Matt and Kim – Le National – 10.30.10
A decent amount of people had already trickled into the venue in time for the band’s 8:30 PM set. It was nice to see that there were a good amount of THATH fans in the crowd, judging by the huge cheer that went up when lead singer Harris Shper announced that the band was about to play “Fireworks”, one of their most popular tracks. Their set was short but sweet, starting off the evening on a good note.
THATH were followed by Atlanta, Georgia-based rapper, DONNIS, to much of the crowd’s surprise. DONNIS has been touring with Matt and Kim for two to three weeks now and they seem to be real fans of his work: during his set, the duo were standing in view backstage, dancing and mouthing the words along with him. At one point Kim even ran on stage, clinking wine glasses with him and the DJ and dancing around for a few moments before scurrying backstage again. DONNIS’ set was full of energy as he continuously rallied the audience, which was still gradually filling in at that point. For a crowd that didn’t appear to be expecting a rap concert, people definitely got into it and seemed to be having a good time.
After quite a long break during which stage hands unveiled a platform bolstering Matt’s keyboard and Kim’s drum set, the duo finally took the stage to dramatic entrance music and seemed ecstatic to be with us. They came up to the front of the stage to greet the audience; one crowd member had a cowboy hat as part of his Halloween costume which quickly ended up on Matt’s head. They propositioned to the audience a “crowd surfing costume contest” in which the best crowd-surfer in a costume would win a prize. The prize, Kim said, they would have to think up as they were playing; grinning sillily, Matt said the prize would probably involve “getting to see Kim’s tiny tits”.
From there, they started playing a short bit of one song before stopping to say they were just warming up. They then started playing “Good Old Fashioned Nightmare”, a melodic, almost rag-timey track off of their 2009 album Grand. In the middle of the song they started playing the tune from Sugarhill Gang Apache’s “Jump On It”, getting the crowd more and more worked up.
At this point, I noticed their stage decor; a structure of large white triangles that flashed four different squares in different colors, fixed onto the front of some rafters making an arch set up behind their gear. With Matt’s keyboard and Kim’s drums set up tightly together, this stage decor added a lot of dimension and visual interest to an otherwise big and empty stage.
Throughout the night it became blatantly obvious that Matt and Kim love rap and hip hop. In between songs, they would often play the tune to some well-known hits; for example, after playing instrumental tune “Grand” from their 2006 self-titled release, they started playing the tune from D.J. Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat” with Matt, Kim and the whole audience all yelling out, “Ahuh, ahuhuh, god damn!” in unison. They went from there right into “Cutdown”, another track off of Grand. In another high point of the show, they played an excerpt from Alice DJ’s “Better Off Alone”, which Kim sang with some help from the audience. Later on, they played part of Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend” as an intro to “Ready? OK”, another spirited song off of their self-titled album. These random intermissions got the crowd hyped up and singing along every time without fail.
The duo played “Lightspeed” off their self-titled album after more story telling and conversation with the crowd about what they should dress up as for Halloween the following day, among other things. Kim then tossed a bag of balloons into the audience, asking everyone to blow them up and then, on their queue, throw the balloons up into the air, in one of the many instances of audience participation throughout the evening. With the venue now full of balloons, Matt and Kim jumped right into “It’s A Fact (Printed Stained)”, a lively fan favorite off their self-titled album.
One of the most noteworthy things about Matt and Kim’s performance is their unrivaled energy level. Kim grins and sings along through just about every song as she plays intense and speedy drum lines – with accuracy – and Matt repeatedly stood on one foot atop his stool while playing on the keyboard, stretching his other leg out as if he were doing a half-moon yoga pose. After playing the extremely energetic “Yea Yea” off their self-titled album, Matt climbed to the top of the structure with the triangles on it, and after playing “Ready? OK”, Kim walked onto people’s hands in the audience and they held her feet as she did a booty dance while Matt played a tune for her. Matt and Kim put on a truly dynamic show with excellent audience interaction and many on-stage stunts without sacrificing their ability to play their songs well, and their perpetual energy shows just how much they love playing music together. -Natasha Young
Matt & Kim
DONNIS
The Hoof & The Heel
Photography by Greg Lozoff
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