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Nickel Creek

 

Nickel Creek


August 16, 2003 @ The 2003 Apple & Eve Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI


Unlike most live acts, the Irish-tinged jub band known as Nickel Creek opened their first Newport set with their current hit, “The Smoothie Song.” Though this plan may have revealed their Newport naiveté, it also got the crowd involved, up and even dancing right from the start. After the hard and edgy strummer “Should’ve Known Better,” the band slipped through an up tempo rendition of the old Folk standard “The Fox” (which included a nod to Bob Dylan by way of a turbo-charged snippet of “Subterranean Homesick Blues”). Coming together for the vocal convergence of “This Side,” the band stepped away from the mics for a satiny instrumental called “Ferdinand the Bull.” The trickly whisper of “Lighthouse’s Tale” featured a sample of Coldplay’s “Yellow” that turned an otherwise unobtrusive ballad into an aggravated attack. Fortunately, that uneven offering resolved to a version of the traditional “Jacksmith” that ended the set with a more pleasant flurry of instrumental precision and danceable melody that brought the crowd to their feet once more.

- Matthew S. Robinson
c. 2003, M. S. Robinson, ARR


 

©2003-2005 Boston Beats

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