We went to the Nickel Creek concert in Knoxville on Wednesday night--awesome concert.
It was held in Knoxville's Tennessee Theater, an amazing venue that has just been restored for $25 mill. and, apart from the rudeness one of the employees ("Okay ladies, enough pictures, it's time to leave!"), was quite impressive.
The band was amazing. We'd bought the CD a few days before the concert to get ready and Ab had it going non-stop for several days (and had most of the lyrics memorized to singing along--I was impressed!). Their stage looked something like the bridge of the Nebuchadnezzar; robotic, self-repositioning lights hanging from metal skeletons as the back-drop for all the sound equipment.
The music was incredible. Chris Thile, their "lead mandolin," has won national mandolin competitions. 
Violinist Sara Watkins could run circles around "Johnny" (of "Devil Went Down to Georgia" fame) and does a funny little double-half-twist dance when she really gets into the music, often while fiddling! Her brother Sean Watkins is amazing on guitar--they cracked me up with "Short People" (he looks to be shorter than me [5'6"], and she wasn't quite as tall as he was in her high-heeled boots!). They were backed up by Mark Schatz, a bassist with incredible feet (he did a jig during one of their closing numbers that was worthy of Riverdance).
I did have one problem: not enough explanation. Part of what I like about going to a concert is hearing what was influencing the artists when they wrote particular songs, and what they were seeking to say through their lyrics. There really wasn't any of that Wednesday night. At one point it was mentioned that the new album is "darker" than past albums, but no explanation was offered. I'm not sure if that's pretty standard for Nickel Creek as it was my first concert, it just would have been nice to come away with a deeper understanding of their message. All in all though, it was a great night and I highly recommend both the album and the band.
Posted by currie at November 19, 2005 02:12 PM | TrackBack