On Our Way To Crazy

I love concerts. I have posted about them endlessly on this blog. I will go see anyone once. I will see the same shows over and over and over again.

But very rarely do I find myself sitting in my seat, completely in awe, thinking, “This is the best show I have ever seen.”

Two days removed, I still feel that way about the Punch Brothers show I saw on Tuesday.

The Punch Brothers are the new project of Chris Thile of Nickel Creek. They are a five piece modern bluegrassy kind of thing, and they are fantastic. I love Nickel Creek, and am completely in love with Chris Thile, so when the opportunity presented itself I jumped on the chance to see his new band even though I had no idea what they were all about.

They did some great covers – White Stripes, Wilco, Chuck Berry. But the centerpiece of the show is “The Blind Leaving the Blind”, which is something of a bluegrass symphony in four movements. And y’all? It was incredible. I don’t know how to describe music like that… it’s moving and emotional and stretching and fascinating. I was so sad when it was over.

The band itself was great. The thing about Chris Thile is that everyone is in love with him. Everyone. And he performs like he knows that everyone is in love with him and his adorableness and his talent and his corduroy blazer. So what does he do? He goes out and finds four more equally talented though not necessarily equally adorable guys and puts together this band of young talented adorable guys in suspenders and sneakers and the whole thing is just enchanting.

So there I was, in a big comfy chair at Vanderbilt, watching this fantastic performance of beautiful music with great lighting and adorable musicians, and I’m thinking that it just can’t get any better. The show ended and we went out to the lobby to check out the merch table and wait out the rain.

Then. Then! The band comes out! Apparently everyone else knew that was happening, but we were caught totally by surprise. Especially when the band member closest to where we were standing was my boyfriend and yours, Chris Thile. So I grab my friend Becka and we run over there and commence the babbling portion of the evening, where we talked over each other about how much we love him and how we go to all his shows together and did we mention that we love him and the show was so great we are huge fans and we love him while he smiles and nods before Becka’s husband finally shut us up by pulling out the camera.

If the Punch Brothers are coming anywhere near you, get there. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go to the show. You will not be disappointed.