“I am so sorry the Scottish brought the rain with them. I told you they were bastards.”
By Carson Lyle
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Mumford & Sons, with Lord Huron and Dylan Gossett, at Fenway Park, Monday, June 22.
“I am so sorry the Scottish brought the rain with them,” Marcus Mumford told the Boston crowd assembled to see Mumford & Sons at Fenway Park Monday night. “I told you they were bastards.”
“Thank God the English are here to clear it all up,” the London-based folk rocker continued.
Bad-mouthing Boston’s new best friends might not seem like the most advisable way to start a concert at one of the city’s most iconic locations. But in the end, Mumford & Sons knew how to make a crowd dance in the rain and sing like … well, like they didn’t mind being wet.
Mumford & Sons, who walked away with a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2013 for their album “Babel,” were actually just one of three name-brand acts to grace the Fenway stage on Monday. The concert was more like a festival, considering openers Lord Huron and Dylan Gossett are headliners in their own right.
The hardest decision of the night was whether to buy Dylan Gossett, Lord Huron, or Mumford & Sons merchandise. But the true highest selling item on this rainy Monday was definitely the neon red plastic poncho.
Gossett opened at 6 p.m. sharp despite the near-downpour drenching the concertgoers. Gossett hails from Austin, Texas, and brought western love and heartbreak to the crowd, performing his famous song “Coal.”
Lord Huron continued the momentum, and possibly tamed Mother Nature as well: As he sang a lyric about changing the weather, lead singer Ben Schneider seemed to literally do just that as the rain stopped.
That band pumped up the crowd with hits like “Ends Of The Earth” and “Meet Me In The Woods,” and truly turned heads with “The Night We Met,” the band’s arguably most famous song.
At 8:30 p.m., Mumford & Sons began. As the audience stood up and began singing along, their drenched clothes and shoes squished with every dance move. Water could be seen flying in the air as fans shot their arms up to the sky.
“We didn’t come to Boston to f— around,” Mumford said.
The band started with “Begin Again,” which was the perfect opener, immediately snapping the crowd to attention and setting the mood for the night.
The band then performed “Babel,” which the entire crowd knew and loved. The song — delivered almost like you were among pirates aboard a mighty ship — was incredibly fun and primed the crowd for more fun still to come.
The band then played three of their most famous tracks: “Little Lion Man,” “White Blank Page,” and “Awake My Soul.” Mumford & Sons are clearly not afraid to play their older hits early in the set.
Which is not to say they gave their newer material short shrift. After dipping into their latest release with “Rubber Band Man,” the poetic track “Prizefighter” — also the name of their recent album, along with the tour — eased the crowd into the rest of the evening, its more measured pace giving them a reset from all the jumping and dancing.
As the band plowed through their setlist, the stupendous set behind them dropped down a curtain of sparks like a giant sparkler.
During the song “Ditmas,” Mumford actually got off the stage and ran around Fenway saying “hello” to all his fans. By the time he got back on stage, it was as if he’d run the bases in the wake of a home run; Mumford could most likely qualify for the Boston Marathon.
The band then sang “The Cave,” which was another oldie but a fan favorite: Everyone was up singing and chanting, and at some points, the band went silent and all you could hear were the echoes of the fans booming the song back at them.
The band then played Mumford’s favorite song they ever wrote, “Here,” a track they recorded with Chris Stapleton. In the song, Mumford presents himself as no different than the members of the crowd, even though he was the one at center stage: “Well, here’s my pride, and here’s my shame/Here’s a trophy that bears my name/Here’s all the mistakes I madе/For too long/Here’s the answеrs I never gave,” he sang.
The band ended the mainstage set with “The Wolf” before disappearing to a smaller island stage near second base. The band requested the crowd to be quiet … by joking at them to “shut the f— up.”
The band played “Timeshel,” with just the three members and a guitar. For a moment Fenway was silent and all you could hear was the rustle of ponchos or an occasional “whoop whoop.” Afterwards, Mumford gave the audience an “8/10” for their silence, laying the blame for what noise there was on a familiar nemesis. “Lets blame the Scots,” Mumford said.
That’s when the entire crowd started booing Mumford and a chant of “No Scotland, No Party” broke out. “Alright, alright, I did the opposite of what I wanted,” he admitted. “I give myself a 6/10.”
Afterwards, the band played “Reminder,” followed by “Cowboy Like Me” by Taylor Swift.
The whole crowd started slowly clapping to Swift’s beat before Mumford cut in and joked, “You know what, clapping isn’t going to work,” and Fenway fell silent once more.
The band made their way back to the mainstage where they immediately began to play “Rushmore,” and later “I Will Wait,” probably their most famous song, bringing the entire crowd to its feet. The song felt freeing — loved ones danced and sang together as they promised to wait for each other in times of need.
The band played “Conversation With My Son” and ended with a fireworks show. On this wet night, the Fenway diamond felt like holy ground for everyone to come together and be entertained.
Setlist for Mumford & Sons at Fenway Park, Monday, June 22
- Begin Again
- Babel
- Little Lion Man
- White Blank Page
- Rubber Band Man (with Aaron Dessner)
- Awake My Soul
- Lover of the Light
- Hopeless Wanderer
- Prizefighter
- Badlands
- Believe
- Truth
- Ditmas
- The Cave
- Here (with Aaron Dessner)
- Stay
- Delta
- The Wold
- Timeshel
- Reminder
- Cowboy Like Me
- Rushmore
- The Banjo Song
- I Will Wait
- Conversation With My Son
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