Nickell’s Bag

Continuing yesterday’s thread, here’s another installment of my nominees for most memorable performances of the decade…

David Boone, the Wilma Theatre, October, 2007 – “I know this probably sounds strange,” local folk-rock musician David Boone confessed to me several days after his remarkable, sold-out concert at the Wilma Theatre in late 2007, “but the best I can describe the other night is that it felt like a revival to me.” For anyone who attended the concert, Boone’s words surely strike a resounding note of truth.

Having recently recorded a new CD, “A Tale of Gold,” Boone, then 26, decided to celebrate the album with a release concert that would double as a benefit for Mountain Home Montana. He put together a backing band made of up more than a dozen of Missoula’s best musicians, and booked the Wilma.

The result was a concert that will go down in local lore as not only a great performance –which it was, in every way — but also as proof that culture isn’t always something that is given to us by the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, culture is something that we co-create ourselves, in our own lives, here, now.

“It was something I had always imagined as possible, but hadn’t ever experienced,” Boone admitted afterward (read my full post-performance account here). “I felt honestly like the audience was as much a performer in the event as any of the individuals on stage. It was electric.” It was, indeed. You don’t have to believe me; a DVD of the concert is available here.

**

Nickel Creek, the Wilma Theatre, August, 2006 – It takes a certain kind of mind to envision music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Britney Spears in the same concert program. It takes a certain kind of musician to pull it off. Nickel Creek didn’t just pull it off; they blew off the roof with a concert that soared and sprawled like few others in memory.

They played tunes from their own albums. They played traditional bluegrass tunes. They played Radiohead, and Gillian Welch, and the Band. And yes, they played Britney – a hilariously irreverent, deadpan take on “Toxic;” and Bach – the Prelude in E major from the Solos and Partitas for Solo Violin, performed by Chris Thile at breakneck speed on his mandolin. Yet perhaps the best part was watching the local crowd of gray-haired elders and screeching teens (one young girl in front of me held a sign throughout the concert: “Kiss Me Chris!”) groove and cheer as one.

**

Tomorrow: Bonnie Prince Billy at Jay’s Upstairs; Ween at the University Theatre. Vote for your own favorite performances via the SpeakUpMissoula.com poll below, or leave a comment!

Share on Facebook