Matt Nathanson at the House of Blues
October 6, 2006 by Tom
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Yesterday I took a glorious vacation day off and me and Beth went downtown for the day. We started off with a boat tour of the Chicago river through the Chicago Architecture Foundation so they told us all about the buildings downtown. Turns out there’s about 3 or 4 firms who are responsible for designing the majority the buildings downtown, or at least along the river. It was probably a bit too chilly for the boat tour, especially when he headed out closer to the lake, but I would say that it was a good experience overall. There were quite a few things I learned that I had never known about Chicago like that Michigan Ave was once the coast along Lake Michigan (makes sense now doesn’t it?) and that the building 290 runs through used to be the Chicago Post Office. The guy who narrated the trip was really knowledgeable and knew every building’s history, designer, and number of floors. It was absurd!
After the boat tour we tried to go the House of Blues Hotel’s Kaz Bar, but they weren’t open yet so we went upstairs to 10 Pin, the upscale bowling alley and got a drink. By then it was about time for our dinner reservations at the HOB Restaurant, so we went to sit down, but it turned out that the reservations were highly unnecessary seeing as how there were about 8 people in the entire restaurant at the time. Beth had purchased a $50 gift certificate for $25 last year from Q101 so were had $50 to spend on our meal so we loaded up with some appetizers and soup for both of us since we were both still chilly from the tour. After dinner we got in line for the Matt Nathanson & Carbon Leaf show for that night because if you eat at the HOB restaurant prior to a show you get let in before the doors open for the rest of the people.
We managed to score a sweet elevated table in the bar area overlooking the stage from the center since we were so early. Every single bar stool along the sides and in the top balcony was reserved. That’s such bullshit that they do that for people, but our spot was good enough so it didn’t bother me too much. Carbon Leaf played first and they were ok. I wasn’t dying for them to get off the stage, but I guess I would’ve been happier if they played a few less songs. They sounded alright, but all the songs were similar and the singer just seemed to have a lifeless vocal delivery. He was energetic and moving around the stage, but his singing was just boring.
Nathanson came onstage with a full band and I’d have to say that’s the first time I think I’ve seen him play with a full band and it was great. His band looked like 3 scrawny, high school dorks, but they played well and all seemed to have fun together. He played the standards, but most of the new songs were with Matt on electric guitar which I loved. I’ve always liked his stuff a lot, but I think he just sounded so much better with an electric guitar and a full band behind him. It was almost Will Hoge-ish with the energy he put out during the electric tunes. I was really impressed with the new songs and I was surprised at how many of them he played, but I’m sure he’s gotten tired of the same old routine every night.
That’s another thing that surprised me actually; his stories that he always told were noticeably absent. I didn’t mind because I’ve heard them all so many times, but he seemed to have a more professional attitude towards the show. That’s with exception to the dumbass who kept yelling for Starfish and Coffee who Matt proceeded to flick off and then tell to shut the hell up. At least he didn’t threaten to go over and kick his ass like in previous shows.
The covers and the fun he has playing them were still there though. Plenty of 80’s licks including a 30 second snippet of Paradise City which the crowd loved. Jesse’s Girl and I Want You To Want Me of course, and then Laid was fun with Matt getting “too excited” to sing the beginning and having to restart the tune.
Matt ditched the band for the encore and then to draw another comparison to Mr. Hoge, quieted the crowd for the final song, unplugged his guitar and stepped to the front of the stage to sing Little Victories. The crowd was really respectful, minus the one dumbass next to us who kept talking at full volume to some girl. We ended up moving away so we could hear the song instead of him. He was completely oblivious to 10 people all glaring at him and a bunch of girls giving him the “shhhhhhhh” and the angry stare.
The setlist went like so:
Lucky Boy -> I Want You To Want Me
Sad Songs
Car Crash
Winter Dress
Princess <-> Jesse’s Girl
Lost Myself in Search of You
Stay
This Heartbreak World
Bare
Pretty the World
Angel
I Saw
Laid
Detroit Waves
Weight of it All
Answering Machine
—
Bulletproof Weeks
Little Victories
