Review: THE AVETT BROTHERS at MAD Amphitheater in El Dorado

Article written by Owen Dodd from Ouachita Baptist University

For my first time at the Murphy Arts District Amp in El Dorado, I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was certainly surprised when I saw The Avett Brothers on August 23rd. I enjoyed a leisurely walk up to the metal detectors, took a considerable amount of time emptying my pockets to go through them, and hilariously realized that I needed to go get my ticket from the box office, which was around the corner. After testing the patience of security, who were incredibly hospitable and patient with me and my cluelessness, I made it inside. The temperature was suspiciously comfortable for August in Arkansas, and although I didn’t realize it at the time, the premises were astoundingly clean. You forget how important that part is until you become a concert-body. The grass was so maintained that I can hardly remember whether it was actual grass or not; even looking back at the pictures it looks too perfect to be real.  

As I walked past the giant letters reading “MAD”, I saw a short little queue of dads for the bar. A herd of Magellan fishing shirts that have those weird holes in the back, they were apparently planning to plop down in their seats once the show started considering how much alcohol each one toted away. Thankfully, the bar had plenty by the time I got to the front. New to drinking, I shyly mumbled “rum and Coke” to the pretty bartender, who was kind enough to offer me the alternative of Coke and Malibu. I still don’t know whether rum and coke was a silly order, but I digress, because I think I liked Malibu more anyways. 

 As I sipped on my drink, Blackberry Smoke did a tremendous job opening. Charlie Starr, sporting middle-parting, long, brown hair, gave a smooth, flowing performance. He wore what seemed to be a Light Brown leather jacket, dark wash jeans, and notable aviator glasses (its good to see that I’m not the only one who still wears them). All around me elders were standing up and having the time of their life, showing me up with their dancing skills. The tone of Blackberry Smoke intrigues me. I mainly listen to electronic, rap, and pop more than anything, so a lot of rock seems to be foreign to me—not necessarily in a way that makes it difficult to understand the progression of a rock song, but in a way that makes it difficult to understand how, say, my father encountered it in his youth. That being said, sitting and listening to Blackberry Smoke, I discovered that experiencing this kind of music with those who experienced it in their youth seemed to give me a new perspective: the music molted its unfamiliarity and became fresh. I was enthralled. 

Before I could process any of this thoroughly, The Avett Brothers had made their way on stage. If I have distinguished the brothers themselves correctly, Seth Avett wore a classic white tee, and Scott wore a green flannel, both with jeans. I had suspected that they had certain heart-throb potential. I only found this opinion bolstered when I heard two ladies behind me discussing the surprise of finding that they “weren’t old”. What they were getting at, I think, was more the surprise of finding that they “were hot”. Bob Crawford, the double bassist, stood burly and—well, looked like he could play the hell out of a double bass (he most certainly could). Bonnie Avett Rini, the sister of the Avett Bro’s, played the keys and filled in some much-needed tone structure considering that most of the other melodic instruments were strings. Joe Kwon played the cello in an interesting way, having the entire instrument perched on his arm like a bazooka. I’m still trying to work out how he kept it there without his arm getting tired… maybe some kind of neck-strap. Playing the fiddle, I believe, was Tania Elisabeth. She wore a black tank, rich light jeans, and had short curly hair that could kill. As a side note, I noticed that she lost some of her fiddle bow-hair, which reminded me of the fiddle player for the Boomer Hill Band, Sam Allen. After some light inquiry about fiddle-players’ losing a few bow-hairs during their performances, it is completely normal and has nothing to do with technique (if anything it relates to how old the bow-hair is). I had lightly brushed on this in my article for the Boomer Hill Band, and I wanted to set the record straight. 

And on the note of technical skill, I believe that this was The Avett Brothers’ most attractive quality—and that’s saying something. It seemed that they had a bottomless hat of musical instruments to use; in addition to the three stringed instruments the band had on stage, the brothers also alternated on piano, guitar, banjo, and tambourine. And sure, the variety is really refreshing, but more importantly they played these instruments well. Although I’ve heard some good banjo playing on recording, I’d never seen how accurate banjo fingerstyle could be. I’ve never heard a fiddle tremolo so quiet and tense at the same time. The hammerings of the drummer’s sticks on the cymbals were flawless, entailing K. O. force with every crash, without being harsh. I’ve never seen a double bass twirled so casually and nonchalantly. As a piano student, I particularly enjoyed the numbers when the brothers—they are both rather virtuosic, surprisingly enough—slowed down for a ballad. The voicing of their playing never subordinated the melody, and they always kept from harsh fervency. And let’s not forget the vocal range of the brothers, which was absolutely astounding. At times the vocals varied a little too much for my taste, but such times were sparing, and in all fairness the ambition of the melody was notable. I might emphasize that this is only my personal taste; the technicality and execution, on the other hand, was untouchable.  

Riding over all of this technical assessment, however, is a performance phenomenon that is, at best, only grazed by such appraisal. In other words, we may have described what makes the Avett Bro’s good musicians, but we have hardly tried to distinguish what makes them the one and only Avett Bro’s. That being said, such a statement may be misleading. In stating that we haven’t distinguished what makes the Avett Bro’s unique, we seem to state that we will. That, unfortunately, is a blatant lie; we will likely never define what cloth performers such as the brothers are cut from, and even if we do, it will be by far smarter scholars than me. That being said, we can recognize the existence of such a quality, and do our best to describe it in such a way that audiences can grasp its existence more concretely.  

Although future analysis would prove to provide earlier examples of this quality, I think the first time I noticed it was when one of the brothers and Tania were having a banjo-fiddle duet. It seemed that they achieved an exact, mutual vision of the number they were playing in goal, tone, intensity, etc. Of course, the effect to be described was executed through technique, but it was not itself the technique; it was that which cumulates as more than the sum of its parts. Other notable instances of this saturation consisted of when either brother sat down for a piano solo, the profound resonance of a double-bass long-tone, or even in the pictures I took when the lights showed only the performer’s silhouettes. The phenomenon seems to closely tangent the type of authenticity I discussed w/r/t Josh Meloy, although different in important ways. It was that residue which evades us when we list all the reasons that we love someone. It is the same feeling which leaves us frustrated in conversation, leaves us feeling that our language misses the candidness we mean to express though our friends completely understand our aim and understand our intention purely by virtue of being human.  

And maybe that is the point: not to satiate the intense urge to describe, but to feel. Maybe my aim to describe what makes these performers important was awry from the start. In all actuality, nobody tries to make a list of the reasons they love a lover without realizing from the outset that it is an absurd task; rather, we find that the rendering of affection for another is found in the act of loving them, in ultimate, non-verbal description. They are, as said previously, completely drenched in personality, so much so that I couldn’t possibly hope to pack it all into an article, or even a book, or even a series of books (if I was capable of something like that).  

So. in the same way that you love without some silly notion of justification, stop listening to some kid online ramble about this good band and how good they are: go see for yourself! They have tickets for sale all around the States, available on their visually astounding website. For more performances coming up at the Murphy Arts District, such as Ashley McBryde and Mike Eli on October 2nd and 22nd respectively, be sure to check out the MAD’s calendar. Looking for a great meal and some music with friends? Head on over to MAD House 101 (the shrimp and grits are amazing). If you enjoyed my documentation of this performance, be sure to check out my other articles on Broadway World, all posted by Theresa Bertram.