Posted on Sunday 11 July 2010
By Jeff Kollath
640 miles. 11 hours in a car. 1.1 million mosquitoes. 1 bottle of Maker’s Mark.
Sometimes you go to incredible lengths to see a band, and when the Avett Brothers announced they would be playing at Big Top Chautaqua this summer, we knew we had to make the might trek north. Our efforts paid off in spades with an absolutely tremendous show on Friday night. Having seen the Avetts four times in the last 15 months, I have seen a band progress from the original three-piece, to the expanded four piece with inimitable Joe Kwon on cello, to a full-blown, five-piece rock band complete with a hired gun on drums. Despite these changes, what makes Scott, Seth, and Bob so special still remains – heartfelt, dramatic songs of loss and love, undeniable passion and effort, among other traits – as well as complete and total devotion from their fanbase. I have never seen a band that feeds off the energy of the crowd, and vice versa, like the Avett Brothers. From the opening notes of the second song, “January Wedding” through the screaming singalong of “I am a breathing time machine” during the “Laundry Room” closer, band and crowd were as one. The venue may have had something to do with it. Big Top Chautaqua is a big blue tent and the base of a ski hill. You can play frisbee and drink a beer just outside the tent. The audience was by far the most diverse I’ve seen at an Avetts show, with newborns bouncing on their parents knees and grandparents clapping in time on the fringes, giving plenty of room to the youngsters to jump, shout, yell, and dance. Most of the audience sits in rehabbed church pews, making it feel like part revival, part church picnic, and part family reunion. The band picked up on the vibe, with Scott remarking at one point “this is just like home,” later amending it after “The Perfect Space” by adding, “actually, this is A LOT louder than home.”
The band moved between the folk-thrash of “The Fall,” “Wanted Man,” and “Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” older trio songs like “Colorshow” (receiving a dramatic, slightly remixed full band treatment) and “Shame,” and nine tracks off their latest record, delighting most despite the weighty subject matter. As someone that historically puts setlist ahead of performance, I could complain about ending the show with five out of the last six from the latest record (save for the Roger Miller cover shown above), but they were played with such emotion and intensity that you could not help but be moved. The band left the stage soaked, trumphant, and flattered at the reception from the capacity crowd. After shows, particularly the hot ones, I love to look at people’s faces as they leave the venue. At Avett Brothers shows, I see expressions that I don’t see anywhere else. There is joy, there is contentment, and yes, there is drunkenness, but there is also something behind that happiness, These songs stick with you – their lyrics come from places we have all been – and there is a lot of reflection and introspection going on that walk between the venue and the car. There are lyrics that always get me, and haunt me for hours afterwards, but that is all part of it, and that is why I, and an ever-growing mass of people, love this band.
Setlist: Skin and Bones / January Wedding / The Fall / Paranoia in Bb Major / Wanted Man / The Perfect Space / Shame / At the Beach / Colorshow / Pretty Girl at the Airport / Pretty Girl from Mathews / Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise / Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms / Kick Drum Heart / Murder in the City / And It Spread / Tin Man / Slight Figure of Speech / I and Love and You / Encore: Where Are All the Average People? / Laundry Room
“>Dear Companion collaborative of 
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