Last night I went with two lovely ladies to the Paradise Rock Club to see Matt Wertz. I first discovered Matt back in September when I went to see Gavin DeGraw and he was the opening act. At that show Matt was charming, funny, ADORABLE and his music was fun, up beat and infectious. He had just been signed to Island records (the same label as Jack Johnson and Colbie Caillat) and he had a new album coming out in a just a few weeks. The day the album dropped, I bought it. It has not left my car CD changer since. So naturally, you can imagine my excitement when I received an email from Live Nation telling me Matt was headlining a show in Boston.
Our night began next door to the Paradise Rock Club at Qdoba. My coworker (and cubemate) is a huge Qdoba fan, but I had never been. I ordered the vegetarian burrito and was actually quite impressed! My dinner dates ordered the chicken taco salad and the grilled chicken quesadilla which also looked delicious.
We were about two bites into our dinner when these rock and roll dudes popped a squat at the table next to us. We looked them up and down and deduced that they must be the opening act for Matt. I could not for the life of me remember the name of the band (which I had seen in the promos), but I thought it was "White Racket".
Our suspicions that they were the opening act were confirmed when a fellow diner went over to their table to ask for an autograph. I felt the urge to photograph them, but without even knowing the name of their band, I felt a tad guilty and suppressed the urge.
It turns out they were in fact members of the band, and they are called the Alternate Routes. The boy who asked for their autograph in Qdoba is a rabid fan, and was standing in front of us for their entire set, screaming along to every word, cheering in between songs, and dancing his heart out. He looked like he had escaped from Comic Con. We kept a safe distance.
With each song they performed I grew to like the band more and more. Their lead singer had a great voice, plays guitar and harmonica and had excellent style. They have a guitar player with a red, shaggy mop top that can only be pulled off as a member of a rock band; a very cute drummer that looks like a grown up, slighter hotter version of every boy I grew up with in hebrew school; and a bass player, who although not very attractive, has incredible skills and played along with Matt Wertz's band for the rest of the night.
My favorite songs by the Alternate Routes were: The Future's Nothing New, Asked You Twice and Aftermath. Their new album comes out on February 24th.
After the Alternate Routes, it was time for Matt! I hadn't been this excited at a concert since three years ago when I saw Justin Timberlake at Avalon. I watched with bated breath as his roadies set up the stage. When Matt did finally come on stage, the crowd erupted! He opened the show with "Heartbreaker" and then went into a cover of "I Want You to Want Me".
What's fun about Matt is that he loves talking to the crowd. Before almost every song he tells a story. He told us he just taped his first music video (for "Everything's Right" or "The Way I Feel", I can't remember). Before the song "Waiting for Someone Like You" he confessed he hoped to befriend Taylor Swift and sing it as a duet with her. Before "Marianne" he shared that he wrote the song about a girl he made up, and went on to say he thinks make believe girlfriends are the best kind. Before "Sweetness in Starlight" he said he hopes the song becomes a prom night standard, or gets used in prom scenes in teen movies.
Matt is such a high energy performer. He gets into every minute of his performance and had broken a sweat by the second song. He keeps a towel on stage to wipe the sweat that collects under his mop top. He moves all across the stage and comes all the way to the edge (hello, money shot!) to get as close to the crowd as possible. He loves his fans so much that on several occasions he took out his FLIP video camera and took footage of the crowd! I may or may not have blown kisses to the camera. Repeatedly.
Towards the end of the show he brought the Alternate Routes back on stage to join him to sing "Keep Faith". Then they sang an Irish pub song they wrote together, very appropriate for Boston. Matt played a three song encore, and closed the show with one of my all time favorite tunes "Carolina".
Just when we thought he couldn't get any cooler, Matt offered a deal: before leaving the show, sign up for the Mocha Club, and receive one of his CDs for FREE. The Mocha Club is an organization that helps to support impoverished and abused children in Africa. The premise is, donate $7 a month (the cost of two Mocha coffees) and that money will go to feed one person for a month, or pay for one person's malaria prevention, or send two children to school for a semester. I'm sorry, gorgeous, talented and a philanthropist? I'm in heaven.
It was a great night, with two great acts, supporting a great cause! Check it all out!
