For two sold-out nights at Fenway Park, The Lumineers transformed a baseball cathedral into a cathedral of sound—and soul. Touring behind Automatic, their deeply personal fifth album, the Denver folk-rock duo delivered a set that was equal parts foot-stomping and gut-wrenching, pulling Boston into their orbit with emotional honesty rarely seen on stages this size.
Thursday’s show built steadily—gospel-fueled harmonies, pounding piano, and the signature foot-thump rhythm that made “Ho Hey” a global earworm—but it was the final stretch that cracked the crowd wide open.
Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, the band’s core since day one, filled the ballpark with a sound that somehow felt handmade. Songs from Automatic, released in February, blended seamlessly with fan favorites like “Ophelia,” “Cleopatra,” and “Ho Hey.” Gospel-tinged vocals and stripped-down acoustic interludes gave the night a campfire intimacy, even as 35,000 voices rose in chorus.
Schultz didn’t let the moment pass unnoticed. “Not that long ago, we were playing the House of Blues across the street,” he said, visibly moved. “It’s hard to explain how special this is.”
The 28-song set stretched over two hours, mixing fan favorites with darker, heavier new material. But it was the final stretch that transformed the show into something more profound.
Before the last few songs, Schultz took a quiet moment at center stage. With pigtails in his hair and raw emotion in his voice, he shared that the past six weeks had been the hardest of his life—his brother, his closest friend, had died of a heart ailment at just 39.
There was no spectacle. Just stillness. The kind that turns a stadium into sacred space. What followed—tender, exposed, and painfully human—felt less like a concert and more like a ritual.
For a moment, Fenway became a confessional. And when the lights came up, Boston knew it had witnessed something more than a show. It had witnessed something true.
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