As a venue, this was my first trip to Music Farm and I was kind of surprised at how little seating was available and all of it was gone by the time I got there 30 minutes before the show started, so I found a counter to lean on and proceeded to revel in the fact that I was out sans children for the night...
Asking several people about why they were at Music Farm that night, I got many responses that they were regular Friday night visitors to Music Farm and had varying interest in Mat Kearney's music but most of them were familiar with at least some of his stuff via his website, Pandora and youtube!
The place filled up with a wide variety of people, I had been worried that an un-hip mom like me would stand out in the crowd, but there was everyone from college students to seniors in the crowd... couples, girls night out groups and just some friends there to hang out with. Some, like one of the couples I stood near were visiting Charleston and just out for a fun night as they celebrated their anniversary with a weekend away at a local b&b. Others like one of the young women I talked to had been following Mat Kearney for a while and had kept him on her radar since she'd been in high school.
I have to say that. for me it's been a long time since I've been to a club/concert where I had to actually had to show ID at the door... Heck, I was glad to be carded even if it was just a courtesy look.
I had no idea what to expect from Leagues, the opening band, and I was a little worried at their first song (which I thought was a little shaky and repetitive) but once they warmed up and started in on the songs from their EP, (which I bought and recommend) they had great energy and you can tell they were having a great time and as the lead singer, Thad Cockrell said "I'm going to dance like an idiot, which means you can too". One of the most interesting I learned about Leagues is that they have only recently got together and live all over the place, meeting in various cities to rehearse and now to tour with Mat Kearney for all 42 of his shows.
Speaking of 42 shows, Charleston was only the second stop on the tour and you can check out this link to all of the upcoming events. One of the events on their tour is a favourite of mine - they'll be playing The Opera House in Toronto on November 9th! It's a great venue and I'm sure that the show will be fabulous as the whole tour will be wrapping up in Minneapolis on November 20th.
For only their second concert, Mat Kearney and his band came out of the gate rocking! The energy in the room was fantastic and the first song was electric. The audio in the room made it a little hard to hear the lyrics where I was standing but the acoustics didn't do the music justice. Mat Kearney and the band rocked out songs from his new album, Young Love and a few old favorites including Nothing Left to Lose and Breathe in Breathe Out.
One of my favorite songs from the concert was Mat's first encore which was a cover of Foster the People's Pumped Up Kicks (in conjunction with Leagues), a clip of which I found on Youtube:
Of course, Ships in the Night was my absolute favorite song and it closed out the night. If you get a chance to catch Mat Kearney, his band and Leagues out on tour, I highly recommend it! It's a great show that will ony get better as they continue with their tour!
Keep up with Mat Kearney by clicking on any of the links below:
Disclaimer: I attended this show at no cost to me for the purpose of writing this review in conjunction with my participation in the One2One Network. All opinions are my own.
