Avetts at the Orange Peel, Day One: A review

Gotta love the interweb. As you can see, a fan more rabid than me has already posted a YouTube video of the Avett Brothers performing “Love Like the Movies” on Friday night at the Orange Peel. I hadn’t heard the boys perform this song in quite a while, and I love it. So how was the show, you ask? Well, lemme tell you….

The Avett Brothers delivered an hour-and-a-half of incredibly intense, brilliant music. Over the past year, I’ve seen the band at seven or eight live shows. The group has evolved, and it’s been wonderful to watch.

Joe Kwon is now a regular member. He alone has charisma to match Scott, Bob and Seth, and he amps up the hair quotient by a factor of about a thousand. But it’s the haunting sound of his cello that the band uses to such great effect – punctuating emotional highs and lows. Incredible.

Paleface and his drummer Monica joined the Avetts on stage for a couple of songs. Paleface’s gravelly vocals and Monica’s lighthearted drums brought a couple of Mignonette songs to life.

But the band really hit its stride with its rendition of Gabriella, a tune that sent the boys bouncing and wailing off into another universe. The first half of the song is what you come to expect, but the second half talks off with Bob and Scott on electric guitars and Seth on drums. When the boys hit this tune about three-quarters of the way through the night, they suddenly slammed into a new, higher gear. Impossible. But done.

Scott’s eyes rolled back in his head as the music coursed through him. He twirled. He fell to the floor. He thrashed. Seth flirted with flamenco and told us “I love you, too” during his solo. Bob and Joe leaned all over each other throughout the show, and at the end Bob pulled Joe up onto his back. Those two got some serious man-love for one another.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band so tight in its looseness, if you know what I mean. At one point, each musician was clearly in his own unique musical world, oblivious, and yet completely aware of an in synch with all the other bandmates. Amazing.

I’ve never seen a show quite like it, and I have to give not a little credit here to Ashvegas fans and the Orange Peel venue. There’s some magic between the closeness of the Peel and the Avetts. They clearly dig being close, hearing their lyrics sung back to them and feeling the energy of the crowd.

The Orange Peel had plenty of security. They need a few more stools for old people like me to rest on, but they had a front bar and lounge open and were selling pizza by the slice and PBR for $2.75 with nobody in line.

So, an amazing end to an amazing year with the Avetts. They’ll play again tonight. Go and see them if you can, and tell me all about it.