New Haven Independent

Click on the play arrow to test Pickles’ (aka Noam Pikelny) theory as the band covers “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” by The White Stripes. The Punch Brothers swung by the Shubert Theater Sunday night on their way up the East Coast promoting their new album, Punch.

At the heart of the album, played in full at Sunday’s show, lies a 40-minute, four-movement piece called “The Blind Leaving The Blind,” written by the band’s frontman, mandolin phenom and singer Chris Thile. The California native is best known for his days in the progressive acoustic trio, Nickel Creek. He started pumping out solo albums at age 13. Now 27, he’s been pegged as one of the country’s most virtuosic mandolin players.

“This one has Top 40 written all over it,” joked Thile of his opus, which sets aside catchy bluegrass in favor of acoustic musing.

Click on the play arrow for another snippet from the show (“Watch ‘at Breakdown”), and look out for Chris Eldridge on the guitar (a 1954 Martin D-28, he later divulged).

Making their first visit to New Haven Sunday, the band stopped by for a chat with some Yale students, then headed to Wooster Square. At the Shubert, Thile kept a humble stage presence and endeared himself to the New Haven crowd.

“We had some really good pizza,” he declared when he got on the stage.

“Sally’s or Pepe’s?” came the inevitable query from the orchestra pit.

“Pepe’s,” he asserted. Then with a shy glance he asked, “Is this like saying Duke or North Carolina? Like, we’re going to get some stuff thrown at us by the one we didn’t go to?”

No pies were flung, and Thile and the crowd got along so well that both parties stuck around for two encores and a few autographs.