I didn’t get into the Avett Brothers’ concert… the line was a few hundred people long, and after a third of it entered, they stopped letting people in. I expected a little concert in a small park with maybe a hundred people.
Who would have guessed that a bluegrass banjo duo that nobody’s ever heard of would put on a free show in Manhattan (the bluegrass banjo capital of… nothing) on public property… and be completely booked and inaccessible to nearly everyone who showed up except the incredibly early people?
…Know how every college generation finds that one band that’s relatively unknown, so the college kids think they’re being cool by knowing them and playing their songs constantly, then they explode 2 years later?
That’s how Dave Matthews started. For my generation (in college from 2000-2004), it was O.A.R. at first, then Dispatch. I think John Mayer happened next, and I have no idea who the current ones are because I’m not cool enough and nobody tells me anything.
There were a lot of young, cool people there tonight, enthusiastically waiting on line in the uncomfortable, humid summer heat for a chance to see The Avett Brothers. They’re the next one. Trust me.
I don’t mean to call you out, man, but… The crowd for the Avett Brothers is most certainly not the same type of crowd that lined up for OAR or Dispatch four years ago. Dave Matthews Band, OAR, and Dispatch spoke to the general ‘college populace’ in ways that the Avett Bros. probably can’t (or maybe choose not to?) do.
You have to represent a much larger demographic than the Avett Brothers do to bottle that kind of lightning. Dave Matthews did it by combining Phish with Hootie and the Blowfish, thereby locking in an audience gradient from the stoner to the mom listening to the top 40.
Young college students don’t flock around small, obtuse, angular acts. They flock around acts that speak clearly (avoiding the negative connotation of simply, here) and can, if need be, carry a party.
300 people waiting in line to see the Avett Brothers—in New York, no less—is not a cultural phenomenon. You’d probably see the same thing if it were any other small, culturally accredited act playing a completely free show.
I would imagine that the line would be just as long (or longer) at a free concert featuring similarly-sized acts like Justice, Dr. Dog, or the Dresden Dolls.
Then again, maybe I’m just undervaluing college students musical accuity.
Nope, nevermind, I can hear Rage Against the Machine playing next door.
