On Thursday (24 January) two interesting things happened in Adelaide: first, the city became the hottest Australian capital city on record with a temperature high of 47 degrees; and second, Mumford & Sons returned to Adelaide for the first time since 2015.
They quickly launched into '42' from their new album ‘Delta’, before Marcus Mumford addressed the audience for the first time simply saying: “It’s f...ing hot isn’t it.”
They moved to the walkway down the middle of the arena to play their next two songs among their fans. 'Little Lion Man' and 'Babel' were just as mind-blowing as they were last time they performed them all those years ago.
“Last time we were here we had three albums now we have four,” Marcus said before they played their biggest radio hit from their latest album, ‘Guiding Light’.
‘Lover Of The Light’, ‘If I Say’ and ‘Tompkins Square Park’ featured in the middle of their set, each coming from a different album and representing a different time in their lives and musical careers.
“We love coming to Australia, you were the first country outside of our own who embraced our band and you really made us fall in love with touring internationally – so we thank you for that!”
It’s magical when you find a song that you have heard a million times over, in a new way. And that’s the gift the band gave us while performing ‘White Blank Page’. An electric and simplistic version of the song during which, you could have heard a pin drop.
Click here to read our November 2018 interview with Mumford & Sons.
Marcus and his lovely English accent spoke directly to us again, displaying the Aussie-British banter we have all come to know and love saying: “We have so much to talk about. We don’t want to make it all about us though; how you doing?
"Talk about your cricket team… It’s in my pants mate. I realise if you didn’t hear the question that probably sounded pretty f...ing weird [laughs]. He asked me where my sandpaper was. For those of you who don’t know cricket that still probably sounds pretty f...ing weird.”
Another song also got a slight makeover last night, this time a track from their album ‘Delta’ called ‘Forever’ performed with their very talented opening act, Gretta Ray, that added a country/ indie vibe to the band’s usual folk/ alternative outfit.
When most lead singers come out in the crowd they walk carefully around the edge of the stage and head back up with their band. Marcus wanted to do it a bit differently, walking all around the arena while singing ‘Ditmas’ and weaving through the jumping crowd who were clambering to get a touch of the sweaty singer.
‘The Wolf’ was their last song before they exited the stage for the first time. And it probably couldn’t have come sooner for them, as it looked as though they were starting to seriously struggle in the Adelaide heat.
They returned a few minutes later after a towel-down and a bottle of water, to play two songs on the walkway: ‘Where Are You Now?’ and ‘Awake My Soul’, which were played “unplugged” with only a banjo, acoustic guitar and a single microphone.
A beautiful rendition of both the songs, only spoiled by a few overly excited audience members shouting “love you” towards Marcus.
They returned to the main stage for a Bruce Springsteen cover, ‘I'm On Fire’, with Michael Kiwanuka; a really emotional and unique performance – a joy to have witnessed.
‘The Cave’, ‘I Will Wait’ and tour title track ‘Delta’ closed out the show with confetti canons as ‘Delta’ wowed all of us.
We exited the Entertainment Centre back into the 38-degree heat satisfied with our Mumford & Sons fix, but praying it wouldn’t be another three or four years before they release another album and come back to visit little ol’ Adelaide.
