Pittsburgh local music spotlight: The Redlines

Mike Palm
Monday, Oct. 20, 2025 7:05 a.m. | Monday, Oct. 20, 2025 7:05 a.m.

The Redlines

Pittsburgh’s The Redlines

The Redlines

Pittsburgh’s The Redlines released the single “Just the Way We Live.”

After 13 years as a band, Pittsburgh’s The Redlines are going on their first proper tour this week, with shows in Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and West Virginia after kicking it off Thursday in Millvale.

“We’re expecting to eat a lot of unhealthy gas station food,” bassist Tony Vinski said. “And we’re expecting a lot of bad B.O. in the van.”

In those 13 years, the band has gone through six drummers so heavy metal mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” is brought up frequently.

“All. The. Time,” Vinski said. “But it just goes to show how accurate ‘Spinal Tap’ really is. Though all of our drummers are still living.”

They’re marking the tour with the release of a new single featuring vocals from Anne Celedonia and keyboards by Chris Wood.

“‘Just the Way We Live’ is the second of our songs written during and inspired by society’s response to the covid pandemic,” Vinski said. “Yeah yeah, we know it’s five years late, but it’s still relevant given the current political climate.”

The Redlines, who called dive bars and smaller venues their “sweet spot,” has enjoyed making friends and connections in the music community.

“We’ve recorded with Eddie Ashworth who has produced albums for Sublime, Slightly Stoopid, Great White, Pennywise, Frenzl Rhomb, Bargain Music and other bands that we were already huge fans of,”

Vinski said. “We had Frank Secich, who worked with Blue Ash and the Dead Boys, produce two songs for us. We’ve had a couple members of Rusted Root and the Houserockers come up on stage and play songs with us. We’ve had amazing local musicians like Jay Wiley, Demos Papadimas, Anne Celedonia, Chris Wood, OrangeG, Kari Rutushin and others generously add their talents to our recordings. We’re just continuously in awe of the opportunities we’ve had.”

Vinski filled in TribLive on what else we should know about The Redlines:

Band: The Redlines

Band members: Brian Seese (lead vocals/guitar); Jason Lizzi (lead guitar/vocals); Tony Vinski (bass); Sam Berman (drums)

Founding story: Back in 2011 Brian had been working on some songs and was looking for a bassist and drummer to help flesh things out. He called a nearby friend, Mike Fletcher (drummer #1), and myself. We were longtime friends going back to 1997 when I was the roadie for Brian’s ska band Skankin’ Homer, but I was also a bassist in my own right for Paging Mr. Herman. We all quickly realized that we had something with these songs. A long list of bad band names was generated and a Craigslist ad was placed to look for a lead guitarist. We decided on the name The Redlines, Jason answered the ad, and Mike dropped out to be replaced by drummer #2. After a few acoustic shows and open mic nights, we had our first “real” show in February of 2013 at Wooley Bully’s in New Brighton.

Origin of band’s name: We wish we had a cool story or that it actually means something. We basically came up with a list of about 50 names, narrowed it down to seven options, voted on them and picked the one that had the highest votes that didn’t seem to already be taken by another band.

For fans of: If you like loud rock music, played on real instruments, coming out of actual amps on stage, where you feel the bass in your chest and the songs get stuck in your head, then you’ll probably have a good time at one of our shows.

Influences: We’re big music fans and each person in the band could probably rattle off 20-30 bands that have influenced them. To take it even further, each of our albums and even each song has different influences. Our first album had a lot of Americana/indie/roots-rock influences from John Mellencamp, Ryan Adams, Lucero and The Sheepdogs. Our EP “Paradise Vegas, Vol. 1” was entirely influenced by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Most recently we’ve been diving into garage rock and all the different variations in and around that genre like Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, New York Dolls and Jayne County to name a few.

Releases: “The Redlines” album, 2014; “Paradise Vegas, Vol. 1” EP, 2019; “Bones Under the Morning Sun” album 2021; “Kick Out Today” EP, 2022; “Kick Out Tomorrow” EP, 2023; in addition to several singles and covers

Next shows: Oct. 23, Poetry Lounge in Millvale with Z-Nemo & the Big Slime and Abstract Theory. This will be our single release party for our new song “Just the Way We Live (feat. Anne Celedonia)” and the kickoff show for our 10-day, nine-show tour.

How to find them: We’re on all the sites and you can search for us as “The Redlines.” You can listen to our music, find upcoming shows, and buy merch at https://www.theredlines.us (which really is just our Bandcamp page, shhhhh).

Three other Pittsburgh area bands to check out: Beach Boise, ID (Sam’s other band); s orry face; Stupid Head

Favorite pizza shop: Spak Brothers in Garfield. Check them out in our video for “My Radio” on Youtube.

Mike Palm is a TribLive digital producer who also writes music reviews and features. A Westmoreland County native, he joined the Trib in 2001, where he spent years on the sports copy desk, including serving as night sports editor. He has been with the multimedia staff since 2013. He can be reached at mpalm@triblive.com.

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