Punch Brothers kill in Clayton

Punch Brothers, Chris Thile's new band, brought their unique style of bluegrass to Clayton of all places Saturday night.

After listening to Punch last month, I didn't expect a lot from the band's live show, but the band really delivered.

The show opened with "Watch 'at Breakdown," a jaunty, upbeat instrumental tune from Thile's last album, How To Grow A Woman From the Ground." The band continued through the set playing "Punch Bowl" and "How To Grow and Woman From the Ground" before launching into Movements 1 & 2 of "The Blind Leaving the Blind."

The interplay between the band during "The Blind Leaving the Blind" is amazing, but after the first movement, I found myself spacing out during the long instrumental passages. They only played the first two movements during the first set, saving the last two for the second set.

Many of the crowd favorites throughout the night were songs that Thile didn't write. The band's versions of Gillian Welch's "Wayside (Back in Time)," The Strokes' "Heart In A Cage" and The White Stripes' "Dead Leaves On the Dirty Ground" were amazing.

Other highlights included a few older Thile tunes. "This Is All Real" from Thile's 2004 album Deceiver. The crowd cheered when he announced the song, which led Thile to reply "everyone who bought that album is here tonight." Deceiver was a departure for Thile because it was more of a rock album than a bluegrass album. It was not accepted widely by fans, but I think it's his best album to date.

For the band's encore, Punch Brothers pulled out Thile's oldest tune of the set, "Song For a Young Queen." The track is from Thile's 2001 album, Not All Who Wander Are Lost. The band ended the night with a great cover of The Beatles song "Baby's In Black."

The crowd at the Clayton Center seemed to be mostly season ticket holders and older people. I didn't know how they'd react to Thile's music and humor, but they seemed to love the music though the didn't get a lot of the jokes.

Throughout the show the band sounded great. It's amazing Thile managed to find a group of musicians that can play on his level. Though the show was good, I couldn't help thinking as I was leaving the Clayton Center that if they hadn't played the 42-minute piece "The Blind Leaving the Blind," that the band could've played 8 to 10 more songs. Next time around, I hope they leave the opus out of the set.