Among the unique aspects of — besides the unbelievable sound and the intimacy you feel amidst nearly 9,500 fans — is the chance to see weather sweep into and off of the mountains. Most times, itap a phenomenon that only adds to the passion and beauty of the experience. Friday night, after a powerful set from Lake Street Dive, that beauty turned into an hour-long rain delay that kept a sold-out audience from seeing their beloved until just about 10 p.m. Many in the crowd feared that the delay would shorten the Avett’s set.
But fans needed not to worry. Brothers Seth and Scott Avett played nearly two full hours, and wrapped that audience up in the incomparable Avett vocals, brilliant lyricism and magnificent instrumentalism for which the band is rightfully known.
Once the tarps were pulled off the instruments, the lights dimmed and Seth said, simply, “2015, Red Rocks! Letap go!” and the band tore into their set, starting with “The D Bag Rag.” The raucous, fun tune immediately swept the whole amphitheater into a jumping, swinging frenzy, with its fast pace, and crowned the kickoff with everyone in the band playing kazoos. It erased the rain in seconds.
This was my first time seeing the Avett Brothers, and I approached them with an open mind, albeit with a feeling that I may have “missed the climax” of the storied performances. I was wrong. From the moment Scott Avett started the familiar lament of “Down With the Shine,” it was painfully and gloriously obvious what I had been missing. Seth and Scott created and energy that not only infused their bandmates, but seemed to lift up the entire venue — emotionally, spiritually, almost physically. Their Beatles influence actually seemed to channel one of Red Rock’s most famous early shows, with an updated, accomplished Americana voice mixed into it.
The journey of their set took wild emotional turns all night, from the playful visions of “At the Beach,” to the awkward, promising fun of “Die Die Die” — which Seth followed with a few minutes of joyful call-and-response — straight into the sorrowful cry for forgiveness in “Shame.” They swooped into the poetic relationship of “The Ballad of Love and Hate” into ecstatic pleas in “Pretty Girl from Chile,” (which featured Seth playing with a knock-kneed strut), and then into the jumpy hope in “Pretty Girl from San Diego.“ It seemed the band wanted to ensure the rain delay took nothing from the night by answering the rustling audience anticipation with non-stop, musical freight train fury.
Their 24-song set culminated in a beautifully electric, explosively rocking version “Vanity.” Both brothers let loose with distortion and squealing leads, aside Joe Kwon’s cello and Tania Elizabeth’s violin, all atop the pounding rhythm section and keys. After that they came back and performed John Denver’s “Thank God I’m A Country Boy,” and squeezed another pound of wild energy out of an already exhausted audience, and a poignant “Morning Song,” and then left to prepare for the next two nights at the legendary venue.
Setlist:
The D Bag Rag
Down with the Shine
Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise
At the Beach
Pretty Girl from Michigan
Rejects in the Attic
Die Die Die
Shame
Paranoia in Bb Major
The Weight of Lies
The Ballad of Love and Hate
Salina
Pretty Girl from Chile
All My Mistakes
Living of Love
Will You Return?
I Would Be Sad
Pretty Girl From San Diego
Go to Sleep
Hand-Me-Down Tune
Live and Die
Country Blues (Doc Watson)
Slight Figure of Speech
Vanity
Encore:
Thank God I’m a Country Boy (John Denver)
Morning Song
