Lumineers at Merriweather, July 26, 2013

Lumineers at Merriweather, 7-26-13

Lumineers at Merriweather, 7-26-13

Eric and I went to Lumineers at Merriweather a couple nights ago on the best weather night of the entire summer. We had seats smack dab in the middle of the audience, near the sound guys and the private booths, so an amazing view. Even better, we had some very civilized people in front of us who also preferred to sit, so we got to see a lot of the show while seated! (Except when the Lumineers singer cajoled everyone into standing in the middle of the set - damn him!)

The first opener, The Dig, was so forgettable that I had trouble remembering them mere seconds after their set ended. The second opener, Joe Pug, was a county singer-songwriter I wish I could have forgotten as quickly. Eric and I counted down the moments until his set was due to end. Dana and Sharon arrived just before Lumineers began. There were tons of empty seats near us, so they sat behind us instead of 20+ seats down the row. The real owners of the seats never showed up, so we sat together the whole time.

Lumineers where exceptionally good. They had lots of energy on stage, and even employed a cute gimmick of doing a couple songs on the side walk in front of the lawn audience. The group started as a trio and officially expanded to a 5 piece band in 2012. I think they previewed a couple new songs. The one that we all loved was this one. It featured Neyla Pekarek and Wesley Schultz in a retro-sounding duet. They also played most, if not all, of their 2012 debut album, and were kind enough to play the hits in the middle of the set, so I didn't feel bad leaving during the last song before the encore. One thing I noticed: Wesley, the lead singer, wears a hat to hide great hair, not to hide thinning hair as I assumed. His hair is so good, he doesn't look like he should be singing folk when it's uncovered. The staging consisted of 3 chandeliers and 3 small platforms for the cello, drums, and upright piano. It was spare, but worked well. The lighting was good but not over the top. Sound quality was really clear, but overly loud, as usual.