"Is Jay-Z here tonight?" Marcus Mumford, front man of Mumford & Sons, asked jokingly between sets at the Barclays Center on Feb 12. Jay-Z and Beyonc?© might not have been there on that particular night but 19,000 other people were to watch the massively successful indie-folk band play.
Mumford & Sons opened with "Babel", the title track off their latest album, which won the Grammy for "Album of the Year" on Feb. 10. Although the band is virtually all acoustic, Mumford & Sons had no trouble filling up the massive Barclays Center with their music. Even without electric guitars, Mumford & Sons' songs have an undeniable power behind them, typically starting off quiet and building up to a dramatic, pulsating crescendo. This style of music translated well in the large space and they sounded even stronger live than they do on their album. The band proved to have good chemistry with one another and the audience, as they kept the huge crowd laughing and energized between sets.
Even the few mishaps that occurred at the concert were enjoyable. For instance, during the band's haunting "Dustbowl Dance," Mumford, who plays the drums rather than the guitar for this song, drummed so vigorously that he knocked over his microphone. This was problematic since after the musical interlude, Mumford has to end the song with the closing lyrics. The singer had to walk around the stage to the front microphone, prolonging the song, but making for a much more dramatic ending as a spotlight fell down upon him.
Despite the huge size of the arena, Mumford & Sons still attempted to make the concert an intimate experience. At one point, they came onto a small platform towards the back of the crowd, and attempted to sing in unison into one microphone. Although it could have been a very emotional, chilling technique, the rowdy crowd would not cooperate and continued cheering loudly.
Mumford & Sons has always had a rich and varied sound that is easy to pick up on even while listening to your iPod, but seeing them live shows the true diversity of instruments that go into their songs, ranging from violins and cellos to guitars and keyboards. The band performed all of their hits, such as "I Will Wait," "Little Lion Man," and they closed with "The Cave," which proved to be the perfect song to end the show.
Emily Lake can be reached at emily.lake@student.shu.edu.
