July 22, 2025 - Minneapolis, MN

The fourth stop on the tour, Minneapolis, saw a sold-out Lord Huron show. Highlighting their newest album, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1, the show was otherworldly. Since Lord Huron entered the scene, they’ve done impressive world-building. These characters and worlds are brought to life through these shows and demand full attention. Blink and you might miss something.

As just a casual listener, I was unfamiliar with the lore of Lord Huron, so I jumped into the rabbit hole of their history before attending the show. Lead singer Ben Schneider created an entire world around Lord Huron's albums. Their music videos, songs, and comic books all aid in the storytelling. Schneider goes so far as to create fictional characters, such as George Ranger Johnson, who play an important role in his songwriting process. These characters also get credited as songwriters, so it’s easy to get them confused with real people. Many of the albums and songs are interwoven and continue storylines.

The stage slowly sprang to life, opening with Kristen Stewart’s voice at the beginning of “Who Laughs Last.” A jukebox, a set of four TVs, and a pay phone lit up the stage one by one before the visuals behind the stage appeared. The buildup in the first song only increased the anticipation for singer/songwriter/guitarist Ben Schneider to enter the stage. Sauntering over to the pay phone, Schneider embodied the character he chose to play for the night.

The aforementioned jukebox onstage came from the album cover of The Cosmic Selector Vol 1. In an interview with Melodic Magazine, Schneider explained the significance of the jukebox: “What if you could choose your fate, like choosing a song on a jukebox? What if your finger slipped, and you got the B-side instead?” The entire show explored this concept of fate, fiction, and regret.

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Schneider made it known there wouldn’t be much talking during his performance, and true to his word, he only spoke once before the encore. He didn’t need to do any talking because the music, visuals, and theatrics told the story on their own while leaving the audience to fill the gaps and make their own inferences. Imagine Twilight Zone meets cowboy, and those are the visuals appearing onscreen.

Since this tour was for their latest album, they played many songs from it, but they still played popular hits like “The Night We Met,” “Ends of the Earth,” and “Twenty Long Years” Each of the songs had a specific visual or element to them, whether it was the main screen visuals changing or the visuals on the four TV screens off to the side.

Throughout the night, there were dancers to help move the story along, and they were just beautiful to watch. The chemistry between the dancers was palpable. At some shows, the dancers have even come into the crowd and slow danced. During “I Lied,” keyboardist and vocalist Misty Boyce filled the role of featured artist, Allison Ponthier. Boyce and Schneider sounded ethereal together as they slowly stepped toward each other as the song wore on.

Pairing “Frozen Pines” and “Meet Me in the Woods” together with vines that hang from the ceiling added to the feeling of walking through the forest straight to the jukebox, like the cover of The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 shows. It might seem like a generalization to say everything in this show was connected, but I don’t think Schneider would disagree with me. It’s just what you manage to catch.

Closing out the show with “Digging Up the Past,” Schneider’s shadowy figure walked up to the jukebox, and the visuals onscreen abruptly glitched. With no explanation, it left the audience guessing. Did he become too dependent on the different life the jukebox gave him, or did he regret what he had chosen and want to change it? That’s up to the viewer to decide.