone)” EP, 2024; “Fool” single, 2026
Next show: July 11 at Dead Head Winery, Monongahela
How to find them: The Dead End Streets can be found on Bandcamp, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
Three other Pittsburgh area bands to check out:Bill Toms and Hard Rain; INCO FIdO (Hannah’s other band); Rattle Bones (Tom’s other band)
Favorite pizza shop: I did not poll the band. It’s Mineo’s.
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