Matt Good Man Crush

It was a Monday night show in Seattle, at the Triple Door (http://www.thetripledoor.net/).  We had bought tickets within a day or so of finding out Matt Good would be in a small, personal, upscale venue in Seattle.  I've seen a few concerts in my day, but this venue and performer take the cake, so to say.  I'd been in the Triple Door Lounge once before, but we were just cruising downtown Seattle and bar hopping at the time.  It was few years back and they had some wild salsa or tango thing going on at the time.  People were all threaded up in swing/tango style clothing and all.  We didn't stay long and I had no idea there was an entire stage and show room behind the bar.

Well, we decided to get a booth as far up front and centered as possible.  The tickets were will call and I asked for front row center seating for four.  Lisa, Mike, Dave and I were set for what I would call the best concert seating/venue ever.  On the day of the concert, Mike, Lisa and I headed out early Monday afternoon while Dave would meet us at the show.  We missed the Bainbridge Island - Seattle ferry by a few minutes so we sauntered over to the Classic Cycle Bike Shop (http://www.classiccycleus.com/) and were duly blown away by the historic showcase of racing bikes and gear.  I spied a Trek Soho carbon single speed with belt drive and began falling in love.  Lisa put a quick word in to the effect of, "save your money and it's yours."  Hmm . . . $3K for a single speed, really!?  Maybe not the wisest thing to spend money on in this economic climate.  After all, what would my four other bikes say?

We eventually scurried off to the show on the next ferry and were pleased to be seated RIGHT UP FRONT (just left of center)!!  We had a waiter (thank you Patrick) and menus and drinks served right to us during the show.  Dave joined us shortly thereafter and we ROCKED IN STYLE, BABY!  The show opened with Automatic Loveletter.  We all thought Juliet Simms wasn't wearing anything under those skank-a-licious fishnet stockings but she assured us she was.  Gotta love them short shorts (micro?)!  AL came across up close and personal with acoustic sets and raw tender and belting vocals.  We determined Juliet's still angry about something and although AL is a talented trio, we were ultimately anxious to see Matthew Good take the stage.

It didn't take long between bands and the next thing we knew, we were at least one martini and a few glasses of wine and Asian fused dinner into the show when Matt Good, et.al., took the helm en force!  It was AWESOME to say the least.  We all knew Matt from listening to Canadian radio and know him to be a tortured soul of sorts.  But, the man has f#%king TALENT!  I bought a shirt and his new CD, "Vancouver" (consumer PIG, I know).  He played a lot of songs from his new album that night.  I wanted to hear his vocals more but aside from that, the show ROCKED!  He took some time between sets to banter with us and the rest of his band, which is, or so I'm told, quite rare.  He appeared unassuming and wore a San Diego Chargers T-shirt which I thought was odd for someone notoriously NOT a big fan of Am'rica.  Perhaps our recent political shift AND the lure of money has changed his tune (so to speak) of late.  In any case, we were blown away by his performance and to a person would all like to see him again some day.

I heard him sing "The Boy Who Could Explode" that night and caught a few lyrics despite the guitar/drum barrage.  "What're you thinking, what're you thinking, what're you thinking, aaah what're you thinking . . ." followed by "Just goooo, explooooode, What time is it your waiting for?"  I've thought and felt that before.  But, they've anger management sessions for that.  Needless to say, Matt Good's touching a chord deep within.  After all, one of the most common questions I hear today is, . . . "where's the outrage?"  Look no further, Matt will get you there.  You just have to listen (it helps to read the lyrics too).  The man crush is ON!  Oh, and BTW, here's the setlist for that night: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/matthew-good/2010/the-triple-door-seattle-wa-6bd4b6f2.html.  And you can catch his blog at http://www.matthewgood.org/ (when he's not touring?).