-
Fans fill the stands at Comerica Park during The Lumineers’ performance Saturday.
Ananya Kedia/DAILY. Buy this photo. -
Fans fill the stands at Comerica Park during the Detroit leg of The Lumineers’ Automatic World Tour at Comerica Park Saturday. Ananya Kedia/DAILY. Buy this photo.
“They say dreams come true, but this is beyond anything we could have ever dreamed”, said Wesley Schultz, the co-founder and lead singer of The Lumineers.
Just a few years ago, The Lumineers performed at Pine Knob Music Theatre, a hillside amphitheater where voices drifted into the summer air. Now, they stood beneath the towering lights of Comerica Park, a venue more than twice the size, where the scale of the stage finally matched the scale of the dream – a dream that belonged as much to the audience as it did to the band. For so many, The Lumineers have been more than a band; their music a constant soundtrack, guiding them through the uncertainties of life. Detroit wasn’t just another stop on tour, it was a full-circle moment, the kind that makes a single night feel like the culmination of years.
-
Chance Peña opens for The Lumineers during the Automatic World Tour at Comerica Park Saturday. Ananya Kedia/DAILY. Buy this photo.
-
A fan records The Backseat Lovers performing during the Automatic World Tour at Comerica Park Saturday. Ananya Kedia/DAILY. Buy this photo. -
The Backseat Lovers open for The Lumineers during their performance at Comerica Park Saturday. Ananya Kedia/DAILY. Buy this photo.
Chance Peña and The Backseat Lovers opened the show, both their sets a reflection of their unique artistry. Peña’s songs are the kind you play in a dark room lit by fairy lights, his sound drifting through speakers that transport you somewhere else. That same intimacy pulsed through his performance, as if the music belonged to every person in the crowd all at once. The Backseat Lovers, on the other hand, were the perfect way to lift the energy higher. Their songs are the ones that make a walk to class feel cinematic, that inject rhythm into even the most ordinary moments. Onstage, that energy multiplied tenfold. Lead singer and guitarist Joshua Harmon’s presence was electric, sending waves through the crowd so that by the end of the set, the air itself seemed charged with anticipation.
Finally, The Lumineers took the stage. What followed was a two-hour journey through their 14-year discography, a tapestry woven from nostalgia and discovery – from songs that carried the audience through the band’s early years to the newer tracks that felt like promises of what was still to come. They opened with “Same Old Song”, and from that first note, the venue seemed to come alive: Every light on the stage and in the crowd moved in perfect synchrony. The set moved effortlessly between joy and heartbreak, the singalongs of “Ho Hey” and “Ophelia”, juxtaposed with the quiet ache of “Charlie Boy”. “Big Parade” brought an exhilarating chaos as each band member sang a separate section. The audience especially cheered when pianist Stelth Ulvang danced and climbed across the stage; his energy infectious and impossible to ignore.
In the midst of it all, there were moments that stopped the crowd entirely: Wesley Schultz’s stories between songs, the dedication of “You’re All I Got” to co-founder Jeremiah Fraites, and the hauntingly intimate performance of “New York State of Mind,” left everyone suspended in awe, the emotion raw and unfiltered. It wasn’t just a performance – it was a reminder of how The Lumineers’ sound has marked the chapters of a generation, each song both timeless and newly alive.
-
The Lumineers perform “Dead Sea” with Noah Kahan during the Detroit leg of the Automatic World Tour at Comerica Park Saturday. Ananya Kedia/DAILY. Buy this photo. -
Fans fill the stands at Comerica Park during The Lumineers’ Automatic World Tour Saturday. Ananya Kedia/DAILY. Buy this photo.
As the night drew to a close, the band began “Dead Sea”, a beautiful ballad inspired by Schultz’s wife, who once told him that he was her Dead Sea, the one around whom she could never sink. Midway through the song, though, The Lumineers brought out a friend to finish it with them. The crowd broke out into screams. The Lumineers had brought out a fellow indie-folk icon, Noah Kahan. The crowd was electrified, and as the song faded, they flowed seamlessly into the night’s final track, “Stubborn Love,” everyone’s hearts still pounding from surprise.
A beautiful night, it truly seemed that just like “Dead Sea”, the Lumineers and Noah Kahan made the audience believe that, as long as they were performing, no one could ever sink.
Assistant Photo Editor Ananya Kedia can be reached at ananyakd@umich.edu.
