THE LUMINEEERS SETLIST

Same Old Song
Flowers in Your Hair
Angela
You’re All I Got
A.M. RADIO
Asshole
Charlie Boy
Plasticine
Donna
Ho Hey
Dead Sea
BRIGHTSIDE
Sleep on the Floor
Gloria
Keys on the Table
WHERE WE ARE
Slow It Down
Automatic
Ophelia
Big Parade
Leader of the Landslide/ You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones cover)
April
Salt of the Sea
Ghost (Justin Bieber cover)
REPRISE
Cleopatra
Stubborn Love

HIPPO CAMPUS SETLIST

Sex Tape
Madman
Paranoid
Tooth Fairy
Baseball
Where to Now?
Suicide Saturday
Way It Goes
South
Buttercup
Boys

THE LUMINEERS TOUR DATES

Jul 29 ExtraMile Arena Boise, ID
Jul 30 Utah First Credit Union Amph. West Valley City, UT
Aug 2 Empower Field at Mile High Denver, CO
Aug 5 Chase Center San Francisco, CA
Aug 6 Golden 1 Center Sacramento, CA
Aug 8 Kia Forum Inglewood, CA
Aug 9 Kia Forum Inglewood, CA
Aug 13 Hayden Homes Amphitheater Bend, OR
Aug 14 Hayden Homes Amphitheater Bend, OR
Aug 16 T-Mobile Park Seattle, WA
Aug 30 Soldier Field Chicago, IL
Sep 3 Darien Lake Amphitheater Darien Center, NY
Sep 6 Nationals Park Washington, DC
Sep 8 Budweiser Stage Toronto, ON
Sep 9 Budweiser Stage Toronto, ON
Sep 11 Highland Festival Grounds Louisville, KY
Sep 13 Comerica Park Detroit, MI
Sep 16 Coastal Credit Union Music Park Raleigh, NC
Sep 17 PNC Music Pavilion Charlotte, NC
Sep 19 Citizens Bank Park Philadelphia, PA
Sep 21 Midtown Green Richmond, VA Blossom Music Festival
Sep 23 Bon Secours Wellness Arena Greenville, SC
Sep 26 Credit One Stadium Charleston, SC
Sep 27 Enmarket Arena Savannah, GA
Sep 30 Schottenstein Center Columbus, OH
Oct 1 Van Andel Arena Grand Rapids, MI
Oct 3 Bridgestone Arena Nashville, TN
Oct 4 State Farm Arena Atlanta, GA
Oct 7 Hard Rock Live Hollywood, FL
Oct 8 Amalie Arena Tampa, FL
Oct 10 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion The Woodlands, TX
Oct 11 Dickies Arena Fort Worth, TX
Oct 14 Moody Center Austin, TX

‘Automatic’ and playing the “Same Old Song’?

Denver folk rock band The Lumineers may seem like a walking contradiction, because they clearly continue to musically evolve, and any success for the pair has not been automatic or easy; but the result of two decades of a persistent work ethic, constant touring, and a still-expanding loyal fan base.

We saw all of this and more as they filled the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City, for a show that ran the gamut of emotions, and was a true personal testament to the healing power of music.

The evening began with a short but impactful set from the darlings of St. Paul, MN, Hippo Campus, in support of their latest record, last fall’s Flood (via Psychic Hotline Records). Though most of the band retains their boyish looks, they’ve actually been around (and on our radar) for over a decade, since first meeting as students at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists.

Since then, they’ve become bonafide local heroes, still usually selling out any Twin Cities headlining show, and we last saw them live the previous summer, on the bill of the successful Minnesota Yacht Club Festival.

So, to have seen them playing on the big stage of a Midwest arena was a bit odd, and also joyful to see how far the group and their widening popularity has grown since those earlier days.

The five-piece (Jake Luppen; Nathan Stocker; Zach Sutton; Whistler Allen; DeCarlo Jackson, with Sam Calvo on keys) mostly kept to the music, knowing time was short, but managed in a mix of the recent singles (“Tooth Fairy”, “Paranoid”) from the new record, alongside older hits like “Suicide Saturday”, “Way It Goes”, and “South”, ending with 2021’s “Boys”, to all make for an entertaining and crowd-pleasing set.

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Watching Colorado Americana/anthemic folk duo The Lumineers ascend to even further heights over the last two decades has been… illuminating to say the least. When we took first notice, their initial single was gaining regular airplay on radio, they were playing small clubs like 7^th St Entry in Minneapolis and Circle Bar in New Orleans and had just gotten an opening slot with Dave Matthews Band.

In what seemed overnight, they would go to headlining arenas themselves (maybe before they were fully ready to) and have kept that momentum over the last decade plus, now adding football stadiums to the itinerary of this current tour, in support of their fifth and latest full-length, Automatic, released in February via Dualtone Records (so KC was lucky to have a ‘smaller’ arena date vs. a big stadium show).

Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites are officially just a duo (since 2018), but have been fortunate enough to have a proven and longtime touring ensemble composed of Stelth Ulvang, Brandon Miller, Lauren Jacobson and Byron Isaacs (all of whom play multiple instruments and rotate what they play throughout the set) along with them for the ride, to help strengthen the pair’s now-signature sound.

The new album’s lead single, “Same Old Song” has turned out to be the fastest-rising single of the band’s career and that’s what opened their 130 min. headlining set.

The band maintains a physically close connection with the audience and the next several songs were performed from the front edge of the stage section that jutted out into the audience (and Schultz would later end up singing “BRIGHTSIDE” from the crowd after traversing from right to left lower levels and into the GA pit area, high-fiving everyone along his route).

“Asshole” was one of those don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover lessons with Schultz admitting he’s given off that initial impression himself, and dedicated the song to those, like him, that can peel the outer veneer away, to show their true vulnerabilities.

Breakthrough single, “Ho Hey” was played relatively early, and because most of the crowd knew most of the songs word-for-word, it came off as just one sing-along of many, which in itself, isn’t a bad thing.

The group’s “Leader of the Landslide” was effectively mashed up with the Stones’ classic, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (complemented by the ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ Stones’ t-shirt Schultz was wearing) and 2019’s “Salt of the Sea” swelled with a shared musicality and Schultz sounding particularly confessional emoting its lyrics, “I’ll let the darkness swallow me whole, I need to find you, need you to know, I’ll be your friend in the daylight again.”

The moments of bombast (like the confetti cannons) were great fun, but the most impactful parts of the show were usually the most sparse- Schultz singing atop a piano while Fraites played, the tender new “You’re All I Got” which sent swaying cell phone lights in the air swaying, and most potently, when Schultz opened up about the unexpected loss of his brother Sam, just a few short weeks ago, and hearing the news when the band was thousands of miles away in Birmingham, England.

He’s really had no time to exhale, or probably properly deal with the death, being on a worldwide tour since March; so has used music as his nightly therapy, sharing his feelings with thousands of fans and pointing to the sky in tribute to his lost brother. He’s been playing a few different songs in dedication, and on this night Schultz chose maybe the most heartfelt song Justin Beiber has ever sang, “Ghost.”

The mood turned joyous again as the show was reaching its end with hits, “Cleopatra” and the show-closing “Stubborn Love” ending the evening and found multi-instrumentalist Stelth Ulvang living up to his first name- he had sneakily made his way to the back of the crowd, guitar in hand, to sing in harmony with fans as he maneuvered back up to the front floor area, to end the song while jumping along with the faithful up front.

Music can be joyful, heartfelt, uplifting, sorrowful, and therapeutic, and The Lumineers revealed all of that and more, in just over two hours, with 18,000 of their favorite people on that same rollercoaster of emotions with them – that’s what music can do.

(ALL PHOTOS BY BRANDON CLASEN / click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)