The Lumineers at Target Center, Minneapolis (05 31 13)

poster courtesy of ericawilliamsillustration

Tour Dates

06/01/13 96.5 KRBZ Buzz Under the Stars
06/04/13 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
06/06/13 Clarkston, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
06/07/13 Canandaigua, NY Constellation Brands
06/08/13 Mountain Jam Festival
06/09/13 Governors Ball Music Festival
06/12/13 Portsmouth, VA Ntelos Wireless
06/13/13 Cary, NC Koka Booth Amph
06/14/13 Charleston, SC Family Circle
06/15/13 Bonnaroo Music
06/28/13 Glastonbury Festival
06/30/13 Open Air St. Gallen
07/05/13 Rock Werchter Festival
07/06/13 Festival Beauregard
07/08/13 Montreux Jazz Festival
07/13/13 T In The Park
07/25/13 Floydfest
07/26/13 Columbia, MD Merriweather
07/27/13 XPoNential Music Festival
07/28/13 Newport Folk Festival
07/31/13 Edgefest
08/03/13 Lollapalooza
08/04/13 Osheaga Festival
08/23/13 Leeds Festival
08/25/13 Reading Festival

Within a span of a year, The Lumineers went from playing the tiny 250-capacity 7th Street Entry to the nearly 20k-capacity at the Target Center, in Minneapolis. To best sum it up, singer Wesley Schultz said that they played the 7th Street Entry and dreaming of the day that they can play the main First Avenue room, but only to go beyond that to the basketball stadium that the Target Center is known for, “When I was young, I wanted to be a basketball player. Never would imagine I’d step on the courts like this.”

Opening up the show were two of the Lumineers’ favorite bands: J Roddy Walston and The Business and Cold War Kids. Apologies to both bands, photography access was limited to just the Lumineers, per the venue’s request.

J. Roddy Walston played piano for his entire set, his band The Business did a great job in playing and singing backup. They sang rock and roll music like “Full Growing Man”, “Don’t Break The Needle”, and “Sweatshop”. The latter required a singalong/audience participation.

We’ve covered Cold War Kids a few times, the latest was just last month. I didn’t attend that last show, but I am assuming setlist was similar, but probably truncated due to opening slot time limit. They seem pleased to be playing new songs like “Miracle Mile”, “Loner Phase”, and “Jailbirds”, from Dear Miss Lonelyhearts (Downtown Records) . I think where the band did the best are with the older/popular songs, including “Hang Me Up To Dry”, “Something Is Not Right With Me”, “Hospital Beds”, and their set closer, “Saint John”.

As for the Lumineers, no surprises here: they basically played their entire debut album. Setlist was similar to their 2012 set, but obviously tracks were switch around and they added a new song called “Duet” (obviously a duet with Lumineers’ cellist Neyla Pekarek).

Every song played (“Submarines”, “I Ain’t Nobody’s Problem”, “Flowers in Your Hair”, “Ho Hey”, “Classy Girls”, “Charlie Boy”, set closer “Morning Song”, etc.) were all sung along by the audience, who clearly know and love the debut album.

The best song, personally for me, was the Bob Dylan cover, “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. Other highlight was when the band entered in the sea of people to play a few songs. Singer Wesley Schultz was clearly upset about all the cellphones that immediately went up to record the band as soon as they entered the crowd. Shultz reminded people “no audio or video recordings are allowed” to deaf ears. In the end, Shultz just said, “fine”, and started “Elouise” and “Gun Song”.

Encores were: “Flapper Girl”, Talking Heads’ “This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)”, and closing out the encore was “Big Parade”.

So, it’s official. The Lumineers are massive. This is pretty amazing for a band that started playing to a handful of people just last year. I’m looking forward to see how the band will grow over the next few years.