Wake Up Wednesdays Coming to Troy (May 17-June 21) Jared Kingsley of Ryan’s Wake Interview By: Rob Smittix

RRX: I just wanted to chat with you. We’re pretty excited that you’ve got the new concert series coming up Wake Up Wednesdays. I like the play on words there, I caught it.

JK: Nice! It starts May 17th and runs six weeks in a row on Wednesdays 5-8:30pm

RRX: Okay and you’ve got a great line-up I see

JK: It’s booked on crowd pleasing material. I’m not trying to be an original music series. The idea is to have fun on a mid-week break, have a couple of drinks and be home by nine. You know what I mean?

RRX: Yeah, definitely. It’s also separated into genre. You’re kicking it off with Hair of the Dog. The Celtic Kick Off Party as you’re calling it. But every night seems to have a different theme that should bring in different audiences.

JK: I booked 80 or 90 shows in that parking lot in my life, so I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work as well. Some of these themes seem to be more appealing to a diverse crowd of people. It’s something to do.

RRX: I’ve seen some good shows in that parking lot myself. It’s actually a great spot for it. I remember seeing the Rustic Overtones play there.

JK: Yeah, yeah that was cool man. Very cool.

RRX: And for the 2023 dates I don’t forsee from the Farmers Almanac that any of these dates are going to be rain dates.
(Both Laugh)

RRX: The farmers are never wrong.

JK: Sweet.

RRX: But this is exciting it’s great to get people back out there and this is a free concert series. It doesn’t get much better than that. It’s also kind of kicking things off before the whole scene erupts getting into the summer season.

JK: A basis for the series is that it’s a spring concert series. Spring fever in Upstate New York is a real thing. People are absolutely chomping at the bit to get out and do anything and everything as soon as you get a hit of feel-good feelings when the weather starts to peak. Nowadays, the difference between ten years ago or more is that you’ve got concerts at The Plaza, Alive at Five, Cohoes Rock The Block, Concerts in Brunswick, Rockin’ on The River… you’ve got all of these other draws and once it gets warmer you’ve got the lakes and SPAC, The Track and all of these other things. So we’ve seen the track record for the amount of people that want to be out in the spring. Before they all have their summer time activities we thought we’d give them a good go at it.

RRX: I think the thought behind it was the best approach you could have taken. You mentioned a couple of those other series and I noticed at least last year that a couple of those series were competing against each other. Which I found rather odd.

JK: Yeah 100% man. That’s part of it. The worst thing that’s going to happen at Wake Up Wednesdays is that you migt have to bring a sweatshirt and wear your jeans.

RRX: Right.

JK: That’s the worst case scenerio. I’d rather be a little chilly and not be going against ten other events within a four day span. You know what I mean?

RRX: Absolutely.

JK: I’m not trying to be Alive at 5, I don’t need 8,000 people. We’re putting on a fun little concert series on the river outback for anybody that wants to come down on a Wednesday afternoon and hang out. It’ll be cool, it’ll be fun and I think we’re going to deliver a good product.

RRX: I also think that Troy is really where it’s at right now.

JK: Yeah, Troy has come along way. I think I’ve been around Troy for fifteen-ish years or so. The Troy that I knew fifteen years ago has definitely made leaps and bounds of progress. Young people, apartments, businesses, cleanliness and everything. It’s made some great strides. I think this will just add one more fun thing to do in downtown.

RRX: Absolutely. I walk past Ryan’s Wake all of the time and it’s always packed on the inside but this time you’ll have the inside and outside packed with people. You’ll have the back patio opened up too, I imagine?

JK: Yeah, oh yeah there’s three decks. We have one bar out on the river there and there will be some food and beverages outlets down in the lot itself. We’ll be equipted to get some libations and a snack out to people. It’s something this spring to get you out of the house, come on down and hang out. Check it out, it’s the first year and we look forward to many years of doing it!