This evening, April 23rd, Portland, OR’s own Fruition premieres a pro-shot full length concert film that captures the biggest headline show of their career. Tonight caps a five week run of weekly hangs with their fans on their Facebook page called “The Thursday Thing with Fruition”. Each of the bands’ three singers Mimi Naja, Kellen Asebroek, and Jay Cobb Anderson have hosted a Thursday night, playing Fruition originals, covers, and solo tunes from their homes. Last week, drummer and in-house engineer and mixer Tyler Thompson took fans through his home studio, and his thoughts on drums. Tonight, bassist and resident film editor Jeff Leonard will debut his edit of their January 17th, 2020 show at Denver’s Mission Ballroom. The show marked the release of their 2nd new digital album in just 2 months - Broken At The Break of Day, and a vinyl release party of a combo vinyl of “Broken” and November’s Wild As The Night on one vinyl record.
The Mission Ballroom show was a sold-out co-bill with their good friends the California Honeydrops, and openers Mama Magnolia, who both joined Fruition for an extended 3 band encore. Over 3800 fans packed the room that night, something that feels even more surreal in the shadow of stay at home orders across the country. The band played classic tunes, and early live versions of songs from both records including “Dawn” which found itself lodged in the Top 5 at Americana radio, and in the top 30 of several key AAA radio charts. The band was only 2 months into an extensive tour plan when the country began shutting down, and mid album cycle that saw features in Relix Magazine, an appearance on NPR’s Mountain Stage, a highlight of independent artists in American Songwriter and more.
Faced with the prospect of losing all of their shows for several months at minimum, the band turned to its fans and launched a Fruition Drive, where fans receive unreleased music and special thank you's in the mail from the band, and to this series of weekly Thursday night hangs. The band hasn’t remained idle, all 3 singers contributed covers to Live From Out There’s John Prine tribute last week, and a new recording of John Hartford’s “Back In The Goodle Days” will be featured on a newly announced tribute album in June. While shows remain on the schedule for later this year, like the rest of the live music business, the band faces great uncertainty. As soon as public health officials give the green light, they look forward to hitting the road to support its latest releases. Till then, next week the band will move to Instagram to continue their weekly Thursday Thing hangs with their fans.
Tune in to tonight’s concert film debut at 7pm EDT: https://www.facebook.com/fruitionpdx/videos/1721164201354758/
Support the band’s fund drive: https://www.fruitionband.com/fruitiondrive
Stay tuned for concert announcements: https://www.fruitionband.com/#tour-section
