nathan jara

Four concerts in a week lent itself to quite the musical mash-up this month. Starting things off on a Tuesday night was the a cappella group Straight No Chaser at the Benedum Center in downtown Pittsburgh. The group performed Christmas tunes along with rock and pop classics. One of my favorites was their version of “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.” Thursday night’s stop was Stage AE for Sara Bareilles along with The Cab, Parachute, and Matt Kearney. The opening bands were great with each performing some acoustic sets, but I really lked Sara Bareilles as headliner. She had an awesome band and stage show. Checkout some highlights in the video below. Saturday was next with the Holiday Pops concert at Heinz Hall featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Choir. The concert reminded me how you truly can’t beat the timelessness of a professional classical performance. I ended the week on Sunday evening with a home-brewed Christmas cantata from my hometown church cluster. My family and church friends had a great performance to end my musical week.

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A couple a Thursdays ago, I got my Black Horse and the Cherry Tree on and attended the KT Tunstall concert at Mr. Smalls Fun House. If you haven’t been to Mr. Small’s, you should definitely check it out. Located in Millvale, the place used to be an old church and was converted to a theater. It’s pretty cool. Anyway, the concert was great! KT, most famous for radio hits Black Horse and the Cherry Tree and Suddenly I See, is a great performer. She interacted well with the crowd, told some stories and put on an awesome show. I was impressed too since it was only her and her guitar on stage. One of my favorite aspects of her show was her use of a loop pedal to create all the different parts of her songs. With the loop pedal she would first create a drum beat by hitting her guitar, then maybe add some snaps, or even some “woo-hoos” (listen below ;). She then played these immediate recordings back and sang along to herself. It was so simple, but really cool! A brief video clip (taken with my phone, so it’s not top notch :P) below should give you a taste of the show. Cheers!

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This past Saturday, I found what I think will have to be an annual event from now on. My friends invited me to attend the 2010 Pittsburgh Irish Festival. What an awesome time! I had no idea the festival even existed until my friends told me about it and I’m really glad I went. The festival serves a ton of Irish food like Irish stew, shepherd’s pie, Irish sausage and they have many booths selling t-shirts, crafts, and other goodies. The main event for me was the music. I’ve always enjoyed some good ‘ol knee stompin’ fiddle playin’ jigs and reels and the festival delivered all. I was able to see a band called Scythian, who rocked the house and made the night a ton’ of fun. They really get the crowd involved and moving, which made for some awesome entertainment. We did get a little, well a lot, wet when the rains came, but they kept on playing and we kept on dancing. Check out the video below for a little taste! (And if you’re using Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or even the iPad ;) you should be able to view the video below without Flash. It’s my first real experiment with the wonders of HTML5′s video capabilities. If that’s you, let me know how it works out please! :)

Last night I attended the 2010 Dave Matthews Band concert at PNC Park. Seeing as the band has become my ultimate favorite over the years, it’s no surprise I thoroughly enjoyed the show :) The band never disappoints it’s fans, and being my fourth show over the past 5 years, this show certainly didn’t err from the norm. Just about filling up the entire ballpark, Pittsburgh was rockin’ on Saturday night.

After several years of wanting to go, I finally made it down to the Three Rivers Arts Festival last night. It was a very nice event. There were many artists from not only the local Pittsburgh area, but also from around the country selling their artwork throughout the downtown area and in Point State Park. The art varied from painting, prints, sketches, drawing, sculpture, photography and fabric work. They also had some good food, of which, I indulged in a most enjoyable Italian sausage sandwich. The only disappointment of the night for me was the live music of Kris Kristofferson. I don’t think that type of music was the best choice for a sunny Friday night, but I guess they didn’t ask me. Overall, I’m definitely glad I went and would recommend you to check it out if you haven’t already or make a point to attend next year. The festival definitely inspired me to get back into art mode and start creating more again. Who knows, maybe I could have my own booth next year.