Day 14 - Mumford and Sons

first off babel is much worse than sigh no more. To state that awolnation and against me is better than Kendrick and mmj is laughable.

To be fair I am not in their forms "hating" on them I am in Mumfords. I don't go to the Kendrick forum as I dislike the music. That is not saying I don't think he should be at roo though as I like that roo offers everything. I have checked out the Mau5 forum as I honestly wanted to see if reading it would maybe convince me to like him, I really wanted to.

I completely agree about White Crosses. I was very confused by that release. I didn't know they were on the verge of breaking up then. I guess that kind of explains it.

Yeah I'm looking forward to seeing what they do. Marcus looked weird with an electric guitar, but it could be a welcome switch

I'm going to assume that you've never made eye contact with Jim motherfucking James at MMJ show. Because if you did and you still wrote this, then you don't have a soul nor should you be allowed to comment on musical tastes. 

Actually, can we just ban this guy altogether? Shitting on MMJ like this anywhere that Bonnaroo is connected has got to be some form of blasphemy?

ftr, I'm a Mumford fan too, I'm just not insane.

New Single - "Believe"

I'm not a fan of Mumford, but I'm going to go by their set simply to see what they are going to do live now. I'm wondering if they will do what Iron & Wine did and retool some of the acoustic folky songs into more of an electric sound and then do a few songs acoustic - I could see the masses getting really upset if they don't play any acoustic songs with the banjo at all.

I would actually kind of respect them a little more if they just said fuck it and played the whole set electric.

I am getting sad. I am no longer very excited to see Mumford play.

Correction: one god awful song came out. 

I just get scared when I read the posts about them playing an electric set- especially when it's mentioned that they could rework their other songs to fit.

Gotcha. To be fair, they were never a lyrically deep band to begin with. I like some of the songs but for the most part they aren't really saying anything too deep. Didn't give all these lyrics a read yet.

I know how much everyone on this board loves them some Mumfy, so I figured I'd share my experience at their surprise show in NYC last night. They had announced the show at some point Sunday evening, and tickets went on sale at 9AM yesterday. I got up early to try and snag a ticket, and was lucky enough to manage to do so in time (thank you Google Autofill!!!). Tickets were sold out by 9:01. I had to scramble and plead to get my shift covered for the night, but was lucky enough to be able to do so. My day had begun!

The venue was Le Poisson Rouge, a small little 700-person venue that reminded me a bit of the Korova Milkbar from A Clockwork Orange. I got in line around 6:15 (doors opened at 7), and was surprised to see only 50-75 people in front of me (I'm terrible with guesstimating head counts though). They had people with clipboards going around checking IDs to see if you bought a ticket - they didn't give out any physical tickets for the event. After the doors open they herded everyone downstairs to the cell phone check-in area since there were no recording devices allowed at the show. So I check in my phone and Kindle (did some reading on the train), and entered the general admission area. It was one of the smallest venues I've been to - probably comparable to Underground Arts in Philly, if anyone's been there - but it was nice. This is when I realized that I had two hours to kill with no gadgety device to occupy my time. Because God forbid I actually talk to people. So I order a couple beers because I didn't want to lose my spot (about five feet from the stage), but soon realized that now I'm the guy double fisting beers standing alone not talking to anyone. NOT AWKWARD AT ALL. So I start talking to the people around me, sharing our collective excitement for the upcoming show. Being one of the first groups of people to ever hear this music was pretty exhilarating.

And they come out. In addition to change their music style, they've changed their aesthetic a bit as well. Marcus and Ted looked the same, but Ben was completely clean-shaven (bad move, IMO), and Winston had grown his hair out down past his shoulders (good move, IMO). And no old-timey vests - just t-shirts, and I think Winston was in a suit.

It's hard to do too much of a write-up simply because all the material was new, but I definitely enjoyed the show. I think that their single "Believe" is a bad representative of the album as whole - it is indeed Coldplay-esque, but it doesn't come across that way live (and I've seen Coldplay live before - they were playing with M&S then, oddly enough). Mumford's new stuff is definitely very Mumfordy. If you like their dynamic of slow buildups to raucous climaxes, you'll like their new album. There's still plenty of harmony and melody, though I didn't find the other songs quite as radio-friendly as "Believe". I remember really liking "Monster", and also either "Just Smoke" or "Broad-Shouldered Beasts". They were right in the middle of the set so it's hard to remember which is which, but I remember singing along with the choruses by the end of the song. "The Wolf" also stood out as one that's more hard-rock inspired than the rest of their set.

I was doubling over from bladder fullness by the end of the set, and had no choice but to beeline for the bathroom when they walked offstage for their encore. I wanted so bad to stay through the whole thing, but by that point I had undone my pants and belt because I had to pee so bad. Then I peed through the entire first song of their encore. These details are completely unnecessary but I just wanted you all to know. The last song of their encore was "Only Love", and it was the one that sounded most traditionally Mumfordy to me. I loved it, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them close their set with it at Roo.

Overall, I definitely support their new sound. I don't think that Marcus's voice blends as well with electric instruments as it does with acoustic ones, but I think I'll get used to it. I enjoyed watching Winston play guitar throughout the show - not all of it was as uninspired as the solo was on "Believe". Some of it was though, and I think he could really take their music up a notch if he had more interesting solos. I'm very much looking forward to listening to their new album when everything is sonically clean, and not muddled through the venue's sound system. Sometimes I couldn't even make out what Marcus was saying, which made it harder to connect to the music. Overall it was a solid B+ show. I'm fairly sure I'm gonna try for the pit at Roo this year.

Side note: if you have to pee really bad, do NOT hang your keys up on the hook in the bathroom stall, because you might forget about them and leave the venue without them.

Thanks for the review I was curious how the show had gone. I'm sorry about your bladder struggles there are the end though - that is the fucking worst. And I have a tiny bladder   So I feel your pain (often, literally)

Meh. I actually like the first single better.