Matchbox Twenty

For the first time in my life, I attended a “stadium” concert. Alanis Moressette and Matchbox Twenty performed at the Air Canada Centre. Being overwhelmed by the entire experience, I could only think enough to sing along to the songs during the concert. Only after, on the subway ride home, did I start to think about what I had just seen. Attending the concert with me, was my friend Alina, who is like me, interesting in tech elements of theatre and performance. Not knowing to us, we kept a banter going back and forth about the screens and lighting the band chose to use.
The opening band, whose name I cannot even remember, started the show off with some simple washes and a few spot lights. They played their hearts out to a somewhat filled area, and was not overcome by the use of technology in their performance. I wouldn’t say they solely relied on their musical talent, but they definitely entertained the crowd.
Next came Alanis who had her own backdrop and played up the crowd very well. You could see the progression from the first band to Alanis with the intricacy of the elements of the performance other than her singing. It was funny because she even played her April Fool’s joke from last year, a remix of “My Humps”. The crowd loved it. With her tacky boa, to her bandmates jokingly falling at her feet, she too was entertaining the crowd with, for the most part her ability to sing.
Finally, the main act came on, Rob Thomas leading the band, Matchbox Twenty took the stage like the pros they are. Between a short intermission, the stage had been redesigned with light boards and a projection screen. The entire time the band played, new images were being projected, while lights flashed about. At first glance, this may seem very showy, but to be honest, I thought it was a nice touch. It didn’t take away from their performance, and didn’t really add to it. It was its own show of pictures and interesting shapes. After talking about concerts today being sell-out-ish, I was happy with what the band had done.
Unfortunately after the show, I was unable to purchase the program in our sweet consumer society as they were $20 and I didn’t really feel the need to pay for it. Actually in total, I only paid for the subway ride down to the concert because it was a present, I think I did well.