Fans congregated to the Mann Center Sept. 9 to watch The Lumineers perform, as well as opening acts Rayland Baxter and Børns. The venue was packed with people. The sold out concert filled the seats, balcony, and lawn with adoring fans. “This is the most crowded I’ve ever seen the Mann,” said concert-goer Mike Innocenti.
Upon entering the venue, concert-goers were handed baseball cards with drawings portraying members of The Lumineers posing with a baseball bat in Citizens Bank Park. The back of the card had information about The Lumineers and the opening acts, as well as the date of the concert.
The stage was decorated with bright lights and crystals hanging from ceiling. At the front of the stage, stood a bass drum decorated with string lights and “The Lumineers” in black lettering.
The Lumineers did an excellent job giving fans a great show in such a big venue. The band made great use of the amount of space available in the venue. M, with much of the main stage was covered with the instruments played throughout the concert.. They performed seven songs on the main stage before briskly hopping off the stage. Members of the band walked through the audience, greeting fans as they went. Groups of lucky fans were able to get close enough to hug or high-five the musicians. Fans screamed and cheered as the performers walked by them. The band gathered on a smaller stage in front of the lawn and performed three songs.
Wesley Schultz, lead singer of The Lumineers, ran through the audience singing. Carefully walking on the backrests of chairs, Schultz made his way back to the main stage to perform 12 more songs. Fans sang along as the singer walked on their seats. The band finished its set with “Stubborn Love.”
“I liked when they went through the crowd and played on the stage in the back,” Innocenti said. “I’ve been to shows and sat on the lawn where you can’t see shit, so it was nice they did that.”
The band, originally formed in New Jersey, started its setlist with “Sleep on the Floor”. The Lumineers performed a mixture of songs from their 2011 self-titled album and from their latest album, Cleopatra. Fans sang and danced to songs about love, loss, and a girl named Angela who “spent her whole life running away.”
“They raise you up just to cut you down,” Schultz crooned to the Mann Center audience.
Schultz asked audiences members to put cell phones away early on in the show. After performing two songs, Schultz told fans they could record and take as many pictures as they wanted of the next song. The band performed “Ho Hey”, and then asked the audience to turn off and put away cell phones. Surprisingly, many fans obliged and refrained from taking photos and videos during the concert. Audience members were encouraged to live in the moment instead of focusing on their phones.
The band members shared some of their personal experiences that inspired the songs. Schultz told the story of finding his father’s gun shortly after he passed away. He described the way he felt and how it inspired the band’s song titled “Gun Song”.
“I don’t own a single gun,” Schultz began the song.
Neyla Pekarek played the cello on stage as Jeremiah Friates played the drums and other percussion instruments. Touring members of the band, Stelth Ulvang and Byron Isaacs, played accordion, mandolin, guitar, and piano. The Philadelphia audience enjoyed the music created, clapping along to the beat and screaming at times.
“I mostly came to this because my girlfriend wanted to,” said Innocenti. “But I ended up really enjoying the show.”
