Portable concert venue supports local artists

By Savannah Burnard

The Little Jamm is a portable concert venue that provides an intimate space for local artists to share their music.

Nathan Ahlstrom, a sophomore at Utah State University and owner of the venue, said he founded The Little Jamm because he wanted to create a space for smaller bands to experience performing for audiences. Ahlstrom grew up doing contemporary dance. After tearing his ACL and not being able to dance for a period of time, he said he needed to find a different creative outlet.

“I turned to music and that became my creative outlet and almost my therapy. From there, I played the guitar and started writing music,” Ahlstrom said.

After throwing mini concerts at his home and realizing how much he enjoyed it, he decided to create a concert setup.

“I created The Little Jamm for artists and the audience to come together and experience the language of music with each other in an intimate and small space,” Ahlstrom said.

When it comes to picking artists to perform, Ahlstrom said he has performers contact him, and he also reaches out to artists who he thinks would be a good fit.

“I kind of find those artists and put together musicians that would sound similar,” Ahlstrom said.

He said although The Little Jamm caters to all musical genres, they tend to target indie and folk musicians.

USU sophomore Parker Norton performed with his band, Wednesday, at the first concert The Little Jamm hosted, which was Feb. 10 in the community room at Oakridge Student Community.

Norton said he thinks The Little Jamm is unique from other concert venues because of the environment.

“It’s kind of like a more intimate setting. You can see everybody, and everyone can see you. It’s not a place where you’re on this massive stage and you can’t really see people’s faces out in the crowd. You can see what’s going on, on the other side, which is cool,” Norton said.

Chi Lewis, a friend of Ahlstrom’s, said he thinks The Little Jamm is unique because anyone can come and people have the opportunity to meet new friends.

“I think a lot of other venues tend to be expensive, and all the performers are usually hand-picked and you don’t get a whole lot of variety with them. You have to focus on the music, and it’s pretty closed off,” Lewis said. “Here, you can go and listen to music, but you can still talk to the people around you, and it’s kind of like you’re hanging out with everybody.”

Ahlstrom said he is open to finding different locations for the setup, but said it could be difficult because of money and the atmosphere he wants to maintain.

“The hardest thing is finding places that have lighting and good sound, and finding a place that’s not crazy expensive but that has that cozy feeling,” Ahlstrom said. “Lighting can create a good ambiance, but also the space itself. You can’t do a concert in certain buildings and have it be cozy because of, you know, the tile or really big windows.”

As for the future of The Little Jamm, Ahlstrom said he would like to work with the university and possibly perform in the ballroom in the TSC.

“That’s far in the future, but we got to dream big,” he said.

Although exact dates have not been determined yet, Ahlstrom said The Little Jamm plans to hold more concerts and continue creating a space for performers and audiences to come together.

Savannah Burnard is a junior studying journalism. In her free time, Savannah loves to travel, try new foods and meet new people.

— savannah.burnard@usu.edu