Punch Brothers - Southern Theatre, 3/7

While every fish fry and high school basketball game was canceled on Friday night due to the Blizzard of 2008, CAPA decided to go ahead with the Punch Brothers concert at the Southern Theatre. To be honest, I wasn’t excited about driving downtown in the quickly accumulating snow to cover the show.

But it turns out CAPA was right, and I was wrong. Those who ventured out had the privilege of witnessing a bluegrass quintet with limitless talent. And besides, despite the testimony of overexcited TV news crews, the roads really weren’t that bad.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile is the bandleader of the Punch Brothers, having garnered wide critical acclaim from his time in Nickel Creek and his impressive solo albums. Even though Thile just turned 27, he’s a seasoned performer, having released his first solo album at age 12, rightfully earning the tag “child prodigy.” You can apply just about any superlative to his mandolin picking, and his voice ain’t bad, either--a pleasant Toad the Wet Sprocket-style tenor.

Thile assembled this lineup of musicians for his 2006 album, How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, later re-dubbing the group as the Punch Brothers (taken from Mark Twain’s short story “Punch, Brothers, Punch!“) for the band’s Punch album released a couple of weeks ago. It was apparent from the performance that he’s found a kinship among the musicians, who must be recognized by name: fiddler Gabe Witcher, banjo-picker Noam Pikelny, guitarist Chris Eldridge and upright bass player Greg Garrison.

One of the dangers for musicians who have complete mastery of their instruments is a tendency to be overly technical and unrestrained to the point that little or no emotion comes through in the songs. No one doubts Yngwie Malmsteen’s guitar prowess, but who wants to actually listen to his songs? The Punch Brothers didn’t fall into that trap.

The group’s expert playing and well-placed restraint was on full display during the 42-minute piece “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” which was divided into four movements as it is on Punch. Another personal bias disclosure to put this in context: I don’t like long, extended jams. Usually I find them extremely tiresome and unnecessary. So I was again surprised to find the suite engaging and wonderfully creative, combining elements of classical music, jazz, rock, blues and more to create an entirely new brand of progressive bluegrass.

Thile incorporated lyrics into the long-form composition as well, most of which are drawn from the relationship with his former wife, the aftermath of the divorce and the vagaries of youth. In the first movement he describes a scene in which he drives to a fountain in a park “where he used to play when he was young. He’s gonna wash off in front of God and everyone.” The second movement, probably the most emotionally compelling, is interspersed with the line “I’m over it.” You might even say a couple of the movements have a chorus, though it always left room for some improvisation. Movement four had the quickest pace and really showcased the players’ virtuosity.

All that said, if compositions like that had made up the entire concert, it would have inevitably become boring. So covers of the Strokes “Heart in a Cage” and the White Stripes’ “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” were welcome additions. And since Thile claimed the Southern Theatre was “one of the best-sounding halls I’ve ever played in,” the group decided to do a lovely rendition of the Norman Blake tune “Green Light on the Southern.”

“You’re an Angel and I’m Gonna Cry” was the only ballad of the evening, and featured a mostly solo Thile singing the song’s title to a melody similar to Hank Williams’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” but with a much softer edge. “Wayside (Back in Time)” ended the evening, and once the show was over, I wouldn’t have minded hitting the replay button and going back in time myself.