English folk rockers Mumford & Sons had been secured by JamUSA Productions, a Chicago-based independent promoter, to play the first ever concert at Montrose Beach on the north side of Chicago. Promoters for the show set up a stage (plus all the associated security, concessions, and health and safety facilities) at Cricket Hill, near the beach. If there was a band to attempt this, it made sense that it was Mumford & Sons. In 2009, they founded Gentlemen of the Road, a live promotions company, record label, and organizer of a series of stopover festivals for the band. These festivals tend to take place in towns and villages not normally toured in by major acts. They’re generally mini-festivals that take over the town for a couple days. Conducting something similar in a major market like Chicago prompted what would reportedly become the largest Mumford & Sons concerts outside of the UK thus far, with over 30,000 fans in attendance at the sold out event. Jam reportedly paid the Chicago Park District an initial fee of $100,000 to hold the event on Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, heavy rain in the days preceding the show prevented the promoters from erecting the stage in time, and the show was pushed back to Friday. This led to a bit of a mad scramble. Some fans were selling their tickets and others were trying to pick them up. JamUSA had to fork over an extra $65,000 in fees. Following my last attempt to see Mumford & Sons at Bonnaroo in 2013, when the band had to cancel its performance for bassist Ted Dwane to undergo emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain, I was not having the best of luck recently with the boys from West London. Fortunately, following my first pair of experiences with the band in Bonnaroo in 2010 and 2011, it would take much more than a slight rain delay to sour me on them.
Overall, Cricket Hill made a pretty good location for a show, though it seems there were some growing pains. Though the majority of the space was a wide open field, Cricket Hill allows for an elevated view of the stage for at least some attendees at the back house right of the venue. Though the entire venue was exclusively general admission, having a large group doesn’t lend itself to sneaking in close towards the stage. Rather, we found a spot towards the back house left with at least some view of the stage and an optimal distance from one of the rear speakers. This would mean we’d only hear those speakers rather than conflicting sounds from the main stage. Inexplicably, there were no rear speakers in front of the hill, meaning that those on the hill would listen from the speakers at the stage which were pretty far away. The hill was also pretty crowded.
The promoters didn’t seem to properly account for the number of people and the resulting lines. The venue contained only a single block of portapotties, accessible via a single gate which created a significant bottleneck for patrons entering and exiting the area. Fortunately, this was only a minor inconvenience. Perhaps due to the move from a Wednesday to a Friday, and the resulting increase in the amount of booze that patrons would want to consume, there were unconscionably long lines for beer, reportedly up to an hour. Once I saw how long the lines were, I opted to skip getting beer altogether.
We arrived inside the venue during one of the various opening acts; no one in the audience seemed to care about any of the openers. There was no perceptible difference in what was happening on stage or the level of excitement of the audience when an opening act was on stage compared to in between sets when recorded music was playing over the venue’s speakers.
Mumford took the stage a bit after eight, as the sun was setting. They played a good mix of old and new songs. Some of their old songs, like “Little Lion Man” seemed to fall a bit flat. It sounded like they played a couple of their older songs at a slightly slower tempo as compared to the album. Or perhaps they’re just getting sick of playing them, and don’t put as much energy into them as they did in years past.
Early in the evening they promised a special surprise, which ended up being several of the Chicago Blackhawks players joining them onstage with the Stanley Cup. The band took turns drinking from it during “Tompkins Square Park” and “The Cave.” They invited opening act The Maccabees join them on “Just Smoke” midway through their set. Later, they closed the evening with “The Wolf,” which didn’t seem like the best choice. It might have been a late edition, as it occurred quite a bit past 10pm, which I assumed would force a hard stop. I wondered if that would entail a fine for the band or management. Perhaps it served as a thank you to the many fans that rearranged their schedules to attend. Overall the show was a lot of fun, though nothing will compare the first pair of times that I saw Mumford & Sons at Bonnaroo. Having the show at Cricket Hill also meant that there wasn’t anywhere to park nearby, so many fans had to walk significant distances back to their cars and the L was swamped. Nonetheless, the prospect of having a major summer concert venue on the north side of the city is promising.
Setlist:
Babel
I Will Wait
Only Love
Wilder Mind
Lovers' Eyes
Lover of the Light
Thistle & Weeds
Ghosts That We Knew
Just Smoke
Believe
Tompkins Square Park
The Cave
Roll Away Your Stone
Broad-Shouldered Beasts
Snake Eyes
Ditmas
Dust Bowl Dance
Encore:
Hot Gates
Little Lion Man
The Wolf
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