The Weather Couldn’t Kill the Vibe: Barenaked Ladies at Wolf Trap
Words by Dan Rozman
Photos by Mark Raker
Nobody expected perfect weather for the recent Barenaked Ladies show at Wolf Trap, but the storms that rolled through Virginia that night were something else. At one point, the IMAX screens told people on the lawn to find shelter. But Wolf Trap crowds don’t give up that easily.
Certain aspects of the research and/or drafting for this piece may have had AI assistance.
The whole evening had this weird energy where Mother Nature was trying to mess with the party, but nobody was having it. At Wolf Trap on July 16, Fastball got things started at 7pm, and during their set both Kevin Hearn and Ed Robertson from BNL sat in to jam with them. Robertson joked that he might as well stick around since he had to be there later anyway. You could tell this was going to be one of those nights where the bands just decided to have fun with it.
Sugar Ray took over as the middle of the three bands and did their thing with all those mashups they love doing. They mixed “Fly” with some Sublime, threw in some Ginuwine, and it was fun. The crowd was into it, even with everyone keeping one eye on the sky.
By the time BNL hit the stage as the headlining act, it must have been very hot under all those lights. The band made it their mission to jokingly complain about it all night long, When they got to “If I Had a Million Dollars,” Ed Robertson threw in “with air conditioning” when he sang I would buy you a house.
Watch Barenaked Ladies perform “If I Had a Million Dollars” live for Farm Aid on YouTube:
Robertson was joking about things all night. He pointed out that Wolf Trap has been around forever and they’ve never actually trapped any wolves, which got a chuckle from the audience. Then he went off on this bit about how people always butcher the pronunciation of their song titles because they’ve got French words in them.
But the best part was when he joked that fans always ask for new songs at shows. He did this whole impression: “Look, I’ve seen you so many times, and frankly we’re all kind of tired of the hits. Why don’t you challenge yourselves and play something from your new record that nobody knows?” He used that as a lead to playing new, lesser-known songs.
About halfway through their set, the band went into an “employee of the week” bit. They talked about how this presumably fake program makes their already great crew work even harder. So naturally, when they started the song, crew member Johnny Carver took it as his cue to come out and dance to “Lookin’ Up.”
Watch the official music video for “Lookin’ Up” by Barenaked Ladies on YouTube:
The BNL comradery is part of what made the show work. These guys have been doing this for over 30 years, and they could probably phone it in if they wanted to. Instead, they’re out there trying new stuff, making jokes, and clearly having fun.
The setlist mixed covers and BNL originals. They opened with The Beach Boys, hit a lot of the songs people wanted to hear, threw in a Van Halen cover, and even worked in the Big Bang Theory theme song. Jim Creeggan did a bass solo that turned into the Muppet Show theme, which was weird and perfect at the same time. They also played a mashup that included everything from Chappell Roan to Beyoncé to that “Hot to Go” song everyone’s obsessed with. It shouldn’t have worked, but somehow it totally did. Then all three bands came back out for “Summer of ’69” and “Hot Fun in the Summertown” to end the night in the cooler not rainy evening.
Wolf Trap itself deserves a lot credit. The Filene center has been around since 1971, and it has a history that you can feel when you’re there. Catherine Filene Shouse donated her farm to create America’s only national park for performing arts, which is pretty cool when you think about it. The venue was built to fit into the natural setting, and on a night like this, even with the crazy weather, you could see why that matters.
The lawn at Wolf Trap is its own thing. People bring blankets, chairs, coolers, whatever they need to make it work. When the weather got bad, they didn’t bail — they just covered up and waited it out. There’s something about being outside for live music that makes everything feel more connected and real.
What really stuck with people walking out that night wasn’t just that the music was great, though it definitely was. It was how the whole thing came together — the weather, the jokes, the surprise guest spots, the way all the bands seemed genuinely happy to be playing together. You can’t plan that kind of chemistry.
Wolf Trap keeps doing what it’s been doing for over 50 years now, bringing in artists who understand that playing there is different from playing anywhere else. The venue runs shows from May through September, and every year there are nights like this one where everything just clicks in a way that people remember for years.
When you’re driving home from a show like that, windows down because the rain cooled it off, you’re already thinking about when you can get back. That’s the Wolf Trap magic right there — it’s not just about the music, though that helps. It’s about being part of something that feels spontaneous and real, even when you know these guys are professionals who’ve done this thousands of times before.
The July 16 show proved something that anyone who goes to Wolf Trap regularly already knows — sometimes the best nights are the ones where the weather doesn’t cooperate but everyone just rolls with it anyway.
Setlists
Fastball
* Tequila (The Champs song)
* Sooner or Later
* You’re an Ocean (with Kevin Hearn)
* Love Comes in Waves / The Joker (Steve Miller Band cover)
* Out of My Head (with Kevin Hearn)
* Fire Escape (with Ed Robertson) (and Kevin Hearn)
* The Way (with Ed Robertson) (and Kevin Hearn)
Sugar Ray
* The Stripper (David Rose song)
* Someday / Groovin’ (Sugar Ray’s “Someday” interpolated with the Rascals’ “Groovin'”)
* Every Morning
* Answer the Phone
* When It’s Over
* Falls Apart
* Pony / Everything About You (Ginuwine’s “Pony” segued into Ugly Kid Joe’s “Everything About You”)
* Fly / What I Got (Sugar Ray’s “Fly” interpolated with Sublime’s “What I Got”)
* Tiny Bubbles (Don Ho song)
Barenaked Ladies
* Wouldn’t It Be Nice (The Beach Boys song)
* Gonna Walk
* The Old Apartment
* Adlib / Big Bad Wolf
* Hello City / I Love You
* Just Wait
* Pinch Me
* Big Back Yard
* Clearly Lost
* Brian Wilson
* One Night
* Raisins
* Jump (Van Halen cover)
* Fifty for a While
* Four Seconds
* Lookin’ Up (with dance by Johnny Carver)
* Odds Are
* Big Bang Theory Theme
* Jim Creeggan Upright Bass Solo / The Muppet Show Theme / Mahna Mahna
* One Week
* If I Had $1000000
* Love and Mercy (Brian Wilson cover)
* Pink Pony Club / TEXAS HOLD ‘EM / The Gambler / Abracadabra / HOT TO GO! / BIRDS OF A FEATHER / Forever Young / Sometimes When We Touch (Chappell Roan/Beyoncé/Kenny Rogers/Lady Gaga/Chappell Roan/Billie Eilish/Alphaville/Dan Hill)
* So Long, Farewell (Rodgers & Hammerstein cover)
* Highway to Hell (AC/DC cover) (with Miles Zuniga) (including a brief snippet of lyrics from “Sometimes When We Touch”)
Encore
* Lovin’ Life
* Summer of ’69 (Bryan Adams cover) (with Sugar Ray) (and Fastball)
* Hot Fun in the Summertime (Sly Stone song)
Here are some photos of Barenaked Ladies headlining Wolf Trap on July 16, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Mark Raker.
Here are some photos of Sugar Ray opening Barenaked Ladies at Wolf Trap on July 16, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Mark Raker.
