Matthew Good @ Massey Hall

December 22nd, 2009

matt-good

I don’t think I even need to tell you that Massey Hall was all but packed to capacity this last weekend when Canadian new-rock hero Matthew Good rolled into town. If you even wondered how full the place was, you should do the following:

1) Close this window right now!
2) Get yourself down to the nearest record store, STAT.
3) Pick up Vancouver, Matt’s latest album (or The Beautiful Midnight, my personal favourite from the Matthew Good Band days).
4) Play on repeat.
5) Understand!
6) Come back and finish reading.

Go on, I’ll wait.

After a great warm-up set from fellow Vancouverites Mother Mother, Matt and his backing band took the stage to crazy applause from the room (especially the old guy in the skull jacket sitting directly below me).

They started off the evening with Vancouver’s introspective “On Nights Like Tonight” with no preamble. In fact, the band was curiously silent until after playing “Great Whales of the Sea”, when Good finally stepped up to the microphone and announced he was involved in “an ongoing competition” – with himself – to see how many songs the band could play without taking a break (the answer that night was six).

But anyone who might have expected that silence to continue would be surprised when three songs later Good revealed himself to be something of a comedian, taking a break to talk with the audience about how his back was cold and tingly, then singing a cute little song about his back, and humourously threatening to have his guitarist eaten by a jaguar. No, really.

This joking persona is a long shot from Good’s last Hospital Music tour, which he did some time after getting divorced and being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Needless to say, the album was a bit of a downer, with songs like “I’m a Window (You’re a Pane)”. On the other hand, Vancouver sounds a lot more like the creation of a man well on his way to recovery. Yet the album still bears classic Matthew Good musical-stamps of clear vocals and guitar work, and poignant lyricism, offering easy entry to any Good fan, new or old.

Matt Good has been around for long enough that pretty much every song he plays is going to have the crowd hollering and on their feet, and Friday night’s set was no exception. While everyone knows Massey Hall crowds in the balcony and gallery can’t stand up for long without risking falling (or being pushed) to their deaths, the main floor of the venue stood cheering (and in some strange cases, dancing) for the entire show. The clever monkeys in the gallery even started up the cheer of “K-I-C-K-A-S-S” minutes before Good and his band returned to the stage to open the encore with “Giant”.

Because every song was a crowd pleaser, Good kept the show chugging along from start to finish instead of offering any real stand-out moments. Only when Good quietly closed down the night with a cover of the National’s “Fake Empire”, before wishing the city a fond farewell, did the spell over the audience break.

Set List

On Nights Like Tonight
Avalanche
The Boy Who Could Explode
Last Parade
The Future is X-Rated
Great Whales of the Sea
Born Losers
The Vancouver National Anthem
Load Me Up
Apparitions
Weapon

Encore
Giant
Us Remains Impossible
Empty’s Theme Park
Fake Empire

Tags: concert reviews, concerts, matthew good, reviews