We Love Music

We Love Music: The Avett Brothers @ DAR Constitution Hall, 2/18/11

Avett Brothers @ DAR
All photos by Erin McCann

I didn’t much like the Avett Brothers when I first heard them. The banjo was too much, the vocal harmonies sometimes too off-key, the melodies sometimes just on the other side of pleasant. That changed a little bit for me one day when “Ballad of Love and Hate” from 2007’s “Emotionalism” came on, where the banjo was replaced by an acoustic guitar, and the melody was a simple tale of woe delivered in a clear, mournful voice by Seth Avett. And finally, when “I and Love and You” came out in 2009, and I first heard the chorus to the title track, I was hooked. I got it. I was a convert. I was in love. Continue reading

Music, The Daily Feed

Hot Ticket: Avett Brothers @ DAR, 2/18/11

Photo courtesy of the Avett Brothers

Straight from last Sunday’s Grammy awards broadcast, where they performed with Mumford & Sons and Bob Dylan, the Avett Brothers are bringing their show to DAR Constitution Hall on Friday night.

Linguistically speaking, folk rock is a genre that shouldn’t exist. Rock is too powerful, and folk is too sweet, to logically co-exist, right? And yet it does, and it is wonderful, and the result is pretty well captured in that photo at the top of this post: hard-rocking banjo, bluegrass with an edge, energy that rivals the Ramones and melodies and lyrics that wrap themselves around your head and won’t leave until you feel just a bit better about life. Listening to the Avetts, you learn what a kick drum can do to jump-start your heart.

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