The night actually started with Christina Courtin, a young singer with a voice that sounds a lot like Regina Spektor. Almost too much like Regina Spektor, if you ask me. But she was charming in a quirky way, and her acoustic set won me over in the end. I was worried for most of the time that she and her guitarist might be having seizures onstage, though. Those jerky movements they made while they performed... those can't be normal. Anyway, you can check out her music on her MySpace page, and I highly recommend her song Foreign Country.
But then the Punch Brothers came onstage, and my, what a show. I mean it when I say that these guys have to be some of the best musicians out there. Led by mandolinist and vocalist Chris Thile of Nickel Creek fame, the band blew me away with their unpredictable harmonies. Listening to them play was like walking through a haunted house, but in a good way, because you never knew what was going to come at you next. Several songs involved more than three time signature and/or key changes, but they were incorporated so seamlessly that I wouldn't even realize what had happened until several seconds later. I don't know how they were able to play off of each other so well, but I'm going to chalk it up to an endless well of talent combined with what must be hours upon hours of rehearsal.
I think my favorite part of the show was watching how the musicians all fed off of each other's energies. They all knew what everyone else was about to do at any given moment. The best example I can think of was during their cover of the Stanley Brothers' The Lonesome River. They bent and scooped the notes just the right amount and somehow always hit the final chord at just the right time.
Wait, I lied, that wasn't my only favorite part. My other favorite part was how they were able to use cliche little band tricks like suddenly getting quiet and building the dynamics and tempo back up in a frenzy, but making it sound totally naturally and unplanned. To compare, one of Christina Courtin's songs was written in major but for some reason she decided to end it on the minor chord. IMHO, it just didn't work. On the other hand, the Punch Brothers ended several of their songs on the dominant chord or even the first inversion of the tonic(!), and it didn't sound gimicky at all. It was almost as if the music wanted to flow that way of its own accord, and the musicians were just a channel of this unstoppable force flowing towards me from the stage.
Okay, I could literally go on and on about how much I enjoyed the show for hours, but Neil just sent me the link to tonight's episode of LOST that I missed because of the concert, so obviously I need to go watch it immediately. I'll leave you now with a video of the Punch Brothers performing Rye Whiskey, a song off of their new album. Sadly, the audio isn't quite synched with the video, but I trust that you'll enjoy it nonetheless.
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