Mumford and Sons, The Maccabees, Son Little at Butler's Barracks, Niagara-on-the-Lake

Written by Christina Scheuermann.

With a mild breeze in the air and a lot of plywood on the ground, this rare and highly anticipated concert started off with Son Little, originally from California. The lead singer boasting a cool raspy voice with the music being a creativesound combining the early 70’s, a hint of reggae and blues, mixed with rock. They were received well by the crowd.

The Maccabees opened for Mumford & Sons, presented with loud cheers and a large amount of crowd participation. Described by Mumford as one of their favorite bands in the world, and calling them “heroes of ours, now friends of ours”. They invited Marcus Mumford onto the stage with them to play their last two songs, delighting the anxious audience with their unique sound.

Smoking a cigarette, Marcus Mumford walked out on stage to a crowd of 30,000 adoring fans at Butler’s Barracks in Niagara-on-the-Lake. With a simple “well, hello” he and the band went straight into Lovers Eyes, one of the amazing tracks off of Mumford and sons popular album Babel. The crowd was immediately in a trance, singing every word like they were at a sing-along. The song like many Mumford hits, starts off slow and ends with the band jamming in full volume. Closing out the song out Marcus yelled “we all came to Niagara for a F@%#ing party!” The audience roared and the band started playing, I Will Wait, nominated for several grammy’s and a huge hit among Mumford fans. The fans thoroughly enjoyed every note, dancing wildly and chanting every word of the tune, as they continued to do so throughout the entire show.

Mumford and Sons followed the classic with Snake Eyes, Wilder Mind and Only Love, all new songs from their album Wilder Mind, which was released May 4^th, but by listening to the crowd, you would never know it, as they knew every note and yelled them out in synchronicity with the band, who almost sounded better live, if that’s possible.

Between songs Ben Lovett advised the fans that they love playing Canada better than any other country in the world, which excited the crowd even more as Mumford carried on with both new and old tracks combined. The extremely popular band from the UK played 20 songs throughout the night, with over half of them being from their newest album, and although the sound is a bit different from their past albums, the fans loved them just the same, possibly some, even more.

After Just Smoke, which opening band The Maccabees joined in on, Marcus Mumford advised “We’re warming up now”! He then asked the crowd to light up their phones to make it pretty and everyone obediently proceeded, lighting up the night as the group played Believe, the first single off of Wilder Mind, released March 9^th and clearly already a huge favorite with the audience, as their phones lit up the night and voices filled the air.

Every musician on the stage is incredibly talented, switching instruments throughout the performance with ease, continuing with electric energy during every song, as if it was their last, but one of the most powerful songs of the night, Dust Bowl Dance, off of Sigh No More, Mumfords’ first album, was definitely the most intense! The song started slowly and built up into a massive frenzy, the giant screens showed jagged flashes of one incredibly talented performer to the next with the beat, as the song climaxed with fireworks and Marcus, who kicked the drums across the stage excitedly, as the crowd went equally insane, bringing the groups set to an awesome end!

Mumford spoke quite a bit throughout the show and expressed gratitude, saying things like “Canada is a f@%ing riot” and then touched the fans with “we’re just amazed that you all came tonight, It’s unbelievable, we’re mindblown”. He displayed his humor as well, and expressed how it would be quite funny to see a massive fight between the Canadians and Americans, then later on teased fans about their signs, saying to one person “better get a better sharpie man!”

After their three song encore, consisting of Hot Gates, Little Lion Man and The Wolf, Mumford stood out on the stage and advised everyone that besides London and Bonnaroo, this was the biggest show they’ve ever headlined, and expressed heartfelt gratitude. After seeing the show myself, I can clearly see why so many people attended the addictive show. Mumford and Sons are a truly incredible and appreciative band, who continue to astound their fans with clever lyrics, unique sounds and an enormous abundance of talent and energy!