Praised by Rolling Stone for their “wild virtuosity,” bluegrass superstars Punch Brothers will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St. Folk singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane will open for the band.
“Punch Brothers are consistently at the top of Billboard’s bluegrass chart,” said Bill Stephan, executive director of the Lied Center. “If you enjoyed Del McCoury or Ricky Skaggs’ recent Lied Center performances, you’ll love the Punch Brothers.”
Tickets are on sale at http://liedcenter.org, at the Lied Center box office at 12th and R streets, or by phone at 402-472-4747. Tickets are available to students at a 50 percent discount with a valid NCard.
Punch Brothers are Chris Thile (mandolin), Gabe Witcher (fiddle/violin), Noam Pikelny (banjo),Chris Eldridge (guitar) and Paul Kowert (bass).
The band’s latest album, the T Bone Burnett-produced “The Phosphorescent Blues,” addresses with poignancy and subversive humor the power and the pitfalls of our super-connected era. Digitally fueled isolation may be a theme, but this virtuosic acoustic quintet offers its warmest, most emotive and elegantly melodic work to date.
A longing for community and connection was both impetus and inspiration for this disc. Punch Brothers had been touring almost nonstop since uniting to support mandolin player Thile’s 2006 solo album, “How to Grow a Woman From the Ground.” After scaling back in February 2013, the band began writing sessions where, Thile said, they had animated debates about how they relate to music, and to each other, through a digital filter.
