Lord Huron brought their high quality Americana to London on Wednesday 24th September.

The long queue all the way round the block of the Brixton Academy gave us the chance to reminisce about previous Brixton outings. Whilst the window is shut as we pass it, we fondly recall queuing for The Manic Street Preachers and looking in through the kitchen. Inside was notorious pie eater James Dean Bradfield, just getting a pie! Good times.

Pillow Queens

It is a decent showing from this band, who are incredibly on trend by bring Irish. They are all wearing bright silk boxing shorts, shirts and ties as a kind of band uniform. This also puts the drummer as very on trend as well, as most men behind the sticks right now either fall into the playing without their t-shirt on camp, or the wearing a tie camp. They have released three albums so are not new to the scene. It is a good brand of indie-rock led by strong, melodic vocals and the lyrics have a lot to say on a range of important topics. Lord Huron’s keyboard player and singer Misty Boyce came out to help sing the final track, also in boxing shorts.

Lord Huron

The stage has a large cosmic selector jukebox, shimmering strands of reflective material and the US style payphone from the ‘Who Laughs Last’ video. Ben Schneider has a keen interest in visual arts and film making, so a little set dressing is not surprising. He heads straight for the phone, built as a working microphone, as Kristen Stewart is already offering her controlled film-noirish delivery for ‘Who Laughs Last’ over the speakers, sadly not in person, but then she can’t go on a world tour with them for the sake of one track. Amidst the low-key lighting, it is pure theatre when the band and Schneider spring into life for the superb, dynamic chorus.

They go hard on the new album ‘The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1’ following up with ‘Looking Back’ and the utterly brilliant ‘Bag of Bones.’ It shows the confidence they have in the new album and rightly so, it is a big step up from a band that was already very good.

Across the generous nineteen song set we get to see their full range. At times they run very close to traditional country, you could imagine them playing in some dust-bowl bar to a crowd of cowboy hat wearing workers. At other points it is intricate, delicate and wistful. Then they can show a stronger edge with muscular guitar and bass. They follow on from the traditions of Neil Young through to the shimmering indie of My Morning Jacket. A clear identity, but a desire to keep growing and bettering what they have achieved before.

We get a successive run from the Strange Trails album towards the end. ‘La Belle Fleur Sauvage,’ ‘Frozen Pines,’ ‘Meet Me In The Woods’ and ‘The Night We Met.’

Schneider occasionally pauses to address the crowd. He speaks with a slow, droll delivery. He just pauses long enough to clearly consider his words before uttering them. He implores us all to give the new album a proper listen in order, as a lot of thought went into it. Frankly, he is preaching to the converted here tonight, but the art of album listening is definitely not what it once was in this age of rapid fire Tik-Toks and Instagram stories. He comes across as genuinely humble and thoughtful.

There is a three-song encore taking in ‘The World Ender,’ ‘Nothing I Need’ and ‘Not Dead Yet.’ It has been a mightily impressive one hour and forty-five minutes of entertainment. The crowd take in a real spread of ages from teenagers through to the recently retired. There is a real affection present for this band and their thoughtful songs, and rightly so. Roll on The Cosmic Selector Vol. 2…

Lord Huron: The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1