Fruition Setlist

Matters of the Heart
The Price Of Sound Advice
Whole World of Trouble
Above the Line
Just One of Them Nights
Can You Tell Me
There She Was
Forward
Not Afraid
I Should Be (On Top of the World)
Falling on My Face
Sweet Hereafter
Forget About You
Where Can I Turn
Reason to Live
I Dare You
Compass
Hard to Make Money
Somewhere Down the Line
Meet Me on the Mountain

There must be something a little bittersweet about a last tour. That emotional mix of being on the road for a final time, hitting cities or venues you’ve loved (or not!), and the thrill of the crowd cheers all tempered by the relief of not having a multi-week or month effort on the road, and the financial uncertainty of things. And of course, it generally can all be taken back in the future with fairly little consequence. This was the second of these shows I’ve covered this month, as we saw L7’s recent and tremendous show at Fine Line. Over at St. Paul’s Turf Club, Portland indie rock band Fruition was celebrating over fifteen years as a band, their newest album, and a last tour run with their Something More: The Final Tour coming to town.

Up first was Gardener, an Americana fueled indie rock band out of Yellow Springs, Ohio. (Side note, If you, like me, had never heard of that place, know that it is a very small town well northeast of Dayton, with a population under 4,000 and the motto of “find yourself here”.) Their 2024 album A Million Things is right at that intersection of Americana and rock, with some really solid vocals. The sextet (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, keyboards, trumpets, and drums) had a deeply layered sound, with up to four backing vocalists adding in on all of that instrumentation. They mentioned that they loved touring with Fruition, and that it was at least their third time on the road with them. Back to the music, we got the lead single from the recent album, Cinder, and it highlighted that great mix of Americana folk with rock tendencies. The instrumental section on that one was complicated and didn’t feature solos as much as letting the whole band cut loose. Following up with A Million Things had the slide guitar effect intro and the keyboard work was doing some great support. Those five vocalists made for a rich sound, and I really liked that the trumpet player went to work between songs as tuning and pedal boards were prepped for the next song. The Dog had a more rock entrance and some bright guitar behind the dual (and occasional triple) vocals. A major thanks to the crowd, Gardener headed into their last song, and finished as the began, with an upbeat folk rock and they had hit their marks with a fun opening set.

The headliner Fruition is a Portland based band playing their Americana indie rock across eight albums, including the newest in 2026’s Something More. The opener, Matters of the Heart, was a great start and the quintet (vocals/guitar/harmonica, vocals/guitar/mandolin, keyboards/guitar/vocals, bass, and drums) was playing strong with plenty of roots rock playing in that indie folk. Our two vocalists (alto and lower tenor) alternated lead and harmonies in a super effective way and they even moved to a third lead vocalist when they played the bluesy Above the Line, and that mandolin was a great sonic contrast and the instrumental section rollicked in a great way. Just One of Them Nights was an oldie and hit that much heavier Americana feel with Jay Anderson’s not quite twang singing, and that mandolin played much more country on this one. Forward had a bit of a 70’s The Band rock vibe and the triple threat vocals really worked and a great electric guitar solo only added to that older era feel. I Should Be hearkened back to an even earlier era and Mimi Naja was perfectly aligned for a nearly Detroit era sounding hit. Sweet Hereafter was another change of pace, with the keys heavy, not quite disco feel playing so well with the triple harmonies. It was fun to watch the band simply be; over fifteen years in, they had earned this moment to simply be themselves. Compass was a sweet sounding number that had a switch of keys and guitar and was such a great distillation of the band’s sound, and those soaring harmonies were striking. Hard to Make Money was sharp as a tack and felt like a soundtrack to 2026 in the worst possible way. The final song was Meet Me on the Mountain, which had the crowd and band singing full out and Fruition had left nothing on the table in their final appearance in St. Paul.