At home, my toddler son refers to which record he wants to listen to by the overall color of the covers. “Blue music” is the Bluey soundtrack, “yellow tree music” is Jack Johnson, and while “purple music” (the Weird: The Al Yankovic Story soundtrack) is his absolute favorite, “orange music” is a close second. We’ve listened to Orange Music, I mean, The Lumineers’ Brightside numerous times, so my wife and I were cautiously excited to take him to their show on his fourth birthday. Between a loud concert, staying well past his bedtime, and a whole lotta people, there was a lot that could go wrong. But the stars aligned (you could literally see them above the show) and we all unlocked a spectacular core memory.
James Bay was a perfect, albeit subdued, opener for the Lumineers. His music invites audience sing-alongs, and the crowd at Hayden Homes Amphitheatre was more than happy to join in. Within a nine-song setlist, Bay was able to get thousands of people swaying, laughing, and singing their hearts out, punctuating a couple of songs with the question, “Are you ready for the Lumineers!?” We were.
As the fog machines prepped the stage, you could see that the stage was different than most through the dim purple lights. While the pre-band songs were not what I would expect (I woke up the next morning with the TikTok remix of Rhianna’s Desperado stuck in my head, so thanks for that), the band went straight to Cleopatra, igniting a choir of thousands. The energy started with a bang and just continued to get more and more intense.
It wasn’t all fun and games, though. Frontman Wesley Schultz led the crowd through a gauntlet of emotions. Prefacing WHERE WE ARE with the story of a bad wreck in Flagstaff, the crowd sang along as if the chorus was a collective mantra, pleading “I don’t know where we are, but it will be OK.” There may or may not have been some sobs around me.
At this point, I was worried that a four-year-old might find this a tad intense but instead found him ENTHRALLED. It didn’t hurt that this show had some of the best lighting and visuals I have ever seen at a show. The level of dynamic lighting and digital graphics is usually reserved for festival headliners, but the Lumineers treated the show as if they knew every attendee would be going home saying this was one of the best shows of their lives.
It wasn’t just Schultz pulling this off. You could watch any member of the band and be treated to a helluva show. Lauren Jacobson’s gleefully played the violin alongside fellow multi-instrumentalist Stelth Ulvang. However, Ulvang was just as interested in instigating the crowd to joining the band as their one-night-only backup singers. Byron Isaacs rejected the stereotype of bass players blending into the background, standing shoulder to shoulder, and smile to smile, with the rest of the band. Brandon Miller’s guitar added another layer to the already robust sound of the band. Last, but certainly not least was founding member and percussionist Jeremiah Fraites. His sparse but powerful drumming added tremendous momentum when songs called for it, and an eerie calm when they didn’t it.
While they did this for 25 songs (shoutout to Setlist.fm), we left a little over halfway through. With his large earmuffs still adorning his head (just because I have concert-caused hearing loss doesn’t mean he has to), we took my son back to the car. Thinking he would fall asleep on the drive home, he proceeded to tell us about the show he just saw as if we weren’t there with him. When he woke up an hour earlier than normal the next day and asked to “listen to songs,” I knew that this was one of the best birthday gifts I could ever give him.