Colorado folk-rock band The Lumineers brought Cardiff Castle to life on Friday night with a high-powered performance packed with guitar-driven ballads. Promoting their most recent album, BRIGHTSIDE, which dropped in early 2022, the tour marks the band's first time back on the road since the Covid-19 outbreak. In March 2020 the pandemic forced them to postpone and cancel a number of gigs promoting their third studio album, aptly named III.
But under the open sky at Cardiff Castle - their biggest Welsh gig to date - the Lumineers gave no indication there had been a long hiatus. For more stories like this subscribe to the WalesOnline What's On newsletter here.
Vocalist and guitarist Wesley Schultz launched into the title track BRIGHTSIDE to thousands of screaming fans, followed by chart-topping hit Cleopatra from their second album of the same name. Not holding back their crowd favourites for late in the set, they burst into Ho, Hey, the 2011 song that shot the original two-piece group from Denver into stardom. It's risky business to front-load a set with the hits but The Lumineers did just that - and it didn't fail them.
"This is our first time in this beautiful city," Wesley said, inciting cheers and whoops from thousands of fans. Head to toe in black and donning a brown cowboy hat he danced around the stage, bringing the energy to the six-piece outfit. But the front man wasn't the only star of the show. Drummer and pianist Jeremiah Fraites, and the other bandmates, spent almost as much time at the centre of the stage highlighting every element of the music, including the violin, tambourine, and piano.
Leading into AM Radio, one of three singles from BRIGHTSIDE, Wesley asked the crowd to chime in: "The only words you have to remember are: 'I couldn't give you up'," he told fans, referring to the chorus. The band played their hearts out with Wesley at one point dropping to his knees in an emotionally-charged delivery.
The folk-rockers continued with over a dozen more songs interspersing BRIGHTSIDE's newer fan favourites, like Where We Are and Remington, with plenty of older numbers including Ophelia and Stubborn Love.
Fans dutifully belted out lyric after lyric proving The Lumineers aren't just adored Stateside. And though it wasn't a sold-out gig the energy-packed performance was no doubt a good warm-up for the group as they head to London on July 8 for their biggest UK show to date.
