The Avett Brothers Live at the Beta Bar 3/6By: Stephanie Castellano on 3/12/08

  The problem with seeing the Avett Brothers live is that they whip through an hour-long set with such high-speed intensity that you walk out feeling like you’ve just gotten off a roller coaster: exhilarated, drained, a little woozy – probably thinking, Wow. But what just happened?
  The wooziness might’ve come from all that beer. At any given time during the show, there were at least ten or so sloshing cups of beer waving in the air. The excitable crowd at Tallahassee’s Beta Bar swayed, stomped their feet, and (some) sang along until our throats were raw. (Hence, the need for beer and more beer.) The Avett Brothers – whose music is often described in stuffy terms such as non-traditional bluegrass - tore through song after song with the ferocious punk intensity characteristic of their live shows. It’s like bluegrass got up from the rocker on the back porch, went down and rolled around in the mud.
  Though the core of the Avett Brothers’ music is rootsy, old-time country, they turned the Beta Bar – usually known for its eclectic indie atmosphere – into a rowdy, reeling honky-tonk. Scott and Seth Avett – Scott on banjo, Seth with a big ol’ dreadnought - pummeled their instruments into churning out rollicking, foot-stomping tunes, belting out their surprisingly soulful lyrics (Seth occasionally showing his rocker side with primal howls), all while constantly fixing the audience with bleary, sweaty, baleful glares. Even though the brothers never once smiled, the crowd’s mood was one of delirious happiness, the high point of the evening being the sprawling sing-along “Shame”. Scott Avett, when he wasn’t beating chords out of his banjo, plucked out delicious melodies that propelled the band from song to song. Bob Crawford on upright bass fills out the band’s permanent line-up, but at last night’s show they also had cellist Joe Kwon playing with them. The cello rounded out each song beautifully, even the more grungy rockers.   
The Avett Brothers have their share of slower, sadder ballads – but last night wasn’t the night for ballads. The band avoided bogging down their set list with songs like “The Weight of Lies” – a slow, achingly beautiful tune that probably would’ve had the drunker people in the crowd bawling. Still, there is something about the Avett Brothers’ presence on stage that is honest, naked. Perhaps it’s the gorgeous rawness of their vocal harmonies and acoustic instruments. Maybe it’s the graceful tones of the cello or the occasional wail of the harmonica. Or maybe it’s that element of folk purism always present in the band – the members’ unwillingness to electrify their down-home acoustic dynamic.   
Folk, bluegrass, punk, honky-tonk, rock – put it all in a blender and you get the Avett Brothers. Their live shows tend to be chunky and unrefined, but their albums (especially their latest, Emotionalism, released May 2007) pour out the smoothest modern-old-time country you ever heard. Either way, the Avett Brothers break all those molds, which is true of every great band – they resist definition, creating a new label that’s all their own.

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