Ripple Concert Series
Fort Wayne - JUNE 24TH, 2023
Ripple Concert Series, a hype event for Fort Wayne’s music festival Middle Waves, gave the city’s already promising music scene a huge boost in local and national recognition. The event attracted local residents and visitors to Parkview Field at the heart of downtown on the sunny evening of June 24th. With support from the historic Embassy Theatre and community sponsors, the stadium of the town’s beloved minor league baseball team, the Tincaps, was temporarily transformed into a venue for local vendors and musicians alike. Artists and fans ranging in both genre and miles traveled were united by the mid-summer heat and their love of live music.
After gates opened at 4:30, fans of local phenomenon The Namby Pamby slowly approached the tinseled-out barricade, excitedly anticipating their genre-defying performance. The trio took to the main stage by 5:00 for a nearly 50-minute set, kicking off the series of concerts with fan favorites from their debut album and a couple of unreleased tracks as well. Fans sang along loyally to the group’s most popular single, Chardonnay, nodding heads in both the irony and enjoyment of the lyric “You asked if I’ve seen the sun on a 90-degree weather day”.
After a quick transition between sets, DuPont Brass pulled the crowd out from the cool confines of shadowy shade to dance with them at the amphitheater stage. The brass ensemble came all the way from Washington D.C. to engage this budding Midwest city in their unique fusion of jazz, funk, and hip hop. Their covers of hits like “Gidget” by the Free Nationals and “Break My Soul” from Beyoncé transcended the bold summer heat and paved the way for some sweet originals too, including the seasonal anthem Summer Vibes and crowd favorite Let’s Go. Between harmonious calls and responses and perfectly synchronized steps, the energy of this group was fresh, authentic, and simply too contagious to stand still; the perfect recipe for all-around smiles. “Give a hand for your eclectic selves” they encouraged the audience at the end of their vibrant performance.
Empowered by the performances of earlier artists and fueled by ballpark eats, the crowd was now ready for indie rock band Vundabar to hit the main stage. “It’s our first time being here...we’re about to sweat a lot...from you” announced their lead singer before bringing out the full works of their electric set. The 3 piece group rocked the crowd for just over an hour with a notable awareness of the energy they were sharing together, complete with hair flips, bass notes like a heartbeat, and a drummer whose sticks spent equal time both in the air and in contact with his instrument.
In a continuation of momentum for the night’s headliner, Mic Strong made a grand entrance down the steps of the amphitheater. His foil, astronautical suit, and underlying merch perfectly matched the theme of his latest album Outta Here. The local hip-hop artist and rapper utilized his 30-minute, sunset slot to envelop the crowd into a universe of his own creation with out-of-this-world flow and creative freedom.
Fans of the night’s headliner Soccer Mommy had booked their spots at the barricade before she even began setting up her equipment. They had already been adorned with flower crowns and Fort Wayne tattoos from vendors, and the afternoon’s performances from other acts had perfectly prepared them for this moment. On the first anniversary of Sometimes, Forever she opened with the album’s starter Bones. The audience rumbled with excitement as her vocals and electric guitar solos echoed onto the standing area, reaching all the way across the baseball diamond. Her setlist featured tracks from multiple albums, meshing perfectly with the varying styles heard earlier on in the day. She engaged in light banter with the crowd, criticizing them for their lack of Bruce Springsteen fans before her cover of his track “I’m On Fire”, and dedicated the hazy Feel It All The Time to her pickup truck, but not before commenting on the minimal amount of truck owners at the show.
Stage lights bled into the audience throughout her set, each curating to the unique feel of each song; the blue and yellow hues of Yellow Is The Color of Her Eyes perfectly demonstrated this mastery of color theory (which also happens to be the name of this song’s housing album). Before wrapping up her performance, she earned a request to “play forever” from the audience. While this wasn’t a plea she could meet, she did grant us a few solo performances and an epic 2 song encore of hits from her debut album Clean, rocking the night to a close with the ever-so-angsty Your Dog and Scorpio Rising.
After the last note had been played and the lights went down, a buzzing joy still filled the air at Parkview Field. The Embassy’s acquisition and promotion of Middle Waves through the Ripple Concert Series exceeded expectations even through the sweltering heat. Certainly, a new conversation has started in Fort Wayne’s music scene journey.