Review: Lord Huron at The Anthem on Aug. 2

As Lord Huron wrapped up the tour for their fifth studio album The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 (2025) at The Anthem on Aug. 2, the band offered concertgoers the ultimate D.C. dream: an escape from reality. With the album’s central concept—a surreal, 1960s-style jukebox—Lord Huron transported the crowd into a world of alternative timelines and parallel universes. Frontman Ben Schneider walked a fine line with his phantasmic world Sunday night, sure not to brush off the city’s political tensions while also offering a glimpse into a D.C. without a despot.

Before embarking on this cosmic journey, opener August Ponthier helped to ground the crowd. Sensing that excitement was ready to boil over, the non-binary folk artist took to the stage a few minutes before 8 p.m. Their austere set, featuring only their name in white text against a black background, allowed the spotlight to be on their voice. Holding tight to their acoustic guitar, Ponthier reflected on their experiences growing up in Texas and coming out as non-binary in October.

Before singing their title track “Everywhere Isn’t Texas,” Ponthier acknowledged the complexity of identity, place, and politics. While they expressed their admiration for those staying in Texas to fight for the state’s future, they also reminded the audience that no one “has to stay in Texas” if it’s not safe—and, for many right now, it isn’t. Ponthier, fortunately, is not only committed to talking the talk but also to walking the walk. They informed the audience of their partnership with the Trans Education Network of Texas in an effort to bridge the gap between their non-binary identity, the music they make, and their home state’s pernicious politics. 

Ponthier’s words held a particular weight as they spoke them less than three miles from the White House, where the Trump administration is waging war not only on gender-affirming care but also on transgender people. In the face of such hateful rhetoric and policy, Ponthier offered hope, using not only their music but also their platform to advocate for the queer community. Ponthier, discussing their journey to Nashville, Tenn., to write an entire country record, preached that “you can do whatever the hell you want,” even, and often especially, when others do not understand. After Sunday night’s opening act, two things are for certain: it’s August, and it’s August Ponthier’s month.

It may be August Ponthier’s month, but it was undoubtedly Lord Huron’s night. The band opened the show with one of The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1’s lead singles: “Who Laughs Last?” featuring Kristen Stewart. Recordings of Stewart’s spoken-word verses were layered over live bass riffs and drumbeats and then accompanied by flashes of nostalgic vignettes showcasing haunted buildings and creeping vines. The combination of auditory and visual effects, along with an increasingly zealous crowd, created a stimulating—and perhaps even overstimulating—start to the show. While a somewhat dizzying choice, Lord Huron, in beginning with “Who Laughs Last?,” invited concertgoers to indulge in the very same sexy, eerie melancholy that Stewart sold to fans of the Twilight franchise. In doing so, the band assured concertgoers the night was sure to be cinematic. 

Lord Huron’s multi-layered instrumentals mirrored their multi-layered narrative universe. Panoramas of the American West—of red, rocky cliffs and arid valleys—illuminated the band, as they played hit tracks like “The Night We Might” and “Meet Me in the Woods” alongside songs from their new album. Retro graphics of rusty and rustic landscapes were met with equally retro props, like Schneider’s payphone. Periodically throughout the show, he seized the phone from its booth and held it tightly to his mouth. Staring directly into the camera with his face projected on the screen that framed the stage, Schneider sang seductively—at times almost whispering—allowing the twangy, deep drawl with which he addressed the crowd to carry through into the music.

The charisma of lead singer and founder Ben Schneider was a welcome surprise of the night. While the allure of his speaking voice is lesser known than the allure of his singing voice, it was arguably just as important in riling the crowd on Sunday night. However, it wasn’t just the gravelly sound of his voice that enticed the audience but also the substantive bite of his words. The band, choosing to conclude their tour in Washington, D.C., fulfilled their obligation to poke fun at the political madness of the city. Schneider implored concertgoers to listen to all fifty minutes of The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1, which he lovingly referred to as “that son of a bitch,” while “laying on the grass” or “looking at the reflecting pool.” He stopped to laugh with the crowd about the absurdity of Trump’s costly summer construction shenanigans before warning the audience not to listen to the album backwards or else “it opens up a portal and life changes for the worse.” Standing in a concert venue located in the epicenter of the world’s political and economic turmoil, I briefly wondered if that’s where it all went wrong. Fuck, if only it were that simple.

The havoc of this political moment has left the country feeling like a mere “Bag of Bones,” stripped down and exposed to even the most extreme forms of weather—both literally and figuratively. This tale of betrayal and abandonment told by Lord Huron struck a chord inside The Anthem on Sunday within a city and nation rocked by the same afflictions. Schneider, as he sang, assured the crowd that “empires rise and fall and burn” and that these unprecedented times exist within a very precedented cycle. And, if we don't persevere—though we will—we can, at the very least, have some fun. If “this is how [our] story ends,” Lord Huron reminds us, we can always find ourselves “stoned and broke and drunk again.” Within Schenider’s four-minute “Bag of Bones” serenade, he aptly summarized the experience of being a college kid in Trump’s D.C. Everything really is that serious, but, at the same time, it’s not serious at all.

That being said, if there’s anything you should be serious about, it’s catching Lord Huron the next time they’re playing in the nation’s capital.

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Grace Guernsey is a rising senior in the SFS studying Culture & Politics and minoring in Spanish. Her favorite track (by far) from The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 is “Looking Back.”