After running into some troubles at their gigs on their way south along the coast, Matt Pond PA and Youth Group were excited to play in LA, and to try to have some normalcy in their show. I don’t think the small sound issues Youth Group ran into compare to the PA blowing up in Vancouver, a fight in the front row in Portland, or having a snowstorm come between them and San Francisco. Even though they had to cancel their performance there, at least they got to stay in Weed, CA. As lead singer, Toby Martin, pointed out, “There is actually such a place.”
The turmoil of the latest American run of gigs for this Australian quartet only weighed in slightly to the overall performance that night. They played most of the songs off their latest release, “Skeleton Jar”. Each tune, most of which start out mellow, reached great heights of rocking musical energy. Even the slower, calmer instrumental breaks kept the mood and kept the attention of the highly critical audience.
Matt Pond PA also experienced some bad luck along their tour (which started in February, before Youth Group joined them last week) when their gear was stolen and their van broke down, oh yeah, and the San Fran snowstorm). This show presented no problems at all. Although, by the time mpPA took the stage, the crowd had thinned out a bit. But those who left missed out. With a unique instrumentation, including cello on most tunes, Matt Pond’s songs, his echo-y voice, and the melodic sounds of the full band filled the room. The crowd teetered between being too quiet and annoyingly boisterous, which Matt pointed out between songs. He wasn’t interested in requests and would reply with ” Is a song” each time someone shouted a title they wanted to hear. They closed the set with “Halloween” to just about everyone’s approval.
