Nearfantastica

Yes, he did. Very soulful. I've seen him play with Sarah McLachlan for years, and I'm glad he's managed to strike out on his own.

The wettest MG concert this city has ever seen:) But it was fabulous. I think Luke Doucet really added something to the performance with his electric.

I've just come back from the Calgary show...got rained on and I'm freezing ;) Tentative set list, likely in the wrong order: New Song (lalala...I can't remember how it goes) Avalanche Hopeless In a World Called Catastrophe Strange Days If I was a Tidal Wave Hurt (with Melissa McLelland and Luke Doucet) Apparitions Highlights include Matt taking responsibility for the shitty weather (apparently the thunderstorm followed him) and a talking Ann Coulter doll (that Matt allowed to take the mic for a moment). Typical Matt humor....with a suprising lack of F-bombs. It was lovely, despite the rain. I have pictures and I'll upload them later tonight.

I was a student supervisor paid to work afterschool hours in our High School printing lab. I used to make t-shirts with MG sayings on them and I made hundreds of buttons with MGB logo's for almost everyone who frequented the lab. That was back when few people knew who I was asking them to advertise for. I used to ship them out to American fans who wanted to promote MGB prior to Atlantic Records' shoddy attempt. When I was in Grade 11, I used to run my VCR 24/7 on MUCH just to make sure I didn't miss anything vital. Much of my artwork in highschool was inspired by anything MG...portraits, collages with lyrical code... I also skipped classes for every album release back in high school. My friend and I would sit out in the mall and wait for it to open. Now in Uni, I've toned it down a bit. I have a football patch on my backpack, but I've left the binder covered in Matt's mug at home. I dragged my mother along as a designated driver so me and a few friends could trek out to Banff in 2004 for Matt's birthday bash (what a fucking disaster) where I'm certain between the 6 of us we have something in the neighbourhood of 1000 pictures (the parking lot, the mountains, someone else's tour bus....etc). Yeah. I'm a nerd. I can't wait to see what my friend and I come up with to do this Sunday. I think it'll be her 30th show. I'm up to 17. It'll be fun:)

A&B Sound and HMV carry vinyl records. I know that the HMV location in TD Square had the Avalanche vinyl last summer. They may still have the copy. If I were you, I'd get on the phone and start calling around. There's also a decent used record store in Inglewood called Recordland that might have a copy.

Yeah, those are my pictures. The t-shirt is the same, I just threw the images together to give people an idea of what they looked like without taking up mega tonnes of space. And I like the poster. Because it's an artistic representation rather than a photo, I can see how it wouldn't be to everyone's taste, but it goes well with my style.

Now *that* is really shitty. Sorry to hear that:(

??? Then why are all the Uni shows sold out to college "kids?" (I always laugh when people call post-secondary students kids) Unless this "college" is something totally different, but the UofC venue had a smaller "older" crowd and a whole bunch of students.

I got the US Black Market Surgery from an Atlantic Records "Street Preacher" back in the day, because she had happened to get two copies in her package. I had Matt sign it for me a few years ago. I also have a 1st edition of ALTINLTS, and the original printing of the booklet, #000294. Oh yes....aren't I cool. ;)

T-shirts were $30. Other "swag" included art prints ($15), the patch and button set ($5) from the last tour, and CD's as far as I could tell.

All of the setlists played thus far on the tour are available on Matt's website in the tour section. On the second Lethbridge date, it says the last song was "The Boy Come Home." Does anyone know what this is?

This sounds awesome! Great job! Thanks for sharing it. I can't wait to hear the rest:)

Here are some pictures I took of what I bought last night. The t-shirt is the men's and comes in black and chocolate brown. The guitar/compass design is vertical on the back of the shirt. The women's shirt is a nice wine red with the same design. Alas, my concert photo's didn't turn out as well because I'm an idiot (and I was drunk) and apparently can't operate a digital camera, so if anyone has some decent photo's from the show last night, please share them.

The token drunk guy and girl were right behind our table, and ended up hitting my friend in the head several times while they *danced* and swung around....chatting the whole time in loud obnoxious voices of course. It was my 15th show, and I've never had a seven song encore before, but I have had several encores broken up...which amounts to the same but with less cheering and pauses in between (yay). My best friend broke into tears when he played PTD...it's our favorite song, and she missed the last tour so this was her first time hearing it live, and it was her 24th show, so she was excited. I hadn't realized that it would be a seated event. This is the first time I've been able to sit and relax and enjoy the music at one of Matt's shows, and I must say it was very refreshing. Maybe I'm getting old, but the whole "stand and get thrashed around" thing just doesn't cut it for me these days. I noticed quite a few people being stopped at the door because they didn't have ID and I wondered if they'd never learned how to read. All together, it was a great evening. I hope he continues with the trend of doing seated shows. I'd like to see him play a date at the Jack Singer with the CPO....maybe it'll come true someday:) Oh, and can I just add: The Merch was very nice this time around. I like the t-shirt designs with the compass/guitar. I also picked up the signed art print. Hopefully I'll have some pictures up later today when I get home from work (if someone hasn't beat me to it), but I must say I like the merch line this time around.

Cheesy. But the show was cheesy. I taped it and fast forwarded to the scenes with him in them and skipped the rest. There's a new program on Global now about a record exec moving to an indie label. They use the same set. *shakes head* The only thing I remember was that there was a Beautiful Midnight poster in the background of someone's office, and Matt walked around in a bathrobe for one scene.

Agreed!!

The MacEwan Ballroom show in Calgary is 18+. Thank you, Jesus!

I thought the last Calgary date was alright....not the best, mind, but good nonetheless:) If you were blown away, that's all that matters, right?

I saw the Watchmen in the MacEwan Ballroom back in the day. It's much better than "Mac Hall." I cannot wait for tickets to go on sale. I haven't missed a show snce 1998. I'm so there:)

Just one answer to that.... $ and some $$$$ and some more $$$... The Tea Party's tour was sponsored by Imperial Tobacco and all the shows were 19+ so they could have cigarette girls selling duMaurier in the lobby. Imperial Tobacco has plenty of $$$, and if seeing Matt play that kind of show meant dealing with the Tobacco Company (or any other sponsor) I'd still buy tickets.

To quote Matt from the Avalanche Tour: (We can't play WWWHR live) "It's kind of hard without the Orchestra. (pause) They're thinking of marketing those though. In little boxes. Collect them all." It was a cute comment. I'd like to see Matt do a tour like the Tea Party did in 2002, where they play with a different Orchestra in each major city across Canada. Maybe someday, it'll happen:)

The Ladies and Gentlemen reminded me of Ross from friends, sending out "waves" on his keyboard... I felt like they wouldn't be out of place at a Star Trek Convention, and while I don't wholly oppose Star Trek Conventions, that type of music just isn't my thing. That said, Pat saved the day when he came out with the Cowbell and did a perfect Will Ferrell dance (this was in Calgary. I don't know if he did it elsewhere).

Do you mean Matt's rant about Stockwell Day from back in 2001? It was just before the Federal Election and Matt did a rant on politics displaying (with posters!) how the Western vote is essentially nill....I recall he played a bit of piano while ranting about Stockwell Day (and something about God creating the world in seven days with an eighth tossed in to make dinosuars). It's been awhile since I've seen it, but I don't recall any other video where Matt was talking while playing piano.

I agree. I've seen Matt play various tours over the past eight years or so, and Wil was absolutely amazing. Worth the price of admission on his own.

I don't need to ask Matt. I've been around long enough to see it all happen. The "History Teacher" compilation CD was created by a gentleman without Matt's permission around 5-6 years ago. The original demo tapes that the songs come from are legal copies. The History Teacher CD is not. Original copies of the history teacher CD are silver plated CD's with full colour artwork. When the CD's were first released, there was a huge scandal that centered around the preceeds of the sale of the CD, and who was getting paid for that sale. It has since been dealt with. Matt encourages his fans to find copies of the songs, but would prefer that you don't pay for them (ie, don't buy copies of History Teacher CD-R's on eBay)because he will not see any royalties from the sale of these songs....many of the songs are available for free if you simply ask for them. However, because whoever is running this website NOW (ie, 2006) is taking donations and helping out a good cause, I don't see that Matt would be upset by this. In fact, he's probably wondering why he didn't do it that way to begin with (instead of making a post on the MGB website requesting that fans find some way to get the songs without actually paying for them). As for the issue of "demo" records. Yes. It is fair to call them albums. I'm just saying that you shouldn't discount the use of the term "demos" because that was their initial intention. It's not that big a deal, but I just thought I'd say something about it. *done ranting now*