Matt Wertz

Matt Wertz at Stage One

Katie May 18, 2013 No Comments

Thursday night Matt Wertz came to StageOne in Fairfield. Yes, my favorite venue!

Opening was Jeff LeBlanc.  There are some openers that I see often and just dread when their name is on the list of openers. But not Jeff! I’m always looking forward to seeing him.  He did a couple of new songs from his album which is out in July and I loved both, so I guess I’ll have to buy that when it comes out!  Jeff is just so entertaining and I love when he uses the pedals to loop stuff. (Yeah, I got technical. Stuff.)  It was a shame that only a handful of people had made it in to the seating area before his show because they really missed out on great set!

Next up was Seth Philpott and he was entertaining as well.  I liked when he asked if he could tell us a story but then said he had the mic. I guess that meant we were going to be hearing it either way 😉  He is living in Nashville and actually made it on the show for a brief second – but apparently his back side made it on the screen for a bit longer.

Then it was time for Matt.  When I arrived I was told that Matt had planned to do a 90 minute set and an encore. Oh boy!  The time just FLEW by though and Matt had us all cracking up at times.  He sang a little Michael Bolton and then said “and he probably has a house here” only to be told, yes, he does.  And then Bolton impression somehow then turned into a hilarious Michael MacDonald / Billy Ocean mashup impression?  He also had us sing “I can’t help the way I feel” which was his second song – and he said that we’d be there until he was satisfied with our singing.  Well, we seemed to blow him away with our first attempt so then he had us do it again just to try and break our personal best record!  He also debuted a couple of new songs for us – songs that he isn’t sure if they should be on the new record or not.  He told us to clap if we liked it and if we didn’t like it then we should not clap, but not boo because he is sensitive.  The second song there were some technical difficulties with the guitar, so he unplugged it, told us to be quiet and came to the edge of the stage and sang it with no mic and completely unplugged so that the crew at the venue could fix things.  When it was over and we clapped, he asked us if that was because he overcame the technical difficulties or if it was because we liked the song.

Overall, one of the more entertaining shows I have been to in a long time!

Matt Wertz 2/3/09

Katie February 4, 2009 No Comments

It’s nights like last night that make me question my sanity. Matt Wertz was coming to Hartford’s Webster Underground. He was previously scheduled to play the Webster main stage with Gavin DeGraw over the summer, but that had gotten canceled. When it was rescheduled, only Gavin came, not Matt. So it was kind of a big deal not to miss Matt again (as he doesn’t really come this way often) even though the weather had been predicted to be a blizzard.

Luckily, when I woke up on Tuesday the snow hadn’t started yet and the prediction changed to a dusting and 1-3 inches. I left my house around 4, even though doors weren’t set to open until 7pm. I was tempted to turn around when 2 streets up from my house I saw 2 cars stuck. The radio kept saying the road conditions were bad and that you shouldn’t leave the house unless you had to. But I HAD to. Webster wasn’t going to cancel this show and I wasn’t going to miss it. I made it to Jen’s a little after 5.

We got to the Underground about 7:15. There were 2 local bands on first. (someone i dont know) and Mike Falzone. Around 8:30 The Alternate Routes took the stage. It was quite a different setting than the Rock Boat and at one point I turned to Jen and said “The last time I heard this song, I was in shorts!” Which if you didn’t know it was just last month wouldn’t be that interesting.. but it was in January… on the Lido Deck.

Eric from the Alternate Routes also played in Matt Wertz’s band. We switched sides of the venue because of an obnoxious drunk couple.. but of course by the end of the show they were next to us again!

Heartbreaker
Like The Last Time
The Way I Feel
Keep Faith
Red Meets Blue
Under Summer Sun
Counting to 100
Someone Like You
Back In June
I Will Not Take My Love Away
Marianne
5:19
The Day Forever Died
Everything’s Right
Carolina
Naturally
With You, Tonight
Over You

These might not be in order – my clever new trick is to record a short clip of each song rather than texting myself or writing down a set list. Except I never cleared out my memory cards from Rock Boat. So I didn’t have a lot of room. Shortly into Matt’s set I realized this and deleted some videos off the memory card (even though they haven’t been backed up yet – eeek) so when I transferred them into the computer, things might have gotten shaken up a bit. From what I can tell, it seems about right. (The video audio quality is TERRIBLE. Im shocked I managed to figure out all of the songs!)