I recently made my first trip over to Seattle, and obviously had to catch a show while I was in town. Playing at the historic Paramount Theatre was Rob Thomas. Now I'm a huge Matchbox Twenty fan, so I had to jump on the opportunity to see Rob and support him on his solo tour. (especially with the reasonably priced $20 tickets)
My first thought was how impressed I was with the Paramount Theatre. The place is gorgeous, a venue more appropriate for a Broadway production than a concert. I've also seen Nirvana posters from a gig they had there back in the day, so you could sense the history of the building.
Rob Thomas has released two albums as a solo artist. 2005's Something to Be and 2009's Cradlesong. He performed material from both on the evening, and even previewed new songs from a forthcoming third album.
My favorite solo songs from Rob are 'Ever the Same,' 'Her Diamonds,' and 'Streetcorner Symphony,' all of which were sang on the evening. He also played his most well known tunes with 'Lonely No More' and 'Little Wonders.'
Rob's solo work is definitely different than his first job as the leader for Matchbox. Singles like 'Lonely No More' come off sounding more like Justin Timberlake than an alt rock front man. (I don't think the many middle aged women in the crowd seemed to mind though).
For the Matchbox fans in attendance, Rob did try to satisfy them. He played a piano version of '3 AM' and a lovely acoustic guitar rendition of 'Bent.' He even explained that he wanted to play more, but wants to respect the other guys from Matchbox since they are very much still a band. He even said to look for them in the near future to be back on tour.
A cool highlight from this show was that it really had a singer songwriter feel to it. Rob spoke a good amount on the stories behind the songs he was about to sing. He described the songwriting process and the inspiration behind them. The best story was on his first interaction with the legendary Carlos Santana, while recording smash hit 'Smooth.' Rob described Santana as the only man who could get away with wearing a yellow suit and hat. It also got some laughs that Santana instantly was able to tell that Rob had a Latina wife due to the songs lyrics. ("I would change my life to better suit your mood")
Between the lengthy setlist and the storytelling, it made for a full two hour show. That ran a bit long for me, as I'm usually on the side of keeping the audience wanting more. But it's really nothing to complain about. Rob Thomas is solid, and can't wait for another tour for Matchbox!
CONCERT RATING: 3 Stars
SETLIST:
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- Encore:
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(Matchbox Twenty song; Acoustic)
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- This is How a Heart Breaks
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