When San Francisco singer song-writer Matt Nathanson comes to town, you know things are going to get sexually weird and humorously uncomfortable. When Matt Nathanson comes to town on the eve of Halloween, you know it’s going to get pretty f–cking ridiculous.
The hours leading up to the 7pm door call at New York City’s famed warehouse-like club Terminal 5 were filled with hints across social media that tonight would be different. An Instagrammed photo of a lava-like detailed guitar from Nathanson’s account lead me to believe Steel Panther or a possible Def Leppard super-group would be making some sort of appearance. I was close (kind of).
Shortly after 8pm, opener Joshua Radin took to the stage as the floor began to fill with Nathanson fanatics donned in Kinks shirts, work attire, and an endless array of Halloween costumes. The Ohio-based musician pushed through his soft set despite the chatter among the sea of New Yorkers.
By 9pm, the 3 floors of Terminal 5 were at capacity as fans anxiously awaited for Nathanson to emerge. While in the photo pit, staring at a glowing ghost alongside the pedalboard, chatter of setlist predictions became very apparent with wishes for older songs like “Answering Machine” and a “dire need” for the 2008 radio hit, “Come On Get Higher.”
In a surprising move, Nathanson opened with “Mission Bells,” the first single off of his new album Last of the Great Pretenders and followed with “Modern Love,” the title-single of his previous record.
Attempting to answer the question, “what is your favorite thing about a Matt Nathanson show?” is surprisingly difficult. While I am a huge fan of his music—the lines that have you relating in ways you didn’t think possible (“this modern love is a taco truck”) and the back and forth of 6-strings and 12 to cater to any mood—I can’t help but enjoy Nathanson’s stories just a tad more.
When describing his 2012 summer hit “Run,” which featured vocals from Jennifer Nettles of the pop-country group Sugarland, Nathanson attempts to explain certain sexual relations between two adults as a game like Scrabble and how some people really go for the “triple-word-score,” and simply could not resist touching on the metaphorical reality that “sometimes you’re just playing a game for one, and that game is called Solitaire.” (Take from that what you will…)
The laughs of the night seemed endless—especially when Nathanson gave the audience a comedic epiphany: there is in fact a tiny Whitney Houston inside each and every one of us. (No, not the bathtub Houston as one fan suggested far “too soon,” but more of the leading lady in The Bodyguard.) This realization would lead to a sold-out crowd sing along for the chorus of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).”
Aside from the sexually humorous banter, Nathanson can be quite serious with the honesty found among his lyrics. Putting his fears aside, he confessed his reluctance to play “Bulletproof Weeks” when fans requested it over the years due to the song’s difficulty (and excusing that he “simply forgot how to play it, kind of”). Dismissing his band from the stage, Nathanson expressed his bravery, strumming into the “somewhere in between” alone, a new addition to his live performance.
While the evening’s setlist omitted long-time fanbase loves like “Answering Machine” and the interlude of “Angel,” Nathanson had to find time in his hour and a half stage time to channel his inner Bret Michaels.
For the encore, Matt Nathanson and his band re-emerged to the stage costumed as American glam-metal band, Poison. The tight pants, leather vest, and abundance of wigs and feather boas almost evoked Village People drag queens, but the covers of “Talk Dirty To Me” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” were very much in the Halloween spirit of Michaels.
Nathanson concluded his night in New York City with “Come On Get Higher,” his first nationally recognized radio single among his 10 studio album discography and a record that fans both new and old could certainly appreciate.
“The Last Of The Great Pretenders Tour” featuring Matt Nathanson and Joshua Radin will continue across North America through November 23.
