The Lumineers brighten up Star Lake with career-spanning set

In a field of flowing skirts and flower crowns, Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, the two-man group that is The Lumineers, lit up the night sky at the Pavilion at Star Lake during their Automatic World Tour performance Wednesday night.

As the sun set on the audience, The Lumineers started the show with a bang with the 2025 release “Same Old Song.”

During the set, they played songs from across their discography, leaning heavily on their latest album, “Automatic,” which debuted in February.

Schultz and Fraites, clad in his iconic suspenders and fedora, led the audience through a flashback during the second song of the night: “Flowers in Your Hair.”

“(Same Old Song) is the first song on our latest album, and this is the first song on our first album,” Schultz said.

“Flowers” was released in 2012 on the group’s first, self-titled album.

He shared that there’s more than their world tour to celebrate in 2025.

“This marks 20 years of me and Jeremiah making music together,” Schultz said

With the sentiment, he introduced “You’re All I Got” by looking back on his time with Fraites.

“The best work we do together is when we admit we need each other, we put our egos aside,” Schultz said

Keeping the audience on their toes, The Lumineers wove the new with the old, performing hits such as “Ophelia,” “Cleopatra,” “Ho Hey” and “Angela” in between newer releases like “Plasticine” and “Automatic.”

Schultz said Wednesday’s crowd was the largest the band has ever performed in front of in Pittsburgh. He showed his appreciation by weaving through the crowd and into the lawn seating of the venue while performing “Brightside.”

He was met with concertgoers’ flashlights lighting up the night sky.

The pace slowed for a bit with recent release “Ativan,” a song that personifies the temptation of drug use.

“I thought it’d be really interesting if there was a love song that somehow had the drug who was singing you the love song, who was trying to seduce you to take it,” Schultz said.

Later in the show, Schultz introduced Reed Connolly, a Pittsburgh native who plays the banjo in country star Zach Bryan’s band. Connolly played with The Lumineers front and center during “Gale Song.” He stayed for the rest of the set.

In honor of his brother, Sam, who unexpectedly died five weeks before the show, Schultz performed a cover of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.”

“Sam loved music,” Schultz said. “This is one we sang together.”

After 26 songs, The Lumineers closed the set with fan favorite “Stubborn Love.”

Before the main event, Minnesota indie rock band Hippo Campus opened the show. The group, featuring Jake Luppen, Nathan Stocker, Zach Sutton, Whistler Allen and DeCarlo Jackson, set a fast pace with tracks from their 2024 album “Flood,” including “Madman,” “Paranoid” and “Tooth Fairy.”

With enthusiastic approval from the audience, the group flowed into fan favorites such as “Baseball,” “Way it Goes” and “South.” Their 11-song set lasted a little under an hour.