Matthew Ward. Ooooh my God.
I have never had a reaction to music the way I do with everything this man touches. His solo stuff is definitely the best (Post-War and Transfiguration of Vincent are magnificent albums), but Monsters of Folk and She & Him are also beyond great. He can do no wrong in my eyes. The lyrics, the guitarskills, the hoarse voice and distant yet cool behavior on stage, everything.
The first time I saw him live was at Roskilde 2009, which is also where I took the above photograph. I cried, oh I cried like a little girl for most of that show. Then 4 months later, he returned with Monsters of Folk for a gig at Store Vega, probably the best show I've ever seen. They played for 3 hours straight, the entire MoF album and spiced up with both M. Ward and Bright Eyes tracks. It was absolutely mindblowing. Then last May, he came back again, this time with She & Him. I waited for an hour before the doors opened, and as soon as I entered Loppen I spotted his guitar on the left side of the stage. I ended standing about half a metre away from him when they went on. I just stood there with the most maniacal grin on my face the entire time, just singing along and staring at him. It was probably creepy. But I got eyecontact, I even got a little smile when they played the one M. Ward track they did (Magic Trick). And I got the playlist he'd been standing on. The only reason I fought back the tears of joy that night was because, well, that'd be embarrassing when he was actually that close.
I'll stop rambling about his amazingness and just give you a YouTube video.
No comments:
Post a Comment