I’m in love. His name is Chris Thile, and he’s the one holding the P. P for Punch Brothers: the best band around. Chris plays mandolin and is the angelic vocalist in all their brilliant work. I’m utterly smitten. They’re coming to Brighton Music Hall next week and, though I cant actually go to the show because of Imaginary Invalid, I will be hanging around afterward hoping to accost them with full frontal groupie insanity. Any of you are welcome to join me in my adventure. A quick taste of how awesome they are:
The Punch Brothers: Rye Whiskey
Ok, down to business. The Punch Brothers are a band with a classical blue grass instrumentation, but a modern, experimental take on the genre. They would probably kill me for using the word “genre” though, as they insist on challenging whatever genre the media categorizes them in. That is one of the reasons why this performance came to be:
The people who went to this concert had no idea that the were going to hear seven minutes of Bach in the middle of the set. A lot of them probably would not go to a classical music concert by choice, but they listen in rapt silence to this performance. This is revolutionary! As someone with a background in classical music, nothing infuriates me more than the stuffy way it is packaged and performed. Classical theatre has found a way to converse with its audience. The Greeks and Shakespeare have become performable regardless of venue, company, or funds. Classical music written before the ’20s is, more often than not, perceived as a performance rather than a human interaction between audience and musicians. It is also something kept absurdly pristine. There is no way classical music can survive if it exists only in grand halls and tuxedos. The Punch Brother’s changed that in this performance. They brought classical music to an unlikely venue and audience. They performed an unbelievable rendition of one of the Brandenburg concertos, but they aren’t note perfect, AND THAT’S OK! We need to re-evaluate the way we think about classical music. As technical as it is, the expectation of perfection is nonsense. The expectation of formality is infuriating. The elitism is unacceptable. The Punch Brother’s dash all these notions. Anyone, anywhere can perform classical music.
