Who: Matt Nathanson with Lights
When: August 23, 2012
Where: Thursday at the Harbor/ Buffalo, NY
With: Katie, Josette, Katie, Kyle, Others
Of Note: We rocked Matt Nathanson so hard his pants ripped
Matt Nathanson is part of the genre of music I like to call "cute boys with guitars". I was really excited when he was announced as the last act of Buffalo's free concert series, Thursday at the Harbor. I gathered up a posse and off we went.
(Oh man, I almost forgot that I have the best "Jen [& co.] is a dumbass" story about getting to the show. Because parking at the Harbor can be tricky, I was going to meet Katie at her office (the same building as the old KegWorks office, awwww) and we were going to take the "train" down. When it pulled up, we couldn't get the door to open. Instead of walking to one of the other doors, we stood and looked at it, with perplexed expressions until it pulled away. While we stood on the platform. So we walked to the Harbor.)
Anyway, Matt Nathanson was as wonderfully charming as you would expect him to be, playing a set comprised of his more recognizable material, some crowd-pleasing covers, and - somewhat strangely- trying to incite a war with Syracuse. Okay then.
Things I remember: It was super humid and my hair was enormous. That is not exactly relevant to the music, but I figured I'd throw it out there.
He is so very good at the dreamy dreamboat stuff he does. 'Come On Get Higher', 'Car Crash', and 'Still', in particular were like being enveloped in a soft vellux blanket of sound. There was definitely some "squee-ing" that occurred. More than anything, in that mode, he makes you want to be in love.
He's also pretty excellent at his more upbeat stuff 'Faster' and 'Modern Love' were both delightful, bop-along-able poppy pop songs. Frothy perfection, with bonus fun crowd clap-alongs during "heart beats faster".
I discovered Matt Nathanson was from San Francisco. I was either on my way to interview for my SF job or was waiting for the offer? Either way, I considered it a good sign.
Verbatim, my notes say: "Motha fucka is almost 40. Well preserved." I'm pretty sure that needs no elaboration.
He's really good at the crowd banter & story telling, just a super personable guy. During a rollicking cover of 'Jessie's Girl', he noted that he was playing Syracuse next and that he knew that Buffalo would kick Syracuse's ass in volume and enthusiasm. He also may have manufactured some sort of sports rivalry. In any event, this was a challenge not to be taken lightly and the crowd turned that into an opportunity to start a pretty intense "Let's Go Buff-A-Lo" chant, which Matt found hilarious. Looking back at a YouTube video of that, I think it's hilarious that he noted, "When San Francisco breaks off into the ocean like I know it's going to, eff that. I'm going to hop on my Schwinn and pedal to Buffalo." Amen, brother.
He also covered White Snake's 'Here I Go Again' which caused the crowd to lose their damn minds.
Okay, but, the two best things about this show were: 1. He closed with 'Laid' which is a song I love so very much and is tied so very closely, in my mind, to being 18 and thinking that the whole world is yours for the taking and the giddy feeling of liberation associated with listening to something "inappropriate" and loving it so much. It makes me feel like summertime and being at the precipice of growing up and, yes, the movie American Pie. Plus, it's just such a well-crafted, lyrically clever song. Amazing. I was SO EXCITED to hear this live. Yowza.
2. He rocked out so hard that he split his pants completely open. It was one of the most hilarious/ second hand embarrassing things I've ever seen at a show and it was amazing. He instagrammed it after the fact, which was also hilarious.
When: August 23, 2012
Where: Thursday at the Harbor/ Buffalo, NY
With: Katie, Josette, Katie, Kyle, Others
Of Note: We rocked Matt Nathanson so hard his pants ripped
Matt Nathanson is part of the genre of music I like to call "cute boys with guitars". I was really excited when he was announced as the last act of Buffalo's free concert series, Thursday at the Harbor. I gathered up a posse and off we went.
(Oh man, I almost forgot that I have the best "Jen [& co.] is a dumbass" story about getting to the show. Because parking at the Harbor can be tricky, I was going to meet Katie at her office (the same building as the old KegWorks office, awwww) and we were going to take the "train" down. When it pulled up, we couldn't get the door to open. Instead of walking to one of the other doors, we stood and looked at it, with perplexed expressions until it pulled away. While we stood on the platform. So we walked to the Harbor.)
Anyway, Matt Nathanson was as wonderfully charming as you would expect him to be, playing a set comprised of his more recognizable material, some crowd-pleasing covers, and - somewhat strangely- trying to incite a war with Syracuse. Okay then.
Things I remember: It was super humid and my hair was enormous. That is not exactly relevant to the music, but I figured I'd throw it out there.
He is so very good at the dreamy dreamboat stuff he does. 'Come On Get Higher', 'Car Crash', and 'Still', in particular were like being enveloped in a soft vellux blanket of sound. There was definitely some "squee-ing" that occurred. More than anything, in that mode, he makes you want to be in love.
He's also pretty excellent at his more upbeat stuff 'Faster' and 'Modern Love' were both delightful, bop-along-able poppy pop songs. Frothy perfection, with bonus fun crowd clap-alongs during "heart beats faster".
I discovered Matt Nathanson was from San Francisco. I was either on my way to interview for my SF job or was waiting for the offer? Either way, I considered it a good sign.
Verbatim, my notes say: "Motha fucka is almost 40. Well preserved." I'm pretty sure that needs no elaboration.
He's really good at the crowd banter & story telling, just a super personable guy. During a rollicking cover of 'Jessie's Girl', he noted that he was playing Syracuse next and that he knew that Buffalo would kick Syracuse's ass in volume and enthusiasm. He also may have manufactured some sort of sports rivalry. In any event, this was a challenge not to be taken lightly and the crowd turned that into an opportunity to start a pretty intense "Let's Go Buff-A-Lo" chant, which Matt found hilarious. Looking back at a YouTube video of that, I think it's hilarious that he noted, "When San Francisco breaks off into the ocean like I know it's going to, eff that. I'm going to hop on my Schwinn and pedal to Buffalo." Amen, brother.
He also covered White Snake's 'Here I Go Again' which caused the crowd to lose their damn minds.
Okay, but, the two best things about this show were: 1. He closed with 'Laid' which is a song I love so very much and is tied so very closely, in my mind, to being 18 and thinking that the whole world is yours for the taking and the giddy feeling of liberation associated with listening to something "inappropriate" and loving it so much. It makes me feel like summertime and being at the precipice of growing up and, yes, the movie American Pie. Plus, it's just such a well-crafted, lyrically clever song. Amazing. I was SO EXCITED to hear this live. Yowza.
2. He rocked out so hard that he split his pants completely open. It was one of the most hilarious/ second hand embarrassing things I've ever seen at a show and it was amazing. He instagrammed it after the fact, which was also hilarious.
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