REVIEW: Punch Brothers: Live at The Eastern - ATL
- Joe Chiarella
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
The Grammy-winning group takes ATL on a musical expedition at The Eastern
"We're so glad you're here because it's a special night! It's the last stop on our US expedition. It could also be our last show ever," Chris Thile tells the crowd, addressing the packed house at The Eastern on Saturday night. He explains that after tonight's show, Punch Brothers is taking their music to Hydropolis, a fictional city at the bottom of Lake Allatoona. Banjoist Noam Pikelny is clearly apprehensive about this plan, joking that it sounds like something ChatGPT came up with. "You should have seen the look on my dog's face when I explained this to her," he says, countering Thile's insistence that the band embark on this adventure. This disagreement plays out over the first half of the night, woven between new tracks like "Song of the Water Kelpie" and old favorites like "Familiarity."
Punch Brothers remain a band that takes their music with absolute seriousness while refusing to take themselves seriously. Their upcoming album, The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers, will be their first without lyrics, as well as their first with new fiddle player Brittany Haas. Chris Thile's tenure hosting the variety radio show Live From Here clearly left its mark on his stage presence. The set is equal parts campy radio variety hour and virtuosic music performance. Returning to the narrative of the expedition, Pikelny initially resists, joking that he's going to "Timberlake" out of the band and launch a solo career. He eventually relents, as the band takes the audience onto their imaginary submarine, using the pulsing rhythms of "Movement and Location" to signify the descent to Hydropolis.
Transported to the bottom of Lake Allatoona, Thile now addresses the audience as if they are Hydropolitans and introduces the band as "presenting human string band music from the overworld." When the band starts into "My Oh My," the audience easily forgets its role in this stage play, singing the lyrics, prompting Thile to comment on how welcome we are making them feel in this underwater city. They reciprocate by playing a cover of a famous song from Hydropolis, setting up yet another gag, as bassist Paul Kowert begins to bow the theme from Jaws.
After a few more songs for the underwater audience, the band returns to the surface, cracking jokes along the way about whether anyone knows how to change the tire on a submarine. "I could really use a drink," says Thile, as the band goes into "Rye Whiskey," the most uptempo song of the evening, followed by crowd-favorite "Julep." This all sets up the best pun of the night, a "Sia Shanty," that transforms into a five-part a cappella rendition of "Chandelier," sung in exaggerated sailor accents.
They close out the night with the appropriately named "All Ashore", the title track from their Grammy-winning 2018 album. As the lights come up, the audience snaps back to the reality of being in Atlanta, left processing the two-hour journey, guided by a string band, that had taken them to a sunken city and back. It was an unforgettable night, with Punch Brothers never straying from what's made them successful: masterful performances balanced by complete silliness.
Article and photos by Joe Chiarella. Please credit @joe.takes.pictures or @art.seen.atl if reposting on social media.
