Matthew E White
September 9 at Store Vega
I entered last night's concert as a Matthew E White neophyte, having jumped at this wild-card purely based solely on intuition. I gave his record 'Big Inner' a good listen prior to the show, but even though I instantly liked him, I prepared myself for an evening of surprise.
White and his cohorts entered casually, but instantly played a cover of Neil Young's 'Are You Ready for the Country?'. As soon as that hit my ears, I was sure I was in for a good surprise, and the crowd responded warmly to the jam-like take on Young's tune.
White introduced himself shortly, and the American reminded the crowd that he had recently been in these parts when he played this year's Roskilde Festival. It seemed like a lot of the Store Vega crowd had been to the Roskilde performance and were using the evening to make a return visit to White's ‘gospel church’.
White has been praised for his album Big Inner and with its gospel/country sound, he definitely masters the skill of getting the audience swaying with his wonderful music. And he does it while being present and engaging with his on-stage banter and a down-to-earth appearance. White referenced the Danes' ability to drink and encouraged the Vega audience to down their beers during the middle section of 'Steady Pace', telling the crowd that this has become one of the band's favourite rituals.
He moved on to 'Signature Move', which was my personal highlight of the night. 'Big Love' came up next, to the wide approval of the crowd, and White kept the romance going by playing 'Ain't That What Love Is' form the 'One Of These Days' record.
White told the audience his well-worn Randy Newman story, in which a 25-year-old White googled Newman's address, went to his house and gave the housekeeper his phone number saying that if Randy ever wanted to jam he should call him up. Newman never did, but that didn't keep White from playing a rousing performance of Newman's 'Sail Away'.
The band then played a new number, 'Human Style', which was so new that the sheet notes for the horns had been written just an hour prior to the band's entrance. It left no doubt that these are skilled musicians, and the delightful country/western take on organ, percussion, tambourine and piano had me leaving 'church' feeling a bit more pure at heart.
