Matunuck Beach, RI July 12, 2024 by Larson Sutton
Without hyperbole, one of the blessings of a New England summer is the continuing renewal of the relationship between everyone’s favorite Rhode Island seaside venue, the Ocean Mist, and one of the region’s longest-lasting musical icons, Max Creek. Now celebrating over five decades of delighting audiences with its heady and eclectic blend of genres and jam, Max Creek is just as potent in performance and, for sure, a visit to the Matunuck Beach venue was and is always special. Absent for several years, the marriage of a hot summer night and smoking tunes from the veteran quintet was renewed last year and back again in ‘24 for a corker of a Friday night on the shore.
The fun began with a striking trio of tunes. After an opening “Rainbow,” led by bassist John Rider, Creek coupled a pair of songs winking at an illicit party favor, following Little Feat’s “Sailin’ Shoes” with “Cocaine Lady,” and, now dialed up high, off the show went. As the humidity rose inside the shack, so too did the energy onstage, as the five elevated the improvisational and collective swing down paths of slinky rock and calypso. Guitarist Scott Murawski seemed particularly good-spirited, turning often to smile and shimmy with percussionist Jamemurrell Stanley, while playing counterpart with blistering, expansive solos to keyboardist Mark Mercier. Rider, Murawski, and Mercier make up the core of the longtime ensemble, and even 50 years in, show the vigor and enthusiasm of the halcyon days in the 1980s, when Creek was among the area’s top draws.
Certainly, a packed Ocean Mist helped to harken back to that spirit, and with the next-generation energy of Stanley and drummer Bill Carbone, vintage Creek remains ever so. One need only to enjoy the first-set closing tandem of the Grateful Dead’s “St. Stephen” and a rollicking take of The Beatles’ “Slow Down” to witness a band that can still shake a room.
Following a 40-minute intermission, the quintet reconvened for a second set that kept the pedal pressed, carrying past midnight. Kicking off with a breezy “Willow Tree,” the five then attacked the favorite, “Big Boat,” setting sail on another extended quest amidst the waves of jamming peaks, balanced by introspective dips such as Murawski’s nod to his wife, in attendance, on “Before You Gotta Go.” Yet, it was the simmering build into an eventually thunderous “The Other One” that reset the tidal surge, driving the group through the latter half of a frame that culminated with a high-voltage turn of “Something Is Forming”
And, as the encore wrapped, appropriately, with a Creek classic, “Back Porch,” the sweaty and exhausted throng of sandaled and tie-dyed summer folk was reminded one last time of how wonderful it is to have Max Creek at the Ocean Mist, making memories once again on one of RI’s finest back porches.
Photo by Mike Maresca
Taped and Transfered by Mike Camp.
Set 1:
01 Intro
02 Rainbow
03 Sailin’ Shoes
04 Cocaine Lady
05 Darlin
06 Calypso
07 St.stephen >
08 Slow Down
Set 2:
01 Intro
02 Willow Tree >
03 Big Boat
04 Peaceful Warrior
05 Before You Gotta Go >
06 Bees
07 The Other One >
08 Blood Red Roses
09 Into the Ocean
10 Something is Forming
11 Encore
12 Lawyer, Guns, and Money
13 Back Porch Boogie Blues
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