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Official Tour Setlist/review Thread 2009/2010

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December 31, 2009: Charlotte, NC - Whisky River

 

Giant

Hello Time Bomb

Great Whales of the Sea

Born Losers (w/ Mike Smith)

I'm a Window

Silent Army in the Trees

Vancouver National Anthem

Load Me Up / Love Will Tear Us Apart

Weapon

Apparitions

 

About 9:05pm, Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys (Mike Smith) came on and sang "Liquor and Whores". It didn't seem like too many people knew who he was or what he was doing (there wasn't much reaction). About 9:15pm, Matt came on.

 

Matt and the band sounded great. I'd have to listen to it again, but Matt's verses during HTB seemed to sound more like 90s Matt than I've ever heard him on that song. Mike Smith (in regular form) came out during "Born Losers" and played guitar. (Matt introduced him as "since he used to play in a band".) They brought back the Joy Division nod during "Load Me Up" after nixing it after Massey 1, I assume as something special for the folks there. VERY little banter during the overall set, most of it coming at the very end. Dale Jr came out before "Apparitions" and thanked Matt (and us) for coming, which was cool to see.

 

It seemed like there were quite a few people in the crowd (especially up front) who were real Matt Good fans - many were singing along to Silent Army and VNA. The venue itself probably held about 500 - it was probably two-thirds full when Matt started, with probably a little over half of those in the area in front of the stage.

 

As you can tell, it was a short set - Matt was finished by 10:15pm. (Hour-long set - no encore.) That was probably the one disappointment about the night - the advertisement for the night didn't really explain what was going to happen. If Matt's set was the "pre-show", there wasn't a show. Once Matt finished, they started breaking down his equipment - instruments, stage lighting, everything - all of it was gone after about an hour. It seemed like a lot of people were looking to see what was going to be set up next, but the answer was nothing - at that point (11:15pm), they let people go up on stage and dance. Pretty much, after Matt's set, it just became "generic dance night". I finally bailed about 11:25pm, once it was totally obvious that nothing else was going to happen, save for the champagne toast at midnight. (The place was PACKED not long after Matt finished. I'm not much for crowds or bars, and figured I'd enjoy watching the Times Square stuff back at the hotel more. It might have actually saved me from getting stuck in a sobriety checkpoint on the interstate out of downtown.)

 

All told - $25 for an hour of Matt and some surprisingly decent food was a good bargain. But, for me, it paled against the two Massey shows (although I imagine I was probably the only person there who caught any of the Canadian tour). Plus, I never do anything for New Year's, so I figured this would be a cool way to do something special, and, in the grand scheme of things, it kinda wasn't. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but I think if I'd known exactly what I was getting into beforehand, I probably wouldn't have gone. (If I'd had to cancel my Toronto trip - and I almost did - I think this would have made a fantastic consolation.) I ended up doing basically what I would have done for New Year's anyway.

 

I met a couple from Charlotte who had apparently been fans for close to ten years, and they told me that this was their first chance to see Matt play. I almost felt badly that they only got an hour. Matt mentioned at the end of the set that he knew that people had flown in for the show, and I definitely felt bad for those folks. (I used some reward points on the hotel room, so I was only out the the ticket and gas money - I think I'd have been disappointed if I'd flown in for that.) I would bet that the original intention was for this just to be a low key semi-announced set, but once people put together Matt Good plus NYE, it made it sound like something bigger.

 

My best guess is that the "private show" that Matt mentioned in the post on NF was probably the "real" NYE show, and at Dale's compound. I'm assuming now that this was probably more or less a favor to Dale and/or the chance for Dale to lend Matt a little public support. I'm assuming that Matt, Dale, and the guys bailed after the set and went to Dale's compound. If that was the case, it completely made sense that Matt would only play for an hour - I couldn't imagine him playing two full sets back to back.

 

But if I'd had the chance to massage the schedule a little, I think I'd have moved things around to give Matt another 15 minutes. For a show at a club that size, I think 75 minutes feels about right - an hour long main set plus two or three encores. I know it was a little bit of an awkward situation in general - you had a club full of people who don't really know who he is, plus a handful of people that were real fans.

 

Having said all of that - the upside of the evening was that the venue didn't give a rat's ass about recording. I took a few (lousy) photos and shot "Giant" on my digital camera, then grabbed four songs with my HD vidcam (I believe "Born Losers" and the last three). I had my old tape recorder in my jacket pocket - more or less as an afterthought - so I may transfer it at some point if it turned out at all. I'll try and upload the video footage tonight.

Edited by uglyredhonda
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Thanks for the report. I was in a REALLY awkward situation... I live in Charlotte, I'm a huge Matthew Good fan, BUT I'd already made NYE plans when this was announced. Honestly... I thought about breaking them, since this is the closest (by about 1000 miles) that Matt has ever played to me... and I might've, if there'd been better info about the show. But I couldn't get any info about start time... length of the set... etc etc. Start time was the big issue.... If I'd known the show would be done by 10:15 I might've just hit WR, then met up with my friends afterwards. I've done the solo show thing before (although not on NYE... probably the one night you don't really want to be alone in a bar)...

 

Anyway, I'm thinking about driving to Arlington in the spring for a "proper" show, but still... It sucks he was in my backyard and I missed it. Part of me still feels like a loser over the entire thing. I really need the hookup to get into Dale Jr's private parties I guess. (True story: A friend of mine casually mentioned that she'd attended a few of Dale's parties in the past... of course the first question I asked was, "Did you ever see a guy named Matthew Good there?" Her reply? "Oh yeah, a couple times actually. He's quiet...")

 

Or a random thought, if Matt or anyone reads this... Maybe a return to Whiskey River and Charlotte on the American spring tour? While it's not really a dedicated music venue like others in Charlotte, it's not a bad-sounding room... and I assume Dale Jr would pay the guys enough to cover costs and more for the trip. And if it was announced as a "proper" Matt Good show, I suspect there'd be a MUCH greater influx of true fans from around the Southeast.... since even the closest announced dates are 8-10 hours away from the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, FL, etc...

 

--Rich

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Ack, apologies for the speculation. I kinda wish I'd been able to stay, but it was so jammed in there that I could no longer find a spot to just stand somewhere out of the way and I was tired of getting bumped into. There was even a line of people outside waiting (maybe hoping) to get in when I left.

 

I'm surprised that the Tuesday set was that long (and looks amazing). It was billed as a "sound check party", which I figured meant that everybody would hang out and have a few drinks while the band ran through four or five numbers.

 

 

Or a random thought, if Matt or anyone reads this... Maybe a return to Whiskey River and Charlotte on the American spring tour? While it's not really a dedicated music venue like others in Charlotte, it's not a bad-sounding room... and I assume Dale Jr would pay the guys enough to cover costs and more for the trip. And if it was announced as a "proper" Matt Good show, I suspect there'd be a MUCH greater influx of true fans from around the Southeast.... since even the closest announced dates are 8-10 hours away from the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, FL, etc...

Dale's definitely done that place up right. The sound in there was amazing. Maybe because I was

, but everything sounded great. (It could have sounded differently in the back - the place is much larger than a regular venue of its capacity, given all of the bars and what not.)

 

The SE always has it tough with bands - they have to really commit to it all to justify getting through the relative nothing between Dallas and Atlanta. I went to college in NC, and I can't tell you the number of times I had to drive to DC to see a band. And Atlanta's one of the ten biggest markets in the US, yet it's amazing how many bands pass over it completely. (Usually, it seems to get scheduled during the 2nd leg of the tour, if at all.)

 

In Matt's case, there just aren't enough days. They've got two nights between Dallas and Chicago, and even getting to Atlanta would make for a seriously long haul in that short amount of time. Memphis or Nashville were really the only options, and it's a shame that the Nashville show didn't come together. (Though, DC would still be the closest show from Charlotte.) While a great music town, Memphis is in a bit of a dead zone - there's not much city-wise within a 200 mile radius.

Edited by uglyredhonda
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We played at the club last Tuesday for two hours, though I had no idea that it was open to the public right before we went on or I would have posted something on the site.

 

ARGRRGH... [insert numerous expletives here] I wasn't doing ANYTHING Tuesday night. (Okay, playing poker with the guys... and I came out well ahead, but still...)

If I'd only known.... Friggin' Avalanche live. One of my favorite songs from my favorite MG album. AND Fake Empire. That National record is seriously one of the best of the decade. Bloody hell, as the Brits say.

 

OK I'm gonna post something later tonight to offset the karmic retribution of missing you twice in the span of 3 days. No guarantees on quality though.

 

--Rich

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Without me putting in any effort whatsoever into finding this answer myself, does anyone on here know if Matt is doing another Canadian tour this year? Summer maybe?

If history's any indication, he'll probably do another tour starting at the end of May or June. But that's just speculation at this point.

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St. John's setlist in case it hasnt been posted yet:

 

boy explode, hello time bomb, great whales, load me up, born losers, last parade, future is x-rated, silent army, black helicoptor, apparitions, weapon

 

encore:

 

giant, odette, vancouver national anthem

Vancover national anthem was actually empty theme park. My mistake

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Since we're throwing opinions out there, mine is that I prefer full band tours with a few acoustic tracks thrown in. I like hearing most songs with the full music the way they were written, but on the other hand Matt has some amazing talent that is more so displayed when he comes out with just himself and a guitar.

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For the sake of completeness, I thought I would finish the tally that johnny started November 20th last year. Going forward from that post, and according to my math, below you'll find a list of the list of the tracks played, in descending order. I know there is likely something off in this, and there might be a setlist or two missing somewhere, so think of it as a rough guide. Any of the songs where it was indicated just a snippet was played, I've left them out. I believe earlier estimates put the "rehersed" tally around 40 songs, and this list includes 31. I feel pretty happy I got to hear "It's Been Awhile..." (a favorite of mine) since it appears it was only played twice ;)

 

 

Great Whales Of The Sea - 32

Emptys Theme Park

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I'm kinda surprised he played Vancouver National Anthem only 3 more times than Odette.

 

I'm not really too concerned about the setlist at the show I bought tickets for in April. I have never seen matt good full band so it'll be a treat either way.

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