you can definitely feel it at the 12 minute mark or so during windows.

as for the centerpiece i would have called it grapevine>willin>ready2burn but that may be just perspective.

top notch show all the way around and they sure brought "it" to rochester too!! missed allshouse but greg² was a real treat ...

: )

This is the fourth of four Creek performances at this venue since it opened in mid-2010 and - even despite the relative excellence of the last three, I think they manage to up their game more than a little. The opener is 20+ minutes of original Creek madness. The song itself is delivered in awesome voice and breakneck cadence but it's the improvisations that spring from it's melty coda that really set the tone for the evening. Scott Murawski is the best electric guitarist in rock these days, and he doesn't even take the whole 20+ minutes of Something is forming>>>>>>> to make that clear. Energy waves crest, swell, receed, redouble and break time and time again until the spell finally fades and Hard Love begins. It is - to say the very least -a pretty cool way to begin a concert.
But that's what it was and the rest lives up to that high standard. Murawski, Mercier, and Rider indulge in epic ensemble tinkering and the Vaso/Allshouse drum corps is sinewy and african-sounding throughout. it's hard not to recognize the Esti>Grapevine>Willin as the centerpiece of the whole thing but there are treasures and magic to be heard all through the performance. Max Creek was amazing, incredible, and sublime all through 2010 and now - after 6 rediculously good shows in 2011 - it looks as if they've upped their already state-of-the-art game. That's good news indeed for those of us who within driving distance of the crusty old rock-bars that these dudes call home.