A secret show hosted by The Peak featuring UK folk rockers Mumford & Sons packed Hamilton street with hundreds to thousands of eager fans who couldn't get tickets to their sold-out show at 560 Club. At 2:00 pm in the afternoon on Sunday May 30, 2010, the quartet - freshly in town from their gig at Sasquatch Festival - stepped out onto the patio of Capones Restaurant in Yaletown to thunderous applause. They were dumbfounded by the sheer enormity of the spontaneous crowd and singer Marcus Mumford humbly remarked, "Sasquatch was beautiful, but this is beautiful in a completely different way" and promised to be back in Vancouver in the fall.
It's easy to see why such a large, rapturous crowd gathered for Mumford & Sons after only one song, and they played 4. Their tunes, steeped heavily with the best elements of folk, bluegrass and alt-country, were paired with soulful, melancholy and romantic lyrics. Mumford especially stood out with his rich and gravelly voice, his impassioned guitar strumming which saw him break 3 guitar strings on 2 separate guitars, and his simultaneous kick-drumming. Mumford & Sons is a band to see live, and I really envy the people who got tickets in the mere minutes before the Sunday night show sold out.
Check out the complete photo set on my Flickr.
Below is a video by The Peak which demonstrates the size of the impromptu crowd: