Lumineers set to kick off SPAC’s 2022 summer concert season
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s 2022 summer concert season will kick off this weekend with a visit from The Lumineers, the group behind hits like “Ho Hey,” “Ophelia” and “Stubborn Love.”
On the heels of releasing the new album BRIGHTSIDE featuring a chart-topping single of the same name, the indie folkrock band is heading out on its BRIGHTSIDE World Tour, set to stop in Saratoga Springs this Sunday evening of Memorial Day weekend.
This show begins a concertfilled summer in the Spa City, with more events on the SPAC schedule than any summer in recent memory.
Sunday’s event will also be special for the members of The Lumineers, who are no strangers to upstate New York. BRIGHTSIDE, which is the fourth studio album by Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, was recorded at Sun Mountain Studios in Ulster County. Additionally, Schultz often visits the Catskill Mountains. “I find myself out in that zone a lot and it’s very healing for me,” he said, sharing that he spent a few months there in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A couple of years later, Schultz and his bandmates will finally be in the spotlight at SPAC, where they were originally scheduled to perform in June of 2020.
Getting back out on the road feels like life is moving forward again, the lead vocalist said. “And I think a big part of that, for me and a lot of the people around me, is to be able to go to concerts and feel that energy, feel that community,” he explained. “It’s a way, I think, of filling that longing that we all feel — we have felt for over two years now. I think it really eases a lot of that.”
This year is important to The Lumineers, too, because it marks the 10-year anniversary of the band’s self-titled debut album. Three successful albums and several world tours later, “I feel so grateful for it,” Schultz said of the milestone, “but mostly I’m just proud of the fact that we get to make our own music on our own terms … and that just feels like a gift.”
Right along with that pride, Schultz feels humble about being in his position. “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around,” he said. “If I stand and look at the line going to a venue, ever, I kind of get like sick to my stomach because I don’t even understand it. I used to go to these concerts, and I was just some kid playing in some room writing my little songs, and then now this happens. I can’t put it all together. Most of it is just trying not to think too hard on it, because it will blow your mind.”
Supporting The Lumineers on this springtime leg of the tour is Ohio-based folk trio Caamp, which has a new album called Lavender Days coming out next month.
Following this season launch, Live Nation is set to bring a wide variety of nationally touring musical acts through Saratoga Springs this season, including Zac Brown Band, Dead & Company, Dave Matthews Band, Chicago, The Black Keys, Backstreet Boys, Steve Miller Band, Norah Jones, Luke Bryan, The Beach Boys, Sting and Jason Aldean, as well as popular comedians John Mulaney and Bill Burr. The year’s amphitheater entertainment will close out in September with a visit from Willie Nelson as part of his Outlaw Music Festival.
More information about SPAC’s 2022 Live Nation concert lineup is available online at spac. org.