Ripe Play the Game and Win Big in Boston
When two of the most feel-good acts in modern music share a stage, a hootenanny is bound to form. On Friday night at MGM Music Hall, that hooteanny was all Boston’s. Allen Stone and Ripe’s co-headline show felt like a celebration from the jump, but for Ripe, it was something more. It was a genuine hometown moment that doubled as a victory lap.
The opening act, The Free Label, set the tone with a high-energy blend of funk and pop that fit perfectly with the night’s vibe. Keytars, sax, funk bass lines. The crowd was ready, and the room was already moving before either headliner appeared.
Co-headliner Allen Stone’s set was part soul-sermon, part fever-dream. He started alone with just an acoustic guitar, easing the crowd in with raw vocals and gospel phrasing. Then, piece by piece, the chaos took over. By the second song, his band had joined him. By the third, Stone had abandoned the mic entirely, wearing a fur hat and dancing like he’d lost a bet with gravity. It was unhinged in the best possible way. When an artist is clearly having as much fun as the most unrestrained fan in the front row, it’s contagious. By the time he wrapped, MGM was fully loosened up and primed for what came next.
Ripe took the stage wearing matching green varsity jackets with the band name stitched across the back, a nod to the sports metaphors running through their new album Play the Game, released in September. The band leaned all the way into that team spirit. Merch tables had the usual shirts and vinyl, sure, but also Ripe-branded tennis balls and headbands. It’s a gimmick that works because it’s authentic. And Ripe doesn’t fake enthusiasm.
For frontman Robbie Wulfsohn, this show clearly meant more than most. After suffering a concussion over the summer that sidelined the band for weeks, he’s been clawing back — first at Levitate Music Festival, then through a streak of late-season festivals like Back Cove Festival in Maine, where they shared the bill with Jack White and Lord Huron.
And this Friday night, his gratitude was written all over his face. Multiple times, he looked out at the crowd and just stopped, visibly choked up, overwhelmed by the response from a hometown that has claimed Ripe as their own.
The band ripped through songs from Play the Game alongside longtime staples. The dance floor was packed from “Letting Go” through “Downward,” the brass section tight and joyful, the crowd singing harmonies on instinct. A cover of “Lola” by The Kinks landed perfectly, while a quick tease of “Sweet Caroline” earned the predictable mix of groans and laughter from a Fenway-adjacent crowd. The final encore “Goon Squad” brought Allen Stone back out, his loose-limbed energy matching Wulfsohn’s in a joyful clash that left everyone grinning.
It was freezing outside, but inside MGM Music Hall the air was humid with motion and warmth. Ripe’s sound has always lived somewhere between funk, pop, and catharsis, but this night was something else. It was proof of recovery, community, and their continued momentum.
Boston showed up for its hometown heroes, and Ripe met that energy with everything they had. In a genre built on feeling good, they made it feel personal.
Ripe setlist
MGM Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts (11/21/2025)
Letting Go
Flipside
Beige Suit
Say it to Me
Peacocks
Cheap Seats
Talk to the Moon
Young Tom Rose
Strangers
First Time Feeling
Brendan
Lola
Follow Through
Try Not to Look
Little Lighter
Downward
Pretty Dirty
Encores:
Play the Game
Settling
Goon Squad (w/ Allen Stone)
