There were few empty seats in the Tryon Festival Theater at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday night as legendary alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs delivered a captivating performance to lifelong fans and newcomers.
10,000 Maniacs was founded in 1981 and has been an influential part of the alternative music scene. Releasing nine studio albums, six EPs and five live albums, the band has gone through many different iterations, particularly when lead vocalist Natalie Merchant left in 1993 to pursue a solo career.
10,000 Maniacs didn’t lose their charm after her departure. Instead, the band remains a staple of alternative music and continues to create music that resonates across generations.
At their Tuesday show, people of all ages were packed into the theater. Despite the band being long established, the audience was diverse, with numerous college students and even Urbana High School students attending.
In a misty swirl of fog and red lights, 10,000 Maniacs arrived on stage as heavy bass reverberated through the theater. The lights dimmed for a dramatic few minutes while the band prepared, their figures casting long shadows across the floor.
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The performance began with “Like the Weather,” their 1987 breakthrough hit from their second album, “In My Tribe,” a song that remains a standout in their discography 30 years later.
Mary Ramsey, the band’s current lead singer, commanded the stage in thick glasses and a red scarf, swaying with joy and flashing warm smiles between verses.
Similar to Merchant’s, Ramsey’s voice holds tremendous power and range and delivers each note effortlessly. Ramsey also played the viola for much of the performance, producing velvety notes that vibrated throughout the space.
The lights once again dimmed onstage, casting a soft glow as the band launched into their second song, “You Happy Puppet,” a track about allowing someone else to control your actions and life.
“This is an amazing campus, and this whole building has just amazing memories,” Ramsey said after the song concluded. “These songs are from various points of history in this band. This one, you may know.”
“Trouble Me” was the next song, with Ramsey’s voice soaring over the warm groove of the guitar and the steady beat of the drums in the background.
Audience member Gary Olsen, professor in LAS, wasn’t particularly a fan of 10,000 Maniacs; he simply found out about them by chance. But after attending the concert, he plans to listen to the band more and look them up on his own time.
“I’ve heard some of it, but I’ve never specifically sought them out and listened to them systematically,” Olsen said. “It just sounded fantastic.”
While some listeners were newcomers, others were longtime fans. Roman Torrey, senior at Urbana High School, has been listening to 10,000 Maniacs since childhood and noted that their music holds a sense of nostalgia, describing it as “Sunday cleaning music.”
The energy in the theater remained electric throughout the performance, with the audience singing along to numerous songs and the band encouraging the crowd to clap along.
Ramsey addressed the crowd several times, remarking on the beauty of the theater and the weather while making jokes that drew laughter from the audience.
“It’s just a Friday night,” Ramsey said, a playful statement that she repeated throughout the night. “You make it feel like that. Or a Saturday.”
Ursula Holtapp, senior at Urbana High School, described the performance as “delightful” and said seeing the band live was a completely different experience from listening to music.
“You get to meet them in real life,” Holtapp said. “You get the actual vibe versus what they recorded to be there.”
For the final songs of the night, the band invited the audience to get up and come to the front of the stage, saying that if people wanted to get up and dance, they’d “love it.”
The audience cheered, many standing up and rushing to the auditorium’s front as the band started playing “Candy Everybody Wants.” Holtapp was among those who moved forward and ended up with a setlist, which she later had signed.
After 10,000 Maniacs seemingly finished the concert and exited the stage, the audience cheered for an encore, bringing them back out for one final time and ending the night with “These Are Days.”
“Thank you so much for coming tonight,” Ramsey said. “This has been really special. It’s a special place here. We’ll be back.”
