Live Reviews: Matt Pond PA @ Neumos
There are two ways to be heard by friends at a concert: 1) get close, 2) get loud. Decent, respectful people realize that getting close is the better choice as it doesn’t distract the performer or get on the tits of the people around you.
Unfortunately, not all people are decent or respectful.
The Rocky Votolato/Matt Pond PA/Third Band whose name I won’t mention for reasons I’ll explain later began with said Third Band and all 8 of its members filling the not-quite-big-enough stage with a variety of instruments (tuba, upright bass, keyboards, violin, etc.). Except there were 7 of them at first; Upright Bass showed up halfway through the set, like he had better things to do with his time. The band sounded alright. They would pass the “how to pretend you’re Beirut” class with a C-.
Matt Pond took the stage soon after to a healthy crowd and lots of applause and began playing… right as three young women directly behind us, and no farther than 15 feet from the stage, started very loudly talking about the Facebook messages they received that day (no joke, literally showing each other Facebook messages on their smart phones). I ignored them for the first song (an incredible “Closest (Look Out)”), and then during the applause break casually turned to look at them.
I wish I could paint you a picture, or film a recreation in slo-mo, but if you’ll indulge me for a moment, my thought process went something like this: “Okay turn around slowly see who these bitches are alright they look college-age the blonde is kind of cute jesus christ they are loud who is that guy with them the tall guy in the blueish sweater– oh my fuck is that the guy from the first band?”
I am 98% certain that it was. That it was Upright Bass. That the dude who showed up late to his own show also brought this pack of inconsiderate jackals and didn’t shush them when a far better act took the stage. I wanted to light his hair on fire and mail it to his mother. I wanted to kick the trashcan over so that their shoes would be soggy with old Red Stripe and vomit for the rest of the show. And I shouldn’t slander all three women; the one on the far right caught my eye and looked apologetic, as though to say “I know this chick is loud, but she’s the alpha female and she knows I cheated on my boyfriend once so I can’t really say anything but please enjoy ‘New Hampshire’, MPPA just started playing it and it’s a really great song”. Which it is. But that’s not the point. The point is that for a musician to allow people to be so rude to fellow musicians– the musicians who gave you the crowd you played to, no less– is incomprehensible.
But I suppose that in my live review of Matt Pond PA I should mention the show. You guys, it was INCREDIBLE. The band was on fire start to finish. MPPA even had a busted leg and hobbled onto/off the stage with crutches and sat in a chair with his leg stuck out in a straight line, and he still rocked the house. He blasted through probably 15 songs with a slight bias toward older material from Emblems and Several Arrows Later, but making plenty of room for new crowd pleasers like “Love To Get Used”. If I had a list of 10 songs I wanted to hear him play that night, he hit every single one. No one could ruin his set; not even some disrespectful jackals with a possible upright bass player in tow.
And that is why I won’t say the band’s name or call this guy out personally because there is a 2% chance that it was someone else. But if that was you, dude, you should be ashamed of yourself. And just so you jackals know: saying “We aren’t that loud” when people give you dirty looks at a show is about as meaningful as Amy Winehouse looking at her bodyguard before bed and saying “I’m not that drunk.”
And no. It is not too soon.
