Thursday, October 10, 2013

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)
The Avett Brothers

If e'er an inkling to see the Avett Brothers strikes, go.  The group is fantastic live, putting everything into their music and making sure the crowd walks away happy.

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)
Scott Avett

The energy and enthusiasm the Avetts display on stage is reminiscent of a punk rock band.  There are even elements of that music in some of their songs and it leads one to wonder what they did before picking up banjos, acoustics and uprights.

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)
Seth Avett

The Avetts are the masters of timing on stage.  Many bands just play all fast all slow or some piss poor mix of either, but these guys know how to sequence their songs to keep the audience with them much like good DJ's.  They hit songs from across their wide range of albums, focusing on the later pieces in the last 1/3 of the show.  This seems a fair way to do it, as some people love them for who they are now, and some really love the songs they have written over the last decade or so as well.

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)
Scott Avett

During the show, both both brothers played fantastic songs unaccompanied.  Seth played "The Ballad of Love and Hate" and Scott Avett came out and played an acoustic version of "Murder in the City" from The Gleam II.



During both of these songs it seemed the entire 6000 seat audience at the Shrine was singing along.

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)
Seth Avett

The band did a fantastic old timey version of "Jordan is hard road to travel:"



Upon looking for the name of the song, I found out it was an old minstrel song from 150 years ago.  The banjo has a strange darker origin story with minstrel shows, one that has mainly been forgotten.  It would be interesting to know if this was why they played it or if it was just because it has since become a traditional song.

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)
Bob Crawford

At one point I looked up during the show to notice Scott messing with some cables mid song.  I found myself wondering why they didn't have a guy for that. Amusingly, I soon realized his brother was attached to the other end inches from my seat.  Good gimmick, but these guys should really look into wireless units if they weren't doing a bit.  Just stay away from the ones they had in spinal tap.

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)
Joe Kwan

There are some bands that can't entertain an audience of 100, there are some bands that can, but loose it at 1000. I feel confident that these guys could do any sized venue and still be an amazing show.  As I said before, these guys are a band everyone should see!

The Avett Brothers @ The Shrine Auditorium (10.9.13)
The Avett Brothers

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