Never A Silent Night

Matt Nathanson and his rad band o/f Kelly Clarkson at Showare Center (03.22.12)

Matt came around again…and again he was opening for a big act. Since with the new job and job hunt a trip to Spokane was unlikely I decided to grab a ticket for the show. Now I know you may be reading that and thinking that I don’t like Kelly Clarkson but it’s not that. What made the decision to buy the ticket hard is that I no longer have a good paying permanent job and find myself broke all the time. I’m trying to survive just like everyone else. So shows that cost $70…its a reach. This time, I decided it was worth it. Kelly and Matt, along with some of the raddest band members ever (Aben Eubanks, Aaron Tap, Konrad Meissner and James Farrell to name a few), best decision ever.

The show was great, it’s always different watching a musician open for a crowd that doesn’t know them as opposed to seeing them play a headlining show. They are needier, they want the crowd to like them and will do whatever it takes to make that happen. Not that Matt doesn’t cater to his normal crowd, but its different. When he is headlining its like he is hanging out with old friends, when he is opening its like he’s the new kid at a party trying to get people to notice him and hang. Staying as far away from the wall and the corner as possible. Well people, Matt Nathanson is no wall flower.

Matt came out and instead of easing into the crowd’s hearts, he bust the door down and announced he was there with his upbeat music and witty banter. He had my section dancing and standing by the middle of his first song and by the time he was ending his set with Faster he had cemented his place in the entire audience’s musical lives. They stood, they danced, they clapped and they sang. You may say “well it is a concert of course they did all that”, but this is WA. People stand in attention without moving and are silent during entire shows where the only noise you hear from them is the applause after the song has ended. Sure there was a lot of that going on, but there was a lot of crowd engagement too. People laughed, sang along and even better they danced. Plus, you know a crowd loves a musician when the line to meet him wraps around the stadium.

It was a proud yet bittersweet moment standing in line to say hello. On one hand, Ive been going to see Matt play for over 10 years. I’ve bought every cd, traveled thousands of miles, sold merch at shows and told everyone I meet about his awesome music. How can I not be proud and happy for him? Hatin on him would make me a total douche. On the other hand, I had about 3 seconds to say hello, grab a picture and then get scooted away when I finally got to him in the line. A little sad, but understandable. Things change with time and success. Matt is getting the recognition he deserves for his many years of hard work, touring and amazing music. Good on him. I’ll miss our talks but I have years of memories to look back on. So congratulations Matt! I’m glad the rest of the world is now getting that you are a f*cking badass musician. I’ll see you at your next show, even if you don’t see me (that sounded creepy but you know what I mean).

PS Kelly was rad too and I’ll write about her part of the show in a little bit.

Check out matt at www.mattnathanson.com.