adam_777

Loved the review Sean. Pretty much what I experienced too. Matt had a couple very minor flubs on guitar but they kinda were the type that he improvised around and I'm sure most of the crowd was none the wiser. Great setlists again like Sean mentioned a real nod to the hardcore fans. This was my 5th show on this tour and every show has been significantly different. Even after seeing five shows it was my first time hearing Empty Road, Hello Time Bomb, and blue Skies so it really is a pretty special tour. Really excited to see what the next dates will bring and am stoaked to get to see the tour ender in march

Just waiting to board in Van now. So far so good

Ya I know maybe its sheer dumbfounded arrogance but it never even occured to me I'd botch that I was so worried about getting an early flight that day to allow for flexibility I didnt even consider I might miss such a crucial detail as time of day! Haha guess it costs to be stupid! Glad there was at least some alternative

Haha I love it. Thanks Hope you enjoy the show! Howve you enjoyed the ones you've seen so far?

Never fly on the day of a concert. It's been a rule I've had for 12 years and I've never broken it and have traveled to dozens of shows, and a few times its saved my ass. But I went against my better judgement on this one and booked an 830 flight from victoria to edmonton on the day of the show. Only it was PM not AM which I discovered at 725 this morning at the check in counter. After finding out there was nothing Westjet could do to get me to edmonton any earlier than 9pm tonight I tried Calgary. But even then not till nearly 4 and then I'd have to rent a car and drive to St Albert tonight to maybe just make it. So I checked with Air Canada. Nothing from Vancouver Island. But one option: a 1230 flight out of Vancouver. Only problem; since it's the day of travel cost of that one way flight is $592. Fuck it. Booked the flight and raced for the 9 am ferry. Now I'm on the boat when I get off I'll have a $60 cab fare to get to the airport and should get there in time to make my flight and with a little luck should still make it to St Albert on time albeit just about $700 poorer for my efforts. So if you see a guy passing a donation cap around at the show it'll probably be me. Haha, but I'll be damned if I was gonna miss it. And if Matt happens to play Blue Skies tonight I'll consider it money well spent! See y'all at the show!

Holy shit Im wishing I hit some more VIPs, some real rare ones getting played in there. Hoping maybe Blue skies will find its way into the main set.

How it Goes! Awesome! So cool to see songs getting debuted in the VIP great place to kind of work in songs and get some practice with them. I really gotta applaud Matt at this point for not being content and just keeping things how they are. The tour is now a couple weeks old and he is still pulling rarities out of the hat! awesome news for us fans.

That's awesome man, first of ten, well I doubt you will be disappointed with that. Each night is unique to the one before it, the setlist digs deep and is varied each night and Matt has been in great form. Looking forward to seeing your thoughts on the shows!

I want there so I dont know. I'm guessing he was less than impressed hes always been very vocal about how ridiculous it is. I've seen it happen at a few electric shows. But never an acoustic one.

In Lake Country Matt debuted Time Bomb and Empty Road. Tonight in Nelson Time Bomv was played again but empty road was dropped. Sounds like there was a fist fight in the crowd in Nelson tonight too

Went to the last of my four shows on the Island last night conveniently in my hometown of Duncan. With the dumping of snow it was kind of nice to only have about a 4 minute commute to this concert. This show didn't quite live up to Nanaimo the night before, but was still alot of fun. A couple of notes on the show: - This one ran about 1hr 50 mins, which seems to be about the average length of shows on this tour so far. - With it being a weekend show I thought the crowd might be a little more rowdy like they were in Nanaimo and the show did start that way, with the crowd engaging Matt in his between song banter, but it was weird as the night went on, the crowd got much quieter, to like the Victoria level where between songs during Matt's banter at times you could literally hear a pin drop. Matt was talking about a lot of other music tonight including Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen and Simon and Garfunkel and it's weird how like foreign most of this seemed to the crowd. Like when Matt played "The Only Living Boy in New York" In the encore, afterwards he talked a bit about how frequently he'd listen to that song growing up and how much his dad loved it, and it just fell on dead air, like the crowd was entirely unfamiliar with Simon and Garfunkel or something. Anyways I noticed that as the crowd got less engaged Matt began to shorten his conversations and mostly just start going into the next song. - It was kind of cool at this show how he was pairing songs from albums together. He played Fearless and Symbolistic back to back, as well as Born Losers and Metal Airplanes, they kind of functioned as mini snapshots into periods in his artistic life and I thought that played out quite well. -Was excited to hear Metal Airplanes and The Only Living Boy in New York at this show as to that point they were the only two songs that had been played on tour that I hadn't seen at one of the shows I was at. Matt really does a great job at S&G covers! - Someone in the crowd kept loudly shouting for Omissions of the Omen, which Matt did comment on saying it was easier to sing because its so low, but he never played it. -I'm thinking he made a substitution on the setlist at the end. In the picture he posted of the setlist it only showed two encore songs, but he did play three, the final being Change of Season. But just before he played that there seemed to be a bit of confusion, resulting in the lyrics stand being brought out on a delay after a few funny comments from Matt towards his guitar tech. I wonder what else he had on the list. -The guys doing sound and lights are really doing a great job. Every show I notice subtle improvements to the light show that really dramatize the music. The entire visual of Los Alamos with that haunting guitar and Matt's whispered vocals are absolutely mesmerizing, its incredible what the whole crew is doing with such minimalist equipment, absolutely outstanding and deserving of recognition. - Matt continues to change things up even on songs that are played nightly. Load Me Up tonight was the most noticeable difference with Matt letting the crowd sing the chorus (oddly the crowd was super reserved and clearly didn't know the lyrics haha, pretty much they got "all the way out" and that's about it) - Matt had some interesting comments about how much he enjoys switching setlists up, and commented on how he can't understand why some bands want to play the same show every night. He specifically mentioned people going to multiple shows getting to hear different things which is just another indicator that he is really focusing on giving his most diehard fans something truly special with this tour. Matt is leaving the West Coast now and heading East, pretty excited for all you in Alberta who get to see him next week, the shows wont disappoint. Looking forward to seeing him again in St. Albert next week!

It was honestly incredible, def a top 5 of the 40+ Matt Shows I've seen, I couldnt have been happier. And as always a recording coming this weekend :) The amazing thing about Machine Gun acoustic is that to me, that song is from a place of extreme isolation. I always had this image in my head of someone alone in a psych ward having those thoughts as expressed in the song. So when it gets sung with just Matt and a guitar there is a loneliness, a vulnerability and honesty to it that isn't as apparent with the full band. It just suits the mood of that song so well. When Matt sings the line "You Fucking Animal" it stings in the dead silent air.

Attended the Nanaimo show last night, and right from the opening song it just seemed this one was going to be special. Some notes on the show - Matt opened with Champions which was quite a surprise. Usually by the time a tour is a half dozen or so shows in, you feel like you know what to expect a little. When Victoria had no songs get a tour debut, I thought the rotating list of songs from the first few shows would likely be "the list" for the first half of the tour. The opening notes of Champions proved my assumption wrong! What a way to start a show - The crowd in Nanaimo is always very into the shows. I usually go to most if not all the shows on the Island and usually Nanaimo winds up being the highlight. Peoples comments from the crowd had Matt crack up a few times. There was also one guy shouting repeatedly for Apparitions from about the third song of the show onward. Matt addressed him pointing out there was just no chance it wouldn't be played seeing as how he has never not played it since 1996. Definitely more interaction between crowd and performer compared to the last show in Victoria, and as such the show was a full 20 minutes longer just reaching 2 hours. - Is Matt's fan base largely musically ignorant? He made a ton of references to artists and bands tonight and you could literally hear the people in the crowd going "who?" haha - Two other songs got tour debuts tonight, Advertising on Police Cars, which he played because he wrote it back in 2001 while waiting for a ferry in Horseshoe Bay to come to Nanaimo, and A Boy and his Machine Gun. - Matt's voice is in incredible shape, he is just nailing these songs and it was just giving me chills. His guitar playing has really tightened up since the first night in Sidney and its incredible how a week on tour can get your chops back into top shape. The odd screw up now is nearly undetectable and the songs have such precision and impact, even though as Matt says music should be kept messy. - He continues to improvise on some songs even if slightly, meaning that even if a song has been played several times on the tour he sometimes alternates how he plays it so there is a uniqueness to each performance. This was my 41st time seeing Matt, and it was one of those shows that you just felt was going to have a special vibe to it. You get to know when a performer is really feeling a show and Matt's demeanour and performance seemed to suggest he was enjoying playing on this night and continue to expand on his adventurous setlists, that as have been noted are definitely catering to the hardcore longtime fans. A song like A Boy and his Machine Gun may not get the approval recognition cheers like Apparitions or Born Losers, but for a few dozen people in the audience, it can be one of the greatest moments they've ever experienced at a concert. Being that we were just talking about how Matt busted this out in 2014 twice and now he picked it back up, I cant help but wonder if he was reading this thread. If that's the case, if you really wanna blow people's minds Matt, open a show with Sharks of Downtown, haha some obscure song that wasn't even on a record and was only played briefly 23 years ago. You'd literally hear a collective "WTF is this?"

Was there too and tup noticed big time how much less rusty Matt was compared to Sidney and his voice seemed stronger. Great show and amazing setlist never thought I'd ever hear Change of Season live so pretty awesome as a final encore. Crowd was respectful, but not very engaging. As such Matt's banter was significantly less than Sidney to the point of nearly being nonexistent by comparison. Curtster, I'm fortunate to have a few friends really into MG. But going solo can really be great too. There is nothing worse than attending a concert by an artist you love and not being able to become fully immersed in it because the person beside you is bored and wants to go. I've seen hundreds of shows and probably a couple dozen matt good shows by myself and some of my favourite times have been at those shows. Glad you've been enjoying the concerts!

Haha fair enough! Your point is valid though these sets definitely cater to the hardcore obsessives who arent counting their first rodeo. It's been pretty incredible to experience some long held wishlist songs live so far on this tour.

When has Apparitions not been played? I've seen it on setlist for all four nights

Wow so cool to see Change of Season in there! Surprised he got it going so quick! Some pretty awesome sets on this tour so far. I'm attending the next three nights so really hoping Change of Season shows up for one of them. Looks like Omissions was played too so I'm leaning more toward it being the song played on the second night as opposed to Silent Army. With So Long Mrs Smith that means every LP and EP from Matt's career has been represented with the exception of the three in a row from Vancouver-Arrows (assuming the reported Silent Army on night two was a mistake) very cool to see such variety and so far all four shows have featured songs getting tour debuts so there may still be more surprises to come.

Ok thanks for the info, I assumed it wouldnt come out until a few days before, but since some shows have already happened, thought some here may have been contacted already. thanks again!

How are they doing these questions, do they send you an email to submit a question for each show you get a VIP for? I am doing VIP for the last show and havent received anything yet, but IM assuming these just get sent out shortly before the show?

If Matt did this Avalanche would definitely be the album I'd like to see. But is there any album with as much appeal as Beautiful Midnight? I mean even at Matts shows on this tour he is selling two records Something Like a Storm and Beautiful Midnight. I just dont think any of his other albums have as much appeal to be as big of a deal as Beautiful Midnight was. Matt has said he would like to do a tour like that with Lights of Endangered Species. But he really doesnt play any of those songs anymore, it doesnt have a lot of mass love or appeal and he has said repeatedly how touring it the first time resulted in a substantial decrease in his touring revenue. Avalanche is a really long album too, Matts longest at almost 70 minutes of just straight music means that this show would be mostly limited to the Avalanche and a two song encore one of which would assuredly be Apparitions. So it really wouldnt give a great deal of flexibility. I think another issue with Avalanche is that it isnt spread out as evenly as Beautiful Midnight. BM has its four big hits interspersed throughout, Avalanche very much has its better known material in the first half, which would result in over half an hour of show time where most fans would be pretty unfamiliar with alot of the material. The only other album I think that could be considered for a tour like this is Underdogs, which was very successful as well, and has the pacing similar to beautiful midnight, plus has the bonus of including Apparitions which is the only song that seems to never miss the setlist, which frees up an encore slot. Also at 57 minutes, Underdogs is quite a bit shorter than BM and Avalanche so its possible to have a five or six song encore, to add a little more flexibility to each show's set. I dont think he'll tour behind a revisitation like this again, but if he did I think Underdogs makes the most sense.

Seems to be a bit of a discrepancy in the setlist from the second night. The one posted here included SIlent Army in The Trees and the one on setlist.fm lists Omissions of the Omen. Both the set here and at setlist.fm list 14 songs being played, and are identical except for those two songs. My guess is someone didn't know the song that well and thought it was one or the other, would be interesting to know which was actually played. If it was SIlent Army, it's great to see the often overlooked Vancouver album get some love again, if it's Omissions, that would mean Matt played three songs from LOTGA in the same show for the first time in what 20 years? Maybe not since 1996. Definitely a huge turn around as in the 38 shows I saw him play between 2008-2017 I only heard one LOTGA songs played which was Omissions of the Omen three times in 2012. Interestingly enough neither setlist lists Fine Art of Falling Apart which a user on instagram posted a video of, haha, so really who the hell knows. Matt posted the setlist from night one to instagram, but not night two. Possibly he just didn't think to do it, but I wonder with people mentioning the show was cut a bit short due to curfews if perhaps the printed setlist had additional songs that he had to cut due to time constraints as the North Van show had 14 songs compared to 16 in Sidney. But I guess with the addition of Fine Art it would make it 15, so really not much difference.

Ya I was going to say he at least played Fearless because I saw a brief video clip of it. Cool to hear silent army was played. One of the things I thought was really cool about the setlist on night one was how it really spanned his whole career. Songs were played from every MGB album, and two of the three EP`s and then his first three solo albums and his two most recent. But in the middle was the three album run from Vancouver through Arrows that really has gotten almost nothing played from since those tours ended, so great to see something from Vancouver get played. Really liked Radicals and nice to see it included again. It`ll be interesting to see if Matt plays more new material as the tour progresses. Presumably the new album has 16 tracks and a lot of it could potentially be adapted acoustically and he definitely knows the songs well as he just finished demoing them and is about to record them when this tour is over so it definitely gives him a few unheard songs he could probably pull out of the bag at any point.

Matt specifically mentioned playing Fated at the first night because it was a song requested by a lot of people. So I do think he does pay attention to that kind of thing. Back in 2014 he did a couple random acoustic shows in Vancouver and Calgary. Prior to the shows I messaged him to ask if he had ever considered tackling an acoustic version of A Boy and His Machine Gun and then he randomly played that song for the the two shows on that tour. The first time he'd played that song in 14 years, and the only two times he ever played it acoustically, so while it may have been coincidence I cant help but think he read my message and thought what the hell I'll give it a shot. So I do think he sometimes does take suggestions and see if he can work out how to do a song or insert it in the setlist. Earlier in the year Matt posted a list of songs he was potentially going to play saying it was a list of songs he already had down. He mentioned there were two other lists of things to potentially work on and covers. So I was surprised on night one to not have a cover, but I see on night two he played Simon and Garfunkel's "The Only Living Boy In New York" It would be interesting to see what the rest of the set was on night two.

Setlist looks about right off the top of my head. To echo your sentiments ya it was pretty amazing and I have seen Matt acoustic before. Just the interaction, honesty and interesting story telling in his approach is truly something that makes these shows unique. You can genuinely tell that he enjoys this kind of show, and that the smaller venues really provide a perfect platform for it. Unlike many shows I've seen the crowd was very respectful, with it being that intimate its very easy to just degenerate into request night, and I heard few if any song requests. Most shouts from the audience were in response to things Matt was saying and started as close to a dialogue between performer and crowd as you can ever imagine having. Matt was told he was running long at one point and just decided to keep playing, which was pretty cool. You are bang on that the show last 2 hours and ten minutes. I recorded it, and will have it up here over the weekend. Matts voice sounded really great, and the newly arranged songs worked quite well to fit his current vocal range. Cant say there was anything I didnt like about this show, can't wait to see more!

Also he is apparently working on Change of Season to add in as the tour goes on, which if he does play it will be the first time in over twenty years I believe, so pretty cool to see some of the ideas hes kicking around for this tour. Should also mention that I bought a ticket for my friend to attend the final stop on the tour in Vancouver and like he did on the BM tour he will record and film the entire concert.