Last Tuesday night, my wife and I (and a half full Black Cat, which isn't a big venue in the first place) took in a show headlined by the new and percussion-less matt pond PA. It has been year since we've been able to get ourselves out to a matt pond PA show, but I feel like the wait was worth it. The band surrounding Matt Pond has been different each of the three times I've seen him in concert. The first time I saw matt pond PA was in a hookah lounge that might have fit 50-100 people. The show was energetic, sweaty, and all sorts of fun. The second time I saw the band, they had been playing much bigger venues (bigger than 50-100 person crowds, at least) on the heels of the inclusion of a couple matt pond PA songs finding their way onto the TV show "The OC". That second show featured a decidedly more reserved Matt Pond than the man I saw at the hookah lounge. As I tried to put into words in my previous matt pond PA post, it was almost as if Pond was recoiling from the effect of his brilliant early work. I said before that I see "The Dark Leaves" as a return to form and to what I see as a centered Matt Pond. Obviously, I don't know the man and I can only speak to my interpretation of the music, but - in short - I really like what I'm hearing these days. The show on Tuesday was a reflection of what I hear on the most recent album, a confident Matt Pond flexing some serious songwriting muscles.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the current iteration of Pond's band is lacking a drummer. They played a setlist that featured songs from the entire timeline of matt pond PA albums, but some songs, as Matt admitted "would suck without a drummer." The songs they did play, however, were given room to breathe without the drums upping the urgency. Often, Pond would put down his guitar and the songs would be stripped quite bare, with only a guitar and cello to hold them together. There was a warmth in the cello that I'm not sure I've ever noticed on the albums or live. I'd like to think that the lack of drums allowed the cello to really shine, but it could just be that I've never really listened for that warmth in a matt pond PA performance before. Ultimately, I'm sure people's reactions to the newly tweaked sound from the band will vary, but my wife and I are firmly on board. In a moment of what I'll believe to be sincerity during the show, Matt confessed that this is the hardest he's ever tried. Also, as you'll see in the video below, he said its the most fun he's ever had.
I apologize for the shaky moments in the video, but I was holding the camera in one hand and my pint in the other. Its the best I could do. Also, I'm not tall, so you'll have to deal with some heads in the way of the band. During the previous song, I had decided that I'd record the next song and was pleasantly surprised when that song happened to be "New Hampshire" from the fantastic album, "Emblems" and that show opener, Rocky Votolato (yes, it was a solid show from opener to encore), came up on stage to round out the band.
matt pond PA with Rocky Votolato - New Hampshire
here's a little bonus footage my wife grabbed of Rocky Votolato performing "White Daisy Passing" with matt pond PA as his backing band:
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