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June 20, 2011

My Night with Marcus Mumford. ~ Jolee McBreen

Mumford & Sons played a sold out show at the Fillmore Auditorium, in Denver on Wednesday and Thursday, June 15th and 16th.

The night was folk-tastic with openers Matthew and the Atlas and Denver native Nathaniel Rateliff & Fairchildren. Both bands meshed with the sound and overall essence of Mumford & Sons flawlessly. Nathaniel Rateliff sent the crowd into a tizzy when he brought out Marcus Mumford early to perform “Shroud” together.

The stage design itself made the night all the more surreal with bursts of red and blue colors that emphasized every chord and twinkling lights strung above the audience.

The music was infectious. As for myself, by the end of the night my neck and lower back were shot to hell. I danced, sang, hoot and hollered and couldn’t wipe the smile off my face the entire show, or hours after.

Some of my favorite moments:

An unplugged and acoustic performance of “Timshel.”

Though the crowd was annoyingly not so silent during the performance, it didn’t take away from how beautiful and captivating it was.

A mix of new and old.

Mumford & Sons played favorites from their 2010 album “Sigh No More,” as well as brand new songs that allowed keyboardist Ben Lovett to introduce, “We just wrote a new song yesterday – want to hear it?”

Encore, Encore!

After some serious foot stomping, Mumford & Sons came out to perform two more songs for their encore and brought the house down with “The Cave.”

Performance of The Cave on 6/15/2011

Marcus remained humble and gracious while he thanked the audience throughout the show for coming out and letting them play new material. Stating it was the best way for them to test out new songs to the people who were ultimately going to listen to them.

The band connected with the audience from start to finish. Talking in between songs about their love for Denver and asking how the crowd was doing. When Marcus Mumford asked if anyone had been to the show the night before (Wednesday), he was relieved when few cheered so no one would realize he was wearing the same outfit. His charming and personable demeanor engaged the audience even further.

I was in awe as the crowd fell silent for portions of songs like “White Blank Page” and especially during “After the Storm” as Marcus crooned the lyrics,

And there will come a time, you’ll see, with no more tears. And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears. Get over your hill and see what you find there. With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

Every word or feeling I can think to describe the night seems to fall short so since I can’t think of a better way, I’ll just say the night was an overall amazing experience. Not only to see them in person, but to see how they have catapulted to success, selling out the two day show in around 10 minutes, was surreal and an honor to be apart of.

Mumford & Sons left us with a thank you and good bye, and promised that they were working hard on their new album – and since hearing some the new songs on Thursday, I can’t wait!

*All photos by Jolee McBreen

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Jolee McBreen is a student at the Art Institute and whips up delicious coffee concoctions at a coffee shop in Denver. When she’s not avoiding homework or steaming milk she can be caught with her family, friends, snuggling her two adorable dogs, or dancing… pretty much anywhere.

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