Matchbox 20 - Show: A Night In The Life Of (Vision)
UK release date: 28 June 2004
track listing
1. Cold
2. Real World
3. All I Need
4. Soul
5. Disease
6. Could I Be You
7. 3 AM
8. Mad Season
9. Fee;
10. Hand Me Down
11. If You're Gone
12. Bright Lights
13. Bent
14. Unwell
15. Back To Good
16. Downfall
17. You're So Real
18. So Sad So Lonely
19. Long Day
20. Push
With music store shelves boasting more live,
extended, uncut and never before seen footage of any
band worth their weight in digital media, it is no
longer acceptable for a band to simply set a camera
rolling stage left and call it a live DVD than it is
for a TV company to put 10 members of the public in a
house under surveillance and call it
entertainment.
Thankfully this state of play is something Matchbox
20 are keen to stay one step ahead of. In persuading
you to part with your hard earned cash, they have
released a 20 track live set (more than twice the
length of most albums these days!) that runs to almost
100mins, filmed with 22 cameras, in 5.1 surround
sound. As if this wasn't enough to satisfy your
Matchbox hungry eyes and ears, there is a second disc,
of which the mainstay is a darn well filmed and
recorded documentary that clocks in at almost 2 hours,
with a picture gallery, multi angle songs and lyrics
adding the icing to what must be any fans dream
parcel.
Kicking the gig off with one of their latest smash
hit singles Cold, the building intro is more akin to
Audioslave than mum and dad rock, but fear not; we are
soon back in the familiar sing along land of Rob
Thomas' faultless choruses. A highlight from the same
album More Than You Think You Are follows in the
form of Soul. The crowd are ecstatic as a full arena
sing along to the Jagger-penned anthem.
The quasi-disco beats of Disease are somewhat
forgettable, but quickly forgiven as the Three Doors Down-esque ballad Could I Be You returns the
sultans of soft rock to their pedestal.
It only gets better as debut album lead track 3am
inspires more retarded screaming than the
Beatles could have dreamed of. This track could
have been written by any number of American AOR groups
from Hootie and the Blowfish to The Counting Crows, but the passion in Thomas' voice and the
intricate layers of each instrument make for a
faultless summer classic. Hand Me Down and If
You're Gone offer a contrasting stripped down
spotlight encounter, with vocals and guitar vying for
space on top of further demented housewife screeching.
Utimately I don't care how cool, hardcore or cynical
you are, Matchbox 20 write damn good songs, with
awesomely catchy hooks that end up sticking to you
like gorse. As the earnest front man proclaims; "For the next couple of hours we're gonna forget
about our jobs, schools, and bills, and we're not
gonna talk about politics. So you can all sing along,
shake your ass, and have a good time!"
Ground breaking and revolutionary musicians they
ain't, but multi-platinum and going strong they
surely are. With such time and effort invested in
putting together an altogether faultless live
experience you can hardly knock 'em.