I Saw Young Buffalo & Matt Pond PA @ Stubbs
On Sunday I started my week off on a positive note by heading down to see one of my long time favorite bands Matt Pond PA. Making the evening even better was an opening set by a more recent favorite of mine Young Buffalo. Though both bands could feel the sleepiness of the crowd due to possible long weekends, everyone seemed to have quite the good time. Follow the jump for some thoughts and recent music from both bands.
Disclaimer: I am an idiot and went off and left my camera at home like a dumb dumb. I’m sharing a few crappy phone pics and some recent videos from both bands to try and make amends. The truth shall set you free.
Young Buffalo kicked things off fairly early and did even more to impress me this time around after an awesome set during SXSW. The band is super tight live, with impressive reverb laden vocals, and tons of energy to get a little bit of crowd interaction. Think catchy as hell pop music with some twang thrown in there to stay true to their Mississippi roots. We were treated to a roughly 40 minute set closed down by a cover of “King of Wishful Thinking”, and no lie, one of the best covers I’ve ever heard.
This is a band with tons of promise and loads of upside as they continue to get their name out to as many people as they can. I left with their most recent release House and plan on spending some time with it over the next few days. Here’s a recent video from that album for their single “Home”.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQ9iFREjA8[/youtube]
Our headliner Matt Pond went on right on time and, as promised, played the entirety of his 2005 album Several Arrows Later. It’s tough to offer a review for a performance done in that way, but the band did get through the album without any major issues. I would imagine it’s hard to breath some life into an album that’s 10 years old though the band did enough to keep the crowd interested throughout the set. After wrapping up the full album play through, Matt treated the crowd to two new songs and a few of his more recent singles from previous albums. “Love to Get Used” seemed a little bit sped up and almost an after thought, but the other tunes were done well. My highlight of the evening had to be “Specks” from 2010’s The Dark Leaves. Still a great song. Hoping next time he might reach into the back catalogue and play us some tunes from his first 3-4 albums. Other than that, great set put on by a true veteran to the game. Here is Matt’s most recent single “More No More” from his upcoming album The State of Gold.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0_jAT_ZBKM[/youtube]
