VIRB

Ok, my first show review blog, I'm excited. I took Emma to see Nickel Creek last Thursday as a surprise to celebrate her last day teaching pre-school before our baby is born later this month. It was a great time, a great date, and an amazing show. The hardest part was keeping the secret for the two months it had been since I bought the tickets!

So the show was at McCaw hall at the Seattle Center, which I think is fairly new, and it is an incredible venue. Very nice, very classy, and the sound was very good--you could hear every note (and there were many, many notes). We had good seats, right in front of the sound board, about 20 rows or so back from the stage in dead-center.

The show started with opener Jon Brion who I had never heard of. He was a very talented musician, switching from piano to guitar, to a harmonium (it sounds kind of like a xylophone but it's played with keys like a piano) and even playing a song unaccompanied on bass. The best parts of his set were when Nickel Creek members played with him. First Sara and Sean played a few with him, then later Chris came out and jammed for a while. To end his set he and Chris played, by request (of course), the song Freebird. It was awesome, they played it quite a bit faster than the normal verison, both the verse AND THE SOLO! Chris Thile went absolutely nuts on his mandolin for the final solo, I was seriously blown away. Nickel Creek hadn't even really played yet and I already was completely satisfied.

So then after about a 20 minute break Nickel Creek started their set. The first song was one off Thile's solo album "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" called "Big Sam Thompson" which was the one song on that album performed by the three Nickel Creek members. They played several songs off of all three of their major albums and several different covers and one new song. You could really tell these guys get into the music, especially Chris. They each really dig deep for each song and fully get into it with their whole body.

Their singing was very good, but my favorite songs were all the instrumentals, "Ode to a Butterfly", "Smoothie Song", "Scotch and Chocolate" were all just incredible with each member taking solos and improvising at any chance they could get. "Cuckoo's Nest" , a traditional Irish tune, was also a highlight when the bass player came out and tap danced on a big mat that amplified the sound of his shoes. The new song that Chris played was a bit of a comedy piece called "If You're Gonna Leave Me" in which he sings "If you're gonna leave me, set me up with one of your friends" complete with synchronized kicks and "HEY!"s from all band members. The night ended with a very well done cover of the Beatles song "Run For Your Life" with Jon Brion on electric bass (along with the usual bassist on stand-up bass), it was awesome.

Overall I couldn't be happier with the show. The sound was great, the band was amazing, as was to be expected, and the songs were top-notch. One of my all time favorite bands played what was probably one of the best shows I've ever seen.