Photos: The Avett Brothers treat St. Paul to an energetic night of music

Seth Avett of of The Avett Brothers. The Avett Brothers and Trampled By Turtles performed at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday, October 24.Darin Kamnetz for MPR

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October 25, 2024

The Avett Brothers and Trampled By Turtles collaborated on a lively and generous program Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, treating the audience to nearly three hours of music.

Duluth’s Trampled By Turtles opened the show, speaking nary a word but going straight to their work. “As you can tell,” frontman Dave Simonett announced at one point, “none of us is excited about doing any public speaking.”

Instead, TBT poured energy into the performances, which elicited rapt attention from an audience swaying to the music and waving their phones overhead. In a nod to the venue, fiddle player Ryan Young wore a Minnesota Wild sweater onstage — apt for the athleticism required to perform Trampled’s relentless brand of newgrass. Many fans wore shirts displaying their Duluth pride and showed heartfelt appreciation as Trampled By Turtles closed their set with a pair of longtime favorites: the introspective “Alone” and the wheels-off stomper “Wait So Long.”

Gallery: Trampled By Turtles at Xcel Energy Center

The Avett Brothers took the stage right around 9 p.m., jumping right in with “Never Apart,” the first track on their 2024 self-titled album. Then, reverting to 2009’s “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise,” Scott Avett updated a lyric in the first verse to “your life doesn’t change by someone who’s elected,” removing the previous iteration’s gender designation.

Man playing piano on stage — Scott Avett of of The Avett Brothers performing "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise,” at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday, October 24.
Darin Kamnetz for MPR

Throughout their set, the Avett Brothers availed themselves of a thrust stage to connect more closely with the St. Paul crowd. Seth and Scott each took turns on some solo songs — Scott doing a solo rendition of “Murder in the City,” and Seth taking much of the song “We Are Loved” solo, until Scott joined him on the outcrop. Seth also performed a couple of extended electric guitar solos on the thrust stage — in particular, he shredded a searing outro to “Kick Drum Heart” that would have sounded just as good in a Drive-By Truckers set. Later on, Scott led the audience in a sing-along of the closing lines of “I And Love And You,” and the audience, in full voice, rivaled an Indigo Girls audience for just how good they sounded.

Man holding guitar on stage pointing towards crowd — Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers performing on the thrust stage at Xcel Energy Center.
Darin Kamnetz for MPR

The Avett Brothers have enjoyed a long career and now possess a deep discography (including this year’s outstanding album), leaving a lot of space for song choice and other surprises. Probably one of the biggest surprises of the night came when Scott made reference to an early concert review in which the writer compared the Avett Brothers to the Muppets. Seth and Scott both embraced the comparison, proclaiming their love for the Muppets and calling Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem heroes. At that point, a troupe of puppeteers appeared at stage right, and with lights off the band themselves, the puppets (which looked as though they could have been designed by the late Jim Henson himself) pantomimed a performance of “Hard Worker” from the Avetts’ 2004 album, Mignonette. It was delightful and revealed the band’s sense of playfulness. The puppets appeared again during the Avett Brothers’ ostensible final song, “Ain’t No Man.”

For the encore, bassist Bob Crawford — along with Seth and Scott — returned to the tip of the thrust stage to play “As Good as I Once Was,” a cover of a song by Toby Keith, who died in February of this year. Then the full band returned to the stage for another cover song, this time a David Childers tune, “The Prettiest Thing,” which showcased the strong vocal caliber of the full Avetts roster.

The Avett Brothers closed the evening with a sincere rendition of their funereal reflection, “No Hard Feelings,” from their 2016 album, True Sadness. The warmth and sense of connection that seemed to roll off the stage fully reflected the love and friendship captured by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio in their 2017 Avett Brothers documentary, May It Last, a spirit that was shared generously with the audience in St. Paul.

Gallery: The Avett Brothers at Xcel Energy Center