THE WONDER YEARS WITH THE LITTLE KRUTA STRING ENSEMBLE FEATURING KEVIN DEVINE
June 5, 2025
Concert Review
By: Maggie Martinez – Photographer / Writer
On Saturday night, The Ritz Ybor shed its usual high-energy concert persona and took on a different role: part concert hall, part therapy session, part living room. The Wonder Years brought their Burst & Decay tour to Tampa with the help of the Little Kruta String Ensemble and Kevin Devine, creating a night of reimagined songs and a connection between artist and audience that was both immediate and profound.
As I arrived at the doors, a line had already formed, wrapping around the venue toward the stretch of tour buses out back. Outside, the tour photographer and social media coordinator was interviewing the first person in line, a fan proudly announcing that this was their fifth time seeing The Wonder Years live. That kind of dedication set the tone for the evening; while a stripped-down, reimagined setlist might not be what every fan of this rock band typically signs up for, you wouldn’t know it by the turnout. The crowd showed up early and in full force, ready to embrace this more intimate and vulnerable side of The Wonder Years.
Kevin Devine
Opening the evening was Kevin Devine, who walked onstage alone with just an acoustic guitar and a microphone. He spoke gratitude into the air for being apart of this tour, to the friends who brought him on it, and to everyone in the venue. As he played his first song, a newer track called “Negative Conviction,” his lighting was anything but subtle. Bright, flashing beams moved erratically across the stage and into the crowd, a stark contrast to his controlled vocals and strumming, but perhaps a compliment to the nature of the song itself.
After wrapping the tune, he joked that the lights made him feel like a cat chasing laser pointers. It took a few songs for the lights to even out, but even amidst the chaos of the lighting, Devine’s presence remained centered. His performance was a masterclass in quiet intensity. Between songs, he shared stories about playing polarizing sets to uncertain crowds and how winning over even a small percentage of people in an audience, maybe 40 out of a thousand, made it all worthwhile. That kind of self-aware humility resonated deeply.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Kevin perform before, and despite knowing what I was in for, I couldn’t help but stand, jaw agape, for much of his set. With big stomping movements across the stage, incredible vocal control with sustained notes throughout, and even full-on yelling during his powerful performance of Brother’s Blood, his set felt much bigger than just a man and his guitar.
Judging by the cheers and quiet nods around the venue throughout and the absolute ovation at the end of his set, it was clear that this was a night where he didn’t just win a few people over, he had the whole room.
Band Members:
Kevin Devine – Vocals / Guitar
SETLIST:
Negative Conviction
God Is In The Numbers
Laughing In The Ambulance Again
Albatross
Carnival
Another Bag of Bones
Just Stay
Cotton Crush
Brother’s Blood
The Wonder Years & Little Kruta String Ensemble
The Wonder Years and the Little Kruta String Ensemble took to the stage, the setup looking more like a cozy living room than a concert venue. They opened with “Doors I Painted Shut,” from The Hum Goes On Forever, and right away, the vocal effects on the track were something transcendent, weaving around Dan Campbell’s voice like fog settling over a familiar street. Floor and table lamps glowed warmly around armchairs and couches, lighting up as their respective coordinating musicians walked out and sat next to them, setting the tone for what would be an intimate and emotionally complex night. Including the full band and string ensemble, nine musicians filled the stage, creating a sense of closeness.
The set drew from their three volume Burst & Decay EP trilogy, including songs pulled from across their catalog and reinterpreted with stunning detail. Rather than simply playing acoustic versions of fan favorites, many of these renditions had been fully restructured, thoughtfully arranged. The strings didn’t just decorate the songs, they became central to their emotional weight.
With their second song, “I Don’t Like Who I Was Then,” the stage suddenly came alive. Lights brightened, casting a glow over the band and the string ensemble. The song was one of my favorite arrangements from the Burst & Decay series, and hearing it live felt almost surreal. The crowd seemed to be in the same boat, caught between wanting to be softer and respectful of the beauty of the arrangement, while wanting to yell the lyrics at the top of their lungs, and during the final chorus of the song, the latter emotion won out.
Throughout the night, the Little Kruta String Ensemble stood as a powerful and fully integrated part of the performance. Rather than serving as a soft backdrop, the ensemble became an equal voice in the music, weaving through the instrumentation with a bold presence. The arrangement allowed the strings to interact with the band in a way that felt like a conversation; layered, dynamic, and emotionally charged. It was less about support and more about partnership, with each section of each song revealing just how seamlessly the ensemble and the band could move together.
Kristine Kruta, the ensemble’s cellist, founder, and namesake, added yet another dimension with her vocals, which complemented Campbell’s voice beautifully. Their harmonies brought a quiet strength to the performance, enhancing its most intimate moments with grace and warmth.
Midway through the show, Campbell paused to acknowledge just how different this performance was from a typical Wonder Years set. He wasn’t wrong—but that difference is what made it feel so unique. These aren’t just quieter versions of louder songs. They’re deeper. More mature. They reflect where the band—and many of its fans—are now.
A highlight of the night was the live performance of “Junebug,” the only new song written for Burst & Decay Vol. III. Campbell introduced the track with a deeply personal story about his son, who underwent surgery as a newborn and is now a healthy three-year-old. You could feel the stillness fall over the crowd as he spoke, not the bored silence of disinterest, but the respectful hush of shared humanity. He spoke about the fear of having your child ripped from you and likened it to particular current events, standing in solidarity with those experiencing the same pain across the world right now. When the song began, it felt like a lullaby stitched together from unconditional love, fear, and healing.
But the magic of the night wasn’t just in the new arrangements or backstory. It was in the connection between the band, the strings, and the audience. Songs like “The Ocean Grew Hands to Hold Me” hit with new resonance – less angst, more ache. And yet, the crowd still sang along. Tears welled in unexpected moments, people held hands, strangers leaned into one another.
Band Members:
Dan Campbell – Vocals
Casey Cavaliere – Guitar / Backing Vocals
Matt Brasch – Guitar / Backing Vocals
Josh Martin – Bass / Backing Vocals
Nick Steinborn – Keyboard / Piano / Guitar
Mike Kennedy – Drums / Percussion
Kristine Kruta – Cellist / Arranger / Composer
Lucy Voin – Violinist
Sarah Fazendin – Violinist
SETLIST:
Doors I Painted Shut
I Don’t Like Who I Was Then
Oldest Daughter
Dismantling Summer
Cigarettes & Saints
Thanks For The Ride
Teenage Parents
Washington Square Park
Wyatt’s Interlude
Wyatt’s Song (Your Name)
Coffee Eyes
The Devil in My Bloodstream
Cul-De-Sac
You in January
Cardinals
A Song For Ernest Hemingway
Hoodie Weather
Junebug
Passing Through a Screen Door
There, There
The Ghosts of Right Now
The Ocean Grew Hands to Hold Me
Came Out Swinging
With a crowd surf under rainbow lights and a disco ball and the crowd yelling the chorus of the song “Came Out Swinging” for the umpteenth time, hoping it would never end, the show was over as quickly as it had began. If you’ve followed The Wonder Years for any stretch of time, you know that this tour is more than a rework, it’s a collective experience. It proves that evolution doesn’t mean leaving anything behind, but rather returning to it with new eyes, deeper empathy, and a broader sound.
The chemistry between The Wonder Years and Little Kruta felt effortless. You wouldn’t expect a rock band from Philly and a New York-based string ensemble to share such synchronicity, but together, they’ve crafted something deeply moving and unmistakably sincere. It’s a rare sort of magic that makes you hear even your favorite songs like it’s the first time again.
The Burst & Decay tour wasn’t just a show – it was a shared emotional convergence that lingered long after the lights came back on.
The Wonder Years:
Little Kruta String Ensemble:
Kevin Devine:
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