The Spin Doctors headlined the first night of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival at the newly opened Arts Landing in Downtown Pittsburgh on Friday, delivering an energetic set as festivalgoers enjoyed immaculate weather.
Broom warmed the crowd and wrapped its set at about 7 p.m. with a cover of The Monkees’ "I’m A Believer," and at 7:30 p.m. the Spin Doctors took the shaded stage promptly. The group, best known for 1990s hits including "Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong," ran through a lively program that mixed the band’s familiar material with loose, crowd-friendly patter. Frontman Chris Barron punctuated the night with lines that ranged from comic to civic: "My name is Chris Barron and I love cats! And dogs. But I’m really a cat guy," he told the audience, later shouting, "The Spin Doctors, body positive since 1988!"
The set contained a small, human mistake that underscored the live-music atmosphere rather than derailed it. Midway through the second verse of "Rock n Roll Heaven," Barron briefly forgot the lyrics and then recovered immediately; the moment was fleeting and the band pushed on without losing momentum. Later he asked, "Anyone out there know what love is? To give yourself over to another person? … This song isn’t about any of that … It’s called ‘Big Fat Funky Booty.'" He also wished the crowd a happy Pride before launching into "How Could You Want Him."
Between the jokes and the songs Barron made plain his approval of the site. He said he was impressed that the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust had built the park "for public good and public art," and at one point shouted, "More parks, no data centers!" Those comments framed the performance as part of a community opening rather than a standalone concert.
The performance felt like a homecoming of a kind: a 1990s band playing to a mixed-age crowd on a clear June night at a freshly opened festival venue. The stage’s shade kept the evening comfortable; the air and the light were single-mindedly good for a festival opener. The Spin Doctors leaned into that easy vibe rather than trying to reinvent themselves, which suited a first-night crowd there to enjoy music and the new public space.
What the night did not resolve was what came next. The Spin Doctors closed their set as part of the opening-night slate, but it remains unclear whether other headliners followed them that evening at Arts Landing. The festival’s move into the new park was the main event of the night: the band’s set, Barron’s off-the-cuff lines, the lyric slip and the quick recovery all fit into a larger moment in which a public space and a community festival met under perfect weather.
If the point of an opening night is to set the tone, Friday’s did that plainly. The Spin Doctors supplied a crowd-pleasing, occasionally irreverent show that felt less like a nostalgia act and more like a civic ribbon-cutting with guitars. Whether Arts Landing hosts more headline acts later that night or in the coming days is the one practical detail from Friday that remains unresolved.
