Arts Centre Melbourne And Love Police Present An Evening With Punch Brothers

Recently crowned Grammy Award winners (Best Folk Album 2019, All Ashore) the Punch Brothers will be returning to Australia for the first time since their 2016 sell-out performances in An Evening with Punch Brothers on Tuesday 16 July at Arts Centre Melbourne's State Theatre.

Formed in 2006, Punch Brothers are the quintet of mandolinist Chris Thile, guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny and violinist Gabe Witcher. Combining the spontaneity and improvisation of Bluegrass music with the structures of modern classical music, each member of the band is a virtuosic instrumentalist.

Their fifth studio album All Ashore is the first to be self-produced by the quintet and follows their critically acclaimed, T Bone Burnett-produced 2015 release, The Phosphorescent Blues. In this new record, the quintet again attempt to make sense of the world around them with music that is both ambitious and easy-going.

"The album is a meditation on committed relationships in the present day, particularly in the present climate. We were hoping to create something that would be convincing as a complete thought, in this case as a nine-movement, or nine-piece, thought. Though it's rangy in what it's talking about, and in the characters who are doing the talking," says Thile.

Among their many accolades, Punch Brothers worked with T Bone Burnett on the soundtrack for the Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), particularly on tracks 'The Last Thing on My Mind' and 'The Shoals of Herring.'

Their return to Australia is something they have been looking forward to for a while, especially given they wrote sections of this new album the last time they toured the country.

"We are just thrilled to be returning to Australia this July. We had such a wonderful experience when we visited last in 2016 and have been eager to find our way back. Interestingly enough, the beginning instrumental section of "All Ashore", the title track of our new record, materialized quite spontaneously during our sound check onstage in Sydney in 2016. So it is only fitting to finally come back and showcase the finished product," says banjoist Noam Pikelny.

Arts Centre Melbourne and Love Police present
An Evening with Punch Brothers
Tuesday 16 July | 8pm (90 minutes, no interval)
Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre
Tickets on sale at 11am on Tuesday 16 April from artscentremelbourne.com.au