Photos by Nathan Rifkin
I’ve gotten extremely lucky with seating at the past couple of concerts I have attended. As I made my way to the floor of the Forum, I took a look around, remembering my last visit: almost a year ago, for a wonderful Lord Huron concert.
Mumford & Sons came on at 9:15, and played a solid back-to-back two-hour set on an incredible stage decked out with a multitude of lights and pyrotechnics surrounding their talented group of ten. The band opened with the heartwarming “Run Together,” from their new album Prizefighter, before diving into classics like “Little Lion Man” and “Believe,” which fans joined in for.
One of my favorite moments was seeing a woman cheer up and down my aisle, FaceTiming her friend for “Rubber Band Man” (understandably, it is also one of my favorites from Prizefighter, along with the album’s title track). Between songs, Marcus Mumford admitted, “This may be my favorite arena to play in,” which pleased the crowd.
Teasing concertgoers, the band suddenly left the stage at 10:10, and people looked around confused, but not for too long before the trio of Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane popped up in the middle of the floor. They sang huddled around one mic, accompanied by only one guitar, highlighting the natural harmonic blend between their voices.
Their first intimate song concluded, and Mumford joked, “For a bunch of Californians, you did a good job shutting the fuck up! The bad news is this one is even quieter.” Fans laughed, then a fiddle joined them on stage for the delicate “Clover,” before one more guitar hopped up for throwback “White Blank Page.”
Mumford & Sons made their way back to the main stage, only for Marcus Mumford to depart again, running through the audience. He even made it to the nosebleeds to hug a fan while singing. It was funny to watch security try to catch up with him—it almost seemed Mumford was trying to escape them…
As the band journeyed through their discography, they made it evident how natural their songwriting is. All of their songs are incredibly hooky, with the crowd singing along for most of them—a rare occurrence at a concert I haven’t experienced in a while. Towards the end of the night, they played one of the first songs I ever heard of theirs, “The Cave,” before their opener, Sierra Ferrell, hopped up with them to sing along for “Here,” the first track on the new album.
Of course, the setlist wouldn’t be complete without the famous “The Banjo Song,” straight into “I Will Wait For You.” I am so grateful that I got to attend the tail end of this memorable Prizefighter tour, and I am sure we will continue to hear more great tunes from this band soon.
Listen to Prizefighter here!
