I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: August 14, 2016] The Avett Brothers

Sarah and I were supposed to go see The Avett Brothers but our child care debacle meant that only I could go.  Other people did bring their kids to the show (there were quite a few kids, actually).  Once I showed up, I suggested that she come with the kids but they were settled in for the night by then.  This would have been a much more fun show with Sarah–The Avett Brothers are a fun band meant to be shared with your neighbors.

But at the same time, among a sea of really short people, the two guys right in front of me were gigantic.  And worse yet, they talked to each other throughout the show by leaning in to each other.  I tried to watch the first two songs between their giant heads but they kept leaning in and blocking my entire view.  So I moved to the side of them and the guy next to me asked me to move back to give him more room.  Well, since I had paid for two tickets I was using the space.  So if Sarah had been there, we would have been really tightly packed and one of us would have seen nothing.

When I joked that since Sarah couldn’t come I hoped the show would be terrible so she wouldn’t miss anything, she retorted with a line from the great Amy Schumer Abusive Relationship sketch: “I hope the next time you got to a concert that the band doesn’t play the song you want to hear and instead they just play songs from their NEW ALBUM.”  And that came true when they did not play the couple of songs I really wanted to hear and did in fact play six songs from their new album.  I like a bunch of Avett Brothers songs quite a lot, although I don’t know a lot of their catalog.  I don’t have their first releases and I haven’t gotten their newest album (although I have listened to the new album a few times and did like it).

So if I’m not a huge fan, why go?  Well,I had heard that their live shows were epic–fun and wild with sing alongs and foot stomping and covers and all that good stuff.  So my expectations were high for a good time.  The crowd seemed largely into it–although as I said the people on either side of me were real drags.  It was even weirder when during a couple of slow songs, there was a lot of chatter around me.  I think everyone was distracted by the flashes of lightning that filled the sky in the distance.  Knowing that previous shows were cancelled, those flashes were worrisome.  The lightning stay far away and were actually very cool to see and despite the threats, it never rained on us and nothing was cancelled.

The band consists of Scott Avett (banjo, guitar, piano and lead vocals), Seth Avett (guitar, piano vocals), Joe Kwan (cello–the most dynamic cello player I’ve ever seen), Mike Marsh on drums, Paul Defiglia on keyboard, organ and upright bass (saw him with Langhorne Slim earlier), Tania Elizabeth on fiddle (and a fun fringe-filled dress) and Bob Crawford as the main bassist.

The show got off to a rollicking start with “The D Bag Rag” a great instrumental where each instrument gets to shine–the Brothers clapped and encouraged us to do so and then everyone played kazoos (and threw them to the audience).

They followed that with the fast singing of “Talk on Indolence,” a fun older song.  “Go to Sleep” opened with Kwan and Elizabeth playing the melody and getting us to sing along to the “La La La.”  I enjoyed later in the show after a particularly fast part that Kwon and Lizabeth “high-fived” with their bows.  “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise” was wonderful with Scott playing piano.  Then they played a great bass-rumbling version of their new single “Ain’t No Man.”  On some of the songs the bass was mixed a little too loud, but it sounded perfect on this song.  This was followed by the title of the new album “True Sadness” (a surprisingly upbeat number), with some nice lyrics about a woman seeking independence.

I’ve mentioned many times that I don’t really like covers, but their cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tangled up in Blue” was masterful and a concert highlight (and the one song I know Sarah would have really liked to see).

They jumped back to their 2004 album Migonette for the banjo based “The New Love Song.”  I really liked that Scott played the banjo for most of the show–he switched to guitar and piano (and even harmonica) occasionally.  Seth played acoustic guitar almost exclusively, although he played piano on a couple of songs as well.

They played “Smithsonian,” a song from the new album which I really like.  It was followed by another new song, “You Are Mine” which has  a fun chorus.

And then the guy in front of me went bananas because just as he has sort of shouted “Paranoia” (no way the band could have heard him) they played “Paranoia in B-flat Major.”  And holy cow was he excited.  And it was a romping song–lots of fun percussion and singing from both singers.  I never knew how much they trade off lead vocals–their voices sound similar yet each Brother can do a great falsetto harmony when called for–like at the end of this song when they both sang some crazy high “La la” notes.  Scott invited the men to sing along with them.  At the end Seth commented that that song really separates the men…from the men who can sing high notes.

The one thing I don’t like about the Avett Brothers is when they veer away from folk and Americana into country, as they did with their cover of “The Prettiest Thing.”  Granted it was fun and rousing country with lots of foot stomping, but it’s not exactly my thing.

Then things got really quiet when Seth played a gorgeous solo version of “The Ballad of Love & Hate.”   The crowd was absolutely quiet and respectful–actually some people sang along).  It was followed by a gorgeous duet of Scott and Seth on the new (and beautiful) song “Fisher Road to Hollywood,”  About midway through, Kwan came out and his cello added a bit more beauty to the song.

They followed this up with the fourth song from their Emotionalism album (the other new one I don’t know), “Salina.”  “Salina” is a fun song that name-checks a lot of cities  It also had a pretty instrumental section of piano and strings.

Then came the stomping new song “Satan Pulls The Strings” (with lots of great call and response vocals).  This song really got the crowd going.

And then they played some songs that I knew well–the pretty “Live and Die” which sounded great and had everyone singing along.  And “The Laundry Room,” a slower song with (more) great harmonies.

They switched to a stomping old song, “The Traveling Song” which had some more fun solos.  And they ended the main set with “Morning Song” the song I know best from this first set. I was really happy to hear it.

They left for an encore brake and said they had a song or two left in them.  They played a Willie Nelson cover called “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer).” And then they ended the show with a gorgeous version of “I and Love and You.”

When the set was over, Scott grabbed a setlist, signed it and crumbled it and threw it into the audience about three rows in front of me.  Seth did the same on the other side of the stage and then picks and such were thrown into the first few rows.

The whole band was fun and friendly and I enjoyed pretty much all of the songs, but somehow I didn’t leave feeling as great as I tend to after a show.

I had heard that the band played 25 plus songs at shows, so I was exacting  little more.  I see that they played 22 songs, whereas on recent shows they’ve been playing up to 29 songs.  I assume they had to cut their set short because of the End of Musikfest Fireworks that began pretty much as soon as the band ended.  And while seeing an awesome fireworks show on the way to my car was pretty cool, I’d have really rather heard a few more songs from the band.

So between Sarah not being able to come, the audience around me, the potential storm and my super high expectations, I came away a little disappointed in the show.   That’s pretty tough to say about a show that was an hour and 45 minutes that was flawlessly executed.  But how could they not play “Kick Drum Heart” or “Open-Ended Life?”

setlist