Tour supports new album, The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers

“No band has expanded the reach of American roots and bluegrass quite like Punch Brothers have. Inviting new audiences to the music with their myriad influences, they’ve spent [two decades] ignoring the boundaries of genre and creating lush sound worlds. Long may they continue to tell their stories.” —Songlines

Punch Brothers — mandolinist Chris Thile, guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny, and violinist Brittany Haas — will return to Columbus as part of its 64-city North American tour. CAPA welcomes Punch Brothers to the Southern Theatre for a show at 8 pm Friday, September 18.

Tickets, which start at $43.50, go on sale at 10 am Friday, May 8, and may be purchased at the CAPA Ticket Center at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.), online at www.capa.com, and by phone at (614) 469-0939.

The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers is the seventh album from the Grammy-winning band — and its first comprising all instrumental tunes as well as its first with fiddle player Brittany Haas, who joined the quintet in 2023. The record features eight new original compositions by Punch Brothers as well as three traditional songs they arranged.

The new album’s title is more than a play on words: without lyrics to guide the listener, these are stories, impressions, and emotions communicated entirely with strings through melody, harmony, rhythm, and a literary sense of musical structure. For a band known for pushing acoustic music into unexpected places, going fully instrumental may be the most adventurous move they have made yet.

Thile, who founded the band in 2006, says, “This music is the result of what feels to me like our deepest but also most joyful exploration of the American string band in the 20 years we’ve been making music together. Something about the dichotomy of all the water under the bridge plus a new, brilliant teammate in Brittany. We all felt like kids in a candy store… so many possibilities and so much energy with which to pursue them, except with the kind of collective discipline and clarity of intent that only decades of collaboration affords.”

The band has garnered critical acclaim, including a Grammy for Best Folk Album for All Ashore (2018). The Washington Post applauded them for taking “bluegrass to its next evolutionary stage, drawing equal inspiration from the brain and the heart.” Over the past two decades, Punch Brothers has become a pioneer in modern string music, with albums like Antifogmatic (2010), Who’s Feeling Young Now (2012), and The Phosphorescent Blues (2015) showcasing the group’s genre-defying sound. Rolling Stone praised their work as “wild virtuosity used for more than just virtuosity,” cementing their reputation as trailblazers in contemporary acoustic music. T

Most recently, Punch Brothers have been focused on the band’s musical variety show, The Energy Curfew Music Hour. Season One is available on all podcast platforms, with season two exclusively out on Audible. Season 1 was nominated for a Webby Award in the Podcast: Features, Experimental & Innovation category; it also won Most Innovative Audio Experience, Best Live Podcast Recording, and Best Sound Design in the Listener’s Choice category of the 2025 Signal Awards.