Photo provided Lead singer Wade Kirby of Free Fallin - The Tom Petty Concert Experience is shown at an earlier concert.
For almost 20 years now, Free Fallin – The Tom Petty Concert Experience has been taking its audiences on a nostalgic journey back to Tom Petty concerts of yesterday. And now, they can relive those memories as they return to the Brown County Music Center for a Sept. 13 performance, starring Our House: The Music of CSNY.
Mark Larsen, Free Fallin founder, band manager and former drummer, said he and the band’s former lead singer noticed that Petty’s catalogue of music was being under served at the time. From there, he said they decided to look for and recruit others who were interested in doing Petty’s songs justice.
“So it was back in the day when you went to a bulletin board somewhere and posted a thing, ‘band members wanted, who’s interested in playing Tom Petty music,’” Larsen said.
Four out of the six members of the band are original members, Larsen said. The current iteration consists of lead singer Wade Kirby, lead guitarist Karl Swartz, bassist Russ Lund, keyboardist Dale Peterson and drummer Mark Medcalf. Andy Krause also serves as the band’s utility guy, Larsen said.
Since its start, Free Fallin has traveled across the country performing in festivals, theaters and casinos. In 2018, the year after Tom Petty died, Free Fallin was invited down to his hometown of Gainesville, Florida, to act as the premier performer for a Tom Petty birthday party and park dedication.
Larsen said over 26,000 people from across the world attended that party. While there, he said they got to meet Petty’s ex-wife, one of his daughters, his brother and many of Petty’s friends and former bandmates.
“Tom’s original band coming out of Gainesville was a band called Mud Crutch, and the guitar player Tom and the drummer were both there and they performed on stage as support acts to what we did,” Larsen said. “So they were there performing as well, which was really an honor to have those guys with us.”
To authentically create the spirit of a Tom Petty concert, Larsen said they pay particular attention to what Tom Petty did when he was live on stage and what he looked like while touring, even wearing appropriate clothing to match what Petty wore during his shows.
While many Tom Petty tribute bands present his music in their own interpretation, Larsen said Free Fallin tries to capture the essence and vibe of Tom Petty and his music.
“We’ve dedicated ourselves to dig into each one of the songs note by note and try to replicate them in the live setting to give people the opportunity to relive those memories that they have of being there in a concert setting at a Tom Petty concert,” Larsen said. “And so we pay particular attention to all the different sounds and the structures of the songs and how they were presented, what they sounded like.”
Larsen said Free Fallin has performed at Brown County Music Center before, and he hopes to see some familiar faces this time. Joining Free Fallin will be Our House: The Music of CSNY, a tribute group to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
This double billed show is part of a collaborative mini tour between the two bands, Larsen said. Each band will present a set, with Free Fallin’s set including many recognizable hits from Petty’s catalogue, for what Larsen said will be a meaty concert.
“We’ve done a few shows with them and… the marriage between that genre of music and Tom Petty’s music is amazing,” Larsen said. “There is so much depth in the songwriting and the harmonies and the musicianship that’s involved in both bands is amazing. We really like working with these guys, they’re a bunch of really talented musicians.”
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at browncountymusiccenter.com.
