Less than a year since they played across the street at the puny 7th Street Entry, Denver acoustic strummers the Lumineers have announced a big gig May 31 at Target Center. The "Ho Hey" hitmakers and best new artist Grammy nominees will be joined by Cold War Kids -- who play a sold-out First Ave gig this Saturday -- plus Tennessee rockers J. Roddy & the Business. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. for $45, $35 and $30 through the Target Center box office or AXS.com.
That's quite a leap for a band that's essentially still a one-hit wonder. However, that one hit is still in steady rotation all over the FM dial locally, from Cities 97 and 89.3 the Current to KS95 and K-TWIN 96.3. Some stations have also been spinning the follow-up single "Stubborn Love," but it stalled at No. 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (compared to No. 3 for "Ho Hey"). The group did play to a large crowd at the Basilica Block Party last summer -- in fact, singer Wesley Schultz said it was their biggest up to that point -- but the audience reaction was actually rather tepid.
The lineup for this year's July 12-13 Basilica bash, by the way, will be announced April 18, two days after the acts for the June 15 Rock the Garden concert will be revealed. The Lumineers could've been a commercially bankable headliner for either of those, but sunny, feel-good acoustic acts like that always go over better inside dank sports arenas than outside on a starry night in summer. Don't they?
