Newfound attention for Ambridge's Gene Simmons lookalike

When you look like Gene Simmons of Kiss, you get a lot of attention.

Just ask Ambridge resident Pete Galvan, who's parlayed his Simmons similarities (no, not the supersized tongue) into a successful side hustle of casino limo rides and on-stage gigs as a Simmons lookalike throughout western Pennsylvania and as far away as Las Vegas.

But these days, Galvan is getting gawked at for a different reason. He's the star of a new Edgar Snyder and Associates TV commercial that touches on how the well-known Pittsburgh law firm helped Galvan reach a settlement after a near fatal motorcycle accident on Route 65 in Edgeworth.

They got money for him, all right.

Galvan thanks them in the TV spot that aired during the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards telecast.

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“It's on like 10 or 12 times a day,” Galvan said. “I work at Giant Eagle, and the customers are flooding me with comments.”

He took his wife out for an anniversary dinner this month and had the whole restaurant talking.

“They're all like, 'Hey you're the guy from the Edgar Snyder commercial.' My wife was just laughing and said, 'Well, I guess Gene Simmons (impersonating) is dead.”

Galvan almost didn't live to tell the story.

It had been a beautiful March day in 2014 as he drove his motorcycle home from a band practice in Millvale. As he was cruising along Route 65 in front of the supermarket where he works, a car suddenly turned into his path.

“I didn't even brake,” Galvan said. 

His motorcycle hit the car, “and they said I flew 100 feet in the air.”

When police arrived, Galvan told them he could barely breathe.

“I had two collapsed lungs. My chest was open. I had a massive concussion,” Galvan said. “If it weren't for my helmet, I would have been dead, they said. My leg was messed up. My arms. My larynx. Everything. They said I flat-lined in front of the Eat'n Park in Sewickley."

The next thing he remembered was waking up in Allegheny General Hospital with abrasions “feeling like a million bee stings.”

His son called Snyder's law firm, which began a client-associate relationship that produced a settlement check from the other driver within four months, and five years later a memorable TV commercial.

Galvan reports that he's feeling relatively well and is glad to be alive. He's got plenty of praise for Snyder's firm, but hey, let them take out a newspaper ad for more on that.

At least now you know the story behind those TV commercials, where the Simmons-resembling Galvan adds a bit of his personality.

“They liked at the end when I said, 'Rock and roll, baby!'”

Mimicking the legendary Kiss bassist, Galvan even stuck out and wiggled his tongue.

“But they edited that,” Galvan said. “They didn't want to be sued by Gene Simmons.”

Simmons has some top-notch lawyers, too.

“He did threaten me with a stop and desist to stop putting stuff on YouTube,” Galvan said. “I don't put anything on there anymore.”

The real-life Simmons and his Kiss bandmate Paul Stanley return to Pittsburgh next month for their band's farewell tour. Unlike 2009, Galvan won't be circling the arena in a limo with the window down making fans wonder if he's the real rock star.

“I'm not into that anymore,” Galvan said. “For me, the novelty is over.”

Besides, he's a TV star now.

Post-punk power in Millvale

A couple of post-punk guitar greats strutted their strokes last week at Mr. Smalls Theater.

On Tuesday, Bob Mould and his two bandmates blasted through a righteous set of heavy riffs and melodic choruses.

As he hurled himself around the stage, enraptured in his music, it's a wonder Mould didn't steam up his eyeglasses. His band was smoking all right, picking songs spanning Mould's career from the influential '80s alt-rock band Husker Du (“I Apologize,” “Something I Learned Today”), his post-Husker group Sugar (the heavy-pop “If I Can't Change Your Mind”), and his solid and relevant new album (title track “Sunshine Rock,” and the cool single “Lost Faith”).

“Talk to me, Pittsburgh,” Mould said an hour into the face-melting festivities.

The nearly sold-out crowd looked too mesmerized to respond with anything other than a cheer.

Mould's singing voice was still going strong as he started the three-song encore alone, strumming Husker Du's “Never Talking to You Again.” He was rejoined by his bandmates, and the power trio then played a faithful cover of Sonny Curtis' “Love Is All Around,” which a generation of TV watchers remember fondly as the theme from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Mould is a Minnesotan, after all.

It was night No. 5 of Mould's 40th-anniversary tour.

If this is 40, we should all be grateful, as Mould set the bar pretty high for his contemporaries.

Two nights earlier at Mr. Smalls, one of those peers, hard-hitting guitarist Andy Gill, likewise spearheaded a captivating performance, fronting the modern incarnation of his acclaimed U.K. post-punk band Gang of Four.

Gill threw his guitar at the stage five times, kicked it twice and stood on it once — all during the first song.

Those were just some theatrical warm exercises book-ended by the late-set theatrics of Gang of Four singer John Sterry, who propped a microwave oven on stage and bashed the bejesus out of it with a long club because, well, why not?

I expected Gang of Four to be a one-man show, but Sterry's energy, and the thumping, danceable beats of bassist Thomas McNeice made it a full-fledged experience.

Gill didn't shred as much as I anticipated, but it was still thrilling to witness him making those oh-so-jagged guitar sounds of his.

Both Millvale shows offered local openers.

Mould fans were warmed up effectively by Murder for Girls with its potent, Beaver County-bred rhythm section of drummer Michele Dunlap and bassist Jonathan Bagamery.

Gang of Four's openers were the Gotobeds, Pittsburgh's post-punk revivalists signed to the legendary Sub Pop label. Thirty minutes into their set, singer-guitarist Eli Kasan deadpanned, “We've got 13 songs left; is that cool?” That made me laugh. He then said, no seriously, they only had six songs left, which turned out to be two, as the Gotobeds left the stage as abruptly as they had started, post-punk street cred intact.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor for The Times and easy to reach at stady@timesonline.com. He tweets concerts announcements on Twitter @scotttady.