In early March, I went to two Avett Brothers' shows, two very different experiences, highlighting the dilemma I face in deciding whether to attend a concert for the music or for photography.

There is magic being in the presence of talented people making music in the moment, and I've always approached it as an immersive event. When touring with The Dead, the music and dance was more important than anything, so I usually stayed in the hallway or lawn because there was more room to spin. Now I don't dance as much (actually, The Grateful Dead live show has proven to be the only place I will dance with no reservations or self-consciousness), and prefer being as close to the sound as possible and wrapping myself in the physically emotive waves created in front of me.

Photography takes me out of that space and has me looking at the play of light and the visible expressive emotion of musicians who are in their own moment. The combination of pure unfiltered engagement and vivid light is incredibly attractive to me, and I always find myself looking for those flashes of scenes on stage.

For the first show, in Portland, ME at the new Cumberland Civic Center, I had a photo pass so I knew going in that I would be spending my time focusing on capturing the light. Often times a photo pass gets you access in the front of the stage for the first three songs and that's it. Some venues go to great lengths to kick you out at that point, but in this case the staff was friendly and allowed me to shoot from anywhere in the arena for the whole show, for which I was grateful. Since I'm pretty familiar with how the Avetts run a show, I could pick my place for certain songs and get as many different angles as I could.

As the Avetts have grown, so has the elaborateness of their stage show. These days they have a couple of trucks with them to cart around the lighting gear. Their lighting designer, Pete Schroth, tweaks his layouts every night, it seems, keeping things interesting for himself and for the audience. He tends to put a lot of lights behind the band shining out at the crowd, which works great for me since I love backlighting. It's a far cry from house Fresnels with poorly applied gels and makes for fun photography.

This freedom with the camera meant that I never spent more than one song in any one place, and wandered everywhere, constantly looking for vantage points to shoot particular lighting or action. Pretty Girl from Chile I knew would provide a scene of Seth and Joe alone on the catwalk, so I positioned myself for that. I was disappointed by the lack of "special mic" songs like Murder or Ballad, since I wanted to get a shot of the isolated individual or duet at the end of the catwalk for a whole song. First time in 40+ shows that they haven't had a solo/duet song and they choose to do it on this full access night. Figures. A good night for pictures anyway.

Six days later I saw them at the TD Freaking Garden. Tickets to the big time indeed. I didn't bother asking for a photo pass for this show since I was pretty sure security would be tighter, so I went in with the intent of just enjoying the show. This turned out to have been a wise choice. In Portland, the band had seemed a little reserved, rarely venturing to the front of the stage, but Boston loosened them up and they were bouncing all over the place. The setlist was better too. Portland was lacking in non-standard songs, but the Garden delivered a new song for me, Operator, which was nice, and personal faves Gimme a Kiss, Backwards with Time, and the ever lovely Please Pardon Yourself. Not having my camera meant I could lose myself in the music and words with abandon. I only pulled out my phone for a couple of quick snapshots. At least I got my "special mic" picture.

It also drove home the realization that the majority of people at Avett shows these days are there to hear Live and Die, I'n'Love'n'You or Another is Waiting. There was a notable drop in audience awareness and participation during Please Pardon Yourself, so I can see why the band doesn't do songs like Pretty Girl from Locust any more, because they're in a different place, and their audience comes from a different place. But it also reinforced the fact that they still put on a damn fine show, and put their whole body and soul into the performance, and for that I'm thankful.

Setlists