The Lumineers, photo by Bill Kelly

On July 11, The Lumineers stepped into the spotlight at Queens, N.Y.’s Citi Field for their largest New York show to date. Before a packed house in the over 41,000 capacity stadium, the esteemed indie folk duo of Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites presented an electrifying performance that drew from throughout their 20-year discography, matching new and old favorites in a testament to their continued innovation.

Schultz and Fraites were backed by their longtime touring ensemble of Stelth Ulvang, Brandon Miller, Lauren Jacobson and Byron Isaacs; as all members of the outfit are gifted performers on multiple instruments, rotations throughout the show added another layer of excitement. On Friday night, the band stormed the stage with “Same Old Song,” the first track off their recent fifth studio album Automatic. In keeping with previous sets of their Automatic World Tour, they progressed through seven further standouts from their new album, including “You’re All I Got,” “Asshole,” “Plasticine” and the title track, interspersed between classics like “Ho Hey,” “Angela,” “Cleopatra” and the show-closing “Stubborn Love.” The show’s most powerful moment arrived near its conclusion, when Schultz led a cover of “New York State of Mind” dedicated to his brother Sam, who passed away earlier this year.

While The Lumineers’ return to the Big Apple was already a highly anticipated and publicized show, it tipped into true virality with an onstage gaffe from a local legend. As the band struck the first chords of their chart-topping 2016 single “Ophelia,” they welcomed the iconic Mr. Met, who appeared in suspenders matching Fraites’ look and promptly fumbled a tambourine thrown by Schultz, kicked a microphone under the piano and walked directly off the side of the stage. Whether his rhythm was thrown by his brolic new costume, the glare from a stadium lined with LED wristbands or the electrifying performance, the 62-year-old mascot rebounded quickly, and the Mets went on to beat out the Kansas City Royals in a 2-1 series.

Get an inside look at The Lumineers’ landmark performance in the city where they launched their career in the gallery below, courtesy of photographer Bill Kelly. Find tickets and more information on the ongoing Automatic World Tour at thelumineers.com.

“The real issue was how to get [our] demos out to the world and get on a stage in New York City and beyond,” Schultz wrote about The Lumineers’ origins in Relix’s Summer 2025 Festival Guide issue. “I began filling this binder up with pages, like some sort of dossier on the things in music I didn’t understand. That was my mission—to crack the code on how the hell a band gets signed, plays certain venues and, eventually, begins to tour.” Read the artist’s full “My Page” here.

@espn Elite recovery by Mr. Met 😤 (via @jesse finver) #lumineers #nymets ♬ original sound – ESPN