After issuing more of an arena-rock-flavored album back in May, it's about time Mumford & Sons got around to booking an arena show in the Twin Cities. The British folk-rock hitmakers will return to Xcel Energy Center on Thursday, April 21. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via mumfordandsons.com or the X's box office for $40 and $60. Los Angeles' Americana singer/songwriter Blake Mills will open.
Marcus Mumford and his hard-strumming band swung through the Upper Midwest shortly after their rockier album "Wilder Mind" came out last June when they put on one of their Gentlemen of the Road "pop-up festivals" in small-town Waverly, Iowa, which was heavily marketed in the Twin Cities. Their last time in town was their first time at Xcel Center in 2013, a show that sold out fast. That was quite a leap from the Varsity Theater, where they played in 2010 (and they famously hit the 400 Bar just two years earlier opening for and backing Laura Marling).
Things have changed almost as much musically as it has commercially in that time for the group. In an interview before their Waverly show, bassist Ted Dwane said their changeover to a fully electric sound on "Wilder Mind" was a natural progression.
"It happened as naturally as everything else we've done," he said, noting that the breakthrough "Babel" album "represented us at that time."
"I think we did a good job exploring the parameters of that lineup of the band with acoustic instruments and not having a drummer. As we started writing songs for the third album, though, it became pretty apparent that people just weren't that excited to play acoustic instruments this time."
