Matt Ward: The Perennial Middle Child As Rock Star
After the Monsters Of Rock concert Marie Lynn and I did the same thing. We went back to check out what we owned of Matt Ward in the fear we had somehow underestimated him. There can be no doubt Matt held his own between two big time heavy weights Friday night though like many a middle child -like a George Harrison, he is somewhat besides the point.
He stood his ground fine and his guitar playing was excellent and a complete surprise, but in the end he is born to be a session player. Never better than allowing Zoeey Deschanel to take front and center in the cover band he plays second fiddle to She & He. Musically, Matt rides Zooey’s distinct vocals while giving full reign to his own tastefulness. And I don’t mean tastiness by any stretch of the lexicon.
The 2005 Transistor radio is the keeper -a tastelful indie rock pleasur which for all its one man band pleasures still isn’t minor. It includes “One Life Away” -one of his best songs. I was dating a girl a coupla ago, can’t remember her name, anyway she force fed me Post War and I still never got it.
The girl was a bit of a hippie and there is something so soft soapy about Ward it’s like he kills testorone on impact.
A coupla years before that Conor called out “M.Ward” for President while filming a song on the Craig Ferguson Show leading to an article in Newsweek and his breakthrough.
With the exception of “Baby Boomer”, his stuff on MOF is pretty iffy but he does have a quality about him live belied -an aliveness, belied by his recorded work. Marie Lynn agreed. “Yeah, I went back and listened and he is still boring“.
