To call Lord Huron’s live show a concert feels like selling it short. In truth, it is an experience on a level I have seen very few bands reach. The indie-folk act led by Ben Schneider creates a performance that feels almost comparable to a movie. It starts with a desolate scene. Rocky terrain lines the stage scattered with oddly nostalgic props like juke boxes and old reel cameras. In the middle of the rocks sits an illuminated phone booth. As the band rocked into their first song entitled “Who Laughs Last”, Schneider walked towards the phone booth and grabbed ahold of the corded phone, beginning to sing into it. The song went on to become a conversation of sorts with the disembodied voice of a woman who I later found out to be Kristen Stewart. That has to be one of the strangest sentences I have written in my time at Bell Music and this is only the first song. The band continued to rip through a few tracks of their most recent album and namesake for the tour, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 with a muddled yet intentional sound that somehow bounced between sounding reminiscent of The Killers and Phoebe Bridgers. From this point it was clear that Lord Huron could not be put in a box.
As the songs progressed, the large screen behind the band and set pieces would change to signify different settings in a story weaved together by the setlist. As if this heavy level of theming was not enough, the show included actors who mirrored the songs’ subject matters and lived the stories right in front of the audience. This aspect of the show started with a sharply-dressed man wandering through the stage clearly in search of something in the simulated moonlight. He stumbled defeatedly as if he was losing hope. The next memorable story element came during the song “The Ghost on the Shore” where the venue’s screens showed a ghostly figure playing the piano on stage. As the songs progressed this character would seemingly be revealed as a woman in a white dress. As the band rocked through a variety of songs such as “Wait by the River”, “Used to Know”, “Long Lost” and more, our two characters would interact with each other almost oblivious to the band performing around them. The pair would dance, play with each other's clothes, and even find themselves in the crowd as their story progressed. At a certain point, the lights suddenly faded to black as cables fell from the ceiling. As lights slowly flooded back to the stage, there were now large vines scattered around the set making the band look like they were standing in a jungle of sorts.
As they broke into another track, lights within the vines began to pulsate and react to the music. This beautiful visual gave an amazing energy to this later half of the set and lent thematically to tracks like “Meet Me in the Woods”. The next song, for many, was one of the most important songs in the band’s catalog. “The Night We Met” was many people’s first introduction to the world of Lord Huron. The hugely popular track captures love lost in a way few artists have dared to replicate. The band played this track as we saw our male character return to the stage. Alone. Again, on the screens, a ghost played the piano which seemed to be symbolic of the white dress-adorned woman and her absence. The male character wallowed around the stage seeming to reminisce about the night they met. As the song concluded, the band simply waved and walked off stage. As the lights fell to black, the jukebox remained illuminated. After a few minutes of roaring cheers, the band retook the stage to perform some fan favorite tracks like “The War Ender” and “Not Dead Yet” to close out an amazing first night of a 2-night run at The Pinnacle. Similar to referring to the show as just a concert, this review is selling it short. It is impossible to properly explain the level of story-telling and ingenuity packed into this energetic set of songs. Simply put, if Lord Huron is coming anywhere near you on this tour, get the ticket. You will not regret it.
- Thomas W. Hagan
Photos Courtesy of Patrick Phongsa (For Bell Music Magazine)
