Review: After multiple postponements, third time’s a charm for Matchbox Twenty in Charlotte
As the sky began to darken at PNC Music Pavilion on Tuesday night, a thick sense of anticipation remained in the air. It’s not hard to understand why: Matchbox Twenty’s current “Slow Dream” tour is the product of the “Matchbox Twenty 2020” tour, which was postponed three times over the past three years, in large part due to the pandemic.
“I can’t believe you guys kept those tickets,” Rob Thomas said to the crowd after finally taking the stage, early in the set. “That is amazing.”
The band’s lead vocalist (age 51) joined Kyle Cook (47) on lead guitar, Brian Yale (54) on bass, and Paul Doucette (50) on rhythm guitar. Together, they celebrated the band’s first new album in more than a decade — “Where The Light Goes,” released May 26.
Matchbox Twenty last visited PNC six years ago for their “A Brief History of Everything” tour, and the audience has since eagerly awaited their return.
“If you guys give us the next two hours of your life,” Thomas said after a pumped-up rendition of “Real World” from their debut album, “we will try to make it so that for the next two hours that we just celebrate life, right here in Charleston.”
Wait, what?
“Charlotte. I mean Charlotte,” Thomas said, quickly correctly his error, laughing over confused applause.
A collective chuckle rumbled from the crowd as Thomas collapsed on the stage in disbelief of his own slip-up. Stacy Jones, a longtime touring musician with the group, hit him with a “Ba Dum Tss” from the drums.
The predominately middle-aged crowd was generally pretty tame, simply bopping their heads and swaying from side to side throughout the performance — though they did get up for favorites like “How Far We’ve Come,” which even inspired a bit of hard-core dancing.
Meanwhile, despite Matchbox Twenty being a 27-year-old group, their boundless rock-star energy belied their core members’ ages. As Cook thrilled the crowd with a mesmerizing guitar solo during “Bent,” Thomas spun his mic stand above his head as if it was a twirling baton.
The only not-so-rock-star behavior involved how long it took Doucette to empty his glass of wine. He first strolled onto the stage with a hearty red in hand, and the glass perched on Thomas’s piano untouched for the majority of the show. The man clearly likes to let it breathe. (Or maybe he just stealthily topped it off backstage a time or two?)
Meanwhile, in the crowd, men holding tall boys of Michelob Ultra put their other arm around ladies with plastic decanters filled with rosé.
One Mich Ultra husband spun his rosé wife to “Queen of New York City”:
She’s got some kind of way about her
One look and you don’t doubt her
Seeing’s believing now
Thomas didn’t always have the same luck connecting with that majority demographic. When describing classic hits “Back 2 Good” as a “good ol’ ’90s cheatin’ song” and “All I Need” as a “happy song about a one-night stand,” the couple in front of me blinked up at the stage and shared a bit of a bewildered laugh.
Still, Matchbox Twenty kept the energy up even as the temperature stayed high — so warm that some fans were spotted sporting portable neck fans.
Thomas, on the other hand, didn’t do himself any favors in the heat, wardrobe-wise: The leading man was wearing maybe the skinniest jeans I have ever seen anybody wear (regardless of gender). Props to him for keeping to his style, but that could not have been very comfortable.
Another noteworthy part of the singer’s look was the tattoo on his right forearm, which bears the number 20 inside a circle, a nod to how the band got its peculiar name.
As the legend goes: Doucette was working as a waiter in Florida when a particular patron caught his eye. The man was wearing a softball jersey with patches all over, and the number 20 (inside a circle) on the back. The only patch Doucette could make out from a distance had the word “Matchbox” on it. So, the guitarist/drummer wound up using that as the inspiration for the band’s name.
That spontaneous attitude of the band — one not afraid to take risks, or to try something different — kept its performance feeling fresh in Charlotte.
The group embodied such spirit in the acoustic rendition of “If You’re Gone,” the standout hit from their 2000 album “Mad Season.” With Thomas and Cook alone on stage, illuminated by a single spotlight, the two captivated the crowd by producing a stripped-down rendition of a familiar classic.
Seven songs later, toward the end of the main set, an unidentified young boy (perhaps related to a member of the crew) practically stole the show during the band’s performance of “Long Day.” In his place off to the side of the stage, he could be seen jamming out while wearing a pair of headphones far too big for his head, barely able to contain his energy as he swung his arm in big circles — playing an insane air electric guitar — then flashing the “rock-on” hand sign to the group of fans right in front of him.
At the end of the head-banging song, Thomas brought the boy to center stage, hushing the crowd as he passed him the mic.
The boy yelled into it, “Matchbox Twenty ROCKS!”
To which Thomas replied, “Ain’t that right, Charlotte?” — correctly identifying our city this time, and thereby earning thunderous applause.
Matchbox Twenty’s setlist
1. “Friends”
2. “How Far We’ve Come”
3. “Real World”
4. “Disease”
5. “Wild Dogs (Running in a Slow Dream)”
6. “She’s So Mean”
7. “All I Need”
8. “Queen of New York City”
9. “Hand Me Down”
10. “If You’re Gone”
11. “Mad Season”
12. “Don’t Get Me Wrong”
13. “These Hard Times”
14. “The Way”
15. “Downfall” / “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (cover)
16. “Bent”
17. “Back 2 Good”
18. “Long Day”
19. “Rebels”
Encore
20. “3 A.M.”
21. “Unwell”
22. “Push”
23. “Bright Lights”
Encore 2
24. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” (cover)