The Mighty Mighty Creek!!

Nickel Creek finally rolled through Texas with regular tour dates after an absence of 2 years. They also hit Austin at the Cactus Cafe during the private radio promo tour (Search This Blog for postings on that). It's hard for me to discuss Nickel Creek without gushing, they are just so awesome!

We went to the Stubb's Austin and Floore's Helotes shows. Both were great shows but really very different, including the setlist.

Stubb's was sold out, or very near. They had the stage set up to allow for more band theatrics such as playing on little platforms that bridged the stage and the audience barrier. Those barriers were not there when we say them 2 years ago, but they really are needed, if not to protect the band to protect the audience! Chris is a wild man with some flying feet. There were some significant noise problems at Stubb's. For one thing, they had the sound re-directed in a way to where it was much harder to hear from stage-side. Also, it's on Red River and quiet Creek was being seriously drowned out by the decibel-level coming from Red Eye Fly. It was VERY distracting. Add to that the various helicopters and sirens that prevail at a venue located next to the police complex along with fire trucks and ambulances. The audience at Stubb's sang along on every song, even the new ones. That's got to make a band feel good.

Floore's is an extremely laid-back place, even compared to an Austin venue. We weren't very smashed in at the front, although the place was pretty full. It's located more in the sticks so the ambient noise was a few crickets instead of sirens and heavy metal. The stageside sound was fantastic, just phenomenal. The audience didn't sing along much, but had the same deafening applause and squealing as in Austin. I am completely out of squeals today.

After the show we went to the bus hoping for autographs (and got them), and were treated to a post-show unplugged mandolin performance by Chris. I have several pictures of this over on my website. I can't tell you how great it was, I am just in awe of the beautiful music that comes from that instrument, and from this band. The girl in the picture here is Sarah Jarosz, who is a great, young player from Central Texas. We got acquainted with her and her parents in the line when we got to talking about The Greencards.

I got setlist souvenirs from both shows, making everyone jealous. They are keepers, especially since one of them is now autographed.

- Music - Austin - Nickel Creek - Mandolin - Fiddle - Guitar -