Joel Dobbins may have forgotten his guitar pick for his live performance, but he did bring acoustic tunes Tuesday night to the Hot Topic in the Nittany Mall, 2900 E. College Ave.
Where racks of CDs and accessories were pushed back against the wall of the store, this makeshift stage became the local artist's for the hour-long set.
Dobbin's performance managed to draw about a 20-person crowd of everyone from store employees and friends to passersby who heard the echo of the guitar from outside of the store.
The artist's self-written songs in his set ranged from up-tempo tunes with intricate finger work such as "Angel" to more vocally focused songs like "Here in the Dark."
Toward the end of the set, Dobbins announced that his mouth was dry.
"Picks and water, I'll have to remember those next time," he said.
Dobbins ended his set with the song "So Happy," which he said he just recently performed live on a Penn State radio station.
He performed with a red Takamine guitar that displayed his first name printed in bold white lettering.
"I pretend I'm famous enough to go only by my first name, like Britney or Oprah," he said.
He also gave reasoning behind the fact that he needed a lyric sheet for a couple of songs in his set.
"Those ones I just haven't listened to or played that much," he said. "I have a really bad memory."
This detail did not stop listeners from speaking highly about Dobbin's music and vocals.
"He has a nice natural voice, not fake like everyone else," Ashley Cronk, a Bellefonte High School student, said.
Erica Lorin (sophomore-public relations) compared Dobbins to a more well-known artist.
"He kind of sounds like the guy from The Fray," she said. "I can see a lot of potential in him."
Dobbins said he had instigated the in-store performance.
"They had a sign on the door saying come in if you want to play, so I came in and said I wanted to play," he said.
Natalie Nau, Hot Topic store manager, said Dobbin's tunes were welcomed for the next installment of these acoustic performances.
"Everything is about the music," she said.
