On Sunday, March 16th Big Brother Big Sisters of the Laurel Region presented The Clarks at the Palace Theatre on West Otterman Street. This is the second year the organization has put on a charity concert involving the band.
The Clarks are a local band based out of the Western Pennsylvania region. They are known around the Pittsburgh area as local rock stars and have been making music together for the past two decades. After 13 albums and even a national appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” they have still been able to maintain a hometown mentality.
By Rachel Prichard
Staff Writer
On Sunday, March 16th Big Brother Big Sisters of the Laurel Region presented The Clarks at the Palace Theatre on West Otterman Street. This is the second year the organization has put on a charity concert involving the band.
The Clarks are a local band based out of the Western Pennsylvania region. They are known around the Pittsburgh area as local rock stars and have been making music together for the past two decades. After 13 albums and even a national appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” they have still been able to maintain a hometown mentality.
The audience that filled the seats at the Palace Theatre was looking quite reserved and hung over from the long St. Patrick’s Day weekend. This was also so for The Clarks since the band was coming off a long weekend of performing all around Pittsburgh. Even after a weekend of Irish celebrating, both the crowd at The Palace Theatre and The Clarks were still ready to rock.
A variety of fans, both old and young, poured into the venue. If you have ever been to a Clarks concert before, you know the age range of their fans varies from six to 46 years old.
The opening act for the show was an interesting looking band called Guitar Zack & No Slack. A three man band of locals from the Pittsburgh area, they described their sound as “a spaceship about to take off.”
With a style reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughn and any jam band on the festival scene; Guitar Zack amused the crowd with original songs that included “Fran Tarkenton,” “Oil Change,” and “Take a Nap Maniac Woman.”
When the Clarks finally hit the stage, the crowd came out of the post weekend daze with applause. Opening with “Snowman,” one would have ever guessed they had played back to back to back shows all of St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
The Clarks kept the audiences energy up with lively sing along versions of their hits “Born Too Late,” and “Better Off Without You” of course. It was a little surprising when they played the short lived radio favorite “Hell On Wheels.” I don’t think the majority of the audience had heard that song for a while. They even introduced some new songs, including the fast paced “Midnight Road” that was very much in the spirit of their 2004 album “Fast Moving Cars.”
Lead singer and guitarist Scott Blasey commented early on in the show about how he did not like the fact that people were seated. He definitely brought the crowd to their feet for high energy versions of “Maybe” and “Shimmy Low.” The crowd even got an encore performance that featured Guitar Zack accompanying The Clarks for the infamous “Cigarette.” The show was an energetic ending to the holiday weekend for anyone in the audience who had come in a bit tired earlier that night.