blackvelocities

Levi Kreis and Eric Himan at the Walnut Room

My friend Tom and I went to go see Levi Kreis and Eric Himan at the Walnut Room in Denver on Tuesday.

I’ve been following Levi and Eric on the internet for years now but I never thought I’d ever get to see them in person. Well I visited Levi’s site after being away for a while and discovered that Levi and Eric were touring with each other and both would be coming to Denver! I was very excited and bought tickets immediately.

The Walnut Room performance space is small and intimate and there wasn’t a large crowd (20, Tom?).  How ever Levi and Eric may have felt about the small crowd they gave us a GREAT show. They sang, they talked to us and we talked back – it was great fun!  It was Eric’s birthday and someone brought out a birthday cake and we all sang Happy Birthday to him.

Levi’s arms were straining at the keys – Eric breaking picks and strings – Their voices bursting from their bodies. For me, catching creative talent in the act of creation, I always feel like I do when I round a corner in the forest and catch a glimpse of some grand animal gracefully moving in the dappled light. I am mesmerized. There is something so vital about the experience. I catch myself with my mouth open. Sometimes with tears rolling down my cheeks.

Afterward I was talking Levi and Eric and told them how happy I was that they came to Denver. And yes, they are both warm, beautiful men. I’m gonna send Eric a pack of new picks.

Driving home I was looking up into the heart of Orion and thought (as I often do) that in their cores at that very moment the stars were converting the very breath of creation into light.  It seemed to me that in the hearts of these artists something just as primal was going on – turning the breath of their lives into song.  And as surely as the light of the Sun warms, I felt illuminated by their voices. And on this one night, of course, they were much closer than the stars.

Nickel Creek Concert at the Fillmore

Look my first non Brokeback Mountain related post! 

A friend of mine and I went to the Nickel Creek concert on Thursday (12/1) night at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver. Before I talk about the magnificent trio I wanna talk about their opening act, Andrew Bird. I was really impressed.  Andrew is talented with several instruments including the guitar and fiddle, has a powerful, well controlled voice and is an accomplished song writer.  What really set him apart for me though was his imaginative and compelling use of whistling, a glockenspiel and a sampling pedal. His whistling evokes wide open American spaces and the sound of the glockenspiel the innocence of childhood. He achieves a wonderful layering of sound by playing an instrument into a sampling engine controlled by a foot pedal. Once the bit of music has been sampled he can then have that playing and pick up another instrument.  Samples of several different instruments can be playing at the same time.  It was just him and his drummer on the stage but what great music they create. Lush, atmospheric and moving.  I listened to some sample MP3s on his site however and I wasn’t as impressed. I think each time he plays a song it’s like he’s creating it anew.  I’m not sure he’s at his best when recording in a studio.

And Nickel Creek?  Wow.

I’ll just get my love for Chris Thile’s voice out of the way first. I know he’s like one of the best mandolin players in the world but his voice just gives me so much comfort. His voice is so smooth and sweet and clear. Listen to “The Lighthouse’s Tale”, “Hanging by a Thread”, “Sweet Afton” and “When You Come Back Down”. His voice is a controlled force that you find yourself yielding to. All this comes through on stage.

Now Sara is known for her fiddle playing and also for her singing voice.  Listen to the exquisitely serene “Out of the Woods” for the quintessential Sara.  Most people probably consider her the voice of Nickel Creek and rightly so.  Her voice is so powerful and beautiful and controlled and she can call on it at will. It’s breathtaking. The thing that you see about Sara onstage is that she’s always giving.  She’s generous and warm and open and she doesn’t hold anything back for herself.

The biggest surprise to me was hearing the range and power of Sean’s voice come through on stage.  More so than on their CDs.  Sean plays the guitar primarily and certainly knows how to draw great and beautiful things out of that wonderful instrument.  Sean doesn’t move around very much on stage and seems to be a steadying influence in the trio’s onstage dynamic.

The great thing about seeing artists live is just watching the improvisation and creativity that artists bring to bear on their music.  At the end of the last verse of “The Lighthouse’s Tale” the group launched into a long evolving improvisation of the melody moving in a great arc away from the central theme and then slowly almost unrecognizably returning. Employing a bit of hobbit humor they inserted “Short People” into “In the House of Tom Bombadil”.  And “The Fox” was just a simple stomping and clapping good time.

For a person like me, a scientist, being in the presence of artists of such talent is tantamount to a miraculous experience. I just don’t know how these people do what they do. I am lucky to be able to understand much of art in an intuitive and immediate way but creating art is something I’ve tried and cannot do. Watching creation happen before me invariably reduces me to tears.  ‘Reduces’ me in that I am humbled and grateful.

What a joy to behold.  Thank you Sean, Sara and Chris and Andrew.