A Retro Review: Punch Brothers, 2/24/23
Feb. 24th, 2023 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
between_time_and_42In the interest of transferring all my concert reviews from tumblr over to this blog, I've decided to share this one from last year- the day I saw my favorite band perform live for the second time. Unfortunately I had a bad time, so I don't like looking back on it, but as I said in the original review, it was objectively a cool experience, so I might as well write about it.
I'm guessing this site has a word limit, so let's see if my review exceeds it.
I almost didn’t feel like writing about this show, because it turned out I was not in the best place mentally to enjoy it the way I’d hoped I would, and I don’t even want to think about it anymore. BUT, it still deserves a writeup because it was objectively a cool experience.
I was so hyped for this concert that I went to the venue as soon as I parked my car- about thirty minutes before VIP ticket holders were supposed to start arriving. Surprisingly, one person was already there before me. However, he ended up behind me in line, so I was the first person in line to enter the venue. A few more people eventually showed up as it got closer to 4:30. But also as it got closer to 4:30, I received… The Text. The Text did not inform me of any bad news- rather, it could potentially be good news for me- but it did require me to make a major life decision. It was definitely not something I wanted to be thinking about when I was about to go see my favorite band. At the moment, I wasn’t too concerned about responding to The Text, but later it would come back to bite me.
[The Text was from one of my now-housemates, mentioning that there was a room available in his house and asking if I wanted to rent it. I was both apprehensive and excited about it, and mostly did not want to be thinking about any Major Life Decisions before I went to see a concert.]
After the venue staff checked my ID and vaccination card (and made a comment about how “I would not have guessed you were over 21!” :P), one of Punch Brothers’ staff members came out to go over the schedule. We were to be taken inside through security, given our free merch, and then taken to the upstairs lounge to await the arrival of Punch Brothers. Security was the first embarrassing moment- I was standing too close to the metal table so the metal-detecting wand kept beeping. It probably only took a few seconds to get everything sorted out, but in my head, it lasted much longer. I was already feeling weirdly nervous and wishing that I wasn’t first in line so I could follow what others did, but oh well. After going through security, we went into the venue’s lobby, where a merch table was set up. Two other members of Punch Brothers’ staff were there to hand me my new pin and rolled poster, both of which I put in my backpack. Then I went upstairs to the lounge to wait.
There was a cash bar in the lounge but I didn’t want to drink anything since I remembered what had happened to that one woman who got wasted at the Madison Cunningham concert. Not saying I would have gotten wasted, but I find that alcohol does little for my concentration, and I wanted to be sure that I remembered and noticed and enjoyed every detail. (In hindsight, I do wish I’d had one drink- that would have helped my mental state so much, I think, but who knows, I might not have been able to focus too well on the concert.) So I sat awkwardly in the lounge, listening to people talk to each other and wishing I had someone to talk to. The best part of this experience was finding a poster on the wall from a tour I’d seen back in 2009, at the very same venue. That was my first concert, and it would have been my next concert too had the singer not cancelled recently! [Said singer was David Archuleta.]
Eventually, the staff member who ran the VIP experience came up to tell us to file into a single line. We did so, and she took us down into the theater, where a bunch of folding chairs were set up. I took my seat in the front row, encouraged but not entirely convinced by the VIP staff’s comment that “the band will be able to hear you even when you’ve got your mask on! They have very good hearing!” (Obviously I know Punch Brothers have excellent hearing, but my voice is so quiet, I wasn’t too sure they’d hear me unless I sat in the front row.) I have to say, in terms of seating, I enjoyed the VIP experience more this time than last time, since the last time, the higher tier of VIP were automatically seated in the front row, and this time, the only thing that separated the higher tier was the fact that they got a tote bag to carry their merch in (I had brought my backpack so no problem there), and they would eventually have a special coffee blend shipped to their house. (Don’t tell Chris Thile, but I’m not a coffee drinker so the higher tier didn’t appeal to me.) As far as seating went, we were all equal, so that was cool. In no time, we were all seated, and then… Punch Brothers appeared! And that was when I knew something was wrong. At the previous concert I had seen- Chris Thile, back in November- I had felt an indescribable rush of love upon seeing Chris. This time, when he and the boys walked out together… I felt nothing. I wasn’t even excited, just vaguely glad to see them like “oh, there you are!” Chris greeted us, saying “I heard you’re very important!,” and then explained how this Punch Session would go- the band would take a song request, then take some of our questions, then play another request, and so on. “So what do you want to hear?” I thought we would end up shouting out song titles, but instead I saw someone raise her hand and Chris called on her. “Can you play ‘Clara?’ That’s my daughter’s name!” Chris seemed excited to do it, saying they hadn’t done it in a while… but for not having done it in a while, DAMN!!! They sounded EXACTLY like they did on the album. I know I shouldn’t have been shocked because they’re just THAT good, but… man, I was shocked. In a good way. That song is so beautiful and has such a beautiful texture to it, it was lovely to see that performance.
After that, it was question time. I had been thinking beforehand that I might try to request a song and also ask a question, thinking that we were supposed to shout out our requests and they’d play what they heard, but once I saw how it was going to go, I realized I should only ask the question. I sat there, waiting my turn, almost too nervous to pay attention to the other questions as they were being asked. The first person asked about the ending of “Movement and Location” and how abrupt it is, and if that was something they feel intuitively or if they really have to count during that part, and where that idea came from. Chris said happily, “Ohh, I like this question!” which of course I figured he would. To demonstrate, the band played the ending of “Movement and Location,” which Chris then likened to the ending of “Reptilia” by The Strokes- and then they played the ending of “Reptilia” by The Strokes without missing a beat. Chris also said that the song came about from the beginning with him singing a long rubato melody over the weird up/down strokes on the off-beat (I’ve never been quite sure of how to explain what he does on mandolin during that song), and said that it was inspired by EDM of all things???? He also said that it was played in 5, but the pulse was in 4, and demonstrated by playing it while stomping his foot to the beat, which absolutely blew my mind. I can’t do that. He is a human metronome. Someone from the front row asked what it’s like to sing in 4 but play in 5, and while Chris reminded him that “I don’t do that in that song,” he did concede that he does that in their cover of “Church Street Blues” (which he concisely referred to as “Church Street”), and then they played a little teaser of “Church Street Blues” to demonstrate. Again, he showed how the pulse was felt in 4 (which is the same pulse as the Tony Rice version), but the meter is in 5, which is, again. Something I would never think of to do or be able to do.
After that, the band took a question from the back row, which was “for the whole band, but mostly Noam,” to which Noam shook his head with his usual stone-faced stare. The person then asked, “What’s it like to work with Noam?” Naturally, everyone in the band looked at Noam as he approached the microphone to answer… “It’s dangerous, and very scary.” Gabe said “I think that’s accurate,” and the others nodded while we laughed. Chris, however, was eager to point out how he loves Noam’s “voice” and how his ideas come out through the banjo. He named him as the band member who’s most likely to come up with little riffs and ideas that push the song forward when composing. Noam cracked that if it wasn’t for Punch Brothers, everything he came up with would end up as ringtones.
As Chris asked for more questions, I put my hand up, but a woman a few seats down from me was faster, and she got called upon. She asked for the song “Boll Weevil.” Punch Brothers then played “Boll Weevil,” which was cool- I thought I’d heard that one live before, but then I remembered I hadn’t, and the band had gone into “Another New World” after playing “My Oh My” at the concert I saw instead of “Boll Weevil” like they usually do. So, that was two Punch Brothers songs in the pre-show that I hadn’t seen live before! After that, I was so nervous I couldn’t concentrate on anything except my question. After the band turned down a request for GWAR (if you know where this concert was taking place, you’ll understand) and filed away a closing request for “Soon or Never,” I put my hand up right away. When I was called upon, I scooted to the front of my seat and tried to speak as loudly as I could, but I still saw Noam, Chris, and Critter leaning in and cupping their ears, which was the second embarrassing moment of the night. I asked “On the new album, how did you arrange the songs so that they stayed true to your band’s sound, and also to the original recordings?” Critter was the first to talk, explaining that he’d had a history with Tony Rice (who had been his mentor) and one thing that Tony Rice emphasized was finding your own sound and being true to yourself. He said this wasn’t a tribute album- they’d made it before he died. It was more them putting Tony Rice’s spirit/ethos into their approach to the music. Chris then said, “I find the idea of this album as ‘Church Street Blues but with a full band’ to be really distasteful,” which, in my nervous and eager-to-please mind, suddenly translated to him finding what I’d asked distasteful, and I was worried for the rest of the pre-show that I hadn’t phrased my question in the right way and he thought I’d misunderstood the whole purpose of the album (even though I told myself that I was projecting my own anxieties and Chris was going to forget I’d even asked this question in a day). He said that any bluegrass band can do Church Street Blues, and many have (even demonstrating by playing a bit of the title track in full traditional bluegrass mode), but Tony Rice didn’t sound like anyone else on Earth and Punch Brothers don’t sound like anything else on Earth and it wouldn’t have been right if they’d stayed traditional on this album- it would have been going against everything Tony stood for. He also pulled out my favorite of his sayings: “Church Street Blues is yellow and we’re blue. Hell On Church Street is green.” Finally, Noam came to the mic to say that the band had approached each song arrangement like an art installation- you know what’s coming, but you have no idea what it’s going to look like, or in their case, sound like. I was grateful for such a long, in-depth response, but I also couldn’t stop overthinking about the response Chris had given me.
Someone behind me asked another question about the arrangements, which I don’t remember much of except that it led the band to demonstrate how their arrangement of “Last Thing On My Mind” had come about- somewhat spontaneously, with each band member slowly joining in as they played the song. Chris couldn’t seem to find the words to describe his part, to which I wanted to shout “It’s Phillip Glass!” Because that arrangement has always reminded me of Phillip Glass. Anyway, after that they played “Soon or Never,” which I’d been fortunate enough to hear a snippet of at the Live from Here show I attended, but it was super special to hear it with the full band and I loved it. Then the band thanked us and left the stage, and we were taken to the merch table for early shopping. I wanted the pineapple T-shirt that I’d seen online and loved, but I also really wanted a copy of All Ashore on vinyl and I didn’t feel like spending over $40, so I only bought the record (which I’d been hoping was red like the version they sold online, but it isn’t- so it goes). Since it didn’t fit in my backpack (you’d think I would have learned from the last PB show I attended, where I bought The Phosphorescent Blues and carried the same backpack), I went outside to the car to put it away. There I checked my phone, and saw The Text waiting for me. And I had a wild thought… “I could leave right now.” Already I knew that I wasn’t feeling it and the vibes were not right. But I knew how ridiculous that would be, so I put my stuff away and walked back to the venue. I tried to go to a nearby café for some food, but it was closed, and I didn’t want to go any further looking for food because otherwise I would have to rush back. Fortunately, I remembered from the last time that they sold pizza at the venue. So I went back and the venue staff member from earlier who’d checked my ID said I had to wait in the VIP line. I said I’d prefer to wait inside because I wanted to get food inside, and he said they didn’t sell food, “only pizza.” I said, yes, I want pizza, so he went inside to get a ticket-scanner, which was another embarrassing moment (and I know my mind was the only thing creating this embarrassment, so it sucked that I couldn’t shake that feeling because I knew I was being irrational). While I was waiting, I responded to The Text, and even said out loud “I do not need to be thinking about this right now.” And yet it was all I could think about all of a sudden. Then the next embarrassing moment happened- I saw a woman from the general admission line waving in my direction, so I went over to say hello, thinking she was someone I had met before but didn’t recognize (that is 100% not implausible, I have met SO MANY PEOPLE), but it turned out she was waving to her daughter who was behind me. GAAAAHHHH.
After the staff member scanned the ticket, I had to go through security again, and then went back up to the lounge, where someone in front of me asked if they sold food. They said they’d be putting pizza out at 6:30… which was five minutes after early admission for GA started, and I wanted front row so badly, so I decided I’d just eat the protein bar I’d packed for myself and suck it up. That, I’m sure, was the biggest mistake I made yesterday. While I was wandering the lounge area, I heard a woman on the phone talking about how she’d wanted to ask a question at the Q&A, and had prepared so many things to say, but she couldn’t get a word in, “just like last time,” and I suddenly felt so guilty that they’d had to answer my question and she didn’t get the chance to ask hers (I know, I know, it’s not my fault, but I was still worried that they hadn’t liked my question). Then I heard Haley Heynderickx, the opening act, warming up onstage, and I realized I could sneak up to the balcony if I wanted to see her… only for a security guard to immediately call me out and then hover around me for a few minutes when I sat down on a bench, as if he was worried I’d tried to sneak off again. Fortunately, I don’t think anyone was around to see that, but that was still another embarrassing moment.
After waiting in the lounge and feeling even more awkward than I had before (which resulted in me buying a water bottle I didn’t even want because I greeted the bartender and then felt it would be rude to walk away without buying anything), the VIP manager came upstairs to take any GA ticket-holders to their spot. I followed her down to the rail, where I promptly grabbed a Primo No. 1 Spot on the front row. Then… the wait began. And it was awful. The whole time, I couldn’t stop thinking about The Text, plus I desperately wanted someone to talk to, but my anxiety wouldn’t let me engage the people around me in conversation, and it was just… Ugh. The person next to me started reading a book, which I thought was a genius idea and I wished I’d thought of it, but I’m sure that would have led to more anxiety if I had (thinking that people would make fun of me for reading a book). About the only thing to do was sway and nod along to Tony Rice’s Church Street Blues, which was playing on a loop over the speakers.
Finally, after a nigh-unbearable hour, Chris Thile’s voice came on over the loudspeaker, reminding everyone to keep their masks on during the show. Then he introduced the opening act, Haley Heynderickx. From the chatter of the folks around me, I’d gathered that they were only there to see Haley Heynderickx, and I was right. After she left the stage, they left the building. Anyway, Haley was great, though I didn’t know her music so it was a bit hard to pay attention. Her voice is lovely and I really dig her singing style, plus her guitar playing is so skillful without being overly flashy. I’d heard her on Live from Here, I think on one of their live last shows before the pandemic shut them down, and I had fallen in love with her song “Oom Sha La,” but unfortunately she didn’t play this song (or anything from her album I Need to Start a Garden). What she did play were some originals, a Townes Van Zandt cover, an old spiritual called “The Water Is Wide,” and a song that she made up on the spot about performing in our city. Before that song, she had asked what people would recommend doing if she had been able to wander around the city and not been cooped up inside because of COVID protocols, and someone shouted “Eat chicken wings on the porch!” So she sang, in that made-up song, about eating chicken wings on the porch, and we all laughed and clapped. She also made some self-deprecating remarks about “unfortunately, I’m not the Punch Brothers,” and how she had no idea why she agreed to be their opener, but the people around me clearly loved her so I wish she could have heard their conversation and understood that they were there to see her. Despite the fact that she didn’t do “Oom Sha La,” I still loved her set and am glad she clearly has a strong fanbase.
Again, the wait for Punch Brothers to come on was unbearable, but finally… finally… they did. Chris was grooving to Tony Rice as the music over the speakers faded out. And then the show began. And god, it was EXCELLENT but I wish I’d enjoyed it more.
Setlist (and for the first time, I couldn’t remember it off the top of my head after the show- I’ll explain at the end how I managed to get ahold of the setlist):
1. “House Carpenter/Jerusalem Ridge”- I’d been so excited to see this song live, and it was pretty sick, as I expected. My first thoughts: “Punch Brothers have gotten WEIRD during quarantine.” They did some cool things, playing with the melody and adding dissonance and such, that were really great. Chris in particular was in amazing voice (I’d been worried about him because he didn’t sound so great during the pre-show, but his pipes were on fire in this song). “Jerusalem Ridge” also rocked- Gabe, my favorite Punch Brother, sure got his time to shine!
2. “My Oh My”- They transitioned right into this from “Jerusalem Ridge” and it was epic. Lots of weirdness and dissonance at the beginning of this one, too, Pretty cool.
3. “Movement and Location”- I always expect to hear “Boll Weevil” after this song… but I’ll gladly take this song any day over that one. Chris is still breathing in the middle of the word “location” on the first verse, which bugs me a little.
4. “Three Dots and a Dash”- Chris introduced this saying that the previous song was “obviously about baseball” (…it is but it isn’t), and then said this next song was the first of two songs about a tiki drink. (Speaking of which, Haley Heynderickx had said that one of the things she’s learned from touring with Punch Brothers was that they make a LOT of tiki drinks.) I was hoping it would be “Jungle Bird,” but “Three Dots and a Dash” is still awesome- Gabe and Chris’ solos were great.
5. “Any Old Time”- So it was Critter singing this on the album, and not Gabe as I’d hoped it was! Critter has range, man. His vocals are Punch Brothers’ secret weapon. I love their arrangement of this song so much.
6. “Church Street Blues”- I don’t remember this performance too well, except that once Critter transitioned into the classic Tony Rice riff at the end, someone yelled, “Yeah, TR!”
7. “Cattle In the Cane”- Man, the opening to this song is SICK, and I was shocked to see it was all Gabe- I thought for some reason that Paul was playing the lower note of the opening drone. Another one I don’t remember too well, but I’m sure it was great.
8. “The Angel of Doubt”- I didn’t recognize this at first, but once Chris started singing, I cheered (and I was the only one to do so). Definitely one of my top favorite Punch Brothers songs. Once it got into the groove at the end, I heard people yelling “YEAH!” Chris’ rapping was so intense, I loved it.
9. “The Blind Leaving the Blind (Third Movement)”- Now this… This, I was so blessed to see live. Chris announced to all the “talkers” in the audience that they’d better pay attention, otherwise they’ll look up and the band will have gone into a different time signature and they’d be caught off-guard. I honestly wasn’t expecting them to play the entire movement… but they DID, and it was… well, like I said. Such a blessing. The third movement is my favorite movement of “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” too, so that was great.
10. “Magnet”- Now, here is where the good vibes started to leave me. And I hate to have turned this into such a big deal, but… I had my No. 1 Primo Spot, right? Well, a taller person slipped beside me. And his movements were so wild that I stepped back to give him some space. And of course, he and the woman he was with slid in to fill the gap, and since he was so much taller than me, I could no longer see. So, I lost my spot on the rail, and I hate that this affected my enjoyment of the concert so much because I always feel like people who make a big deal out of being on the rail can come off as entitled (usually because they act like that spot is owed to them, when the rail is there for anybody)… But oh my god it absolutely did affect me, because I couldn’t see the band at all, and when it’s a band like Punch Brothers, SURE I’d rather hear them than look at them (not to say I find them ugly lol), but… if I can help it, I’d like to still be able to hear them and see them too… So I spent the rest of the night on my toes or craning my neck around and it wasn’t too great. Anyway, “Magnet” was my personal highlight of the night, since it was the song that got me into Punch Brothers, and it featured some hilarious interactions between Chris and his bandmates (he went in for a kiss with Noam, then pulled away at the last second while Noam shook his head, and then he gave Critter a suggestive glance and Critter shrugged like “sure, let’s do it.” In both cases, I was laughing and the audience was going wild).
11. “Orphan Annie”- Cool Paul feature at the beginning. Nothing else to say here, really- it’s not one of my favorite tracks.
12. “Jungle Bird”- YES. YESSSSSS. Even with my viewing impaired, I was still so happy to see this performed. This is my preferred song about a tiki drink, and it’s also easily in my top ten Punch Brothers songs. Chris asked if anyone had ever had a jungle bird, and looking at the audience, said “Three people…?” And then he noticed all his bandmates had their hands up, so he said “Eight people, then!” He then said he hoped that this song was better than his last attempt at making a jungle bird, because “the pineapple just didn’t settle, and I shook it for so long…” (Presumably explaining that video on PB’s instagram story of Chris cutting up a pineapple on the tour bus.) He then said he’d be taking out his frustration in the mandolin solo, which he did, and it was great.
13. “It’s All Part of the Plan”- I wish I’d enjoyed this more. There was so much cheering at the end of “Jungle Bird” that I could hardly hear the intro to this song, and then of course my view was blocked… But the ending of this song was really sublime. It always is. I was sad that Chris didn’t start bouncing up and down during that part like he had the first time I saw them
14. “The Last Thing On My Mind”- Instead of transitioning into “Like It’s Going Out of Style” like they do on the album, they went into this one. I wasn’t too fond of the arrangement on Hell On Church Street, but I liked seeing it live, in a vague way. I was starting to not enjoy myself by this point, tbh.
15. “Pride of Man”- Critter’s solo at the beginning? FIRE!! I really gained a new appreciation for Critter after this show- I always liked him, of course, but he really brought his A-game last night. I really wish I’d been able to see better and had been feeling better at this point- I love this song and had been really excited about hearing it live, but by this point I was kind of feeling like I wanted to get out of there.
16. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”- Another transition, right into this song. Chris gestured to us to sing along, but I don’t know the words so I hummed. Perfect closing song. But of course, that couldn’t be the end…
17. “Rye Whiskey”- Of course, Punch Brothers had to play one of their best-known songs before leaving the stage. This was a rocking good time, probably better (for me, anyway) than the first time I saw them, because of all the floor-stomping going on (I was afraid we’d wear a hole in the wood!). I shouted “OH BOY!!” as loudly as I could to make up for my waning enthusiasm, and practically screamed the “da da da, digga digga da, da da da da da” part at the end. The band took their bows and left the stage. But then…
18. “Watch ‘at Breakdown”- They came back and pulled this banger of an instrumental out. Gabe’s solo was FUCKING FANTASTIC. OH MY GOD I cannot say enough good things about him!! This was also the point where the rest of the band dropped out and let Chris take an extended solo, which is cool sometimes but last night I just felt like it went on, and on, and on… Wonder why I love it when a guy does that on mandolin but find it cheesy and self-indulgent when a guitarist does it. That being said, I didn’t actually love that solo, though it amused me when one person shouted out “I LOVE YOU, CHRIS!!!” while he was playing the solo and Critter gave him a “calm down” hand gesture.
19. “Julep”- During “Watch ‘at Breakdown,” blue and purple lights had been projected across the stage, and I was excited, because blue and purple are (in my brain, anyway) the colors that I view the song “Familiarity” in and I was really hoping that they’d play “Familiarity” as their last song so I could not only hear my favorite Punch Brothers song, but also see it physically the way I always see it in my mind. However, once I heard the iconic bassline to “Julep,” my hopes were dashed. I actually teared up a little out of disappointment, because I had wanted to hear that song SO BADLY. I was also disappointed in the guy next to me singing along- I never like it when people sing along to the quiet songs at concerts. Still, though I wasn’t having much fun at this point, I found the middle 8 to be as gorgeous as ever and the song stirred my heartstrings.
So, not only did the band not play “Familiarity,” but they didn’t play my second-favorite either- “New York City,” which I’d so been hoping to hear- and they also didn’t play “Flippen,” which I wasn’t really expecting them to but I wanted to see if Paul could top himself on the opening solo after the last time I saw them live. Also, NOT ONE PERSON SAID “AHOY” AT THIS CONCERT!!!! Is it even a Chris Thile-related concert if you don’t yell “ahoy???” I almost yelled it at the beginning of “Edmund Fitzgerald” but I knew that would be inappropriate for that song.
At the end of the show, I figured I could eke out what little pleasure might be left from this experience by begging for the setlist. So I got back up on the rail (the tall guy had left by then) and held my hand out, as did the others around me. A staff member came up and collected three of the setlists… and then gave them all to the person on my left. She passed one to me, which I passed to the person on my right who had also held her hand out, expecting the person on my left to pass the other one to me… but it turned out the person on HER left had been reaching for a setlist too and so she’d passed one to her right and one to her left. And I was left, left, left, left (to quote that other Strokes song Punch Brothers have covered) behind. I did ask if I could take a picture of the setlist, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to remember the order they’d played each song in (for some reason, my already pretty shaky memory had been absolutely in the gutter lately), and she let me, while expressing discomfort over having been given all the setlists. Well, it’s always something… if it isn’t one thing, it’s another…
So… yes, it was a good concert. But so many things- my social anxiety-based embarrassments, stress from receiving The Text, the fact that it’s almost the Bad Time of the Month, my feelings of loneliness, the tall person in front of me, the singing going on around me, the physical pain of standing up and bouncing/headbanging to the music, the fact that they didn’t play all the songs I wanted to hear, the fact that I hadn’t eaten much before the show, the fact that I’d seen Chris Thile live a couple months ago and that had been so incredibly special as the first time I was seeing him after the pandemic, my high expectations (I wanted this concert to be just as good as the first one of theirs that I saw), the fact that Hell On Church Street is my least favorite Punch Brothers album and that I was far more excited for my upcoming concert (Sparks) than this one… All of that made it, unfortunately, just a “meh” experience for me, when it should have been the experience of a lifetime. And what’s worse, I haven’t only felt off-put by Punch Brothers’ music ever since- I tried listening to The Phosphorescent Blues on the way home after the concert, which is my favorite album of all time, and I just felt depressed- but I’ve also felt discouraged to go to the Sparks concert. This is something I’ve been daydreaming about every single day since I bought the tickets, seven months ago! And now I’m just like… I don’t know if I want to go to this concert or to any concerts. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, because concerts are my favorite thing in the world, supposedly… and nothing even went wrong at this one, objectively speaking, and there were definitely moments of pleasure that I experienced.. But something was so, so off.
[I actually was really put off by music in general for a while after I saw this concert, and then what made it better was Sparks winning an award at the Cesars (French Oscars) and seeing their performance from that show, and suddenly I was excited about their concert again. I had a good time at that concert and all the other ones that I've seen afterwards. And I hope I have a better time when I see Nickel Creek in May, and then Chris Thile solo later that month, than I did at the Punch Brothers show.]
I'm guessing this site has a word limit, so let's see if my review exceeds it.
I almost didn’t feel like writing about this show, because it turned out I was not in the best place mentally to enjoy it the way I’d hoped I would, and I don’t even want to think about it anymore. BUT, it still deserves a writeup because it was objectively a cool experience.
I was so hyped for this concert that I went to the venue as soon as I parked my car- about thirty minutes before VIP ticket holders were supposed to start arriving. Surprisingly, one person was already there before me. However, he ended up behind me in line, so I was the first person in line to enter the venue. A few more people eventually showed up as it got closer to 4:30. But also as it got closer to 4:30, I received… The Text. The Text did not inform me of any bad news- rather, it could potentially be good news for me- but it did require me to make a major life decision. It was definitely not something I wanted to be thinking about when I was about to go see my favorite band. At the moment, I wasn’t too concerned about responding to The Text, but later it would come back to bite me.
[The Text was from one of my now-housemates, mentioning that there was a room available in his house and asking if I wanted to rent it. I was both apprehensive and excited about it, and mostly did not want to be thinking about any Major Life Decisions before I went to see a concert.]
After the venue staff checked my ID and vaccination card (and made a comment about how “I would not have guessed you were over 21!” :P), one of Punch Brothers’ staff members came out to go over the schedule. We were to be taken inside through security, given our free merch, and then taken to the upstairs lounge to await the arrival of Punch Brothers. Security was the first embarrassing moment- I was standing too close to the metal table so the metal-detecting wand kept beeping. It probably only took a few seconds to get everything sorted out, but in my head, it lasted much longer. I was already feeling weirdly nervous and wishing that I wasn’t first in line so I could follow what others did, but oh well. After going through security, we went into the venue’s lobby, where a merch table was set up. Two other members of Punch Brothers’ staff were there to hand me my new pin and rolled poster, both of which I put in my backpack. Then I went upstairs to the lounge to wait.
There was a cash bar in the lounge but I didn’t want to drink anything since I remembered what had happened to that one woman who got wasted at the Madison Cunningham concert. Not saying I would have gotten wasted, but I find that alcohol does little for my concentration, and I wanted to be sure that I remembered and noticed and enjoyed every detail. (In hindsight, I do wish I’d had one drink- that would have helped my mental state so much, I think, but who knows, I might not have been able to focus too well on the concert.) So I sat awkwardly in the lounge, listening to people talk to each other and wishing I had someone to talk to. The best part of this experience was finding a poster on the wall from a tour I’d seen back in 2009, at the very same venue. That was my first concert, and it would have been my next concert too had the singer not cancelled recently! [Said singer was David Archuleta.]
Eventually, the staff member who ran the VIP experience came up to tell us to file into a single line. We did so, and she took us down into the theater, where a bunch of folding chairs were set up. I took my seat in the front row, encouraged but not entirely convinced by the VIP staff’s comment that “the band will be able to hear you even when you’ve got your mask on! They have very good hearing!” (Obviously I know Punch Brothers have excellent hearing, but my voice is so quiet, I wasn’t too sure they’d hear me unless I sat in the front row.) I have to say, in terms of seating, I enjoyed the VIP experience more this time than last time, since the last time, the higher tier of VIP were automatically seated in the front row, and this time, the only thing that separated the higher tier was the fact that they got a tote bag to carry their merch in (I had brought my backpack so no problem there), and they would eventually have a special coffee blend shipped to their house. (Don’t tell Chris Thile, but I’m not a coffee drinker so the higher tier didn’t appeal to me.) As far as seating went, we were all equal, so that was cool. In no time, we were all seated, and then… Punch Brothers appeared! And that was when I knew something was wrong. At the previous concert I had seen- Chris Thile, back in November- I had felt an indescribable rush of love upon seeing Chris. This time, when he and the boys walked out together… I felt nothing. I wasn’t even excited, just vaguely glad to see them like “oh, there you are!” Chris greeted us, saying “I heard you’re very important!,” and then explained how this Punch Session would go- the band would take a song request, then take some of our questions, then play another request, and so on. “So what do you want to hear?” I thought we would end up shouting out song titles, but instead I saw someone raise her hand and Chris called on her. “Can you play ‘Clara?’ That’s my daughter’s name!” Chris seemed excited to do it, saying they hadn’t done it in a while… but for not having done it in a while, DAMN!!! They sounded EXACTLY like they did on the album. I know I shouldn’t have been shocked because they’re just THAT good, but… man, I was shocked. In a good way. That song is so beautiful and has such a beautiful texture to it, it was lovely to see that performance.
After that, it was question time. I had been thinking beforehand that I might try to request a song and also ask a question, thinking that we were supposed to shout out our requests and they’d play what they heard, but once I saw how it was going to go, I realized I should only ask the question. I sat there, waiting my turn, almost too nervous to pay attention to the other questions as they were being asked. The first person asked about the ending of “Movement and Location” and how abrupt it is, and if that was something they feel intuitively or if they really have to count during that part, and where that idea came from. Chris said happily, “Ohh, I like this question!” which of course I figured he would. To demonstrate, the band played the ending of “Movement and Location,” which Chris then likened to the ending of “Reptilia” by The Strokes- and then they played the ending of “Reptilia” by The Strokes without missing a beat. Chris also said that the song came about from the beginning with him singing a long rubato melody over the weird up/down strokes on the off-beat (I’ve never been quite sure of how to explain what he does on mandolin during that song), and said that it was inspired by EDM of all things???? He also said that it was played in 5, but the pulse was in 4, and demonstrated by playing it while stomping his foot to the beat, which absolutely blew my mind. I can’t do that. He is a human metronome. Someone from the front row asked what it’s like to sing in 4 but play in 5, and while Chris reminded him that “I don’t do that in that song,” he did concede that he does that in their cover of “Church Street Blues” (which he concisely referred to as “Church Street”), and then they played a little teaser of “Church Street Blues” to demonstrate. Again, he showed how the pulse was felt in 4 (which is the same pulse as the Tony Rice version), but the meter is in 5, which is, again. Something I would never think of to do or be able to do.
After that, the band took a question from the back row, which was “for the whole band, but mostly Noam,” to which Noam shook his head with his usual stone-faced stare. The person then asked, “What’s it like to work with Noam?” Naturally, everyone in the band looked at Noam as he approached the microphone to answer… “It’s dangerous, and very scary.” Gabe said “I think that’s accurate,” and the others nodded while we laughed. Chris, however, was eager to point out how he loves Noam’s “voice” and how his ideas come out through the banjo. He named him as the band member who’s most likely to come up with little riffs and ideas that push the song forward when composing. Noam cracked that if it wasn’t for Punch Brothers, everything he came up with would end up as ringtones.
As Chris asked for more questions, I put my hand up, but a woman a few seats down from me was faster, and she got called upon. She asked for the song “Boll Weevil.” Punch Brothers then played “Boll Weevil,” which was cool- I thought I’d heard that one live before, but then I remembered I hadn’t, and the band had gone into “Another New World” after playing “My Oh My” at the concert I saw instead of “Boll Weevil” like they usually do. So, that was two Punch Brothers songs in the pre-show that I hadn’t seen live before! After that, I was so nervous I couldn’t concentrate on anything except my question. After the band turned down a request for GWAR (if you know where this concert was taking place, you’ll understand) and filed away a closing request for “Soon or Never,” I put my hand up right away. When I was called upon, I scooted to the front of my seat and tried to speak as loudly as I could, but I still saw Noam, Chris, and Critter leaning in and cupping their ears, which was the second embarrassing moment of the night. I asked “On the new album, how did you arrange the songs so that they stayed true to your band’s sound, and also to the original recordings?” Critter was the first to talk, explaining that he’d had a history with Tony Rice (who had been his mentor) and one thing that Tony Rice emphasized was finding your own sound and being true to yourself. He said this wasn’t a tribute album- they’d made it before he died. It was more them putting Tony Rice’s spirit/ethos into their approach to the music. Chris then said, “I find the idea of this album as ‘Church Street Blues but with a full band’ to be really distasteful,” which, in my nervous and eager-to-please mind, suddenly translated to him finding what I’d asked distasteful, and I was worried for the rest of the pre-show that I hadn’t phrased my question in the right way and he thought I’d misunderstood the whole purpose of the album (even though I told myself that I was projecting my own anxieties and Chris was going to forget I’d even asked this question in a day). He said that any bluegrass band can do Church Street Blues, and many have (even demonstrating by playing a bit of the title track in full traditional bluegrass mode), but Tony Rice didn’t sound like anyone else on Earth and Punch Brothers don’t sound like anything else on Earth and it wouldn’t have been right if they’d stayed traditional on this album- it would have been going against everything Tony stood for. He also pulled out my favorite of his sayings: “Church Street Blues is yellow and we’re blue. Hell On Church Street is green.” Finally, Noam came to the mic to say that the band had approached each song arrangement like an art installation- you know what’s coming, but you have no idea what it’s going to look like, or in their case, sound like. I was grateful for such a long, in-depth response, but I also couldn’t stop overthinking about the response Chris had given me.
Someone behind me asked another question about the arrangements, which I don’t remember much of except that it led the band to demonstrate how their arrangement of “Last Thing On My Mind” had come about- somewhat spontaneously, with each band member slowly joining in as they played the song. Chris couldn’t seem to find the words to describe his part, to which I wanted to shout “It’s Phillip Glass!” Because that arrangement has always reminded me of Phillip Glass. Anyway, after that they played “Soon or Never,” which I’d been fortunate enough to hear a snippet of at the Live from Here show I attended, but it was super special to hear it with the full band and I loved it. Then the band thanked us and left the stage, and we were taken to the merch table for early shopping. I wanted the pineapple T-shirt that I’d seen online and loved, but I also really wanted a copy of All Ashore on vinyl and I didn’t feel like spending over $40, so I only bought the record (which I’d been hoping was red like the version they sold online, but it isn’t- so it goes). Since it didn’t fit in my backpack (you’d think I would have learned from the last PB show I attended, where I bought The Phosphorescent Blues and carried the same backpack), I went outside to the car to put it away. There I checked my phone, and saw The Text waiting for me. And I had a wild thought… “I could leave right now.” Already I knew that I wasn’t feeling it and the vibes were not right. But I knew how ridiculous that would be, so I put my stuff away and walked back to the venue. I tried to go to a nearby café for some food, but it was closed, and I didn’t want to go any further looking for food because otherwise I would have to rush back. Fortunately, I remembered from the last time that they sold pizza at the venue. So I went back and the venue staff member from earlier who’d checked my ID said I had to wait in the VIP line. I said I’d prefer to wait inside because I wanted to get food inside, and he said they didn’t sell food, “only pizza.” I said, yes, I want pizza, so he went inside to get a ticket-scanner, which was another embarrassing moment (and I know my mind was the only thing creating this embarrassment, so it sucked that I couldn’t shake that feeling because I knew I was being irrational). While I was waiting, I responded to The Text, and even said out loud “I do not need to be thinking about this right now.” And yet it was all I could think about all of a sudden. Then the next embarrassing moment happened- I saw a woman from the general admission line waving in my direction, so I went over to say hello, thinking she was someone I had met before but didn’t recognize (that is 100% not implausible, I have met SO MANY PEOPLE), but it turned out she was waving to her daughter who was behind me. GAAAAHHHH.
After the staff member scanned the ticket, I had to go through security again, and then went back up to the lounge, where someone in front of me asked if they sold food. They said they’d be putting pizza out at 6:30… which was five minutes after early admission for GA started, and I wanted front row so badly, so I decided I’d just eat the protein bar I’d packed for myself and suck it up. That, I’m sure, was the biggest mistake I made yesterday. While I was wandering the lounge area, I heard a woman on the phone talking about how she’d wanted to ask a question at the Q&A, and had prepared so many things to say, but she couldn’t get a word in, “just like last time,” and I suddenly felt so guilty that they’d had to answer my question and she didn’t get the chance to ask hers (I know, I know, it’s not my fault, but I was still worried that they hadn’t liked my question). Then I heard Haley Heynderickx, the opening act, warming up onstage, and I realized I could sneak up to the balcony if I wanted to see her… only for a security guard to immediately call me out and then hover around me for a few minutes when I sat down on a bench, as if he was worried I’d tried to sneak off again. Fortunately, I don’t think anyone was around to see that, but that was still another embarrassing moment.
After waiting in the lounge and feeling even more awkward than I had before (which resulted in me buying a water bottle I didn’t even want because I greeted the bartender and then felt it would be rude to walk away without buying anything), the VIP manager came upstairs to take any GA ticket-holders to their spot. I followed her down to the rail, where I promptly grabbed a Primo No. 1 Spot on the front row. Then… the wait began. And it was awful. The whole time, I couldn’t stop thinking about The Text, plus I desperately wanted someone to talk to, but my anxiety wouldn’t let me engage the people around me in conversation, and it was just… Ugh. The person next to me started reading a book, which I thought was a genius idea and I wished I’d thought of it, but I’m sure that would have led to more anxiety if I had (thinking that people would make fun of me for reading a book). About the only thing to do was sway and nod along to Tony Rice’s Church Street Blues, which was playing on a loop over the speakers.
Finally, after a nigh-unbearable hour, Chris Thile’s voice came on over the loudspeaker, reminding everyone to keep their masks on during the show. Then he introduced the opening act, Haley Heynderickx. From the chatter of the folks around me, I’d gathered that they were only there to see Haley Heynderickx, and I was right. After she left the stage, they left the building. Anyway, Haley was great, though I didn’t know her music so it was a bit hard to pay attention. Her voice is lovely and I really dig her singing style, plus her guitar playing is so skillful without being overly flashy. I’d heard her on Live from Here, I think on one of their live last shows before the pandemic shut them down, and I had fallen in love with her song “Oom Sha La,” but unfortunately she didn’t play this song (or anything from her album I Need to Start a Garden). What she did play were some originals, a Townes Van Zandt cover, an old spiritual called “The Water Is Wide,” and a song that she made up on the spot about performing in our city. Before that song, she had asked what people would recommend doing if she had been able to wander around the city and not been cooped up inside because of COVID protocols, and someone shouted “Eat chicken wings on the porch!” So she sang, in that made-up song, about eating chicken wings on the porch, and we all laughed and clapped. She also made some self-deprecating remarks about “unfortunately, I’m not the Punch Brothers,” and how she had no idea why she agreed to be their opener, but the people around me clearly loved her so I wish she could have heard their conversation and understood that they were there to see her. Despite the fact that she didn’t do “Oom Sha La,” I still loved her set and am glad she clearly has a strong fanbase.
Again, the wait for Punch Brothers to come on was unbearable, but finally… finally… they did. Chris was grooving to Tony Rice as the music over the speakers faded out. And then the show began. And god, it was EXCELLENT but I wish I’d enjoyed it more.
Setlist (and for the first time, I couldn’t remember it off the top of my head after the show- I’ll explain at the end how I managed to get ahold of the setlist):
1. “House Carpenter/Jerusalem Ridge”- I’d been so excited to see this song live, and it was pretty sick, as I expected. My first thoughts: “Punch Brothers have gotten WEIRD during quarantine.” They did some cool things, playing with the melody and adding dissonance and such, that were really great. Chris in particular was in amazing voice (I’d been worried about him because he didn’t sound so great during the pre-show, but his pipes were on fire in this song). “Jerusalem Ridge” also rocked- Gabe, my favorite Punch Brother, sure got his time to shine!
2. “My Oh My”- They transitioned right into this from “Jerusalem Ridge” and it was epic. Lots of weirdness and dissonance at the beginning of this one, too, Pretty cool.
3. “Movement and Location”- I always expect to hear “Boll Weevil” after this song… but I’ll gladly take this song any day over that one. Chris is still breathing in the middle of the word “location” on the first verse, which bugs me a little.
4. “Three Dots and a Dash”- Chris introduced this saying that the previous song was “obviously about baseball” (…it is but it isn’t), and then said this next song was the first of two songs about a tiki drink. (Speaking of which, Haley Heynderickx had said that one of the things she’s learned from touring with Punch Brothers was that they make a LOT of tiki drinks.) I was hoping it would be “Jungle Bird,” but “Three Dots and a Dash” is still awesome- Gabe and Chris’ solos were great.
5. “Any Old Time”- So it was Critter singing this on the album, and not Gabe as I’d hoped it was! Critter has range, man. His vocals are Punch Brothers’ secret weapon. I love their arrangement of this song so much.
6. “Church Street Blues”- I don’t remember this performance too well, except that once Critter transitioned into the classic Tony Rice riff at the end, someone yelled, “Yeah, TR!”
7. “Cattle In the Cane”- Man, the opening to this song is SICK, and I was shocked to see it was all Gabe- I thought for some reason that Paul was playing the lower note of the opening drone. Another one I don’t remember too well, but I’m sure it was great.
8. “The Angel of Doubt”- I didn’t recognize this at first, but once Chris started singing, I cheered (and I was the only one to do so). Definitely one of my top favorite Punch Brothers songs. Once it got into the groove at the end, I heard people yelling “YEAH!” Chris’ rapping was so intense, I loved it.
9. “The Blind Leaving the Blind (Third Movement)”- Now this… This, I was so blessed to see live. Chris announced to all the “talkers” in the audience that they’d better pay attention, otherwise they’ll look up and the band will have gone into a different time signature and they’d be caught off-guard. I honestly wasn’t expecting them to play the entire movement… but they DID, and it was… well, like I said. Such a blessing. The third movement is my favorite movement of “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” too, so that was great.
10. “Magnet”- Now, here is where the good vibes started to leave me. And I hate to have turned this into such a big deal, but… I had my No. 1 Primo Spot, right? Well, a taller person slipped beside me. And his movements were so wild that I stepped back to give him some space. And of course, he and the woman he was with slid in to fill the gap, and since he was so much taller than me, I could no longer see. So, I lost my spot on the rail, and I hate that this affected my enjoyment of the concert so much because I always feel like people who make a big deal out of being on the rail can come off as entitled (usually because they act like that spot is owed to them, when the rail is there for anybody)… But oh my god it absolutely did affect me, because I couldn’t see the band at all, and when it’s a band like Punch Brothers, SURE I’d rather hear them than look at them (not to say I find them ugly lol), but… if I can help it, I’d like to still be able to hear them and see them too… So I spent the rest of the night on my toes or craning my neck around and it wasn’t too great. Anyway, “Magnet” was my personal highlight of the night, since it was the song that got me into Punch Brothers, and it featured some hilarious interactions between Chris and his bandmates (he went in for a kiss with Noam, then pulled away at the last second while Noam shook his head, and then he gave Critter a suggestive glance and Critter shrugged like “sure, let’s do it.” In both cases, I was laughing and the audience was going wild).
11. “Orphan Annie”- Cool Paul feature at the beginning. Nothing else to say here, really- it’s not one of my favorite tracks.
12. “Jungle Bird”- YES. YESSSSSS. Even with my viewing impaired, I was still so happy to see this performed. This is my preferred song about a tiki drink, and it’s also easily in my top ten Punch Brothers songs. Chris asked if anyone had ever had a jungle bird, and looking at the audience, said “Three people…?” And then he noticed all his bandmates had their hands up, so he said “Eight people, then!” He then said he hoped that this song was better than his last attempt at making a jungle bird, because “the pineapple just didn’t settle, and I shook it for so long…” (Presumably explaining that video on PB’s instagram story of Chris cutting up a pineapple on the tour bus.) He then said he’d be taking out his frustration in the mandolin solo, which he did, and it was great.
13. “It’s All Part of the Plan”- I wish I’d enjoyed this more. There was so much cheering at the end of “Jungle Bird” that I could hardly hear the intro to this song, and then of course my view was blocked… But the ending of this song was really sublime. It always is. I was sad that Chris didn’t start bouncing up and down during that part like he had the first time I saw them
14. “The Last Thing On My Mind”- Instead of transitioning into “Like It’s Going Out of Style” like they do on the album, they went into this one. I wasn’t too fond of the arrangement on Hell On Church Street, but I liked seeing it live, in a vague way. I was starting to not enjoy myself by this point, tbh.
15. “Pride of Man”- Critter’s solo at the beginning? FIRE!! I really gained a new appreciation for Critter after this show- I always liked him, of course, but he really brought his A-game last night. I really wish I’d been able to see better and had been feeling better at this point- I love this song and had been really excited about hearing it live, but by this point I was kind of feeling like I wanted to get out of there.
16. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”- Another transition, right into this song. Chris gestured to us to sing along, but I don’t know the words so I hummed. Perfect closing song. But of course, that couldn’t be the end…
17. “Rye Whiskey”- Of course, Punch Brothers had to play one of their best-known songs before leaving the stage. This was a rocking good time, probably better (for me, anyway) than the first time I saw them, because of all the floor-stomping going on (I was afraid we’d wear a hole in the wood!). I shouted “OH BOY!!” as loudly as I could to make up for my waning enthusiasm, and practically screamed the “da da da, digga digga da, da da da da da” part at the end. The band took their bows and left the stage. But then…
18. “Watch ‘at Breakdown”- They came back and pulled this banger of an instrumental out. Gabe’s solo was FUCKING FANTASTIC. OH MY GOD I cannot say enough good things about him!! This was also the point where the rest of the band dropped out and let Chris take an extended solo, which is cool sometimes but last night I just felt like it went on, and on, and on… Wonder why I love it when a guy does that on mandolin but find it cheesy and self-indulgent when a guitarist does it. That being said, I didn’t actually love that solo, though it amused me when one person shouted out “I LOVE YOU, CHRIS!!!” while he was playing the solo and Critter gave him a “calm down” hand gesture.
19. “Julep”- During “Watch ‘at Breakdown,” blue and purple lights had been projected across the stage, and I was excited, because blue and purple are (in my brain, anyway) the colors that I view the song “Familiarity” in and I was really hoping that they’d play “Familiarity” as their last song so I could not only hear my favorite Punch Brothers song, but also see it physically the way I always see it in my mind. However, once I heard the iconic bassline to “Julep,” my hopes were dashed. I actually teared up a little out of disappointment, because I had wanted to hear that song SO BADLY. I was also disappointed in the guy next to me singing along- I never like it when people sing along to the quiet songs at concerts. Still, though I wasn’t having much fun at this point, I found the middle 8 to be as gorgeous as ever and the song stirred my heartstrings.
So, not only did the band not play “Familiarity,” but they didn’t play my second-favorite either- “New York City,” which I’d so been hoping to hear- and they also didn’t play “Flippen,” which I wasn’t really expecting them to but I wanted to see if Paul could top himself on the opening solo after the last time I saw them live. Also, NOT ONE PERSON SAID “AHOY” AT THIS CONCERT!!!! Is it even a Chris Thile-related concert if you don’t yell “ahoy???” I almost yelled it at the beginning of “Edmund Fitzgerald” but I knew that would be inappropriate for that song.
At the end of the show, I figured I could eke out what little pleasure might be left from this experience by begging for the setlist. So I got back up on the rail (the tall guy had left by then) and held my hand out, as did the others around me. A staff member came up and collected three of the setlists… and then gave them all to the person on my left. She passed one to me, which I passed to the person on my right who had also held her hand out, expecting the person on my left to pass the other one to me… but it turned out the person on HER left had been reaching for a setlist too and so she’d passed one to her right and one to her left. And I was left, left, left, left (to quote that other Strokes song Punch Brothers have covered) behind. I did ask if I could take a picture of the setlist, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to remember the order they’d played each song in (for some reason, my already pretty shaky memory had been absolutely in the gutter lately), and she let me, while expressing discomfort over having been given all the setlists. Well, it’s always something… if it isn’t one thing, it’s another…
So… yes, it was a good concert. But so many things- my social anxiety-based embarrassments, stress from receiving The Text, the fact that it’s almost the Bad Time of the Month, my feelings of loneliness, the tall person in front of me, the singing going on around me, the physical pain of standing up and bouncing/headbanging to the music, the fact that they didn’t play all the songs I wanted to hear, the fact that I hadn’t eaten much before the show, the fact that I’d seen Chris Thile live a couple months ago and that had been so incredibly special as the first time I was seeing him after the pandemic, my high expectations (I wanted this concert to be just as good as the first one of theirs that I saw), the fact that Hell On Church Street is my least favorite Punch Brothers album and that I was far more excited for my upcoming concert (Sparks) than this one… All of that made it, unfortunately, just a “meh” experience for me, when it should have been the experience of a lifetime. And what’s worse, I haven’t only felt off-put by Punch Brothers’ music ever since- I tried listening to The Phosphorescent Blues on the way home after the concert, which is my favorite album of all time, and I just felt depressed- but I’ve also felt discouraged to go to the Sparks concert. This is something I’ve been daydreaming about every single day since I bought the tickets, seven months ago! And now I’m just like… I don’t know if I want to go to this concert or to any concerts. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, because concerts are my favorite thing in the world, supposedly… and nothing even went wrong at this one, objectively speaking, and there were definitely moments of pleasure that I experienced.. But something was so, so off.
[I actually was really put off by music in general for a while after I saw this concert, and then what made it better was Sparks winning an award at the Cesars (French Oscars) and seeing their performance from that show, and suddenly I was excited about their concert again. I had a good time at that concert and all the other ones that I've seen afterwards. And I hope I have a better time when I see Nickel Creek in May, and then Chris Thile solo later that month, than I did at the Punch Brothers show.]
