The Lumineers, live at the Olympia

Last October saw The Lumineers make their Irish debut in this very venue, as the support act for The Civil Wars. While they undoubtedly stole the show that night, headlining the same venue less than four months later is something of a big ask. It’s not that they don’t have the stage presence or live chops to pull it off: they have both in spades. Rather, it’s a case of whether they have enough songs to play a headline set without resorting to filler.

Thanks to the ubiquitous ‘Ho Hey’, tonight’s show is one of the hottest of the year so far, with tickets changing hands for upwards of €100 on Dame St. Inside, this venerable old venue is bursting at the seams and space is at a premium – the five Mullingar lads in front of Hot Press could be commended for their lack of intimacy issues: I’ve had girlfriends I haven’t been anything like as close to.
Any worries that the capacity crowd are here for one song only are dispelled as soon as The Lumineers take the stage, with the strains of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ echoing through the PA. The now five-piece open proceedings with the haunting ‘Charley Boy’ and the entire Olympia joins in with gusto. Other acts may be overwhelmed by the fervour, but credit to the Colorado collective that they take it all in their stride, big beaming smiles being very much the order of the day, as they cajole the crowd through pretty much their entire debut album.
The aforementioned ‘Ho Hey’ makes an early appearance, as the band unplug their instruments and clamber into the audience for a show-stopping acoustic rendition of the song you can’t avoid – they play a full, plugged-in version later in the set. Other highlights include a brilliant ‘Classy Girls’, a rambunctious ‘Submarines’, a delightfully dishevelled ‘Flapper Girl’ and a rollicking ‘Big Parade’, which once again blurs the lines between band and audience. The set is augmented by a new song, presumably called ‘Falling’, a delicious duet between frontman Wesley Schultz and Neyla Pekarek, who takes a rare break from the cello. Less impressive is a run through of Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’: there’s nothing wrong with their version per se, but it adds nothing new to this most covered of Bob classics. Much better is their cover of Talking Heads’ wonderful ‘This Must Be The Place’, which ends the night with a warm glow.