MATT WEBB

LIVE @ ADELAIDE HALL

FEATURE EDITORIAL REVIEW

By: Fridae Mattas

A few weeks ago I published Matt Webb’s record review on his sophomore EP “Right Direction”. On Friday, March 7th 2014 I migrated to Adelaide Hall downtown Toronto to check him out live. I have never actually paid attention during a Marianas Trench set not my cup of tea. So, I went to this gig not knowing what to expect, except that he would be performing tunes off of his latest album. The venue itself I have never been to or so I thought, but once inside I had to go upstairs and then down the hall and back downstairs to reach the stage area. The venue then reminded me of this club “LimeLight” I went to before I was legal to even go clubbing. Once downstairs I saw that the stage area did not have a media pit and was already surrounded with fans, I was not about to try reaching the front. A fan I was talking to told me a interesting little fact about the venue, there are two Men’s restrooms downstairs but only one Female washroom all the way up a flight of stairs…Not exactly the most logical or convenient layout if you expect female patrons to regularly visit the venue.Somehow I forgot that Webb is in a hugely popular Canadian band with mostly female fans…I was reminded, well more along the lines of startled when the screams erupted, I regretted forgetting my ear plugs so much. For all of you MT fans according to the bands guitar man Webb, Marianas Trench are working hard on a new record. I was surprised to see he had a band backing him up, thought it was going to be an acoustic set for some reason. I am assuming they have named themselves “The Qukes”, I saw a banner hanging with that moniker and a sliced cucumber. Don’t remember how many tracks were played but I did hear all of the tunes from the record, the band played well, they were getting into the tunes feeding off of the crowds energy.Although I did not get a chance to catch the openersone of them, “Kevin Maher, aka Kevvy Mental”  vox from the band “Fake Shark – Real Zombie” did make a guest appearance for one of the tunes. Maher was not the only guest to sing with Webb, he had a contest winner join him on stage. Her name escapes me but I do recall Webb reassuring the crowd she was qualified to sing because of her training at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The guests did well from what I could hear over the fans. Most of the fans I encountered were chill and at one point I did try to get a little closer, my mistake…A few colourful words were unleashed by a few teenies decked out in stilettos, booby shirts and muff wraps (mini skirts) thinking they were gonna get lucky with Webb that night…So funny are groupies. For a guitar player Matt Webb held his own on stage, he looked comfortable enough, interacted with the fans but did not talk too much. And, although I heard a few pitchy vocals because breathing work is needed, it was decent enough. Much worse these ears have heard and have come to the conclusion everyone is better than Scott Stapp live, even Chad Kroeger. Trying to get a shot of the drummer was a challenge, one of the band Larries was always in the way. Upstairs I went for some aerial shots, even with the angle change I still couldn’t get decent shots of the drummer, so I just migrated back down to try again. Most of the crowd cleared out once he thanked everyone and the lights dimmed but a lot of girls were not budging. The remaining crowd began chanting “Encore” until Webb and friends popped back on stage.Toronto was the first date of the tour across Canada, if you want to take your child or younger sibling to hear some live music and can handle screaming females, go see Matt Webb and The Qukes rock out. COPYRIGHT © 2014 FRIDAE MATTAS. All Rights Reserved