Mumford & Sons is a London-based roots rock band that was formed in December 2007 by multi-instrumentalists Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane. Since Mumford was the most notable musician of the band, the name flowed from that. They wanted a "mom and pop country store"-type of name and chose the ”& Sons” to fill out the rest.
Flash forward to 2016 and the band is out on another world tour, hitting arenas and other larger venues, of which New Orleans Zephyr Field was their destination last Saturday night. In what could easily be a huge spark to Jefferson Parish tourism, Zephyr Field played host to its first-ever completely staged rock show. The facility has hosted several live events, but nothing on this scale. The place was beyond packed and as a special offering, gates opened up early for tailgating. Marcus was thrilled to be the frontman for the first major band to play at Zephyr Field.
The Blake Mills band had the daunting task of opening for Mumford, but took it in grand stride. The early tailgating helped bring in the crowd that normally would choose to skip the opening act. The audience was in for a treat, and Mills proved he was more than just a studio musician. Much to the surprise of the audience, Mumford and pals came out and played with the guys on their last song. Mills would return the favor with his bandmates later on. The thirty-minute set was the perfect appetizer to the evening’s main event.
There’s a nice beauty that comes with watching a band that has only three albums, and their latest effort is well over a year old. That beauty is the ability of a band to afford itself by not solely centering on one album. The band’s set was a nice and rounded one, splitting the differences between albums fairly evenly, and also adding a few covers for good measure. The “House of the Rising Sun” cover featured Ben Jaffe from Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Blake Mills, Stuart Johnson and Tyler Chester from Blake’s band. It really could have come off cheesy, but held up quite well. The New Orleans references in the song are merely the icing on the cake. Blake played on a few more tracks and finished the evening with Mumford on their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.” The only logical song to follow that was the band’s hugest hit, “I Will Wait.” They ended the encore with another hit, “The Wolf.”
New Orleans Zephyr Field’s debut rock show set in motion things to come. This dress rehearsal, if you will, helped point out some unexpected flaws with a live music show on such a grand stage. Looking forward to seeing who will come through, Mumford & Sons set the bar way high. One can only hope that the level of shows following this will weigh in the same way.
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