The Avett Brothers were the latest act to debut at Westville Music Bowl on Tuesday with a performance at the New Haven, CT venue. The marathon concert, which saw 26 songs in total, mined the Americana ensemble’s expansive catalog.
Helmed by the titular Avett Brothers, Seth and Scott, the band is a continuously growing operation. Since recruiting bassist Bob Crawford and cellist Joe Kwon as permanent members in 2001 and 2006, respectively, the band has ballooned to include touring musicians Mike Marsh (drums), Bonnie Avett-Rini (piano), and Tania Elizabeth (violin, vocals, kazoo).
Due to the band’s depth of instrumentation, The Avett Brothers can cycle through myriad moods as displayed in Tuesday’s performance. The band delivered delicate renderings of its early acoustic trio format like “Laundry Room”, “Shame”, “Murder In The City”, and many more. Conversely, the expanded arsenal of musicians allows The Avett Brothers to veer off into the more radio-friendly roots-rock sound that catapulted them to festival headliners with “Ain’t No Man”, as well as hard-hitting tracks like “Talk On Indolence”, “Kick Drum Heart”, and more that made up the heavier portion of the evening’s programming.
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In the end, however, it all came back around to Seth and Scott Avett and their lifetime kinship in music. The show closed out with a four-song encore featuring “Murder In The City”, a cover of Tom T. Hall‘s “Gimme Peace”, “The Perfect Shape”, and finally “No Hard Feelings”.
Below, check out galleries of images of The Avett Brothers at Westville Music Bowl courtesy of photographers Andrew Blackstein and David Gray as well as a collection of fan-shot videos from the show.
The band will stick around the Northeast for a pair of shows Ringo Starr And His All Starr Band in Boston, MA (6/2) and Gilford, NH (6/3). For tickets and a full list of tour dates head here.
Setlist: The Avett Brothers| Westville Music Bowl | New Haven, CT | 5/31/22
Don’t Be Scared (David Childers), Go to Sleep, Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise, Talk on Indolence, All My Mistakes, Roses and Sacrifice, Trouble Letting Go, Laundry Room, Old Joe Clark (Traditional), The Race Is On (George Jones), The Fall, I Wish I Was, Untitled #4, Le reel du pendu / Les bars de la prison, Die Die Die, Shame, High Steppin’, Morning Song, I and Love and You, Vanity, Kick Drum Heart, Ain’t No Man
Encore: Murder in the City, Gimme Peace (Tom T. Hall), The Perfect Space, No Hard Feelings
