Shortly after the release of their major label debut, 2009′s I and Love and You, The Avett Brothers got huge. Their history in Tennessee is quite telling of this. One minute they’re performing in a parking lot at Grimey’s Records in Nashville, seconds later they’re headlining the downtown arena nearby – a venue typically reserved for the likes of Springsteen and McCartney. None of this is a bad thing, of course. The Avetts have been a hardworking team for years now, and they deserve all the acclaim. It’s just intriguing to see a band’s rocketing success (see: The Black Keys, Phoenix, Muse etc.). Having said that, when the opportunity arises to see the bands return to a smaller venue, you take it.

For Chattanooga, that chance came on New Year’s Eve Eve. When the show was announced in November, the whole city was buzzing. This was the biggest “get” that Chattanooga’s new A.C. Entertainment-run venue Track 29 had been able to snag. Located on the campus of the famous Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Track 29 has a movable stage giving them a variable capacity – anywhere from 800 to 1,800 – and for this show they set the cap at 1,500 tickets. The morning that they went on sale, there was a frenzy that resulted in the show selling out in a venue-record 27 seconds. As Track 29 put it, “No server failures, no selling to ticket liquidators, no website overload, just plain old sold out!” Those that were shut out took to Facebook and Twitter to complain, and the secondary ticket market was ridiculously overpriced. Despite the fact that the Avetts had just played the Tivoli Theatre in town in 2009, this was truly the biggest show that Chattanooga had seen in a long time.

Photo by Catherine Watkins

All of the build up and excitement lasted until the day of the show – so much so that people started lining up outside the venue at midnight for the general admission show. By the time CoS arrived on the scene, the doors were already open, yet the line was still extending well beyond the long building. Bottom line: Track 29 hosted one of the biggest crowds in its history thus far, and the excitement was palpable.

As Scott Avett shook his head with a smile, the band jumped right into “Will You Return?” and thus began the singalongs. (The crowd knew every word to about 85% of the songs played throughout the evening.) This only fed into the unbridled enthusiasm the band exuded. For the first half of the show, the Avetts never stopped the energy; jumping, pacing, clapping, and swinging about – they did it all. Then came the show’s downfall: the slow songs.

Most of the band left the stage after “Pretty Girl From Cedar Lane”, leaving only the actual Avett Brothers – Scott and Seth – to sing a few slower acoustic songs on a single mic positioned at the front of the stage. It should have been a highlight – had this been the Ryman, you could’ve heard a pin drop during this segment – but most of the crowd decided they weren’t interested in these slow songs and proceeded to talk just loud enough that you could barely hear the music if you were anywhere but front row. By the time they played their third song in this style – joined by bassist Bob Crawford on backing vocals – it was impossible to hear them at all.

Photo by Catherine Watkins

Try as they might, all the loud talkers in the world could not ruin this show. After the brothers wrapped up their acoustic segment, the full band returned, and they kicked back into a slightly higher gear with “And It Spread” and “Paranoia in B Flat Major”, which at least roped the audience back into singalong mode. Eventually closing the set with “I and Love and You”, the rapturous applause that led them off the stage continued until they came back five minutes later – the reaction was enough that even a band that hadn’t planned an encore would have been forced to come back on. As they took the stage amidst all the fervor, Seth humbly shook his head and said, “Y’all are too good to us.” They treated the crowd with “January Wedding” and a new song, “The Once and Future Carpenter”, before officially ending the set with “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise”.

All in all, the band played for nearly two hours and the audience couldn’t have been more appreciative, regardless of the talking that plagued the middle of the set. Not only was this show a fantastic opportunity to see a band on the rise in a smaller space than normal, but it was the perfect way to bring 2011 to a close.

Setlist:
Will You Return?
Shame
Tin Man
Telling Time
Kick Drum Heart
The Prettiest Thing
Distraction #74
Salina
Slight Figure of Speech
The Weight of Lies
At the Beach
Die Die Die
Pretty Girl From Cedar Lane
St. Josephs
When I Drink
Just a Closer Walk With Thee
And It Spread
Paranoia in Bb Major
Go To Sleep
Colorshow
I and Love and You
Encore:
January Wedding
The Once and Future Carpenter
Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise