American folk-rock band
The Lumineers graced Vancouver with their presence last week during their Flowers In Your Hair Tour, selling out at the Vogue Theatre in a matter of mere hours.
All five of my housemates had purchased tickets for the show and were eagerly looking forward to same. Not normally being a huge fan of folk-rock/pop music myself, and not really having listened to the band that much before, I found myself quite caught up in the positive pre-gig excitement in my house that evening. Opening act Y La Bamba had showed the crowd a good time, but once they had wrapped up their set, the anticipation for Jeremiah Fraites Neyla Pekarek, Wesley Schultz, Stelth Ulvang, and Ben Wahamaki to begin theirs was pretty damn palpable.
Finally appearing before us in simple, no frills, country folk attire, the Lumineers were predictably, thunderously welcomed onstage by fans new and old, before breaking into first song of the night
“Submarines”. As I took in the reactions of those around, my first thought was “Is this what the sixties felt like?” Fans swayed to the music with arms linked, hugs were randomly thrown here and there and everyone joyously sang along, with smiles plastered across their faces in typical hippy dippy fashion. If someone had hit the mute button I would have wondered if Kumbaya was being revived and half the crowd was on mood-altering substances.
During the show that ensued, the talented band members took turns playing different instruments making me briefly wish I was musically blessed in any way, shape or form. Songs such as
“Big Parade”,
“Flowers In Your Hair”,
“Hey Ho” and
“Charlie Boy” (a song for which only three of the original band members remained on stage for) all took hold of the audience and reeled them in. The delectation around the theatre was as infectious as the music was, and I was quite surprised to find I had been smiling for quite some time myself.
Y La Bamba made their way back onstage towards the end of the Lumineers’ set, happily singing and clapping along with their friends and the fans. My housemates were clearly enjoying themselves also, one of them commenting on how much of a “cutie” Neyla Pekarek was.
Towards the end of the night the band played
“Darlene”. Front man Schultz
demanded the audience put their recording equipment away, to stop taking photos and to just listen to the music. Of course, it was easy to understand where he was coming from, but one would think that after spending almost $50 on a ticket to see the band perform, the audience could at least be permitted to go to the normal expected measures to remember such a good night. Forcing myself to dismiss Wesley’s uncalled for attitude for the sake of beautiful music, I let myself enjoy the final songs.
All in all, a wonderfully blissful night was had by all those in attendance at the Vogue on such a miserably cold evening, and I will definitely be paying a lot more attention to this band from here on out.
