Review: MUMFORD & SONS' RUSHMERE TOUR at Nationwide Arena

If Mike Rowe is looking for a new occupation to feature on the reality show, “Dirty Jobs,” he should look no further than being a security guard for folk rockers Mumford & Sons. Marcus Mumford, pianist Ben Lovett, and guitarist Ted Dwane gave the Nationwide Arena security detail quite a workout during the group’s Oct. 12 Rushmere tour stop at Nationwide Arena (200 W. Nationwide Blvd. in downtown Columbus). When they weren’t dodging flames coming out of the bottom of the stage or showers of sparks raining down from above it, the guards had the unenviable task of trying to keep up with Marcus Mumford, the band’s over-caffeinated frontman.

During the band’s 20-song set, Mumford was not content to stay put. He paced back and forth on the stage, even taking over drumming duties for one song and standing on a riser for another. Midway through the concert, the trio left the stage, sauntered through the floor seats, and eventually joined banjo virtuoso Matt Menefee on their “B stage” near the sound booth at the center of the floor to perform acoustical versions of “Where It Belongs,” “The Ghosts That We Knew” and “Guiding Light” before returning to the main stage.

Two songs later, during a rollicking version of “Ditmas,” Mumford bolted from the stage as the camera crew and security guards gave chase. The singer worked his way through the floor section, up into the first floor on the left side of the arena and then climbed up into the second level in the back of the house. He fought his way through a throng of outstretched hands and sang the chorus with an adoring (and stunned) fan before disappearing from view. Mumford then reappeared on the floor seconds later, bolted through the center of the floors seats and returned to the stage.

He did all of this without missing a note.

The trio had a long time to build up that kind of stamina. After former guitarist Winston Marshall left the band in June 2021, Mumford & Sons took a two-year hiatus from touring. If the Nationwide show was any indication, the band was clearly ready to return to performing live.

“Do you have any idea how fun it is to be up here?” Lovett said. “We took a couple of years off but it’s good to be back on the road. It’s not often you realize how lucky we are to get to do this every single night. We are so grateful for all of you to be here now.”

Mumford & Sons supplemented their sound with a talented support band including Menefee, the horn section of trombonist Darius Christian and trumpet players Laura Bibb and Kyle Resnick, and drummer Andy Barr. Barr’s band, the Barr Brothers, was one of two opening acts for the London band, joining Stephen Sanchez.

Mumford & Sons drew heavily from their first two albums, playing five songs from its 2009 debut album SIGH NO MORE, which became the second debut album to sell over a million digital copies (Lady Gaga’s THE FAME is the other) and five from their sophomore effort BABEL. That record debuted at number one on the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

After a rousing reception and audience participation for “Babel,” the eponymous single from their second album, Mumford looked out into a sea of expectant faces and grinned. “So, this is what it is like when you have won a national championship,” he mused, adding, “Alright Columbus we didn’t come here to (expletive) around” before the band launched into the banjo-leaden “Little Lion Man.”

Mumford & Sons did for the banjo what Twenty One Pilots did for the ukelele, introducing an younger audience to a quirky, distinctive sound of an under-utilized instrument. Menefee’s performance gave Mumford’s catalog of songs a Southern twang, allowing it to merge country to its power-driven anthems. It was what differentiated Mumford & Sons’ “Awake My Soul,” “Lover of the Light,” and “I Will Wait” from every other pop songs that crawled up onto the sands of the radio during the mid-2010s.

And judging by its reception on Oct. 12, their music still speaks to their audience.

Columbus clearly loves Mumford & Sons; Mumford & Sons clearly loves this city in return. In a Lifestyles Communities Pavillion show in 2012, Mumford told the throng, “I heard about this and I wanted to test it to see if it was true … O-H?’ and the singer laughed when the crowd bellowed back in unison “…I-O.”

Nearly 13 years later, Mumford grinned mischievously as he talked about his connection with Columbus.

“This is more fun that it should be for work,” Mumford said. “There’s something special about this town. Growing up, my parents’ best friends in the world were from Columbus, Ohio. And they became my friends too. I grew up as a very small child wearing a lot of Buckeyes merchandise.

“Ok, we tell that to every town we go to, but I always had this affiliation with this place. It is a pretty (expletive) random place to have an affiliation with. I have always been very proud of my connection with Columbus, Ohio. And when we understand what they are, we get to do things like this … O-H.”

After the crowd, somewhat caught off guard, responded “I-O,” he chided them, “I’ve been looking forward to doing that for the last 10 years. I know this is a different crew but you’ve got to be ready for this (expletive).”

Getting the crowd riled up was no problem for Mumford & Sons; getting them to be quiet was another story. Dwane, Lovett, and Mumford circled around a microphone stand and before launching into a quietly elegant version of “Timshel” from the SIGH NO MORE album, Mumford pleaded with the audience for silence.

“You have been a little (expletive) rowdy … especially for a Sunday night in Ohio,” he said. “You have been the loudest crowd we’ve played to. As fun as it has been to play for you, you can all (expletive) it up right now. We’re going to try to sing you a song with just this one microphone. It’s going to be really quiet. It’s a team game, so thank you so much for coming, now shut the (expletive) up.”

Unfortunately for the trio, enforcing that edict was something all the security crews in the world couldn’t do.

Photo Credit: GREG BARTRAM @NationwideArena