To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Matt and Kim’s critically-acclaimed debut album, Grand, the Brooklyn duo (Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino) set out on tour fall and performed the album in full. They kicked off the U.S. tour on October 17th and wrapped up last night (November 25th) in Brooklyn. Matt and Kim stopped by Rams Head Live in Baltimore over the weekend and held true to the reputation of delivering a fun, energetic, and party-styled show. Despite having sold out the 930 Club just a few nights earlier, Rams Head Live was packed!
The night kicked off with The Frights, a band from San Diego, who has been opening for Matt and Kim on this tour. This band were quite enjoyable to watch perform. Their surf punk/garage punk style songs were the perfect way to open the night. Despite having some sound issues on their vocal mics, the band pulled through their set with class. They delivered some impromptu jam sessions that demonstrated their abilities as musicians. The audience was very receptive and cheered them on loudly to offer support through the technological hiccups.
Matt and Kim took the stage to a very eager crowd. They bounded on stage to and jumped right into the hit single from their debut album, “Daylight”. The crowd broke out into song, jumping and smiling – matching the energy that Matt and Kim projected from the stage. Lining the back of the stage, there was a large screen projecting the cheering crowd, creating the perfect backdrop for this performance. The duo broke in between songs to interact with the fans – slinging t-shirts, blasting confetti and balloons, and challenging the crowd to “let lose”. Matt shouted out, “If you’re not getting bumped into, you’re not doing it right.”
The played through the entire Grand album with a few track re-arrangements. Instead of performing “Cutdown” (track 2), they moved “I Wanna” and “Lessons Learned” (tracks 5 and 6) up after “Daylight”, then went on to play “Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare” (track 3) and “Cutdown” immediately afterwards. The rest of the album played out as recorded but with more energy and interactions by Matt and Kim with the audience. After the initial set, they took a quick break and returned for a second set, consisting of 8 songs from other albums – 2 of which were new singles, “Money” and “Go Go” which were just released this year. They performed two songs for the encore: “Happy If You’re Happy” and “Let’s Go”.
Matt and Kim are definitely great live performers! Their energy and enthusiasm shines from the stage and the crowd soaks in every last drop! It was a non-stop dance party all night and truly a great way to spend a Saturday evening in Baltimore.
Enjoy photos of The Frights and Matt and Kim performing at Rams Head Live on November 23rd. All photos copyright and courtesy of Shantel Mitchell Breen.
