Nickel Creek at Loeb Playhouse

The no-camera policy last night was insane, but I'm quite the ninja.

For reasons unimportant to the story, I got to see the show for free, and because it was free, I skipped the opening act which wasn't very good (who the f is Tiff Merritt? I mean, she's not even on wikipedia.) and went to the Stewart computer lab to finish some stuff up instead.

As a big country music fan, I was pretty psyched for the show. The audience was about 70% middle-age or elderly while the rest was comprised of college students. I encountered a few drunks here and there but they were pretty tame. I think I might have been the only minority in the entire auditorium.

The applause that Nickel Creek received upon their entrance was rather weak. However, the show was stunning. From the manic playing by Chris Thile on his mandolin to the soft croonings of Sara Watkins, I was left in complete awe by their talent. They occasionally broke into dialogue between songs and it was during their free exchanges that I saw what chemistry the band members have with each other. I kept imagining how fun it must be on their tour bus. Sean Watkins broke one of his guitar strings at the beginning of one of their songs and the music immediately stopped. That is how you know they were doing their own thing (it would be a grave insult to accuse them of otherwise). Bass-playing Mark Schatz broke into a clog dance which was surprise enough in and of itself but even more so when Chris joined him. The cover of Britney Spear's Toxic was also quite wonderful.

Amazingly talented group. All the members came out afterwards (save for Sara) to give autographs. I was fourth in line, w00t! However, I was so nervous to talk to Chris the prodigy that I forgot to shake his hand. His cup looked like (and kind of smelled like) hard liquor (it was yellowish-orangy-brownish so maybe tequila?). I had a nice little exchange with Sean about John Frizzell though.

I have tons of respect for this group now. Too bad they're breaking up indefinitely after their tour ends in 2007.