If youre a friend or fan of ICM, you prolly already know that The Avett Brothers are among my favorite bands. Over the last couple years I’ve been fortunate enough to see them in Washington, Kansas, New York, Tennessee, Oregon, and now California. When thinking about their progress as songwriters and performers, I picture one of those graphs with a straight line shooting up at 45 degrees. When their most recent album, Introducing Emotionalism, came out late in 2007 it only took four songs for me to know it was going to land exactly one notch on the line above their previous album.
At their show at the Anaheim House of Blues last week, they kicked things off with the fourth track on Emotionalism, Weight of Lies. Seth Avett on guitar, Scott Avett on banjo and Bob Crawford on bass have mastered the pace of their sets and it’s fun to watch them reel in newcomers as well as fans. By the time Shame came a few songs later, the audience had loosened up a bit and started to dance. They pretty much cherry picked Emotionalism for most of the set then filled it in with a mix of other tracks, including a handful of new ones. Murdered in the City, which I first heard at Bumbershoot is a breathtaking solo bit with Scott on guitar that touches on family ties like only a southerner can.
On record, Pretty Girl From Chile has four parts. In the past I had seen them perform abbreviated renditions of this song but had never heard the full four. This night, when they got to the third part, tape recorded vocals from an answering machine came over the PA and the band moved around and grabbed some new instruments. Once the message had ended, they broke into a full-on rock instrumental to close the song the song out. With electric guitar and bass in hands and Seth Avett on drums, they introduced another new track I’d never heard. You can check out a recording of it from the Belly Up show a few nights before here. It’s great to see them continue to branch out and not get stuck playing the same three instruments forever. Oh.. before I forget, the addition of Joe Kwon on Cello for half the set filled out the sound of most of their newer tracks and is the perfect addition to the Avetts.
The Avett Brothers are known to play long sets but and it seemed like HOB wasn’t having it. When they came out for their encore, instead of the trusty Talk of Indolence, which usually falls in that slot, they debuted another new new track, And It Spread, which placed Seth pounding away on a miniature keyboard while Scott jumped back on drums. It was hard to believe we were only going to get one encore (yes… I know I’m spoiled) but I was happy to have a new song, and a good one at that.
I’m excited to see where this band is headed. There aren’t many bands out that that capture Americana in their music like they do. They’ve managed to keep their sound fresh through over five albums and are seasoned enough on the road now to play to thousands of people. Most of their shows on the east coast sell out and the Bumbershoot set last summer drew more people than just about anyone on that stage. Hopefully with one more quality album, they’ll be able to step up in the national spotlight and get the success they deserve. I’ll be rooting for them the whole way.
