February 15, 2012

Mat FREAKING KEARNEY

Hey team.



So here's the sitch. I have to write this post because everything amazing happens to Britny Mortensen. Let's just be honest about it. She was tweeted my MINDY KHALING!!! So here's my awesome story. (Love ya Brit. You deserve awesome things happening in your life!!!!)

I have had a co-dependent relationship with Mat Kearney (without his knowledge) since the summer of 2009. I was sitting in the balcony of Kingsbury Hall, waiting for the fantastic Keane to come on the stage. Their first opening act was some no name band from the east coast who were pretty rough. Like you couldn't tap your foot to the music because there was no real form to the music. Woof. I mentioned to my concert-going-partner/sister Jessica, "that stage is a MESS!" It really was.

THEN the evening was saved. Some skinny hot man walked out onto the stage and said "Hey I'm Mat Kearney..." and started playing all of these fantastic songs. Mostly played on Grey's Anatomy. He joked, "someone thought this would be a good idea if doctors made-out to this song." And that is when I became hooked. Not like I'll listen to it once and put it away. LIKE ALL THE TIME. Until I knew every word.

Not to leave Keane out of the story, they blew my mind. They are beyond great. I hope they come back to Salt Lake. And Richard Piatt from KSL doesn't come to the concert and make us all feel awkward at his bad dance moves. (KSL I still want an internship)

Then a few years past and he kept releasing fantastic songs, and not even close to enough were making lame-o mainstream radio, but that's why we have CD players and Ipods.

The next time Mat came back to Salt Lake, he was opening for Owl City. Super gross right? Like everyone enjoyed them initially, but now we've all seen the light. So we braved the super heat In The Venue, and lived through Unwed Sailor, who also were awful. They didn't have a lead singer. Actually, there was no singing whatsoever. More like endless meandering and jamming. I turned to Jessica at one point, and said "I think this is meant to be the bridge."

So we made it through that. FINALLY Mat came out, and I was proud to say I knew every word. I wished he would never stop playing. I was so proud of my Mat Kearney T-shirt, I wore it like a crown. He even came out into the crowd, walked around and sang. Making eye contact was awesome, and he kept watching Jessica and I because we knew every.darn.word. So it was surreal. But chaos struck. Poor Jess turned ghostly white, and we rushed back through the crowd to the bathrooms after Mat. Safe to say she threw her cookies, and we downed water and gatorade's in the back, while listening to Owl City. We waited to talk to a friend after, and then headed back to the Gateway to our car.

We cut through the Jason's Deli parking lot, and I recognized Mat's keyboardist. I mentioned it to Jessica excitedly, and as we turned back to keep walking, here comes Mat and the entire band!!!!!! Jessica recognized him first, and said "Hey how are you!?" He then asked what our names were, and shook our hands. The entire band then made a semi circle around us, just smiling, and probably laughing internally at how excited the two of us were. He asked how Owl City was, and we honestly said, NOT AS GOOD AS YOU!! He joked that no one was. (I'm getting excited just writing about this...) I apologized about the heat, (as if I controlled the weather) and we talked about a few other things. He thanked us for the support, and he said see you later. I then proudly said "See you on Twitter." He said "Really?" and I smiled and nodded. We waved goodbye and once we were out of earshot, we proceeded to scream all the way home.

First, that is really cool huh? Second, he was so genuine. So many artists are full of themselves, and don't really care about support from fans, just money, just fame, etc, etc. It's so nice to know there are great artists still out there who care, and who write great music you can come back to over and over, in good times and bad. I can honestly say music has truly got me through the worst of times.

When Mat came again on Monday, it was as if he was a dear friend, who has been welcomed into my living room multiple times. He just put on a great show, for the third time. He came out into the crowd again, and I totally touched him, for the second time. WOW that's a creepy statement. But he mentioned the first time he came to Salt Lake, thirteen people showed up for his show. He said how grateful he was for the fans, and that he could write music for a living. Also, that Salt Lake was the best stop so far on his Young Love Tour. So there's my story. Look him up if you don't know his music. You could meet him someday.

1 comment:

  1. Haha! Jana, I could hear your voice when I read this - something I have tried to accomplish for YEARS. You are hilarious and I love your blog.

    MUAH

    B

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