Live Review: Matt and Kim

Matt & Kim (photo: Manu Muraro)

Live Review: Matt and Kim, Saturday, October 16, 2010, The Masquerade, Atlanta
by Manu Muraro

I’ve missed Matt & Kim twice before. The first time was back in 2008 when they opened for Cut Copy (I was late) and the second time was at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago last year (since they played at the same time as Beirut). At Pitchfork, I got to their show in time to see “Daylight” and had a little taste of what I missed.

So when I heard they were coming to town, I knew I would definitely be there. I am all for happy uplifting music. And that’s exactly how I would label them.

Matt and Kim came on stage with very contagious smiles and attitudes. They seemed psyched to be in Atlanta, where they lived for a couple months earlier this year while working on their new album (although looking at them, sounds like they are psyched with life in general, which is really cool).

Their show was impressive for several reasons. First, their energy. I can’t get enough of how great they are at involving everyone at the audience and just putting a solid set from beginning to end. Not one dull moment. The music is great too, their catchy beats and tunes are truly captivating. Also the lighting they had was really great. Lots of bright colors to the rhythm of the songs. Sounds simple, but it was really well done and the whole thing just worked.

They played mostly their old stuff and not much from the new album Sidewalks that will be released on November 2, 2010. Surprisingly, they didn’t play their new single “Cameras”.

As expected, the highlights of the show were “Good Ol’ Fashioned Nightmare”, “Yea Yeah” and “Daylight”, their most popular songs. They also threw in some unexpected covers, like the intro for “The Final Countdown”, Biz Markie’s classic, “Just A Friend” (during which there was an awesome sing along) and Alice Deejay’s dance hit “Better Off Alone” that turned The Masquerade into a big dance party with colorful balloons, colorful lights and great music.

Matt and Kim cover Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend”

Kim is a cuter version of the Muppets’ Animal (if that’s even possible) on those drums. Really fun to watch. And even though it’s just the two of them, they fill up that stage pretty nicely. We were a little more further back than I usually like watching my shows, yet we definitely felt like we were part of the crowd as everyone there was engaged, dancing, singing and very into it.

There was no encore, but I really doubt anyone had a reason to complain. I am pretty sure they made every single person at the venue happy for the duration of their set. We need more Matt and Kim’s in this world.

Note: I incorporated some of my friend Mauricio Olivares’ comments and pictures in my article, however he was not harmed on the making of this review.

Editor’s Note: Manu Muraro is a contributor to DeadJournalist.com. You can follow her on Twitter @manumuraro.