A household name in the world of indie-rock music, Band of Horses made its Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival debut Saturday.

With widely popular songs such as “The Funeral” and “No One’s Gonna Love You,” many people in the crowd were waiting in great anticipation for the show.

“I feel like Band of Horses was a big thing for me when I was 15,” festivalgoer Sam Hargett said. “It was like 2009 and I was hyped on them. In the last probably month and a half they’ve been coming up as a thing people are talking about.”

Columbia native Lingley Bennett is a regular at Roots N Blues.

She has been attending the festival since it began in 2006, before it was held at Stephens Lake Park, and she has been excited to watch it flourish into the large event it is today.

“It started when I was 13 and now I’m 23,” Bennett said. “It’s this thing you grew up thinking was cool. Then you get older and you realize the significance, that this is in my hometown and these big names, like Band of Horses, come to play these shows.”

Lead singer Ben Bridwell demonstrated that he understood the importance of Columbia to the Roots N Blues crowd.

“I come from a town called Columbia, South Carolina,” Bridwell said before beginning his set. “It’s probably not as cool as Columbia, Missouri.”

Band of Horses delivered a performance that combined a balanced mix of its newer music and its older tracks that filled the audience with nostalgia from the beginning of the band’s career.

Demonstrated by the impressive turnout at the show, it is clear that bringing well-known acts such as Band of Horses to a local festival like Roots N Blues encourages a large crowd to attend. The band had no trouble living up to the hype surrounding its set, and the reactions of the people in attendance proved that.

_Edited by Claire Colby | ccolby@themaneater.com_