Austin – Taking time off from opening for Aussie band Cut Copy, Matt and Kim flew all the way down from Toronto to play a one night only set to a packed house at the Opal’s Divine Freehouse. I am guessing on the way over, they had an extra strong dose of happy pills. As I’ve said before in podcast and my review of their album Grand, Matt and Kim always seem happy. Well, at their SXSW showcase Thursday night, they were definitely happy to see us, and man, were we happy to see them.
I can’t even begin to describe the energy of this show. It was out of this world. The front of the crowd were definitely crazy hipster Matt and Kim fans, which resulted in mosh pits, crowd surfing and everything you can imagine during the set. I don’t think I have seen a more enthusiastic crowd yet at SXSW. When you get cool as ice hipsters losing their mind with some drum beats, shout along choruses and synth melodies, you know you have something special. I don’t remember what track they started with (it was off Grand), but from the first song to the last, Matt and Kim brought enough energy to the venue to power a small African country. Matt is about the most insane keyboard player I have ever seen, playing sitting down, standing up, standing on his bench, falling off the stage .. everything. He would pump his fist, yell at the crowd, scream at people and just do all kinds of crazy shit during the set. I liken him to a male cheerleader on cocaine. Kim was equally as cheery, jumping up and cheering, singing along, clapping, etc. It was one big happy fest. Gary thought they were a bit too patronizing with all the ‘thank you’ and ‘we really appreciate you guys’ but I thought it was actually quite genuine.
Obviously the hit ‘Yea Yeah’ was the biggest success of the show, but new tunes such as ‘good ole fashion nightmare’ and ‘daylight’ scored big with the crowd as well. Every song scored well, I think. One of the best moments of the night was when they made everyone in the venue put their hands into the air, then proceeded to play Europe’s Final Countdown intro riff. Awesome.
I had a blast at the Matt and Kim show at SXSW, and highly recommend you seeing them. The energy of the show was absurdly infectious and it helps that their music is pretty good too.