The Lumineers Light Up The Kia Forum With Two Nights Of Joy, Memory, & Music [Photos/Videos]

Some bands play concerts. The Lumineers host gatherings. On back-to-back nights at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA, Wesley Schultz, Jeremiah Fraites, and their ever-rotating ensemble did more than fill a cavernous arena. They shrank it into something that felt like a backyard under the Rocky Mountain stars, where strangers become neighbors and every chorus feels like an arm slung over your shoulder.

Before their final number on Friday night, Schultz reminisced about the band’s journey, at least as far as Los Angeles is concerned. Fifteen years ago, they were nobodies gigging at Molly Malone’s, then The Hotel Café, playing for bartenders and the occasional curious couple. He noted how he never thought they’d get to headline the Forum. His disbelief was, well, believable, not because of any doubt about their talent, but rather that nobody in 2010 could have predicted that a scrappy folk act from Denver would one day become one of America’s most beloved touring powerhouses.

The Automatic World Tour was already a victory lap for a career that’s spanned five albums, countless sellouts, and a starring role in the roots revival. But the heart that Schultz and his bandmates brought to the Forum made this L.A. stop feel less like a gig and more like a homecoming.

The Lumineers had played this building before, as part of iHeartRadio’s ALTer Ego in 2020, but this was different. This was their name on the marquee, for two nights. No co-headliners or half-sets—just the band, their story, and the crowd they’d grown with.

London’s own Tom Odell opened both nights, seated at a piano with the kind of voice that stops conversations mid-sentence. With highlights like “Can’t Pretend”, the slow-burn ache of “Magnetised”, and a cathartic “Another Love”, his set was intimate and piercing, the perfect prelude for the communal warmth that would follow.

From the first strums of “Same Old Song” into the sprightly “Flowers in Your Hair”, The Lumineers pulled the Forum inward. The thrust stage brought Schultz, Fraites, and the full band into the center of the crowd for “Angela”, “Ho Hey”, and a hatless “Dead Sea”, collapsing the distance between arena and coffeehouse.

Between songs, Schultz reflected on his and Fraites’ 20 years of playing together. Theirs is a friendship as foundational to the band’s identity as their foot-stomp choruses and dusty harmonies.

“BRIGHTSIDE” became an adventure, with Schultz weaving through the audience, climbing up to the upper deck to sing to the rafters. “Sleep on the Floor” saw the arena showered in confetti, while “Gloria” kept the momentum driving forward.

Odell’s return to the stage for “Salt and the Sea” sent goosebumps through the building as he traded verses with Schultz before sliding onto the bench next to Fraites at the piano.

If the first half of The Lumineers’ set was a celebration, the second half was all about connection.

Fraites’ grand piano anchored “Automatic” with Schultz out on the thrust, followed by a raucous “Ophelia”, red jacket shed to reveal an AC/DC tee. “Big Parade” turned into a rotating cast of vocalists, a headstand from Stelth Ulvang on top of the piano (because why not?), and even a vocal solo from the usually reserved Fraites.

Then the mood shifted. Schultz stood “with a heavy heart,” sharing that his brother Sammy had recently passed away. The band had attended his funeral that past Sunday. Schultz shared his gratitude for music’s healing properties and how it connects him with other people, before dedicating a stripped-down “Ghost” (a Justin Bieber cover, of all things) to his late brother. The arena went quiet, with the kind of reverent silence that cuts deep.

Toward the end of the show, Schultz stepped out onto the thrust alone to sing “Cleopatra” before violinist Lauren Jacobson joined, followed by the full band.

“Stubborn Love” closed things out in cathartic unison, as an ode to the rocket ride that The Lumineers have been on for more than a dozen years now. Somewhere up in the concourse, Ulvang wandered with a guitar, adding to the sense that the whole building had become part of the band.

The Lumineers leave Inglewood with the same thing they brought in: an unwavering belief in the power of shared songs. Their place in the ongoing roots revival isn’t about chart positions or TikTok trends, but rather building spaces, big and small, where human connection trumps spectacle, even in a 17,500-seat arena.

The Automatic World Tour now winds north through the Pacific Northwest before landing at Chicago’s Soldier Field at the end of August, then continuing across North America until mid-November.

If you’ve ever shouted “Ho Hey” into a summer night or felt your chest crack open on the swell of a Lumineers chorus, you’d do well to catch them while this campfire’s still burning [get tickets]

The Lumineers – “Sleep On The Floor” – 8/9/25

[Video: bea]