Lucius Kicks off Wildewoman Anniversary Tour with Minneapolis Concert

Last updated on February 23rd, 2024 at 06:23 am

Opening the 10th-anniversary tour of their debut album, Lucius displayed their patented harmonies and thoughtful connection to a sold-out First Avenue audience on Thursday.

Wildewoman was their “firstborn,” an album that proved to them that they could “make a living as artists”. To celebrate, they played the album cover to cover, even revisiting one song in a surprise encore. And they added a collection of other tracks that showed the slower, chill side of their performance.

Opening with “Wildewoman” and “Turn it Around,” the crowd sang along with enthusiasm. Recognizing this, Lucius stepped beyond their instruments and held mics to the crowd for portions of “Go Home”. 

Lucius sang mostly without pause or crowd commentary during the set. But when they did address the crowd, it was deeply heartfelt with gratitude. They spoke of the importance of Minneapolis being a “huge part” of their success, clearly evidenced by their three local shows within the last six months.

One moment of genuine and entertaining gratitude was when they read letters from fans. They even brought out a giant red mailbox and pulled letters from it. Highlights included someone driving here from Milwaukee to see them and someone recalling a long ago concert at the Cedar Cultural Center.

Beyond Wildewoman tracks, the songs kept a consistent mood. There were no faster, pop, or synth-infused tracks like “Born Again Teen” or the more recent “Next to Normal.” But they did use their patented shared microphone for harmonious perfection on tracks like “Genevieve”.

Keeping with their gratitude, Lucius honored other artists by playing several covers in their swoon-worthy style, including “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears, “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” by Buddy Holly, and “Wonderful” by My Morning Jacket. All can be found on various extended-release albums or YouTube clips.

A special treat was their live debut of “Housewarming”, with opener Jeff Taylor joining in. The song was originally recorded for Wildewoman but never made it to the final release. They also played the new “Stranger Danger,” a song that explores if human connection is “slowly becoming strange or foreign.” That sentiment certainly seemed false, at least for the night and certainly during their surprise encore.

That was when Lucius went into the crowd and the center floor of the venue for stripped-down songs. They revisited an even more soulful version of “Two of Us on the Run” before closing with Paul McCartney’s “Goodbye”. If recent concert history is an indication, it will not be “goodbye” for long.