The (Creek) freaks come out at night, bearing the 15 degree weather in Stafford, Connecticut. Fans from all over New England showed up to see Max Creek at the Stafford Palace Theater for New Years Eve. Everyone showed up with the same goal in mind: to dance their asses off.
The night began with Connecticut’s own young jam band, The McLovins, who took the stage and got the venue groovin’. Each member displayed their unique musical talent. Drummer Jake Huffman would start the night off by laying down some smooth and funky vocals, alongside bassist Jason Ott, guitarist Justin Berger, and keyboardist Atticus Kelly.
The McLovins dished out jams, including a cover of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down” and a brief tease of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Last Episode” wishing the crowd a happy New Year before finishing the song with rapper Nate Dogg’s legendary “smoke weed every day” line.
Shortly thereafter, Max Creek took the stage. The band has been around since the 70’s, though the only original member is bassist John Rider, who donned a tuxedo to celebrate the holiday. Meanwhile, keyboardist Mark Mercier donned the very appropriate Mad Hatter uniform. Creek Freaks flocked to the front of the stage in an attempt to get a head start on their dancing. Creek opened with “She’s Here” and went into a phenomenal version of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which featured numerous guitar solos from their guitarist Scott Murawski.
Set two kicked off around 11:50, giving Creek a good ten minutes to produce their final jam of 2014. The band brought out The McLovins for half of the second set, dubbed simply as Mac Creek. Everyone joined in for an amazing cover of “Midnight Hour,” jamming into the countdown. After the traditional “Auld Lang Syne,” Creek built onto their “midnight” theme with a cover of J.J. Cale’s “After Midnight,” which featured some amazing guitar trade offs between The McLovin’s Justin Berger and Max Creek’s Scott Murawski.
A huge highlight of the second set was the cover of The Band’s “The Weight.” Watching both bands onstage playing such an influential song shows the generation gap, and how music can build a bridge between that gap. The jam eventually ended and lead into a cover of The Grateful Dead’s “Scarlet Begonias.”
Traditionally Max Creek debuts a song every New Year’s show. Last year they played “Hush” with Eamon Cronin and this year they debuted a cover of Fiona Apple’s “Sleep To Dream.” The tune mellowed out the crowd for a moment, until the Creek busted out a cover of “Who Do You Love?” To put a cap on the long NYE celebration, the band finished their performance with an encore “Cripple Creek.”
