My friend had an extra ticket for Nickel Creek's "Farewell for Now" tour so I got to see the Grammy award-winning band live. And boy, was it a night to remember. The stage setting was sparse, with six rugs, a couple of mic stands, and three spotlights. Even though I was a part of Nickel Creek's largest crowd in their 18 years of touring, the show could be described as "intimate". The night was kicked off with the superior banjo stylings of Bela Fleck. This man has to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest banjo player in the world. I believe it can be rather hard to captivate an audience of about 5000 with just a banjo, but most of the crowd was seated and quiet all throughout his set. During the set, each member of Nickel Creek came out to play a song with Fleck. It might just be the fact that I was seated pretty far up in the balcony, but I could have sworn Fleck's hands barely moved. His fingers seemed to be plucking the strings at supersonic speeds. I was familiar with some of his work with the Flecktones, but seeing him perform was just incredible.Nickel Creek came on around 9:30 and started their set with "Helena". More favorites followed as Chris Thile, Sara and Sean Watkins rocked their way through "This Side", "Best of Luck", "I Should've Known Better", and the extremely catchy instrumental, "Smoothie Song". The chemistry between the three and the fact that they've been playing together for 18 years were both apparent in their witty stage banter, gorgeous tight-knit harmonies, and acoustic guitar-fiddle-mandolin jams that were beyond description. I've honestly never seen anyone rock a mandolin quite like Thile. His on-stage antics were hilarious, especially during the band's cover of "Toxic", when he pulled what I assume to be his best Britney impressions. Sara was equally as entertaining, even sharing a joke. "Two hats were on a coatrack," she announced. "One said to the other, "You stay here, I'll go on ahead."" Sean was rather quiet through most of the set, but he perked up when the new Radiohead album was mentioned. He struck me as quite the fan. The band closed with "Why Should the Fire Die?", an appropriate song considering their impending hiatus. Their bows were met with the last of several standing ovations that night.Sadly, the security was extremely strict and they wouldn't let me bring my camera in. I have, however, attached a recording of their cover of "Toxic". There was a discussion about hilarious-but-awesome covers on mog about a year ago, and I remember going from lukewarm to superfan of Nickel Creek after someone posted a link to this song. Any band that can make Britney Spears listenable and (gasp) enjoyable has to be amazing in my book.