The Avett Brothers returned to Verizon Arena in North Little Rock on Friday night, but failed to deliver the True Sadness from which their current tour takes its name.
Instead, the two Avetts -- Scott and Seth -- aided and abetted by five band members, conveyed true joy to their assembled fans in a 30-song set that lasted just shy of two hours and 40 minutes.
The fans, in a wider range of ages than are usually found at concerts -- baby boomers, millennials, children and even infants in the crowd of 1,963 -- lapped it up, singing and stomping along.
After the usual obligatory opening act, the seven musicians, playing kazoos, tore into "The D Bag Rag" before getting serious with a bit of gospel rock, "Satan Pulls The Strings."
Before the evening ended, the Avetts bounced all over the map and the stage, veering from one genre to another. For sheer surprise, during one song guitarist Seth Avett raced through the audience to the top of the lower bowl as he played an electric guitar and an assistant trailed behind him carrying an extremely long guitar cord (just like the late Albert Collins used to do it).
Both brothers sang, and Scott Avett played an amazing banjo most of the time. The other "official" band members, Bob Crawford on stand-up and electric bass, and Joe Kwon on cello (which he held as if it were a guitar), were also front and center, as was touring violinist Tania Elizabeth. In the back, drummer Mike Marsh and keyboardist Paul DeFiglia added to the excitement.
Most of the songs were greeted with roars of recognition from the fans. The highlights were "Down With the Shine," "Kick Drum Heart," "Smithsonian," "I Wish I Was," "Famous Flower of Manhattan," "I and Love and You," "Victims of Life," "Murder in the City" and "True Sadness," also the name of the band's latest album release.
There also were three choice cover tunes: Jim Croce's "Operator," Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me" plus "The Prettiest Thing," by an Avett pal, David Childers, leader of the band The Modern Don Juans.
Whatever song the band played, it did with full-tilt energy and passion, matching those same qualities evident in the voices of Scott and Seth Avett. The show was a stunning example of how a band can effectively blend rock, folk, bluegrass, country, punk, gospel and ballads.
The Avett Brothers seem poised to tastefully fill the void left by the departure of the Grateful Dead from the recording and touring scene.
Metro on 10/09/2016