Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

WPPJ hosts free concert

The Lawrence Hall Lobby will be the place to be Friday afternoon, with free stuff, prizes, and musical talent from Point Park University students and local Pittsburghers.WPPJ Radio is hosting its first Back to School free concert of the year on Oct. 14 in the Lobby from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.Valerie Palmieri, a junior radio broadcast major and promotions director for WPPJ, said they will be holding the concert in partnership with Stage AE on the North Shore.”This will be our first time doing a bigger version of our Acoustic Series,” Palmieri said in a phone interview Oct. 7.Last year ,WPPJ held different concerts throughout the year, including Record Store Day, the Earth Day Acoustic Series and another acoustic series at the Starbucks next to Conestoga Hall on Wood Street.Since there was such an “overwhelmingly positive reaction” to Record Store Day, they decided to start the year off with another concert, Kelsey Kahla, senior radio broadcasting major and the music director for WPPJ, said in a phone interview on Oct. 10.Kahla had been planning to do more concerts this year.”I always wanted to do a ‘Back-to-School’ concert,” she said in a phone interview on Oct. 10. Now she is fulfilling that wish, even if it is two months later.There will be nine local bands and artists performing on Friday, with each band or act being from the Pittsburgh area, and a majority of the acts are either exclusively from Point Park or have some members from Point Park.The bands and acts include: Anchors End, Crash City, Toast Shaped Guns, Unraveler, Paper Politicians, Jenni Bloodworth, David Wolf, Dave Burgman, and Bailey Park.Jenni Bloodworth, a junior broadcasting student, started out at open mic nights and has only been performing publicly for a year. However, she said, “school is one of my favorite places to play,” in a phone interview on Oct. 9.Bloodworth taught herself to play guitar when she was younger and writes her own music after teaching herself by playing covers of other artists. Although she does not have a specific genre she likes to play, she considers her music folky.”It’s very inspired by [the band] Bright Eyes,” she said.Last year, Bloodworth performed for two other WPPJ concerts, the Acoustic Series at Starbucks and the Earth Day Acoustic Series. Most recently, she performed at Point Park’s Got Talent Oct. 5.”I still get shaky on the first song,” Bloodworth said. “Once I lose myself in the music, I forget about the judgment [of others].”Bloodworth also performs at Papa J’s Centro and in her hometown in Virginia. She said it is a challenge performing at school because she sees her peers and audiences on a daily basis. On the other hand, she said, performing at local bars is different because, “I won’t see these people again.”Kahla and Palmieri recognize the emerging talent at Point Park. They teamed up with Max Kovalchuk, a sophomore sport, arts and entertainment management student and intern at Stage AE, to organize and plan the event. Together, the three worked hard to find bands by making Facebook statuses and contacting mutual friends to create the performance line-up.”It was a mad dash [to find] people to play the music,” Kahla said.After that it was just a matter of getting the event approved by the school, getting the proper equipment for the event and finding a location, which was not definite until this past Monday.”We got great acts. It will be a great time,” Palmieri said.At the concert WPPJ will have their own booth and there will be prizes. Stage AE will also have a booth with their own promotional items and maybe even prizes, according to Palmieri.Kahla is astonished at the talent she witnesses at Point Park.”It’s surprising to see Point Park has this untapped music scene,” she said.

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