Alive At Five

If you are a big fan of outdoor summer concerts, then you should head over to Stamford Downtown! In the months of July and August, they will be holding their annual Alive at Five summer concert series. 

The concert series was held at Columbus Park, until 2021, when it was moved to Mill River Park. In my opinion, moving it to this new location was a smart decision, as Columbus Park is smaller and more crowded, while Mill River Park is bigger, and has an entire section away from the crowd where you can still hear the music perfectly. 

The series itself started in 1997, and only had local artists that were presumably cover bands. This continued in 1998 and 1999, but one group that they had all three years was a group called Sharkey & the Unknowns. The year 2000 was the first year that they had well known artists, as they had Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and they had G.E. Smith, lead guitarist for Hall & Oates and former bandleader of the Saturday Night Live band. This continued over the next several years, as G.E. Smith returned to perform the following year in 2001, and in 2002, they got rock band America.

The year 2003 was when there was a shift in the performers, as most of them seemed to be known artists. That year they got the Tom Tom Club, G.E. Smith returned for a third time, and they got legendary doo wop group The Drifters. This continued in 2004, as they got Chuck Negron from the rock band Three Dog Night, blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa, and Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals. They continued this even more in 2005, as they got Brian Howe from the rock band Bad Company, the rock band Spin Doctors, and 1960s rock band Jay and the Americans. 

In 2006, they got even bigger names, as they got G.E. Smith to perform for a fourth time, and they also got The Bacon Brothers and Hootie & the Blowfish to close out the series that year, which is in my opinion when they started having the biggest performer that they got to be the final show. In 2007, they got more big names like The Neville Brothers, Colin Hay from Men at Work, and Don McClean. In 2008, they got even more big names to fill the lineup, such as Blues Traveler, Blind Melon, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and Boyz II Men. In 2009, they got even more big names that filled up almost the entire lineup, such as Smash Mouth, Gilby Clarke from Guns N’ Roses, rock band Better Than Ezra, rock band Tonic, Bo Bice from American Idol, and Sugar Ray. 

In 2010, they went even further with their lineup, getting rock bands like Gin Blossoms, Soul Asylum, Rusted Root, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, country singer Uncle Kracker, and legends like George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic and The Beach Boys. In 2011, they had their biggest lineup at that point in time, as they had Third Eye Blind, Lee DeWyze who had just won “American Idol,” MC Hammer, Dennis DeYoung from Styx, rock band Vertical Horizon, soft rock singer Five for Fighting, and The B-52s. The next year, 2012, was not the biggest year lineup wise, but they did have some artists like Los Lonely Boys, Hot Chelle Rae, and Foreigner. 2013 was almost the same as the previous year, but the lineup did include Wynonna Judd, Bret Michaels, Matt Nathanson, and Michael McDonald from The Doobie Brothers. 

The 2014 lineup was also stacked with big names, as they had KC & The Sunshine Band, Barenaked Ladies, a massive three artist show called the Under the Sun Tour, which featured Blues Traveler, Smash Mouth, and Sugar Ray. After that, they had Ed Kowalczyk, the former lead singer of the rock band Live, singer and rapper Jake Miller, and they finished this season off with The Beach Boys. In 2015, they got even more big names, as they got Michael Franti and Spearhead, Boyz II Men, rock band Guster, pop singer Andy Grammer, rock band Sister Hazel, and they finished the season off with reggae singer Shaggy, who I should have gone to see. Despite how successful the event was over all these years, there was an issue that they always struggled with, which was underage drinking. To fight this issue, they made the hard decision to raise the age limit for the event, so now no one younger than 21 can go to any of the shows. 

This rule was enforced in 2016, which is also when they experienced an even bigger change in artists that performed at the event. They no longer focused on getting artists that people of all ages would know, now they got artists with the audience of young adults in mind. That year, they got rock band O.A.R., boy band Hanson, rock band Third Eye Blind was back again, pop rock singer Eric Hutchinson, country singer Easton Corbin, and they were going to finish the season off with CeeLo Green, but unfortunately his show got rained out. In 2017, they got another incredible lineup for the season, as they got CeeLo Green to finally perform, reggae singer Ziggy Marley, rock band Sugar Ray was back again for a third time, pop singer Rachel Platten, rock band Plain White T’s, and pop singer and “American Idol” winner Phillip Phillips. In 2018, they had yet another impressive lineup, as they kicked off the season with pop singer Gavin DeGraw, followed that up with a double header consisting of local singer Sammy Adams and reggae and rap singer Sean Kingston, followed that up with a triple header that consisted of the rock bands Gin Blossoms, Tonic, and Vertical Horizon, all of which had performed at the event before. The final two performers that year were rock band Lifehouse and rock band Neon Trees. Their lineup in 2019 was even more impressive, as they had Shaggy for a second time, boy band 98 Degrees, the Pop 2000 Tour, which featured many pop stars from the early 2000s and was hosted by Lance Bass from *NSYNC. They continued by having Travie McCoy from Gym Class Heroes the following week, and finished the season with T-Pain, who had won The Masked Singer earlier that year.

The event was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but it returned in 2021, when it moved to the bigger Mill River Park. The number of shows in the season was also reduced to four, but they were still able to have an incredible lineup, as they got singer and musician Jon Batiste, a double header with local singer Chelsea Cutler and Jeremy Zucker, rock band Third Eye Blind returned for a third time, and they finished this season with rapper and actor Ludacris. They continued with elevating their lineup in 2022, as they had rock band All-American Rejects, which I went to listen to for a while, and I thought they were great. After that, they had pop rock band X Ambassadors. The week after that, they were going to have pop rock band Walk the Moon, but one of the members tested positive for Covid a day before the show. They finished the season with rapper and actor T.I. The most recent season in 2023 also had an amazing lineup, as they had rapper Lil Jon, rock band All Time Low, indie pop band Fitz and the Tantrums, and they finished the season with a double header of R&B singers Ginuwine and Ashanti. 

This shows how the event has grown from having a few local artists to having famous headliners over the course of 26 years. In seeing the lineups over the years, I have noticed that I enjoy coming up with artists that would potentially do the event in the future, so keep your eyes opened for a specific type of post that I might do throughout the year. 

While the dates for the event this year have not been announced, it can be assumed that it will be on Thursdays and go from the middle of July to the beginning of August. When this year’s lineup gets announced, I will share all the information with you, and I hope that you will all want to go!