How to go
What: The Lumineers
Where: U.S. Bank Arena, 100 Broadway St., Cincinnati
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31
Cost: $29-$165
More info: 513-421-4111 or www.usbankarena.com
Coming into the U.S. Bank Arena on Jan. 31, The Lumineers are still best known for their 2012 megahit, “Ho Hey.” But even as they expanded their musicality on their sophomore album, “Cleopatra,” released last April, they haven’t come to resent “Ho Hey” the way other bands might.
Instead, they expressed gratitude for the exposure the song got them.
“That song helped us sell over three million albums worldwide,” said Jeremiah Fraites, the band’s drummer, pianist and major songwriter next to guitarist/vocalist, Wesley Schultz. “We don’t allow people to get preoccupied with that song. We play it early, and we’ve never had people leave afterward. We see people singing along to songs we never thought would connect.”
There was a long, four-year stretch between their self-titled debut album, which contained “Ho Hey,” and “Cleopatra,” thanks to a long tour made even longer due to their transition from the small-venue circuit to major arenas.
“It was an unusual touring cycle for a debut album,” Fraites said. “In one year, we went to London six times. The crowds kept getting bigger; we kept getting offers we couldn’t say no to. Now that we’re established, it’s easier to gauge how to book things. This time, we’ll probably end in late fall, early winter of next year.”
The Lumineers’ success came after a decade of failure, of being repeatedly told they weren’t any good. In retrospect, Fraites felt this period was necessary for The Lumineers to find themselves as a band.
“We grew up during the alternative grunge years,” he said. “So we thought we had to be dark and complicated in order for people to take us seriously. The genres we worked in were really confused. We finished close to 100 songs before we found the sound that we loved.”
That sound is the foot-stomping, “simple” folk rock that so many fans know today. However, the second album, “Cleopatra,” noticeably toned down the Americana sound, opting for a moodier, bittersweet vibe.
“It’s not nearly as acoustic,” Fraites said. “Some songs have no guitar, cello or mandolin. I can play bigger drum parts, like Metallica or Tool, and it was nice to spread my wings on that a little bit. There’s an instrumental that wouldn’t have worked on the first album. It asks more patience from the listener. It just has a bigger feel. Plus, we have a new bassist on this tour and we had to listen to both albums a lot to bring him up to speed, and it sounds so differently to us. I think we matured a little.”
The next agenda item for The Lumineers will be joining U2 for their 30th anniversary “Joshua Tree” tour, along with Mumford & Sons, OneRepublic and others.
“We always prided ourselves on being a band that would rather headline a smaller show than ride someone else’s coattails, but this felt like the right thing to do,” Fraites said. “The more we heard about it, the more excited we got. I’m the same age as ‘The Joshua Tree” and I’m still wrapping my head around how relevant it still is, how so many of the political things on that record turned out to be true today. I don’t think U2 is going to be checked out. It feels like they have a real thesis behind this tour.”
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