I Really Fucked It Up (or it’s not me, it’s them)

Mumford & Sons
First Avenue
October 29th

This was probably my most eagerly anticipated show of the year. And I kinda fucked up tickets because I can’t tell the difference between eastern and central time. So big ups to Rhi for being so kind to trade me her extra two for my extra two to front row sufjan. But wow. What a disappointment. I waited a bit on this one (kinda cos I’m lazy and kinda cos I wanted a little distance before I wrote about it). But still…wow….what a disappointment.

Where to begin…..

I’m not blaming the band for the power going out midway through the set. Act of god and all, and I dug them playing some (truly) unplugged songs in the interim (even though I couldn’t hear much…I think it was the Wagon Wheel cover). And it wasn’t the crowd either (although they were pretty damn drunk and obnoxious…but I kinda expect that at these mainstream masses shows). Maybe a little bit of too much adulation has made them a little big for their britches? Hard to say where ego overwhelms, and I’m not quite sure they’ve gone that way yet, but though close, I’m not sure they’ve gone all KoL yet.

What made the show a drag was some bad song sequencing (c’mon guys, these are your songs, how can you not know what works together in terms of pacing a show?) way too much noodling between songs (killing any momentum they made have built up in spite of the haphazard sequencing) and the biggest sin of all….too much chatter from the head mumford. I shouldn’t go into the “discussion” about politics with the audience member, but sheesh dude…..you ain’t billy bragg, keep the politics out of it, you’re having a hard enough time playing the songs. Also, their harmonies are lovely, but I don’t need them to break into an extended choral sequence every song to show it off (the songs are pretty great…why not just service them instead of servicing yourselves?) Dunno. I was kinda hoping the power would go out again and we could all just go home. And that’s a bummer feeling to have at a show. I can’t recommend any of the song performances. I definitely won’t need to see these guys again (but all you drunk obnoxious folks staggering up the ramp can have at it).

BTW, i'm listening to Sigh No More as i write this...i still really like that album so at least the live performance didn't change my mind about that.