We went to see Mumford and Sons in Hoboken, NJ, on August 1, 2012.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/mumford-sons-begin-u-s-tour-in-hoboken/
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2012/08/hobokens_pier_a_welcomes_mumfo.html
15,000 souls gathered to chant the band's classics, such as "Little Lion Man", "The Cave", and others.
The young men hailing from Great Britain certainly left nothing to be desired, in the first concert of their North American Tour. Now, what was particularly interesting, is that they chose a venue that never held a concert before. Pier A, in Hoboken, is a pedestrian-style, paved, walkway Pier on the Hudson river, that may be used for fairs, and similar activities. I have heard from other sources that some of the other stops that they are making on this tour may lean on the same ideas - to use a venue that has not been used before. I have not formally confirmed this before, but I do wonder whether they are pursuing some sort of pioneering in this venture.
The concert was just an all-around fantastic concert. With sunset-New York skyline in the backdrop, bathed in tawny glints amidst the indigo buildings, the stage held two opening acts - Dawes, another great, folky band, and Aaron Embry, also a wonderful artist
The Pier was set up appropriately. Plenty of beer stands with equally plentiful beer waiting lines. The port-a-potties were also abundant. All in all, I would call the management of the concert as "done right".
When M&S took the stage, the crowd pressed up a bit closer. It also got denser. It appeared that plenty of people disregarded the opening acts.
Now, I said in the beginning that the band left nothing to be desired and I meant it. They are as impressive and accurate live as they are on the albums. I did not really know that they are all multi-instrumentalists. Marcus' strumming technique and singing passion comes through much more powerfully live. He played his usual Martin dreadnought (not the slope-shoulder D-18VS which I really wanted to see in action) vigorously, to say the least, while tapping the kick pedal for the bass drum or for the tambourine. In several songs he traded it for a mandolin, and a full drum set! He was the only one to step behind the drum set, all while singing. Honestly, his Irish- or Bluegrass-style strumming is quite impressive on the album and the YouTube videos, but I had no idea he would execute it so perfectly live. It was spot-on.
Ben Lovett, the keyboardist, picked up Marcus' guitar when the latter drummed.
Winston Marshall, the all-too-famous-banjolin player did not bring the banjolin this time, much to my disappointment. He, instead, used a regular banjo, and played lap-slide guitar and acoustic guitar.
Ted Dwane rocked the upright bass like a madman. He also played eletric bass on one or two songs. At some moment, I cannot recall the song, he picked his entire upright bass up on his shoulder, and rocked maniacally. They delivered a live show worth 15,000 people.
The band played a mixture of songs from the "Sigh No More" album, their EP, and even a song from the new album. I have the entire "Sigh No More" memorized, and at least four or five songs I did not recognize. "Little Lion Man" was played early on, so was "I Gave you All". "The Cave", of course, was saved for the encore, which drove the crowd mad. Just as Marcus announced that they really have to leave the stage, because it is 10PM, and the city ordinance does not allow them to proceed further, fireworks lit up the sky over the Hudson. It was magical.
Not having heard "Feel the Tide" was a bit of a disheartening for me. I love that song and it was from the EP. However, t'was nothing to diminish the value of this show.
The tickets had gone sold out within days at $55. We waited too long and missed out on that. In the very last minute we decided that this show was too much to miss out on it and picked up a few from Stubhub for 2.5 times that cost. Worth every penny.
Pictures are HORRIBLE. Sorry. It's what I could grab with the iPhone from afar.
