Punch Brothers and Justin Townes Earle last night

[Mandotarian]

The celebrate Brooklyn free concert series presented Hackensaw Boys, Punch Brothers and Justin Townes Earle last night. It was a great show, Punch Brothers played some cool covers (Gillian Welch - Wayside Back in Time and Beck - Sexx Laws) and killed it on their originals. Justin Townes Earle was backed by a pedal steel player and Bryn Davies on bass and they also did a wonderful job, I was particularly impressed with JTE's guitar playing...which leads me to a couple questions.

First concerning the Punch Brothers, does anyone know if they are working on a new album at all? I really like when they get into some of the more reckless rock inspired stuff like the above mentioned covers. I hope Thile carries over the punkish attitude from the Daves collaboration into the new Punch Brothers stuff.

Secondly, JTE's guitar playing is a Lightnin Hopkins/Clawhammer style that is pretty amazing to hear. He really fills up a ton of space, so much so that I almost thought there was a backing track behind him during his cover of "Bad Gasoline" Looking at some recent concert reviews others have mentioned that as well. Does anybody know for certain if he uses a backing track? Either way it was a great performance but it would be interesting to know if he was filling all that space on the spot or using a backing track.

[CrazyMandolin]

Great show! I'll add "Flippen" (Vasen) to your list of covers; it's such a fun tune. This was the 3rd time I've caught them this summer and there weren't any surprises in the setlist (they played Sexx Laws at Delfest). I will say that this was probably the tightest they've sounded of the three and that's for a band that is always on in my experience; maybe they turned the dial to 11

I def. enjoyed JTE, too. His guitar playing was definitely interesting. I liked him best without backup because that style was very complete on its own.

I haven't heard anything about a new Punch Brothers album, but I know they continue to work new material into their bingo night gigs in the city.

[journeybear]

Sounds like a great show. I would be pretty surprised if JTE uses a backing track. Doesn't seem to be what he's about. I prefer to think he is just that good. Coincidentally, my band does one song of his ("Hard Livin'"), which I hadn't heard before my guitarist just threw it at us on stage - he does that a lot, as he says he knows we can handle it, and we rarely rehearse - and I just instinctively went with cross-picking, the mandolin equivalent of the approach you mention him using. (I posted a clip of this over on the post a video of yourself thread, but it pales in comparison to JTE so I won't include it here.) I probably wouldn't have been much help determining what was going on at this show, as I would have been too busy watching Bryn Davies.

[Mandotarian]

Yea I highly doubt he was using a backing track, I was more impressed with how much he can fill up the sound, he is a mean guitar player!

Apparently he tricks a lot of people into thinking he has a backing track though, thats how well he plays I guess.