Amplifying the Broadway Farmer's Market - July Recap

Kira Doman

July 5, 2023

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ParrotFish - July 5

ParrotFish swam to Green Bay for the Gather Farmer’s Market Series, tickets complimentary of Nicolet Bank, to kick off the July performances. Joe Cadrecha, the band’s drummer spoke about their time in Green Bay for the first time, and how Gather made do for their temporary reef.

“We’ve never performed a Farmer’s Market before, the closest we’ve gotten are smaller outdoor music festivals, but Gather was so much different than what we were expecting,” Cadrecha said. “The venue was much more intimate than we thought, which led to a very intimate and attentive audience.”

ParrotFish has become used to the chaotic house show experience their band was brought up in, leaving an interesting parallel to the intimacy of Gather’s space, and the focused crowd.

“The crowd was so receptive to our energy, it was amazing,” Cadrecha smiled. “We played a song that is currently unreleased called ‘I’ve Been’ and the crowd loved it. Of course, we rocked our band's favorite song, ‘Miami’, but we were happily surprised with the reaction to ‘I’ve Been’. They were very complimentary after the performance as well”

Aside from the crowd’s enthused reaction to the band’s performance, ParrotFish was also entirely pleased by the kindness of Green Bay as a whole.

“The opening act, 7000apart, was phenomenal and so much fun to hang with, and the kindness and generosity of Green Bay, in general, was very memorable to us,” Cadrecha said. “The staff of Gather was extremely hospitable, we really made so many new friends in Green Bay. We absolutely fell in love with Green Bay and would return anytime!”

Listen to their 91.1 The Avenue Interview!

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Michael Shynes - July 12

Michael Shynes performed for the Gather Farmer’s Market Series for July 12, and the audience had a whole lot of love to give for his performance.

Shynes spoke of how impressed he was with how the performance went as a whole, and couldn’t have imagined a better scenario.

“The audience was so great, they were receptive and enthusiastic to the songs, and it was truly an honor to play for them,” Shynes said. “The energy felt like a top-notch music club full of music fans. The staff and crew were wonderful, and artist-forward in every aspect. The food and drink were off the charts, outstanding green room and hospitality, along with top-notch sound in a beautiful space. Not much more you can ask for.”

Shynes experience that night was elevated as he noticed a group of close friends made the journey out to see him.

“I had some dear friends show up and also the fact that everything we did on stage came from the heart. There are nights when you're just getting through it – this was not one of those nights,” Shynes smiled. “It felt like a very natural night in my music career, I was able to play my acoustic guitar, tell some meaningful stories and just sort of return to my roots as well as perform what I may be a little more well known for, and the audience was very respectful of both types of music. It was a nice crossover.”

Shynes was able to even see more of Green Bay than he initially thought when they booked the performance.

“We were so amazed to get to explore Hinterland Brewing before our show too, a nice way to loosen up before our performance and to see more of what the city offers, and that wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the amazing owners and staff of Gather,” Shynes said. “I highly recommend checking out one of the many breweries in Green Bay.”

Overall, Michael Shynes felt entirely welcome for his performance at Gather, and has every intention of swinging through Green Bay again to continue to explore what the city has to offer.

“I enjoyed every aspect,” Shynes expressed. “I’m so gifted with an incredibly talented band, such as my violinist, DGS, people always just go nuts for his performance. We were shocked to see the huge reaction to our cover of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’. Just everything about this performance was made memorable. We’ll be back for sure.”

Listen to their 91.1 The Avenue Interview!

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Erin Kinsey - July 19

Erin Kinsey made her way into Green Bay for the first time for her July 19th performance at Gather, adding to the phenomenal and diverse lineup of artists filling out Gather’s Summer.

Kinsey had become used to performing for big crowds and bright lights, unable to see many of the individuals she’s playing for, but Gather opened up her ability to make eye contact with her audience once again.

“It was such a beautiful and intimate crowd, being able to see all the fan faces and reactions to my songs was really cool because most of the time when I’m up on stage there are bright lights and I can’t see anyone,” Kinsey explained. “We typically also are only playing 30-45 minute sets, so to be able to give our love and attention to the crowd for 75 minutes was awesome. We got to pull out all the songs from the woodwork, it was so much fun.”

Kinsey has begun to gather fame through performing at festivals and opening for other artists, so to be the headliner once again was a welcome change.

“This was my first headlining show in a while and I was actually able to take time in the middle of set to break it down and have an acoustic moment, and I ended up playing a song by myself,” Kinsey smiled. “It was really cool to get to connect with the audience that way while in the middle of such a big performance too. It felt like we got the best of all the worlds and we don't get the opportunity to do that very often.”

Though Erin Kinsey is known for her country tunes, the band also likes to surprise their audience with new genres every now and then.

“We do a cover at the end of the set by Paramore,” Kinsey giggled. “One of my songs in the set mentions Paramore being on the radio, so it gives us the perfect excuse as a country band to do a Paramore cover, and I feel like people probably weren't expecting that but they seemed to like it! It was fun to see all the people who might have gotten dragged out to a country concert enjoy a song for them.”

The band made sure to set up their performance with a great day by exploring the city of Green Bay, including Downtown and Broadway before the hustle and bustle of a Farmer’s Market.

“We went on a walk the morning of the show and got to see parts of the town while it was still quiet out, since it was before everybody was setting up the farmers market,” Kinsey said. “It was so cool to see all of the historic buildings next to the modern buildings. It was like the history and stories of some of these buildings were whispering to us. And I’ve never seen a farmer’s market like that, it was like a grocery store straight from the farm! Getting to experience Green Bay was special.”

Overall, Erin Kinsey and her band were grateful for a successful show, and look forward to sharing more close experiences with their fans like they were able to while performing at Gather.

“The dinner was incredible, where we got to stay was awesome, the whole crew and everybody that we met all day was awesome,” Kinsey beamed. “The show was so much fun and just to see people who came out from miles and miles away to sing the words with me to songs they've been listening to for years – it was really cool. I didn't know if anybody in the crowd would really know my stuff because I didn’t think of it as my concert, I was a part of a much bigger Farmer’s Market event. But to see people go out of their way to come out and sing songs and hear new ones – It was truly special.”

Listen to their 91.1 The Avenue Interview!

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Alanna Royale - July 26

Alanna Royale swung up to Green Bay with her soul and funk band to bring her crooning jazz to Gather’s walls for July 26. With her performance and arrival Alanna Royale brought out about 3 standing ovations! Royale electrified the audience with her voice and stage presence, and her time performing was apparently just as amazing as it was to experience her show.

“It was a different type of show than what I've put on in the past,” Royale pondered. “A lot of my newer songs are a little bit darker and a little more personal, leading to some different vibes than what I'm used to playing. I used to do a very big bombastic show of horns and background singers and this whole thing, and this record is very different sonically and intentionally. Last night was the first time we did that show, that setlist and so I didn't know what to expect. I even got a standing ovation on the third or fourth to last song.”

So what makes Alanna Royale’s performance so electrifying? She isn’t even sure herself. She sings with such emotion and passion, that each performance comes out a tad different than the last.

“Every performance I give is different because of the way I feel when I sing,” Royale explained. “Last night everyone was just on their feet, applauding and hollering after my song I Used to Dream, and I’m never really sure what to do in that situation, so I just sort of looked above everyone’s heads so that I wouldn’t become overwhelmed with the gratitude I was feeling. It was just so unexpected, deeply moving and touching.”

Not only is every one of Royale’s performances different, but her merch falls into this line of unique individuality as well!

“We’ve partnered with this really awesome company that uses regrind for their vinyls, and while my EP, ‘So Bad You Can Taste It’, is pressed on new wax, they use all of this wax that has fallen onto the floor from cutting vinyls all day to press our little 45 RPM singles onto,” Royale explained excitedly. “All that regrind, what would have been wasted wax, is instead made into these wonderfully adorable multicolored singles, and we get boxes of color variants. No box is one solid color, they’re all just so beautiful and get those vinyl collectors to our merch table.”

While their performance in Green Bay this summer was electric, unfortunately, the last time Alanna Royale and her band experienced Green Bay their performance went less than ideal at every turn.

“We’ve performed in Wisconsin a few times, specifically Mile of Music, but the other time we were in Green Bay we actually had quite the experience to overcome,” Royale chuckled. “We performed out front of the Neville museum a few years ago, and it had just happened to be pouring rain, like an absolute downpour, but we wanted to play anyways. The rain let up a little, but it was still just miserable outside, there were maybe a handful of people there to watch us all huddled underneath their umbrellas. The backdrop to our stage had even gotten caught in the wind, and ended up smacking our guitarist right in the head – he said he doesn’t remember much of our last time in Green Bay,” she laughed. (her guitarist has since fully recovered and it has become a funny story).

Luckily, Gather has since made up for their first go at performing for the city.

“This time in Green Bay, performing at Gather we just had amazing experience after amazing experience. Truly blown out of the water,” Royale grinned. “I'm vegan as well as one of my bandmates, and the chef at Gather [Jyll Everman] made us an amazing off-menu dinner that was so delicious. In some places we’ve performed you just get stuck with your dietary restrictions, even when you brought something it's just kind of not quite right, but here we were so taken care of! I would come back to Gather and Green Bay anytime for sure.”

Royale gushed at the amount of work the staff put in to make their experience great, and how much she sees the effort in making Green Bay stand out for its musical artistry.

“The team that put this show together last night is working really hard to bring national talent to Green Bay, to make Green Bay a place to be. They want artists to feel like this is a destination to come play,” Royale noted. “Green Bay doesn't easily connect to many other major markets, so you have to convince people to make the trip up here. The staff is sort of the unsung heroes because many think working with musicians and putting on shows is this super cool, rock'n'roll, glamorous thing, but it's endless work.”

“A lot is going on behind the scenes and I just hope people feel a sense of gratitude towards the team putting on events like this because they've made it so that the ticket is covered, that the quality of the musicianship is high, and that it's just a beautiful experience overall,” Royale smiled. “I hope Green Bay feels the gratitude for what they're doing.”

Listen to their 91.1 The Avenue Interview!