Matchbox Twenty: A Night in the Life of
 

Has anyone seen this live DVD? It's absolutely fantastic, an example of how a live concert DVD should be done. The performance is electric, the audio & video production is superb (even just the right amount of crowd noise & shots) and an excellent setlist with no dips whatsoever.

Truly one of the best live bands out there on this evidence, highly recommended to anyone who even has a passing interest in Matchbox Twenty.

I bought it years ago. Great performance and stage show but I think it's slightly spoiled by the over zealous use of fake crowd cheers that are random and too high in the mix. If you can get past that then it is indeed a fine purchase. Rob Thomas's voice is note for note perfection.

Yeah I found that the crowd cheers seemed just a little bit too perfect, like whenever a chorus started they were very loud - was a little suspect, glad to see you thought this too. Rob Thomas' voice is superb live, I was fortunate enough to stumble across an acoustic "Night With..." style show with him in California a few years ago and even luckier to be upgraded to front row seats. It was a charity acoustic performance but he played for nearly two hours, talking about how he wrote each song in between and the story behind it. It really was an amazing experience to be so close and to hear him speak so candidly about the songs. Very talented guy.

What did you make of the on the road documentary?

I thought it showed the band members under incredible strain with a lot of bitching and nay saying going on. It's no surprise that they've only released three full studio albums over a 17 year period.

It's a shame.

Unfortunately it's not my DVD and I watched it at someone else's house so only saw the concert, I'll have to borrow it and have a watch of the documentary though.

You're right, 3 albums in 17 years is a very poor return (not counting Rob Thomas' two solo efforts, which are actually both very good). I suppose the departure of Adam Gaynor in 2005 didn't help matters. Also, judging by how awesome the drumming is in this live DVD i found it pretty odd that Paul Doucette moved from drums to replace Adam Gaynor on rhythm guitar and they then hired a new drummer, rather than just hiring a new guitarist.

Anyway, they're releasing a new album later this year, just finishing up in the studio apparently so that's something to look forward to.

The documentary is here if you want to watch it -

thanks a lot

yeah i can see what you mean about the bitching, they're really not happy with each other in parts. It's funny that with most band documentaries you get at least a sense of this, Aerosmith's You Gotta Move has it for example. I can't think of any in WWWB apart from Jon saying that Tico used to be a mean drunk. and the whole nearly splitting up in the late 80s because of heavy touring.