Ripe
Hartford Live
Old State House
Aug. 22, 2024
I arrived seven minutes late to the area between the Old State House and the food court to see the band Ripe perform as part of the Hartford Live summer concert series.
I like to get to events early because I’m usually working during them, so I want to secure myself a good vantage point for pictures and videos. But even though the show was advertised for 5 p.m., by 5:10 nothing had happened yet. I went up to the front of the crowd and waited.
And waited. And waited some more.
By the time the opening act began to take the stage, it was already 6:30. The audience had grown restless. Finally the band took to the stage, a group of six guys wearing jerseys that bore a striking resemblance to the uniforms of the Philadelphia 76ers. I looked closer though. The jerseys didn’t say Sixers; they said “Snack Time.”
Once they were onstage, Snack Time wasted no more of the audience’s time, and launched into a high energy set that featured equal parts brass blaring and guitar shredding thanks to the various members of the band. One member even had a sousaphone, an instrument I tend to associate with the Fourth of July and military marches.
The best aspect of Snack Time is that they’re a group of guys who are all about having a great time. They are clearly talented performers, but the musicality of their group wasn’t the main selling point. Snack Time exuded positive energy, which was exactly what was needed to combat the frustration of waiting almost 90 minutes for the concert to start.
They also had a great sense of humor, playing off their own unorthodox style to get the crowd involved in the show.
“Raise your hands if you’ve ever had sex with an alien!” the lead singer called out to the audience. There was a confused murmur and a smattering of half-raised hands. He repeated the question as if he were asking if the crowd liked chocolate. This time the crowd responded uproariously, and the band went into the aptly titled “Space Love.”
By the time they were done, I was in a good mood and ready for the headliner. Ripe didn’t say anything when they came out to the stage, following the high energy of Snack Time with their own rollicking group of performers. One of the immediate differences between the two groups was that Ripe was there to make us dance. The performers’ feet were as busy as their hands, and the band skipped, gyrated and grooved all the way across the stage and back again as they played their music.
As I recorded a video for my review, a little old lady tapped me on the arm. “You’re gonna dance for this next song, right? Because if you don’t dance you’re gonna get run over!” she said in a playfully ominous tone. From the stage, the lead singer commanded us all to dance.
“We can do the hard work up here, but it’s so much better when you’re vibing with us,” he said. He didn’t have to tell the crowd twice. Soon I was being jostled about by moving bodies belonging to massive men who swayed to the music, down to children hopping up and down both to see the musicians and get that “JUST DANCE!” energy out. The concert went on into the night, and it was the busiest I’d seen downtown Hartford on a Thursday evening in a long time.
Music is supposed to be impressive, but it’s also supposed to be fun. I don’t want to give the impression that Snack Time and Ripe weren’t musically great bands. But I was too busy grinning and spinning to really think about much else. Despite the slow start, Hartford Live was a great time, and I left feeling uplifted. It was a truly great concert.
NEXT
Hartford Live returns on Sept. 5 with Max Creek.
Jamil heads to the Webster to see one half of the City Girls.
