As at a Bruce show, everyone in the audience seemed not
merely excited, but moved. A lot of
great live bands generate excitement: Smashing Pumpkins / Rise Against /
Alkaline Trio do it by being dark and aggressive, Wilco / Guster / Ben Folds do
it with wit and charm, and Foo Fighters / Green Day / Girl Talk do it by
launching everything possible at the audience.
Four-minute guitar riffs, four-tier t-shirt cannons, four-hundred
multi-color balloons: anything to amp up the energy.
What Mumford was able to do beyond these bands was to forge
a deeper connection. The lyrics and the
delivery had soul. You believed and everyone around you seemed
to believe that no matter how bad your day at work or home had been, you could
find hope in them. Their music would not
betray, dismay, or enslave you; it would set you free.
That might sound like hippie hogwash, but for many of the
10,000 people at the Patriot Center that night, it seemed to be true. Hark Tagunicar certainly felt it, former
student Christian Keppler who I ran into afterwards felt it, and apparently Meg
Mascelli, Kyle West, Kristin West, the Curry family, the Langemeier family, and
the Jack family did the next night.
As far as my reaction to specific parts of the show, see the
live blog below. I apologize in advance
for all the exclamation points; I hate when those are overused. None of them are put on, though – they’re all
what I genuinely felt at the time. Plus,
at a certain point, if you have to apologize for the number of exclamation
points, that’s a good problem to have…
Grade: A+
[For the hardcore fans] THE LIVE BLOG:
--- Whoa, “Babel” has no vocal falloff live. It sounds just like it does on CD / at Frost.
--- “Little Lion Man”! The mini disco lights, the full
crowd unity, the meaningful f bombs…all awesome. It’s Bruce with a banjo!!!
--- “We came to party; it seems like you did too.” Yup.
--- “Thanks for coming; we've actually been waiting all day
for this.” A day? I’ve been
waiting two years.
--- Hark: “They're really starting out strong.” Preach it, Filipino Man!
--- Even “Winter Winds,” my least favorite Mumford song, is
enjoyable. A solid change of pace.
--- I don't like “Below My Feet” either, and it's
awesome. There’s an extended acoustic
intro, added vulnerability, and the backup singer in the upper deck next to me
is a goddess! The goddess part might
sound over the top, but after countless upper deck concerts surrounded by mutes
or drunks, this girl is amazing. [I
later told the girl, a music major, how much her singing added to the
experience. She said she was
flattered.]
--- “White Blank Page.”
“A swelling rrrrrage......I will love you with my whole heart, my whole
heart, my heararararart.” The entire
arena has joined in!!!
--- “It’s good to be back in the South.” Um, Fairfax is south of England, so I guess he is correct…
--- “I Will Wait”!!
Watching the music video in class this year at the end of the Anne Frank
/ Holocaust unit meant so much. And it’s
better live. That's what's called a crescendo, folks.
--- “Lover of the Light.” Really enjoy that there aren’t cheesy background gimmicks – just music and lights. Yelling the title is so happy.
--- “Thistles and Weeds” – what a clever transition to
darkness!!! Black elixxxxxxxir flowing
through the whole thing. High point of
the show so far.
--- Hehe, clever shout out: “If you missed Haim [the opening band], it's a mistake you'll probably never live down because they're the best band in the world. To be fair, that may be hyperbole because Ben Howard [the second opener] is better.”
--- “Ghosts That We Knew.”
Wheeeeeeeeeee. [Don’t even know
what that means, but apparently I was excited.]
--- Aww, without any prompting Hark says the [somewhat
obscure] “Holland Road” sounds familiar.
The fact that he played the rhythm of the song on his scarf was equally
endearing.
--- “You guys up for a dance?” Sure, I am so ready to see
how this grace thing works. “Rollllll Away Your Stone."
--- I completely lost track of time! How is it almost over?!
--- “You're one of the best audiences we've ever played to.” Well, Southern audiences are known to be good...
--- “We love this place, whatever we are.” Lol, at least they’re owning their ignorance.
--- Who leaves the show early?! [The morons came back once they heard “Reminder” and "The Cave" start to play.]
--- The final great thing about this show? It was not perfect. They played a couple lackluster songs (“For Those Below,” “Sister,” “Take a Load Off, Annie / The Weight”) and left out
some great ones as well (“Awake My Soul,” “Broken Crown,” their cover of Bruce's "Atlantic City," “I Gave You All,”
“SIGH NO MORE”). In my mind, though,
this adds to the experience: it gives me something to look forward to the next
show. Because there will be a second show – and a third – and many more in the
future…
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