Mat Kearney - That's Mat Kar-Nee - In Concert At The Horseshoe

So I went to see Mat Kearney at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto last night, and I don't really have much to say except that he did not disappoint, and his stage voice is EXACTLY THE SAME as what he sounds like on his CD (which, is, a really good thing). While at first he seemed a little aloof and bored, I realised that's just his thing (he IS from the west coast Oregon, which he claimed is basically like Vancouver, and knowing my Vancouver friends, aloof is probably a good description) and through his talks, you could tell he enjoys doing what he does.

Considering half his album seems to have been played on Grey's Anatomy and every other CW and ABC show out there, I'm surprised this guy isn't bigger than he is, though I guess he blends into the male singer songwriter train that passed through these past few years (James Blunt, John Mayer, Josh Kelley etc. etc. etc.) and while his sound isn't exactly original (again, see above list, or Coldplayish, Snow Patrolish and others), Mat Kearney does it well (and I named his album Nothing Left To Lose in my Best of Music 2006) and his voice live is amazingly strong and pitch perfect, noteworthy since some of his songs have key changes that are abrupt and somehow work well as hooks. Still, I will admit, before this, I didn't really know what he looked like. When the band came out, we were all like, which one is he?

There's sometimes quite a lot of spoken portions of his songs, more noticeable in concert when they are back to back instead of on random shuffle of an iPod but I'm not complaining when he sings "Nothing Left To Lose", "Undeniable", "Breathe In Breathe Out" sounding better live than his recordings, (sadly) impressive in a Britney world.

Here's the video for "Nothing Left To Lose" (again, I've posted it before on my iPod lists) and "Undeniable" video and more pictures from the gig after the jump.