Fans of Grammy-nominated Indie rock band The Lumineers are in for a treat as they confirm the two-city SA leg of their world tour.
“Brightside World Tour 2022” will be in Cape Town at the Grand Arena, GrandWest, on November 30, and at the SunBet Arena, Time Square, Pretoria, on December 2.
The band’s anticipated return to SA is in celebration of their fourth studio album, “Brightside”, which features fan favourites like “A.M. Radio”, “Big Shot”, “Where We Are” and their chart-topping first single and title track, “Brightside”.
Produced by Simone Felice with David Baron credited for producing, mixing and engineering on the new album, which comes after a two-year wait for fans.
The nine-song collection sees The Lumineers’ co-founders/co-songwriters Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites performing with David Baron on a wide variety of keyboards and backing vocals.
The “Brightside” album came along after the band were forced off the road in March 2020 while on a two-year tour due to the coronavirus pandemic.
That July, Fraites and Schultz started working on new material together, continuing into September, when Fraites moved to Italy.
At that point, Schultz headed to the Catskills, where the group’s producer Felice and co- producer, engineer and mixer, Baron, lived and worked.
There, they record a batch of stripped-back covers of songs from favourites. Two months later, Fraites returned to Denver, and they resumed working on the songs that would comprise “Brightside”with renewed energy and perspective.
Schultz recalls: “I was showing up at Simone and David’s studio not really knowing what we’d be doing that day, just letting things happen.
“There was no planning or choreography – we were creating in real time. And that experience seeped into the making of ‘Brightside’.”
While Fraites said he felt like 2020 was the most fertile creative period of his entire life.
“I finished the solo instrumental album, and when Wesley and I started working on songs together, I felt alive and switched on, and we worked really fast. I think we trusted ourselves more. We homed in on things.
“Making this record was about turning the judgmental part of your brain off and just being like a kid, but having the skills of someone who’s been playing for 20-plus years.
“It was a beautiful combination of innocence mixed with some level of acumen or skill— reconnecting with that innocent impulse you had when you first decided that you wanted to be a musician,” added Fraites.
They added: “The songs of ‘Brightside’ are buoyed by an underlying optimism. Although several of the songs are about a relationship being tested or coming apart, the soft and loud dynamic sets up wide-screen, electrifying climaxes that feel life-embracing.
“This is unquestionably our most rocking album. There’s a fire to this record that we don’t think we were willing to go for in the past. We were able to get out of our own way and go direct to the source,” they said.
Tickets go on sale on May 27 at 9am at Ticketmaster. The Discovery Bank pre-sale starts on May 25 at 9am.