By Michael Natelli ‘14

Scott Galupo’s concert review in the Washington Post this week argued that the Avett Brothers are “trying to straddle two very different worlds.” He suggests that they employed “labor-saving techniques of a duo working on the cheap,” and that their lack of using their large video board backdrop and pizazz was a disappointment.

Perhaps Galupo thought he was supposed to be seeing Savoy or Avicii that night?

Last Friday at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia, the Avett Brothers accomplished what only a few musical acts seem capable of in modern-day performing: a combination of humility, genuine talent, and entertainment that was drawn more from the music than it was from any fancy dancers, lights or video backdrops.

One might relate the show to a coffeehouse performance with 12,000 of your closest friends. There were no obscure outfits, twerking or untalented lip-syncers, and if that’s what Galupo was expecting, then I can see why he’d be disappointed.

But what the crowd was actually in for was a remarkable display of musical ability, whether it was Scott Avett simultaneously singing, playing banjo and beating a bass drum or cellist Joe Kwon moving across the stage while, at the same time, playing some of the fastest cello riffs I’ve ever encountered.

But Galupo goes on, and suggests that after “giving a hint of what they’re becoming capable of” with two up-tempo rock songs, the band, essentially, disappointed by turning back to “sleepy ballads.” Sleepy? Looks like the Post’s reviewer was up past his bed time.

Galupo must’ve been the only one at Patriot Center last weekend that didn’t seem to quite get (or quite appreciate) what the Avett Brothers are all about. While many, from Madonna to Lady Gaga to Bruno Mars and so forth, have made their names on being stylistic and lavish performers, it’s not about that with the Avett Brothers; for them, it’s about taking the personal stories of hardship and triumph that their die-hard fans know so well and putting them to music. The way the audience sang along like a church choir as Scott Avett stood alone under a spotlight and sang “Murder in the City” is proof that their simplistic methods are a success.