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Concert Reviews:
- August 3, 2001
- May 30, 2000
- March 8, 1998
- November 4, 1997

Q&A Interviews:
- May 23, 1997

CD Reviews:
- Exile on Mainstream
- Yourself or Someone Like You

Other Links:
www.matchboxtwenty.com

myspace.com/matchboxtwenty

matchbox 20
A Concert Review

April 11, 1997

House of Blues

Chicago, IL

A Review by
The Dude on the Right
I am rarely at a concert covering the opening band when I hear people around me during the band's set saying "Wow, these guys are great. What's their name?" Such was the case when I went to cover one of my new favoritist bands, matchbox 20. Lucky for the people around me I knew who they were, I hipped them to their name, but for the rest of the crowd, they might still be wondering. Why? Because although the show was great, they never said who they were.

In all honesty, I kind of got exactly what I expected after hearing the high energy, great melodies, and harmonies of this band from their latest CD "Yourself or Someone Like You." Only this was better because it was exciting to see a crowd who had no idea who these guys were totally get into songs they probably never heard, but they were dancing, trying to sing along, and between every song, yep, every song, the people around me kept saying how good this band was. And they were right, I just hope it keeps up for them.

Led by Rob Thomas on vocals, matchbox 20 blasted through around 40 minutes of a rock and roll ride that took the crowd from calm, cool, and collected during a song like "3 am" to a utter blast of energy during "Girl Like That" And when they thought it was safe to not think about what they were singing but just enjoying the music you get a song like "Push" with the line "I wanna push you around, I will, I will" and now the girls around me are saying "Did he say 'I wanna push you around?'" They start to wonder exactly what these guys are about, but their ride wasn't done yet, oh no, because as the band is heading to the end of its set they start a deceiving song called "Busted." Why deceiving? Well, it starts kinda slow, kinda like an old rock anthem, but then about halfway through the guitars kick in, the drums start flailing and this crowd is just blown away by who? matchbox 20, that's who.

I guess this review will be kinda short because there isn't much to say without rambling. I will say this though, it's good to hear a band with energy, a band connecting with the crowd, and just great rock/pop type music with lyrics you can understand because even as matchbox 20's intensity level grew, you could still tell what the band was singing about. Here's a band that has the potential to go far, as long as they are left to build their fans over time and not like your "here today - gone tomorrow" one-hit wonders that seem to be abundant on radio these days. They've got more than one hit, and if their CD is any indication, much more than one CD in them. So, if you find yourself at a show and the opening band just blows you away, there's a chance that band is matchbox 20, although if they keep things up I doubt they'll be the opening band much longer. It's TWO HUGEMONGOUS THUMBS UP for matchbox 20. Any band that can have the crowd saying "these guys are great" between each song deserves that.

That's it for this one, I'm The Dude on the Right!!! L8R!!

 

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