Many of you have probably heard guitarist Anthony Pirog at various bars and restaurants around the DC area, and some of you might not have even realized it. Whether playing with local jazz artists at Utopia or Tryst, as an experimental duo with celloist Janel Leppin at Bossa, or with his vintage rock band The Bang at the Velvet Lounge, Anthony’s prolific guitar work seems to find its way into just about every club and every genre possible. With a laid back attitude and a signature sound, Pirog managed to catch our attention and we’ve been following him around this fair city for quite awhile now; he most recently wowed us with a solo performance at the Warehouse Next Door.
A jazz guitarist by training, having graduated from New York University’s music school and having spent time at the Berkelee School of Music, Pirog is technically brilliant and able to take that brilliance into the experimental realm. Taking the stage already chock full of effects pedals (23 in total), Anthony began the night with an almost ambient post-rock song and progressed through the night with pieces that were at times jarring, calming, challenging and multi-dimensional. By the second song, Pirog was pulling the rug of “ordinary” out from under us. He introduced a variety of sounds through both the electronics he had onstage and his guitar (at one point playing a child’s keyboard into his guitar) — tweaking them, processing them, looping them and then layering them.
Throughout the night, he painstakingly set up all his pieces; he continued to layer sounds until that moment when the cacophony could not get any more intense and then would pull everything together into one coherent and melodic piece, playing his guitar soaringly above the fray. It was at those moments when chaos triumphantly became ordered that Pirog’s genius was most exposed. As he revealed to us in his interview, “I had the first loop prerecorded to get me going and that was it. The rest was improvised.” His facial expressions while doing so revealed his genuine interest and curiosity in each new sound he was creating and in figuring out how best to fit those sounds into an overall melodic structure. Using his extensive knowledge of music and combining it with electronics-galore, Pirog is essentially a one-man experimental orchestra, taking the roll of composer, musician and conductor. At the end of the show, all the music geeks came out of the woodworks to look at all his pedals and discuss with him his process — which he kindly did.
Pirog continues to experiment with music when playing as Janel and Anthony. The duo improvises while playing the cello and guitar, while still using processing and looping to add layers to their songs. Whereas solo we find him confronting the more intense spectrum of experimental music, with Janel, Pirog creates soothing and exquisite mis-en-scene works. An abrupt left turn is made when we see Pirog fronting such bands as The Bang, where he delves into traditional rock songs that have an americana flair and feature a growly voiced vocalist and other stellar musicians (including Janel Leppin on bass guitar).
Wherever and in whatever form you might be able to catch Pirog play, do so. He is by far one of the most accomplished guitarists in our city, and his interest in so many genres of music means that you are sure to find him playing something your musical palate will relish.
