Avett Brothers @ Cat's Cradle

Avett Brothers
Cat's Cradle
Thursday, May 5th, 2005

So I'm even more amazed by the Avett Brothers that I was before. I'm now a full-fledged fan.

There was a serious Friday-night feel at the Cat's Cradle last Thursday night. (Of course, having Friday off to drive to Johnson City to visit my buddy for his med school graduation contributed to that feeling!) The Cradle was chock full of kids, mostly college students it seemed, but a few thirty-somethings and near-thirty-somethings like me. I couldn't get over how many people were there! And this was a late show. It didn't start until 9:30, and they didn't get on stage until after 10:00.

They were opened by a new guy to me, Langhorne Slim. He was a treat -- a one-man-band cross of Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Johnny Hartford, and I don't know who... maybe he was cross-bred from an accordian somehow? He had a quirky, funny, terribly up-beat performance that really made me laugh. Anyway, he was a hoot, and I recommend catching him if you get the chance. I can't vouch for his CDs, as I didn't get one. I thought he was a bit more of a performance artist and probably wouldn't translate well to a CD, but I heard on Guitartown that he sold out all the CDs he brought. Congrats!

Now the Avetts... They're a three-piece acoustic band who all sing and play percussion/rhythm of some sort. The two brothers are Scott and Seth, who play banjo and guitar respectively. They're backed by Bob Crawford, a mean upright-bass player who often (but not enough!) supplies the baritone harmonies. They all three occasionally bang on their instruments, stomp their booted feet, and Scott and Seth have a tiny bass drum and hi-hat symbol with feet pedals. They emphasize the really fast songs with energetic stompings, bass slaps, banjo smacks, and thump-thumping boot stomps.

Scott and Seth swap out songwriting and singing lead and tenor. From my beer-muddled memory it seemed that when Scott was singing, Seth would most often accompany him with mind-blowingly loud tenors. Man, he's got a set of lungs... mouth open wide, looking at the ceiling, belting out a solid, near-scream tenor. Scott and Bob would often echo as an accompaniment to Seth. These are of course generalizations. They sang about every sort of harmony combination possible during their two-hour set. I've mentioned before a big draw to their vocal style is their use of rock n' roll screams, shouts, and yells with Blues moans and lots of Bluegrass high lonesome twang. I noticed they played a lot of their songs in fairly high keys, highlighting their great high voices and giving them a little Bluegrassy sound. They'll scream, stop to speak, sing a bar or two, scream again, sing off-key, hit the key, scream again, and then hit a dead-on three-part harmony, especially on the choruses.

The most interesting part of their songs, though, and what I think makes them such a great live band, is the start and stop, speed-up, slow-down dynamics of the songs. They reminded me a lot of the Pixies in that respect, especially on their fast songs. The slower songs were less about starting and stopping but had plenty of slow-downs and speed-ups that were executed flawlessly. (Okay, I saw one mistake, but that could've just been my beer haze.) These changes in tempo really show a lot of practice. They were so seamless and natural that they appeared off-the-cuff and spontaenous, but I know better. I bet they spend a lot of time practicing tempo changes.

The feeling of family they impart is their other big draw, and I don't know if you'll get this as much outside of North Carolina. We're kinda particular that way. The crowd, on a rainy Thursday night I must reiterate, were fans who knew most of the songs. They knew the individual members and their personalities and reacted appropriately and differently to each. The Avetts and Bob, sweaty and stinky, hugged each other as they entered and exited the stage. When Bob introduced Scott for an encore solo, he called him his "brother," and you could really feel a sense of sincerity. There was even a marriage proposal on stage by a male fan to his sweetie before the song "Offering," a beautiful song about.... well, a marriage proposal!

They sing songs about being a young man looking for a family ("Offering"), trying to make themselves and the world a better place ("Salvation Song," "Gift For Melody Anne," etc), working, not working, drinking, and of course, murder ("I Killed Sally's Lover" and "Wanted Man" to name a couple). They're very funny, usually, but also very sincere. They have several songs, strung across all three albums that I own, in the "Pretty Girl" series -- "Pretty Girl From Raleigh," (wish I knew a few more of those!), "Pretty Girl From Annapolis," "Pretty Girl At The Airport," etc. You get the idea. These songs range from funny to sad to both at the same time. These guys are no Shakespeares, but "I Killed Sally's Lover" will stick in your head for weeks.

And if I wasn't already convinced these guys were great, they made my friend's night by remembering her request of "Me And God" from Merlefest. It had been days since they were at Merlefest, but still they remembered her from Saturday at a huge festival! They brought it up themselves, looking for her. They played the song and then gave her a free t-shirt.

Yep, I'm a pretty big Avett Brothers fan. I even dig that "In Love Like the Movies" song now that I've heard it live often enough. (I do, however, still recommend the live version over the studio one.)