I Went to See The Clarks Musikfest and It Soothed My Soul

Are you from western Pennsylvania? Have you watched the HBO show, The Pitt? Well, then you might know that the venerable Pittsburgh band The Clarks are having something of a year. Around the new year, the season trailer for The Pitt dropped and it features the show’s main character, Mr. Robby riding his motorcycle across the Rachel Carson bridge in Pittsburgh, while the Clarks song “Better Off Without You” plays in the background.

Seeing this was cool for me. In the past year, I started to follow The Clarks on social media, and I was excited when I saw this clip.

 I must have watched it 5x times in a row. “Better Off Without You” is one of my favorite songs of theirs.

I went through the bulk of my infatuation with The Clarks between the years 2000-2005. During that time, I bought several of their CDs and saw them play live at least twice.

But I have never lost my love for them. In recent years, since moving to the Lehigh Valley, I have occasionally checked in on their website of upcoming shows. I imagined the one day I would try to arrange a meetup with my sisters somewhere in western PA to see them play live. I was willing to drive for the right show. But this happens to be my year for seeing live music!

 I had heard that The Clarks had played Musikfest in Bethlehem before, but it was never during a time when I was aware of or had the ability to go. Luckily, these days I am following The Clarks on social media, and I became aware that they were scheduled to be a musical act at Musikfest and I was able to plan to be there. I also asked a friend who also likes music (but doesn’t really know The Clarks) to join me and that made my experience even more awesome.

[A small commercial for Musikfest: The is the largest free music festival in the nation. All of the shows except one act each evening (The Headliners) are free. It is held every early-August in Bethlehem, PA and it lasts for 10 days}.

It rained lightly as we were walking to the area where the show was held outside, right beside the Bethlehem Public Library. Then it rained on and off before the show. Luckily, we found a covered area on the side of the building with chairs where we could sit and watch. We got there about an hour early, which was advantageous because it helped us find this dry seating. At some point during the show, it started to rain cats and dogs. By the time the show was over, it was raining very hard. The drive home was a little bit scary because there was so much rain.

The show was less attended than I would have expected but I think that was largely due to the rain. One aspect of the element of rain is that it made me feel like everyone who was at the show really wanted to be there. I felt really connected to the audience because I felt like they were probably real fans. I talked to some of them and I noticed that other attendees were talking to each other too. I noticed people 20 years older than me really getting into the music, bopping their heads and that made me feel warm and fuzzy, like I was with my people.

They played all the classic The Clarks songs including: “Penny on Floor”, “Caroline”, “Butterflies and Airplanes”, “On Saturday”, “Cigarette”, “Shimmy Low”, “Born Too Late” and “Snowman”. They played their cover of Prince’s “Kiss” but not the Bruce Springsteen song “The River” which they sometimes play.

My friend said that they reminded her of the band the Old 97’s and I have heard that before from other people who I introduced The Clarks to. Long story, I had a good time and seeing them live and being there reminded me of who I was in my early 20’s. It is always fun to revisit things that you liked when you were younger. I am getting a lot of out of seeing live music this summer, it seems to be my theme of this summer.

What is the thing that you are most into this summer?

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