Last night Zach and I headed to Seattle Center to watch alt-country/bluegrass group Nickel Creek.

Zach is an atypical teen – he prefers country and bluegrass to rock and hip hop. Nickel Creek has been a favorite of mine for some time, but he glommed onto the CDs as soon as he got an MP3 player.

When we saw that they were coming to town, and the ticket prices were reasonable, we decided to go. The concert was at 8pm on a weeknight – and we have a 1:30 minimum commute to the Seattle Center – but what the heck, live a little!

Jon Brion was the opening act. I’d never heard of him before, but he’s pretty amazing – a singer/songwriter/one-man-band with quite a bit of film songwriting credit on his resume. His set was like a fluid jam band session, quite a bit of fun – the highlight was a cover of Ray Davies’ Waterloo Sunset.

The Nickel Creek folks had come on stage to play with Jon separately, but after an intermission, returned for their set. At 9:45pm.

They were superb – unpretentious, talented as all get-out, and great performers. There were no complex stage sets, no electric light shows, no explosive numbers – just fabulous music.

I do have to note that their stage movement was a little spastic and awkward – but we didn’t buy tickets to see the Rockettes. The lack of choreography and focus on serious music was refreshing.

It was Zach’s first concert with me, and the first concert he’d really chosen. Although going with his mom wasn’t as much fun as hanging out with his friends would have been, he was good company. His verdict on the concert? “Um. I don’t know… Pie?”

The band is breaking up, and members are going their separate ways at the end of 2007. One of their T-shirts read “Farewell For Now Tour”. We’ll certainly miss them!