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
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