The Grand Rapids folk-rock heroes made a triumphant return to Studio Park’s Listening Lawn Series downtown on Saturday. The recap, photos and video at Local Spins.
Saturday’s Scene: The Crane Wives at Studio Park (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
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For once, The Crane Wives played a jam-packed show in downtown Grand Rapids without a drop of rain anywhere within 50 miles.
Amid relatively clear skies (and OK, some haze from wildfire smoke), the uber-popular Grand Rapids folk-rock band — Emilee Petersmark, Kate Pillsbury, Dan Rickabus and Ben Zito — reveled Saturday in a triumphant sold-out show in their return to Studio Park’s Listening Lawn series, with 600 rabid fans singing along to almost every note from the band’s now-expansive catalog.
The Crane Wives, who’ve been selling out shows across the country as they return to the road this year, rolled out a wide-ranging, 20-song set of harmony-filled treats — from “Nobody” to “How To Rest” — that ignited a mostly young and devoted crowd of fans who frequently shouted out their love for the band.
Exuberance: Fans sang along to nearly every tune. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
“We love you, too,” Petersmark acknowledged at one point.
The audience reverence even extended beyond cheers, sing-alongs and fist pumps. Just before the encore — after the band had performed “The Wolf” and “The Moon Will Sing” earlier in the set — Rickabus induced fans to “howl at the moon together.”
And so they did, with primal exuberance.
The band’s return to Studio Park (after a rainy 2022 appearance) also featured a deaf interpreter who performed the entire show in American Sign Language.
The Midtown’s outdoor event — attracting the second-largest crowd in Listening Lawn history (just behind the Indigo Girls’ show earlier in the week) — proved again that the Studio Park piazza can host and sustain an enthusiastic throng of fans, even those adoring creatures who howl for their beloved icons.
Next Up for Listening Lawn at Studio Park: Soccer Mommy, with special guest Pool Kids, closes out the summer series at 7 p.m. Monday. Tickets, $35, available online here.
PHOTO GALLERY: The Crane Wives at Studio Park
Photos by Anthony Norkus
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