Kevin Bronson on May 19th, 2015

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Lord Huron’s cinematic folk music evokes the expansive vistas of the American West — imagine a heartsick man ahorseback tortured by the life he left behind, or expectant about the one he’ll find. Singer-guitarist Ben Schneider and mates squeezed every ounce of ennui out of it in front of the misty-eyed multitudes at the Wiltern on Saturday night, playing songs from their new album “Strange Trails” and 2012’s “Lonesome Dreams.”

Then, at the end, faster than you can say “Shane! Come back!,” there was a balloon drop.

||| Photos by Kelsey Heng

It was but one turn in the strange trail through which Lord Huron led the sold-out crowd. The show opened with a New Orleans brass band marching down the aisle toward the stage to serenade the band’s entrance. The music was interrupted four times for “dramatic readings,” courtesy of a stentorian-voiced narrator. Between that and the overall production design — plants dotted the stage, which was backed by the colorful “Strange Trails” script and a skeleton’s head against a faux wooden backdrop — it made for a night of grand theater.

Schneider and drummer Mark Barry worked with creative director Maureen Towey and lighting designer Bobby Mathias to conceptualize the visual stylings, but it was the band who made it all sound good. Whether the songs were paced at a gallop, trot or lope, Schneider’s weary but hopeful troubadour’s voice sailed high above the echoing foundation laid down by Barry, bassist-keyboardist Miguel Briseno and guitarists Tom Renaud and Brandon Walter.

The crowd barely had time to process the first dramatic reading when Lord Huron launched into its set with the first three songs from the new album, “Love Like Ghosts,” “Until the Night Turns” and “Dead Man’s Hand.” Building a narrative, perhaps? No. After Schneider commented that “it’s great to be back in L.A.” following a month-long, 25-date tour, the band rewound to “Lonesome Dreams” title track, perhaps out of a desire to give the crowd something more familiar. With the new album having dropped in April, though, this hometown crowd demonstrated by sing-along (more females than males, by the way) that they were well-versed in “Strange Trails.”

Three first-album songs followed dramatic reading No. 2 — “The Ghost on the Shore,” “She Lit a Fire” and “I Will Be Back One Day” — before Lord Huron played the new song “Way Out There,” with Briseno on the theremin for maximum haunting effect. Then Jessica Maros of the Nashville duo Escondido guested on the sparkling new “Meet Me in the Woods” before the dramatic reader reappeared.

The single “Fool for Love” jolted the crowd into some Western dance moves at the concert’s one-hour mark, and after “The Stranger,” Lord Huron inspired a massive sing-along to the affirmation  “Ends of the Earth” to close the main set. Voices remained raised for the encore — “The Night We Met” and (naturally) “Time to Run,” with an elongated outro leading up to the crowd’s being showered with white balloons.

It was an album-release celebration, after all, and as the date-night crowd filed out, past the brass band playing the lobby, some had a balloon as a memento of the previous 90 minutes’ strange trail.

Family of the Year opened show with 45 minutes of mostly freshly minted songs that suggested they are putting their indie-pop days behind them. The new songs were more in the vein of War on Drugs folk-rock, and former FOTY member Vanessa Long (aka Cillie Barnes) made a guest appearance.