Wandering through love, loss and discographies with Lord Huron

Photo by Britney Henderson, News Editor

“I’ve gotten a lot out of listening to albums in my life, and well, maybe you can get something out of listening to ours,” said Lord Huron’s frontman Ben Schneider. “But whatever you do, don’t listen to it backwards, you’re gonna open up a portal, (and) some shit is gonna come into your life that you do not want to meet — or maybe you do, I don't know your life.”

Fifteen years after their first show at the Grand Star Jazz Club, Lord Huron closed out the Cosmic Selector Tour in their home city of Los Angeles on Nov. 2 at the Kia Forum. 

The show was a perfect, harmonious tribute to their most recent album, “The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1,” an album inspired by a jukebox that transports one to alternate universes where life plays out a little differently. But that night, I wouldn’t have rather been in any other cosmos than this one. 

The band opened with “Who Laughs Last,” which was the first track released nearly seven months before the full album in July. They then smoothly followed up with “Looking Back,” where the audience was introduced to a nameless man on a quest for love, the first character of the narrative Lord Huron would weave throughout the rest of the night.

“The first act of our show — one of 40 — finds our beloved cast of characters in strange and unfamiliar territory — an arena,” joked Schneider. “How about an old and familiar tune to ease their troubled minds?”

He then went into the 2012 release “Ends of the Earth,” which is on their second studio album, “Lonesome Dreams.” Other older releases like “Wait by the River” and my personal favorite song of the night, “Ghost On The Shore,” were also played.

Then it was time for our character to return and take a call from a payphone onstage, which was equipped with a microphone and a fishbowl camera lens, to make the audience feel as if they were part of the conversation.

“There are rules, and there is a price for breaking them,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. “No one runs free from fate without paying back their cosmic debt.”

A few songs later, a female character was introduced as the man’s love interest. The two performed a contemporary dance to an instrumental track before Schneider returned to play “Long Lost,” a song often interpreted to be about feeling romantically astray. But as the pair continued to dance, it seemed as if they had been found by each other.

But their fate changed shortly after when they appeared on a second, smaller stage for “I Lied.” Although initially seeming happy, and almost reminiscent of a first dance at a wedding, the song’s message about broken promises and a failed relationship shone through as our male character became distracted by the woman singing the female verses of the song.

Lord Huron’s final tracks before the encore came from their “Strange Trails” album, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. The last glimpse of our characters came during “The Night We Met,” which is largely credited with the band’s success due to its use in the 2017 show “13 Reasons Why” and its subsequent rise in popularity on social media. Although the couple began the song dancing, by the end, the woman leaves the man and he finds that despite his attempt to defy fate, he ended exactly where he started — without love.

Fans, such as myself, are holding out hope for “Cosmic Selector Vol. 2,” but Schneider teased the crowd, saying, “Who the hell knows? It's hard planning ahead in this crazy world.”

It may have been Lord Huron’s first time at the Forum, but if tonight’s show and their continuous rise in popularity are any indicator, they will certainly be back. 

“So long, good luck, goodbye,” said Schneider. "Until next time, may you live until you die.”