Matt Nathanson King of (Un)simple Tour
Katie 
When Matt announced this tour, I was bummed there wasn’t a CT date, but then I realized that Port Chester was about 3 minutes over the CT border, so I got myself a ticket, a pre-show hang and Premium Parking. I also was pretty excited to see Lisa Loeb open as well. I typically don’t like to go to new venues by myself, but figured I’d risk it. Then 9:45pm the night before the show I got an email that because I had the pre-show hang and the doors for that were before the doors for the premium parking lot, I was going to be refunded for parking and would need to find somewhere else to park. A huge part of why I had decided to go to this show was because of the guaranteed parking! It seemed that the Metro North lot across the street was listed as a place to park, but once I arrived it said that it was for customers only, but I took another risk – $4.90 for the evening as compared to $55 for the premium lot.
We were told to show up between 4:30 and 5 for the preshow hang, I got there just about 4:30 and a line had already formed. I checked in and got my lanyard, and then they handed out our posters and merch item (a pennant!) in case we wanted to bring it back to our cars as we wouldn’t be able to leave the venue once we were inside. The hang was about an hour, included Matt singing 3 songs that weren’t going to be in the set – he said the setlist could be up to 20 songs and the wheel could be 25 songs so the options for the hang were slim. It also included questions from the audience which got pretty deep and then a group photo.
Lost Myself in Search of You
All We Are
Impossible People
After the hang we were sent to the lobby and had to wait for 6:30 for doors to open. I then went to my seat, only to then get an email from the venue that the show wouldn’t start until 8pm. not 7pm like I had expected and that Rachel Yamagata would be opening, not Lisa Loeb. (Turns out Lisa had an emergency and I guess it was announced on socials around 2:30, but I was getting ready to leave for the show then and missed it) With the free time I ended up finishing my book for the podmeetsworld book club – I had one chapter left when Rachel took the stage and finished that last chapter seconds before Matt took the stage. Couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.
Rachel was joined by Michael Chaves, who I thought I recognized and Matt later mentioned that he worked with him and knew him from Mayer’s circle. She said her songs were more dark and down and great if you were going through a divorce and also said she was now getting into songs about aliens. Rachel was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed her set, though I do hope I will get to see Lisa at some point in the future.
At 9pm it was time for Matt to take the stage. He started by telling us he had his “boat tote” with him and that he was not supposed to talk for the first 3 songs, his set list said to not talk for the first 3 songs and all he wanted to do was talk. He made it through Map at the Mall, Giants, and Faster and then introduced us to the Wheel of Song. The wheel has various topics, albums and some straight up just song titles. He went through all of the panels on the wheel and explained them all to us and then gave the wheel its first spin and it landed on the song Different Beds. The second spin ended up being Kiss Quick, but since he had just done another slower song he decided to spin again and try and get something more upbeat and then do Kiss Quick after. He ended up getting “Stop Thief!” which was either songs he stole from others or songs other stole from him. He ended up doing his song Princess (which was also on the Wheel and he was mildly concerned he may end up having to play it twice because you can’t defy the wheel because in NJ he tried to and the power went off on the whole block – the only thing still lit up was the wheel because it is battery powered!) and mixed in Jesse’s Girl by Rick Springfield which he claims he stole from instead of having to play the song that was stolen from him. Which I am glad he didn’t have to play because I definitely didn’t want to hear it. (Google Matt Nathanson followed by a T if you don’t know who it is). He brought out Rachel to sing backup vocals on his song Vampires and the final wheel spin landed on Show Me Your Fangs – at first he freaked out because he thought it was the song and then realized it was the album. The crowd started going wild screaming for Bill Murray but he said that they’d do 2 songs from the album, since they just were practicing Adrenaline in soundcheck (also a song on the wheel) and then did Bill Murray to satisfy the crowd requests. The show concluded with a Suspended sing a long, Used to Me, Move to the Moon with a nice speech about being kind to everyone and treating others the way you want to be treated especially with the political climate and finally with a Come on Get Higher sing a long.
Upon making it back to my car it was still there and no ticket, so lucky me for saving myself $50 on the evening, but I am not sure I would go to this venue again alone. (There also were a few steps to get to the orchestra which I needed help navigating which fortunately I was able to find an usher or other fans to help me out)
