The Avett Brothers brought a sitting crowd to its feet at Steamboat’s lovely Strings Music Pavilion. Photos, slideshow and video by John Moore.
Some kids follow around the country. I follow across this fair land.
After seeing them play in Telluride (twice); Denver; Asheville, N.C. (twice); Solana Beach, Calif.; Los Angeles; Anaheim; and Seattle (twice), I talked some friends into making the road trip to Steamboat Springs to see the band play the stunning a few weeks ago.
Turns out, it wasn’t too hard. Before we knew it, we had a caravan of eight people heading to Steamboat, and after a mediocre Mexican meal in town, we headed out to the Pavilion for a short, if rambunctious, set of punk-infused folk music.
People often ask me about the appeal of the Avetts, why I’m drawn to fly to Atlanta, rent a car and drive to Ashville in the dead of winter just to see them play two shows at the legendary Orange Peel. And itap tough to nail it all down in words, so then I get them their music and take them to a show and itap not long until they see the charm.
And the Avett Brothers are nothing if not charming.
The Avetts are talented players and songwriters making honest music with folksy instrumentation. Sure, they can play a bluegrass or folks festival, but they can also rock a punk bar. In fact, they’re more at home in the punk bar – with their stand-up bass, banjo, cello and acoustic guitar in tow, even.
Their shows used to be infamous for the brothers’ shared penchant for stage diving, but not anymore. In an interview last year, Scott Avett told me he was (mostly) over the whole stage diving thing.
“Last time we were in Boulder, one of us almost really hurt somebody,” he remembered, speaking from his native North Carolina.
SLIDES:
The Avett Brothers at Steamboat Springs on Aug. 19, 2008. Photos by John Moore, The Denver Post.
Their Aug. 19 show in Steamboat was a expectedly rowdy and great – but what was unexpected was the audience. Most of the room was seated as the band started in with familiar songs from the recent “Emotionalism” release. But as each song passed, more and more people joined us up front in the pit.
Soon the pit was fuller, sweatier, crazier. We looked behind us, and even the older Steamboat native-types were standing up, clapping along to some of the Avetts’ more outrageous punkbilly ragers. We talked later with some of the Strings Music Festival staff, who booked the rowdy act in the sleepy town not knowing what to expect.
The show’s ticket sales started out really slow, they said, but then it sold out the week of the event. They were thrilled that the band connected with the mountain town’s audience.
“… and this never happens here,” one of the staffers said, pointing to the post-show merch table, which had four-deep lines and even deeper throngs waiting to get autographs and pictures from the band.
It was a treat watching the crowd being won over. Obviously some of the kids there knew the band, and others even were native to North Carolina, shouting out their N.C. pride to the brothers and their band, who took it in and gave it back in the form of song.
My favorite part of the show were the songs off “The Second Gleam” E.P., the follow up to “The Gleam.” Having seen them 10 times already on the “Emotionalism” tour, I was ready for new songs. And hearing “Murder in the City” and “St. Joseph’s” live was a moving experience.
“If itap the Beaches” was a lovely moment, as it always is when they choose to sing it. Itap obvious the song has a special resonance with the ladies in each audience –- the Avetts sure know how to pull those romantic/heartbroken strings. “Salina” was a potent singalong, a blasting ballad that rings true as a traveling song from a traveling band. (The Avetts are constantly on tour.) And while I don’t need to hear “Die Die Die” ever again in the live arena, it makes sense that the band keeps playing it. Itap the jam, and audiences love the melodic interactivity the song allows.
Ricardo Baca is the pop music critic at The Denver Post and the co-editor of Reverb.
John Moore is the theater critic at The Denver Post and a regular contributor to Reverb.
Some of John Moore’s video from the show:
VIDEO:
A short excerpt from the Avett Brothers singing “Paranoia in B Flat Major” at Steamboat Springs on Aug. 19, 2008. Video by John Moore, The Denver Post
