Avett Brothers @ North Carolina Museum of Art

The Avett Brothers
North Carolina Musuem of Art Amphitheatre
June 16, 2007

The North Carolina Museum of Art (or "NCMA") has weekly concerts in the summer at their amphitheatre. This ain't no little pip-squeak three-walled shed either, but a miniature arena-style amphitheatre. They play some good shows here. Last year Steve Earle and Allison Moorer played there, as did Jeff Tweedy (solo and acoustic), and several others. (I wasn't going to mention Patty Griffin, but dammit, there I did.)

These shows always turn up a pretty good crowd, but they're usually a little on the somber side, as you might expect from a museum crowd. However, this past Saturday, while my brother was partying at Bonnaroo, I was partying with the Avett Brothers (metaphorically speaking) out on the lawn.

Our first indication that this wasn't your normal museum show was the gang of twenty-somethings picking and tail-gating in the parking lot. Oh man, I wish I'd brought my fiddle! Our second indication -- the long line of kids at the door.

There were problems up front before the show even started. Evidently some younger folks were feeling a bit rambunctious and made the (rather overweight, but friendly) security staff a bit nervous. When the emcee came up to introduce the band, he spent quite a lot of time going over the park rules and repeating, "I know a lot of you have never been here with us before..."

But it was all for naught. This was a Avett Brothers show, not Limp Bizkit. These folks were here to get a little rowdy, but not tear shit up. Everyone was well-behaved, I think most people had a good, if not great, time, and the Avetts rocked a home-town crowd in a very special way -- with Mom and Dad and sisters and other family on stage, off-stage, and in the crowd.

They played mostly new stuff but with a few older crowd pleasers like I Killed Sally's Lover and Doc Watson's Wanted Man. As with every Avett show, they took a couple of songs that I thought merely mediocre on the album to new heights. Now they're new favorites.

They mentioned they're working on a Gospel album, hells yes, and invited their sister and father up for a song. This was, regrettably, the worst song of the evening, and it really lost the crowd. I think the Avetts doing a Gospel album is a great idea, but they're really going to have to work on the live presentation before the crowd will really buy into it. I know they can do it, though, go Avetts!

My only complaint, and this is a minor one, is that they completely dropped off some of the older, more introspective tunes. They did play their newest heart-wrencher, If It's the Beaches, my number one song of 2007, but they dropped my old favorites November Blue, Swept Away, and Offering.

I know it's been said before, but again, the Avetts have arrived. God bless 'em.