September 25, 9 p.m. The lights shine on, the band on stage is revealed to the audience, and they begin their first song. Two hours later, the musicians end their final song and leave the stage with the audience cheering and applauding.

That is how that Monday night went on the stage of the Santa Fe Opera House, but unfortunately many people didn’t get to experience the grace of the band known as Fleet Foxes.

Fleet Foxes is an indie folk band that formed in 2006 and gained popularity in 2008 with the release of their second EP, “Sun Giant.” They now have four albums: “Sun Giant (February 2008), “Fleet Foxes” (June 2008), “Helplessness Blues” (May 2011), and “Crack-Up” (June 2017).

The band managed to produce an EP and a whole album in 2008 alone, which bolstered their popularity. “Rolling Stone” magazine’s website gave the first album a rating of four out of five, and Pitchfork Media gave it a 9 out of 10. According to “The Guardian,” the band sold over 200,000 copies of the album within the first five months of its release, earning them even more popularity. The band does well in the United States, but has had more success in Europe.

The band has five members: Robin Pecknold, Skyler Skjelset, Casey Wescott, Christian Wargo and Morgan Henderson. “Rolling Stone” reports that Pecknold and Skjelset were best friends in high school in Seattle. Both avid music lovers, they began making music together and gained their first attention in 2005. Soon the other three band members joined in.

The most popular Fleet Foxes song is “White Winter Hymnal,” from the “Fleet Foxes” album. The song placed #5 on “Time” magazine’s 2008 list of songs, but was ranked #2 by Pitchfork Media in that year and #66 on their decade-end list. They played that song at the Santa Fe show as well as two of their other most popular songs, “Blue Ridge Mountains” and “Mykonos,” which had the crowd joyfully singing along.

But this is still not mentioning their other famous songs, including “Helplessness Blues” and “Ragged Wood,” which also had the audience at the Sept. 25 concert, their first in Santa Fe, singing along to the beautiful and whimsical tunes.

Even though it is just an indie folk band, which means they’re bound to have a smaller audience than a pop or rap band, their fans believe they deserve much more attention and praise. The fact that that they aren’t one of the most popular bands is surprising to many of their listeners, and something they’re always trying to fix by spreading their name.