The Lumineers w/ Andrew Bird, Margaret Glaspy at Target Center, Minneapolis (19 Jan 2017)

The Lumineers are burning brighter than ever, as evidenced by their recent show in front of 10,000 at the Target Center in Minneapolis —how much brighter?- consider that they played the 7^th St Entry across the very street, less than five years ago, and now were entertaining an audience over forty times in size.

The evening’s eclectic three-act lineup started with Margaret Glaspy, a California singer-songwriter based in New York, in support of her debut full-length, Emotions and Math (ATO Records) and backed by two sidemen for her brief thirty-minute set. 

After missing her on the small stage at last fall’s Festival Palomino, we were eager to see her live and the jangly ‘Situation’ and verse on song ‘Memory Street’, “Walk down memory street, why remember, all the times I took forever to forget?” made her low-key set worth the wait.  Reserved and somewhat demure, Glaspy avoided any talk between songs until the end, thanking the crowd and local station The Current, for their airplay. 

A musician’s musician, baroque folk/pop artist Andrew Bird, who considers the Twin Cities a kind of second home, made the most of his forty-five minute middle set, to satisfy longtime fans and introduce himself to many in the audience seeing him for the first time.  Bird is still in support of last April’s Are You Serious (Loma Vista Records) and played an abbreviated set, similar to last September’s Festival Palomino outing. 

Opening with the mesmerizing lead single from the new album ‘Capsized’, Bird and band deftly moved through tunes old and new, filled with his trademark violin work and string plucking, as well as plenty of whistling. 

“I’m no stranger to this town” Bird said introducing himself, mentioning he recorded ‘Plasticities’ in North Minneapolis and saying he was at the Turf Club the previous night seeing a local band. Ending his set with 2005’s ‘Fake Palindromes’, it was plain he’s great, but better seen playing a full set in an environment where people will listen more intently, like a church.

After a set change, The Lumineers didn’t even wait for their intro music to finish, as the curtain fell and found the band playing along to the end of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’.  The core Denver trio, Wesley Schultz (vocals, guitar) , Jeremiah Fraites (drums, piano) and cellist/backing vocalist Neyla Pekarek (who joined in 2010) doubled their size for the live show, with three sidemen joining on, in support of second major label full-length, Cleopatra (Dualtone/Dine Alone Records). 

2013’s ‘Submarines’ started their eighty-minute set, singer Schultz asking “are you out there Minneapolis?!” after a verse, to screams and wails in response from the mostly millennial-aged crowd.  Surprising was watching them knock out several hits within the first fifteen minutes, as breakout song ‘Ho Hey’ was played third, followed by current single, ‘Cleopatra’.

“This is a really big room… one of the biggest we’ve played”, Schultz said just over twenty minutes in and recalling how they used to play a lot of house shows, wanted to replicate that intimacy as he and band then moved to a center B-stage, for a more sparse four-song mini set.  On ‘Where the Skies Are Blue’ Pekarek took over part of the vocals and ‘Charlie Boy’ was written for Schultz’ late uncle, lost in Vietnam.

The sound grew bigger on ‘Sleep on the Floor’ as the band returned to the main stage, with its lighted groups of organ pipes looking like stalactites and diamond shaped screen showing patterns and obscure images.  The mix sounded surprisingly crisp from the floor, as Schultz’ voice and all instruments were clearly heard and rightly prioritized. 

Arena folk songs like the new ‘Angela’ came off particularly nice, with Shultz slipping in a “I didn’t vote for him” on ‘Big Parade’, to cheers.  No sophomore slump here, as lead single from the new album, ‘Ophelia’ topped both alternative charts on Billboard, and had the 10,000 strong, singing right along, as Schultz dashed out along the right side of the floor to high-five fans. 

The encore would start quietly, with Schultz coming out alone, putting in a plug for a family salvage yard just outside of Mankato, before playing ‘Long Way’, which was inspired by his father’s cancer battle. 

“…want to play a song from somebody else from Minnesota”, Schultz said as the band rejoined him for a tempo-changed, piano-charged version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, almost reinventing it completely. 

A bevy of confetti showered the crowd on finale, ‘Stubborn Love’ as the crowd sang along with the chorus, with the group taking bows as the Springsteen outro music ushered them from the stage. 

True to their name, The Lumineers continue burning brightly on their meteoric ride, as evidenced by capacity arena crowds and even an invitation from U2, to open a leg on their upcoming tour. Their biggest song-to-date starts, “I’ve been trying to do it right” and from the crowd reception on this night, mission accomplished.