Avett Brothers tearing up the West Coast

Concord’s own The Avett Brothers, a band we’ve written about several times in the magazine and once or twice on this blog (caution: links on blog post aren’t working until we update the archives on our new site), are currently touring the West Coast, and crowds are coming out in droves. I just got this email from Dolph Ramseur, who works with the band:

The Avett Brothers sold-out SLIM’S in San Francisco last night.  They had 628 paid!  The tour out west is going great.  They sold out their show in Chico, CA on August 7th.  Los Angeles is on Saturday night and I expect they will sell 500 or more tickets.  This will be the first time the band has played in Los Angeles.  The buzz is really spreading in California as their show at the Lobero Theatre on October 20th in Santa Barbara, CA is already sold-out!  They play Bumbershoot in Seattle, WA on September 1st.  Bumbershoot is a huge music festival.  The Avett Brothers already are at the stage of pulling out 750 paid in Seattle and this will really step things up.  I just wanted to keep everyone posted in North Carolina how the tour was going.  Tour dates are below.

Thanks,
Dolph Ramseur, Ramseur Records

Great block party in South End; make sure you catch the next one

Last evening I attended the South End Summer Series Block Party. Apparently Social Push has been sponsoring this event each third Saturday since May. I didn’t know anything about the first two, but I made it out to this July one and I enjoyed it, increasing my fondness of South End.

 

The magazine’s office is located in the Design Center of the Carolinas in South End so I have the privilege of working in the area daily. I say privilege because I think South End is great. There are many cool buildings and stores there, parking is easy, there’s a stop for the soon-to-be-running light rail, and it’s less than five minutes from uptown. The block party celebrated the culture that is cultivating in South End.

 

Sponsored by clothing stores and boutiques Niche, Black Sheep, American Apparel, and Glamour Puss, all of which line Camden Road, the party was held in the block of Camden between West Park Ave. and South Tryon Street, with the street closed off. The event was advertised to be held from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. I, along with my brother and one of my friends, arrived around 7:30.

 

There was a DJ playing old-school hip hop the entire time (KRS One, Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, etc). Word is that there was supposed to be free food; maybe it was all gone before we got there. I did, however, seem numerous bottles of Vitamin Water (on the ground unfortunately), which were complimentary as well. We ate at Phat Burrito, which was busy with people the entire time. We ate on the patio. The weather was perfect.

 

This was truly a block party. Several guys were skateboarding and performing tricks, including a kid who couldn’t have been older than nine years old. The skater scene was definitely present. It’s popular with both Black Sheep and Niche, which had their doors open for the event (and is where I assume a lot of the skaters buy their T-shirts and kicks). The B-boys were on hand, too. You know—the break dancers. I can never see too much of people spinning on their hands and head. There was even an artist creating a hip hop-inspired painting.

 

There was a good turnout. A lot of people walked through for a few minutes, while many others lined the street and sidewalks for quite some time. The DJ Jazzy Jeff concert was scheduled for later that night at Amos’ South End. I’m sure a lot of the people later made their way over for that. We ended up staying at the block party for about two hours. Afterwards, we went to the fight party at Allure, which was only about five minutes away on South Mint Street (coming from West Boulevard). I saw Bernard Hopkins win a decision over Winky Wright. The fight wasn’t very impressive, though. I think I saw a better battle between the break dancers.

 

You can catch the next installment of the block party on August 18.

Avett Brothers Getting Bigger

We here at Charlotte mag put Concord band The Avett Brothers on the cover of our October 2005 Music Issue and proclaimed them “The Music Scene’s Best Hope.” A year earlier, Charlotte mag was one of the first local media outlets to extensively cover the band, with this story by Lori K. Tate. Since, the band, composed of brothers Scott and Seth Avett and Bob Crawford, has released two critically acclaimed CDs, including this month’s Emotionalism, played the biggest music festivals in the country, and, last week, played the Conan O’Brien Show. I just spoke with Crawford as he was driving the band to a gig in Alexandria, Va. He called the Conan show the highlight thus far in the band’s brief career, but insisted that it’s just another step in the band’s evolution.

For the uninitiated, The Avetts are known for their raucous, celebratory live shows and unclassifiable bluegrass/punk sound. To celebrate the release of Emotionalism, the band played a free show at Manifest Records on South Boulevard, and over 700 fans showed up. The store sold 300 CDs before the band even played, breaking Manifest’s previous single-day sales record (which was 120, of a Jay-Z CD). The band is playing in-stores now to promote the new CD. Bob didn’t know when they might play Charlotte again. Last year, the Avetts headlined an afternoon festival in August or September (can’t remember exactly) at Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre, but Bob said they were having a hard time getting that scheduled this year and might have to move it. If nothing else, they’ll (hopefully) be back around for the traditional New Year’s Eve show.

In the meantime, here’s the first track off the new CD. You’re welcome. —Rick Thurmond

mp3 The Avett Brothers, “Die Die Die”

UPDATE: Did some more Googling. The Avett Brothers were Paste magazine’s Band of the Week last week. Also, here’s a good feature story on the Brothers from a paste issue of Paste. Paste, by the way, is a great music and culture magazine out of Atlanta, GA. Finally, the Avetts were also mentioned in Esquire magazine last month, among numerous other national media mentions, such as The New Yorker (scroll down).