altered state?

[irondaisy]

hello all :)
I am new to the board (just posted for the first time yesterday, in general chat).
I first heard Nickel Creek last year when a friend let me listen to his headphones while we were riding together someplace. His taste in music is pretty different from mine, so I was a little doubtful. But he was like, No, I think you'll LIKE this CD!
Boy, was that an understatement!!!!!!! :D I LOVE their music! And I had the added pleasure and privilege of hearing them live just a month or two later. They were in Tawas City, MI last May, and a bunch of us drove over to see them. (Right after that, they got the great spread in TIME mag, and then the amount of media coverage really went nuts. I was like, I met those guys!)
We got second to the front row seats, and I was right in front of Sean! I got to watch him the whole time, which was good, because he is my favorite, and also, it was hard for me to watch Chris hopping around without cracking up. He reminds me of a grasshopper (Chris, that is)
:p
Anyway, I read someone else's post about Sean mushing his lips together when he is playing. I definitely saw him do that a lot, but he also did something else that I wonder if anyone else who has seen him in concert has noticed... He kinda rolls his eyes back in his head and makes these funny faces when he is really into playing a particular section of a song. It is like he goes into some kind of altered state of consciousness or something...
Has anybody else noticed this? It is probably just a musician thing
;) I sing in my church, and when I was younger, I always used to stare at the ceiling, never making eye contact with people. Then someone video taped us singing, and I saw it and went, Is that what I look like? I have been making eye contact ever since!!! LOL
Anyway, we hung around after the show and got to talk to NC for a little while. They had to autograph a ticket for me twice, because they had signed it and passed it down the table and someone just walked away with it. I was like, Hey, that's my ticket!!! The band was cool about it; they thought it was kinda funny. And Sara even wrote something about it being a second attempt with a smiley face under her name.
I talked to Sean for a little while, but it was just small talk and I felt kinda dumb (not because he made me feel that way, but because I really did not know what to say).

I cannot wait for his new CD to come out! His voice is beautiful... of course, I don't have to tell any of you that! You know!!!! :D

Guess I've babbled long enough.
Later,
Betsy

[NCFan4Ever]

Yup, they are all awesome people! I hate to say that Sean is my favorite, because I love ALL of the NC people, but Sean is the one that I am most drawn to!!

Anyway, I think I said welcome to you on your post in the general discussion forum, but if i didn't, then WELCOME! lol!

[nitejule]

glad to have you here!!! WOO HOO!!! have fun :D

[kokomo88]

irondaisy, do you, by any chance ever see Sean looking a little hurt? when he's singing or something? if you see the inside fame they did on NC a while ago on CMT, when they do Reasons why, when he says it's hard not to wander away' he looks kind of hurt......It might just be hypersensitive me, but to me. he DOES in fact look hurt when he's singing sometimes...

hehe[bigeyes]

[irondaisy]

kokomo,

yeah, I'm with you. He does kinda look like he is in pain or something. Wonder if there's a story behind that... I know, I know. None o' my bizness:rolleyes:
Sean seems like he'd be a great guy to just hang with. If I ever get another chance to hear NC live, I want to ask him what inspired him to write Let It Fall. I am also very curious as to what he was thinking when he wrote Speak and This Side.
I live in Michigan, though, and looking at their schedule, it doesn't look as though they're coming back this way anytime soon. [sob]

Guess I will have to content myself with wearing out my CD player listening to their first album and This Side.

Hey, have a great day everybody:)

Betsy
><>

[kokomo88]

cool, thanks! Lots of people don't think he looks hurt......someone agrees with me! yay

[J. Marie Hall]

i always hear the same thing about small talk, feeling dumb and not knowing _at all_ what to say. i still don't know what to say. what would we be able to talk about. even the environment makes it impossible. but then i though, if you sat yourself down with sean or any other person in a band you like with all the time in the world and no other people, what would you say?

i feel like this is an awkward thing: to be such a stranger and yet not since they share such an intense part of themselves (via music, lyrics etc.). i hope to say hi at a table or something when i get to a show, and like you, i'm stumped. it's not like we have lots of time to talk about anything that would matter :) and it's not like i know them or have the right to. what do you guys think?

-j. marie

[Jianjen]

Any person has the right to know anyone else. What they don't have the right to is the right to try to know them as obsessive, crazy fans. I have the right to know the President, Bubba has the right to know the Dalai Lama, you have the right to know a person who inspires you. They have that same right, too, but in reverse. They have the right to know you, but their (or anyone else in their position) context has changed a bit. To them, you want to meet them as performers only, as faces on a CD pamphlet, but not as people. This, of course, isn't true all of the time, but experience tends to jade a person a bit. Would YOU want to know someone who has simply objectified you as only a singer, a mandolin player, etc.? Probably not.

I don't mean to sound cynical, and I know that this isn't the case with everyone who wants to meet someone famous, but everyone should just examine their motives from time to time. Sure, I'd LOVE to have the chance to sit down with NC to chat about music--but not necessarily just THEIR music--life, love, Lord of the Rings, etc., and to get to know them as people. A person's value is not assessed by the value of their autograph, although eBay would have you believe otherwise. =)

JJ

Crazy is just another point of view.

[J. Marie Hall]

hi jj (and list),

yeah. you're right: it isn't about the right to know people. when you listen to the new cd you can hear that it must be frustrating for them. and you're right about fans etc.: you can't just trust anyone.

i'm with you on just wanting to sit and talk music, literature, films, interesting trees or whatever. i'm only 25 so i have a lot in common with them already. every time one of them mentions a good movie or a book i loved, i wanna chat about it; but it's pretty much impossible.

i'm such a dork: i even made them a mix tape once thinking of stuff i really liked that they might or might not have heard. i doubt it ever got to them. it's the same sort of thing i would do for a friend or even just someone i've talked music with etc. but i feel like i have talked music with them b/c i've heard theirs and read/heard about some they like.

either way: it seems they risk some aspects of loneliness much more than we do.:(

-j. marie

[NCFan4Ever]

I don't know if this fits here, and it has probably already been said somewhere else on the boards, but anyway...

When I heard the line in Beauty and the Mess that's like If any could come this close, I would let them see...Get it out again play em one more song, it's all they really want and who's to say that's wrong...Ain't that what you want them to know, All they get of you is what they get out of the show...

It really made me stop and think that it probably IS a really lonely life for preformers. I mean, they have tons of people who adore them, but for most it's just because of the music they play, not for the people they are. I don't think this is necessarily all that true for NC bc we all love them for their personalities and not just for their music. Still, it kinda made me sad.

[kokomo88]

wow, that post made me think! lol, you're right too, like most of those musicians who get up on stage and they're like, completely stoned, those folks must be soooooo lonely when they wake up the next day and stuff, wow, I'm glad we care so much about NC!