Something has been missing in the Muncie music scene over the last 18 months: Arrah Fisher's smile.
Friday night at Doc's Music Hall, Fisher took the stage with her band, Arrah and the Ferns, for one last reunion show. Her smile radiated from the stage as a near-capacity audience danced and sang throughout the folk-pop quartet's hour-long performance.
All the hallmarks were there: As he played guitar, Carl Stovner spun around the stage like a manic top. Dave Segedy kept things moving with steady drumbeats. Joey Patrick underscored the most melodious moments with dulcet swoops from his bass guitar. And Fisher, her smile as friendly and inviting as ever, singing the songs that made them one of the hottest bands in the state.
As the Ferns launched into "Apple for Evan," the second song of the night, the audience sang along, their collective voices nearly overpowering the band. Afterwards, Fisher stood stunned.
"We love you, Muncie. You guys are awesome," she said. "I'm so proud to be from Muncie right now."
Even Segedy, always stoic as he pounds away, smiled.
Several days before the Indiana reunion tour, Fisher, Stovner and Patrick played shows outside the state. Fisher said they had a strong turnout in Chicago and in Grand Rapids, Mich.
"At that show there were a lot of kids who came. They got fake IDs and snuck in," she said. "They were so sweet."
While Fisher said it had been great playing music alongside Stovner and her other bandmates again, a lot of stress has accompanied the tour, such as relearning how to perform alongside each other with little practice and experiencing frequent technical problems.
"But I feel like the people who come out to see us already know us and we've won their hearts and they've won ours so they were very forgiving," she said.
Earlier in the evening, the quartet played an acoustic set in a packed Village Green Records. Travis Harvey, the store's owner, has witnessed the evolution of the Muncie music scene over the years and watched as old bands influenced the next generation of musicians.
"When Arrah, Carl and Dave began playing together, they in turn influenced a lot of other kids that are still maybe in town," he said, naming currents acts such as The Bonesetters or Joel Levi as musicians who picked up the Ferns' baton. "An opportunity to have a reunion show is important to a number of people in the community because maybe some of these kids were influenced by their shows."
Jeremy Bauer is a member of The Bonesetters and was at the show Friday night. While Bauer feels the Ferns were not a direct influence on the band's music, he said going to the shows before the break up offered him an entry into the Muncie music scene and an opportunity to meet people he would eventually play music with.
"I really didn't think they'd get back together the way they sort of split across the country, so it was sort of surreal, but they sounded great and it felt a bit like the old times again," Bauer said of the performance. "I was really excited to see how packed it was; ... With that much excitement and with so many people joined in one place for a common love like that, it was a great experience to be a part of."
Following Friday's performance, Fisher and Stovner will continue to perform as a duo, playing shows around Pennsylvania and New York throughout the month. The two bandmates moved to Philadelphia following the breakup, but Stovner returned home to Idaho earlier this year after the death of his father. For Fisher, playing music with Stovner after a long separation has been especially pleasing.
"He is my best friend and you search for someone to connect with and get your music," Fisher said. "He gets what I write and for some reason he loves the songs I write and he believes in them. And he can help me create them even better."
But Friday night, it wasn't just Stovner who believed in the music. The audience waved goodbye to the Ferns once more with rousing sing-alongs to "Bernadette" and "Tokyo, Tokyo." Afterwards, Fisher stood alone, overwhelmed by the enthusiasm her fans showed.
"I expected a good crowd but I did not expect that," she admitted.
And as she moved through the bar greeting old and new friends, her smile never faded.
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