I used to think I'd get over everything, but everything just got over me

Back for Round 2 last night with MG at the Van East Cultural Centre.

Melissa played a solid opening set once again. Her songs are really growing on me. For her last song, she brought out Luke Doucet and his 9yr old daughter Chloe to help sing a Tom Waits cover. Chloe did a great job and her voice sounds quite mature.

Matt's set was awesome. It was also very different from the previous night. He came on stage and opened with an amazing and tearful performance of House Of Smoke And Mirrors. The first four songs of the night were not played the night before. His guitar arrangement on Indestructible is quite different from the version off Underdogs.

Throughout the set, there were people yelling out requests. One of them was for In Love With A Bad Idea. Matt said he's never played it acoustically before but he'll give it a try. It sounded good for his first attempt, though he didn't play the rockin' lead in riff to the chorus for the song. Matt mentioned afterwards that he didn't play the lead in part because he couldn't remember it. Throughout the song, he was thinking of how he was gonna transition from the verse to the chorus.



Matt shared some comical stories with us such as during the recent Toronto show at the Mod Club, there was a scalper outside the venue trying to sell Matt a ticket to his own show. He also talked about tearing his groin during Edgefest '98 in Barrie and getting rushed to the hospital after the show. In addition, he laughed about the past infighting of the Matthew Good Band such as when Ian once punched Dave in the face before they boarded a plane to Germany, and how Ian would throw drumsticks at Rich while they were onstage.

Avalanche once again sounded fantastic last night, as did Catastrophe. I love the last vocal notes in Fated where Matt's voice echoes at the end. The final chorus in Apparitions where he sings without the guitar is awesome too. Sort Of A Protest Song sounded solid, though one of Matt's guitars started getting some unwanted feedback during the song. The remaining songs played on that guitar for the night were done with a bit more caution. Matt was able to adjust his strumming and picking accordingly so it didn't take away from the performance.

At the end of Apparitions, everyone stood up from their seats and gave Matt a loud standing ovation as he walked off the stage. For the first time on this tour, he didn't open the encore with Hurt. Instead, he played a fantastic showing of The Fine Art Of Falling Apart. Matt also played one new song for us, When Hollywood Runs Out Of Indians.



My jaw dropped as I heard the opening chords to Born To Kill. It was the first time this song has been played live since the last ever MGB show at Snow Jam '01. In fact, this was the last song they ever played live together as a band. Matt performed the first verse and chorus of the song before transitioning into It's Been A While to end off a wonderful night.

Set lasted 1hr 55mins.

Setlist:

House Of Smoke And Mirrors
Generation X-Wing
Indestructible
Symbolistic White Walls
In A World Called Catastrophe
In Love With A Bad Idea
Fated
She's In It For The Money / Sort Of A Protest Song
Hopeless
Buffalo Seven
So Long Mrs. Smith
Load Me Up
Strange Days
Avalanche
Apparitions

The Fine Art Of Falling Apart
Alert Status Red
When Hollywood Runs Out Of Indians
Empty Road
Born To Kill / It's Been A While Since I Was Your Man