Live Review – The Avett Brothers

Music — By Andrew Evans on 17/03/10

The Avett Brothers, Gibson Guitar Studios & The Garage, London.

They’ve already conquered their home nation back west and now, with their checked shirts and straggly beards in tow, North Carolina’s The Avett Brothers are here, tasked with taking the UK too. Perhaps it’s too big of a request for a band that are in the capital for just two nights – the first of which being a competition winners gig for Q Magazine at the Gibson Guitar Studios, the second a sold-out show at Highbury’s 700 capacity The Garage – however, Scott and Seth Avett’s profile has slowly been growing this side of the pond in anticipation of the European release of their major label debut I and Love and You, produced by none other than Rick Rubin.

Over the course of the two nights the group – the brothers stand alongside Bob Crawford on upright bass and touring buddy Joe Kwon on cello – put in two rather different sets. The first, an early evening 10-song collection, draws heavily from I and Love and You and although the foursome put in a blistering shift – from which the opening Laundry Room and the family orientated ballad Murder In The City are undoubtedly highlights – a startlingly sober Monday night crowd means that, through no fault of the band, the evening never fully takes off.  It did however, more than wet the appetite for what was ahead.

Striding onto the stage at The Garage to a reception far warmer than the chilly spring evening outside they launch into I and Love and You’s And It Spread, it’s opening staccato rhythms (played by Scott in the two brother’s ever revolving tour of duty around the stage’s many instruments) jolting the crowd into action after the sleepy support band Phantom Limb. Scott, with his freshly shaven face (he was bearded the night before) and neatly cropped hair resembling something of a young Paul McCartney, while Seth, with his long main and unkempt beard appearing to be more of the Let It Be persuasion.

A surprising number of the songs are taken from their extensive back catalogue, with only a chosen handful of tonight’s two hour outing coming from their latest release. The gorgeous Laundry Room isn’t present, neither is the loved up January Wedding, the latter also present the night before. Instead we are treated to older tracks such as If It’s The Beaches, which see’s Scott’s mighty voice pining over some delicate guitar work supplied by his brother. Bolstered by the extra musicians, it’s one of a number of songs that sound far superior to their recorded equivalents, the full dynamics of the pair of voices often leaving the crowd pin-drop quiet; never more so than when Seth plays a solo rendition of The Ballad of Love and Hate from 2007’s Emotionalism. It’s simply breathtaking.

The crowd, which features a healthy number of American ex-pats, lap up everything they are given, which is a great deal. Each song is greeted like an old friend, each new chorus with a cheer and a whistle. It’s hard not to be warmed by a band that can generate so much good faith within a crowd. Towards the end of the evening the atmosphere inside this modest venue feels less like a gig and more like a family church service, with the smiles the band wear proving all too contagious.

On every song (save the afformentioned Ballad of Love and Hate) the brother’s voices melt into one another with harmonies of pure gold. The Weight of Lies pulls the trick off best, inseparable are the two come the end of its climactic five minutes.

A lot has been made of London’s folk scene of late – with Mumford & Sons receiving a great deal of both critical and commercial acclaim and Laura Marling readying the release of her fantastic second album next week – but tonight there is no denying that when compared to the folksy, bluegrass Americana of an act such as The Avett Brothers, ours suddenly look a great deal like the great pretenders.

They close on I and Love and You, most probably one of the greatest songs they have ever put to record, and once again thank the audience, promising to be back soon.  This part of the world has waited a long time to get to see these four men and they not only deliver, but so emphatically do they do so that you wouldn’t bet against them taking the entire continent. So far, so so good: London has been conquered. Long live The Avett’s.

The Weight of Lies (Clip)

Muder In The City (Clip)