Amhurst Show

[warlord]

I went to the Amhurst show last night. I wasn't very impressed with John Mayer (I felt he was an Eric Clapton wanna-be, and his song writing was a bit coarse -- he was ok when he played acoustically without backup). Nickel Creek,however, did their usual good show (albeit short).

I was surprised with how few Creeksters were there. Almost everyone I spoke to was a John Mayer fan and many had never even heard of the creek (a few had, but many of those had not heard they're music). The good news is that after the show, almost everyone I spoke to LOVED NC, so who knows?

The creek played for about an hour, with the usual list:

Smoothie Song
Beauty and the Mess
Empire Falls
This Side
Reasons Why
The Fox (with Mario and so clear)
Trouble
House of Tom Bombadil
Spit on a Stranger (with a disclaimer not to do it)
Shoulda Known Better
Green and Grey
Ode to a Butterfly (with Nirvana)
You Don't Have to Move that Mountain
Lighthouse's Tale
TaxMan

The didn't do a lot of talking. They did do the normal amount of tuning. Unfortunately the crowd (at least around me) was fairly talkative during their set, and sometimes I could hear the people around me better than the band (and I was near the stage).

Chris did come out to play one song with John Mayer. It was interesting, and Chris played off Mayer in the normal Chris fashion. The mandolin added an interesting sound to John, and the audience seemed to like it.

I was disappointed that I never got the chance to talk to them after the show. They didn't come out inside, and didn't come out afterwards out back, either (Mayer did come out to see fans).

Anyways, sorry for the long message. Enjoy the show!

-derek

[NickelCreekFan1]

ooo sweetness!!!:D

i'm seeing tonights show here in lil ol' RI! i hope i can catch them after the show! and i hope i can remember the set list, ill have to write it down. [noise] and luckily i like both NC and John, so seeing Chris play with John would be awesome!!

[jaceyhomen]

Derek, thanks for the review. Mayer has never done much for me, although I have a couple of his cds and I try to like him. He's good, but sort of bland... I'm not into bland.

Mayer/NC are playing tonight in my home state of RI, at URI. I've encouraged family and friends from the area to go, but I don't think anyone is. After tomorrow night's show, I suspect NC will be headed home for turkey.

Thanks again for the review.
Jacey

[warlord]

Originally posted by jaceyhomen
Derek, thanks for the review. Mayer has never done much for me, although I have a couple of his cds and I try to like him. He's good, but sort of bland... I'm not into bland.

Yea, that's a good summation for me. Neither his melody nor lyrics nor guitar skill left me with a wow, this guy is good type of feel. I tried to get into it, but I just couldn't.

Mayer/NC are playing tonight in my home state of RI, at URI. I've encouraged family and friends from the area to go, but I don't think anyone is. After tomorrow night's show, I suspect NC will be headed home for turkey.

Thanks again for the review.
Jacey
Actually, they play in Troy, NY tomorrow night, and then go home for turkey-day. Then they're on the road again Dec 2.

I'm glad I got to talk to them last week in Atlanta. I would have been really down if I didn't get to chat then AND last night. :(

-derek

PS: you're welcome for the review.

[NC_FAN_13]

Just had to tell about my concert experience in Rhode Island, and my 2 cents on John Mayer. First I agree with everything you are saying about his music. I have not been able to get into it. I like the two songs on the radio, but was not sold on him. I could not put my finger on it, then I realized... his voice does not go with his face. If you listen to the song on the radio and never see his face one might think that he is a 40 year old guy with a beard. That's what I picture when I hear him sing. For whatever reason that bothers me. As far as his performance goes, he is a great musician, but many of the songs he played sounded like the last one he played. There was little variation it seemed. Now for the NC part, which was first. They played great as always. I have no issues with them. My beef is with the audience. If I had to put a number on it, I would say that 5% of the audience actually clapped with NC finished a song. The people around me would not stop talking and when I asked (well OK, the first time was yelling) them to stop talking or go somewhere else to talk they looked at me like I was crazy. Yes, I am actually listening to this opening act. Not too many non NC fans gave them the repect that they, or any other opening act for that matter, deserves. We all paid money to see a show, the opening act is part of that. Honestly I felt bad to Nickel Creek because of this. When they played a ballad you could hear a dull roar of the people talking. Don't get me started on the sound either. John's sound was perfect of course. But NC's was pretty bad. I could not hear them when they spoke, or if Sean had a guitar solo. I know the opening act is to help with the sound, but come on, can't it be closer to the sound the main performer gets? If I were John Mayer I would want my opening act to get the same service that I get. But i'm not bitter.

I feel better now that I got that out.

[NickelCreekFan1]

i was at that show too, and i noticed how there were other people talking and not really listening, but for the most part, everyone seemed to be paying really close attention to the band. The sound was horrible, Sara's mic made her sound loud when she sung and her violin too soft.
i like John's cd, but i wouldnt see him live again. He didnt have a very good stage presense...i couldnt really pay that much attention, and i do see where the songs sound the same. There were only a few songs that i love by him (Back to You, 3X5, Neon) that i was singing along with, but the others, blech.

speaking of singing along, i dont know if i was the only one who noticed this, but i swear that i heard alot of people singing along to This Side and The Fox....it might have just been me because i was singing along with alot of songs....even every word to the fox with SHB. And my bf henry? the only song he knew the lyrics to was Lithium, which was pretty cool.
oh...btw...They played Taxman, then went into Lithium than back to Taxman, im pretty sure that was the first time they had done that because before the song Chris said we're gonna try something new so that was pretty cool! [party]