Last Saturday night, Matthew Good performed most of 1999’s award winning album, Beautiful Midnight to a very grown-up crowd (all the people who loved him when we were just teenagers in the 90’s). For a relatively large space, Matt made it feel like he was reminiscing with just a few close friends, sipping on aged bourbon, eyes closed, letting us feel all the feels we did as angsty teens.
His supporting act, Craig Stickland (Stick-land not Strick-land. no ‘R’ he reminded us! And good thing because there is a country singer named Craig Strickland who unfortunately passed away last year), performed a few songs from his 2016 debut album Leave Me To The Wild as well as an upcoming single due out shortly. The crowd was warm and welcoming as his strong and raspy voice (like a Ben Harper, Ray Lamontagne marriage) filled the room, but he really caught everyone’s attention when he paid tribute to iconic Canadian band The Tragically Hip, covering their 1998 song Bobcaygeon. After a very short set, he left us ready for Matt Good.
Lights dimmed, someone lit Nag Champa incense and loud opera music momentarily gave us pause before the familiar refrain K-I-C-K-A-S-S rang out and the band ran on to the stage and launched into Giant. While a few die hard fans sang along to that, the majority waited until the more well known songs Hello Time Bomb and Strange Days, to jump in.
There were several bourbon breaks between songs, as he spoke about his parents, hockey (he is a Canadians fan despite growing up in Vancouver) and Chuck Berry (who had died just that day and was the inspiration for purchasing one of the guitars he played that night).
A thunderous Load Me Up almost tempted a few people with a little leftover moshing energy left in them but then it seemed age got the better of them. At times his voice was almost drowned out by the band but then the voices in the crowd singing at the top of their lungs carried the song along.
Before singing Suburbia and Let’s Get It On, he hopped down into the crowd and looked up at the stage joking that it looked really ugly from our vantage point especially if he had been up there, then he gently serenaded the audience as he slowly walked through to the back of the room, to sit on a railing as everyone formed a circle around him lighting him up with their phones.
Making his way back to the stage, he seemed to be feeling low emotionally (or tipsy?) before sitting down, bourbon back in hand, with his head hung low, singing Going All The Way, it seemed like he was introspectively wondering for us and himself ‘is there nothing left to die for’. He soon rallied and leapt up to belt out the next two songs with drums and guitars going full tilt, vibrating the floor and even the air around us. But by the time he began the last song on the album, Running For Home, it seemed as if all the emotional energy had finally drained him, as he sat once again, eyes closed in the near darkness, singing gently before leaving the stage leaving his band to finish playing without him.
The encore was 4 songs from other MGB albums but the highlight was definitely their first major hit, Apparitions, which everyone had been waiting impatiently and chanting for. Tears flowed as men sobbed and sang along with Matt. But just when we all thought the show would end on that sad note, they flew into Weapon and picked everyone right back up coming to a rousing finish that shook the whole room.
Setlist
Giant
Hello Time Bomb
Strange Days
New Wave
Load Me Up
Failing The Rorschach Test
Suburbia
Let’s Get It On
Jenni’s Song
Going All The Way
A Boy and His Machine Gun
The Future is X-rated
Born to Kill
Running For Home
Encore:
Single Explosions
Born Losers
Apparitions
Weapon
Review – Tara Ann
Photos – Ashley Macphee
