The Avett Brothers Bring Two Different Nights of Music to Wolf Trap

By Dan Rozman

Photos by Dan Rozman

The Avett Brothers have never been particularly interested in staying in one musical lane. The two-night run at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center on Sept. 18 and 19 was a good example, with bluegrass, folk, rock, and traditional music all finding a place in a 25-song set on the first night. The band moved from one style to another throughout the night, and the crowd followed along.

Fans of the band knew the two nights were not going to be identical, since the Avett Brothers change their setlists from show to show. A large number of the crowd bought tickets for both nights, and the changing setlists were a big part of the appeal.

They wanted to see what would be different on Sept. 19, something they said they would not necessarily do for a band that played essentially the same setlist throughout a tour. One woman sitting nearby had seen the band 30 times, while the fan sitting next to her had seen them around 90 times. For fans who have followed the Avetts for years, not knowing exactly what they will play is part of the fun.

There were plenty of signs that this was an audience that knew the music. People would recognize a song within the first few notes, and the singing often started before the first verse was finished. The reaction wasn’t limited to the band’s biggest songs, either, and less frequently played material could get an immediate response from fans who knew it.

Guster opened both nights and took the stage at 7:30 p.m., and people were quickly on their feet for their faster songs. There were plenty of Guster T-shirts in the crowd, showing that the band brought its own fans to Wolf Trap. Other people were seeing Guster for the first time, and there were plenty of positive reactions from the new-found fans.

The Avett Brothers came on at 9 p.m. and opened with “Paranoia in B-Flat Major,” followed by “Bleeding White” and “At the Beach.” “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise” came next, and the crowd was singing along to more than just the familiar choruses. Voices from the seats around the Filene Center were keeping up with the verses, too.

The dancing picked up as the set moved into the up-tempo songs. People stood in front of their seats, with some trying to make a little more room for themselves and occasionally drifting into the aisles. The ushers would eventually appear and send them back, only for the same thing to happen again later in the evening.

The band moved through “A Father’s First Spring” and “February Seven” before pulling out “Black Mountain Rag,” a Curly Fox cover. “Slight Figure of Speech” followed, along with “The Ballad of Love and Hate,” before “Groundhog,” a Doc Watson Family cover that Scott Avett performed as a duet with fiddle player Tania Elizabeth, brought another traditional piece into the set. The Avetts have long talked about the influence Watson had on their music and the lessons he passed along.

“We learned a lot from Doc Watson. He was very kind to us and very generous to us, and sent us a lot of places, and told us a lot of really wise things about this business, and how to stay out of the music business in the Avett Brothers business,” the band has said. “Groundhog” was followed by “Satan Pulls the Strings,” “Live and Die,” “Morning Song,” “The Fall” and “Wanted Man.”

The audience stayed engaged through the changes, with familiar songs bringing the biggest singalongs and less frequently played material getting its own enthusiastic response. “Laundry Room” was one of the night’s bigger singalongs, followed by “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” the Flatt and Scruggs bluegrass standard. As the main set moved toward the finish, the mood changed with “Murder in the City” and “Bella Donna.” “Ain’t No Man” brought the crowd back up before “No Hard Feelings” closed the main set.

The encore started with an emotional mashup blending the lyrics and melody of Dolly Parton’s classic hit “I Will Always Love You” seamlessly into the transition to “Pretty Girl from Annapolis”.This was followed by John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” and “Hand-Me-Down Tune.”

The sound and lighting were, as usual at Wolf Trap, spot on. Both bands sounded strong, and even with the amount of movement in the audience, the music remained clear from the seats. The crowd was active throughout the night, but it never overwhelmed the music.

Before the night was over, the Avetts also took a moment to thank the audience. “It means so much to us that you would come out and take your time to listen to us and let us do our work. It means everything,” the band told the crowd. “We appreciate it.”

The Sept. 19 setlist showed just how different the two nights could be. The band opened with “The D Bag Rag” and “Left on Laura, Left on Lisa,” then moved through “Forever Now,” “Country Kid,” “Vanity” and “Kick Drum Heart.” Die-hard fans of the Avetts were even treated to a rendition of “Froggy Went a Courtin’” – sung in Korean by cellist Joe Kwon, accompanied by Scott and Seth Avett.

For an audience with people who had seen the Avett Brothers 30, 50 or even 90 times, that unpredictability is part of the experience. The Sept. 18 crowd didn’t have to wait for the hits to get excited. For the fans who came back Sept. 19, there was a whole new setlist waiting for them.