Punch brothers on leno

[West]

Loar!

[Baron Collins-Hill]

finally!

i talked to him at a concert a couple weeks ago and he was having dudenbostel replace the fretboard.

i hope this shows up on youtube. i dont have a tv.

thanks for the info
baron

[tkdboyd]

Loar and very tight, no extended solo, :-( but band was tight, looking forward to hearing what the Punch Bros has to offer!
I could have cared less about this Arquette girl..if it was Rosanna Arquette maybe a different story, but they should have gone from cute cats to Punch Brothers.
Oh well guess I'll just have to buy the album...I mean CD.

[tkdboyd]

All of the clips for the tonight show should be accessible online.
http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/ I think this should get you access to it within a couple of days. The performance wasn't spell binding, but was interesting in an eclectic type of way and very much the appetizer for whats next...the entirety of the album.

[Baron Collins-Hill]

so what did they play?

[JeffD]

They played Punch Bowl.

[Baron Collins-Hill]

excellent thanks

[JeffD]

I had a whole bunch of my friends watch, after telling all about Thile and all.

I was let down, and my friends were bewildered at my prior enthusiasm. The Punch Brothers had a few minutes to show the world they were excellent, and they showed the world they were avant guard. The avant guard came through, the excellence just didn't. Not to the casual observer. Not to the musical observer. I don't think anyway.

I guess my expectations were too high. I was hoping for some blistering and beautiful mandolin excursions that would set fire to a generation of young people, but what I heard from my friends was - nice fiddle playing, wierd tune, why doesn't the banjo player sing?

[Austin Koerner]

I tivo'd that junk!

I was REALLY excited to watch them, but I was actually excited to watch Chris, not The Punch Brothers. I figured this out when I watched it.

I love the band too, of course, but I was just expecting more Thile and his mando.

the Loar is lookin' real good though, it looks in better shape than dude #5.

[RevJB]

I'm just getting into mandolin music and I have to say that your friends' reactions were similar to mine. I like some of Thile's work with Marshall but I find his music to be leaning on the 'noodling' side, even with his amazing technique. I don't hear the musicality in his compositions.

[kidgloves2]

I didn't hear the mandolin that well. Terrible mix overall. But the performance was still decent. It was still obvious they are a talented young bunch.

Also, was it me or did Chris seem nervous?

[fishdawg40]

I couldn't hear the mandolin either. I was quite impressed with the performance. I like the idea that with Chris's amazing talents he puts the band first. They work really well together and looked like they had a blast. And in the end that's all that matters....this coming from a not so big fan of Thile.

I don't think Chris looked nervous. But there were a few moments when he looked directly at the camera. That was a little uncomfortable.

[mando.player]

He looked nervous to me. He seemed tight. Normally he's like a bowl of jello when he plays. Jay Leno show, music even some mando players don't get...yeah I'd be nervous

I know the Punch critique is going on in another thread, but I'm starting to like the CD.

[Siminole]

There is no doubt that they are very talented musicians. #It was very difficult for me to follow the Mandolin well, and I really didn't completely understand where they were going. #I didn't find it to be music that I would purchase or even listen to frequently, but I am glad that I did take the time to watch the performance.

Al #

[luckylarue]

They were also featured on Friday's All Things Considered on NPR. You can listen to the story on the NPR website.

[fredfrank]

At least now I know I won't have buy the CD.

[dmamlep]

did anyone notice that the fret wires were off the extension, did he do that or was it that way when he got it. I havent seen many loars, maybe thats the way they used to be, can anyone tell me.

[Baron Collins-Hill]

he had the fretboard replaced by mr. dudenbostel

[Brandon Flynn]

I had a whole bunch of my friends watch, after telling all about Thile and all.

I was let down, and my friends were bewildered at my prior enthusiasm. The Punch Brothers had a few minutes to show the world they were excellent, and they showed the world they were avant guard. The avant guard came through, the excellence just didn't. Not to the casual observer. Not to the musical observer. I don't think anyway.

I guess my expectations were too high. I was hoping for some blistering and beautiful mandolin excursions that would set fire to a generation of young people, but what I heard from my friends was - nice fiddle playing, wierd tune, why doesn't the banjo player sing?

Yeah, I thought there would be an amazing solo that would show people his talent. He decided against it, and played the song exactly as they meant it to be played. They chose not to dazzle, instead they almost ignored that they were on national tv. They didn't try to gain new fans or sell albums, they just played. You have to respect that.

[bradeinhorn]

he had the fretboard replaced by mr. dudenbostel

i heard it was going down under to mr. gil for the scoop.

[Patrick Sylvest]

I'm a big fan of Thile's playing, but not so much of the avant garde stylings. I got the same feeling from the last Nickel Creek album, 'Why Should the Fire Die?'.....a bit eclectic for my taste.

I didn't enjoy last night's performance as much as I thought I would. Best of Luck to the Punch Bros.

[Chris Biorkman]

I like him, but I thought it was pretty boring. hopefully his concert tonight will be better.

[zetaviolin1]

I watched the performance last night, and I thought that it was excellent, but in a different way from Nickel Creek. Since Thile used classical composition techniques for this album, the music just seems more academic than easily accessible to a large number of listeners, like Nickel Creek was. Punch Bowl uses atonality, which is not everyone's cup of coffee. However, I admire that Chris doesn't let what other people think define his music. He seems to write what he feels like letting out of his own system. His composition skills are brilliant in my opinion, but i'm taking music theory right now, so it intrigues me in a more academic and nerdy sense I suppose.

Yeah, I wanted to hear the mandolin more, especially one of his virtuosic mandolin solos. But Punch Bowl is oriented more on the band as a whole, I think.

[Baron Collins-Hill]

he had the fretboard replaced by mr. dudenbostel

i heard it was going down under to mr. gil for the scoop.

He sent it to Gilchrist for the initial work of getting the whole thing set up after over 80 years of not being played, but when he got it back it he told me that it still wasnt working for him and the intonation was bad (actually a bit more inappropriate than "bad", i believe the correct quote would be "*blank*ing horrible"). He then sent it to Dudenbostel and had just gotten it back when i saw him in concert and that he needed to play it in a lot.

[Baron Collins-Hill]

I watched the performance last night, and I thought that it was excellent, but in a different way from Nickel Creek. Since Thile used classical composition techniques for this album, the music just seems more academic than easily accessible to a large number of listeners, like Nickel Creek was. Punch Bowl uses atonality, which is not everyone's cup of coffee. However, I admire that Chris doesn't let what other people think define his music. He seems to write what he feels like letting out of his own system. His composition skills are brilliant in my opinion, but i'm taking music theory right now, so it intrigues me in a more academic and nerdy sense I suppose.

Yeah, I wanted to hear the mandolin more, especially one of his virtuosic mandolin solos. But Punch Bowl is oriented more on the band as a whole, I think.

There have been two occasions where I have had the great opportunity to talk to chris for an extended period of time, both were for about 20 minutes.

At Greyfox (back in july of 2007), He had just purchased the loar and played it at his workshop. He told me afterwards that it was really hard for him to play because it was set up poorly (he has a reaaaalllly low action on his dudes). He said that it really was useful though because he couldn't rip along like he normally does, forcing him to slow down and think about what he was playing. He said that he was sick and tired of his flashy solo stylings and that he was trying to quit. He confessed that he was aseriously addicted to playing flashy stuff because thats what people loved. He would play one of those super fast runs and people would go nuts. He said that once you get that reaction it gets hard to stick to more meaningful and thought out phrasing, but that he was going to do his best to stay away from being flashy simply to amaze people

I got to see Punch Brothers play twice in two nights and between both shows he only played one fast little flashy run. Considering he would do it about once every song with nickel creek, i think he has come a long way and i really admire him for being true to himself and doing what feels best musically for him, even if it doesn't get people to cheer after every solo.

after all, playing music is about the music, not about what people think about it. if chris had continued to play what people wanted to hear, people might have gotten bored with his music, people would likely have started to criticize his lack of musical progression, and we certainly would not be having these discussions.

baron