Summerfest 2025 came to a close Saturday night as Denver-based band The Lumineers held court in the American Family Insurance Amphitheater with what may not have been a sold out crowd but appeared to be pretty close.
The show was a nearly two-hour walk through the group’s five albums, released over the course of a dozen years, with a bit of extra focus on the latest, this year’s “Automatic.”
From that one, the group played the title track, plus “Plasticine,” “Keys on the Table,” “Strings,” “Same Old Song” and “Asshole,” the latter of which frontman Wes Schultz introduced by saying many of his friends, and even his wife, have told him they thought he was one when they first met him.
However, Schultz seemed like anything but an a-hole at the show, chatting with the crowd, thanking the audience repeatedly and not only venturing off the stage (as many artists do) but heading at least three levels up, into the bleachers, at one point (which not many artists do).
Early on, in the intro to “You're All I Got,” he noted that he’s been playing with his fellow co-founder – multi-instrumentalist Jeremiah Fraites – for 20 years this year and celebrated the importance of collaboration.
Later, introducing a cover of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” – a song his New Jersey family was fond of playing in the car during road trips – he dedicated it to his brother Sam who passed away unexpectedly in May at just 39 years old.
He used the moment to acknowledge a woman in the front row holding a sign that said, “your music saved my life.”
Appearing on the video screen, she was in tears.
Schultz himself appeared to be in tears earlier in the evening when at a quiet moment in the middle of the set the crowd roared an extended approval that seemed to move Schultz.
Of course, the band – Schultz, Fraites, violinist Lauren Jacobson and three other musicians – didn’t neglect the hits and the crowd was especially responsive to “Cleopatra,” “Ophelia” and “Ho Hey.”
Watching The Lumineers again – I had seen them one time before, in 2017, opening for U2 – I hear the influence of a variety of roots greats, from Dylan to The Waterboys to home-state hero Bruce Springsteen, of course, but what I like most about them is that despite their popularity and the fact that they have a top-notch full band, The Lumineers still manage to capture the vibe of the best buskers: hungry and talented and giving it their all.
As their name suggests, The Lumineers bring light to a clearly very devoted audience. Saturday night they brought a bit of extra illumination by collaborating with Light the Hoan.
During the show, the lights on Milwaukee’s iconic bridge, visible from within the amphitheater, matched the lighting onstage.
St. Paul, Minnesota-based Hippo Campus opened the show with a 45-minute set marked by breezy, melodic tunes with great guitar work and propulsive drumming. I’d like to see them sometime in a cozier venue.
Setlist
- Same Old Song
- Flowers in Your Hair
- Angela
- You're All I Got
- A.M. Radio
- Asshole
- Gun Song
- Plasticine
- Donna
- Ho Hey
- Dead Sea
- Brightside
- Sleep on the Floor
- Gloria
- Charlie Boy
- Keys on the Table
- Where We Are
- Slow It Down
- Strings
- Automatic
- Ophelia
- Big Parade
- Leader of the Landslide
- New York State of Mind
- Salt and the Sea
- Cleopatra
- Stubborn Love
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
