GULF SHORES, Alabama – The last sounds sailing across the beach during the Avett Brothers set Sunday night came from the crowd, as thousands sang "I and Love and You."

And it proved exactly why the North Carolina group is so beloved by fans new and old: they always take the crowd with them to every height they achieve on stage.

The band's 2011 Hangout Fest performance ushered in many who hadn't experienced Scott and Seth Avett's energy, and now, two albums later, they took it to another level bringing bluegrass-rare electric guitar and the sort of rapid-fire lyrics that harkened to hip-hop giants Outkast who followed them on the Hangout Stage.

The Avetts played songs from at least half of their nearly one dozen albums, and as a whole their set mirrored the theme of their most-recent record, "Magpie and the Dandelion." During a radio interview earlier in the day, the brothers talked about how that album was all about light and dark, "ups and downs," and how their marquee peaks of screaming and jumping were always meant to be balanced with more balladic, "gentle and fragile" offerings.

Such was their memorable rendition of "Pretty Girl from Chile," a track from their breakout album "Emotionalism" that had equal parts explosion and calm and somehow melded their signature barbaric yawp with a unique cello solo at the end by longtime band mate Joe Kwon.

And to experience just how harmonic the brothers Avett are, one has to look no farther than the contrasting styles of Scott and Seth. While the younger sibling, Seth, often comes off as precocious and sweet, his shepherd is so obviously Scott, who annunciates each lyric as a call to arms.

"Down with the Shine," one of their oldest live songs – yet only recently captured in a record – was all Scott who, like the leader of a revolution rally, shared a fundamental truth with the audience that "It's in with the young, and down with the old."

And though their songs are often described as voicing youthful angst, "Shine" speaks to a different wisdom, that the "movement of time" is happening "right now to you."

"Make it count right now," his steady gaze seemed to say to the Hangout crowd; because the black hole may be two beats away and hungry for souls.

And while sage, what's not lost on festival organizers – or producer extreme Rick Rubin, who has done their last three albums – is the fact that the Avett Brothers are hit machines. And they are eager to pepper the deeper aspects of their sets with radio-ready tunes such as the most recent single, "Morning Song," off "Magpie," and "Kick Drum Heart," a crowd favorite off of Rubin's first collaboration, "I and Love and You."

When they began with their more traditional set-starter "Colorshow," the afternoon sun was bathing the Hangout Stage, and by the time the crowd sang them its goodbye, evening had fallen. But from the buzz of the crowd in the rising moonlight, one thing was clear about the reverberations from the Avett Brothers 2014 Hangout performance: there's still plenty of light to go around.