For Christmas my super-duper fiancé gave me Mumford and Sons tickets, a request that I thought for sure he would skip. While I am a HUGE fan, Jared is not. Nevertheless he obliged and I happily stored away the tickets for the February show.
Wednesday was a busy workday for the two of us: Jared had an Android app build due at the end of the day, and I had to attend a cocktail party benefit supporting the organization FamilyKind, which HFH will be working with this spring. So we met at Jared's office around 7:30, shared some Chipotle, then headed to Brooklyn. The concert was at the new Barclays Center, conveniently located 7 blocks from our apartment.
A few notes on the Barclays Center:
- for being a basketball stadium/concert venue it has a feeling of intimacy
- the food options are fabulously Brooklyn and include Junior's Cheesecake and L&B Spumoni Gardens pizza as vendors; you can also puck up Brooklyn Brewery beer at the different beer carts
- the bar set-up could be better; we waited on a maddening line for almost 20 minutes where 4 bartenders were NOT enough to serve the 100+ people waiting
- has cushioned, pleater leather seats, which are comfortable and I imagine easy to clean
But anyway, on to the concert. It was great. We missed the first opening act, but caught most of the second, The Felice Brothers. They were good, though I don't think they have fully nailed down their sound. Some songs had a good hook and great music, while others seemed muddled. Their use of an accordion and a musical washboard was cool though. How often do you see that?
Mumford and Sons took the stage a bit after 10, and played for an hour and forty-five minute set. I thought they were great. Part of the reason I love their music is because of their sound and musical style. They combine instruments that you don't often hear (banjo and horns) with more mainstream ones in a unique way. It's bluegrass, but it's modern. All four band members have great voices, but hearing Marcus Mumford live further cemented him as a great singer, and made their songs/lyrics all the more poignant and thoughtful. As performers with a lot of emotion. There were bummers though, brought on by annoying people. We seemed to be at the concert with super-screamer-fans, one of which was seated right behind Jared, and freaked out every time the band switched to a new song. And because of New York's poor manners, when they took to a smaller stage further back in the stadium, you could hardly hear the acoustic, set despite their pleas for folks to be quiet and relax. Oh well. This is New York after all. People don't really like to be told what to do.......
All in all though, a great concert, one that I would recommend to anyone. I meant it; young people and old people alike would enjoy it. Proof? The couple sitting in front of us was easily in their 60's and they rocked out for most of the show. Enjoy some photos below, and if you haven't, pick up Sigh No More and Babel.
