St. Louis Special: Billy Strings Brings Out Punch Brothers For 3rd Set Encore

Billy Strings capped a two-show stand at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis on Saturday night with a special finale. The 12-song encore featured all of the members of Punch Brothers joining Strings and his bandmates.

Punch Brothers – mandolinist Chris Thile, banjoist Noam Pikelny, guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert and fiddler Brittany Haas – were in St. Louis for their own concert on Saturday at The Pageant, five miles away from Chaifetz Arena. Thile was the first of the Punch Brothers to emerge onstage with Strings.

“Here’s Chris Thile, everybody!” Strings said. “So these guys had a gig just down the street or something, and they swung by. We’re gonna pick a little bit. You know how it is on these old microphones – let’s see if we can turn this arena into a library for a second, because we’re all un-electrified here.”

The pair began the encore alone for a duo offering of “Feast Here Tonight (Rabbit In A Log)” infused with “Black Mountain Rag.”

“Let’s get everybody back out here, the rest of my band and also Punch Brothers,” Strings then told the audience. “And I was only kidding about only having time for one more, they said we can play until midnight. So it just depends on what y’all do, man.”

The stage filled in with Strings’ bandmates – bassist Royal Masat, banjoist Billy Failing, mandolinist Jarrod Walker and fiddler Alex Hargreaves – along with Pikelny, Eldridge and Haas, who all gathered around a single microphone in the center of the stage.

The assembled musicians took up “Uncle Pen” and “The Letter Edged In Black.” Thile handled lead vocals for Jesse Fuller’s “Ninety Nine Years (and One Dark Day).” The on-the-fly collaboration continued with “Doin’ My Time,” “The Lonesome River” and “My Sweet Blue Eyed Darling.” Kowert then took over bass duties from Masat for “Summertime,” “E.M.D. (Eat My Dust),” “Rank Stranger” and the show-closing “I’m Gone, Long Gone.”

Official soundboard audio and on-demand video of Saturday’s Billy Strings concert in St. Louis with Punch Brothers is available via nugs. For a limited time, new nugs subscribers can register for an All Access plan for $5 per month for four months.