02/06/2014

Lord Huron show review by Ben Brondsky

Before I saw the band Lord Huron on February 4th, I was trying to describe them to my friends. It’s pretty hard to peg them down, I would tell my friends that they were kind of folk-y and were sort of like Mumford and Sons but rocked harder; which obviously didn’t make a lot of sense. If you were to listen to their debut album, Lonesome Dreams, you might hear a lot of influences. Definitely a bit of folk, but also rock, some Caribbean influences, Americana, and even a bit of electronic pieces.

When Lord Huron’s songs are played live the influences besides folk really do shine. If I had to pick bands they sounded like I’ve decided on: The Clash, Vampire Weekend, Mumford & Sons, and Arcade Fire. Lead singer Ben Schneider and Co. put on an awesome, raucous show.

To a sold out crowd at The Royale, Lord Huron came on around 10 pm and didn’t stop until after 11:30 pm. They easily transitioned from one song into the next and kept the music going. Schneider played acoustic guitar along with singing most of the night and had Tom Renaud and Karl Kerfoot behind him with electric guitars. Both Kerfoot and Renaud played slide guitar on different songs and it’s not every day that you see a “folk-y” band with three guitarists. Besides Schneider, Renaud, and Kerfoot, Lord Huron also had Mark Berry on percussion and Miguel Briseño on bass. But to say they all just played one instrument each would be lying. As a random girl next to me stated to her friend, “they were all playing a billion instruments and it was like boom boom boom!” It was exactly like boom boom boom. Schneider played harmonica one song and a floor tom in another. Berry had a huge drum kit and was constantly using other percussive instruments besides his drum kit, and Briseño played a piano multiple times.

The band ran through songs throughout Lonesome Dreams and also played ones I had never heard before. One particular song early in the set had a very interesting Latin rhythm and the crowd loved it. In another song Schneider and Briseño were each banging on floor toms along with Mark Berry on his kit as if it was a drum circle. Lord Huron put a lot of enthusiasm and work into their live shows. They had a big light show to go along with their energetic playing and the crowd was dancing along the whole time.

Lyrics for most of their songs cover topics such as death, loss, loneliness, love, and crime. Although a lot of those topics are depressing, Lord Huron doesn’t make them sound so. Each song is, especially live, is like a journey and a story being told. When they transitioned from one song to the next it was just a continuously wave of music and the story continued.

I highly recommend people catch Lord Huron on the rest of their tour and I’m sure they’ll be back at the Newport Music Festival again this summer. Lord Huron is a band you, your mom, and your grandma can appreciate.