Punch Brothers; Willie Watson
2014-07-05
Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater
100 California Drive, Yountville, CA 94599
7:00 PM, Saturday, July 5, 2014

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[7:04 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [7:05 PM] Take this Hammer
2. [7:09 PM] Hills of Mexico #
3. [7:13 PM] James Alley Blues ^
4. [7:18 PM] I Done Got Over It
5. [7:21 PM] Long John Dean #
6. [7:24 PM] Stewball #
7. [7:30 PM] Keep It Clean
8. [7:35 PM] The Lonesome River
9. [7:39 PM] Midnight Special
   [set ends 7:43 PM]

[8:07 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [8:09 PM] Another New World
2. [8:16 PM] ? “girls girls girls”
3. [8:22 PM] ? (instrumental, didn't quite catch the back-announce, perhaps “Walker's Breakdown”)
4. [8:31 PM] Next to the Trash
5. [8:34 PM] Clementine
6. [8:38 PM] ? (instrumental, another muff on the back-announce, perhaps “Charleston”)
7. [8:44 PM] Wayside (Back in Time)
8. [8:47 PM] Patchwork Girlfriend
9. [8:51 PM] Scriabin duet (Chris & Pickles) » ? “happy in my sleep”
10. [8:58 PM] Magnet
11. [9:03 PM] New York City
12. [9:12 PM] Through the Bottom of the Glass
13. [9:18 PM] ? (unidentified instrumental)
14. [9:26 PM] Black Spider Blues (?incomplete) » Rye Whiskey
    [set ends 9:31 PM]
     
    Encore
15. [9:32 PM; Chris returns alone, steps to the front of the stage to play unamplified] J.S. Bach: Presto (Fourth Movement of Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G minor for unaccompanied violin, BWV 1001)
16. [9:38 PM] Royal Canal (the Auld Triangle) (perfoormed a capella around a single mic)
    [add Willie, on banjo and lead vox]
17. [9:44 PM] Dry Bones (WW) #
    [show ends 9:48 PM]

Punch Brothers

• Chris "Critter" Eldridge: acoustic guitar, lead & harmony vox;
• Paul Kowert: contrabass, lead & harmony vox;
• Noam Pikelny: banjo, lead & harmony vox;
• Chris Thile: mandolin, lead and harmony vox;
  - and absent for paternity leave -
• Gabe Witcher: violin, lead & harmony vox.

• Willie Watson: acoustic guitar, # banjo, ^ harmonica, vox.

The drive up to Yountville was relatively easy, though the stress of increasingly thick and lazy traffic beyond the Carquinez Bridge made for an exercise in patience. Listening to the Giants on the radio as they let another game slip away was even more annoying. Hopefully they'll pull together for a comeback while we're enjoying tonight's show (Aside: they did, yeah!).

The opening set from Willie is alright. I liked hearing him, but was put off a little by the nasal vibrato he tended to affect on the more drawn out vowel tones. The audience is certainly respectfully enthusiastic, but I feel Willie needs to work a bit on his pacing and delivery. Starting a story, but then stopping to grab a harmonica or a capo is needlessly awkward. Similarly, switching instruments each song introduces unnecessary dead spots in the flow. Both of the audience participation tunes featured awkward start-stop meter – challenging for the arrhythmic audience members – and even if their part is simple, coming in early or late just makes a mess of things. I'd see him again as an opener or back in Old Crow Medicine Show if he rejoins them in the future, but at the moment, I don't foresee attending another of his solo shows for awhile.

As expected, the Punch Brothers were amazing, even playing short-handed tonight (apparently Gabe flew back home to be with his wife this morning). For the most part, the audience was well-behaved, but as the volume of “crowd roar” following solo breaks got louder and louder as the show progressed, I wished more and more that I'd been able to get seats down in front instead of the balcony. When Chris entered alone and announced that he was going to play a solo Bach piece, unamplified, for the encore, this became even more of an issue, but we were stuck, and the only choice was to hold our breath and listen carefully! On the other hand, given the options (front side, rear floor, or front of balcony), I'm happy with the seats we got – a little far away, but the sound mix was heavenly except for the occasional roar.

I was happy that the band opted to blend a good half dozen new tunes into the mix – given the virtuosity of the ensemble, it's exciting to see them stretch in new directions. And while I'm pretty sure that they tried it already as part of the Blind Leading the Blind (from Punch_, 2008), the shifting duos of t09 (first guitar/banjo, then mandolin/contrabass, then an ensemble section, etc) made for some interesting timbral blends. Fun stuff!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2014 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!