So who's going to see the MAS crew as they head down-town to the Bowery. I just got my tickets. If you're holding out, you might want to hurry up. They sold out the last time they played there.
This place is a great venue. The place stands out because the neighborhood is kinda crummy, but the Bowery Ballroom is really nice both inside and out.
Just a note to anyone(like me) who plans on taking the subway on Friday night. Be very careful. The J Train's Bowery stop does stop directly in front of the place, however a lot of the J Train stops close down late. I know in my case at the last concert, the stop where I needed to transfer was closed, and at my alternative, the 6 train was closed there. I wound up having to double back and take several combinations of trains and then walk several blocks to get to Penn Station. Don't do what I did. Know before you go.
So who's going?
Hey there,
we (my husband, our friend, and myself) are going to the saturday night show. Not sure what trains we will be taking. we may walk. My husband and I went to the concert in portland. It was great, however, I'm hoping that glen does less of the leading in NY.
marymandolin
08-10-2004, 09:24 AM
I'm also going - with two of my friends. We'll probably go to Katz's Deli for dinner and just walk to the Ballroom from there. But I agree, stay away from the J, M, Z subway lines. Your best bet is the V or F to Lower East Side/2nd Ave or the B or D to Grand St.
rastaspike79
08-13-2004, 03:02 PM
Y'all have a great time tonight (and tomorrow night).
We wanna hear all about it!
:D
~Jennifer~
The concert was freaking amazing everyone. I'm writing up a comprehensive review as we speak.
If anyone has a set list, could they please post it?
Here's the full review, excerpted from my livejournal(http://captainhogan.livejournal.com)
Once again, one of the best things about this concert was that I wasn't going alone. My good ETV nerd friends Chris Padilla and Brendan Van Meter(dabernn) accompanied me, as well as a LaSallian in Kevin Hyslop(thekev). I left my house by car and drove it to Brendan's house, and from there we took the train in to Penn Station. We hooked up with Kevin by the Krispy Kreme on the Amtrak level of Penn Station, and from there we headed above ground. Chris Padilla's an intern for Spike TV(which is owned and operated by MTV), and he wasn't quite done yet. So while we were waiting, we loitered around Times Square for a bit. We watched with bemusement as the TRL freaks screamed on cue every time, and we got to ride the Star Trek'esque elevators at the Marriot Marquis hotel.
After Chris got out of work, we reached the low point of the day, when we ate at the ESPN Zone restaurant. The place is clearly a huge tourist trap, as the food was both high-priced and disgusting at the same time. I barely touched by sandwich, and I know Kevin took his entire chicken salad with him. After that, we hung out at both the gigantic Times Square Toys 'R' Us, and swung by Jim Hanley's to stare at Comic Books none of us would buy.
Finally we began the trip downtown. From experience the last time I saw Nickel Creek at this venue, I avoided taking any route directly from Penn Station. Rather, I put us on the NQRW to Canal Street, and switched to the JMZ from there, which deposited us directly at the Bowery Ballroom door. We actually got there early at 8:30, as the doors weren't supposed to open till 9, but they let us down into the bar. Of course none of us could drink except for Kev, so we just grabbed some stools and sat in a circle for a bit (CHANGE PLACES). At around 9:05, they opened the doors to the stage upstairs.
We got up their and rushed forward, and it paid off. We were in the front row. Now listen to what I mean when I say we were in the front row. We were standing directly in front of the stage, which was at chest level, resting our arms on the stage itself. There was a setlist on the carpet by Sean's mic. If I wanted to, I could've just grabbed it =P.
We were waiting there for a while, the concert wasn't scheduled to start till 10 PM. At about 9:30, a guy came out the door next to the stage. He had long hair, his arms were covverred in tatoos and he was wearing a T-shirt with the sleeves having been hastily cut-off. He was wearning a stage-crew pass around his neck, but he looked confused.
Who's playing? He asked me
Mutual Admiration Society. I answered.
He looked even more confused, Who the hell are they?
It's Nickel Creek with...
Nickel Creek! The guy's face literally lit up. They're amazing! Aw man, I would've worn my Nickel Creek T-Shirt if I had known they were playing. He tugged at the sheered sleeves on his T-shirt, This is mostly for hardcore bands. He informed us.
He dissappeared, and the next second he was up on the stage adjusting some of the amps. THen he comes back down because he wants to show me pictures of his trip to San Francisco.... okay...little strange, but what the heck.
Anyway, at about 10 past 10, the MAS crew came on stage to big applause, and they didn't waste any time wowing us all with an amazing performance. It was really incredible, and a lot of it now is just a blur, so until I have access to a set-list, I'll have trouble remembering specifics, so I'll just give general impressions.
Everything that I said was wrong about the MAS album was fixed in concert, just like I predicted. Unlike a lot of people who disliked MAS, or as a lot of people accused me of being, I did not dislike the album because Nickel Creek wasn't the main attraction. I could deal with them being in the side-role. My problem with the album was just because it seemed to lethargic, and lacked energy at many points. The reason I knew this wouldn't be a problem in concert is because I've seen Nickel Creek in concert, nay, I've seen Chris Thile in concert, and him giving a low-energy performance is like a hummingbird flying in slow motion. The energy was there 100%, and all the MAS songs I complained about sounded jillions of times better. The echoey lyrcis of Sake of the World were gone, and it had some rockin' solos. The harmony was much more present and stronger on songs like Windmills and Comes a Time, and they belted out Somewhere out There with every bit of strength they had.
The one iffy song seemed to be Trouble, which as I explained before is a regular live Nickel Creek song that got completely screwed up on the album. The performance of Trouble last night seemed to be a compromise between the album version and the usual Nickel Creek version. It went at a slower speed, and Glen still sang it, however they added in the echoes on the chorus, and put in much more harmony, and Chris Thile's solos kept the song from plodding or dragging.
The one slight dissappointment of the night was the songs that were played from Nickel Creek albums, just because they didn't seem to take to having a drum and electric bass to kindly. I don't know much about drums, but he used what seemed like a double time shuffle on them that made them sound either rushed or too country'ish. Ode to a Butterfly and Reason's Why especially sufferred from that. It was a little dissappointing to hear some of my favorite songs distorted this way, but the rest of the material was too good to let that ruin the night.
Then of coursee there were a lot of songs I never heard before, so I'm assuming they're new songs, Toad songs, or JPJ songs. THere was a song that they said Sara wrote called Anthony. She played a small guitar-like instrument for that one which I think was a Eukalaylie. They all gathered around one mike and sang Barbershop quartet for that one, and thar harmony was just so beautiful and perfect, I felt like I was going to melt. There was one song which I think was a Toad the Wet Sprocket song, just because there were a lot of people in the audience who started screaming and singing along the chorus. I don't know the name, but the chorus began with All I want.... Sara and Chris would just sing that, and Glen would come in for the rest. It was a very rocking song, which makes me think that my opinion of Toad needs a bit more re-considering.
There was an amusing part after one of the songs when some of Chris's strings broke. He remarked that bluegrass musicians don't rock, but they break their strings so much easily. Glen protested at that, claiming that bluegrass can rocked. To prove his point, he asked Sara to serve up a random fiddle tune. After a few moments of confusion, she did that. After a few minutes, Chris joined in, followed by Sean, after he switched from electric back to acoustic. For a few minutes, you had a pure Nickel Creek moment. They were just improvising the whole thing and it sounded beautiful, and Glen was write, it did rock.
I'm told they did a few Led Zeppellin songs. Not that I would know, not being a follower of their music. About half-way through, John Paul Jones put down his bass and picked up a mandolin, and he and Sean did an instrumental version of Going to California. Then during the first encore, they did a song that apparently is called Gallows Pole. Now THAT. SONG. ROCKED. They did such an amazing job on that song. I'm not usually a big mover and shaker when it comes to concerts, but even I was grooving to that song, it was so good.
Other songs that Rocked. Taxman, Think About Your Troubles, The Fox(Variation #13893(Drone and Subterranean Homesick Blues) and Driveby. Actually funny story for the last one. Glen came out by himself with just his guitar. I don't know whether he was planning on doing Driveby or not, but someone yelled it out. He replied, You want to hear a song about a 15 year old who reaches spiritual awareness and fulfillment through murder? Everyone laughed, and it wasn't the last time people laughed during that song, he did a great rendition with just him and his guitar.
Anyway, to end it all with their second encore, they did an auld auld auld Nickel Creek classic You Don't Have to Move That Mountain. It was really great. Sara really belted out some powerful lyrics, with Sean, Chris, and Glen backing her up on harmony. Everyone got a solo in, and it was just a perfect demonstration of this groups music virtuosity. What was really cool is at the end, they all turned to Pete Thomas to take them home, and just when you thought it was over, they did a re-tread, and did this silly dance where they all stepped to the right at the same time, and then Chris and Glen both climbed on top of an amp and jumped off together for the last chord.
What a concert.
Unfortunately, unlike in Phialdelphia, I just don't have much to talk about in regards to post-concert. We went out to wait for them, but unlike in Philadelphia, there wasn't any set meeting place or anything. Their bus was out front, so if you wanted to meet them, you had to wait out front. There was no stage door really, so no one knew where they were coming out. So me and the guys were just chilling, watching some drunks get thrown out(I mean literally, carried onto the street and thrown there). So we're just standing there, talking and all of a sudden I see Sean Watkins.
I said, Hey look, it's Sean Watkins!
We all watched Sean walk by, as he went to the bus, grabbed a bunch of bags, and then went back inside. That's when we realized...we didn't bring anything for them to sign or anything, so there really wasn't much point to waiting there. It was a bit weird though that there weren't many people waiting for autographs and stuff. That's when I realized most of the people waiting out there were waiting for John Paul Jones. I guess he doesn't make too many public appearences or something.
Anyway, other then that the only notable thing is that they were giving away a free sampler after the concert, notable because it has music on it from both Sean and Glen's upcoming albums. I'm not too much of a Glen fan, but I liked one of the songs. As for Sean's new songs, I know they were both performed recently during the Watkins Family Hour. Starve them to Death and Roses Never Red were their names. Starve them To Death was very good, still figuring out the other one. They both have a 26 Miles feel to them, and maybe a little less jazzy.
Anyway, no much to say after that. We all went home, and that's that. Until the next concert, that is all.
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