Avett Brothers, Magnolia Electric Co @ the Fillmore (photos, review, etc)
On Friday I saw the Avett Brothers (myspace) and Magnolia Electric Co. (myspace) at the Fillmore.
Walking into the doorway of the grand room of the Fillmore, past the old greeter and basket of apples and so many photos of old shows that the walls seemed stuff, the strains of Magnolia Electric Co. were already audible. On the stage was Jason Molina leading his current five piece crew. Molina was on guitar and added to that were another guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. The band was playing through some of their immense backlog of songs. They played a great version of “Shiloh Temple Bell”–one of my favorite MECo tunes.
Without a strong stage presence–Molina had almost a formalism to his manner–I feel like the band would work better in a smaller club–like at the Bottom of the Hill in July–but it didn’t carry in a big space like the Fillmore.
There was much jostling and pushing to the front for the headliners, the Avett Brothers. Throughout the set, the crowd was an active and attentive one, cheering, screaming along, throwing fists into the air, from the first song, “Paranoia in B Flat Major”, I believe, on. The two brothers, Scott and Seth, manned roughly the center of the stage, with a banjo plus bass drum and guitar plus hi-hat, respectively. When employing both simultaneously, this required a rocking motion that the brothers seemingly have made into a bit of a dance over the years of playing. This was just one part of their engaging and high energy stage performance. From song to song, they acted as much as inciters as singers and musicians, like creating perfect music was secondary to having a good time, and getting the audience to have a good time.
With their profile raised only somewhat recently, I was surprised that the crowd was quite intense–singing along to and knowing a range of songs from throughout their catalog. There was one clue later on: a loud cheer after a mention of ‘Carolina’. This is still a band with heavy regional roots.
With Seth’s softer edge and more melodious voice acting as counterpoint to Scott’s more raucous vocals and playing (on both banjo and drums), the Brothers have a mixture that bodes well continuing to grow. Their high energy stage performance certainly doesn’t hurt either.
