Mat Kearney is on his Headlights Home tour, but decided to add in a small run of acoustic trio shows so he could come back to the Ridgefield Playhouse. It was his 3rd time playing there and my 3rd time seeing him there. He said he likes the venue and the town, but doesn’t quite know where he is. The opener, Zach Sebaugh, shared the same sentiments – he knew we were sort of close to NY because that’s where he flew in to. For those who haven’t been, Ridgefield is kind of in the middle of the woods. It’s a good hour from my house and 25 or so minutes of that are just winding through non highway side roads.
Zach Sebaugh opened the show, he is from Georgia. There was something about him that sounded familiar (but in a good way) I was thinking maybe a John Mayer influence but he ended up mentioning that Jack Johnson was one of his favorites and then it all made sense. (And then I started laughing about the line John once changed in a song to “You couldn’t tell me from Jack Johnson” – but I wouldn’t be surprised if Mayer is an influence too) Zach teased by saying it was his first show in Connecticut – but won’t be his last – he is also opening for Mat the next night at another CT show. He will be on tour this fall but unfortunately the closest he is coming is NY during my crazy October. Hopefully he will make it back to CT at some point though because I really enjoyed his set.
In the intermission, a couple ended up sitting next to me – one of which ended up being a childhood family friend I hadn’t seen in years so that was pretty cool and totally unexpected.
Then it was time for Mat to take the stage. He was really chatty and even said he wasn’t sure why he was so feisty. There was a group in the front row that were very animated and I think were a bit of a distraction to them – they kept calling things out to him as well. He ended up going a bit off setlist and played ‘Real One’ for what he thought was the first time live. He also wondered why he writes songs with so many words in them because it is hard to sing them all. Overall it was a really fun show!
At the end of the night, I was waiting for security to grab my walker so I could leave. Everyone else had gotten kicked out of the room but they said I should stay put. In this time, the stage was being cleared off and one of the guys handed me the setlist. (I didn’t ask, just happened to be the only one there) and I heard a guy from the back start yelling that he had asked for a setlist and was told NO! I was like oh great now I have to walk past this guy after he’s yelling about me, but fortunately nothing happened.
There also was a guy who came up to the front at the end of the show, put a piece of paper down on the stage, and then security escorted him out. I don’t know if this was the same guy or not, but I’m very curious as to what the paper said.
