New Shadyside dance club hopes to revive cutting edge music scene

There was a time when Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood featured some of the hippest dance clubs in town.

From the 1960s to the 1990s there was the Razzberry Rhino, Lou’s Bar and The Encore to name a few, hosting live musical acts like DC Fitzgerald, Harold Betters and Frank Capelli. In recent years, however, the Walnut Street scene had seemingly died out.

A new spot called the Music and Dance Bar or MAD Bar, as creator T.J. Harris prefers to call it, appears poised to spark a revival of the area’s dance scene.

Saturday marks opening night for the MAD Bar, a cutting edge club featuring hip-hop, disco and reggae among musical genres. The evening is being dubbed “Green Beer and Irish Cheer” and runs from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. with headliner Keith McKenzie, a Breakbeat D.J. and producer. There is a $15 cover charge for the evening.

It’s located in the upstairs portion of The Yard restaurant at 736 Bellefonte St. about 50 feet from Walnut Street.

“The last time we had a venue that I think was doing something comparable to what I’m doing here was The Shadow Lounge (in East Liberty). People like Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa really cut their teeth there,” said Harris. “I’m hoping to create something that does that for our community again.”

MAD Bar will be open Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and feature live acts as well.

On Sundays, MAD Bar will be open from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and feature Harris hosting what he calls an “audio book club.” He said the goal is to bring technology into the club including creating online content.

“We’re actually going to do audio books but I’m going to run it through a silent disco head set system we have,” Harris said. “So, you’ll have one channel that’s dedicated to a book on tape, you’ll have another channel that might be stand-up comedy, and a third channel will likely be music with a live D.J. or a prerecorded set of one of the events from the past week.”