Matt Walters played at the Northcote Social Club, which is fast becoming one of my favourite venues for two reasons; one because the stage is raised pretty high, so I can see, and two because there is a bookshop just up the road that is open until 11:30 at night.
Anyways, he was a charmingly awkward performer (he opened his set by tripping up the stage on his entrance), he kind of reminds me of Andy Bull in the way interacts with the audience, except more stoned. Andy Bull is that overexcited guy at the party who has had too much to drink and is having heated debates about the meaning of life with just about anyone who will listen, while Matt Walters is just sitting in the corner smoking a joint, talking outloud to himself and not realising that other people around him are listening in. I love them equally, and in different ways.
I hadn't really listened to all his songs properly before the gig, but I was kind of glad about that because his live voice and the backing band completely transformed the songs into almost seperate entities. I like muscians that have something knew to offer at a live show, it's not like just listening to the cd really loudly, cos I can do that at home for a lot cheaper. And when I'm listening to music on my ipod, I often have so much other stuff going on around me and in my head, I'm not really listening to the songs at all, it's just background music.
Live, his voice penetrates the whole room so you cannot hear or think about anything else. It made me really listen to the lyrics, and realise that his songs have a beautiful darkness to them, and vast emotional depth; as he told us himself, he is rather interested in the concept of hell. And although Lovely decided that he kinda looked like Rob Pattinson (nooo), I am going with he looks more like Noel Fielding, if he was more folky and chilled out and less into Root Booster and glittery jumpsuits. That's probably not a very good analogy, but it's better than RPatz. Yuk. Highlights were hard to differentiate, although the duet with Bertie Blackman for "I would die for you" was pretty damn special.
What made this an even more magical night was that on the way home, we stopped into the book store, and I found an adorable travel copy of Wuthering Heights, a book of Thomas Hardy's poetry and "the unabareable lightness of being", which I bought on a whim and currently reading. I have fallen in love with it, I never want it to end, and when it does I think I will read it again.
Then on Saturday night, we went to see Gypsy and the Cat. They're the kind of band that has just exploded in the last year, and the fact that they pretty much went from being unknown to selling out the Palace is a good indication of that. It's been a while since we'd been to a gig with a full on choreographed light show, but it was a really fun gig,they didn't take themselves too seriously but at the same time were really stoked to be playing in front of so many people. You could really tell that they were so excited to be there :) I love it when bands have the fresh, "oh my god people are actually singing along to our songs" sheen on them. Highlights included Gilgamesh, their new songs, Time to Wander, and The Piper's Song, which still reminds me of Africa by Toto. I not so secretly love Toto, but I love Gypsy too.
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