Curtster

Amazing album. Just listened to it front to back in one shot, it's hard to say for sure until some time goes by, but this may become my personal favourite Matt Good album. The standouts for me are Via Dolorosa, Mutineering, Hey Hell Heaven and Letters in Wartime. I can't claim to be an audio expert, but to me this album just sounds beautiful. Love the how the drums sound, as well as Pat's drumming. As others have mentioned, one of my favourite things about Matt's career is how each album has a different sound than the last, yet each one still has his unmistakable signature on it. I loved Hospital Music, Vancouver and LOES, but deep down I've been wanting to hear a heavier album for a while now. Arrows delivers on that wish big time. I see no reason why several tracks off this couldn't be very successful on rock radio. It's an album that's great for radio in my opinion, and it deserves some play. Congrats Matt on putting out yet another awesome album. Can't wait to hear these songs live, I may even end up at more than one date on this tour!

I would think this is purely for marketing purposes, to further promote the single and upcoming album release on YouTube. It seems these "lyric videos" are a trend right now, lots of artists are putting out official ones. Probably because the marketing people figured out lots of fans were making their own and they were getting lots of views on YouTube. The first video put out for Had It Coming wasn't very interesting and didn't do much to promote the release. The marketing people at Matt's label probably ordered one of these be made.

I've had a good listen to the samples. I was looking forward to putting this album on having only heard very little of it, but I can never resist when demos or previews like this are available with only a click. In my experience, little samples like this don't ruin the first listen of songs anyway, it's just a little tease that brings up the excitement. After listening to these I am more excited than ever for this album. Some of it really sounds like it could be similar to MGB, which is not something I was expecting. Had It Coming and We're Long Gone did not give me that vibe at all. I might end up being way off on that as these are just quick samples. It sounds like there might be a couple tracks on here that would make really great singles (Hey Hell Heaven and Guns of Carolina in particular). I hope one or two of them get big on alt rock radio at least here in Canada.

So I was at Rock the Shores in Victoria tonight as mentioned above. Unfortunately Matt didn't get on stage until 15-20 minutes after his scheduled time, which caused his set to be shortened. I'm not sure what caused the hold up, as I believe the band before (The Sheepdogs) ended more or less on schedule (maybe I'm wrong). Anyway here is what was played: Giant Load Me Up Last Parade Born Losers Had It Coming We're Long Gone Hello Time Bomb Non Populus Apparitions Before Apparitions Matt said "We've already had to cut one song from the set and now I've just been told this is our last song", to a chorus of boos and he seemed as annoyed as the crowd to me. He continued to say "When you get home just crank Weapon really loud". So I assume the planned set was identical to the Bluesfest set above, but they had to cut X-Rated and then Weapon. This was very different than seeing Matt in a theatre of course. It was the first day of a sold out festival with 10,000 people there. It was great to see him play a more heavy, radio-friendly set, as I've seen the theatre shows a few times now. You can't help but notice that Matt and the band are more into than usual when you have an entire sea of people jumping and shaking their fists during the chorus of Time Bomb etc. Matt followed a very intense and well-received set by The Sheepdogs, I had kind of thought the crowd around the stage would thin out a little for Matt, as it didn't seem to be his crowd and people might want to eat etc before City and Colour came on the day's headliners. I was wrong, the people who had made their way to the front held their ground and it only seemed to pack in tighter prior to Matt's set. Despite not looking like his crowd (a lot of people looked like they would be too young for MGB), the hits went over very well as the crowd tossed around giant beach balls and some idiots crowd surfed. Seeing people crowd surf to Apparitions reminded me of a comment Matt made in an interview (on The Hour) some years ago that he had changed direction from MGB partly because he was "tired of seeing people crowd surf to Apparitions".

Hope Bluesfest was great last night! I'll be at Rock the Shores this evening, I'll post a setlist when I get back if it's of interest to anyone. I'm actually stoked to see Matt rock out in a festival environment and pump out the hits haha. Not to mention seeing Jimmy Eat World, 54-40, The Sheepdogs and City and Colour in the same day!

There also isn't a Victoria show scheduled for the fall right now, and Matt is playing the Rock the Shores festival in Victoria the day after Bluesfest. It's likely this is no coincidence. These shows very well could be added later (there is room for them on the schedule), but I'm not counting on it here in Victoria. I'll be at Rock the Shores in a few weeks, I'm actually looking forward to seeing Matt play a high energy festival set (I've seen him in a theatre 3 times). I've already bought tickets for Courtenay in the fall. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't see him again on the fall tour, but if I didn't buy tickets for a show right away, I would probably change my mind later and end up with bad seats haha. For other people in Victoria who want to see the fall tour, if you can make the trip to Vancouver mid-week, I'm sure it will be worth it. Historically Matt has always pulled out all the stops in Vancouver. I've had the pleasure of seeing him there once and it was awesome.

It took me a few listens to get into this one, but I've really grown into liking it a lot. I think verses are awesome. I love all of Matt's albums but it's really exciting to hear some upbeat rock songs again. It's great that each album has a different theme and a different sound. it's interesting when some albums are a return to a previous sound as well, I thought Vancouver was in some ways a return to the sound on Avalanche and it seems like Arrows of Desire might be similar to White Light Rock & Roll Review (to my ears anyway). The song seems to be getting good radio play as well. I've heard it every day this week on The Zone in Victoria while driving home from work, followed by the DJ mentioning the new album and that Matt will be at Rock the Shores this summer. One day they even played Symbolistic White Walls and Had It Coming back to back. Can't wait to hear the rest of the album, hope it's a huge success for you Matt!

http://matthewgood.org/lyrics-had-it-coming

There is audio of the entire Snow Job set on YouTube for people who aren't aware: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayClemJjpr4 Look at that channel to for the rest of it. Not as cool as video but still not bad, there is a serious lack of old MGB stuff on YouTube.

Wow... that's an awesome setlist, makes me wish I just took a four day weekend from work and went over to Vancouver. If I had known about this and how awesome it was going to be more in advance I probably would have done that. I'm still hoping he does some acoustic shows in north of the border maybe in the fall, they probably wouldn't be quite like this one though.

CFOX posted videos of the performances on youtube... The Fine Art of Falling Apart: Motorway to Roswell:

Wow, that is an amazing setlist, I'm not going to lie, I'm really jealous.

At the show I was at last night, I believe Matt was on stage for about an hour and a half. The entire show with Daniel Wesley included is probably about two and a half hours.

Setlist from the Nanaimo show on Monday night (in order, I have one of the lists from the stage): Lights of Endangered Species The Boy Who Could Explode What If I Can't See the Stars Mildred? Zero Orchestra Shallow's Low Born Losers Load Me Up The Future is X-Rated Non Populus Apparitions Weapon Giant Hornets Set Me On Fire Pretty standard setlist for this tour from what I've seen. The show was excellent, I had front row seats, probably enjoyed it most of the 3 MG shows I've been to. Highlights for me were Lights, Mildred, Zero Orchestra and LMU into X-Rated. Zero Orchestra would be my favourite of the show if I had to pick one. I thought the band was excellent, Jimmy is definitely a bit sloppy compared to Stu but he more than makes up for it in enthusiasm and stage presence, he really looks like he loves being up there. I thought Ian was great too, this band does the rockers in the set better than the previous lineup in my opinion. Matt was the least chatty at this show of the 3 I've seen, he only stopped near the beginning very briefly to say hi (said he really liked the venue) and then just said a few words very briefly again prior to LMU. I thought the crowd was actually pretty enthusiastic in terms of how MG theatre crowds go, got most into it for LMU of course, although they were completely unable to keep their clapping in time during the bridge causing Matt to say "just sing it" haha. The only thing I was a bit disappointed about was that I missed out on Rabbits, when Lights started up at the beginning I thought it was Rabbits for a moment though haha. Oh well, you can't have everything. I would have rather heard another song other than Hornets I guess as well, I think it was left off the album for a good reason in the end, it's not that interesting. If he's going to go off the board for a song, I would rather hear a back catalog non-single rather than something unreleased, but that's just my personal opinion. Overall I thought the show was top notch, Matt's performance was excellent, it was amazing seeing him perform so close up. I got a real sense of just how powerful his voice is, I love how he's able to put real emotion into vocals. I was blown away at several parts of the show. The crew was really nice after the show, I got a setlist and one of Ian's drumsticks.

A Single Explosion

Matt asked if fans would be interested in an acoustic tour next year on facebook a while ago, I think he said in fall 2012 specifically, I assume that would be Canada. Of course the response was positive, I think we'll most likely see that.

Wow, judging by the account posted by MS_DOS, Edmonton sounds like it was excellent. I think that's the longest setlist I've seen posted so far (16 songs). It's nice to hear there was a lot of banter too, it's one of the things I look forward to. That's crazy that he sat on the edge of the stage right in front of a few people and had an exchange with them while playing. I have front row seats for my show in a couple weeks and I would be in total shock if that happened to me haha.

Very nice photos, the back stage ones are really cool to see too.

Well, It does sound like we might be getting a solo acoustic tour next year. I would assume the setlists for that would probably more varied and with a lot more rarities in them. Personally, I think the sets are great on this tour and it seems like the band has learned a lot of material considering the circumstances. It seems like they know more than the Stu/Blake lineup did on their first tour. I do think 14 songs per show is a little on the low side, but for me I'll just be happy to go as it's been 2 years without a MG show for me, and I'm really excited to take a good friend. The fact that he comes and plays in a place like Nanaimo is enough to be thankful for too, so I don't have to make a big trip to see him. People going to the Toronto or Vancouver shows shouldn't worry, as I'm sure he'll play a few extra at those shows with a couple special acoustic gems included (as he usually does in those places). I agree though that even one acoustic rarity, rotating every night, maybe to end the show, would be awesome and probably feasible.

I remember prior the 08 full band tour he posted a list of acoustic songs he intended to rotate, and I think he only did a couple at the Toronto show that ended up being the Massey Hall album.

According to several accounts on Facebook and M+, Matt played Rabbits last night in Halifax, opened with it according to one person. No one has mentioned whether it was acoustic or with the band. The video posted above is the best one I've found, there's a couple more but they aren't as good: Hello Time Bomb in Sydney: Born Losers in Bala: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9OrsyU0BsY

Someone posted a picture of the setlist from Bala on Matt's Facebook page, looks like it was: Lights of Endangered Species Set Me On Fire Born Losers What If I Can't See the Stars Mildred? Zero Orchestra The Future is X-Rated Load Me Up A Silent Army in the Trees Non Populus Apparitions Weapon Shallow's Low (the set says "Shallows End", so maybe they went right from Weapon into the end of it?) How It Goes Hornets The set had Giant at the end of the encore as well, but the person who posted it said it wasn't played.

What I can remember just off the top of my head... Hornets There were maybe up to a dozen versions of this posted on the M+ blog over the course of a while, a bunch of different takes on it and in various states of completion (a couple versions are on youtube) Die Like Kings/A Short Time On Earth I believe the lyrics to this are loosely about Geoff Lloyd (from what I remember) , Die Like Kings has a standard structure and probably could of been a radio single (can be found on youtube), A Short Time On Earth was more in line with the rest of the material on LOES (can be found on Matt's Soundcloud). They're basically two different songs but have the same lyrics. Homecoming I think this was just more Matt playing around, I don't know if it was ever intended to be something for the record. It's a rocker, could of been off WLRRR, it has similar lyrics to Shallow's Low, and was the beginning of that lyrical idea. A clip of it is on youtube, but there was also a more finished version posted (I think). For And Against This was one Matt did late in the process. From what I can remember it was never intended to be on the actual record, but I think Matt was told he had to throw on some bonus tracks for iTunes. I'm not sure why this was never recorded in the studio and at least put on as a bonus track, it's excellent. It could of fit on the album and been one of the best tracks in my opinion (it's on youtube). I might be missing something, but I think this was it for complete demos that didn't make the record (that were posted on M+). There were other clips here and there I think, but nothing substantial. Also, I'm not sure if this has been brought up, but In A Place of Lesser Men is really getting the shaft on this tour. Especially considering it was the lead single, I'm all good with it not being included though as it's probably the weakest song on LOES. It wasn't a good choice for the lead single (not that it was up to Matt), I don't think it ever really got off the ground as a single. I think Zero Orchestra is doing much better as a single, I've heard it a couple times on the radio and I don't even listen to radio on a regular basis. I get the sense Lesser Men has really fallen out of favour.

I find Hornets being added to the list kind of random... I guess it shows that Matt still really likes that song, regardless of the fact that he just couldn't get it to where he wanted for this album, he must of gone through almost 10 revisions of it haha. He was working on it for a while with the last band in soundchecks too, but it never saw the light of day as far as I know. Maybe we still might see this song on a future album? There are a lot of other songs I would rather see added, but it would still be cool to see Hornets thrown into a set I guess. Matt could probably make a good album out of just of his unreleased demos from the past 5 years or so. I really love For And Against and Life In Spite of Itself, imagine being so talented that you could write songs like those and just throw them aside haha.

Interesting set of rules... Here would be mine based what was laid out, I think I would do more of a rocking main set if encore was all acoustic: Giant The Future is X-Rated What If I Can't See the Stars Mildred? The Boy Who Could Explode Set Me On Fire Alert Status Red Load Me Up Hello Time Bomb Zero Orchestra Born Losers Non Populus Weapon Acoustic Encore: Apparitions Prime Time Deliverance Fated While We Were Hunting Rabbits I know Apparitions isn't on the acoustic list and will be played full band (I hope without slide guitar this time), but it didn't really fit with the main set I made and I would way rather see it acoustic anyway. That main set is more one Matt would play for a rowdy festival crowd, although if there was an all acoustic encore I had to jam more of those songs in there, and I've always kind of wanted to see one of those types of shows. Here's a setlist not adhering to the rules above that I think would be very realistic for this tour at a more standard theatre show: Set Me On Fire A Silent Army in the Trees Lights of Endangered Species Born Losers I'm a Window Load Me Up What If I Can't See the Stars Mildred? The Boy Who Could Explode Zero Orchestra Apparitions Weapon Non Populus Encore: Fated (acoustic) While We Were Hunting Rabbits (acoustic) Giant The Future is X-Rated Alert Status Red