AVLFest 2024: Day 1 (Part One)

6pm @ The Odd — Sunbearer

Kicking off The Odd’s AVLFest offerings was Sunbearer, an Asheville-based stoner doom project. Performing as a quartet, the group beat the audience over the head with steadily paced but unrelenting riffage as frontman Jordan Hunsucker urgently intoned his echoing, atmosphering vocals. I happen to like that sort of thing — I’ve been known to put Sleep’s Dopesmoker on repeat — and I was a bit disappointed when the set stopped after just 30 minutes. —Daniel Walton

6pm @ Fleetwood’s — The Deathbots

One of the first slots of AVL Fest was this neo-traditional punk rock band. Their energy remained intensely consistent throughout the hour-long performance, showcasing traditional head-thrashing, dive-bar standing- room punk, but with very modern real-time sensibilities and subject matter. For example, one song espouses indisputable disdain for the institution of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

With the music this band aggressively leans into, you have ample opportunity to channel any repressed residual teenage angst, edgy catharsis, and sardonic humor. With that being said, The Deathbots are by no means a Debbie-downer band; a good time is encouraged through the music and space they hold, implementing comedy and playful banter that clearly showed the camaraderie and brotherhood within the band. It was a solid start to a diversely music packed weekend. —Kevin Evans

A capacity crowd spilled out of Fleetwood’s for Asheville’s The Deathbots, so I caught the tail end of their high-energy set while straddling my bike in the venue’s parking lot. Just classically constructed, upbeat melodic punk, à la Bad Religion, with great call-and-response shout vocals. —DW

6pm @ Wortham Center for the Performing Arts — Fancy and The Gentlemen

Seeing Fancy Marie (aka Rebecca OQuinn) kick off the festival with her terrific honky tonk Americana band on the stage at the Wortham Center, the same stage where she has danced with The Asheville Ballet for close to a decade, was pretty darn cool. She looked the part of the principal Patsy Cline-esque singer and guitar-strumming swan as she and her band (which includes the gifted fiddle player Alex Travers) filled Asheville’s downtown fine arts center with gorgeous and gritty country tunes that made it feel more like a Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. —Tom Chalmers

6pm @ Eulogy — Slow Packer

I hadn’t seen the Midnight Snack brother duo of Jack Victor and Mike Johnson since their current project’s debut (?) show at Fleetwood’s five-plus years ago, and they’ve only gotten better since. When you have as gifted a guitarist as Maddie Shuler on bass, you know these layered songs are going to constantly sound engaging. And while each selection feels complete, they don't end when you expect, and that's a good thing — unpredictable yet catchy as hell, these compositions fight against the current while still feeling like they’re surfing. —Edwin Arnaudin

7:15pm @ The Outpost — Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters

These local favorites gave fans exactly what they wanted: a set showcasing Platt’s unforgettable songwriting that’s simultaneously fresh and familiar. With their new album dropping Aug. 9, the frontwoman’s voice sounded as strong as ever, blending warmth, heartbreak, and strength. She and her bandmates brought The Outpost (this music lover’s new favorite outdoor venue) to life with their signature charm. —Heather Taylor

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more suitable act to ease festivalgoers into a marathon weekend of live music than Asheville’s own Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, who delivered a sublime, golden-hour set of pedal steel-inflected Americana at the newly reconfigured Outpost. Sporting a cast on her leg, Platt performed seated with her band huddled around her, turning the stage into the French Broad River’s front porch, appropriately, for the unofficial hometown album release party for The Ones That Stay, which drops next week ahead of a UK tour (with support from another local fave, Hannah Kamminer, who plays The Funkatorium today at 6:30 p.m.). —Jay Moye

730pm @ Fleetwood’s — Lonnie Walker

Closing out its excellent set with the manic "Funny Feelin'," the Raleigh-based indie rock quartet set the bar high for all AVLFest yet to perform. Leading up to that raucous climax, the group had the crowd at Fleetwood's completely mesmerized with its masterful concoction of unpredictable twang-infused rock. —Jonny Leather

Fleetwood’s, the rock’n’roll wedding chapel, vintage shop, unicorn music venue in West Asheville is the perfect platform for punk rock, rockabilly, and grungy garage rock as it is both ironic and fully sincere all at the same time. Bands like Lonne Walker were meant to play there. The Raleigh-based band, fronted by Brian Corum — reminiscent of a young Tim Robbins — is what you hope comes on your college radio station each time you turn the dial to it. Part Pavement, part lesser-known Neil Young, Lonnie Walker’s righteous indie rock energy and awkwardness was given perfect platform by the gold curtains and Trivial Pursuit wedge stage of this alternative music altar. —TC

730pm @ Salvage Station — Random Animals

Jam-inflected indie or indie-inflected jam — the right order of modifiers to describe Asheville’s Random Animals depends on the song. The group’s smooth, soulful vocals and tight rhythm section filled the Salvage Station’s indoor stage with laid-back vibes. (And, just like last year, I have to shout-out the venue’s Root Down Kitchen for slinging Creole-style goodness. A banging fried chicken sandwich served alongside flavorful, creamy red bean salad restored my spirits for the rest of the night.) —DW

730pm @ The Orange Peel — Ashes & Arrows

Up the hill at the Peel after Slow Packer’s rich, mellow set, the earplugs came out for these Souther rockers — winners of Merlefest’s band competition and a recent performer on “America’s Got Talent.” Following a twangy rock song about cowboys, it was a bit disarming to hear a New Zealand accent emerge from vocalist/guitarist Ciaran McMeeken. And while big guitar solos and powerful three part harmony made it clear why the band is on the rise, a little goes a long way for me — and S.G. Goodman beckons at The Outpost. —EA

8pm @ The One Stop — Peter Townsend

I was frankly delighted by Asheville singer-songwriter Peter Townsend and the engaging set of Americana he laid down at The One Stop. Paired with an absolutely ripping clean electric guitarist in the Allman Brothers tradition, Townsend kept a steady acoustic groove while spinning tales like the time his band got stranded on the road outside Alaska’s Denali National Park. —DW

(The Deathbots photo by Heather Burditt)