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revidWow Guys! I saw Matthew Good last night. For those of you not familiar with him, Matt is a singer/songwriter/alt rocker from Canada who has achieved a not insignificant level of success in his own country, but for reasons that are unfathomable to me, has not achieved the recognition he deserves below the 49th parallel. Fortunately and fully coincidentally, one of my closest friends also happens to be a Matthew Good fan, so within 5 minutes of hearing that he was going to be in California, we had our tickets. I had pretty much despaired of ever seeing him live short of making a road trip to Vancouver, so to catch him in a solo acoustic performance a mere 3 hours away in Los Angeles was a dream come true.
The show was at a place called the Hotel Café, just off the 101 in Hollywood. We got there 20 minutes before the door opened and were second in line. Inside, the place held maybe 150 people. The stage was all of 10 feet wide, I kid you not. There were some tables and a standing area, and everyone stood back! No one was blocking our view of the stage as we sat at the table 15 feet away from Matt! It was wonderful!
This was a solo acoustic tour, as Matt likes to do frequently, where he leaves the band at home. He has a lovely high tenor singing voice, and it's amazing to me how well some of his harder rocking songs translate stripped all the way down. He also has a casual, funny stage presence. He talks and jokes with the audience in between songs about various random things that are on his mind. Matt is not what you'd call classically handsome by anyone's standards, but by the end of the show I wanted to have his babies. Or at least do him. On stage.
This song was written about his very painful and bitter divorce, but it's my favorite song on his latest CD Hospital Music:"She's In It For the Money."
My one complaint about the show was that the club had another performance scheduled after Matt, meaning his set was limited to 1 hour 10 minutes. Matt easily could (and would) have played another 2 hours, and I would not have looked at my watch once, I guarantee.
Finally, a shout out and a big thank you to the charming and talented![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
canis_takahari, without whom, I probably never would have heard of Matthew Good. Chatting with the folks in line, most people said they had heard of Matthew because they were from Canada, lived near Canada, or had Canadian friends. I was in the latter category, but of course, I didn't tell them the WHOLE story. I first heard of Matthew Good when Helen wrote a wonderful Billie Joe Armstrong/Matthew Good crossover fic called Haven't Slept in Years. I highly recommend you go read it, even if you've never heard of Matthew Good, because I hadn't when I read it, and I thought it was excellent. Excellent enough that I asked Helen for a musical recommendation, and she suggested his CD from the mid-1990s Underdogs, and from then I was hooked.
Thanks darling!
Edited to Add: Wow, just saw on Matthew Good's blog that his show in San Diego tonight has been cancelled due to illness. That sucks. He looked OK!
The show was at a place called the Hotel Café, just off the 101 in Hollywood. We got there 20 minutes before the door opened and were second in line. Inside, the place held maybe 150 people. The stage was all of 10 feet wide, I kid you not. There were some tables and a standing area, and everyone stood back! No one was blocking our view of the stage as we sat at the table 15 feet away from Matt! It was wonderful!
This was a solo acoustic tour, as Matt likes to do frequently, where he leaves the band at home. He has a lovely high tenor singing voice, and it's amazing to me how well some of his harder rocking songs translate stripped all the way down. He also has a casual, funny stage presence. He talks and jokes with the audience in between songs about various random things that are on his mind. Matt is not what you'd call classically handsome by anyone's standards, but by the end of the show I wanted to have his babies. Or at least do him. On stage.
This song was written about his very painful and bitter divorce, but it's my favorite song on his latest CD Hospital Music:"She's In It For the Money."
My one complaint about the show was that the club had another performance scheduled after Matt, meaning his set was limited to 1 hour 10 minutes. Matt easily could (and would) have played another 2 hours, and I would not have looked at my watch once, I guarantee.
Finally, a shout out and a big thank you to the charming and talented
canis_takahari, without whom, I probably never would have heard of Matthew Good. Chatting with the folks in line, most people said they had heard of Matthew because they were from Canada, lived near Canada, or had Canadian friends. I was in the latter category, but of course, I didn't tell them the WHOLE story. I first heard of Matthew Good when Helen wrote a wonderful Billie Joe Armstrong/Matthew Good crossover fic called Haven't Slept in Years. I highly recommend you go read it, even if you've never heard of Matthew Good, because I hadn't when I read it, and I thought it was excellent. Excellent enough that I asked Helen for a musical recommendation, and she suggested his CD from the mid-1990s Underdogs, and from then I was hooked.Thanks darling!
Edited to Add: Wow, just saw on Matthew Good's blog that his show in San Diego tonight has been cancelled due to illness. That sucks. He looked OK!
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Date: 2008-03-12 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-12 07:57 pm (UTC)And god...Haven't Slept in Years. How many times have I gushed about that? I must read it again (for the, I dunno, zillionth time, I guess) soon. Hands down one of the premiere pieces of fanfic I've ever read. I hope Helen knows that. I left a gushy comment when I first read it, but sometime when you're talking to her, you should let her know that I still go on and on (like this! lol) about it. =)
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Date: 2008-03-12 08:06 pm (UTC)I'm seriously so pleased you had a great time. :)
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Date: 2008-03-12 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 02:18 am (UTC)YAY for a little bit of Canada in L.A.!! Glad you had a good time. Very cool that you got to see an artist that you probably never expected to have the opportunity to see in person like that.
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Date: 2008-03-13 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 02:36 am (UTC)So you got to experience a real Canadian show! ;D Aw, Mary, I'm glad it was so wonderful. Not surprised, but happy for you. (Also slightly mournful that I missed his first Hfx date and shall be gone for the next one, but that's the price you pay.) I can't remember if it was Billie or Mike who said in some interview that any good song should be able to be played acoustic and Matt's music certainly is good enough to translate to that medium. Eeeee I really am thrilled you got to go!
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Date: 2008-03-13 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 04:17 am (UTC)And I will pimp "Haven't Slept in Years" until the end of my slash reading days too.
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Date: 2008-03-13 04:22 am (UTC)Here's a YouTube playlist of the video I shot with my camera: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A9F86151E7C2BC48
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Date: 2008-03-13 04:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 04:31 am (UTC)He's playing a bunch of dates in Ontario in May and June...you should try and hit one. :-D
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Date: 2008-03-13 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 04:37 am (UTC)When I win the lotto, I'll pay Matt to play in my living room and fly in all my friends to join me.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 03:30 pm (UTC)