Swept Up in The Lumineers Melodic Storm

You know those drinks that everyone warns you about?

Come on, you know the kind! They got names like Corpse Reviver or Nuclear Grandma (this one may not actually be a drink but don’tcha think it should be?). They start off nice and silky smooth to the point where you think you’ve been had and then, whamo bamo slamo! Boom went the dynamite and you feel it from your pinky toe to your cerebral cortex. One second steady and the next you are knocked out of your pair of BOGO Payless. You don’t quite know where you were at, where you are now and where you are going but damn you just want to go. Damn, you just want some more.

A Lumineers concert is kinda’ like that only with less booze content( (debatable) and more whamo bamo slamo!

You want evidence, your honor? The council for Soundtrack Entertainment approaches the bench with Exhibit A.

A for freakin’ awesome!

Show opener “Sleep On The Floor”, a highlight from the band’s 2016 release Cleopatra.A spotlight unfurls down upon Wesley Schultz, now tapping into all the tenders. A slow melody floats in. Like an autumn leaf upon the final breath of summer, it creeps up behind him as the singer croons about busting out of a town “Born to Run” style before it swallows you up to the levels of zero escape.

And we build, people, and we climb.

There’s that tonal shift.

The church like setting behind Schultz is a perfect backdrop for the slow sermon that rises in intensity. Can he get an Amen? Ok, for this band, can he get a “Ho Hey”?

And he would, about 7 songs into the meandering journey through mournful lows and romping highs. It’s actually a bit comical to watch a Lumineers audience decide if they should be sitting or standing, rising and falling to the rise and fall –often a few times in the same tune. The solution, just keep standing, people. Those folks around the circular walkway stage extension know what I mean.

On tour for their third album entitled, III, Schultz and crew are roaming through the unpredictability of the style their band and others like Mumford and Sons, Of Monsters and Men and Lord Huron have helped popularize. A shot in the arm to folk (two for flinching!). Sure, you can call it folk rock but I’m rolling with Power Folk, Folkadelic, Folkenstein or Folkergized. Take that, auto-correct!

What does it all romp and roll out too, you may ponder? A Lumineers show is a musical journey crafted to grip you, shake you, turn you out running bloody and bruised trough a muddy field whilst chased by local law enforcement and then, if you shake ‘em off, you can fall into the folds of a gentle embrace where, if you’re lucky, you’ll get some rest before the violent raps on the door rip you into reality.

 

Gentle embrace: “Slow It Down”
Rap! Rap! Rap!: “Gloria”
Gentle embrace: “My Cell”
Rap! Rap! Rap!: “Cleopatra”

…and the numerous instances of both ends of the melodic storm within the same song. It’s like, folks, if you brought a towel you don’t know weather to sop off the sweat or dry your eyes with the thing. Lumineers merchandising team, I think we’re onto something here. #callme

It all makes for a concert experience that somehow combines the wild dance on the lawn feel of a festival and gentle sway in your seat small venue vibe, dishing it all out in a 2 hour plus set all over a packed arena. No, seriously, Schultz bounded off stage and took a leisurely stroll around the floor before joining fans in the 100 block of Canadian Tire Centre, a crowd eager to follow this pied piper anywhere the music took them.

And it took us everywhere!