Rocking out in that old midwestern way: Pittsburgh heroes, the Clarks, give a show of high energy, “unpretentious rock” at the ’Sco.

Is there such a thing as too much rocking out? After all, rocking out is pretty much the point of rock music: the sound, high energy and excitement of the music builds up anticipation to the point where the listener is supposed to beg for it. A song is special because of that coming together, that climax in the sound when everything opens up. But what happens when you have a group that, instead of making rocking out the center of their songs, makes it the underlying concept of their music?

The Clarks, who played at the ’Sco last Friday night, are such a group—all about energy and so-called “unpretentious” rock. Judging by the audience’s reaction one hour into their set, half the people couldn’t get enough and wanted them to rock out all night (some were even crowd surfing, to a visibly confused but flattered band), and the other half, worn out by the pure non-stop-ness of the show, left before its finish. Rocking out can be tiring, it seems.

The Clarks are a local Pittsburgh group, who have been around for about 20 years and have a string of CDs that are worshipped in Pittsburgh, but barely noticed outside of the city. The group played with tremendous energy and drive. At their best, the Clarks are an amazingly fun and exciting band, expanding high-energy rock through a variety of styles and sounds. But at their worst, the Clarks seem unoriginal and uninspired, relying on a formula that works but can easily become boring.

The best thing about the band was their singer, who had a great laid-back style and flow that took the edge off some of the music. At times he would slip into falsetto or whispers, suddenly allowing the music to really grow. I can’t say that the Clarks aren’t a good or interesting group; they definitely have a lot of talent and they play with a tightness that most bands would surely envy.

However, for a band that prides itself on its “unpretentious rock,” they were most engaging when they took chances, such as combining acoustic and electric guitar sounds, adding funky guitar beats or Kinks-inspired bass lines, playing solos with all sorts of distortion, and letting the singer show off all of his diverse vocal talents. But these were the exceptions, and the rocking out was never the peak of the concert, but more of a backdrop: always there if you happened to subscribe.

The student band, Cobalt, opened for the Clarks, playing a similar vein of unpretentious rock, and striving for that same solid dance-happy groove. The band had great energy, but drew a similarly mixed reception from the crowd, moving half the room to a screaming frenzy and the other half to the bar.