Rock and roll history is filled with bands that have to be heard live to be truly appreciated. Such has often been said of such legendary ensembles as the Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. And I’ll add another act to the conversation: The Avett Brothers.

Friday night’s gig at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand was the third time I’ve heard the sibling-led group from North Carolina, and, on each occasion, I’ve come away feeling this to be a band to which studio recordings don’t remotely do justice. Having followed the unusual path from rock to bluegrass to a kind of thunderous rock-flavored folk all their own, Scott and Seth Avett and the rest of their seven-piece mostly acoustic band are explosively energetic and deeply committed to their material.

They’re not o

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